85. How the Scarcity Mentality is Killing Your Nonprofit

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Fundraising Masterminds Podcast – Episode 85: How the Scarcity Mentality is Killing Your Nonprofit

Introduction In Episode 85 of The Fundraising Masterminds Podcast, hosts Jim Dempsey and Jason Galicinski delve into the detrimental effects of the scarcity mentality on nonprofit organizations. Released on March 19, 2025, this episode provides nonprofit leaders with insights and practical solutions to shift from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance, ultimately steering their organizations toward being fully funded.

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1. Understanding Scarcity Mentality

The episode begins with an illustrative anecdote shared by Jason Galicinski:

[00:21] Jason Galicinski: "They only pay $20,000... It was going to cost like 35, $40,000 to just live."

This story highlights how a scarcity mindset can lead organizations to undervalue their staff, expecting full-time commitment without adequate compensation. Jim Dempsey reinforces this notion:

[01:32] Jim Dempsey: "Seriously, nonprofits, I've never known an organization that has cut their way to success. It just doesn't happen."

2. Defining Scarcity Mentality

Jim provides a clear definition, likening scarcity mentality to the pessimistic character Debbie Downer from Saturday Night Live:

[03:16] Jim Dempsey: "It's a negative thought process... they're always looking for ways not out of a situation, but ways that they're going to get caught up in a negative situation."

Jason adds another layer by discussing how leaders with a scarcity mindset tend to micromanage and handle multiple roles themselves:

[04:41] Jason Galicinski: "Nothing seems to get done right unless I do it myself."

3. Symptoms of Scarcity Mentality

Several key symptoms indicate a scarcity mindset within nonprofits:

• Fear of Spending Money: Leaders are overly cautious about expenditures, leading to subpar program execution.

  [08:44] Jim Dempsey: "How many leaders have you ever worked with?... They have such a fear of spending money."

• Micromanagement: Leaders attempt to handle multiple roles, hindering organizational growth.

  [04:41] Jason Galicinski: "Nothing seems to get done right unless I do it myself."

• Missed Opportunities and Burnout: Limited investment in staff and programs results in missed growth prospects and staff burnout.

  [14:50] Jason Galicinski: "...paying them pittance is going to lead to burnout, and it's going to make sure that we don't effectively use our staff."

4. Costs of Scarcity Mentality

The scarcity mindset brings several hidden costs:

• Missed Opportunities: Organizations fail to capitalize on potential growth avenues.

  [12:35] Jim Dempsey: "They're missing opportunities with people, staff members who are willing to come into the private sector and help a nonprofit at a much lower cost."

• Reputation Damage: Operating on a tight budget often leads to substandard service delivery, harming the organization's reputation.

  [18:19] Jim Dempsey: "You run the risk of losing your reputation with people because you aren't doing things with excellence."

• Staff Burnout and Turnover: Inadequate compensation and overloading staff roles lead to high turnover rates.

  [16:30] Jim Dempsey: "Those not paying someone sufficiently is going to lead to burnout, and it's going to make sure that we don't effectively use our staff."

5. Transitioning to an Abundance Mindset

The hosts advocate for shifting from scarcity to abundance by trusting in divine provision and investing wisely in the organization’s future.

• Trusting in Provision: Emphasizing faith, Jim states:

  [20:24] Jim Dempsey: "We are ambassadors for Christ... God is not on his last dime... God provides our needs."

• Investing in Excellence: Investing in quality staff and programs is essential for organizational growth.

  [17:40] Jason Galicinski: "Why do you pay those competitive salaries? To keep our people. To keep them happy, to keep them motivated."

6. Biblical Perspective on Abundance

Drawing parallels from scripture, the hosts highlight how faith and trust in God lead to abundant provision:

• David and Goliath: Jim reflects on David’s trust in God’s provision, which enabled him to overcome formidable challenges.

  [26:13] Jim Dempsey: "He knew that God was going to provide."

• Bill Bright’s Vision: Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, exemplifies the abundance mentality through his expansive vision and trust in God’s provision.

  [36:19] Jim Dempsey: "He always thought bigger... History's Handful... the first billion dollar campaign that was ever done."

7. Practical Steps to Overcome Scarcity Mentality

Jim and Jason provide actionable strategies for nonprofit leaders to shift their mindset:

• Start with Small Steps: Begin by trusting God with manageable tasks, gradually expanding scope as confidence grows.

  [27:53] Jim Dempsey: "Start trusting God for the little things... start divvying up some of the responsibilities."

• Invest in Development Programs: Enroll in mentorship programs like their Perfect Vision Dinner to learn effective fundraising strategies.

  [38:25] Jason Galicinski: "A small step of faith would be to enroll in the Perfect Vision Dinner program."

• Build a Strong Team: Focus on cultivating a team that can handle various responsibilities, allowing leaders to concentrate on growth and vision.

  [08:18] Jason Galicinski: "Learn how to build an environment and build a team around you of great people."

8. Success Stories and Program Promotion

The hosts share success stories from their mentorship program, illustrating the effectiveness of adopting an abundance mindset.

• Anecdote of a Young Professional: Jason recounts the story of a 21-year-old woman who left a nonprofit due to inadequate pay, exemplifying the pitfalls of a scarcity mindset.

