People are fascinated by many aspects of CharityFocus, but one thing that thoroughly confuses people -- in a fascinating sort of way -- is our approach of no-fundraising.  Of course, everyone knows that if you solicit a gift, it can no longer be called a gift and if we are talking about the gift-economy, it's natural to embody it too.   So people understand why we do it, but continue to scratch their heads. :)

With fundraising, you face a couple of hurdles.

Almost every organizer will tell you how they hate fundraising.  For most of them, though, this is rooted in fear.  When you ask people for something, you have to face rejection and this hurts the ego.  So many folks are in this muffled space between wanting money for their needs and yet not wanting to face constant rejection.  These people tend to look at the gift-economy with admiration and confusion, because they think that gift-economy is all about free money. :)  "How exactly do you pay your bills?" is the first question that comes to their mind.

Once you do the inner-work to overcome that fear, and learn how to raise money for good things, you face the sincerity hurdle.  When donors have acquired a scarce resource, they are inevitably proud of holding onto their prize and they will not let it go unless you are able to mold its use into their paradigm.  It means you have to manipulate your message in a reductionist sort of way, it means you have to kiss up to people you may not share your values, it means that you have exaggerate your vision and boast about your history.  The whole process seems very selfish.  These are the folks who look to the gift-economy with skeptical eyes, because they have lost faith in the power of gratitude.  Their typical response is, "There must be some catch."  And then they have a meal at Karma Kitchen. :)

Very few are able to transcend that fear and still work with sincerity. I've only known two people, who have both raised hundreds of millions of dollars for good causes and yet haven't sold their sincerity one bit. 

Still, in my books, there is one more hurdle to cross: control.  Money buys you predictability.  You have staff who listen to the boss's command, you implement projects, you work towards a vision, and you have annual reports to show your progress.  These people look to the gift-economy as a good thing, but fundamentally naive.  Usually, they'll respond with, "That's beautiful.  But it can't possibly scale."

At some point, when you replace fear, selfishness, and randomness with love, sincerity and trust, you enter into the heart of the gift-economy.  Then, the currency shifts all together.  Love brings you social capital, sincerity brings you engagement, and trust brings you offerings of gratitude.

Like each of us, CharityFocus has also had its own collective journey into love, sincerity and trust.

When CharityFocus started, all we had was 21" monitor and a computer that my Dad gifted to us.  Because we didn't fundraise, we often faced situations where we ran out of buying power.  During those times, we inevitably stepped up the inspriation power by using the strategy of transparency and generosity.  Last year, for example, when Smile Card demand took an exponential leap, we humbly placed a 50 orders/day limit and at the same time, made bulk orders free!  Not charging for valuable services, we also attracted a lot of attention and there was always the lure of cashing in.  In 2007,  427,488 hours of time was spent on our sites, and about 50 million solicited emails were sent to more than 200,000 members.  Slap on an advertising strategy and it's a no-brainer way to get tens of thousands of dollars.  But no.  We aren't interested in selling anything, and after ten years of that sincerity, you get some solid engagement from our constituents.  And finally, there is the issue of control.  Whether we were building websites for nonprofits, or creating online portals, or becoming an incubator of gift-economy projects, CharityFocus has always been unpredictable. :)  It's an entire ecosystem, with inter-dependent parts.  We simply ensure that the process is in synch with our values, and trust that the outcomes will take care of themselves.

Gift economy modality has "worked" for CharityFocus, but to try to replicate that success is the biggest mistake.  Trust is often confused with predictable outcomes, when in practice, it is about suspending judgement on all outcomes.  If "success" comes as you predicted it, great; if it is a "failure", you still smile knowing that suffering often leads to radical innovations.  It sounds simple, and after having spoken to thousands of people, it is no surprise that I find youngsters quickest in grasping the gift economy.  While the elders and scholars will ask the scale question and adults will ask the survival question, it is the kids who ask the most relevant question: "How can I do more giving in my life?"  That is the only important thing.  Rest works itself out, as it needs to.

You know, I started writing this blog entry because of a donation we just received.  It's our most popular donation amount: one dollar. Here is a donor  from Canada paying 72 cents in postage to contribute a buck:

Love, sincerity, trust, and whole lot more into one humble offering. That's how we survive in the gift-economy.