What a legacy of sustainable funding would look like for your organization

Q: What does sustainable funding mean, anyway?

A: You've got to be able to imagine and want sustainability for your organization.

Imagine that even after you were gone, your organization could still be thriving.

Think of a professorship at a university. Someone comes along and endows a chair. What does that mean? They give enough money so that, in theory, the interest off the endowment would be enough to ensure that position forever.

For some organizations, sustainable funding may come in the form of earned income, a social purpose business venture that generates revenue to offset the cost of its services, like a thrift shop or other industrial shop. Or perhaps it is from a long-term cause-related marketing relationship with a corporate funder whose business objectives are complementary with your work.

For most groups, though, the key to financial sustainability, ultimately, is an endowment fund. Imagine having an endowment fund large enough so that the interest alone covers the annual operating gap (what we call the "treadmill number") your organization needs to raise each year.

However, most nonprofit organizations are currently running on a never-ending treadmill of hand-to-mouth, one-year-at-a-time funding. The future is predictable and guaranteed—more treadmill, more running, more burnout, more turnover. What a depressing legacy to leave!

Q: How can we get off the treadmill and end our suffering?

A: None of the grants alone will do it. None of the galas. What you need is a system. What if you had a system that got you off that treadmill? A system for building sustainable funding for your organization's mission. It won't happen without somebody thinking the thought—and that somebody could be you!

We say the first step to sustainable funding is having the courage to think the thought—to admitting to fundraising fatigue and frustration associated with years of old-school techniques, largely strong-arming, entertaining, and often downright begging.

In other words, someone within the organization has got to be getting fed up with the old way. Be it the business person on the board, the founding executive director who can't see her way clear to ever retire, or the passionate development director, it takes one person to blow the whistle on the "old reality" and invite people to consider a new funding future for the organization—a future of sustainable funding.

You could be the person to get your organization started on the path to sustainability. However, you should not plan to do this all on your own. It will take a team of about six dedicated, passionate individuals to implement this system for building sustainable funding for your organization.

Q: How do I know if this is really right for me and my organization?

A: The truth is, as desperate as you may feel for change, you might not be completely ready for it.

If you are committed to saving the world or preserving the quaint, struggling grass-rootsiness of your nonprofit, you are probably not ready for sustainability.

You see, in what we call the "old reality" of fundraising, there was a background of suffering. You could say we were almost attached to the suffering. That it was just part of working in the nonprofit world. We never gave it much thought.

We carry the suffering from organization to organization, leaving a legacy of it for the next person, and/or you inherit the load from someone else.

In the "new reality," the suffering is no longer necessary. Instead of pressuring and strong-arming people to give to you, you will cultivate and involve only those people who truly care about and value your organization's work. When you have cultivated them sufficiently however they wish, many of them will be honored to make a long-term commitment to support your organization. Asking them for money will be no more difficult than picking the ripened fruit off a tree.

Q: You mean this could be easy?

A: Not if you're attached to the hard work, the suffering, the measly results, and the standard excuses.

However, if you're seriously interested in getting on with the mission of your organization, without the undue burden of financial constraints, you could be ready to move your organization toward sustainable funding.

Here are a few other red flags to watch for:

• Do you think you already know what your legacy would look like and what you need to do to produce it?
  
  
• Do you have any need to get credit for having been personally responsible for that legacy?
  
  
• Would you still be willing to commit to that legacy if it meant you would put yourself out of a job?
  
  
• Or if it meant the bar got raised significantly for subsequent years, i.e., a much bigger goal?
  
  
• Or if it meant you had to hire and manage a bigger fund development staff?
  
  
• Would you be willing to develop yourself as a resource for your community, rather than getting the credit, the glory, being the hero, saving the day?

Ultimately, there's no need to suffer or worry about raising money. It should be a pleasure for you. Like the challenge of competing in your favorite sport. A huge challenge that you know you're up to.

The work of it will be more like a big game. And the goal post will be determined by you.

If you are willing to accept all of the above caveats, you're ready to begin designing your legacy.

Q: OK, now I'm prepared to consider a real legacy. Where do I start?

A: It begins with a key question only you can answer. We call this the legacy question:

"If you knew that this would be your last year with your organization, what would you want to make happen before you could turn over your job and walk away?"

Now write down a phrase or two about what it is that you want to leave behind as a legacy for your organization. It may not be something anyone ever remembers you personally for, but that won't matter. You will know that you started it. There will be no amount of thanks that people could give you. You will know that you changed everything. Make sure your goal is measurable.

Write down your answer. Stop, right now, get a pen and paper and write down your answer!

Q: How will I know if I arrived at the right legacy for me and my organization?

A: Two ways you'll know:

1. When you say it out loud to another person, it should evoke equal amounts of excitement and terror. Excitement because you want it so badly. Terror because you don't know how to make it happen.
   
   
2. It would be worth it to you, no matter what it takes.

You'll know your own legacy goal better than anyone else. Not so airy-fairy that it's a complete dream, not so attainable that it's predictable.

Let's go on to Section 3: the model.