To the Moon, with a Map: Funding Complex Work
When President Biden touted his moonshot to end cancer, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy was in the room. Soon after, the former Congressman boldly pronounced, “Addiction is the new cancer.”
In an interview, Rep. Kennedy acknowledged that cancer is still a scourge but that treatments have come a long way. America’s status on substance abuse? “You couldn’t come up with a worse response than we have today.”
You don’t need a presidential ear to stake out your own moonshot or a version of it. If a moonshot sounds too ambitious for your nonprofit, you can aim for a short-term, two-year goal, or a 10- or even 20-year vision. This is not the vision statement that you create in tandem with your mission, the one that says, “We will end hunger.” This is a short-term endpoint that inspires action.
The key, especially if your organization has a complex mission, is to establish clear goals and plans—then message them succinctly.
This simple recipe is hard to execute. At this year’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), I found myself looking for leaders whose positioning stood out. Here are two whose nonprofits are in their infancies:
Establish Your Moonshot
When Dr. David C. Fajgenbaum spoke at CGI, his audience members were philanthropists from across the corporate, foundation, and government spectrum. Nearly all were capable of funding or otherwise supporting his dream. Sounds ideal. The challenge was this: His rousing vision was sandwiched between that of other inspiring, brilliant changemakers. He needed to distinguish himself.
Dr. Fajgenbaum described his near-fatal battle with Castleman Disease. As a trained doctor, he saved his own life by finding an existing drug to treat his rare disorder. Now he intends to repeat the process to benefit millions who suffer from other conditions. Through his new organization, Every Cure, his team will repurpose many of the 3,000 FDA-approved drugs to help unlock treatments for the 9,000 human diseases that lack a single therapy.
That story’s emotion was only overshadowed by its concrete goal. It was an energizing call to action.
If you think your nonprofit’s mission won’t adhere to that recipe, there’s plenty to learn from Rep. Kennedy’s new organization. His fledgling Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions recognizes that addiction is so complex that its initial goal lies not in advocacy itself but in creating a workable plan to prepare for it.
Rep. Kennedy’s past substance use is well known, as is his work to address the issue as a Congressman and activist. Despite his legislative success, he acknowledges that existing drug policies are primitive and siloed. He riffs on the difficulties of addressing an issue so entrenched in education, housing, and criminal justice. So, his early-stage goal is to create a Blueprint for Effective Drug Policy. For such an expansive issue, a well-drawn blueprint can be an ambitious step in itself.
Map It Out
Whether your organization is going to the moon, Mars, or Main Street, your journey is nothing without a map. Don’t worry if you only have detail for the first two years of your ten-year vision. Funders are accustomed to hearing plans in varying degrees of completion. They will worry if you sound too confident about year nine.
Dr. Fajgenbaum said it will take clinical and AI-based research to unlock the full potential of every FDA-approved drug. He laid out roles for tech partners and for philanthropy. As of his CGI presentation, Every Cure had $4 million committed and requires $12 million to fully launch.
In Rep. Kennedy’s case, it’s no irony to say that his Blueprint has its own map. His team will spend the next few years mining the best thinkers in the field. They will interview every living drug czar since 1969. They will speak with researchers and activists across the range of issues that touch on addiction.
Medical advances and drug policy join a growing list of multi-layered issues. Climate change. Disinformation. Democracy. Gun violence. Little is simple right now, which makes clear goals and tangible plans more important than ever.
Messaging
When you translate those goals and plans into powerful messaging, you help funders take the risks necessary to invest big.
If your organization has staked out a vision and a plan, you can think about messaging around them. If not, year end is a great time to start advocating internally to develop your version of a moonshot and its map.
The most sustained nonprofit growth I’ve been involved with came out of a clear-eyed sense of direction and destination. It’s worth the effort.
I asked Rep. Kennedy for advice for his fellow nonprofit leaders, “We are in a huge transition time in this country coming out of the pandemic. You owe it to yourself to dare greatly. This is the time.”