#405 - Yes! Your Nonprofit Is Allowed To Do This

<p>Most nonprofit leaders think their biggest problem is raising money. <a href="Ny@projectnyne.com" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer"><strong>Ny Whitaker</strong></a> says the real problem is influence, and money follows influence.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ny is the founder and chief strategist of <a href="https://www.nywhitaker.com/expert-event-planning" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Project NYNE</strong></a>, a former White House senior advisor and NYU professor of leadership who has spent 30 years building relationships with elected officials and teaching nonprofits to do the same.</p><p><br /></p><p>We cover why you build the relationship before the budget cut, not after. Ny walks through what a productive meeting with an elected actually looks like: lead with a problem in the district, name the three things your organization does that nobody else does, attach a dollar figure, and ask for the legislative director or budget director instead of the constituent services person who can't move money.</p><p><br /></p><p>She also clears up the thing that keeps a lot of organizations frozen. <strong>Your 501(c)(3) can do advocacy.</strong> What it cannot do is partisan political activity. That confusion is costing the sector power it already has.</p><p><br /></p><p>I pushed her on ROI too, because I was an ED with city council discretionary funding and the paperwork-to-dollars ratio felt brutal. Her answer is about <strong>what that money unlocks: </strong>matching funds, other agencies, introductions your elected can make, and being first in the queue the next time a pot of money opens.</p><p><br /></p><p>Plus the version of all this that fits a one-person shop. One thing a week. And the story of the organization that lost $100,000 in a city budget cut on a Thursday and had it restored by Monday.</p><p><br /></p><p><strong>Important Links:</strong></p><p><a href="mailto:Ny@projectnyne.com" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Connect with Ny</strong></a><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong><a href="https://www.nywhitaker.com/expert-event-planning" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Project NYNE</strong></a><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong><a href="https://go.rheawong.com/big-ask-gifts-program" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>My Big Ask Gifts Program</strong></a><strong></strong></p><p><a href="https://go.rheawong.com/get-that-money-honey" rel="ugc noopener nor