Friday Inspirations, Episode 16 :)
May 11, 2018
Wow! We are watching Gates, Rockefeller, and Chan Zuckerberg take aim at poverty in the U.S. We geek out on seeing theories of change in action.
The Gates Scholarships embrace education as the way out of poverty and reward the best and brightest. Rockefeller and Chan Zuckerberg's Communities Thrive Challenge lifts up communities' own innovative, scalable solutions.
If you do community work to alleviate/eliminate inequality, check out the Challenge! Grants are $1 million plus technical assistance and big publicity for results. Amazing!
We are reading The Culture Code, on how groups get and stay successful. Belonging is, unsurprisingly, at the center. Turns out the amygdala, that old reptilian part of our brains, not only spurs fight-or-flight, it also detects "belonging cues" and uses "immense unconscious neural horsepower to build and sustain your social bond." Fun fact:
- People at a train station during a rain storm were approached by a stranger. Half were asked, “Can I borrow your cell phone?” Half heard “I’m so sorry about the rain. Can I borrow your cell phone?” The second group was 422% more likely to comply! Lesson: take that extra few seconds to genuinely connect - that is the superpower of good fundraisers.
All kinds of goodness in this book. We'll put a review in Fundraisers' Monthly on Monday!
We are listening to the Building a Story Brand podcast on hiring.
- One interviewee echoed Patrick Lencioni's approach: Hire people who are hungry, humble, and smart ("smart" here refers to emotional intelligence - good connectors).
- Another focused on 3 C's: character, competency, chemistry. (She said "talent is a gift to be stewarded," which we loved!)
We are big, big fans of hiring the person and teaching the skills, especially in fundraising.
Thinking about what makes the person, we especially like this quote, as Mother's Day approaches:
"Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Wishing you a fabulous, fun weekend and great adventures in the week to come!
- Nancy
