Out with the Old, In with the New

Lately, I have been doing A LOT of reading and research, along with praying and seeking God’s direction.

I have read literally hundreds of articles about starting a non-profit and running a nonprofit.  They all say about the same thing.  A lot of articles out there are simply saying that you shouldn’t even try.  That is probably true for some.  There are so many small nonprofits who are not sustainable and who struggle every single day, even though they are doing great work.

How will we be any different?  In fact, in some ways, our goal is even more challenging (speaking from a donor standpoint).  And our goal is WAAAY bigger…so big that a lot of people don’t think it’s possible.  (Let’s keep in mind that during history, I am sure a lot of people didn’t think we would send people into space either.)

First off, we are going to choose to ignore about half of the “rules.”  These are great rules for small, incremental change.  We are going big and fast.  No time to waste on slowly building.  We will be single minded (but broad enough to actually address some underlying issues) in our focus.  Serve orphans and their communities.

Sustainability is something I believe in completely.  It isn’t fair to staff or those we serve for an organization to not have a sustainability plan.  But at first, it’s going to be a little rough and perhaps a bit hairy.  Appropriate partnerships and collaboration are going to be one of the keys for our mutual success.  There are other organizations out there who want the same thing that we want, their approach might be different but it also might work.

I think that in life sometimes it’s important to just do it…  I realize the population that we have chosen to serve is vulnerable.  I feel that we must do our due diligence to make sure that we are serving them carefully, prayerfully, and with best practices.  Fast does not have to mean sloppy.  It means moving quickly and seizing opportunities.  Trying new things.  Being pro-active in change.  There are some amazing models out there and I am anxious to get started.

Moving quickly doesn’t mean throwing caution to the wind.  It means intense planning.  Studying models that work and then doing them.  Not spending years developing and testing.  It means getting your hands dirty while you study and develop.  These kiddos need families now…the longer we wait, the bigger the problem becomes.

You only get one chance in this life…and you are not getting out of here alive.