If the Buddha were a fundraiser, he'd chill out now

In these challenging economic times, it is easy to become afraid and panicky when it comes to money, whether it's about personal finance or raising funds for your organization. Yet it's precisely at times like these that we need access to our best thinking and the ability to create perspectives that empower rather than discourage us, says Robbie Ross Tisch, senior consultant for the Management Assistance Group.

And it's at times like these that we need to go to the core of what makes the most difference in fund-raising, to revisit our own limiting attitudes, to allow ourselves to connect most deeply with what motivates people to contribute their resources, and to create relationships with donors and prospective donors that encourage and nurture that tendency.

"If the Buddha was a fundraiser, he would probably not be bothered by the economy, partly because he owned nothing and had nothing so to speak to lose," Tisch writes. "but also because he taught about the inevitable changing nature of life and that it is our attachment to wanting things to remain the same that is the source of much of our suffering."

Since, however, we're not all Buddhas yet, there is another basic principle that the Buddha spoke of often that can be extremely useful at these times -- that is, that individuals who are generous benefit enormously from being generous, and that they suffer for not being able to be generous. Click here to read the entire article.