The Seesaw of Nonprofit Resourcing

All of my grandparents are from Ukraine. In fact, my Dad was born in Ukraine. The extended families immigrated to Canada with dozens of children to escape religious, cultural and economic injustices that arose in the early 20^th century. By the late 1960s, the annual family reunions, held in a large Canadian park, were huge celebrations of food, language and stories of “the old country.”

Every summer, it was fun to be “oohed” and “aahed” over by my older relatives as they remarked on how much I’d grown and it was interesting to reconnect with my cousins who annually remained unrecognizable. Since this was before the days of Facebook and I was shy as a youngster, I didn’t know my distant cousins very well and was always a little skittish around these once-a-year aliens with whom I was suddenly supposed to play as if they were my best friends.

One year, when I was about 8 or 9, I agreed to seesaw with one of these family strangers. Apparently, I was too light to be a fun seesaw partner, so my heavier cousin jumped off the other end, leaving me to the mechanical perils of this “sport” and resulting in my chin hitting the wood plank with a solid BANG.

Of course, no one wanted to stop visiting to take me to the hospital. While a large crowd of onlookers gathered, my auntie – who was the secretary in a doctor’s office – applied a butterfly bandage and the party continued. To this day, I have a great scar under my chin to prove to my grandchildren that we need to balance fun with caution as we play.

As I’ve spent more than two decades studying the up-and-down relationships between nonprofits and their donors, the similarities to the seesaw incident are increasingly evident. The lighter-weight nonprofit nervously appeals for funding with great hope in mind and the heavyweight with the resources agrees to support the partner’s vision. But then, for whatever reason, the heavyweight jumps off his end of the funding seesaw, leaving the partner scarred.

No one wants to waste valuable time and resources on a nonprofit in financial failure, even if the original vision that gave birth to that struggling organization is still just as valid. The balance between giver and receiver can actually be fun – and definitely scar free. PLAY ON!