knowabundance.com

(Happy Monday! Today’s post is from Sande Smith, our communications expert.)

One of my favorite quotes by Martin Luther King says anyone can be great, because any of us can serve.

He reminds us that you don’t have to be incredibly bright or skilled, “you don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. . . you only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Growing up, I knew incredibly generous Black women who embodied that meaning of greatness. One of them was my grandmother, who in her 60’s, adopted the 5-year old daughter of a friend.

Hit by a car, the young girl was paralyzed from the waist down. My grandmother’s friend said that she couldn’t do it – she couldn’t take care of her own daughter. So my grandmother did it. For the next 25 years, my grandmother raised her, provided for her, and helped her to grow into an independent woman who would choose a partner and raise two children of her own.

I was reminded of the greatness of the unsung heroines and heroes who commit their lives to service when I listened to the Oakland-born Malaak Compton Rock (at the recent Madam CJ Walker Luncheon) describe her story and personal journey from the time she was a young girl watching her mother engage with social causes. Her mother, Gayle Fleming, included the young Malaak in her activities, whether that be attending a rally, meeting with a nonprofit, or door-to-door canvassing for a political candidate.

Commitment to serving others became integral to Malaak’s life, personal mission and employment, and she went on to work for the US Fund for UNICEF, then started her own organizations: Styleworks, providing image consulting to women moving from welfare to work and then Journey for Change: Empowering Youth Through Global Service, which takes NY teens (many of whom have never left NY before) to South Africa to meet and learn from their young counterparts.

Of Journey for Change, Malaak says, “Ultimately we want them to return to the US encompassing a greater sense of understanding for their blessings, to dream big, and to challenge themselves to become the best young people they can be.”

Malaak’s new book, If It Takes a Village, Build One: How I Found Meaning Through a Life of Service, and 100+ Ways You Can Too, is a rallying call for action, engagement and service. The book blends personal stories from ordinary people who’ve gotten involved with causes that touch their hearts with how-to tips on choosing organizations to support – whether through donations, volunteering, or promotions.

She also talks about how to start your own organization, how to reach out to and engage celebrities, and ultimately how each of us can tap our passions in order to improve our communities and ultimately, the world.

This message of whole-hearted engagement is one that those of us who communicate and fundraise on behalf of good causes simply can’t afford to miss. We can’t afford to think only in terms of raising donations for our organizations, because while money is important, it’s not enough.

We need to make sure that we’re inspiring and moving people to get involved by tapping into their passions, encouraging them to make connections between what they care about personally and what they see going on in the world outside of themselves.

To realize a better world, we have to encourage all of us to realize our greatness, our unlimited capacity to serve with love and grace.

Happy Monday!

This is a photograph I took in Cambodia a few years ago.

These are the beds of young women who work in a garment factory in Phenom Phen. The floor space is communal; the girls sleep in shifts depending on their work hours. They make clothes for the U.S. market.

Can you see how the back wall is a flimsy board barely attached?

The entire two-story building was half constructed and seemed ready for demolition. The ground floor was dirt and muddy with puddles of water that we had to step over to reach the wobbly boards forming an uncertain staircase to the top floor.

Upstairs, where the girls slept, there were gaping holes we had to look out for to avoid falling through to the floor below. Exposed wires were everywhere. The girls told us the place had burned down a few times and been rebuilt.

For over a year after the trip, I kept this picture on my refrigerator. I wanted the daily reminder of the living conditions of the women who make the clothes we wear.

The photograph was a guilt trigger for me. I felt guilty for my living conditions, which were so vastly different. I felt guilty for being born American. I felt guilty for my desire to always buy the lowest priced goods, knowing that this consumer action perpetuates a company’s search for the cheapest labor to ensure maximum profit.

I felt guilty for my inability to change the monolithic global systems which structure reality for my life in America and reality for the life of young women in Cambodia.

The photograph was my version of penance. My ‘note to self’ that all was not right in the world.

How often do we feel guilty about a reality that we cannot altar? Or carry guilt for something beyond our control?

The amount of information we receive now on a daily basis about local and global problems is greater than at any other time in our history. The increased influx can make the problems seem larger than the solutions. It’s easy to get stuck hopelessly asking, “What can one person really do anyway?”

This is where our organizations and groups step in to motivate and encourage. We invite the community to work together to create solutions and solve problems and show how individual energy fuels the power of collective action. We offer an answer to the “What can one person do?” question by creating a place for people to share their time, passion, resources and ideas.

There is the temptation in fundraising and social change organizing to play on guilt that people feel or to create a sense of guilt and then use the emotion to motivate giving or encourage a change in action.

This is a short-sighted strategy.

The guilt approach taps into emotion that people most often describe as unpleasant or negative. People don’t particularly enjoy feeling guilt. Sadness, depression, resentment or bitterness often accompany the guilty feelings. Even if it can earn us money, are these the emotions with which we want to build an organization or movement?

At the heart of guilt is the message, “You are the problem.” Making people feel bad is a limited motivator.

“You are the solution” is a more powerful message. We witnessed just how powerful with U.S. President Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign.

Building lasting change is possible (and more enjoyable) when people feel respected, valued, inspired and empowered.

Some people choose to feel guilty, like I did. You can’t control why people give or how people feel, but you do control the spirit of your invitation. “You are the solution” is a message to build upon.

So when faced with the decision, “To guilt or not to guilt?” think long term and skip the guilt. Energize support for your organization and forge lasting donor relationships with inspiration as your motivator. Engage the community as part of the solution and as partners in your work and the money will come.

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P.S. If you are fundraising in America, right now is a great opportunity to organize Action Days and get people involved in actively supporting your organization. With the excitement and momentum of the recent Inauguration people are looking to participate and help “rebuild America.” Is there a hands-on way you can include supporters? Figure out what it is and open your doors.