OK maybe not….
I’ve been thinking and talking a lot lately about the need for For Purpose organisations to collaborate to ensure their sustainability in the face of decreasing levels of funding. Duplication helps no one.
This is sound medium term thinking but it doesn’t overcome the fundamental issue. There are too many charities and they’re doing too much in our communities.
What? Really? WTF!
It’s time we started looking and planning for a future where we don’t depend on a charitable sector to save everyone and everything.
We know that we have the most charities per capita in the world. On the plus side, this shows we want to help our communities. On the negative side, we need to ask why do we need so much help?
Philanthropic funding is getting harder to obtain. The pie isn’t growing to match the increased demand. This means we’re asking our supporters to make some hard decisions. Child cancer vs fresh water vs books in homes. It isn’t easy, most funders would love to be able to fund all of the organisations requesting money but that isn’t the real world. So many great causes….
It’s easy for people to say that the Government should be giving more but again, that just means redistributing money. Except now, it would be child cancer vs fresh water, vs books in homes, vs Fire & Emergency vs hospitals…
We need a significant change in mindset – we need to make ourselves redundant.
When more people are falling off of the cliff, we need to stop asking for more ambulances.
If we broke down the type of For Purpose organisation, and where funding goes, we would find that we are very reactive.
Shifting the focus is not easy. How do we work more at prevention without collateral damage to those in need now?
It’s a task that will never be completed but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try. We can eat this elephant – one mouthful at a time, but only if we start. We need that first bite!
We often optimistically ask ourselves what we could accomplish if we had more money. We need to turn that around. What can we do now to ensure great outcomes if we know that our funding halves in 10 years and ceases in 20?
I’ll add some fuel to the fire. Part of the problem is that we unconsciously feed the dependency. There is a buzz from helping and wanting to be needed is human – but charity and helping others isn’t a tool to make ourselves feel needed. Having that honest look inside us is a vital part of the process.
What proactive measures can we take now to make ourselves redundant? Our descendants need a new world, free from dependency and charity.
The Optimistic Cynic 