Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Step three: Getting the right people to work with you.

You run a run profit in most areas like you would a for profit corporation. Yes, passion and ideas are very important, but having a noble cause will not get you to the next step. Every Foundation needs a devoted team to run it in every aspect, it needs to be in sync and run like a well maintained machine. I can't say it enough: You may be small, but you must be professional. If you are not effectively managed you're losing chances to draw others to it have them understand the goal, to get donors that will fuel your programs and ultimately to help people. To make a difference in the lives you're doing this for. Because it can never be about the people behind the scenes, we must never forget we're not doing it for ourselves.  Our cause hurts if people don't hear about it. If we can't convince parents our approach may give children with Cerebral Palsy a chance at a better life. If we can't appeal to donors to trust us, believe and understand that we're doing good. If we can't get the hope and awareness to spread beyond our circle, beyond Gainesville and even Florida.

The Klauners didn't know that I've had enough experience in a lot of areas to identify potential problems, aside from being a lawyer when they first met me. I used to be a media writer and owned a popular website in Poland, we had our own dedicated servers and also hosted other sites. I started a disability foundation in Warsaw; I've dealt with enough marketers and webdesigners to understand what I think should happen. I can't do it myself, but I know who to reach out to,what I like and what I don't like. I'm only one person, and I'm a big fan of getting professionals in and delegating tasks to them with me providing just general feedback and direction. I think I have done all I could do to promote this by myself. If you're alone, it's chaotic, it's not planned and focused as it should be. That's why I insisted we'd work with a local PR firm, Greenberg Communications. This cause, this story is too big to be Gainesville's best kept secret anymore. As we go further we need to move away from people volunteering their time to people providing professional support. Otherwise we will never grow enough to reach the parents, the kids lives of which we should be altering and connecting with the right kind of grantors and donors to assist us. I have done as much as I could, but to get to the next level we  need help. To include, to delegate, to do whatever needs to be done so our message spreads. I think I've done a lot exposing many people to issues of people with Cerebral Palsy, with disabilities in general and introducing them to the concept of Conductive Education. They understand more, they continue to be involved because they met me, they see what it is. We have met people, networked and inspired others to act. But you can only give so many speeches and have so many meetings and only do so much without a budget. Our cause is more visible than when I joined it, but it's not enough.

And I said it before: I will work with every marketer, writer, grant writer or journalist, anyone who can help us spread the word about our mission, who will assist us on our way to do what needs to be done.

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