  [14:52] Jason Galicinski: "She was willing to do the work and they had the job for her to do, but they just had this scarcity mindset."

• Mentorship Program Outcomes: Highlighting their Perfect Vision Dinner program, they showcase how investing in such initiatives can lead to exponential growth.

  [41:17] Jason Galicinski: "Probably 80 to 90% hit their goals... if you follow the recipe, it works."

9. Conclusion and Call to Action

The episode concludes with a strong encouragement for listeners to adopt an abundance mindset and leverage the resources available through their mentorship programs.

[33:09] Jason Galicinski: "I would challenge you... enroll in the Perfect Vision Dinner program."

Both hosts urge listeners to subscribe to their podcast, share their experiences, and take proactive steps to transform their fundraising strategies.

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Key Takeaways:

• Scarcity Mindset Detrimental to Growth: An avoidance of investment and overreliance on individual effort stifles organizational potential.

• Adopting Abundance Mindset Leads to Success: Trusting in divine provision and investing in quality staff and programs pave the way for exponential growth.

• Practical Solutions are Available: Engaging in structured mentorship programs can provide the necessary tools and strategies to overcome scarcity mentality.

• Faith and Vision are Crucial: Embracing a faith-driven approach and expansive vision can transform nonprofit operations and fundraising effectiveness.

Notable Quotes:

• "People get into the scarcity... it's like the blind spot in your car." — Jim Dempsey [01:58]

• "Doing everything yourself justifies it by saying, well, it's cheaper." — Jason Galicinski [04:44]

• "You run the risk of losing your reputation with people because you aren't doing things with excellence." — Jim Dempsey [18:19]

• "If God wants us to have more, he's just going to increase the size of the pie." — Jim Dempsey [25:05]

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This episode serves as a vital resource for nonprofit leaders aiming to recognize and overcome the limitations imposed by a scarcity mentality, advocating for a transformative shift towards abundance and strategic growth.

Transcript

[Jason Galasinski]

You're listening to the number one podcast for nonprofit leaders getting your nonprofit fully funded. This is the Fundraising Masterminds podcast. There is a young lady was just passionate about serving kids. She spent over a year getting training, going through their programs, move out of state. But you know what she discovered?

[Jim Dempsey]

What?

[Jason Galasinski]

They only pay $20,000.

[Jim Dempsey]

Wow. That is amazing.

[Jason Galasinski]

And they expect that's a full time position. They had a limit on what they pay people because they're a missions organization. Wow. It was going to cost like 35, $40,000 to just live.

[Jim Dempsey]

Wow. Just bare necessity.

[Jason Galasinski]

They just had the scarcity mindset. Welcome back to another episode here at the Fundraising Masterminds Podcast. I am your host, Jason Galasinski. With me, my co host, Jim Dempsey. Hey, Jason, we're so glad to have you here. If you are a nonprofit leader, you are in the right space because this podcast is for you. We talk about nonprofit development, nonprofit fundraising strategies, all kinds of things nonprofit that I think you will be very interested in. And Jim and I are really into solutions. Right. Practical things you can do to move forward.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

Not just, not just theory or ideas or.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right, yeah. So if you like theory, go to a different podcast. But if you want solutions and you want to know how to move forward.

[Jim Dempsey]

You'Re in the right spot. Yep.

[Jason Galasinski]

So the title of this episode is how the scarcity mentality is killing your nonprofit.

[Jim Dempsey]

It is the death, Jason. Seriously, nonprofits, I've never known an organization that has cut their way to success. It just doesn't happen.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, the sad thing about the scarcity mindset is a lot of times people don't realize that they're doing it.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah, yeah. People get into the scarcity.

[Jason Galasinski]

It's kind of like the blind spot in your car.

[Jim Dempsey]

It is. And it's a downward spiral. And you don't realize that you're into the spiral until you are deep into it. And you just. You just are depressed and down and you can't get. Get your way out of it easily.

[Jason Galasinski]

So we're gonna dive deep into the scarcity mentality today. Before we do, if you wouldn't mind doing me a favor and just subscribing to this podcast. If you're not subscribed, click that little box that says subscribe. Whether you're on YouTube or whether you're on Spotify or Apple or X. We even, you know, put this on X. You know, so if you're an X user, go on X and subscribe to fundraising masterminds there. Because we've just got weekly episodes coming out for you, and we really want you to be able to benefit from them. So go ahead and subscribe. Well, Jim, the scarcity mentality.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes, sir.

[Jason Galasinski]

I know some people that have this mentality. There's been people in our class that have this mentality. The thing is, is that they don't think they have the mentality. They've even talk about that. They say, no, I don't want to have the scarcity mindset. But they actually do.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah, they do. And in fact, they can point it out in other people, and they don't realize that they're doing it themselves.

[Jason Galasinski]

So let's define what the scarcity mentality.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

What would you say a good definition is?

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, it's. It's a. It's a negative thought process. Uh, you know, Saturday Night Live used to have a character called Debbie Downer, and Debbie Downer always would find the negative. In any situation that she would. Even in positive situations, she would find the negative. And I see too many leaders that way. They're always looking for ways not out of a situation, but ways that they're going to get caught up in a negative situation. They don't want to spend money. They start to do things on the cheap. They just don't want to invest in their people. They don't want to invest in programs. They don't look to the future. They just. At every corner, every turn, they're thinking of the negative outcome that could handle that.

