The Story of Generous Joe

As strange as it might sound Generous Joe is really concerned and confused about what he should do with all the money he has made and inherited. He has amassed quite a sum and he is not getting any younger. As the old saying goes: “You can’t take it with you!” Yet, despite what some might think, Joe has yet to see a hearse pulling a U-haul.

After all the struggles of life it just doesn’t make sense that in making your final plans on how to settle your estate it should be this hard! All the professional advice and legal loop holes trying to keep that distant relative Uncle Sam out of the picture still has left Joe wondering what he should leave his friends, family members and even to some of the nonprofits he has supported over the years.

Joe is one of those guys driven by a combination of logic and deep feelings. He is a softy at heart and is generous with the money to a fault. However, he tends to look at the pattern of others behavior when making smaller gifts and consciously judges not only the reaction of how the money is accepted and appreciated but also what choices are made with that money when it is actually spent.

Regardless of the circumstances when it comes to Joe helping someone the last question in his mind always defaults to: Am I really helping this person or am I just being a facilitator of bad judgment? While this might appear harsh to some that don’t know Joe he would assure you that this is based on his real life examples that he can point to over and over again.

He knows more than most that many people live their life by crisis and honestly hope that their “crisis of the moment” will also becomes yours as well. Especially if you are someone that is willing to help!

For Generous Joe this often times surfaces as a person asking for money to help pay a bill or get them out of a jam that they worked themselves into. Joe realizes everyone needs help at some point but for others it is more of a lifestyle choice rather than a tragic unexpected event.

When a crisis occurs close friends and/or family members are generally open to pleas for help and for the most part honestly don’t mind helping. However, while people like to think in their mind they can give a gift that comes with no strings attached, the reality is everyone has a tendency to closely view the future actions of these individuals because when we give money to someone we are making an investment in that person. Naturally we want to feel that our choice was a good one.

Unfortunately for Generous Joe he finds himself being disappointed again and again because it seems that the pattern of behavior that got the person in trouble in the first place hasn’t changed. Nor will it change, unless the person wants to or is forced to change.

Example: Joe has a friend named Vicky and he hated to see her struggling and constantly being so stressed out. He wanted to help and saw Vicky was always in a constant crisis and never had enough money to pay her bills. She owed a ton of money on her credit card bill, her car insurance was due, she had not paid her property taxes for several years on the trailer her parents had given her and her phone was disconnected again. She had borrowed all the money she could from her parents and they could not help anymore. She had been out of work for two weeks before finding another job but her world seemed to be collapsing around her, and she was constantly crying and depressed. Joe sat down with Vicky to assess her situation and added up all her outstanding bills and wrote checks to everyone she owed to wipe out all her debt. Within a year she was back in the same situation! How could this be?

Vicky’s freedom was short lived because she had never lived without debt and no one in her family had ever been debt free. Being out of debt had no meaning or value to her and she always had a wish list in her mind. Shopping was not based on her need but on her wants and she wanted it all! Her only concern was how much was the monthly payment not what it actually cost. Since Joe took away all her payments she was free to start over. Most are not as lucky as Vicky to have someone willing to step in and be that generous. Yet, unfortunately this story has repeated itself over and over again for Joe to the point where he no longer feels as compassionate as he once did.

For Joe family is important and he has plenty of nieces and nephews he could shower with wealth but he can’t help but wonder will that just poison them in the long run. Being spoiled is one thing but being out of control is another.

Finally Generous Joe enjoys being involved in the community with various nonprofit organizations. Last year Joe gave away thousands of dollars to charity but this too felt hollow because none of the groups he supports go much further than to send a receipt and sometimes that doesn’t even happen.

It is easy to see how Generous Joe can get jaded yet for whatever reason he hasn’t given up quite yet.

To date Joe has given away over seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars with planned gifts of over a million dollars. Maybe one day soon Joe will find the answer he is looking for, but until then, it wouldn’t hurt for you to look over your donor list to see if you can find your own Generous Joe and make sure he or she feels appreciated.

The Nonprofit Arena 2010 Outlook

In 2010 we can expect a third of the work force in the US to be unemployed or underemployed at some point over the next year! The reported 10% unemployment rate is not the true picture. The actual rate is over 17% when you include the unhappy part time workers and those that have stopped looking for work i.e. discouraged which are labeled a politically correct term “marginally attached” versus unemployed.

The real challenge for the nonprofit arena is to motivate people to do what they are already wired in their mind and hearts to do naturally, which is to give!

How this is done is not rocket science but is based on the principle of truth and honesty.

First and foremost nonprofit organizations need a healthy dose of realism and face the fact that not everyone will be attracted to their cause and that is ok.

Secondly, the best nonprofits are those that are run by people who they themselves believe in the cause. In my opinion people who love what they are doing and would do the job they are doing without pay if they could are the ones who I want on my team, how about you? Wouldn’t you rather work with someone excited to do their job versus someone who is just punching the clock for a paycheck? They answer is obvious and donors to nonprofits are quick to pick up if the people working for that nonprofit are genuine or fakes.

Ok, let’s say you have all the right people leading your nonprofit so what comes next?

The volunteers, namely your board of directors, must be fully committed. It is unreasonable to expect success on raising money from people outside the organization if those inside are not giving to their full potential.

This finally brings me to a critical point of how your nonprofit markets itself to others.

Is your organization financially transparent on how it operates? Can people clearly see how the money they give makes a real and lasting difference in the lives of others?

A donor is an investor in every sense of the word. They not only want, but expect, to see either a direct or indirect outcome for the contribution they have made. You need to be careful that within the organization everything is not so convoluted that a doubt lingers in the mind of your donors. They must know that their contribution made a difference!

People, now more than ever, will be rethinking every aspect of their life and determining what is important and what is fluff.

For the nonprofit this will mean even a tighter squeeze than in 2009 which will cause either drastic cut backs in services for some or close doors permanently for others.

The year 2010 will be remembered not only as the “Year of The Tiger” but also the year that only the strong survived. If you have not watched a Rocky movie lately now might be the time to rent one and get ready!

To learn more visit: www.nonprofitexpert.com