The Power of Giving Away Power by Matthew Barzun

Author:Matthew Barzun [Barzun, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Money is like water. When it flows it heals. When it’s stagnant it kills.

Only ask people who want to use money for a cause greater than themselves.

Ask everyone.

Thinking about letting money flow helped me reframe donations as something for neither hoarding nor “helping.” Instead, money could be a means for, as Twist says, healing—for freedom together. And the seeming incompatibility between numbers two and three tripped me up as it did many, and as she intended. Her point is that everyone wants to use their money for a cause greater than themselves. That cause might not be your cousin or your candidate. Or your political party or even politics at all. But it is something. And by asking them to give, you are helping them make their money flow.

After my conversation with Lynne, the “nos” didn’t hurt. I saw each one (and there were plenty) as a potential “yes” to some other candidate or cause the person cared about. That counted for something in Lynne Twist’s view, which I had now adopted as my own. And each “yes” or “maybe” wasn’t about me alone or helping me with my pledge; it was about making something together for a higher purpose. I got much better at fundraising. I asked everyone.

Based on this success from what was deemed the unlikely locale of Louisville, I was then asked to be part of a new fundraising tier. It was made clear to me that it wasn’t the top tier—there were many tiers evidently—but it was “up” from where they perceived me to have been. Right from start, the pattern and tone of this DC-based fundraising apparatus was significantly different from what Twist encouraged.

In this capacity, I worked on a big event under one of the leaders who had been at the top tier for many campaign cycles. Right before the event, which we knew was going to be a success, he gathered a small group of us who had raised the most money in his dining room and handed us each a present—neckties with the campaign logo on them. There were ten of us. Only two were men.

You know how the campaign ended: Kerry lost and Bush won a second term. Now we know that Kerry would later become one of our most accomplished secretaries of state, but after the election, things were pretty dark in my worldview for a while.

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