[Jason Galasinski]

Well, that's one aspect of it. Another thing that I see a lot in the scarcity mentality is that there's a certain group of people who are very talented and good at doing a lot of things, and they are actively busy bodies doing everything themselves. Right. So a person like this might be, you know, you might be the director, but you also might be the volunteer coordinator, and you might be the person, you know, running out and, you know, actually doing work. You know, you might be doing graphic design.

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, nothing seems to get done right unless I do it myself.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

That's kind of the thought.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right. And so sometimes, you know, I kind of fall into this category, you know, where I can do a lot of things quickly and it's easier for me to just do it myself than it is to find someone else to do it.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right, Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

But the problem is, is that that's a scarcity mindset. Right. Because what we want to do is we want to encourage people to get involved and to partner with us. That's the goal. But if you do everything yourself, you kind of Justify it by saying, well, it's cheaper. You know, I can. I can just do it quick. And, you know, and so we think that we're saving time by doing it ourselves. We think that we are, you know, saving money by doing it ourselves, but it doesn't actually help to build the organization. So. That's a good example there. You know, I. I used to work in the area of graphic design. Like, long, long, long, long time ago. Like, ages. 25 years ago, I had a job as a graphic designer.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And I used to do print design. And I. I used to do this monthly layout, I think it was in Quark. I don't know if that program exists anymore.

[Jim Dempsey]

I remember that. Sure.

[Jason Galasinski]

Oh, yeah, it was a monthly letter.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And. Or, no, it was a quarterly letter. And, you know, I'd spend time laying out things and. And, you know, I thought I was a pretty good designer. You know, I was pretty proud of it. You know, it would get printed out and I'd be like, wow, that looks so cool. And everyone told me it was. It was so good. And, you know, and so I kind of got in my head that I was a good designer.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah, sure.

[Jason Galasinski]

Then fast forward, you know, five, ten years later, I'm, you know, started this business called Fundeasy, and I hired a actual designer.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Actually knew how to do design.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, at one point, and he was like, next level. Like, right.

[Jim Dempsey]

He. Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

He would give me designs that was like. I would tell him, this is kind of what I'm thinking. And I do my best to kind of whip up something, give him the idea. And then he come back, like, three or four days later, and he give me. He'd be like, wow, I thought through everything, and actually, you don't really want it like this because that would create this problem that. And so he would like, redesign it and give me something that was, like, exponentially better. And I'd look at it and I'd be like, whoa. What you gave me was like, I couldn't even imagine, you know, the thing that you did. Because he was thinking about it from a design perspective, and he was just really good at design.

[Jim Dempsey]

Sure.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so what I realized is I'm actually not that good at design. Like, I have, like, a general, like, eye for it. Like, I can recognize, you know, like, you can see the difference between a Hollywood movie, right. And, like, a really cheap production.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

But I don't know how to, like, do it.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know what I mean? Sure. And it's like, I can recognize the difference Between a really good design.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And a terrible design. But I'm not a designer. I don't know.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so I use that analogy because, because there's been so many times in my life where I just think I'll just do it myself. I know how to do design. I can do it. And we just, we just, um. And you can do that with everything. Right. And so you can, you can get good as a nonprofit leader, especially if you run a small nonprofit and you're kind of a, you know, you just a one man trades.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

So easy to just think, well, I'll just do that quick. I'll just do that quick. I know how to do that. And, and really what you, what you want to do instead or what's better is that you would learn how to build an environment and build a team around you of great people.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And that you have. And you're kind of like the leader.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

But you're, you're not actually doing anything. And that's, that's the thing that's hard.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

But the thing that you're doing is you're cultivating.

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, you're leading. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I feel like you've given me some great examples of the scarcity mentality, but there's actually some symptoms that people have that really express what the scarcity mentality is.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah, we kind of recognize too, we've.

[Jim Dempsey]

Talked a little bit about some of these. The first one is the fear of spending money. How many leaders have you ever worked with? I know I've worked with a lot, especially helping small ministries, pregnancy centers, youth ministries, Christian schools. So many leaders come to the surface and it's all about doing things on the cheap. They don't want to spend money. They just, they have such a fear of spending money.

[Jason Galasinski]

It's literally like, we want to do that, but how can we do that as cheaply as humanly possible?

[Jim Dempsey]

Absolutely, absolutely. With as little staff and as little guidance as possible. And what ends up happening instead of doing things with excellence, we, we just barely get it done. And it looks that way to our partners. It looks like.

[Jason Galasinski]

Bothers me that non profit leaders think that way. Because you know, Jim, if you walked into Starbucks, right? We know like when we walk into a normal Starbucks, there's, there's a good five or six people working, right?

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

There's like, there's a, there's a person taking your order, there's a person at the cleaning the dishes, there's a person making coffee. There's a person helping wash the tables. There's. There's people everywhere, right? You walk in, it's like you get a sense that it's a well organized.

[Jim Dempsey]

Machine and it's a consistent experience.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

And if one person was doing everything and, and I've seen that. I, I've seen that too often in airports where the same person who takes your orders, the same person who works the cash register, who's the same person who's making your coffee, and there's a line, 25 people behind you just dying because one person's doing everything. And that's the difference in those two experiences. The first one where I'm walking in Starbucks and you've got a whole group of people doing things with excellence and doing things in a consistent manner.

