From UnCharitable to UnStoppable: 3 Steps to Grow Your Nonprofit

If you've seen the documentary UnCharitable, there's a good chance it got you thinking.

Perhaps that meant deeper, philosophical thoughts. 

Or maybe UnCharitable inspired you to tackle hard problems. To take action. 

Let's channel that energy.

Here are three ways to act on key lessons from UnCharitable. 

1. Think Big: Your mission is important. Don’t short-change it with half-measures. 
2. Play the Funding Long Game: Only prioritize fundraising strategies that produce exponential returns over time.
3. Invest in Yourself: It's great people, well-trained plus internal systems that scale that fuel growth. 

Find out which of these ideas matter most to your nonprofit below. 

UnCharitable: The Book and Movie

If you're into books that challenge conventional wisdom, then Dan Pallotta's UnCharitable movie delivers. 

Published in 2008, it questions long-standing norms about how the nonprofit sector limits its own success with self-imposed constraints.

UnCharitable isn’t just a theoretical exercise though; Pallotta's words come alive through an engaging documentary film directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal. It features key figures like Edward Norton along with founders of various influential organizations sharing their unique perspectives on philanthropy.

The movie made its debut in September 2023 with a 90-minute box office deep dive into nonprofit work. If this has piqued your interest already - here is where you can catch all the action at its official site.

#1. Think Big

Your mission is important. Don’t short-change it with half-measures.

This is our biggest takeaway from UnCharitable. 

Your mission matters deeply. It may even require systemic change. It could be urgent. People are counting on you. 

As a start-up and/or entrepreneurial nonprofit, delivering deep change may take time. 

But having an audacious vision for the scale of change you want to see will clarify your direction. 

Start by asking yourself the 10X question: What would you need to do to move the needle on your mission by a factor of 10? Make a list. 

We always find this help eliminate 80% of the possible things you could do as a nonprofit. They just won’t produce 10X results. 

The few things that remain are the seeds of future oak trees. Build your plan around these. 

Stop doing the other things. Stop planting and watering all the other seeds. 

To make progress on these 10X seeds, you are going to need #2 and #3 below. 

#2. Play the Funding Long Game

Only prioritize fundraising strategies that produce exponential returns over time. 

Ways to raise money are not created equally. 

Some will require your time and money… and will produce small-moderate amounts of money one time. Example: a Giving Tuesday appeal.

Some will require your time and money… and will produce one big chunk of money one time. Example: a grant. 

Some will require your time and money… and will produce small amounts of money every month. Example: a digital marketing strategy targeting recurring monthly donations. 

You’ll notice with all three: it takes money to make money. All fundraising has a cost. 

But while the first two produce a short-term sugar high…

The third is an investment in long-term nourishment. Due to the power of compounding, monthly recurring giving is the single best way to build self-powered fundraising momentum. 

Einstein called compound interest the eighth wonder of the world. It’s “the giving that keeps on giving”. 

At Nonprofit Rocket, we call this Compound Giving. 

To find out more about Compound Giving and how it compares to other things you’ve tried, subscribe to our Compound Giving Free Bootcamp.

Compound Giving puts your funding on autopilot and allows you to invest in the future. 

That brings us to #3...

#3. Invest in Yourself 

Great people, well-trained. Internal systems that scale with your growth. 

UnCharitable shines a spotlight on this simple truth: if your nonprofit wants to move mountains, passion is essential but insufficient. 

Your nonprofit needs highly skilled leadership and the right tools for the job. Yes, this may mean allocating some funding to overhead and not to your program beneficiaries. For now. 

A scarcity mindset produces incremental change. 

Even as a staff of one, you need training and tools. 

Your nonprofit simply must invest in itself. 

Otherwise, your “Think Big” dreams will remain stuck in dreamland. 

Your mission matters too much to let that happen. 

"If we want social change to progress at the pace of molasses, then the system works fine as it is. But if we want dramatic improvement on the great social issues of our time, then we need dramatic changes to the paradigm that orders our efforts." 

Dan Pallotta #UnCharitableMovie