Episode 133 | How Gratitude Changes Everything

These last few weeks have been quite the whirlwind for me.  I went out of town for 10 days that kicked off with a workshop I did with my friend Joel for nonprofit executives, then to the Igniting Souls author conference, and concluded with taking on a brand new client.

What is gratitude?  It’s a feeling of appreciation and showing an appreciation of kindness and being thankful.  Being grateful is being thankful – thankful to others for what they’ve done for us, volunteers willing to spend their time with us, gratitude for people who give generously.  Gratitude is contagious.  Gratitude creates positive thinking.  Our brains cannot think positively and negatively at the same time.  This means we can’t have the glass half full and half empty at the same time.  As someone who works with fundraisers, it’s my job as the encourager to get you thinking about who you can call on and what opportunities you can take to help you achieve your goals.  When you have peace about what you’re doing, you have less fear. 

Gratitude creates resilience.  Resilience to life’s challenges.  When you are able to bounce back quicker from what life throws at you, you are able to raise more funds and create greater impact.  We have all been through traumatic experiences; how often do we find ourselves in a position where someone gave to our organization and then all of a sudden, they’re gone?  If you wallow in the sadness of them leaving, you can easily create a downward spiral of negative thinking.  We have to be able to be resilient and understand that not every donor is going to come back, we should never have an expectation that donors are going to give every year. 

Gratitude creates joy.  Practicing gratitude everyday brings joy in your life.  I have mentioned this before, but in the back of my journal, I have a joy list.  It’s a bulleted list of all the things that bring me joy.  I try and spend most of my time doing the things on my list that bring me joy because I have a choice every single day to do things I enjoy.  One of the things on my list is deep conversations so I work really hard to incorporate these types of conversations into my daily life and into the work I do. 

Gratitude can change everything including our mental state and can help us turn things around.  My challenge to you today is to create your own joy list.  As we gear up for this holiday season and the season of giving, think through those little things that bring you joy and how just by changing your thought process can change how people feel about your cause.  People give to people; they don’t give to causes.  People are giving to you and the life change you are making through your organization.  It’s way easier to give to someone who is positive and shows gratitude toward your generosity.  If you’re feeling really stressed right now, I need you to push that to the side and be thinking positive thoughts because those negative thoughts are not doing you any favors, they aren’t helping your fundraising, and your desperation is repelling people away from you and your cause.

Last week we talked about podcasting and I wanted to let you all know that I am launching a new podcast with my friend Joel Kessel called the Nonprofit Executive Podcast.  The first three episodes are dropping later this week.  This is THE podcast for nonprofit executives who are working through strategic plans, board development, administrative support and all of those different roles that come with an executive title.  Joel and I will specifically talk about strategic planning and fundraising.  Visit http://nonprofitexecutivepodcast.com/.

Interested in joining the Nonprofit Executive Club?  Check out nonprofitexecutiveclub.com 

For more information about Mary Valloni, visit maryvalloni.com and to download our free Fundraising Freedom Roadmap, go to maryvalloni.com/roadmap

Interested in joining the Nonprofit Executive Club?  Check out nonprofitexecutiveclub.com 

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