The Influential Nonprofit

Marc Pitman, CSP: Embracing Doubt

Episode Notes

Marc A. Pitman, CSP® helps leaders, especially in nonprofits, lead their teams with more effectiveness and less stress. His latest book is The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be. He's also the author of Ask Without Fear!® - which has been translated into Dutch, Polish, Spanish, and Mandarin. He is the founder of The Concord Leadership Group and FundraisingCoach.com. He's also the executive director of TheNonprofitAcademy.com and an Advisory Panel member of Rogare, a prestigious international fundraising think tank.

Called "The Johnny Appleseed of Fundraising," Marc's expertise and enthusiasm engages audiences around the world both in person and with online presentations. And has caught the attention of media organizations as diverse as Al Jazeera, SUCCESS Magazine, and Fox News. Marc’s experience also includes pastoring a Vineyard church, managing a gubernatorial campaign, and teaching internet marketing and fundraising at colleges and universities. On Twitter, he is @marcapitman.

He is the husband to his best friend and the father of three amazing kids. And if you drive by him on the road, he’ll be singing 80’s tunes loud enough to embarrass his family!

Sign up for his free fundraising tips, the Ask Without Fear! email newsletter, at https://fundraisingcoach.com/subscribe/.

Key Takeaways:

• Not everybody's going to be on board with your nonprofit. Donors should never dictate the mission, the mission should define the donor that your organization wants.
• Nonprofits sometimes suffer from a lack of organization and technical systems because founders don't start a nonprofit thinking about accounting, human resource management or marketing - they started it to relieve pain. Systems need to be in place to keep the good happening sustainably. 
• Part of the toxicity in organizations is that we're constantly looking outside of ourselves for the answers. The benchmark is mediocrity - you don’t want to be in that place. 
• Make an inventory of all the things that make you different. Don't cast out your doubt, instead, doubt positively. Shift it from wondering why you’re not enough to wondering if perhaps you are exactly what your team needs, or that the things that make you different are exactly what your people need. 
• Living your life reacting to every stimuli that presents itself is exhausting. Take time to pause, and let the situation or unease sit for a while. Let ideas bounce inside your head before reacting. 

“The gift of doubt is that it can finally push us into looking at other things. Instead of, ‘Why am I messing up so badly?,’ or  ‘Why am I lacking?’ or ‘Why am I so broken?’ — allow your doubt to shift the question to: ‘What if I’m exactly the leader that this organization needs?’”  — Marc Pitman

Reach out to Marc Pitman at:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/marcapitman

Facebook: http://facebook.com/askwithoutfear

Website: https://fundraisingcoach.com/

RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/extremefundraising

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcapitman/

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Learn to manage your mindset, lead yourself and others more effectively and have the meaningful conversations that drive your most important work. 

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