Delusional Altruism

9You See and Act Abundantly

There's an old saying that goes “You have to spend money to make money.” This is true in philanthropy as well as in business. But here's the trick: Money isn't our only tool. We have plenty of other assets at our disposal, such as time, knowledge, relationships, and creativity. Which leads me to my favorite paraphrase of that old saw: You have to act with abundance to create abundance.

You might wonder what I'm talking about, as you seek to find the essential funds and resources required to make life more abundant for the individuals, communities, and institutions you want so much to support. So let's explore how investing in yourself and your organization—and adjusting your mind-set to believe that you are worth this abundance—can in turn lead to abundance for your cause.

I learned this lesson years ago when I worked for a small nonprofit in San Francisco. In those days, the fancy new technology was fax machines! We used fax machines the way many of us use email and social media today—to get out the word quickly to legislators, the media, and our supporters. Sometimes we would send out several fax alerts a day, trying to mobilize people to do the things we supported and believed in.

Although our finances were tight, our leadership decided we needed to send every dollar possible to our program recipients in Central America. Meanwhile, we ourselves existed in a mind-set of extreme austerity—scarcity, in fact. So, purchasing a fax machine for $900 was ...