Bullsh***ing With the Best of Em

I realize that in my world you have to be a good bullshitter, plain and simple, at least to a certain degree. I also realize something else, something that at times gets me in hot water with the circle of professionals I run with. This economy is truly doing wonders for the nonprofit world. You see, here's how things break down for any good fundraiser. a few years ago when everyone was fat, rich and happy it wasn't exactly difficult to raise money for a worthy cause. Every little start-up nonprofit in every little small town in America was not doing so bad. Even the ones that were duplicating services seemed to at least be able to keep the lights on. Then it happened...we all knew it was going to happen and it did, things went belly-up. Nonprofits around the globe are closing their doors and any organization that was duplicating services have now begun to merge. This means that these organizations are no longer competing against each other for the same dollar, but they are joining forces and competing against another organization that provides different services or represents a different portion of the public sector for that dollar. The programs that are surviving, I dare to even say thriving are the programs that spent time, brainpower and some funding on building the infrastructure from the ground up. Anyone can hire a development officer to come in, go through their list of philanthropist, raise some money over the course of a couple years and the program comes to an end...BUT, the smart organizations already invested in their programs and will come out of this on top.