you decided to be boring?

Seth Godin had a great post a few days ago. The “Thomas” synopsis is: If people in the marketplace aren’t talking about you, it is because you’re boring. He goes on to make the point that we’re boring because we choose boring because it is safer and easier (still my translation). You can read it for yourself here.

A painful truth.

Nonprofits and ministries are particularly vulnerable to this deadly mistake. We often choose safe and conservative and end up with vanilla and boring. What a shame. I can’t imagine anything less boring than the work many of you do…saving kids, feeding the hungry, helping the lost. Boring? Not a chance.

Maybe we’re so afraid of criticism that we won’t take any risks. We’re afraid that if we poke our heads up, the critics will bop us. Here’s a news flash: the critics will criticize you no matter what you do. Ignore the critics. Swing for the fence. Dream big. Sail for the horizon. Believe.

I don’t know about you, but I’m drawn to passion, excitement, authenticity (a great “icity” word), daring and intensity. The organizations that I love and support are passionate and daring. That doesn’t mean crazy or stupid or . It means they aren’t afraid to be a little different and standout a bit.

Turn up the passion and the daring. Are you doing something amazing or are you biding your time?

The Chronicle of Philanthrophy recently reported that 100,000 nonprofits will disappear in the next 2 years. Some will disappear because of bad management or poor fundraising (they should have called us). I think the saddest way to go would be if you bored your donors to death.

If you’ve got a story to tell but you feel like you need a spark, call us, we’ll give you an intensity transfusion that’ll give you a boost.

What do you think? What are you drawn to in a non-profit?

Steve Thomas
Partner, Oneicity