A. Lauren Abele

When I was in college, I remember making one of those “life decisions.” Did I really want to be a starving artist in New York City, or did I want to live up to the challenge of addressing social and environmental injustice? In the end, it turns out artists make more money in NYC than nonprofit folks…at least that’s how it seems. But, I’ve also found that one of my best assets in the nonprofit world is the off-the-wall creativity that set me apart as an art student.

Today the Nonprofit Millennial Bloggers Alliance is writing about how our organizations have been doing more with less, thanks to some great inspiration by Do Something CEO Nancy Lublin’s recent book, Zilch: The Power of Zero in Business. (Nancy Lublin, by the way, is one of my favorite nonprofit writers. Check out her monthly column in Fast Company.)

Let’s step back a little and highlight the obvious: Zero in this context refers to zero money. Not zero talent. Not zero determination. Not zero creativity. My experience in the nonprofit sector over the last year has focused on the work of start-up nonprofits, where people are doing a lot with little to no budget. It is absolutely amazing the things people will come up with, how they will leverage existing low cost technologies, seek out free networking opportunities, utilize connections and so on. One project I’ve been especially excited about, is Pipeline’s #womeninnovator video series which was started by Strategic Initiatives Associate Claire McGovern just this summer. The costs are low (one-time flip cam cost + volunteer hours + free vimeo account) and the returns are high (recognizing, highlighting, and promoting women innovators + creating buzz + fulfilling the org’s mission). The ROI is totally measurable in this context too, as long as we place a dollar value on the social returns.

The only aspect of this equation that is difficult for start-up nonprofits is the sustainability of volunteer (or in other cases underpaid) staff. But, even here there are some great opportunities for non-financial compensation. Providing professional development opportunities, sharing professional contacts, writing letters of recommendation, flexible work schedule, more vacation days, etc. Thanks to the growing interest in high quality-of-life jobs, there are lots of ways nonprofits can satisfy their loyal staff that don’t include big end of year bonuses and tickets to sports games.

Nancy says it best in Zilch:

The misconception is that not-for-profits don’t have to be innovative, that we aren’t ambitious, and that we can simply rely on hard work and commitment and we’ll do just fine…Instead, [innovation is] an integral aspect of out daily functioning. Not-for-profits have to be innovative continuously in order to survive. We need to be creative in order to keep costs down, to find fresh sources of funding, to energize our own over-worked, underpaid staffers, and to figure out an original way to put on an annual event. Without an abundance of resources or manpower, innovation is a way of life.

Furthermore, part of the nature of the nonprofit sector is not only questioning but also rethinking the status quo. This in and of itself requires a great deal of creativity and innovation!

As an artist, I’ve always found that I produce my best work when constraints are applied.The smaller a box you are given to work with, the more things you will be able to discover you can do within that box. Think of kids: One of the most amazing things about kids is they can have every toy in the world, their bedrooms overflowing with expensive dolls, blocks, cars, science sets, video games, etc. but they are bored and “have nothing to play with.” And yet, those same kids can spend an entire afternoon fabulously entertained with just a bucket and a shovel. Or a piece of chalk. Or a stick. The same is absolutely true of nonprofit, or any company for that matter. We just have the good luck to have self-imposed creativity demands.

Today the Nonprofit Millennial Bloggers Alliance is collectively posting about the nonprofit sector’s response to Haiti’s disaster.  Check out the list of bloggers for their posts.

I was on vacation with my family in Vermont on January 12th– mostly concerned with sledding as much as possible and eating buffalo wings and s’mores. So, upon my return to civilization I was caught off-guard by the whirlwind of the Haiti earthquake. I saw on CNN the announcement that 50,000 people were presumed dead. “What?! That cannot be right.” I could not comprehend the number of human lives lost or wrap my head around what was going on. But the number has only continued to rise and fatalities are now estimated at over 200,000. It is beyond staggering.

I find it very difficult to understand what it going on and so, I do what most people do when trying to comprehend a difficult situation: I try to empathize. Although, of course in this case that is impossible–I try my best.

I was 10 years old when Hurricane Andrew–a category 5 hurricane–hit South Florida in 1992. I remember the day before the hurricane hit: our house was boarded up with plywood, we brought all the backyard toys into the living room, I took breaks from pulling down grapefruits and avocados from our trees (so they wouldn’t break windows when the wind picked up) by jumping in the pool. We were in an evacuation zone, so we left in the early evening for my grandmother’s house. We passed the night 6 of us in my grandmother’s closet sitting on shoes.

And the next day our house–along with every other one in my neighborhood–was completely destroyed and uninhabitable.

We spent the next couple of months as vagabonds. I remember sleeping in sheets that were unknowingly covered in fiberglass and itching uncontrollably, moving from one person’s house to another, feeling lucky that my grandmother had a gas stove so we could cook and boil water. My mother, meanwhile, was literally excavating our home for anything she could find to salvage, trying to process our insurance (and document every single thing we lost) so we could have a place to live, and just making sure we had the basic necessities. Businesses and schools were closed for months–the economy obviously under duress–as residents tried to piece their lives together and make sense of a life-changing catastrophe.

Hurricane Andrew resulted in $40.7 billion (2008 USD) in property damage and 69 fatalities [Hurricane Katrina resulted in $89.6 billion (2008 USD) in property damage and 1,836 fatalities]. Fatalities from Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Katrina are each less than 1% of the current estimated fatalities in Haiti. These numbers only just begin to put the extreme devastation in Haiti into perspective. Wyclef Jean, who has been in Haiti recovering dead bodies, very appropriately describes it as the apocalypse:

What does this mean for aid? For disaster preparation? For emergency response? For sympathy? For empathy? But maybe more importantly, for collective action?

The truth of the matter is that it is impossible to understand what is happening in Haiti without being there–you can only imagine, and I know my imagination is not even scratching the surface despite my experience with a destructive natural disaster. But that doesn’t prevent action. Today the YNPN-NYC listserv has been full of benefit events from various nonprofit organizations to raise money for relief efforts in Haiti. The Nonprofit Millennial Bloggers Alliance committed to writing about the topic. Individuals around the world are donating money and raising awareness–text message donations alone have already raised USD$22 million in a week. Celebrities, including Sandra Bullock and Gisele Bundchen who have donated USD$1 million and USD$1.5 million respectively, are also making major financial contributions to the relief effort.

But perhaps the real action is a long-term commitment to relief, development, and moral support. It took South Florida years to fully recover Hurricane Andrew, New Orleans still continues to struggle post-Katrina–and this disaster is far, far worse. Young nonprofit leaders, get ready. Now is the time to step up.