The Real Competition

You can't compete with a man who starts his work day at 4 AM and goes straight through till 11 at night. I'm that excited by what I do.

But here's the thing: who would want to compete with a nonprofit in the first place?

I've got two things to say about that. The first is, whether a donor gives her money to the Nature Conservancy, Naples Community Hospital, or to Naples Social Action, that's great! How on earth can I begrudge the Harry Chapin Food Bank their donor dollars? When one good cause wins, the entire community wins.

...Which brings me to my second point: maybe inter-group competition isn't really all that appropriate, or even all that productive, in the first place. We'd be foolish to vie for the dollars of current donors. Our real adversary isn't the 501(c)(3) next door. It's apathy.

I invite nonprofit leaders to join together to add to the total number of dollars given, and of volunteers contributing time, in our area. Let's work together for everyone's benefit.

Why fight over who gets a bigger piece of a little pie? I'd rather have a smaller cut of a bigger pie! In that way, everybody wins.