Standing before a room of 23 people. Adults of all ages and colors. Interests different – so very different – but the passions ran high. They want to achieve something. They are here to learn how to start a nonprofit agency of some kind. The dream is to fulfill the passion in helping others. The how and why are unasked. Those will come by and by.
The title of the workshop is ‘starting a nonprofit.’ So we know what has attracted them. But don’t know anything more than that.
How to partner with them is my issue. How do I help them find the answers they need? Why are they doing what they are doing? Ask them, of course. Straight out ask them.
Their dreams are so different yet similar. Helping people with specific needs they can’t get help with elsewhere. Why is this so difficult? Why don’t I and a few others get together, form an organization and deliver on the need? Easy peasy, right? No; not easy. And I don’t know what peasy is!
For some reason a nonprofit entity is the answer to most of them. In the final analysis they may be right; or wrong. There’s always a right and wrong answer, isn’t there? And maybe some in-betweens, too.
At any rate, we begin. “What do you hope to accomplish?” I ask. The answers come haltingly but gather speed in the room. Soon the pattern is clear. The ‘need’ to do something no one else is doing; that’s what they hope to accomplish, and a nonprofit is the only means in their minds. They are most likely right on that; but doing the right thing doesn’t always need to be a nonprofit activity. There are other ways.
For now we are just thinking through how to start a new nonprofit. What are the steps? What is the punch list? We go through 8 actions. We discuss why the step is necessary and what authority has to be satisfied to OK many of the steps. Soon we are into the operations of how to set up the actual work we want to do with clients. That’s where it becomes messy. And specific.
I give them my name, phone number and email address. I ask them not to call unless they are prepared to leave a message. I need to know how I know of them, and then their question and how I can respond to it. So much easier if they simply email me the question. Then I can mull it over and respond intelligently. The work ahead for each of them is custom and specific. I can guide them and suggest actions; but they are in charge of the doing. I get their hesitation. They will need to take the leap and begin. The process will yield to an accumulation of known facts and experiences that will result in a new organization and operation. It will. This is how it is done. Bit by bit. Gathering information and facts. Sorting them through and choosing which to work on first, then which ones later.
In a few months or years they will wonder how they got to where they are. The blur of building something new is exciting and rewarding. The dream of helping others, though, is happening. Only because they cared enough to invest the energy, time and insight.
Oh, some will fail at this but the others will continue on. Each will have learned what they are capable of doing. Each will observe the results of their efforts. The clients – beneficiaries of this effort – will not know any of this; but they will move forward with their lives in safety and result better for it.
Sorting things out works wonders. Many we will never know.
March 1, 2019
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