“You Have to Be Creative to Be in this Space”
Written by Tiffany Reed, Consultant - Fundraising Services
Vu Le speaking to a room of 300 nonprofit professionals at A Love Letter to Nonprofits on February 10, 2026.
On Tuesday, February 10th, I arrived at the Alliance Theatre with my laptop safely secured and my mind focused on getting to my work station and taking notes for A Love Letter to Nonprofits with Vu Le. I was fully prepared to see an array of reds, pinks, and magentas as a reminder that this is a season of love for many, but I wasn’t expecting to feel and sense love throughout the event.
Purpose Possible partners Susannah Darrow, Laura Moody, and Starsha Valentine opened the program by recognizing the important work being done by the nonprofit professionals in attendance and shared important statistics on the Georgia nonprofit industry.
Atlanta City Councilmember Liliana Baktiari, who transitioned from nonprofit work to government advocacy, shared her thoughts on the state of the nonprofit sector and brought a proclamation that marked February 10, 2026 as ATL Loves Nonprofits Day!
We witnessed a fun skit, The Granting Game - Speed Dating with Ella Saurus Rex, in which an actor portrayed a nonprofit executive and played “The Dating Game” with 3 potential funders:
Funder 1 was a flexible funder who trusted the org, offered general operating support, and ultimately won the game.
Funder 2 was a traditional funder who wanted all organizational documents notarized and printed in triplicate.
Funder 3 was a startup funder focused on content, KPIs, and dashboards.
Funder 2 and 3 were appropriately booed, and funder 1 “yayed” in this lighthearted, interactive skit.
(Kudos to my colleague Taryn Janelle for the hilarious production.)
Our keynote speaker, Vu Le, shared his thoughts on our industry through a series of points that were filled with humor but also a justifiable rage about what we go through as nonprofit professionals that I could tell was felt throughout the room:
“We are amazing. We don’t acknowledge that enough.”
Our sector is like air, where other sectors are like food. We coined the term “foodies”, people who appreciate food, but people take air for granted.
The work we do is like air: essential but unseen. We allow a community to breathe, but we often don’t appreciate ourselves.
We don’t push back enough on issues in our industry–we need to start being audacious.
We need to have a different relationship with philanthropy and fundraising
There are amazing things happening because of people who care.
Love is a complex feeling. I think in order to work in this industry, you have to find something that you love about it because this work can be exhausting. There are parts of this work that truly frustrate me, but I love the work that my clients do for their communities. I love that I can help move them closer to meeting their goals. I love that this work inspires me to be more creative–to think outside of the box both in my professional and personal life. I loved hearing the various questions asked during the Q&A portion of the program–questions that challenged me to think critically about the work that I do.
In some ways, this blog is my own personal love letter to this work. Vu’s closing thoughts were about creativity. We have to be creative in this space: be involved with the arts, go to the theatre, join an improv club, participate, and embrace your creative outlets. It made me reflect on my own creativity and how it affects my role in fundraising. This work challenges me to reimagine a sustainable future in which this all looks and feels completely different because society’s needs are actually being met.
I love that the future I want is one worth fighting for. If you’re reading this, you likely believe in that future too.
Thank you for the work that you do.
You are amazing.
You don’t acknowledge that enough.