Advancing the Non Profit Sector

Five Reasons to Refresh Your Non-profit Organization’s Funding Strategy

2012-01-13T05:59:00.000-08:00

What is “refreshing your non-profit funding strategy”? It’s gathering and studying your non-profit organization’s income opportunities for evaluation before selecting the excellent ones to pursue. Why is this helpful? We find five major benefits for non-profit organizations:

1. Fresh Motivation. Is it hard to motivate someone to chair your “tried and true” special event? Frankly, it is hard to motivate yourself to get an annual appeal letter ready? Or, call potential sponsors? If you are bored by how you obtain income, chances are you are not alone. While some work maybe a tad dull and starting anything requires a bit of a leap over inertia, fresh clarity and an improved certainty of outcomes makes every job easier. Because you can see they will work, refreshed funding strategies excite and motivate.

2. Get With the Times. Even if you wish it wasn’t so, the market where non-profit organizations operate changed dramatically in the last five years. Every one of your funding streams experienced changes. It is smart to acknowledge this reality. Yet, even though my crystal ball broke, in the shards I see continue to see incredible opportunity. Donors, customers, volunteers, and board members continue to develop new expectations about their funding relationships with you: new expectations that yield new opportunities. It’s smart to study the impact of changes to reduce and eliminate unpleasant surprises— and to take advantage of new opportunities.

3. Embrace the Best. Even if at times you feel stuck identifying funding opportunities, the truth is this: you have too many opportunities. Your greatest need is to know where to invest your time and discard efforts for so-so opportunities, as soon as possible. You need funding strategies that provide the most outcomes (money or resources) with the least work –over time. Refreshing your funding strategies helps you to identify these vital opportunities.

4. Educate. Your funding strategy may fit your nonprofit and organization’s skills and community perfectly. However, it is highly likely many near you do not understand it or “the why” behind it. If you hear a lot of far-fetched ideas, refreshing your funding strategy can help the sharers to move their energy to your strategy and away from collecting wacky ideas, since they seek to help. On the other hand, if you hear worthwhile ideas, refreshing your funding strategy is the place to air and evaluate options using rational criteria and to compare them to your existing efforts—rather than making a quick decision in the hallway between meetings.

5. Lost Funding. The number one reason to refresh your funding strategy is because you are missing opportunities to increase your funds. Enough said.

What benefits have you found from refreshing your funding strategy?

Is DonorEdge, The Giving Partner or Whatever Its Called Worth It?

2012-01-06T07:01:00.000-08:00

Last month, I met with Mark Brewer. Mark leads the Community Foundation of Central Florida. While our visit concerned the needs of non-profit organizations in Central Florida for my funding strategy innovations, we talked a lot about DonorEdge. (Brewer’s organization calls their version of this Guidestar product, “The Knowledge Base.” The Community Foundation of Sarasota* named theirs, “The Giving Partner.”) Central Florida has used it for several years.

Coincidentally, the same week, I put the finishing touches on Selby Garden’s profile for The Giving Partner. What was the process like? Susie Bowie was extremely helpful. The on-line system worked well. The questions were neither difficult nor long. Yet, while the questions weren’t hard, the decisions behind them were challenging. Many involved an assessment of the best answer to give to further the Gardens’ donor development strategy. Questions like, “Which picture is best to use since we can only use one?” and, “What are the five most pressing needs?” involved thinking and planning. The work wasn’t hard, but the strategy and thought behind it were intense. So, what was the process really like? In all honesty, demanding. Yes, you can fill out the profile in several hours, but if you want it to be a tool to support your overall funding strategy, like the Gardens did, it will take lots more.

During the process, I wondered, as you will probably wonder if you take a serious approach, “Is this worth it?” After filling out a profile and talking to Mark Brewer and learning how Central Florida is using it, the answer is “Yes.” Here’s why I recommend you get out your welcome mat for it:

1. Important Information to Share. You want a current profile about your organization to give to potential donors. In all honesty, do you have it? You will with DonorEdge.

2. Sector Enrichment. The nonprofit sector, compared to other sectors, is data poor. DonorEdge helps to close the gap. How big is the average nonprofit board in Bradenton? What is the total amount of capital campaign funding being sought in Orlando? Now, we can learn and share these and similar facts.

3. Your New Wiki. You will soon use DonorEdge to answer quick questions. Filling out your profile teaches you what’s available. Once underway, you will be able to find out about someone else’s mission, an executive director’s background and key programs of other nonprofits by typing in their name and selecting a tab. My prediction: you will use it to look up everything from the important, what are their board members affiliations, to the curious, how long has the executive director been in place.

4. Donor Support. A profile placed in a database on the Internet will by itself drive few donations. However, a well-done profile which quickly provides donors considering funding your non-profit organization the peace of mind that allows them to write you that sizable check or click a donate now button. This 24-7 availability, allows you to sleep soundly, while your donor confirms your excellence at 2 a.m.

If you are struggling to fill out your profile, take heart. From what I’ve learned, it is worth your effort. If you have yet to develop a profile, get out your welcome mat and get started. What has your experience been?
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* The Giving Partner is a partnership of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Gulf Coast Community Foundation and Manatee Community Foundation—with support from The Patterson Foundation.

Is the Arts and Culture Community on Your List of Potential Collaborators?

2011-12-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

Few would argue the value of arts and culture. The vibrancy of arts and culture within a community has long been a key indicator of its livability. Individuals and companies looking to move into an area frequently evaluate the number and diversity of offerings as part of their decision-making process. Art therapy has proven helpful in treating a wide variety of conditions, from Alzheimer’s to physical and emotional trauma. And, a great deal of attention has recently been paid to the substantial economic impact of arts and culture. According to the 2010 National Arts Index, a report issued by Americans for the Arts, economic activity in the U.S., while losing ground during the recession, is still a $150‐$160 billion a year business that puts more than 2 million people to work and increasingly attracts cultural tourists (the number of foreign visitors who attend cultural events or venues has increased 23% since 2003).

However, today we have another reason to value arts and culture. It’s being used “in increasingly diverse ways to engage and build communities and address the root causes of persistent societal problems, including issues of economic, educational and environmental injustice as well as inequities in civil and human rights.” (“Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy” by Holly Sidford for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 2011) Artist-activists are pulling us in, forcing us to examine our assumptions and the way we do business.

To-date, most of this work has emerged from and been centered in the art world. Just one example from my community is the Center for Folk and Community Art, which involves the community’s residents in story-telling, using a combination of written work, murals and public presentation. In the past it has focused attention on societal issues such as gang culture and violence, bullying, abuse and violence in teen dating relationships, the environment and homelessness.

But, arts and culture could be so much more. It could be totally integrated into the fabric of social change, where artists sit at the same table as nonprofits, private businesses and governmental agencies committed to creating a healthier place for each of us to live. This is particularly important as the artistic voices of those who have previously often been disenfranchised – i.e., those making art outside of the better supported and recognized Western European, “classical” art forms – break through, since there is much to be learned from these voices.

According to the Animating Democracy’s 2010 report, “Trend or Tipping Point: Arts and Social Change Grantmaking” there are currently more than 150 funders nationwide that have recognized the value of supporting coalitions that are dedicated to social change and are inclusive of artists. I am proud that our own local community foundation is one of them. But what of the many nonprofits currently putting together coalitions to more successfully tackle community issues that are at the heart of their mission?

If your organization is contemplating collaboration, I would like to know if your board is considering the contribution artists, arts and culture could make in your success? How intentional is your board about including artists, especially those outside “mainstream arts and culture”? How are you going about finding the appropriate partners? Please write in and share your experiences and learnings.

Hunting for Nonprofit Funding Ideas?

2011-12-16T05:54:00.000-08:00

I’ve been told that I have more ideas about how non-profits can earn funding than anyone in the world. While no competition has been held to officially award the title, I do love and collect ideas that grow non-profit organization’s funding and resources. More funding for you translates into better communities for all of us.

If you're curious about where I get some of my ideas or you want to find more ideas for your non-profit organization, read The Idea Hunter by Andy Boynton & Bill Fischer.

The Idea Hunter, a quick read, reminds us that:
1) To find ideas, actively hunt for them.
2) Productive hunting requires that you move beyond your regular environment.
3) We need to write ideas down or loose them.
4) While many ideas provide small improvements that don’t solve the Euro crisis or global warming, they are still important. Many improve our lives everyday in small, but satisfying ways. Translated into non-profit funding, idea hunter ideas provide solid, sustainable growth rather than the unexpected and unpredictable million-dollar check.
5) In terms of donors and other funding sources, do not just collect ideas and data, train yourself to notice “incidents and customer service preferences that connect clearly…” (P. 80) with your mission and organization.

For more ideas on how to increase your non-profit income also read this article, Don’t Set Resolutions to Increase Your Funding.

How do you collect ideas to help your non-profit organization obtain funding?

Barrier to Earned Revenue: Cultural Change

2011-12-12T07:01:00.001-08:00

Help the Resistance to Join the Cause
One of the biggest barriers non-profit organizations face in increasing their funding from earned income, is staff and volunteer resistance. In some cases, cultural resistance about asking for money or more money from customers, clients, or donors at non-profit organizations is so huge it curtails all discussion and results in significant income loss. In almost all cases, in every non-profit organization, you will encounter those who like the way things are now. This holds true even when it means you lack enough funding for your mission or even to pay them properly.

At Bok Towers Gardens, (read about their success with earned revenue in my new column, Your Profitable Non-profit) the support of the docents, who provided the house tours of Pinewood Estate, was the biggest hurdle they faced as they increased their income and attendance by 300 percent. In the new setup, instead of leading tours through the mansion, docents were assigned to various sites in the building. The docents preferred the old way of leading tours even as Bok Tower Gardens enjoyed wild success with the new approach. As a compromise that worked wonderfully, staff encouraged the docents to help visitors enjoy the mansion as they saw fit. If a group or individual were happy self-touring, they did not step in. If the visitors wanted more information, the docent created an on-the-spot experience.

After you identify great ideas to increase your income, expect resistance. When you encounter it, love people for their loyalty. Help them to understand how the change has the potential to impact your mission and funding. Explore compromises, like Bok Tower Gardens. Develop a plan to help the resistance join the cause.

What examples of cultural resistance, especially around earned revenue have you encountered? How have you overcome them?

Drinking The Kool-Aid: Balance Your Funding Messages With Reality

2011-12-05T05:48:00.000-08:00

Face it. As a nonprofits leaders you are in the sales and marketing business. As a leader raising funds, you constantly share with others that your nonprofit organization’s work is important, meaningful and valuable. Indeed your work is important, valuable, and meaningful.

Obtaining funding requires that you present your work and services in the most favorable, hopeful manner. Yet, important, valuable, and meaningful does not equal perfect. Even the most exemplary nonprofits face daily challenge to step-up to the next level, to fine-tune their work, to provide more mission, and to prepare for the future. (Follow this link for the traits of exemplary non-profit organizations.) Non-profit organizations who do not meet these challenges will shortly become un-exemplary.

The danger comes when leaders get caught up in the positive message and believe they are important, valuable and meaningful –and that they have arrived. When leaders get caught up in the external message and forget imperfections and growth needs they can be poisoned by drinking the own Kool-Aid.

The solution is balance. Smart nonprofits leader balance their “we are worthy of your funding message,” while simultaneously sharing areas under construction. They tell us how they are working to improve and are positively honest about mistakes. This balance reflects reality. It also creates a community of support, including donors, staff and volunteers, who understand that being a successful nonprofit is an ongoing movement that result is falling into potholes from time-to-time. When these bumps come, and they will, most of the community who has been hearing your balanced message will remain loyal. They love you. They love your work. They believe you will meet the challenges you face.

How do you communicate worthiness of support to your external audience and acknowledge your need to improve daily? How do you help people who have joined your organization, but are disappointed when they learn it is not perfect?

How to Succeed With Emergency Grant Opportunities

2011-11-14T06:42:00.000-08:00

Good news! You non-profit organization just received an invitation to apply for a grant. Bad news! The application is due next week and you have at least a dozen other priorities.

Here’s a schedule to help you organize your preparations to meet the application deadline and provide a competitive application for funding:

Day 1

1. Review the donor’s website. Contact them for application requirements. Ask initial questions. Read any guidelines, marking all requirements with a tick box. You will fill the box in with a check mark during your final review after you fulfilled each requirement.

2. Do you need information for anyone else? Request their help. Establish Day 5 as their deadline.

3. Create an application dummy with scrap paper. A dummy is a mockup of the total grant proposal you will submit from cover letter to you’re the last page of the attachments. As you work, you will replace the dummy pages with completed ones so you can identify missing items. Take time to organize your submittal now instead of at the last minute.

4. Start drafting. Use paragraphs from existing materials, like case statements, bio statements from key staff.

5. Make a first attempt at creating the project budget.

Day 2 and 3

6. Continue drafting, aim for 1-2 hour sessions per day, during your most productive interludes. Apply butt glue, if necessary.

7. If you get stumped, you probably need more information. Find someone with answers or to make project decisions.

8. Time helps. The difficult questions you struggled with today will be easier when you review them tomorrow.

Day 4

9. By now your draft is emerging. Plan to work in shorter time blocks. Re-read sections while waiting for appointments, when you’re on hold or 15 minutes before lunch.

10. Email or call everyone who needs to provide you materials to remind them of the pending deadline.

Days 5, 6, and 7

11. Proof the draft, triple check all dates and numbers.

12. Ask one or two other people to read it.

13. Read the final application aloud. Check off the requirements you completed. Flag uncompleted items. Make a list of these and work through them one-by-one until all is done.

14. Compile the final document. Make copies. Remember to keep one for your organization. Deliver the application.

15 .Relax! You made it!

For more grant writing articles to help you non-profit organization earn funding, see this directory.

For six audios to purchase that will help you write grants if you are a newbie or an expert, follow this link. Each offers one hours of training from Karen– and contains the content of her famous grant writing workshops.

For other sources of non-profit income to augment your grant opportunities, read this article. Can Your Organization Obtain More Income?

Karen Eber Davis

How Can Your Board Help With Corporate Sponsorships?

2011-11-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

Board members help non profit organizations to earn corporate support in many ways. To develop and sustain corporate sponsorships, these three types of support are important for boards leading successful non profit organizations:

1. Provide oversight and balance to protect the non profits long-term interest.

2. Identify opportunities.

3. Create connections that lead to and build relationships.

Here is an example of creating connections that lead to and builds relationships:

A film festival’s board includes a number of members with extensive home entertainment systems who favor a particular specialty store. One member knows the owner of three local stores and has heard him talk about his marketing needs. Together, the development staff and board members develop a proposal with several sponsorship opportunities. The board member sets an appointment. The three meet. After learning more about the owner’s needs, they jointly craft a sponsorship package for $50,000. It includes festival advertising, plus an exclusive in-store event. Platinum film festival members will be invited to an intimate event for $75 per couple to share refreshments, view a new film, learn from the film producer and be introduced to a “cool” new piece of home entertainment equipment. Besides directly marketing to the right potential customers, the storeowner gains the opportunity to meet and continue relationships with platinum members, and share one of his sites, his enthusiasm, and his expertise. This successful non profit organization gains new funding and an enthusiastic new sponsor who shares strong alignment with their mission statement.

How have your board members helped your non profit to secure corporate funding?

To learn what your board members need to know about corporate support, read and then give your board this article.

Moving From A $40 Gift To $5,000 in 4 Repeatable Steps

2011-11-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

Sally Part Two

In my last entry, I shared about a conversation I had with Sally in a bar after a consulting conference and how Sally grew from a $40 to a $5,000 a year donor. This entry shares the “moves” Teach for America used. This is what Sally shared, with my comments in parenthesis, just like a DVD commentary of a movie.

Event One: The Invite
Sally was invited by a business associate who had helped her and her husband a lot in the past to come to a dinner to learn about Teach for America. Sally figured it was payback time; they owed this man plenty. (The right person asks Sally. How can she say no?)

Event Two: The Dinner
Sally and her husband attend the dinner and learn about Teach for America. She is offered the opportunity to sponsor a classroom. (A specific request for a specific amount that provides tangible outcomes.) Sally learns about the impact this gift would have on a whole classroom for one year. She believes the offer is a great bargain at $5,000. “All those little lives for one year for $5k?” Sally and her husband become class sponsors. (How can you help donors to understand you offer a great bargain?)

Event Three: Unknown
After the dinner, one assumes several exchanges and thank you notes were exchanged. Sally doesn’t mention these to me as she relayed her story. (These are musts.)

Event Four: The Offer to Tour and Meet Someone of Interest
Later, Teach for America makes Sally an additional offer. Would Sally like to go on a tour? They are giving a tour to a major business leader from a Fortune 500 company. There was space. Was Sally interested? Yes, she was. (Teach for America understands Sally’s professional need to meet other business leaders to promote her business. They understand the value of her time. Not only is Sally happy to learn more on a tour, she is happy to be introduced to a business leader who is a potential client of her consulting business.)

None of these brilliant events is accidental. Someone or a group of people, have thoughtfully considered how to offer these opportunities to Sally. Sally is being helped to do what she wants to do more of—make a meaningful contribution both personally and professionally. Teach for America helps Sally. Sally helps Teach for America. Teach for America helps Sally . . .
Who are your Sally’s? How are you reaching them? What is your plan to increase your income—whether via individual donations or one of the other six nonprofit income sources? How do you help people to succeed, so that they can help you to reach your mission? - Karen Eber Davis

Proof: The Individual Donor Opportunity Door is Wide-open

2011-10-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

Sally Part One

We were having drinks after the consulting conference. Sally asked what I did. (Not her real name, because even though this sounds like it is about Sally--it is not.)
“I help nonprofits earn sustainable income and with innovations.”
“You know,” Sally responded, “Teach for America does a really good job.” Sally went on to explain that before Teach for America, she and husband were forty-dollar givers.
“Forty dollar givers?” I asked, astounded and then quickly assuming that even though I understood what she met—I must not. Sally, as I had learned earlier in the day, is a successful consultant who worked for global name-brand clients. Earlier, she earned an MBA from Stanford and worked as a manager with for a large international consulting firm. Surely, Sally and her husband, who had to in my quick conservative estimate earned more than $100,000 per year, didn’t only give $40 a year at a time to a nonprofits?
Yes, she explained they did. In the past, when they were asked to write a check they wrote one for forty dollars. Now, with Teach for America, they were sponsoring a classroom for $5,000 a year. “It’s amazing, we get to touch all those lives and it only costs $5,000 and only about a 100 people a year do it.”
Sally represents one of thousands of people who are bright and earn a sizable income—and seek to make a difference. She represents someone who has never been asked and worse, never shown the path your nonprofit offers to making a difference.
Sally reminds us that the individual donor opportunity door is wide-open, as are the majority of the other six nonprofit income opportunity doors. This is why this story is not about Sally because it is about nonprofit leaders, like you, who are unsure about approaching the Sally’s you know. Are you neglecting to offer the Sally’s in your sphere of influence the opportunity to help you change lives? Are you assuming (like me) that educated people with means already understand philanthropy and are already doing their part? How might we reach, show and educate Sally about the opportunities she is missing?

Stay tuned for more about Sally. In my next piece, I will share how Teach For America helped Sally to become a $5,000 a year donor. -Karen Eber Davis

Karen’s Ultimate Test: Is this a Good Plan?

2011-10-11T05:55:00.000-07:00

We like to hike, especially as summer heat gives way to cool fall mornings. Sometimes we come to bridges. Stone bridges are good. Solid wood bridges are good. But open slat or rope or wobbly logs over swiftly moving creeks—not my favorite. Nonetheless, I will step upon them to cross if I can see that they will bring me to where I want to go… in advance.

Your plans should also let you “see” that you can reach your destination from where you are. With firm plans you can feel that the next step you take and each one after that will let you place your foot on something solid that leads you to your destination.

Can you in your minds eye see in advance how your plan gets you from here to there? How many of your plans, big and small, get you from here to there—in your mind's eye?

Planning, The Final Step Bridge Building

2011-10-07T05:45:00.000-07:00

By far, the most complicated and most important step of planning is bridge building. The purpose of the bridge you will build is to get you from here to there. The bridge represents the steps you will take to move between these two spaces. A good bridge closes the gap between the two locations and it carries solid traffic. This is complex thinking. It involves concepts, making connections, identifying steps, estimating timing, using resources, testing ideas, and research. It involves eliminating good choices that do not work, coping with unknowns and not meeting everyone’s expectations. Throughout the planning process, hope is critical. You must believe that solid plans are possible and that the results will be worthwhile. Finally, good bridges and good plans are not built in a day or afternoon. Invest time and energy to create your bridge or plan from where you are now to your vision.

When it actually comes down to making “the plan” how do you organize the process so that nothing is overlooked?

(For more on the first two steps of planning, see my recent entries in this blog.)

The Often Missed Step of Planning: Where You Are Now

2011-10-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

My office is near U.S. 41 in Sarasota—the main commercial artery of the city. Along this corridor I have standard errands, both north and south. To save time, I run different errands en route to meetings depending if the meeting is north or south respectively. This plan saves gas, energy and waiting at stoplights. At your nonprofit, your plans will work best if you also know your starting place. This Where You Are Now is the second essential stage of good planning.

What does it mean to know where you are now? Knowing includes obvious items; your physical location, financial status and pending staff changes. It also includes subtle issues, like market conditions, a planning group’s comfort level with each other, and if you have the information you need to plan, etc. As an example of the last, last week a group of consultants planned what with a series of recorded teleconferences. We failed to make much progress until we determined that we had recorded the previous sessions—a needed piece of information.

Another component of Where You Are Now that is especially fruitful for experienced groups is information about other planning experiences your group completed. What was successful about them? Lacking? Do people have positive expectations about up-coming planning sessions? Was the fiscal piece strong or does it need additional effort? Identifying these or related issues is “knowing where you are now” and the second step in good planning.

What kinds of questions do you ask and answer when you look at your current situation as part of the planning process?

(For the first step of good planning read this entry: The Critical First Step of Income and Other Planning: Destination.)

Power to the People: One More Reason for Boards to Listen to Their Communities

2011-09-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

Smile Train and Operation Smile both provide (literally) face-saving surgeries to indigent children outside the U.S. born with cleft palates. Smile Train is actually an offshoot of Operation Smile, rising out of a difference in philosophy. Whereas Operation Smile sends doctors overseas to perform the operations, Smile Train uses local doctors. The spinoff, which occurred in the late 1990’s, left the two organizations bitter rivals. However, with the changes in the world the two organizations contemplated a merger this past spring that would have brought them back together again. Merger talks were suddenly called off though when donors of Smile Train representing 82 million dollars in contributions expressed opposition to the proposition – some quite publicly.

This is but one example of what those of us who closely follow the many news briefs and RSS feeds from the sector (special thanks to Ruth McCambridge, editor of The Nonprofit Quarterly who along with her colleagues put out an excellent daily feed and recently raised this particular example at the Alliance Conference in Oakland, California) are increasingly seeing – community stakeholders who are mad as hell about some of the decisions being made in their name. And, they aren't just going to take it any more. (For those too young to get the cultural referent, rent the 1976 film Network. It’s probably more relevant now than when it was released.) The public brouhaha that embroiled Smile Train and Operation Smile is just the latest volley in a trend that began with donors wanting a say in how their money is spent. It is a trend that intensified with those donors demanding the return of their money if they feel that the intent behind their gift is not being honored. And, it is a trend that became a runaway train with the decision of an increasing number of stakeholders to pump their financial and human assets into new organizations when they sense the legacy organizations are failing to achieve sufficient or desired impact.

Boards today must recognize that the marketplace will drive which nonprofits shall live and which shall die. If boards aren't paying close attention to what their stakeholders deem important, they may find their organizations on the list of failed entities and their personal reputations sullied for betraying the community’s trust.

To me, the lesson is obvious. Someway, somehow, boards must listen – really listen – to their stakeholders. This might be done informally as long as there is some intentional way of capturing the data on an ongoing basis, such as including BTW Talk on every agenda. For those who have not heard me explain this before, the BTW Talk involves scheduling 20 minutes or so at each meeting to discover what board members have been hearing in conversations with friends, family and colleagues since the last time the board met that could potentially impact the organization and its mission in some way. These are conversations that often start with, “By the way….”

Or, it can involve instituting a means for gathering information on a more formal basis. For instance, the board might contract to survey the community on a regular basis. These surveys can be done online, through the mail, in person or over the phone. Interviews, insight or focus groups, and large-scale change methodologies such as World Café, Future Search or Appreciative Inquiry can also be employed to garner the community’s insights.

The focused and purposeful use of advisory councils is another means of tapping into what the community needs. So is bringing greater diversity into our boardrooms. One way to do this is to choose a model such as Community Engagement Governance (see Freiwirth, Judy. “Engagement Governance for System-Wide Decision Making.” Nonprofit Quarterly. Summer 2007. pgs. 38 – 39.), which actually shares the power of decision-making with different individuals in the community based on their interests and areas of expertise. The key in all of these cases is to truly give weight to what the community is saying and not just employ the techniques as window dressing.

Since this list is by no means inclusive, I am anxious to hear what others have used to stay in touch with what their stakeholders are thinking, feeling and desiring. Please share your success stories and your “learning experiences.”

The Critical First Step of Income and Other Planning: Destination

2011-09-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

Our last entry talked about the definition of good planning. This one continues along similar lines and explores the first step of all good planning: Knowing Where You Want to Go.

Most nonprofits know where they want to go. Like New Englanders in January, everyone agrees, they want to go south for February vacation. Likewise, your nonprofit may agree that your “south” is to improve the quality of the bay water, the readiness of children for kindergarten or the lives of people with developmental disabilities. While you may know the direction, good planning demands that you stop and clarify what exactly constitutes your destination. After all, Miami, Tucson and the Caribbean are south as are Brasilia, South Africa and Newark.

What, for example, does it mean to help people with developmental disabilities to live better lives? To do good planning it matters if you’re talking about housing, employment, family relations or health matters. Each destination requires a different plan.

Knowing your destination allows you to draw a straight line to it from where you are. Good plans reduce expensive meandering. Clear destinations also create vision energy at the start of planning. (Won’t it be exciting to see this in action?”) This energy is needed as fuel for the deep-thinking work ahead.

How has clarifying your destination helped your planning process? How has lack of clarity created confusion?

What is Good Planning?

2011-09-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

Planning is one of the many overused but little understood terms tossed around nonprofit organizations. Recently, several consultants from this blog were organizing an audio-conference for nonprofit board members on the topic. We started our planning by discussing the definition of planning. Fifteen-minutes later while we had made progress, we had also uncovered more questions than answers. If it took three experts fifteen minutes to begin to agree on what planning is—you will probably find some uncertainty at your organization. Yet, planning is something we do everyday. After all, you plan when you run out paper and make a note to pick it up after your meeting. You plan when you prepare for your special event. You plan when you determine how exactly you will improve transportation service for seniors.

For starters, here is a definition: planning consists of tasks, energy and resources applied to create a desired future. Good planning includes three components:

1. Where we want to go (the vision).

2. Where you are now.

3. The bridge you will build to get to the vision.

These three components are universal to all planning. This includes your smallest efforts (where should we hold our special event?) to big questions (what is the most effective way to cure cancer?)

How can you tell if your planning was good? If you can create, in your mind’s eye, the bridge you will build and imagine using it to travel from where you are to where you want to go.

When you plan, all three areas need your attention. Which area do you find that you neglect the most? Did you ever stop to define what planning was before you begin to do it?

Boards - Your Chief Administrator Wants You to Learn and Practice CEO Evaluation

2011-09-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

Ask board members to list their responsibilities and most will include the supervision of the CEO. However, according to the findings of CompassPoint and Meyer Foundation researchers as reported in Daring to Lead 2011: A National Study of Nonprofit Executive Leadership, there is apparently a disconnect between what board members acknowledge as their responsibilities and what they take on, because close to half of the CEOs surveyed reported that they had not had a performance review within the past year. Adding concern, of those boards that do ensure their CEOs are reviewed, more than two-thirds may not be particularly skilled at the process, judging by the report that fewer than one-third of CEOs found their review either somewhat useful or very useful.

With CEOs clamoring for effective feedback there are evaluation basics that every board can incorporate. Assign a month within which the CEO review will be done, add it to your compliance calendar and make a commitment to follow through. Ask the CEO to consider process and goals and to explain what he or she feels will make the review valuable on both a personal and organizational level. Gather input from the entire board. Then select a few board members to sit down with the CEO to negotiate what the review will consist of. Be sure success measures and deadlines are clearly defined so that everyone has a clear picture of what it will look like when the CEO has successfully met all expectations. Provide interim assessments that ensure everyone is still on the same page and that movement toward goal achievement is on track. (See “Evaluating the Top Administrator: A New Approach” for more.)

But what takes evaluation beyond the basics and ensures an effective result? I would like to learn what those boards that are providing “very useful” feedback are doing. I’d also like to hear from CEOs about what would make their reviews satisfying and helpful. Are there tips that you can share with your colleagues and partners? Perhaps you’ve asked a former board chair to lead the process or brought in a consultant to guide it. Maybe you’ve found a book or article that provided helpful insights into the process or content. All input is encouraged.

Rational Fundraising and Income

2011-09-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

Is This Task On Your To-do List? Miss It At Your Peril

One overlooked task of nonprofits is to make sure they are rational in their fundraising and income development work. Why is this overlooked? People don’t realize it is needed. Most people come to your nonprofit based on their emotions, that is, their passions.

Passions are an excellent starting point. It is how we select the causes we care about from the overstuffed cereal-aisle-full of nonprofit opportunities. What do we believe in? What made a difference to us? What will make a difference in our community? We choose based on emotions. We choose based on passions.

Passions get us in the door. While passions should not be forgotten, they do not make a good base for fundraising and income development work. Passions alone do not create income. Passions mixed with rational actions based on research, strategy, analysis and planning do create income.

How can you tell if your fundraising and income development work is rational?

Here are three keys to evaluate it:

Key One: Logical and Realistic Expectations. If you raised $100,000 last year from earned revenue, it is logical given similar efforts and a similar market, that you will raise the same amount give or take 10 percent next year. If you never raised $100,000 is unlikely you will receive a gift this size, even if you included it in your strategic plan. Your fundraising and income plan are rational when you can identify short sequential steps that get you from here to there.

Key 2: Effort. The strategic plan states that the fundraising committee will raise funds. The committee meets regularly, directs several initiatives and makes appointments to ask donors for donations and to build relationships. In this case, effort matches the sought outcomes. Contrast this with a fundraising committee who meets for several times and then quits because they have no idea how to fulfill the goals given to them.

Key 3: Proven Paths. Not only must you put forth effort, it must be the right effort. Susan, in the midst of her first capital campaign, attends a workshop to confirm that her work as campaign coordinator is on track and that she has correctly organized her next steps. From her research, Susan learns that she has a proven plan to meet her goal.

Passions often rule, even in fundraising and income development work, unless efforts are made to be rational. What keys that show you are being rational would you add to these three? How do you make sure your fundraising and income development work is rational?

Ruined by Success? The Danger of Windfalls

2011-08-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

The Young Parent’s Group won a grant of $50,000 to launch their program. It was a great step forward and, at the same time, almost did them in.

Senior Services received a bequest, from an elderly woman no one knew, for $250,000. It nearly ruined them.

Almost every nonprofit over time will receive one or more windfalls. At successful nonprofits, these windfalls create great celebrations. But after celebrating and investing the funds to better their mission and often to buy that new roof that caused so much anxiety, successful nonprofits return to their tried–and-true fundraising and income development plan.

For others, the windfall creates challenges. Like their successful counterparts they celebrate and often make similar mission investments. However, instead of returning to consistent fundraising and income development work, they fixate on obtaining more windfalls. At Senior Services, five hundred people visit them a year. How can they find the next person who will leave a bequest—when the last bequest was from a one-time visitor? The Young Parent’s grant came from the community foundation as it was launching a new initiative in the area. Which, they wonder, of the other 100,000 or so other grant sources available will give them $50,000 to operate next year?

How can you avoid a windfall from placing your nonprofit at-risk? First, be joyous and grateful. After the celebrations, return to a realistic income and fundraising plan that is based on consistent disciplined-work, proven outcomes and fit with your organization’s temperament. Follow the paths that successful nonprofits like you follow. When your nonprofit has lucky breaks—and you will, recognize them for what they are. Celebrate. Then, return to the tried-and- true.

How does your nonprofit handle windfalls? Have you developed a board policy about how to handle them? Has your nonprofit ever been “hurt” by success?

An Open Question to Board Chairs: Do You Dare to Lead?

2011-08-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

Executive directors have thrown down the gauntlet. In “Daring to Lead 2011: A National Study of Nonprofit Executive Leadership” conducted by CompassPoint and the Meyer Foundation, only 20 percent of those surveyed reported being satisfied with their board’s performance. While a few of these executive directors might have a personality conflict with their current chair or have felt particularly frustrated with their board the day they responded, there must be something more significant going on to account for 80 percent of chief administrators indicating dissatisfaction with their boards.

Determining the underlying factor(s) is particularly important in today’s rapidly changing environment where boards must be strong, strategic and steadfast so that their organizations can be responsive and achieve relevant results. Research by the likes of Herman, Renz and Heimovics, Nobbie and Brudney and others have made very clear that there is a relationship between the effectiveness of a board and the effectiveness of the organization for which the board works. While none could prove causality, each found that highly effective organizations have highly effective boards.

I don’t believe that an organization’s effectiveness can be laid at the feet of just one person. Yet, I do believe that you, as board chair, have opportunity and influence that can be brought to bear in ways that you perhaps have not tested. Be honest with yourself. What more could you do to ensure a stronger board, and ultimately a stronger organization?

For instance, research again tells us that highly effective boards use more proven practices than less effective boards. There are a lot of accepted practices out there that are actually based on myth. Are you just propagating these or are you analyzing their effectiveness? Are you making the effort to regularly read or participate in workshops and webinars to learn about governance practices rooted in science? Are you implementing what you’ve learned? If not, why not?

As an unknown sage once said, “Hope is not a method.” You cannot afford to merely come in once a month to chair a meeting, check in occasionally with your executive director and write your column for the newsletter and expect an exceptional board to emerge. Nor can you rely on years of experience with a multitude of boards. The world has changed too much. If you dare to lead, tell us what you are doing differently and what impact it has made.

Better than Genetics: Family Philanthropy Traditions

2011-07-26T05:58:00.000-07:00

Seventy percent of high wealth families have traditions that teach family values about the importance of philanthropy to their offspring. This fact presents nonprofits a wonderful set of opportunities. How so? As part of your strategy to create long-term donors, you can offer intentional programming to support this effort. This programming will offer high wealth families, who want to act on this tradition, an opportunity to create a deeper relationship with your organization.

Roxy Jerde, the Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Sarasota recently shared this piece of data at the Funder’s Forum. As an example, she also shared that she brought children from her family to a Ronald McDonald house to meet the residents.

Being open to young visitors, like the Ronald McDonald house, in one example of a way to support this tradition. How else might you support it? If your efforts are minimal but you would like to expand them, check out The Volunteer Family a nonprofit that supports family volunteering for ideas. If you want to be even more proactive offer specific events for young relatives. Some groups offer a volunteer or educational activity for families during school breaks and the summer. Others provide family tours on school holidays. Others offer opportunities one Saturday per month.

If part of your strategy to increase your nonprofit income is to reach new donors, consider helping families to continue or start this tradition in ways that feature your nonprofit. Choose your favorite idea, adapt it to create a signature family event and then share it here to inspire others. Or, if you already have one please share what have you already found to be successful.

Succession Planning: Is Your Board Prepared for Transition?

2011-07-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

Everyone is talking about succession planning today. Much of the conversation is motivated by the large numbers of baby boomer executives expected to retire in the next few years. While this is a real concern deserving of our strategic attention, I have to wonder why so little attention is paid to succession on our boards of directors. After all, turnover is virtually an everyday occurrence on boards. Term limits and life’s challenges move people out of office or off the board altogether on a regular basis; and fewer and fewer individuals are stepping up and into the vacated leadership positions. The result is that boards are often forced to choose creative approaches to filling the empty chairs, such as allowing people to share the leadership responsibilities or conferring key positions on inexperienced talent. Unfortunately, experience tells us that such solutions typically result in a loss of organizational momentum or effectiveness. But, this needn’t be the case if we will commit to adequately preparing our boards for transition.

I doubt there is anything we can do to bring back the days where people will spend a decade or more working their way up to a coveted leadership position. But a strong succession plan is within reach of every organization. To see how, we must first consider what a succession plan really is, and what it isn’t. It isn’t about knowing who the next three board chairs will be. It is ensuring that you have a strong board with clear procedures in place, where everyone understands the big picture, is engaged and knows his or her role. In other words, the best succession plan is having a board that regularly operates under proven practices because a board like that will be able to continue to perform effectively regardless of what position may turn up empty tomorrow or the next day.

To determine if your board is prepared for the inevitable expected – to say nothing of sudden – transitions, answer the questions below.
 Does your board have criteria for membership?
 Does your board maintain a current pool of good prospects for board membership by continuously identifying and cultivating potential members?
 Does your board “test out” potential board members by encouraging committee or other participation first?
 Does each individual on your board have a job description?
 Does your board chair have a job description?
 Has each individual on your board gone through an orientation?
 Does your board share a collective vision for the community?
 Does your board share a passion for the mission of the organization?
 Does each individual on your board have ready access to a copy of the bylaws?
 Do the bylaws indicate how the transfer of power will operate under both normal and extenuating circumstances?
 Does your organization operate according to its bylaws?
 Are the expectations of your board members clear?
 Are board members that fail to live up to their expectations asked off the board? (Is this a given, regardless of the person’s affluence or influence?)
 Are your board members provided board education at every meeting?
 Does each individual on your board understand the issues critical to the organization’s mission?
 Do your board agendas encourage participation around substantive issues?
 Are decisions consistently made on the basis of your organization’s mission, vision, guiding principles as well as defined criteria for success?
 Is every individual on your board offered opportunities for leadership?
 Do your board members know each other well enough to look forward to working with one another?
 Does your board take time at most meetings to evaluate what it is doing well and what it could do better?
 Does your board do an annual self-evaluation?
 Does your board make changes in its behavior on the basis of its evaluations?
 Does each committee have a purpose?
 Does each committee have goals?
 Are your committees held accountable for achieving their goals?
 Does your board have a crisis management plan in place?

If you answered “no” or “only sometimes” to most of these questions, you may be left wondering if there is a future for your organization when one or more of your key leaders leave. Don’t let that happen. Make a commitment today to begin working on those conditions to which you were not able to answer a resounding “yes” and soon you’ll realize that succession is no longer an issue because your board is functioning efficiently and effectively no matter who is in the driver’s seat.

The Cause and Corporate Funding

2011-07-18T07:18:00.000-07:00

The most misunderstood nonprofit income source is corporate funding. Why? Many nonprofit leaders only vaguely understand the reasons why businesses provide nonprofits money. Yet, most nonprofit leaders would like this income. To obtain it, one must understand the reasons why such partnerships form. Last month’s Added Value article listed five reasons:

· Business Opportunities. Businesses seek to increase their customer base and goodwill among current customers. Nonprofits that reach their customers or potential customers provide an opportunity.

· Employee Support. By maintaining loyal employees, businesses reduce recruitment expenses and improve employee morale. Supporting nonprofits demonstrates that the company has a heart.

· Repayment. The funds represent a concrete expression of business’ gratitude for the community support that made success possible.

· The Cause. A business leader has a passion for your mission. Business income provides him or her with a vehicle to act on their passion.

· Strategic. The business recognizes that working with a nonprofit is a chance to meet these or similar objectives with one check.

Are there additional reasons you would add to this list? Has your nonprofit been funded by a business for a different reason? Are you a business that funds a nonprofit? If so, why?

