“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.”  JK Rowling

This week, I’m reading various quotes to reflect on how generosity covers our failures.

Reflection question:

Are we letting failure harden or shame us?  Or, are we letting generosity cover our failures with the desire to keep trying?   

Reflection on Quotes:

Last week, I talked about failure and how to view failure. All this week, I’ve been thinking about how donors view our failures. Although we can Google a bunch of quotes about people not wanting others to be successful or root for our failures, that is not how donors view failures in our nonprofit work.  Instead, because donors are investing in our work, they are cheering us on to move passed our failures.

When donors see that we are seeking to succeed in our work, they will see failures as a learning process to better serve our missions in the future.  What we do next matters. It’s easy to be ashamed or to let the failure harden us into never wanting to make a mistake again.  Especially when we respect the sacrificial giving leads some donors to give to our organizations.  

However, our donors have not called us to live cautiously, to feed half a child or protect half the land or play half the music.  No, their gifts cover our failures with a desire for us to keep trying, or as Brené Brown states, to keep daring greatly.

What do you think?

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