One of the nicest things that my ex-husband, who is an attorney, ever said to me was that working for a non-profit is a ludicrous job, and he greatly admired me for taking it on. But admiration, while nice, only gets you so far, to which I can attest, working in the social service sector for over 17 years. I understand the point he was making regarding the ludicrousness, which is that so many non-profits not only have to provide services, but then they also have to find the money to pay for those services, on behalf of the clients they serve. Crazy! He rolled his eyes at the idea of not only having to provide legal services for all of his clients but then turning around and having a second full time job finding a way to pay for doing so.
Those of us who are working to provide services for socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, especially children, in order for them to be able to surmount the environmental challenges they face from birth, are being shafted, right along with our clients. This really is a ludicrous job. I am the CEO of a very well known youth development non-profit organization that has been providing a highly effective and well researched service for over 100 years. Yet year after year we can’t meet the demand for our services, and year after year we struggle to find ways to pay the bills associated with the services we do manage to provide. And we fund-raise our tails off. Writing grants, putting on special event fundraisers, exploring the “infinite possibilities” of social media, and asking, asking, asking everyone and their mailmen for money. And these efforts occur right alongside the thousands of other non profit organizations in this city doing the exact same thing. Charitable competition. What’s THAT all about?
I will never forget a lovely conversation I was having at a cocktail party, with the hostess, when I was new to my non profit. About 10 minutes into this conversation she asked me what I do. When I answered, she couldn’t get away from me fast enough. I was frankly quite bewildered and had to experience this phenomenon several times again in my career before I caught on to the fear that caused her retreat. She didn’t want to be hit up to support my cause. To her credit, she was probably doing well more than her share of philanthropy at the time, but to my credit, I was not in the habit of asking for money from virtual strangers at social events. Then.
For 17 years, I have been relatively dignified and restrained in my fund raising efforts. But these days, in light of local, state and federal budget deficits and the cuts I am expecting for my non profit going forward (coming right after all the cuts I have already experienced throughout the recession), no one is going to be safe from me. I mean, how else in the world am I supposed to do this ludicrous job? Our phones are ringing off the hook at the office. The demand for services is astronomical. And we can help. We have the answers – but we can’t do it without funding.
When I said that we have been shafted, I meant it. We social service providers bear the lion’s share of responsibility for addressing some of our community’s most pervasive problems. Problems like poverty, abuse and neglect, failure, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and juvenile crime and incarceration. These are problems that prevent our children from growing up and experiencing the American Dream that we continue to tell ourselves is still achievable for all in the United States of America. But while we have all that responsibility, we certainly have not had the support to make it happen. It’s not only ludicrous, sometimes I am afraid that it’s impossible.
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