A recess from excess
–
A different spin on the “financial markets meltdown” — a recess from excess?
As fund raisers, we are the front-line representatives of the causes we champion. We simply cannot let ourselves, personally, be dragged down with negativity. New year’s resolution: purify and redirect our thoughts in regard to all the dire economic messages spoon-fed to us by the mainstream media.
The other day the headline on the Vancouver Province was something like “Nation in Crisis.” When I flipped it open, it was just more vaguely ominous predictions that we might lose value in our pension funds or that the value of our homes might go down a bit. Gee, the last time I checked, “crisis” meant people starving to death, or being bombed into oblivion as is happening in Gaza, or, as is happening in Africa, dying of AIDS daily at a rate that exceeds the number of people who died in the World Trade Centre attack.
As fund raisers, the first thing we need to do is give our heads a shake. Consider the source of all these fear and scarcity messages: the mega-industrial conglomerates that own the mainstream media, the very ones who are rightly suffering economic setbacks right now. But let’s take a look at this, as individuals and as fund raisers, from a different perspective.
If you choose to see the world as a fear-filled place, full of need and want and scarcity, that is all you will see. But if you think of the world as a place of abundance and sufficiency, then this so-called “economic crisis” becomes simply the readjustment of some of the dials that run the financial economy. What was going on before was grossly unsustainable, and this is a necessary correction — society moving toward some sort of sanity. People with no jobs and no money to repay their mortgages will no longer be loaned money to buy houses. Bankers will stop concocting devil’s brews based on bad loans, investment mixes so complicated that no one can understand them. Banks will no longer assume that property values will go up indefinitely. And while we’re at it, we can all stop assuming this earth’s natural resources are limitless, that we can cut down and mine and pollute and extract indefinitely. I’m thinking of this as a “recess from excess.”
But to tell the truth, I’m not giving the whole thing a lot of my mental energy. I’m in the home stretch of raising $1.5 million for a local land acquisition, and it has been a blast. Working with The Land Conservancy and the Valhalla Foundation, we are raising money to buy a piece of unspoiled, lake-shore private land we have nicknamed “The Valhalla Mile” in order to add it to Valhalla Provincial Park. Know what? This whole campaign has been done during the so-called economic meltdown, and yet we have been overwhelmed with the generousity of individuals, of foundations, and even of the provincial government — proof that when you are truly doing the right thing and you keep the faith, you can build it and they will come! (If you want to know more, check out the campaign at www.conservancy.bc.ca/donatetovalhallamile )
Bottom line: so long as we have our health, good nourishment, a roof over our heads, work that has meaning, and souls who love us and whom we love, we are not in a crisis. Yes, you might have to tighten your belt a bit (who doesn’t need to lose some weight?) and change some budget predictions for donations this year, but we in the charitable sector have always been creative about keeping costs down and doing a huge amount with a little money.
There is abundance in our world, and the people who truly believe in your cause will stick with you. Make sure you stick with them. This is the time to focus on the quality of your donor relationships and recognize that what you do brings meaning to donor’s lives, and that is a most worthy calling.
– Lorna Visser
Related Posts:
January 15th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Thanks for posting this, Andrea, and for framing it so nicely. Keep the Faith! – Lorna