Be relevant and grow

Over the past few weeks, I was alerted to a Christmas story that I chose not to publish.  In fact, I deleted the article again today thinking it's not the positive message that I want to send.  I also thought to myself  it's the new year already; no more Christmas stories. However, giving it a little more thought, I decided this story needs to be told.

Evidently the Optimist Club of Asheville, North Carolina has a huge Santa Pal Program that has been serving Bunscomb County for seventy-three years. Somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 children receive presents from this program annually.

The problem?  Last year, the club came up $25,000 short on donations.  Until recently, they received donations from 11 different organizations, but no more.  With shifts in funding, more and more organizations are using the money in-house and conducting similar programs on their own.  The collaborating organizations also have less money to work with and more people that need their services.  Cuts have been made all around, but not with the Santa Pal Program.  The Santa Pal Program continued to add to their list despite declining resources.  With 8 days left to meet their $50,000 goal this year they remained $45,000 short. 

I don't know if they made it because I am more interested in the perception they gave the community in their plight:

• They didn't listen to the cautions of their collaborators and took on large, what might be considered frivolous, debt.   When funders stop funding you, there is a reason. 
• They proceeded in an "if you build it, they will come" manner hoping the media attention would send donations their way.  This may have worked, but why would the Optimist Club want to resort to begging?
• They tainted their future fundraising and membership recruiting opportunities.  People rarely want to join causes where the primary program is not successful or in jeopardy. People want to raise money to spend now and plan for the future, not to pay for what has happened in the past.

The moral to this story is that in order to be perceived as relevant, you have to be in tune with your community.  Perhaps donating many Christmas gifts to many children was once the biggest need in Asheville, but it is possible that now others have taken on the task making the enormity of the Santa Pal Program  redundant.  

Do you have a program like this in your Optimist Club?  Don't be embarrassed; we all have a project that we are emotionally tied to and we want to see carried on at all costs, but those emotional ties are limiting us.   The key to growth is to be relevant by today's standards.  In order to be relevant and effective, we have to ask questions of members and of the residents, businesspersons and government officials in our communities so that we all know where we fit and how we serve. 

Optimist International has created a community needs assessment and survey where your club can assess what is needed and then develop a response.  When you develop that response, please don't bite off more than you can chew.   Make sure your Optimist Club is known for the good deeds performed in the community and not only for their fundraising efforts.

Santapal.org is accepting donations and plans to continue the program in 2010 and beyond.