[Jason Galasinski]

Well, can you imagine if you walked into Starbucks and there was one person doing everything?

[Jim Dempsey]

It would drive me crazy.

[Jason Galasinski]

The, the drive in line would be all the way backed up.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, there'd be people walk, you know, lined up all the way frustrated and, you know, but yet that's how we run nonprofits.

[Jim Dempsey]

Absolutely, we do. You know, and we think because we're a nonprofit that somehow it's God honoring that we, we do things that way. And, and it's actually just the opposite, right. It doesn't represent God well. And so when we're, we don't do marketing well. We don't plan for the future well. We think that by doing everything ourself and doing it on the cheap, that somehow it's spiritual, that, that we're doing this. People are going to just appreciate it because they know that we are cutting costs and we're being such good stewards of their resources. They're going to think that we mismanage our organization, that we don't care about excellence because the way that we treat our partners is the same way that we're going to be treating our audience. And they know that. And if they treat us on the cheap, they, they believe it's going to same thing, going to be with the people that they're serving.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so good. And there's, there's a lot of nonprofits that you and I work with quite a bit that are in the scarcity mindset. But there's a lot that we work with that are not right. And there's, you can, it's like a night and day difference. You can, you can tell by their demeanor, by the way that they look at money, the way that they look at people, that they just, I Think a big piece of it is looking at money as a tool.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Rather than this, like, this, like, piece of pie that's like, I'm going to lose my pie. So, like, I've got to save as much of my pie as I possibly can.

[Jim Dempsey]

Almost, like, hoarding it. Yes.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so that's. That's a symptom of the scarcity mindset. Right. I've got this pie, and I don't want it to be eaten.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah. And if. If that pie is only so big and I've got a piece of it, I'm going to make sure that nobody else gets a piece of that pie, which. That's not the way God has designed us. God has designed it. God owns a cattle on a thousand hills. He is not on his last dime. He provides for us. And that's a different mentality we're going to talk about in a few minutes here.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah, I really want to talk about that, but I'm going to hold my tongue.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yep.

[Jason Galasinski]

There are some hidden costs to this scarcity mindset.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You mentioned this earlier, that it feels extra spiritual to save money.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

I mean, it is a good thing to save money.

[Jim Dempsey]

Sure.

[Jason Galasinski]

But, yeah, we don't want to be.

[Jim Dempsey]

Out spending money frivolously. But, Jason, you know, even, like, taking the Perfect Vision Dinner mentoring course, we. We've seen such tremendous success over the years, and the amount of money that people invest in the course is relatively small when you factor in the return on investment. But we get people turning us down and saying, oh, I couldn't invest that kind of money in that. Yeah, missed opportunity there. And. But it's not just our Perfect Vision Dinner strategy. They're missing opportunities with people, staff members who are willing to come into the private sector and help a nonprofit at a much lower cost, but maybe not as low as the nonprofit leader wants to pay them. Jason, it breaks my heart when I see just how nonprofit leaders take advantage of their staff because they know their staff have a. Have a good heart, they have a ministry heart, and they end up paying them pittance, not even. Even a small portion. And you know, Jason, those not paying someone sufficiently is going to lead to burnout, and it's going to make sure that we don't effectively use our staff. When you don't effectively use people, you're going to lose them.

[Jason Galasinski]

I actually have a good story about this, Jim.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

So there is a young lady about 21 years old who was just passionate about serving kids. She wanted to serve at this particular ministry, and they were actually Hiring.

[Jim Dempsey]

Okay.

[Jason Galasinski]

They're looking for people to come work at this organization. And so she had to get training and all this stuff. She spent over a year getting training, going through their programs, and she was actually going. She was willing to move out of state and work for this organization.

[Jim Dempsey]

Wow.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know what she discovered?

[Jim Dempsey]

What?

[Jason Galasinski]

They only pay $20,000.

[Jim Dempsey]

Wow. That is amazing.

[Jason Galasinski]

And they, that's a full time position. It's a full time position.

[Jim Dempsey]

Wow. Okay.

[Jason Galasinski]

And. But they had a, they had a, a limit on what they pay people because they're a missions organization. Wow. And so I don't know what they expected her to do, but the place where they wanted her to live, she just did some quick research on like, you know, a cost for, you know, renting an apartment of basic food, electricity, water. It was going to cost like 35, $40,000 to just live. Wow.

[Jim Dempsey]

Just bare necessities.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. Wow. And they, the bottom line was is that they expected her to somehow like, make up the difference.

[Jim Dempsey]

Wow.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, I don't know if they expected her to have another job or have a different source of income or raise her own support or something, but they didn't give her any mechanism for how to raise her own support. And they basically just said, this is all, we can pay you because we don't have any money.

[Jim Dempsey]

Wow.

[Jason Galasinski]

But yet they had this huge mission field and she, so she, she was willing to do the work and they had the job for her to do, but they just, they just had this scarcity mindset of. It's like this unrealistic thing of like, we're, we're only going to pay you 20,000.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right. And it imaginary what the other circumstances were.

[Jason Galasinski]

And they, she found out later this particular organization had a policy, a cap on salary. And they, and that was just their policy. And so she basically just abandoned her idea.

