Fundraising and Social Innovation

Fundraising and Social Innovation

Tina Crouse, Strategist

 In just finishing a guest lecture for the University of Northern British Columbia, I realize again, how ingrained the idea of grant writing and fundraising is to non-profits. But I know that world is changing and I feel somewhat awkward in teaching people how to do that better, while firmly believing that Canada's granting system is in decline and will not be the mainstay of funding in the fairly near future.

So what else can I offer students and non-profit clients so that they can take heart that their world will not crumble without grants ? Social Innovation.

In a recent, fantastic issue of The Philanthropist/Le Philanthrope you will find articles, videos, definitions, references, overviews and some enthralling ideas about social innovation. My favourite descriptor of it so far is by Mark Goldenberg in his article, Reflections on Social Innovation “[Social innovation is . . .] a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals. A social innovation can be a product, production process, or technology (much like innovation in general), but it can also be a principle, an idea, a piece of legislation, a social movement, an intervention, or some combination of them.” (Phills, Deiflmeier, & Miller, 2008)

I think this definition can help people who keep commenting that they don't understand this Social Innovation stuff because there are too many new words: Social Finance; Social Enterprise; Impact Investing; Community Investing; Community Economic Development. Even if you don't know the right word, the non-profit sector has been the driver of innovation and social problem-solving for a long time. Social Innovation is not new; we're just getting better at valuing it.

Speaking of value, in that same article, Mark Goldenberg also quoted a conversation he had with a friend which is extremely noteworthy “ Nonprofits are in a ‘race-to-the-bottom’ to demonstrate the lowest overhead, without resources for research and development or to train or develop staff. "

"A race-to-the-bottom" is exactly right. Muck media keeps publishing stories suggesting the wastefulness of non-profits which causes many of us to 'prove' that we can do everything with nothing and that would be a lie.

To honour ourselves and our sector, I 'teach' people how to do their work more effectively, how to describe with pride all of their accomplishments, how to think highly of themselves, their organization and their clients and in that way, convince funders to give them more.

After all, we are all working hard to improve the state of human beings and that is a 'worthy' calling indeed.