Why are fundraisers so scared to invest in ourselves?
Is it because we are natural caregivers who put others before ourselves?
Because professional and personal development isn’t prioritized in the budget?
Because if we stop, then the money stops?
Yes, yes, and yes.
We’ve been trained, as nonprofit workers, to think of ourselves as not worth investing in.
Because we’re considered an overhead expense.
Nearly a decade ago, the leaders of GuideStar, Charity Navigator, and BBB Wise Giving Alliance sought to debunk this "overhead myth". In an open letter to donors in America, all three organizations explained that donors often mistakenly focus too heavily on a nonprofit's overhead (its administrative and fundraising costs). This denies some nonprofits from investing in themselves and creates what the Stanford Social Innovation Review calls "The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle".
The root of this starvation cycle is "pressure on nonprofits to conform to unrealistic expectations". Sound familiar?
We have been taught, both implicitly and explicitly, that there isn’t value in investing in ourselves because we’re not a program. And that’s trickled down to how we treat our own personal health and our rest and the care of our bodies.
Fundraising professionals are overwhelmingly exhausted. We care so much about our causes that we are willing to "make do and do without".
Fundraising Sol understands this cycle, and we focus on breaking it.
We have designed a Sol Shift Retreat devoted entirely to rest. Rest for your mind. Rest for your body. Rest for your sol.
Over the course of one weekend in February, along the shores of Lake Superior, you will be surrounded by beauty. You will have options to do whatever you need for yourself.
At Fundraising Sol, we believe well people do amazing things. We believe YOU are worth investing in.