[Jim Dempsey]

So they lost somebody really good and really qualified.

[Jason Galasinski]

They lost someone really good and really qualified. Actually went through her training, but she, she got frustrated with this organization because it's like, well, how am I supposed to function as a human being and do this? So you don't have that kind of problem at crew, right?

[Jim Dempsey]

No, we don't. I mean, we actually, I will have to say, because we're a large organization, we definitely monitor what other nonprofits are paying their people. And we, you know, pay very competitive salaries and competitive pay.

[Jason Galasinski]

Why do you pay those competitive salaries?

[Jim Dempsey]

To keep our people. To keep them happy, to keep them motivated.

[Jason Galasinski]

Because.

[Jim Dempsey]

Keep them with us.

[Jason Galasinski]

Because it's like, well, yeah, I want to serve The Lord in this capacity.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

But I still need to buy groceries and I place to live.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

So.

[Jim Dempsey]

But as I said, somehow it's spiritual to, you know, to make people live at the. The poverty level and to have to live on food stamps. It just makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

[Jason Galasinski]

So some of the costs of the scarcity mindset that's kind of hidden, that we've mentioned already is missed opportunities, you know, staff burnout. What about losing reputation?

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, I. You know, from my standpoint, I think you've got. You run the risk of losing your reputation with people because you aren't doing things with excellence. One of the things that I appreciate about certain ministries that I give to, if I had to generalize the ministries I give to, it's because they're accomplishing great things and they're doing things with excellence. And I have never really found an organization with a scarcity mentality or a leader with the scarcity mentality that is doing things with excellence. They're. They're. When you're doing them on the cheap, as I said, you aren't doing them with excellence. And so you run the risk of. Of having that mindset with your donors and with your audience that this is an organization that doesn't do things in the best way possible.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

Well, let's talk about how to break out of this, because this is. Honestly, this is like, probably the number one pet peeve of mine is that nonprofit leaders have this mentality. And you may not realize you have it, but if you're the kind of person that's trying to do everything yourself, you're trying to lead a team, but you're also, you know, doing a lot of the work yourself, you know, and you're not focused on building the nonprofit. Right. Like, I. I remember starting FundEasy early on in 2025, and, you know, it was just me and another guy, you know, and we were doing everything literally. And I remember getting to the point where I realized I can't do everything myself. If I do everything myself, I'm gonna work 60 hours a day, and I'm not getting any sleep, and it's not healthy for anybody. So I had to pivot, and I had to focus on building the business and then getting people around me to do the work. And that took a little bit of a different mindset, but it does require us to think about money differently. Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, first of all, Jason, number one, I think we need to look at what is our position with Christ. Number one, we are ambassadors for Christ, and When the President, United States, no matter what party, sends out an ambassador to another country, they give that person everything that they need to succeed. They give them the best of everything. They give them drivers, they give them the equipment, they give them the staffing, they give them nice facilities and things. We work for the God of the universe. And if we don't understand that, we are ambassadors for Christ. As a result, God wants us to have the best of what he provides. It is so important for us to realize that and that God is not on his last day dime that he doesn't send us out and say, I'm almost broke, Jim, don't spend too much money. That's not where God's at. Scripture tells us that God owns a cattle on a thousand hills. God provides that, those resources and that money. I mean just God look at, provide for that.

[Jason Galasinski]

Look at space. I keep seeing pictures from Elon Musk, you know, on X, from, you know, different things in space that he wants to go, you know, to Mars and all these. But he shows these pictures of all these galaxies and it's like you've literally got like trillions upon trillions upon trillions of wealth just floating out in space, right? And it's like God created all that and it's just, he just did it for fun.

[Jim Dempsey]

We have, we have the richest nation on the earth and probably in history. And I've seen in the last, you know, in the last few weeks, I've seen one $10 million gift and one $3 million gift come in. God is not on his last dime. God provides for our needs. And so we've got to understand that, that you know, oftentimes you mentioned the pie analogy and I love the pie analogy because we think that God, that the pie is God's total wealth and that we get a little slice of that pie. What we forget is that if God wants us to have more, he's just going to increase the size of the pie. He can do that. My wife and I have always said that if God really wanted us to give to something, we would go out and take a loan out to give to it. Because we believe that God was making a difference in that and we weren't worried about the funding of that, those kinds of things. We, I think, you know, and I've said number of times that I'm a missionary, I raise my own support. My wife and I have done it for 40 plus years. One of the things that CRU tells us is if we are having trouble with money, you know what they tell us to do. Not hoard, not save, not hold back. They want us to look at our giving. How much are we giving? And I can tell you that anytime I've run into some tight financial situations, I've turned to tithing and giving more, which by man's standards makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. But by God's standards, God's currency, it makes all the sense in the world. And every time we've done that, we've gotten out of those financial situations because God has always provided for us. I've always said that if God wanted to, God could just line people up at the front door and I could sit on my couch and wait and people could say, I don't know why I'm supposed to give money to you, but I'm supposed to give to you. But unfortunately that's not the way God designs it. God wants us to go out there, he wants us to trust him and he wants us to step out in faith. And that's what I believe people aren't doing. I don't believe people with a scarcity mentality are stepping out in faith. I don't believe they truly believe that God is going to provide. The abundance mentality shows that God, I.

