Giving Compass' Take

• As Vu Le at Nonprofit AF writes, the claim of funding scarcity allows for complacency when nonprofits address societal problems. He wants us to stop saying, "There's only so much funding to go around."

• The upshot here is to put our money where our mouths are now when it comes to developing solutions, rather than wait for some later time. It also means engaging with communities to find out what they urgently need.

• Here's more on how nonprofits can end the culture of scarcity.

The squirreling away of money in some “ant-versus-grasshopper” morality of preparing for the future is a counter-productive self-fulfilling prophecy that jeopardizes that same future. So many of our problems are exacerbated because we do not put enough resources into them now, so they continue to grow and fester, which allows us to justify squirreling money away, which means we do not put enough resources into solving the problems, which allows these problems to grow and fester, which allows us to justify squirreling money away.

Our sector needs to get out of this vicious squirrel-related spiral. And this start with changing our thinking around this area and stop believing this pervasive illusion of scarcity. Even while we have been harping about moving toward “abundance,” even as many of us talk up a good game about taking risks and accepting failure, even as we say and believe things like “every dollar spent now on youth programs is calculated to yield $10.50 in gains to society,” many of us are still unconsciously and consciously gripped by the mentality of fear and limitations.

Our communities deserve better. We all need to resist and challenge the destructive illusion of scarcity. It is harmful to our work and to the people we serve, preventing us from advocating for the adequate resources (not just from donors and funders, but from general society) that we need to tackle society’s growing problems and prevent them from getting worse. We need to think critically and push back instead of internalizing and spouting the same damaging beliefs. We need to stop accepting foundations’ and donors’ trickle-out-5%-while-society-burns-so-that-we-have-funds-to-rebuild-from-the-ashes-later mentality as normal.

Read the full article about the myth of funding scarcity by Vu Le at Nonprofit AF.