Scarcity thinking is incredibly pervasive in the nonprofit sector. And it makes sense that it would be. Nonprofit leaders have been told for so long that they must scrape by, are not worthy of real investment, and deserve only the leftovers. No wonder the belief that resources are scarce is baked into their DNA.

This scarcity thinking is the starvation cycle in which nonprofit leaders often exist — we can’t attract enough money so we skimp on staff and systems, becoming less effective, forcing us to serve fewer clients, resulting in less social change. It is a vicious downward cycle. And one that funders certainly play a key role in as well.

But when a nonprofit leader chooses instead to come from an abundance mindset — the idea that there are an abundance of resources and you need only to get crystal clear about what you want to achieve and those resources will come to you — it is amazing to see what she can accomplish.

Moving from the pervasive scarcity mindset to the incredibly powerful abundance mindset can be a game changer.

And we can start by flipping some of the most common conversations happening each day in nonprofit boardrooms around the country, crossing out the typical scarcity mindset and fully embracing an abundance mindset, like this:

Scarcity Mindset: “How much money are we able to raise?”
Abundance Mindset: “How much money will it take to accomplish our goals?”

Read the full article about eliminating the nonprofit scarcity mindset by Nell Edgington at Social Velocity.