Reflections on Generosity for Capital Campaigns
Kick off your week with a 5-minute reflection on generosity to ground yourself in the right mindset for capital campaigns. Each reflection includes a question to ponder throughout the week to aid your work.
Reflections on Generosity for Capital Campaigns
136: Cultivating an Abundance Mindset - A Gift to Donors
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"...No matter how it happens, the testimony of those who have shifted in their minds, spirits, and emotions from an imagined world of scarcity and insecurity to one of abundance, blessing, sufficiency, and overflow is almost always the same: it is liberating......"
This week, I’m reading a quote from The Paradox of Generosity by Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson. 2014 edition.
Reflection question:
- Do you believe that when you are asking, you are giving abundance, blessing, sufficiency and overflow to the donor?
Reflection on quote:
This week, we are starting a series on cultivating an abundance mindset during capital campaigns. When we cultivate an abundance mindset, the act of generosity from donors actually changes.
During capital campaigns, we will encounter donors who give out of a believed world of scarcity and we will encounter donors who give out of a believed world of abundance. When we approach prospective donors to our capital campaign out of a mindset of abundance, we offer donors the opportunity to shift their imagined world from scarcity and insecurity to a world of abundance, blessing, sufficiency, and overflow. In small towns, we are giving a great blessing to our neighbors even as we are asking.
To purchase this book: The Paradox of Generosity by Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson.
Copyright: Oxford University Press 2014. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear.
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To explore small town capital campaign coaching deeper and to schedule an free explore coaching call, visit ServingNonprofits.com.
Music credit: Woeisuhmebop
Welcome back to this podcast where we focus on the wisdom of generosity, from ancient to modern for small town capital campaigns. If you like this podcast, please rate or review in your favorite podcast app.
This week, we are starting a series on cultivating an abundance mindset during capital campaigns. When we cultivate an abundance mindset, the act of generosity from donors actually changes. To explain how, I’m reading a quote from the Paradox of Generosity by Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson. 2014 edition.
The quote begins.
Practicing generosity often has the power to overcome those life-corroding tendencies and outlooks and lead to better health and greater happiness. How so? In most cases, in order to start practicing true generosity, people have to come to terms with whether they believe they live in a world of scarcity or of abundance. The deeply emotional, ex·is·ten·tial issues we are discussing here have to be confronted and resolved. Generosity will always be reluctant, anxious, and hesitant when it comes out of a believed world of scarcity. And that means that it probably will not last very long or be very useful. But the moral challenge of generosity can also push people to confront and overcome their emotional, existential fears about insufficiency, their psychological perceptions of scarcity as a mode of life that governs their world. Sometimes this is a gradual process. Other times it can be dramatic.
No matter how it happens, the testimony of those who have shifted in their minds, spirits, and emotions from an imagined world of scarcity and insecurity to one of abundance, blessing, sufficiency, and overflow is almost always the same: it is liberating. It removes a weight, a burden, a nagging fear. It sets one free to appreciate and enjoy what one has, rather than being burdened with the wish that one had more or worry about losing it. This kind of personal transformation shores up the personal security grounded in believing that, whatever the future holds, one will always have enough. It makes every bite more tasty, every sensual enjoyment more pleasurable, every good more blessed, every sunset more beautiful, every embrace more warm, every day more a gift. And it often also makes one want to share what one has with others that is, to become a lot more generous. This is the experience and testimony of people who have undergone the paradigm revolution from an understood world of scarcity to one of abundance.
End quote.
During capital campaigns, we will encounter donors who give out of a believed world of scarcity and we will encounter donors who give out of a believed world of abundance. When we approach prospective donors to our capital campaign out of a mindset of abundance, we offer donors the opportunity to shift their imagined world from scarcity and insecurity to a world of abundance, blessing, sufficiency, and overflow. In small towns, we are giving a great blessing to our neighbors even as we are asking.
Let’s reflect on one question this week:
Do you believe that when you are asking, you are giving abundance, blessing, sufficiency and overflow to the donor?
Share this podcast if you enjoy these five-minute reflections and subscribe to receive these reflections released every Monday. To explore small town capital campaign coaching deeper, visit Serving Nonprofits dot com. See you next week.
