Magnify the Value of Your Donation(s) Without Spending One Dollar More
Issue 03
A few years ago as founder of The Consciousness Company, I facilitated a number of weekly conversations for a few months among stakeholders in San Francisco’s “homelessness ecosystem.” The project included concerned citizens, unhoused humans, representatives from social service agencies and city government, several non-profits, and at least one real estate developer. During those months I also attended a three-day event which was all about providing support specifically to dozens of non-profits in the ecosystem that were addressing the issue from multiple perspectives.
..how a conscious politics practitioner like you, who donates, can actually increase the value…
In all, I interacted with 200 people or so and I will refer to that entire experience as a foil for discussing how a conscious politics practitioner like you, who donates, can actually increase the value of any and all contributions you make without investing more dollars.
Let’s begin by asking these two questions when choosing to make a contribution:
What do you think/believe about the cause/issue itself?
What do you think/believe about the organization itself?
What do you think/believe about the cause/issue itself?
When I was spending time in that ecosystem, I heard one statement repeated over and over again: “It’s an intractable problem.” Hear that as the belief it is and know that it was often (not always) followed with another even heavier one: “It’s unsolvable.” Across the board, these were people who cared deeply about the ongoing plight of unhoused humans and were giving generously of their time and expertise even though they didn’t believe in their hearts it would make much of a difference. All of them believed the problem was homelessness; I believed the problem was their beliefs about how intractable and unsolvable the homelessness problem was. They believed they were helping; I believed their helping was heavily diluted. Beliefs matter.
What do you think/believe about the organization itself?
If a non-profit or other organization is in your donation equation, a potentially more potent version of the question applies: What do you think/believe about the organization that’s receiving your contribution?
“We’ve been serving the homeless in San Francisco for 45 years” was a version of a refrain I heard repeatedly from a multitude of organizations, most with 10-50 years in the ecosystem. I thought my head was going to explode. They seemed to be saying that in spite of all their experience and work over decades, the need was greater than ever. I was saying that unless their overarching mission was to one day put themselves out of commission, they were missing the boat.
Could it be that arguably the most studied issue in American politics in arguably the most politically progressive city in the country was actually being perpetuated by the non-serving beliefs people had about it and the fuzzy intentions of the organizations created to address it?
Well enough about them. Having asked your Self those two basic questions, here are a few more considerations for when you are in the giving mode:
1. What does it look like?
Sticking with the homelessness example, what does the world look like when everyone is housed? This is your foot on the gas, as we say. You should be able to speak about it in a paragraph using only positives (e.g., “everyone has a place to live” vs. “there are no more homeless people”) and a few other mechanical considerations. The law of attraction is always on, intentions matter, and these are basic intention-setting practices.
2. What do you believe?
Yes, we covered your belief about the issue itself. That may be enough but beliefs often come in families. So, are you sure that you believe what you have to believe in order to solve the problem you are wanting to help solve? If you have any beliefs that add up to your foot being on the brake, as it were, know and trust they can be changed. Beliefs matter.
3. Band together with others.
Who else do you know who cares about this issue/cause? What do their paragraphs sound like? What if you combined them into one shared intention?
4. Know your non-profit.
An entity like a non-profit has a consciousness of its own which is, essentially, the sum total of the consciousnesses of all of the individuals who are part of it be they board members, employees, volunteers, or donors. What is its intention/vision/mission? Does it have a plan for itself once its work is done? How unified are its stakeholders in the mission/vision? How satisfied are its employees? What progress has it made to date?
Regardless of how or what you give — dollars, time, in-kind donations, or something else entirely — your gift(s) will be magnified and augmented when the vision is clear (foot on the gas), when your beliefs are in alignment with the vision (no foot on the brakes) and when any and all other entities involved with the mission/vision are also in alignment/on the same page. From a consciousness perspective, we can all do better. Oh yeah, that’s why we’re here.
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Thanks for this. Very insightful.