Non Profit Volunteer Centers in California: Forget Them?
Six Months of Dreaming Comes to a Halt: Time for a New Dream?
For more than six months, I've been dreaming about an Army of Consultants available to help non-profits throughout California. My
strategy was that I would take this to market through an existing network of Volunteer Centers -- non-profits themselves partially funded by the State found in almost every County.
Today, my dream was shattered, unfortunately: in discussions with three Volunteer Centers and a statewide umbrella organization, I've come to learn that these organizations -- all of them I believe -- are anachronistic bureaucracies. Dinosaurs waiting for a meteor to hit the earth.
First, why did I have to kill off the first dream or why was it killed off by others?
The answer to that question has to do with the battle that President Obama is also waging these days: it's the struggle between "incrementalism" and "radicalism." My proposal, my pitch, was about making a leap, not taking a "baby step."
This kind of seizure of the radical moment is not for the faint of heart. In his July essay entitled "Barack Hoover Obama -- The Best and Brightest Blow it Again" in Harper's, Kevin Baker gives us the overview:
Non-profits, faced with rising demand never seen in years and budget limitations, need help. Consultants, with acute skills and deep experience, are more than happy to work pro bono to help these organizations figure out how to boost performance and build capacity. But, who will bring this idea -- a freebie, a gimme -- to market?
Setting these professionals loose on non-profits hungry for help would / might create a new order: something radically pragmatic. The Volunteer Centers can't imagine that so...they plod. Towards a new disaster. A quiet disaster that won't really matter because...they're not doing that m
uch anyway.
We humans have created systems that are failing, showing their frailty and lack of foresight. We're so afraid to abandon them that we'll be like the victims of some sliding landscape, hanging on to a stick that is moving along with the mud. What else can we do? Confront the unknown. Jump. Do something radical, brave that just might work? I'm hopelessly optimistic.
The new dream my friend invented? Get ten consultants around a table and ten non-profits and ask what the problems are and who wants to work on them. Easy. Maybe even radically easy: why didn't I think of that?
Six Months of Dreaming Comes to a Halt: Time for a New Dream?
For more than six months, I've been dreaming about an Army of Consultants available to help non-profits throughout California. My
strategy was that I would take this to market through an existing network of Volunteer Centers -- non-profits themselves partially funded by the State found in almost every County. Today, my dream was shattered, unfortunately: in discussions with three Volunteer Centers and a statewide umbrella organization, I've come to learn that these organizations -- all of them I believe -- are anachronistic bureaucracies. Dinosaurs waiting for a meteor to hit the earth.
First, why did I have to kill off the first dream or why was it killed off by others?
The answer to that question has to do with the battle that President Obama is also waging these days: it's the struggle between "incrementalism" and "radicalism." My proposal, my pitch, was about making a leap, not taking a "baby step."
This kind of seizure of the radical moment is not for the faint of heart. In his July essay entitled "Barack Hoover Obama -- The Best and Brightest Blow it Again" in Harper's, Kevin Baker gives us the overview:
"we are at one of those rare moments in history when the radical becomes pragmatic, when deliberation and compromise foster disaster."
Non-profits, faced with rising demand never seen in years and budget limitations, need help. Consultants, with acute skills and deep experience, are more than happy to work pro bono to help these organizations figure out how to boost performance and build capacity. But, who will bring this idea -- a freebie, a gimme -- to market?
Setting these professionals loose on non-profits hungry for help would / might create a new order: something radically pragmatic. The Volunteer Centers can't imagine that so...they plod. Towards a new disaster. A quiet disaster that won't really matter because...they're not doing that m
uch anyway. We humans have created systems that are failing, showing their frailty and lack of foresight. We're so afraid to abandon them that we'll be like the victims of some sliding landscape, hanging on to a stick that is moving along with the mud. What else can we do? Confront the unknown. Jump. Do something radical, brave that just might work? I'm hopelessly optimistic.
The new dream my friend invented? Get ten consultants around a table and ten non-profits and ask what the problems are and who wants to work on them. Easy. Maybe even radically easy: why didn't I think of that?
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