Gary Quehl and William Bergquist
When I look around the room I see all of those agencies, plus so many more, and wonder how we can get them together to work toward common goals in taking care of this community. Emerging Sage Leader
Most emerging sage leaders experience numerous obstacles in working within their favored civic organizations. We found that six barriers were often present when our emerging sage leaders reflected during their interview on their experiences of civic engagement.
Financial Issues
It is a mark of the times that economic issues pervade the organizations in which emerging sage leaders are mostly involved. As budgets shrink, government agencies and schools must make excruciating decisions about priorities. For those involved in nonprofit organizations, the frustration involves the need to reduce valuable services to clients. Other emerging sages experience a long-term mentality of poverty within their favored organizations that keeps board members from thinking and acting in big and inventive ways. Or they find themselves involved in new nonprofit start-ups, where there are many great ideas about how to grow the organization but virtually no operating funds to implement them. Some emerging sages are part of organizations that are entirely funded by grants, and it is difficult for them to see making ends meet beyond the current grant period. And there is the ever-present challenge of helping people to overcome fears about raising money:
The biggest roadblock has been to change the way people think about philanthropy. It is hard to get the board and the staff over their fears. One of the typical ones that people have is they feel they can’t ask people for money.
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