Tale of a T-shirt.

I first heard Dan Pallotta speak at the Harvard course I took on “Exponential Fundraising”.

He blew me away with his message of how we expect a charity to not have any overhead.

How that’s impossible, and yet it’s become expected.

How no company can exist without ‘overhead’.

I was so enthralled with his message that I ordered a T-shirt he was selling —
“I’M OVERHEAD”.

A few years later, my part-time assistant Melissa came over. She’s enrolled in

school at Antioch, learning non-profit management. Her teacher MARY SILVERSTEIN

had introduced them to a life-changing speaker, she said.

“Let me show you,” Melissa urged, finding the TED speech.

I looked. It was Dan Pallotta.

“Two million people saw this speech,” I said. “He’s huge.”

I had a brainstorm and ran up to my closet.

“Take this to your teacher,” I smiled when I got back.

The “I’m Overhead” T-shirt.

Melissa took it — with a note I wrote.

Her teacher Mary Silverstein loved it.

But there’s more to the story.

Mary saw the woman — SARAH — who’d introduced HER to Dan’s speech.

In a burst of inspiration, Mary gave the T-shirt to SARAH.

Then Mary wrote to thank me.

I wrote Dan Pallotta to tell him the story.

If you have twenty minutes, I urge you to listen to Dan.

It will change your entire approach to philanthropy.

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