Volunteers and staff alike agree that we must become quicker and more responsive without sacrificing the volunteer nature of the organization, which is its lifeblood. Coming into the job, I felt my most difficult job would be to convince private enterprise of the need to contribute to the human service effort in the community. Much to my surprise, I have yet to find a company not already doing something of a human service nature in their philanthropy. Most good companies already recognize that strong companies depend on strong communities, healthy families, good education systems and job training, and so on. The downside is that there is not this tremendous unused philanthropic capacity in the private sector that is likely to replace federal dollars.
Most private interests are already involved.
My second big surprise was to find out how many hard feelings can be developed in the process of investing money in human services. Needs to fill and strengths to leverage continue to far outweigh resources, so one makes as many enemies as friends when distributing funds. A third surprise was that so many people don't understand that the money we raise is immediately invested by our local volunteers in the local community through local agencies. We are constantly called on to make direct charitable gifts, sponsor events, and so on. But the funds we get go predominantly to local service providers very shortly after we raise the money.