In early 2009, a group of friends gathered around my dinner table in Holyoke, Massachusetts.  The group was an eclectic one with tremendous insights and wisdom. Amidst the laughter and storytelling, the bites of cheesy lasagna, sips of red wine and commiserating about the economy – an idea was born.

The truth is  – everyone at this table shared one key thing  – a fierce and unrelenting passion for social change and the work of social profit organizations (previously known as non-profits). And yet, we had all seen too many great causes lose their financial footing, especially in recent months.

Collectively, we began to think about how we might make a big impact on these organizations – so deeply committed to making the world a better place, but still, struggling.  How could we change the very conversations happening within these social profit organizations so that they could do more than survive but would, in fact, thrive, in ANY economy? We didn’t know then, but at that moment, Quantum Jump was born.

Two people at that table, Kathleen Dowd and Rachel Kuhn joined me and we began crafting our business plan and developing an online education series, a virtual university, for fundraising professionals, ED’s and Board Members looking to make a major breakthrough in fundraising.

We drafted a vision and a mission and committed ourselves to creating something entirely new, something revolutionary – which would speak to people ready to play big, make change and generate real abundance for their organizations

Starting in September of 2010, Foundations in True Abundance, our first of a series of three courses will be launched. (Cue shout of joy!)

This blog will be a place for us to get together as a community of professionals and talk about what is possible in our organizations, share tools for breaking through the mindset of scarcity and challenge and question each other on the assumptions that might be holding us back. This is a place to try out new ideas and encourage each other as we steer a new course. It’s meant to be provocative and practical all at once.  We hope you’ll join us!

Laurie Herrick

Partner, Quantum Jump

    

Tags: development training, fundraising, fundraising professionals, non-profit administration, professional fundraising training