Gathering Resources
Gathering resources can be a tricky and difficult area for many of us who want
to commit to making a difference in the world.
Some of us feel reticent about asking for the resources we and the project or
projects we are working on need.
Often raising funds can feel like a drag and an uphill struggle. And we can feel
conflicted about paying ourselves, or being paid, as well.
Sometimes a lack of resources can also be what stops us from achieving our
visions and doing the work that we feel called to.
Our theme this month, Gathering Resources is about identifying what you
need to get in place in terms of resources, for what you are working on now
AND it is also about encouraging you to think about resources as much
much more than money.
This month I am inviting you to spend some time thinking about the resources
you need for yourself and for the work that you want to do in four different
areas: People, Information, Finances & other capital and finally Resourcing
Yourself.
We will also talk first about our approach to resources in general and some of
the things that can get in the way and finally we will look at accountability and
I will be inviting you to request the accountability you want for your work and
any changes which you want to make from us at Jijaze.
Resources re-frame for kind hearted activists
Before we look at the different resource areas that I want to invite you to think
about this month I invite you to start by thinking for a few minutes about the
following question:
‘What is your gut reaction to the idea of Gathering Resources for your work?’
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You might want to take your journal or notebook and free write in response to
that question for 5-10 minutes. Explore your own personal
relationship to gathering the resources you need, where you feel blocked or
contradictory about this.
There are no right answers but I have found that exploring my feelings about
this is fruitful.
You might want to share your reflections on this with us in Mighty Bell so that
we can witness these and have a discussion about this there together?
I will say that it is not unusual for us to have chosen to work to make a
difference and feel that we aren’t particularly motivated by money.
The problem is that much of the work we want to do to make a difference in
the world does need resources, some of them financial, and so even if we feel
ambivalent about gathering money and indeed other kinds of resources we
are probably not going to be able to avoid them entirely.
Precisely because we may not be very personally motivated by money, things
can get sticky.
- We may dislike asking for it
- We may either have trouble spending it - or be constantly giving it away
- We may hate the fundraising aspects of our job - or be resistant to the
demands of the fundraising team if we work in a larger organisation
But fundamentally, given the current world system, we do have to find a level
of comfort with money.
Thinking of money as one of a range of resources we need to create change
in the world can help.
I think about resources (including money) as fuel that allows our change
making work to run and have an impact.
It is something that I think it is worth considering making friends with because
of what it can allow us to do and to achieve.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask questions about where money comes
from and how to behave ethically with it, I do think it is helpful to think about
what would be different for us, in our work and our lives if we allowed money
and resources in general, to be our friend? To explore this further use the
question below and free write again in your journal or notebook for 5-10
minutes:
‘What might be different if you think of money and resources as a friend?’
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Gathering People Around you
We start with people, rather than money because in my opinion the people
supporting you can be your greatest resource. Sometimes, they can also be
one of your biggest challenges.
This invitation is to about think about the people you already have around you
that support the change making work that you do and also to think through
who else you think you might like or need to help and support you?
When you reflect you may notice that there are already all kinds of people
who help you and support you with your work, whether they are a direct part
of it or not.
But this month I also want to encourage you to spend some time thinking of
the people who you might want on ‘your team’ (as well as those whom you
already have).
‘On your team’ could mean actually working with you or supporting or
advising or helping you in any capacity no matter how small.
Included in your bundle this month will be a worksheet containing the
following exercise which invites you to think about the people you need terms
of four different types of support.
The idea is that we all need a range of different kinds of support at our back
when we are working towards making a difference in the world.
•
•
•
•
People who can help you think and strategise:
People who can give you unfailing positivity and support:
People who energise you and encourage you to step up and lead:
People who can help and encourage you to say no and stay clear
and committed to your focus:
You can use the table in the worksheet to list the people that might be able to
help you in each of these areas. I encourage you, even if these aren’t people
you work alongside or would hire in the traditional sense, to think of this like a
work team for your change making work (even though you may not express it
like that when you actually invite these people to support you).