[Jason Galasinski]

Mean you're trusting for the provision.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes.

[Jason Galasinski]

Versus you are hoarding.

[Jim Dempsey]

Correct.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so it's like fear, it's short lived.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right. So it's, you're the one is, is really a fear based.

[Jim Dempsey]

That's right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And the other one is more faith.

[Jim Dempsey]

That's right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Maybe it's not money, but I like to think, I like to think that God is per, like provides like a river, you know, like it's a continual flow of, of provision. Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

And it, it comes providing time. He's providing people, he's providing money. Yeah. It's all God's provision.

[Jason Galasinski]

And if God, you know, put you in that position to lead that nonprofit.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Then he's going to give you the resources. So it's more like approaching the, the job with expectation of like what is God going to do this? Right. Let's expect God for big things and just watch him survive.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, rather than kind of like you know, hoarding on to expect the worst or whatever.

[Jim Dempsey]

One, one of the, you know, scripturally, one of the stories I like the most is in David and Goliath. All of us know that God provided with David and him defeating Goliath. But one of the obscure scriptures we miss is that it prior to that it said that God provided when he was a shepherd, he helped him defeat lions and bears. And so he already had a track record knowing that God was going to provide in those, those tough situations. So when he faced that giant, it was, it was really not a giant to him because he knew that God was going to provide.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right. And unfortunately, he went to the king and said, I, I don't have to worry about this. I've been protected from the bear and the lion and I know how to, you know. Well, he, he knew that the Lord was with him, right?

[Jim Dempsey]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And that was the big thing with David is he wasn't trusting in his own ability. He was trusting in the Lord's ability to be with him. And so that, that, you know, when we go into the nonprofit work.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, we have to know that God's with us.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yes.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, you're not just going in there by yourself. That's another, I think that's another sign of the scarcity mindset is thinking that you're doing this all yourself.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And this is up to you. Yeah. Actually, we knew a person in one of our classes recently that went through where every time we talked to her, it just felt like she was like the whole thing was just on her shoulders. Like if this thing didn't get done.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, then it wasn't going to get done. Right. It's like, you know, God's. God's bigger than just you.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah. You know, I mean, the perfect Vision dinner requires, you know, it requires four key positions, but probably another dozen beyond that in volunteer positions. Yeah. And. And she was trying to do it all on her own. And that's the best way it's gonna gear.

[Jason Galasinski]

It's a great, like doing it all on your own is shooting yourself in the foot. Yeah.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Because it's like you have an opportunity to find volunteers to get people in your community involved, to get people in your church involved, which is all going to help raise awareness and build unity towards this thing. But if you do it all yourself.

[Jim Dempsey]

You'Re just, well, you're denying people the opportunity to grow, to become leaders themselves, to be able to be self sufficient. Yeah. All those things.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. So how do we break out of this scarcity mindset? How do we embrace abundance?

[Jim Dempsey]

Well, from my standpoint, you need to really start trusting God for things. And I, you know, I think I like to think I've got great faith. It didn't start with big things. It started with a lot of little things. I look back at things in the 1980s that seemed enormous to me at the time that I Had to trust God for something huge. I look back at that now and I think, why did I even worry about that? Why was I concerned about that? But I was at the time. And we have to, we have to take it one step at a time. We have to trust God for the little things and to put things out there, you know, maybe start tithing a little bit to some other nonprofits, maybe start divvying up some of the responses, ability that you've got, start to give it to other people. Maybe start, you know, purchasing some things that, you know, would. You would look at it as excellence, that you would be doing things as excellence and not just on the cheap, investing in courses and resources and things that will help you grow. That's how, that's how people grow in their, their own knowledge, their own understanding, their faith. By investing in things.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah.

[Jim Dempsey]

And, and going forward to.

[Jason Galasinski]

Well, you know, there's a lot of. I talk to a lot of people about the perfect vision in our mentorship program, and a lot of times when they find out about the cost, they. I've had people react and say, we just don't have that money, you know, so we can't do it.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And, and I usually say, so you're not going to spend this amount of money to earn like 10 to 15 times more money?

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, like, why would you not do that?

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, and some people just say, well, we just don't have the money and so we're just not going to do it. Which is the missed opportunity. Right. I talked to another guy, same exact thing. He came to me, he worked for a Christian camp, and he was really, really excited about the perfect vision in our mentorship program because he wanted to raise a hundred thousand. And he thought, man, if these guys are raising $100,000 and they have a recipe and they know exactly how to do it, I want to do it. I don't care what it costs. They. He didn't have money either. So he came to me and he said, jason, I don't, you know, I really want to do this, but I don't have any money. What do you think I should do? And I said, well, do you know of any business owners or any partners that have given, you know, a few thousand dollars in the past that could help you get started? And he's like, oh, let me think about that. And he's, he came back with three or four different names. And I said, why don't you, you know, get, get on the phone with them, you know, have Them for a cup of coffee, you know, take them out and just accept, explain to them, you know, hey, we've got this opportunity to join this program to learn from some of the best people in the country that are going to walk us through this process. They're going to walk us through step by step, and they're going to show us how to do this vision dinner thing. And they raise a hundred thousand. Look at their track record. Like, we have a sheet where you can download this off our website where it shows every single person that's gone through our program of how much they were raising before and how much they were raising after. So you can take that sheet and you can show it to this person.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And most people, when they see that, they say, well, why wouldn't you do this? Yeah, you know, well, we don't have any money. Well, you know, if you just. If you told the person, would you be willing to pay for this program for us? I bet you, you there is a lot of people in your community that would love to write you a check. Absolutely.

