What It Takes

Just to get off the starting line, strong contenders for success in the charitable marketplace seem to do at least three things well.  They honcho.  They hustle.  They hold ground.

Honchoing, if that’s a word, means moving into action a credible public interest effort clearly aimed at serving people, shaping or shaking up a system, organizing a community, or pursuing some other kind of civic enterprise.  Folks who know how to honcho make their case as freshly on Monday morning when meeting with a county supervisor as they do the following Saturday evening before a group of neighbors at a community town hall.  And in between they’ve written a concept paper, responded to an RFP, met with several potential funders, rallied their allies, recruited a cadre of volunteers, sought advice from trusted partners, researched how other groups address similar issues, crafted a few grant proposals and launched (or managed well) a demonstration project designed to prove their idea works. 

Hustling means following up on everything that has been set in motion as long as it’s in motion, and knowing when to let go of what’s not panning out.  It’s making sure that action produces hard, impressive results, large and small.  Hustling means shining a bright and constant light on incremental achievements, erecting milestones at significant junctures, and knowing when to trumpet a victory.  Finally, good hustling comes with an instinct for drawing the attention of the right people to the results they care most about.  And the most important of those people are the ones you set out to serve in the first place.   

Without plenty of honcho and hustle, it’s impossible to hold ground.  In the nonprofit sector, holding ground means deepening your public interest niche to the point where your endeavor becomes an indisputable fact on the ground, a natural part of the civic landscape.  Everyone who needs to know knows your group’s the “go-to” source for what needs to get done.  You produce visible, beneficial and sustained results consistently over time.  You’re world class and built to last.  You’ve got what it takes.