Haste Makes Waste

Leadership – Kathleen Provost

The time needed for strong collaborations

As a professional fundraiser I have observed that we are more and more busy; whilst more and more siloed. I worry about this “businesses syndrome” because it does not offer us the time to come together and learn how to work together and build collaborations.

According to Gary Martin, writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website, the phrase “Haste makes waste” means rushing into a decision that may cause mistakes that waste more time than would have been taken by proceeding more carefully. He claims this expression was first found in the Tudor scholar Nicholas Udall’s translation of the proverbs of Erasmus – Apophthegmes in 1542.

With this in mind, I question if we are “so busy” and only rush through a number of activities or initiatives without looking “outside our path”, how can we learn from each other? How do we share best practices with an objective to become a little bit better? Would we not all benefit if we collaborate towards a shared goal. I seek to better understand why our charitable sector is so siloed. I came across a few factors that can directly contribute to maintaining these siloes, or otherwise maybe these factors can be opportunities to build collaborations.

Consider the actors

Kevin McCort, president and CEO of the Vancouver Foundation believes the sector puts too much stock in the political bent of the federal government. According to McCort, charities outlive governments. As McCort says: “the left and right both value the charitable sector, but for different reasons. One sees it as a way to amplify government work; the other sees it as a way to replace government work”, yet he states the charitable sector can navigate with “both governments.”. Then maybe, instead of rushing into government relations we should pay more attention to like-minded charities. Instead of competition for the governments’ attention, we should take the time to come together and create a unified voice for a common cause.

While it may be true that charities outlive governments, Pamela Uppal-Sandhu, director of policy at the Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN) cautions us about the vulnerability of our sector as the political pendulum swings back and forth. She claims the “reality is that we have to engage if we want to survive”. Then shouldn’t government relations and advocacy work include building relationships, finding alignments, and connections through collaborations so we can further educate our governments? Taking the time to build collaborations or alliances, and not remain siloed may help us to have a greater impact.

How can we start to collaborate? I suggest we need to allocate more time to come together in the hope of greater impact or further influence on issue or a cause that matter to us.

Consider the sector

Last May, Tai Huynh, founding editor-in-chief and publisher of The Local published “Reinventing and rebuilding community journalism”. A reflective piece on the state of local media in which he claimed – “Don’t save local journalism – reinvent it”. This statement caused me to reflect on our need to evolve as a sector and reflect together by “taking the time” to re-write how we do things, how we work together and how we can have a greater impact when we collaborate. As Huynh illustrates it for journalism: “If local journalism is to be saved, we must contend with how to make it better, not just try to salvage whatever’s left.” To accomplish this, and I quote Martin: “rushing into a decision that may cause mistakes will waste more time than it would have taken by proceeding more carefully”.

Consider the communities

Opinion columnist, Kayla Webber, doctoral candidate in the Department of Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto illustrates one possible path forward to build collaborations. In her piece entitled “Why are grassroots movements so important”, she points to grassroots initiatives as possible opportunities to build community and demonstrate new working methods. Though not without its challenges, Webber argues grassroots movements can offer an important alternative to non-profit community organizations’ sometimes rigid approaches. Contrary to formalized actions in organizations, a grassroots initiative approaches community support and building from a position of transformative love, modelled after going to a community member’s home for a meal after school and hearing a story or receiving advice, or an elder listening to their kin talk about life events they are going through.

If we are to build collaboration within our sector, we will need to pause; make time for these transformative models to rise within our communities of interest. By doing so, we will discover new ideas or innovative approaches. It will then be possible to break some silos and come together to re-write our path forward for greater impact.

My final thoughts

Blackbaud recently offered a workshop entitled: Be a Silo Buster. Well, if there is a need for a workshop to break silos, we must concede that mutual support is relational as well as trust-based, and that building trust is an organic process, as Webber claims. Then, it is essential that we allocate the time and the intentional patience needed to build collaborations to re-invent how we do our philanthropic work. To build a better tomorrow takes work, time, and patience today.

I am convinced, we are not too busy to take the time and not haste because slow and steady wins the race.

Kathleen A. Provost is currently the Vice President, Philanthropy and Communications at United for Literacy (previously Frontier College), a national organization with 125 years of community partnerships in Canada, offering free tutoring and mentoring to adult, youth, and children who need literacy and numeracy support. Kathleen has over 30 years of experience in the charitable sector. She has been a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) since 2007 and a long-time member and volunteer for the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). Kathleen holds a Masters degree in Adult Education from St. Francis Xavier University as well as a Baccalaureate Arts in Political Science and a certificate in Public Relations from McGill University. As a recognized leader, Kathleen has tailored presentations for French and English audiences at various events including AFP-Nova Scotia, AFP-Ottawa, AFP-National Congress, Coady Institute and the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education. She has received numerous recognitions during her career, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contributions to the charitable sector and was recognized as 2021 Fundraiser of the Year in Nova Scotia. She writes this column exclusively for each issue of Foundation Magazine.