[Jim Dempsey]

To.

[Jason Galasinski]

To pay for.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

To get this thing started for you. Yeah. I mean, and so it's just that mindset that.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

If there are restaurants in your community, if there are grocery stores in your community, if there are coffee shops in your community, barbershops in your community, then there are probably hundreds of people in your community who would love the opportunity to give to your organization in such a way that. In such a way that it would. It would multiply.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah. Double, triple, quadruple, or more.

[Jason Galasinski]

Right.

[Jim Dempsey]

Their investment.

[Jason Galasinski]

The reason why they don't is because you. You haven't presented them the opportunity and.

[Jim Dempsey]

You don't ask Jason. Yeah, exactly.

[Jason Galasinski]

So a lot of it is just really presenting the opportunity to the right people with, you know, in a way that gets them excited, you know, And a lot of times we just don't do that. You know, we just think, oh, there's no one out there that actually cares about me. So we, we make it all about us. Right? Like, we. It's like, oh, poor me, you know, and. And we get used to kind of self sabotaging, you know, just thinking, you know, it's all about me. And I. Nobody cares about me. And I'm just a little mom and pop shop and, you know, I'm just gonna sit in my corner and sulk.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And I'll. I'll just, I'll just be strong for the Lord and just work hard, you know, but it's okay. It's just my lot in life.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, and it's. It's just. That's not where God wants you.

[Jim Dempsey]

No, no.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, God wants to take you to higher places.

[Jim Dempsey]

He wants you. He wants the best for you. Absolutely.

[Jason Galasinski]

So I think we've talked a lot about the scarcity mindset. Hopefully, we've helped inspire you into knowing at least that there's another thing.

[Jim Dempsey]

There's the abundance mentality that replaces that.

[Jason Galasinski]

So Romans 12 says, do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may test and prove what the will of God is. And so much of, you know, our struggle as humans, you know, we struggle with personal sin. We struggle with just things that happen, our culture, you know, but so much of how we have to deal with all that is through renewing our mind. Right. And so we. We sometimes we get. Our mind gets, like, stuck in this, like, mindset where we just think.

[Jim Dempsey]

It's called stinking thinking, Jason. Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And so much of it is just renewing your mind and just having a different perspective. So I would challenge you, you know, get into God's word and just look up all the places where God shows his abundance. Right, Right. Like when you look at when he brought his children out of Egypt.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

And he didn't send them out. You know, they were. They were enslaved for 400 years, and they went out with the wealth of Egypt.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, And God did that.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, he did it in such a way where they were give. They were throwing gold and silver at them and saying, get out of here.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, and they all walked away. Oh, my goodness, look at all this gold that we have. You know?

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And God did that. You know, And God can do that. He does that today. You know, he doesn't. He gives us what. What we need.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

But he also gives us what we ask for, and sometimes we just don't have. Because we don't ask.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

You know, Exactly.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. So it's. It's. Expect God for big things, and you'll see big things happen. I believe the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ expected big things.

[Jim Dempsey]

He did. He always thought big. I mean, when people were thinking about reaching the United States, he was thinking about reaching the world.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah. And tell me a bit about Bill Bright and how he was thinking that way. Well, how did he get to that point where he was thinking big?

[Jim Dempsey]

Originally, he was an entrepreneur. He owned a company called Bright's Fancy Candies before he was a follower of Christ. So he Already had an entrepreneur mindset. But when he saw God provide and he came to Christ, he saw the power of the Holy Spirit and they could tap into the power of the Holy Spirit and that it was an unlimited, vast resource that God would provide. And his faith was so great that he believed God for countless things. He believed way before we did that we would have 20 plus thousand staff. He believed that we would be in hundreds of countries, which we are. He believed in a film called the Film. Jesus believed that that could make a difference. And now we've seen over 100 billion people in the last 40 years.

[Jason Galasinski]

Comes the most translated film in history of all time.

[Jim Dempsey]

That's exactly right.

[Jason Galasinski]

Translated into thousands of languages.

[Jim Dempsey]

That's right. That's exactly right.

[Jason Galasinski]

How does a person like Bill get to that point where he just believes that?

[Jim Dempsey]

It's trusting him with one little thing at a time. That's really what it was. And he would tell you that exact same thing. Told me often, was always it was just trusting God for. For one thing bigger each time. So it didn't start out with, you know, just trusting God for something enormous. It started out with trusting God for something small. And then when God provided that, then it was something bigger and something bigger and something bigger and something bigger. So that he would always come in. We would. We kind of used to have kind of a running joke when I was in some of the planning meetings in the 1980s where we would always try and guess what numbers. So we would do outreaches and we always say, okay, now we believe probably a thousand people will be exposed, but will he believe? Dr. Bright will probably say 5,000. So we'd walk in the door and he'd go, 25,000 people are going to be exposed to the gospel with this. He always thought bigger. That was the way that God wired him and how God taught him. Because he saw God. We had, number one, we had one of the first and largest Christian gatherings. We had over 100,000 students in the Dallas Cotton bowl in the 1970s, which those kinds of gatherings were not done. He created a program called History's Handful, which was a program for 1,000 people to give a million dollars to make a billion dollars. Now every university in the country has billion dollar capital campaigns. In the 1970s, that was the first billion dollar campaign that was ever done. And that was Bill Bright. That was the faith that God had given him. Wow. Yeah.

[Jason Galasinski]

Well, we need that kind of faith and we need it. We need it in you. So a great place to start is, you know, when Jim Was talking about, let's take some small steps of faith here to believe God for bigger things. You know, I think a real small step of faith for anyone listening would be to enroll in the Perfect Vision Dinner program.

[Jim Dempsey]

I don't even think it takes a lot of faith, Jason.

[Jason Galasinski]

No.

[Jim Dempsey]

Based on the results, no. When we see a 4 to 1 or more return on 10 to 1, some cases as much as 10 to 1. Exactly.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah.

[Jim Dempsey]

It's amazing.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a small investment and it is a bit of time, you know, 21 weeks.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

So it does take time. You know, you do have to work at it, but if you have the ability to pull it off, you can see exponential, you know, growth.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And it really takes your organization to the next level. So we've seen this happen with a lot of our students and we'd love to see it happen with you. I'm going to put a QR code on the screen. You can check that out if you haven't checked it out already. We actually are about six weeks away from the next program starting. We do two a year and that's if you haven't heard of it. It's called the Perfect Vision Dinner mentorship program. It's a 21 week mentorship program that Jim and I lead and we walk you through the step by step instructions. There's 268 steps. We created this program as a recipe. The goal is to plan and execute a Perfect Vision dinner. And our goal is $100,000 as a baseline. A lot of people raise more. Believe it or not, we've had people raise 200, 300, 400. And I'm not just making those numbers up. If you go onto our website, if you don't believe me, go into our website and click the button that says apply now and scroll down a little bit past, you know, the price and what, what it is and what you get. There's a section there that says executive summary for board members. And if you click on that, it's a PDF that has a little summary sheet. And at the bottom we have our results from our 2024 class. And you can see all the different organizations that we've trained and how much they were raising before they joined the program and how much they raised after the program was over.

[Jim Dempsey]

Confidentially, it's not the actual organization name because that wouldn't be right to be sharing the confidential name of the organization, but at least it's got some.

[Jason Galasinski]

No, we just shared the categories. Yeah, we just share the categories. But so you see the category of the organization, you see, you know, what they were raising before, what they were raising after, and the amount of increase.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right.

[Jason Galasinski]

And I, and you, you also can see the goals that we set. And you know what, when you look at the goal column and you're going down, I noticed I always point this out to people when I'm showing them this chart. You don't see any goals less than a hundred thousand. They're all a hundred thousand or more.

[Jim Dempsey]

So a lot of them will blow past those goals. Some we have to argue with them to even put a hundred thousand on there. I know, yeah, it's just like, oh well, we never, we've had a dinner before and never raised more than 25,000. Now you want us to put a goal of four times that.

[Jason Galasinski]

Yeah, actually we were, we were just on a break. We. One of the things we do in the Perfect Vision and Earth program is these breakout sessions where we, we help you plan the program. And we were just on a breakout call just a few days ago and we were going through the different accelerators and I remember one of the accelerators was for like $5,000 or something. And you're like, you know, Susie, I think that would be a good giving opportunity. But we need to think a little bigger than five.

[Jim Dempsey]

Right? Right, absolutely.

[Jason Galasinski]

Like add another zero to that.

[Jim Dempsey]

Exactly right.

[Jason Galasinski]

So those are the kinds of things that we do in the program is we really help you to think bigger. And it starts with, you know, understanding your five year dream vision. You wouldn't believe how many people join the program with a very small vision. And we really try to help expand that vision. But the Perfect Vision Inner mentorship program is a great way to get started on raising your first hundred thousand. If you've never done that before, it is almost like a no brainer. If you look at the different numbers on there, I'd say probably 80 to 90% hit their goals. If you follow the recipe, it works. So. And the reason why we have this program, the reason why we know it works is because we've been doing this for like 40 years.

[Jim Dempsey]

Absolutely.

[Jason Galasinski]

We've personally done over 2500 vision. Probably could update that number to like 3000 now.

[Jim Dempsey]

Yeah. But combined you and I are, you know, over 60 years of experience in this area, so.

[Jason Galasinski]

So it's definitely worth checking out. The Perfect Vision dinner is part of a bigger strategy which we refer to as the development model. It fits into the bigger picture. But hopefully you found this episode helpful. If you enjoyed this episode, let us know in the comments. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know just how you're struggling with the scarcity mindset, or if you were struggling with it and now you've broken out of it, let us know how you did that and just write in the comments and let us know. And if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe. If you're listening to us on YouTube or Spotify or Apple, there's a little subscribe button there. And that means that when you click that, they will send you a notification whenever we release a new episode.

[Jim Dempsey]

And it pushes it out to more people because our goal is to get this out to as many nonprofit leaders like you as we possibly can.

[Jason Galasinski]

Well, we hope you enjoyed this episode, and we look forward to seeing you next time.

[Jim Dempsey]

Take care. Sa.