The Nonprofit Sector Needs More Buffalo

Author, political commentator, and veteran campaign strategist Donna Brazile offers some sage advice in this month’s O Magazine:

Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee nation, once told me how the cow runs away from the storm while the buffalo charges directly toward it—and gets through it quicker. Whenever I’m confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment. I become the buffalo.

As the first African-American woman to manage a presidential campaign, Donna Brazile has definitely overcome her share of challenges in her journey to a successful career. But what about you? When you’re faced with a challenge, are you the cow or the buffalo?

From what I see, Generation Y nonprofit professionals act more like cows. We’re not willing to take the risks associated with real leadership, we just want to get to the destination with no pain and preferably with a nice little roadmap, thankyouverymuch. Even though young people have all the wherewithall to be the buffalo – education, passion, networks – we’re afraid of potential failure. We’re more likely to watch and wait in our air-conditioned cubicles for mentors to show us the way.

But, for real though? The nonprofit sector really doesn’t need more cows who run away from the storms of social change. We have too many of those already. What we need now are more buffalo who will face the challenges in our communities head-on and charge right through the fear and uncertainty for the greater good. We need more buffalo because of what they represent: leadership.

Image credit: Neil Estrick

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http://www.colleendilen.com Colleen

Yes! The nonprofit sector needs more buffalo!

But I think pointing to Gen Y as the problem is a really big stretch. I actually think pointing to any generation for lack-of-buffalo behavior is a stretch. Rather, I think it's the fault of the evolution of nonprofit culture; it's not the fault of young folks who barely have their foot in the door that there are/have been so many cows in the field (or any field for that matter; the private sector is undergoing large-scale changes as well). It's a deep-rooted issue of passed-along workplace culture. That's certainly not to say that things can't/shouldn't change… I just wouldn't be so quick to pick on the new kids who are only just beginning to grapple with how to challenge sector constraints– and call them the cows. Where's the talk of Gen Y's public service motivation and entrepreneurial spirit here?

In sum, I love the urgency of the need for nonprofit buffalo in this post, but I think the truth of the matter is that no generation is the cow here– the cow just has the strongest collective voice of the generation collective.

Thanks for an interesting post and the food for thought, Rosetta!

http://www.rosettathurman.com/ Rosetta Thurman

I think Gen Y absolutely does have the motivation & entrepreneurial spirit – that's why I say we have all the wherewithall to be the buffalo – but the problem is that we usually don't choose to be. What happens is that we often point fingers at “nonprofit culture,” not realizing that once we come into the sector, we ARE nonprofit culture. People are what make up a culture, and it's up to us to come in and change it, whether we're the new kids or the old heads.

I'm not saying that Gen Y is the problem, but that we need to be more aware of our role in the solution.

KW

as a Howard grad (Go Bison, a buffalo cousin) I took more than one meaning away from your post. I really like the analogy though. I find myself holding back at times when I know I should be going into the storm and take on the challenge.
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bsaunders

I agree with Colleen when she says, “Rather, I think it's the fault of the evolution of nonprofit culture; it's not the fault of young folks who barely have their foot in the door that there are/have been so many cows in the field (or any field for that matter; the private sector is undergoing large-scale changes as well).”

One of the changes influencing both the nonprofit and for-profit worlds – and demonized in both as Gen-Y behavior – is the way that people of all generations are increasingly approaching both social change and their own careers in a post-, cross- or trans-institutional ways and in a post-, cross-, or trans-sector ways. I think many of the people who would be buffalos aren't playing the ruminant game at all.

For example: I have selected animal welfare as my primary cause. In the four years since I jumped in, I've volunteered with three nonprofits, worked for two, provided consulting to an independent author in the field, and advised citizen volunteers working with county government in two cities. I've also used social networking to make a connection that resulted in a private business in the U.S. donating proceeds to an organization in crisis in Mexico. In the same time span, I've supplemented what I could earn from this work with freelance work for two Fortune 500 corporations.

Another example: a friend of mine has built a charity that helps birthing women in Uganda. She finances this through technical recruiting in the Bay Area. She blogged, on one occasion, about dealing with crises on both continents at once, screening resumes on a Blackberry while in a birthing hut in Africa!

Personally it's hard for me to buy the bill of goods being sold by EITHER the non-profit of for-profit worlds. I can be committed to a cause without the gestures of sacrifice still romanticized within the traditional non-profit model: dead-end, low-paying jobs and the lives that go with them OR the gestures of sacrifice still romanticized within the for-profit model: “practical” workers who do their do-good stuff on the weekends.

In both cases, the fantasy is really about power – managers in both worlds whose own vision is based in how many people they oversee are threatened by people who give bits of time and work but aren't interested in buying into a role created by “nonprofit culture.”