Some people may be able to help you in more than one area but try to
make sure you have someone on your side who you feel can offer of these
kinds of support. This will help you make sure you have all the support you
need. You will probably find no one really fits well in all four corners for you
and actually having a varied team at our back is often just what we actually
need.
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In some areas you may want to think about looking for someone new in either
a personal or a professional capacity to offer you the support that you need.
One of the biggest lessons for me has been learning that asking for support is
not a sign of weaknesses but in fact one of strength. Learning to ask for the
help we need is often a crucial step in making our projects successful.
There is a second worksheet about people coming in this months bundle and
it is designed to help you to think about how you will take action to
involve new people in your work.
The idea is that you go through the questions below before contacting a
new person whom you would like to ask for support with your work. The
worksheet will give you a space in which to do this.
1. How do you want this person to help you?
2. Why have you chosen them?
3. Do you need to communicate directly with them about this? If so how do
you plan to
communicate with them about your project?
4. What will you ask them for? (be specific)
Gathering Information
I've thought about my approach to gathering information while we have been
working to develop Jijaze and as I, at the same time, watch my Son, Edward
who just turned two, learning to walk and run, developing language and
beginning to explore the world more and more on his own terms.
For the past year of so he seems to me to be like a mini-scientist constantly
trying to figure out what things are and how they work, testing out what
happens if he interacts with them differently, and how we react, and so on.
His approach has inspired me to think about gathering information and
putting it to use. I think that as adults we often forget this and can spend a
lot of time researching things and looking for information without ever applying
it and taking action to move our work forward!
The information gathering and research after all, though you may need some
of it, is not the hard work, and spending hours in a library or online searching,
won't make the change in the world unless you put your discoveries in to
action.
So here is my invitation for you around gathering information: How would it
be to adopt the mini-scientist approach to gathering information?
I have been trying to do this and I think that in essence it has two main
implications:
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1. When I realise I don't know something that feels important, I might quickly
look it up, or figure out who we know that might be able to give me, or help me
find the information I need.
2. And then I see how the new information can inform my work and take
action on it as soon as I can. I try not to worry so much about whether the
action is ‘right’ as I know I am simply experimenting.
What I have realised is that toddlers don't worry about what they don't know,
instead they just keep on seeking information and discovering where it takes
then. And that way they learn and change and grow SO quickly.
So I wonder, what would it be like if you opened your eyes to that possibility,
that it doesn't matter what you don't know, you are free to keep on seeking the
information you need and swiftly implementing what you discover?
My invitation to you around the gathering of information for your work then is
this:
1. To let go of worrying about what you don't know…..
2. Seek any information you need now to take your next step forward
3. And finally to act on it as soon as you can!
Let me know how this lands with you? And what happens if you try it out?
Gathering Finances and other significant resources
So we come at last to the money and the equipment, buildings and vehicles
and capital projects. The tangible things do you need in place in order to
create the specific change you are working towards in the world.
I have struggled with money myself. Both personally with how to manage it
and with wanting to give so much of it away that I didn’t have enough left to
support my own needs and also in my work at times when fundraising has felt
like a heavy burden and responsibility and when the way that whole system
works, and tends to reward well known organisations no matter what the
quality of their work, has felt unfair and unjust.
Having said that one of the things I am most proud of is the amount of money
I have been able to raise over the years that I do know has gone to good use
and fundraising is something we will talk more about in the additional
resources we are going to be releasing later in the month.
For now I invite you to free write in your journal in response to this question:
‘How do you feel about the accumulation of money and things’
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Again you might take 5-10 minutes to free write about this in your notebook or
journal and then you might want to share your reflections on this with us in
Mighty Bell too.
Once you have done that the learning & reflection questions this month
include a series of additional questions that you might want to work with in
relation to money in your life and in the change making work that you do.
I know that this can be tricky territory for us so know that I am here you as
you explore this and can support you if that is what you need here.
What I want to invite you to here is to exploring your feelings around money
and your work and so rather than giving you a lot more content here instead
I encourage you to use the prompts in the Learning & Reflection Questions to
explore this.
