The sound of the TV was playing in the background one weekend morning while I was making some food in the kitchen.

The local news was on, and I heard the anchor interviewing someone from a charity that was hosting an event that afternoon.

At the end of the conversation, the anchor said, "Come on out, everyone, and let's do some GOOD!"

Tell me—what happens when people arrive at your fundraising event, and there aren't anywhere near enough volunteers to facilitate “doing some good”? (This happens all the time)

It's convenient to blame post-pandemic apathy, isn't it?

But what if this failure of not enough volunteers was the result of a string of decisions that came before Covid-19?

For example...

The decision made by the staff person responsible for recruiting volunteers to abruptly quit her job and leave.

And, the decision before that to reduce staff pay to $17 an hour when the living wage in the area is $20.

And, the decision before that when the loudest and most feared voice in the boardroom demanded a fundraising event on an insanely short timeline.

And, the decision before that to cut the marketing budget in half.

And, the decision before that to chop up the budget for the third time this year.

Is it becoming clearer?

So yes - you can gaze out into the community and find anecdotal evidence for how their behaviour is causing both your public fundraising events to fail, and your pervasive money shortfall.

Or you can have a look at when “doing some good” (fulfilling the Mission) actually went out of existence for you.

Hint: It started when you executed the first decision to play smaller.

Sheree Allison merges the worlds of fundraising, marketing, and leadership combined with an entrepreneurial spirit to train and develop nonprofit leaders who are committed to building a world class organization. Check out her book “The Non Profit Book of Wisdom - One Executive Director Who Couldn’t Be Swayed” and her weekly column at www.shereeallison.com.