The Moocher

I was reading a parenting column the other day about the “Mooching Parent.” The person who’s always sending her kid home with yours on a playdate – at the last minute. The one who never hosts a sleepover. The one who texts asking you to pick up their younger child as well as your child’s best friend.

The one who’s using every lifeline they’re offered, and more.

I started thinking about that in light of a conversation I had earlier this week with someone about my board.

I was asking this person to find me someone with expertise in finance, and explained that I had one board member I leaned on heavily in communications, another who had expertise in strategic planning, another in HR, etc. How, really, I had a board of thought partners, each with their own area of expertise.

And that, together, we powered this nonprofit into much greater impact, in the manner of a nonprofit with a much larger staff.

We do that with volunteers, too – rope them in to help add to our professionalism in all sorts of realms, from social media to office systems to financial analysis.

It takes a village, to haul out a very tired phrase.

But for nonprofits, so true. Not mooching –corralling.

For the public good.