The Magnifier Vol. 2

The thing that really set me off this month was the GoFundMe donor page fiasco, which I wrote about here. I took a hard stance on this one, which is my default (I self-categorize myself as more of a fighter than a lover).

Reading it back, yeah sure, it’s a little preachy. But I stand by what I wrote.

This whole thing has been a reminder that nonprofits are professional organizations. They have processes and workflows that define their systems. They leverage and rely on technology. And, like any other organization, they deserve transparency and honesty from the for-profit organizations that work alongside them.

• Rethinking Stewardship: Who deserves our time (and why)

  This post by Mario Rios, published in the Community-centric Fundraising blog, taught me a new phrase: justice-based philanthropy. As someone who has experience planning and managing fundraisers for nonprofits (and managing the volunteers and donors who make those events possible), it was an insightful read that made me reflect on what I would do to properly and fairly recognize the contributions of all the people who these types of events touch.

• Let’s Help Nonprofits Succeed by Respecting Them for What They Are—Businesses

  Insights4Equity, a nonprofit consulting organization here in Austin, just launched its blog. Their first article highlights the very real fact that nonprofits are businesses and deserve respect as such. This one really left my brain pinging, and it’s a critical message for non-profit professionals to receive and understand.

• ‘You cannot crowdsource $8 billion.’ Here’s what to know about the lapse in SNAP benefits (PBS)

  This is literally unfolding in real time as I type, and surely you have read more insightful and well-informed commentary from others on the topic. That being said, the headline of this article from PBS jumped out at me. Nonprofits and social services organizations are left to clean up the sins of those in power. Truly unconscionable.

I posted in last month’s Magnifier that I had been exploring the phenomenon of mattering at work.

I ended up submitting a talk to a leadership conference on the subject and created an accompanying worksheet for attendees to use as they reflect on their work and their relationships with the people there. If you have struggled to feel like the work you do matters, or if you are a leader who cares about their team(s), I hope you consider downloading the worksheet and reflecting a bit on how and what you can change to help everyone in your orbit connect to their work and its meaningfulness more deeply.

This has a huge use case in your volunteering roles as well.

Do your co-volunteers, board members, and partners feel their work matters?

Do your event sponsors understand their impact and how they contribute to mission delivery?

Do you take the time to thank your nonprofit staff partners and liaisons and remind them that their work matters?

Something to (hopefully) make you smile as we close out Spooky Season.

Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes is a national nonprofit that builds custom wheelchair and walker costumes for kids, completely free. They are truly feats of engineering, and I am obsessed with the photos of the amazing creations their volunteers put together!

I mean, seriously…the worksmanship on these things is insane.

The last few years a few groups of my coworkers have volunteered and engineered costumes for local children in both Texas and Oklahoma. I love watching the progress on our internal social channels! I literally just sent a text to my husband (a civil engineer) telling him he has 11 months to get a group of his colleagues together for next Halloween. They need to put those engineering skills and weekend warrior power tools to work!

• The Recession Chef here on Substack has been posting video notes of inexpensive recipes that can stretch for 6-12 servings. Given the state of SNAP, furloughs, layoffs, and high grocery prices all around, his videos are a great resource. I will be cooking and freezing my own chicken stock moving forward.

• I attended a women’s leadership development conference this past week in Houston for my industry. I can be a bit of a nerd about women’s leadership development programming; in fact, my master’s research focused on the subject. After about 15 minutes, I started tracking the number of times the words “imposter syndrome” were spoken from the stage, which reminded me of this fantastic article written by Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey in the Harvard Business Review. I am on a mission to purge the phrase “imposter syndrome” from the face of the earth (or at least my orbit) and replace it with (the academic-preferred) “imposter phenomenon.” Word choice matters!

  

• Gift Guides are here, and (probably an unpopular opinion) I love it. I aspire to be a great gift-giver, and I love seeing what other people have put together to inspire great gifting. This year, I am trying to focus on gifting experiences and “things beyond things.” If you have any inspiration for that particular flavor of gift-giving, please send it my way!

“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson