Abundance vs. Scarcity

By Aliess Kingsley, COO of Granted

I know you, as a nonprofit leader, understand that your approach and vision are crucial for your organization’s success. Your mindset, or how you approach things, can either enable you to achieve your mission and build sustainable financial foundations or act as a hindrance that pauses growth. The fact is, you have two choices in terms of your mindset when it comes to talking about (and running) your nonprofit: You can approach your decisions from either a place of Abundance or one of Scarcity. The approach you take will not impact only the daily work of your organization but also its fundraising capabilities in both the short and long term. 

Scarcity: At the foundation of this mindset is a belief that resources are limited and that there’s simply not enough to go around. A line from a grant proposal embracing the scarcity mindset might sound like the following:

“We don’t have enough—food, equipment, money, volunteers, or time—and we just need to get by. We can’t plan or think about the future because we are too worried about today.” 

Such limiting thinking keeps nonprofits focused on competition with one another instead of growth, expansion, or potential. In the fundraising space, the scarcity mindset can cause leaders to become so focused on what they don’t have that it’s all they talk about in grant applications and other fundraising materials. In fact, by focusing on an apparent lack of resources, nonprofit leaders with a scarcity mindset talk so openly about their internal need for funding that they forget to actually talk about the organization’s mission and the broader community needs their programs fill. 

“Made Up Nonprofit is in need of $50,000 to ensure its programs continue. Without the support of Your Organization, Made Up Nonprofit will not meet the needs of the community it serves in New York City. With your support we can meet our fundraising goals this month.”  

By focusing on only your in-house needs, how will you ever cultivate a funder relationship or generate interest in your organization’s program(s)? 

Abundance: This mindset is built on the core belief that your organization is on the verge of greatness and that, by investing now, a funder can be part of successfully fulfilling its worthy mission. Specifically, an abundance mindset is characterized by a strategic focus on your organization’s impact, innovation, and collaboration, rather than just survival or limited resources. A place of abundance is one that projects growth, views challenges as opportunities, and prioritizes long-term, sustainable change over short-term gains. A line from a grant proposal embracing the abundance mindset might sound like the following:

“Made Up Nonprofit is in need of $50,000 to support its programs designed to address the rising rates of recidivism among individuals reentering society in New York City. With your support we can continue to meet the needs of our community and grow the impact of our mission.”  

Doesn’t that feel like something you would  say, “yes,” to if presented with the opportunity to support it financially? 

At Granted Fundraising, our embrace of the abundance mindset helps us reinforce the importance of relationships, honoring giving at all levels, and building community. In fact, the abundance mindset makes fundraising fun! (Why yes, I am biased.) It continually reminds us that our job is rooted in the act of identifying those with a need to give and connecting them to important needs they can help address within their communities. What’s not fun about that? 

It’s important to note that switching to an abundance mindset can be challenging as it often requires retraining your brain to focus on potential and opportunity rather than scarcity and limitations. While that in itself can be difficult, a lot of the beliefs that are connected to the scarcity mindset are both ingrained in us and are only enhanced by societal norms. It takes time and training to switch over. However, despite the work required, I think we can all agree that the switch to the abundance mindset is a good call, right? 

I’m sure you just said, “Yes.” However, in the interest of embracing other ideas, don’t just listen to us here at Granted Fundraising. Perhaps you should also listen to what Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company and lifelong philanthropist, who said: 

“Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.”