“A person is a person through other persons” Ubuntu, an African proverb.

Reflection question:

• How are you cultivating those multiple connections to community leaders before your campaign starts?

Reflection on generosity:

 This week, I want to share a case study on this connectivity. Early in the planning process for capital campaigns, we often need to convince elected officials to approve our building permits or zoning change or conditional use permit. For one client, their mission had suddenly become controversial. Would their permit be approved? The board worried. The executive director assured the board that it would. As the approval process kicked off, one elected official seemed to champion the project without any persuasion. He was publicly supportive of this basic needs nonprofit despite the controversy. Why? Because his family had used the services over twenty years earlier, and there were still staff members at that nonprofit who remembered his family. This elected official remained grateful for the services and wanted to make sure that the next family in need would benefit as well, even though he wasn't willing to speak publicly about his own family's use of the services. This elected official continued to make quiet connections in the community to the nonprofit, which were valuable to the capital campaign. 

This elected official was the decision-maker, former client, supporter, and connector, and I'm sure there were even more connections between this elected official and the nonprofit. Now, this case study is really the norm in rural communities. Each person is connected to another person in multiple ways in a small town or rural area.

What do you think? Send me a text.

To explore small town capital campaign coaching deeper and to schedule an free explore coaching call, visit ServingNonprofits.com.

Music credit: Woeisuhmebop