Cinder Blocks vs. Software: The struggle for scalability February 9, 2009

I just returned from a week in the Dominican Republic where I helped build a house for a needy family. When I arrived at Paraiso, DR on Sunday, a fishing and farming village four hours west of Santa Domingo, the home site was a vacant lot and a pile of cinder blocks. When my group of eight volunteers, seven Canadians and one American, left the following Friday, there was a four room stucco home complete with electricity and running water. Ismael Leger and his wife Judy, the new owners, even served us dinner in their neat, new, hurricane-proof home before we left. It was a life changing experience for me, to say nothing of its impact on Ismael and Judy.

 The project happened through a nonprofit called Cambiando Vidas, a U.S.-based 501(c) 3 led by Jose Abreu. Jose is an energetic Dominican who uses humor, charm and his cell phone to rally volunteers, community members and contractors to make the next-to-impossible happen with what appears to be ease. And Jose does this with good humor despite great personal sacrifice: he works for a small salary and he’s away from his family for weeks at a time building homes for others. He talks scornfully about the high administrative costs of other organizations and he personally ensures that nothing gets in the way of turning volunteer time and money directly into homes.

 

One evening, as we relaxed after a day of mixing concrete, our group talked about how to make the remarkable work of Cambiando Vidas scalable. One person joked that we needed to clone Jose. Joking aside, it would be hard to hire staff with half of Jose’s passion. Afterall, he’s following his dream, not merely working in a job.

 

As I sat on the airplane from Santa Domingo to Miami and then back to Washington, DC, I thought about this question of scalability. While I can’t say that a clear answer appeared to me, one light bulb did go on: I was happy to be involved in part of the solution- GiftWorks Fundraising Software. Never before had it been so clear to me why GiftWorks makes sense for organizations like Cambiando Vidas. It’s because people like Jose know that, while they need to be astute about fundraising, ultimately laying cinder blocks for needy families is what their organizations should be doing, not learning how to use expensive software.

If any of you have insight on scalable growth drop me a line. We could all benefit from your insight.

Comments

I enjoyed this, John! ellie