Building Support for Your Worthy Cause – It`s Not About Money.

Money is required to keep any nonprofit organization running, of course. But the mere transfer of money doesn’t constitute a real relationship between a donor and an organization. In fact, the sense on both sides that the writing of the check constitutes the sum total of the connection between the two parties is often fatal to the hope of creating a deeper, richer, more creative link.

More powerful connections—including, paradoxically, much richer financial connections—happen when the relationship between cause and supporter is based on far more than money. For an example, consider the work of Jeff and his fellow team members at the MDG Health Alliance, the global organization working to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in the area of health, particularly in regard to women and children.
When soliciting support, Jeff and his colleagues don’t just ask people to write checks. Instead, they bring smart, gifted, creative individuals together around questions such as:

• Can you help us figure out how to finance the hiring and training of one million community health workers for the global South?
• Do you have some ideas for a strategy to improve local sanitation services in the countries of the developing world?
• Can you help us with a marketing campaign focused on reducing maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa?
• What can we be doing to foster greater empowerment around women’s health issues in the nations of South Asia?

Of course, it’s clear that money is needed to support the effort, and when the right supporters are gathered around the table, the money flows naturally. But so do other resources that are even more valuable: ideas, talents, connections.

To begin practicing this new style of leadership, move money away from the center of your conversations with partners. Put the work you are doing and the band you want to build there instead. The result is transformational giving—a connection between donor and recipient that produces learning, change, and psychological, emotional, and spiritual growth on both sides.

Transformational giving helps donors travel a path of self-discovery, finding out more about their values, goals, and ultimate sources of satisfaction in life. At the same time, it opens up nonprofit organizations to unpredictable insights, including new ideas about how to achieve their goals, new ways to deploy their resources, and new missions they can undertake.

When nonprofits shift from transactional to transformational philanthropy, there’s no limit to what they and their partners can accomplish together.