Nonprofit Leadership, Innovation, and Change

Fundraising and Leadership

I was very surprised to see a guest post on Seth Godin's blog talking about fundraising and leadership in the nonprofit sector.

Check it out here.

We Can Always Learn

One of the things I've learned from karate, leading, competitive golf and life is that there is always someone bigger, better, smarter and richer than you. As a golfer there was always someone a little bit better than I was. My Dad loves to fish, and there is always a bigger boat that he is thinking about purchasing. With leadership, there is always someone who has accomplished more and is a better leader than I am (and probably ever will become).

That's one of the great things about this world: there is always someone bigger, better, smarter and richer than us who we can learn from.

Do What You Love

This is so simple, yet rarely practiced by many Americans.

For some reason people have a false belief that work has to be boring and meaningless. It's almost that it doesn't matter what work you are doing, the fact that it is work you have to do, makes it boring.

Here's a question, "Why don't you do what you love to do?" It baffles my mind when people work so they can afford to do their hobbies, instead of doing their hobbies as work!

Many of my volunteers for A Day of Hope are college students and I always encourage them to find something they love to do (which they usually already know what that is) and learn to do that thing so well that people will pay them to do it everyday. This is stuff such as writing, painting, working in a nonprofit, speaking, fishing, becoming a teacher, and many others.

Once you find what you love to do it might take you years of practice to do it well enough that someone else will pay you to do it.

I love what I do so much that I gladly will do it for free, and have done it for free for a long time before I was paid for it. I founded A Day of Hope and was the Team Leader for over two years before I received my first paid position at a local nonprofit which was a direct result of my work with A Day of Hope.

Now when I tell people that I would rather spend my weekends working than relaxing, they don't know how to respond. I can almost see their brain begin to fry.

I want to point out that one of the reasons I am able to do what I love is that I was glad to do what I loved for free for a long time before I was ever paid for it.

Find out what you love to do, learn to do it so well that people will pay you do it, then don't do anything else.

Have you thought about giving up (or quitting)?

If you never have thought about giving up, then you haven't been leading long enough.

Many tearful eyes, sleepless nights, and long talks with mentors have kept me going when I have thought about giving up.

Here's the deal: if you quit, the other guy wins.

In the nonprofit sector, the "other guy" is:

• Poverty
• Hunger
• Illiteracy
• Global warming
• Racism
• AIDs
• Discrimination

As I lead longer and lead more, it's surprising how many opportunities I have to give up. But every time I have an opportunity to give up and I don't, it becomes easier to keep going. Each chance to give up makes you tougher and stronger, something that leaders need a lot during difficult times.

Many times I had the opportunity to give up, and I didn't, only to realize that my goals and outcomes were much closer than I thought. John Maxwell once said, "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." Well stated Mr. Maxwell.

Send Billy Graham a message

Billy Graham has been one of my favorite leaders to watch and learn from over the years. His example of integrity, humility, and sincere heart to serve is something any leader can learn from.

While at the Catalyst Conference I had the great pleasure of watching Mr. Graham's son, Franklin Graham talk about a special project he is working on. Here is Franklin Graham's message,

"On November 7, my father will celebrate his 90th birthday, and we'd like to give him a special gift. If you or someone in your family came to know Jesus Christ through his ministry, please share that with him. Send us your story-or a simple greeting-by November 1, and we'll put all the messages together and present them to my father when we celebrate his birthday. Thank you for helping us encourage him on this special day." - Franklin Graham

If your life has been touched by Billy Graham I hope you will go to his website and send him a message.

For some amazing stories and messages that have already been sent to Mr. Graham, go here.

Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day where thousands of bloggers will be talking about poverty. The goal of Blog Action Day is to raise awareness of poverty and change the conversation for one day.

My view of poverty is a little different than most considering I work full-time in the nonprofit sector and run A Day of Hope.

Here are a few of my thoughts and beliefs on poverty:

1. Ever since the history of mankind has been recorded, poverty has been present.
2. I often wonder if it is possible to eliminate poverty.
3. I believe most poverty stricken individuals only spend a limited amount of time there. Contrary to popular belief, poverty is a temporary problem for most families and individuals.
4. Research I have seen is showing that the rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer. I just hope the rich use their wealth to help the poor very soon.
5. To reduce and eliminate poverty we need to spend more time teaching, and less time giving.

If you have any thoughts about poverty, feel free to add them to the comment section below.

Recent interview for Gen-Y

While I was at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta the folks over at Creating Gen-Y Magic posted an interview I for wrote for them last week.

The interview is specific to the younger generation of leaders and how they're going to be equipped, or not be equipped to meet the social needs in the coming years.

You can read the interview here.

Headed to Catalyst

I'm very excited to attend this year's Catalyst Conference in Atlanta on Oct 9th & 10th.

There will be no computer with me on the trip, so if you're interesting in reading the play-by-play action from the event, I will be twittering while I'm there. You can follow me here, www.Twitter.com/ChristopherLS.

When I come back from the event I will probably work on something similar to the post I made for the Maximum Impact Simulcast back in April. This helps me to remember and implement what I've learned, while sharing some insights on leadership from the event with you.

Most, Not All

In yesterday's post you might have noticed that I said "most" people want you to do a good job as a leader, I didn't say "all" people want you to do a good job as a leader.

There will always be a few pessimists and jealous people who want to see you fail miserably as a leader. These are people who are resentful and jealous of what you have done as a leader, and jealous of what you want to do in the future.

Don't worry about these people. They are a small percentage of the population and usually don't hang around good leaders very long before they going somewhere else to work.

People Want You to Lead Well

Like me, I'm sure you've sat through your share of poor speakers and poor presentations. Speakers who either had not prepared, were nervous, or displayed very little confidence. It's very painful to watch a speaker who is struggling and fumbling his way through a speech.

As a member of the audience you probably found yourself pulling for the speaker saying, "Come on, you can do it" or "Don’t be so nervous, just talk to us." The bottom line is that when a speaker stands up to speak, his audience is pulling for him. His audience wants him to succeed because they want to hear some great content, learn some new stuff they can use, and have fun in the process.

The audience wants the speaker to be successful.

This principle is the same with the people you lead. Most of the people you lead want you to be successful. They want you to be a great leader who helps them become better at what they do, and who allow them to have fun in the process while helping people in need.

The bottom line is that it sucks to work for a poor leader.

Next time you feel a little nervous about a staff meeting or tough decision, remember that the people you lead want you to succeed. They want to follow a good leader and they want that good leader to be you!