Is this the way to start?

Have you ever wanted to start a non-profit organization or had a "cause" that you wanted to make a reality? Would you start the way Mortenson started? He wrote letters to many people he did not know and asked for money. Eventually he connected with the right people and one donor made most of the first school possible. Do you think that if he had had a plan for raising funds and was better organized at the beginning, things would have happened differently?