by Dan Morrison of Citizen Effect
I never planned on starting an entrepreneurial nonprofit. It was a complete accident, but a happy one. I was running my own consulting firm and enjoyed my work but then met Reema Nanvaty of the Self Employed Women's Association at a conference and found myself in rural India two months later. I met numerous women that were walking hours a day for water, lacked toilets, travelled days for health care and spent the majority of their time procuring the basic needs to keep their family alive.
Then one woman stood up and said, "if you partner with me and provide $5,000, we can build a sustainable well and break this cycle in our village." I went home, sent out a holiday card, and to my surprise, started getting $500 checks from my friends and family. They all wanted a better way to give and to see the direct impact of their donation on this woman's community. And that was it. I built Citizen Effect around the model of finding high impact projects that can transform the lives of people in need and connecting them with Citizen Philanthropists that want to bring their friends and family together to fund a project together.
I knew very little about development work, never considered myself a fundraiser, and was not looking to start something new. But I really had no choice. Once I put the idea out to the world, it took on a life of its own. Soon people who gave to my first project were asking if I could help them find their own project. Then friends asked to get involved. Then strangers. I quickly realized that I could have a much greater impact on the lives of others if I empowered others to be Citizen Philanthropists rather than just doing project myself.
The greatest lesson I learned from starting Citizen Effect was to have the courage to put your idea out into the world. Then I quickly learned that my idea was deeply flawed, and the only way it was going to improve was if I allowed others to adapt it as their own and I integrated those changes into the organization. So as I helped more people fundraise for projects, I watched how they fundraised, what worked, what failed, what was fun and what de-motivarted people. In essence, our Citizen Philanthropists became our market research and innovation department that helped us adapt and improve our model.
Then the day came when all of this adaptation and change moved it from a side project to a full time gig. Citizen Effect would never have existed if I did not allow it to take on a life of its own. I would have smothered and killed it very early if I rammed through my original concept. So what started off as a happy accident, became a fun side project that is now my life's work. Be careful what ideas you put out into the world!
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Dan Morrison is the Founder of Citizen Effect. He is recovering from a career as a innovation and branding consultant and has a graduate degree in Middle Easter Studies. He finds skydiving to be a "amazingly peaceful experience."
Citizen Effect is hosting CitizenGulf events around the country on Wednesday to support fishing families devastated by the oil spill. Attend one by you or make a donation - CitizenGulf.org
Website: CitizenEffect.org | Twitter: @DanCitizen
