Written in conjunction with Nicholas Warnes*
Unlike professional fundraisers, non-profit founders like Cissy Brady-Rogers are rarely excited (or skilled) to fundraise. They are experts in making a direct impact on the ground in the lives of others. Cissy helms Alive & Well, an organization that empowers women to thrive throughout all life stages. Find donors? Write grant proposals? [Groan.] Although it's a necessary evil for every non-profit founder, there's a key to success that isn't obvious. It's not so much a tool or a strategy or personality type as it is a way of being. Precisely, being a generous soul yourself. And starting there might be the best place for "bleeding heart" founders to find not only sustainable funding but also an integrous, healthy way of leading.
A Generosity Roadmap
Before penning her first potential donor list, there is something more fundamental Cissy can do to begin building a strong financial future for her non-profit. In a recent conversation with Cissy4 we sketched a roadmap of three unlikely questions that serve as both a generosity self-assessment and a peek into what motivates giving.
Q 1: Where Do You Give YOUR Money?
Humans have 20/20 vision for hypocrites. If Cissy is sitting across the coffee table from a prospective financial partner, her words will fall flat if her eyes betray personal stinginess. Adam Grant, author of Give and Take, highlights three type of people: Givers, Matchers and Takers. Takers will have a difficult time raising money due to their limited frameworks for what it means to be generous. Whenever there is a disconnect in the generosity of the one asking for others to be generous, the fund raising will rarely succeed. If Cissy can name people or efforts that she financially supports or supports through volunteerism, she'll work through the next question.
Q 2: WHY Do You Give Your Money There?
For Cissy, there were two balancing motivations for why she (and perhaps by extension a prospective donor) gives to certain non-profits.
1. Relationship Giving
For instance, Cissy gives to a non-profit led by her friend, "Janice," because Cissy believes in Janice and her work. Details of how the non-profit runs its programs matters little, as Cissy is primarily interested in the competence, passion, and character of Janice.
2. Embodied Vision Giving
Not only does Cissy need to believe in the vision of Janice's non-profit, but Cissy also needs to experience that the vision is being embodied by Janice and the participants within her non-profit.
For Cissy, and for other people starting non-profits, the most likely place to raise money is at the intersection of trusted relationships and embodied vision.
Q 3: What Sets Your Non-Profit Apart from Organizations with Similar Missions?
Here is where Cissy tries to distinguish the uniqueness of Alive & Well from other organizations that address womens' health and wholeness. According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics there are approximately 1.5 million tax-exempt organizations in the United States.2 There are now over 200,000 more non-profits in America than there were ten years ago.3 Competing for funds has never been so fierce. Here are two key ways Cissy can make a compelling appeal for funding Alive & Well vs. Org X:
1. Draw on the particular transformation stories of those directly impacted by Alive & Well. Who are the individuals and what are the sparkling, memorable features of their stories?
2. Share the specific history of how Alive & Well came to be, rooted in Cissy's own experience with womens' wellness. Every non-profit emerged from a rich and specific history that it shares with no other organization or founder. Highlight that!
The paradoxical reality around starting a non-profit is that less time than desired is actually spent in catalyzing transformation (the reason they exist) and more time than desired is spent raising money (what enables the existence). However, leaders of fledgling non-profits have to find creative and strategic ways to blend these roles. Cissy understands that her own generosity is the fundamental first step in fundraising legitimacy. Understanding her own motivations for giving and learning to distill her organization's uniqueness will get her well on her way towards sustainable funding and longterm social impact. 
*Nicholas Warnes knows an awful lot about fundraising as the organizing and founding pastor of Northland Village Church in Northeast LA, author of Starting Missional Churches, and Executive Director at Cyclical LA.
1 http://cissybradyrogers.com/blog 2 http://nccs.urban.org/statistics/quickfacts.cfm 3 http://nccsweb.urban.org/PubApps/profile1.php?state=US
4 Bridges created the space for us to have this conversation. Check them out at www.Bridgesus.org.