In the additional resources which will be released in the middle of this month
we will be exploring money and social change work further in a couple of
different ways as well so look out for those.
Resourcing yourself: Gathering Spiritual and Emotional Resources
Originally I had thought of gathering spiritual and emotional resources as
finding the support you need externally in terms of people and activities that
that can of spiritual and emotional support but the more I think about this the
more I realise that at the heart of this piece is really a reminder not to forget to
go within.
By this I mean (and this is hard for me sometimes too so it could be that it is
for you too) that I want to encourage you, in the midst of all the work you are
doing to make a difference in the world, not to neglect your own emotional and
spiritual needs - and, importantly, not to ignore the impact these may have on
the work you are doing.
This takes us back of course to the Replenishment Matters Materials that we
looked at last month and you may choose now to revisit them.
I want to suggest that you think about how you might make a
conscious choice to stay aware of the interaction between your change
making work and the spiritual and emotional resources you need within
yourself. Sometimes this may mean accessing external support and
resources to support you but it is also about turning your own attention in this
direction, as you may well know exactly what it is that you need.
One thing I was really conscious of when I was pregnant with my Son was the
way in which, when we give birth to another human being, it feels like
something miraculous is happening and like it or not, that has consequences
for our emotional and spiritual lives in ways we may not have imagined.
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For me giving birth gave me a much more visceral sense of my own body as a
vessel for the miraculous. And that and the after shock of becoming a mother
had consequences for both how I feel in myself and how I relate to the divine.
I was lucky in that all this mostly felt very positive for me but there was
definitely a shake up of sorts and I am very aware that a sense of things being
shaken up may also be occurring to you now whatever stage you are at in
your life. I believe this may also relate to deepening your thinking about what it
means to be a change making woman in the world right now.
I think that we can make a conscious choice to bring awareness to these
areas of our lives and consider how they relate to the work we want to do in
the world and that is what I am inviting you to here. To making a conscious
choice as we move forward with the intention to create change in the world to
stay aware of the interaction between this process and your emotional and
spiritual life (whatever that means for you).
Now your sense of emotional health, spirituality and the divine may differ from
mine. This isn't about us all believing the same things. But what I do want to
invite you to this week is a personal consideration of how your own emotional
and spiritual life is connected to the work that you do.
It may be that these connections are obvious to you. Or they may not be. It's
all good.
What I want to offer you here is another series of questions that you can use
for journaling and reflection. You will find these in the Learning & Reflection
Questions PDF for this month.
It could be you simply ponder them, or you might want to journal with them, or
discuss them with someone you trust or you might want to reflect on them and
share your reflections with us in the ChangeLeader CAVE on Mighty Bell.
Bear in mind that you don't have to work with all of the questions. Pick those
that spark your interest and choose for yourself. Some may feel provocative or
juicy or totally uninteresting to you - and that's all good. Follow your nose and
work with whatever interests and excites you with this.
They'll be a chance to check in around this if you choose on our call this
month too.
Accountability as a Resource for you
As part of your ChangeLeader Membership we offer you the option of asking
for accountability either from us or from a buddy who is also a ChangeLeader.
If you would like to do this you need to be clear about a focus for yourself and
some simple goals for which you would like to be kept accountable. You also
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need to get in touch with me, [email protected] and let me know whether
you are interested in accountability from us or buddying up with another
ChangeLeader and we will work to make either of them happen for you.
Setting your focus and goals
As an example here is the focus and goals that I am currently working with:
FOCUS: To build Jijaze as a community for women who want to make a
difference in the world & take care of themselves as they do so
GOALS:
1. Reach out to new people every week to share information about Jijaze
and invite them to get involved (contact at least 5 people)
2. Write new content each week that relates to Jijaze and can be shared
in a range of different places to spread the word (publish at least 1
thing each week)
3. Spend time each week working to develop new ways to share our
message with our audience (test something new every few weeks)
If you are struggling to get your focus and goals clear I am now offering a Find
Your Focus call which is available to ChangeLeader Members at a 50%
discount. Let me know if you are interested and I can send you more
information.
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