Reflections on Generosity
Kick off your week with a 5-minute reflection on generosity to ground yourself as you go about your fund development tasks. Each reflection includes a question to ponder throughout the week to aid your work.
Reflections on Generosity
91: (Nonprofits Have) A Power Conspicuous
"Thenceforth they are no longer isolated individuals, but a power conspicuous from the distance whose actions serve as an example; when it speaks, people listen...."
This week, I’m reading selected quotes from Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville. Published in 1835.
Note: his use of the word association is our current word for nonprofit.
Reflection questions:
- How are we sharing the impact of the causes we serve? In sharing our impacts, are we welcoming our communities to unite with us and have their power enhanced?
- How are we showing donors the collective impact we have together by combining our efforts?
Reflection on quote:
In this time of anxiety, let us not forget the power nonprofits have to create purpose. When each of us trying to work independently, we are weak. We can cause little change and we can’t force others to help. When, however, we combine as nonprofits to meet the needs in our community, our communities listen.
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Music credit: Woeisuhmebop
Welcome back. Fundraising can be lonely with seemingly endless to-do list. This podcast isn't about best practices or trends. It's about the deeper wisdom of the beautiful space where generosity occurs, a weekly five-minute reflection to ground you for the week ahead.
In this time of anxiety, let us not forget the power nonprofits have to create purpose This week, I’m reading selected quotes from Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville. Published in 1835. Note. His use of the word association is our current word for nonprofit.
The quotes begin.
In the United States, political associations are only one small part of the immense number of different types of associations found there. Americans of all ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations. If they want to proclaim a truth or propagate some feeling by the encouragement of a great example, they form an association. Among democratic peoples all citizens are independent and weak. They can do hardly anything for themselves, and none of them is in a position to force their fellows to help. They would all therefore find themselves helpless if they did not learn to help each other voluntarily. With associations, feelings and ideas are renewed, the heart enlarged, and the understanding developed only by the reciprocal action of people one upon another. As soon as several Americans have conceived a sentiment or an idea that they want to produce before the world, they seek each other out, and when found, they unite. Thenceforth they are no longer isolated individuals, but a power conspicuous from the distance whose actions serve as an example; when it speaks, people listen. In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.
End quotes.
When each of us trying to work independently, we are weak. We can cause little change and we can’t force others to help. When, however, we combine as nonprofits to meet the needs in our community, our communities listen.
Let’s reflect on two questions this week:
How are we sharing the impact of the causes we serve? In sharing our impacts, are we welcoming our communities to unite with us and have their power enhanced?
How are we showing donors the collective impact we have together by combining our efforts?
Share this podcast if you enjoy these five-minute reflections and subscribe to receive these reflections released every Monday. To explore fundraising coaching deeper, visit Serving Nonprofits dot com. See you next week.
