When you’re a small nonprofit, it’s hard to say no to any opportunity that comes your way. After all, you want to make the most out of every single day and help as many people as possible. But if you try to take on too much, it can be a detriment to your effectiveness as an organization. When should you say yes vs. no?

We're talking with Dr. William Clark, founder of Eli Patrick & Co. which provides fundraising consulting to nonprofits. He has over 15 years of experience working in city government, nonprofit administration, and public housing operations. Dr. Clark assists nonprofits with developing sustainable revenue strategies and identifying talent acquisition solutions for growing businesses.

Myths that Dr. Clark wants us to walk away from:

• Saying NO will cost you opportunities: In making important decisions, we need to think about things more intentionally rather than being driven by the need of the moment, which is most likely revenue for small nonprofits.
• You are always in control: If things didn't work out in your favour, remember that there are forces bigger than you that may have contributed to this as well, forces you couldn't and will never be able to control. You must accept the fact that you will not always be in complete control.

Dr. Clark’s Tips on the power of "no"

• Know your capacity. One of the questions you can ask yourself is: Can you do the job? It is a question of skill, talent, money and partnerships and everything that goes into running a successful business, or non-profit. 
•  Communicate.  Communicate consistently with folks that you work with, your consultant, your colleagues, and your board to get different perspectives and advice. 
• When you said no when you should’ve said yes. Every organization has its ups and downs. It's fine to rethink things and reevaluate how we proceed so that we can build up this account of goodwill with the various people with whom we were doing business.

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode

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“Giving yourself space to grieve, grieve in the moment, grieve in potential loss, grieve in potential failure, grieving the fact that your view of yourself is not necessarily consistent with the situation. Grieve in the fact that some people may look at you slightly differently and it might not be favourable because of changes that they may blame you for. So I think a lot of it is just processing through. And as you've worked through that, you don't want to stay in that moment way too long, because there's still work to be done. There are still clients who are looking to you for services and resources and they need you. And so you need to process through these things, but get up, dust yourself off, get back on that horse. Learn from what happened and grow ”

“ When it comes to yes-no, it’s just understanding the moment and living in that moment and responding as best as you can. And lastly being okay with that response. ”

Resources from this Episode

drwilliampclark.com

The Good Partnership

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