#112 Teaching fundraisers the power of mindset, Rhea Wong author, fundraising expert and podcaster

Podcaster, author and comedian Rhea Wong joins Purposely to share her fascinating story. Rhea Wong grew up in the Bay Area of San Francisco, relocating to the East Coast of America to start her first non-profit leadership role at 26. Thrown in at the deep end, without experience, Rhea had to learn fast. 'I was like, what? My first two Google searches in the job were, ‘what does an executive director do?’ and the second was, ‘how to fundraise’. I like that I was that clueless.' Fast forward to today, Rhea is one of the leading voices on fundraising for non-profits globally. Her teaching focuses on developing the right mindset, rather than just teaching income generation tactics. Rhea has caught the attention of the fundraising sector for her insightful thinking around mindset, in particular her theory on 'scarcity and abundance' as a common block for any non-profit fundraiser. 'When we come from a place of confidence and expectation that there is enough money out there for us to do our work, and to feel the change that we've seen in the world, we operate on a different level' At first Rhea struggled with fundraising, she was good at it but found it 'joyless'. She examined the mental blocks and negative outlook to try and understand her resistance to fundraising . Rhea reflected on her childhood experiences around money and charity. She remembers vividly an experience that helped shape her, ' I gave a homeless guy a quarter in front of my father and he goes, Oh, so you're so rich. now you can just give money away.' The moment impacting her psyche deeply, the idea that money is scarce and that we have to hold on to it and guard it. Her grandparent’s experience leaving communist China and arriving in the United States with very little money had a significant impact on her parent’s mindset. This had also shaped her own outlook to giving and charity. 'Money stood for stability and security, because that's what they needed when they came to this country, all they had was $20 in their pocket when they arrived.'