GOOD NEWS: 5 Good Swings
Good News: An enewsletter for donors and nonprofits
on strategic planning, governance, fundraising, and executive leadership.
5 Good Swings
As nonprofits and the funders who care about them navigate times of extraordinary change and intense pressures, consider the words of the #2 golfer in the world on the eve of a three hole playoff competition in one of of the world’s biggest tournaments, including one of golf’s most nerve-racking holes: “I just need to go out there tomorrow and make five good swings.”
Rather than get lost in the innumerable, potentially overwhelming psychological and physical hurdles ahead, Rory McIlroy distilled the essence of his challenge into a digestible list of finite to do’s. Then he prepared to execute them. And then he won decisively.
Has your nonprofit or foundation done the same as you absorb or anticipate losses in government funding and weather ad hominem attacks on your values, personnel or those you seek to serve?
As you move forward, ask yourself: “What are my five swings today, this week, and month?” What five good swings do you need from your staff, board, and donors?
How are you going to make those five good swings? Who can you count on to help you make those swings and who or what is going to make five good swings easier or harder to achieve? What will you do if you succeed or miss on one or all of your swings?
Staying focused on such questions is the best way to mitigate the emotional toll that a rapidly changing landscape and all of its carnage can have on a person. Think about hitting small targets. Surround yourself with people who do more than lament disappointing realities and remember that every breakdown has the seeds to recovery.
As was the case during the 2008 Wall Street created financial crisis and COVID, there are tremendous opportunities to succeed. Not every organization needs to be a casualty. Heroes and heroines are all around. Do your best to focus, stay hopeful, and make progress each day. Not perfection, progress.
Now is a time to be doubly intentional, persistent, and gracious to others and yourself.
Easy to write, hard to do, I understand.
Stuff Steve Is Watching, Listening To, and Reading
Stuff Steve Is Watching, Listening To, and Reading
How We Got Here? (14 minute watch)
“We members of the educated elite did some good things. We created the internet, brunch, and mocktails. You’re welcome. We did some bad things. We designed a meritocracy around the skills we ourselves possess and rigged the game so we succeeded and everyone else failed. We ended up creating a caste system even though we pretend to be egalitarian.” David Brooks
Watch Here
A Complete Unknown (3 minute listen)
"The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin.'" Bob Dylan and Timothee Chalamet
Listen Here
Ann Fergusun (3 minute read)
"She was always ahead of her time and quietly pushed the limits of what was socially and politically acceptable. She was called into the dean’s office many times. While directing Oedipus in the 1960s, she asked three students to grow beards, which at the time was frowned on for its identification with the hippie movement. The dean told her to have them shave but she, stubbornly, ordered them 'to grow.'"
Read Here
