As charities, you are most likely asking these questions. If not, you should be:
- Why is it that there seems no end to the work? For every person in need, there are 10 others.
- Why is it that every time one situation needing help starts getting better, 5 more pop up?
- Why is it we have to spend most of our time fund raising vs helping people?
- Why are these problems so big in the first place?
- Why is it there is never enough money to solve issues but there is only enough money to patch the problem?
- Could there be a much better way to solve these problems?
The answer is a definite YES… if we are willing to stop and think differently.
What if:
- Instead of asking the question “how do we fix it this time for this situation” we asked “how do we fix this for everyone in the world and once and for all”?
- What if instead of doing things in isolation, we partnered with other charities in our space in the same country and came up with much bigger solutions than we could do individually, and then partnered together to do it. For example, pick an entire region to collaborate on and use that as an example for others of what is possible to scale to entire countries.
- What if we utilized the existing funds within a country to solve that country’s problems? For example, by utilizing existing funds in a better way that achieves our goal. Or by having non-profits act as businesses for the same services they are doing as charities? Then those profits are used to pay for those who cannot afford it.
- What if we could find a way for everyone to help us, even those who are being uplifted?
So those sound good, but how do we do that in practice?
By stopping and reflecting, utilizing a little creativity, and asking the right questions, we unlock beautiful models that allow us to change the situation at the core with a fraction of the complexity.
More models coming…
