Scarcity Mindset: Pradnya Haldipur on Sharing Revenue Work

Your donors may not want to talk to you. They want the person doing the work. Pradnya Haldipur is the founder of Strategy. Creativity. Mentorship. She has spent going on thirty years in the sector, starting as executive assistant to the director of an art museum, where she fell into fundraising by accident. She has since worked with Doctors Without Borders, Mount Sinai, Boston Children's, and Children's National. She calls the work revenue generation, because that's what it is. One of Pradnya's favorite moments is a colleague's first donor visit. An assistant professor with a first big grant, a systems engineer, someone just starting out. They prep together, the colleague talks about their work, and afterward she hears the same thing every time: "That wasn't as hard as I thought it was gonna be. When do I get to do that again?" If asking has always been one person's job at your organization, this conversation is about sharing it. In this episode Why "nonprofit" is a tax designation, and why Pradnya says revenue generation instead of fundraising The scarcity cycle: raise more first, then we'll invest Patient capital, endowments, and why the long game looks different in the social good sector A few ideas to apply at your nonprofit Bring a program person on your next donor visit. Prep together, then let them talk about their work. Ask whether development can have 5% of each person's time, written into their role and their year-end review. Put endowment and earned revenue on the agenda for one board conversation, even if the answer is not yet. Resources Mentioned Connect with Pradnya LinkedIn:   / pradnya-haldipur   Connect with Sarah Nonprofit411: https://nonprofit411.org LinkedIn:   / nonprofit411   The Generosity Roadmap, a free class: https://nonprofit411.org/generosity_map Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:22 The hobby question 03:54 Falling into fundraising by accident 07:54 Why "nonprofit" is only a tax designation 08:23 Donors want the expert 12:07 A shared desire to solve a problem 15:58 Talking about money as money 17:08 Bringing colleagues into the work 20:13 Five percent of everyone's time 23:01 The scarcity mindset 26:22 The long game and patient capital 28:07 What we forgot about endowments 31:56 Who goes unserved in the meantime 32:46 Where to find Pradnya