Read the article, How to Succeed In Business, What Your Leaders Need to Know About Corporate Funding here.

Serving on a Nonprofit Board is Good Business

2011-07-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

This summer several blog contributors are presenting a series of audio conferences entitled Serving on a Nonprofit Board is Good Business. The series prepares individuals to serve on boards of nonprofit associations. While aimed at board members, executive directors can also learn from them. A recent session, Engage! Provide Oversight, lead by Dr. Terrie Temkin provided these helpful tips:

1. Terrie suggested developing a checklist to help complete all board essentials quickly. She shared that most boards spend ALL their time on these essential but routine items, which leaves little time for thoughtful strategic conversations. Do you have a checklist for routine items? When can you develop one?

2. While you might already have one or more skeptics on your board, Terrie suggested you make this role available to everyone by creating a “skeptic of the day.” This person asks dig-deeper questions to stop automatic group consensus and encourages thoughtful questioning. By sharing the role you will hear a new voices and new questions.

3. You can’t be everywhere. Terrie recommended dedicating a few minutes at each meeting for a “By the Way Conversation.” During this time people share what they have heard about your organization and key community events that impact it. What can you discover if you regularly ask your board members what is new? What events did they attend since you last met? What did they learn? “By the Way Conversations” help you to learn all over the community.

In a few weeks the group presenting this series will meet for a planning session. Do you have any interest in a series like this for your board members? (The current series is for members of the Society for the Advancement of Consulting only.) Would you be interested in a similar series for executive directors? Let us know your thoughts so we can include them in our plans. Thanks!

The (Anxiety Causing) Panel Review

2011-06-27T05:42:00.000-07:00

The room is dark except for a projection screen that displays a slide outlining your proposal. Fourteen people sit at a conference table: eleven panel members and three staff. The name of your organization is called. You stand and move forward. At the podium, you introduce yourself. An icon on the screen flashes, “Questions. Questions. Questions.” The panel members shoot. And, you field a dozen questions (seems like more!) about your 63-page application, your reports from last year and literally anything that pops into the minds of the panelists or staff and strikes them as relevant.

It’s the grant panel review. You want to help you organization to receive the funds. You want to help the panel and staff to understand the importance of your work. How can you excel in this setting? Here, are three of more than a dozen guidelines we offer to nonprofits with whom we consult, to help them shine in this potentially anxiety-causing situation.

1. Prepare. Review your materials—an obvious suggestion. Here is a new twist. As your review, note areas where you want to provide updates. Where has the situation changed since your wrote the grant, e.g., a staff member was added with outstanding credentials? In your materials, do you find any vague answers you can clarify? Finally, what questions would you have if you were a panel member? Prepare how to respond. Prioritize points to make.

2. The Messages. Identify up to three key messages. What do panel members need to know—and remember after you leave the room? While “#1 Prepare” is about supplying critical details, messages are main ideas that carry emotional content. How will you change lives? How does your proposal meet the donor’s goals? Why is it urgent to fund this proposal this cycle? During the panel review in as many answers as possible include key messages.

3. Use We. During your presentation think and use “we.” This embraces the audience (and those they represent) in your work. It helps you to remember that they truly are potential partners and not, despite their numbers and the room’s darkness, inquisitors. However, using “we” is more than just tossing it into the conversation. Use a “we” that views the meeting as an opportunity to engage the panel members and staff in a deeper relationship with your organization.

Karen Eber Davis Consulting helps nonprofit organizations and businesses that work with them create sustainable income and innovative to get them there. With her help, nonprofits have earned more than ten million dollars in strategic grants—resulting in new funds and more resilient nonprofits. Sign up for Added Value today for more articles about nonprofit funding and innovation.

Seven Earned Revenue Tips

2011-06-13T06:14:00.000-07:00

We help nonprofits and groups that serve nonprofits with sustainable income and winning innovation. I just finished designing a project that generates income and mission (my 14^thsuch project). By July 2012, the project will generate $44,000 in yearly income and serve 200 new customers. Here are seven tips gleaned from the project to help you create sustainable income:

1. The new service involves flipping an existing one. While the project will serve traditional customers, the innovation repositioned a side event to a main one. How might you create something new and profitable with existing components?

2. Remember the goal: the project will be self-sustaining. You will be delighted with the projected mission results. Do not forget the goal.

3. Run the numbers. Estimate income and expenses early. Run them at your planning mid-point and at the end. Adjusting paper models is easy.

4. Pricing always involves trade-offs. You can serve more by charging less, but if you charge too little the program won’t survive. Remember #2.

5. Start small. To test the idea, my client piloted it in January with 18 people.

6. Control growth. Resist the temptation to ramp up a new effort too rapidly. In this plan, the first year takes the project to a sustainable scale, and leaves room for future growth. The organization has the capacity to earn an additional $20,000 and serve 100 more customers, but ramping up this much would cause unnecessary stress and risk service quality.

7. Tap many sources. In addition to earned revenue, the project income includes four of the other seven sources. Income diversity enhances stability. Successful cocktails take mixing.

For more help improving your income flow, see recent issues of Added Value.

Looking for Funding?

2011-05-23T05:39:00.000-07:00

This month’s Added Value gives nonprofit leaders an overview of one of the seven key sources of nonprofit income: government income. The article includes information about the three sub-categories of this funding sources and the steps a nonprofit needs to take to earn it. Here is an excerpt about the benefits of this source:

What are the benefits of government support?

· Significant Money. Government funding ranges from around $20,000 and reaches to multimillions. Individual donations, by contrast, start with $20 or $100 gifts.

· High Need. Government funds often help pay for needs that have low individual donor appeal, but high societal need like help for parents who abused their children, juvenile delinquents, or adults with mental health problems.

· Persuade Few. You only need to convince a handful of decision makers of the your work’s merit, like county commissioners, panel members, and staff. In contrast, individual donor databases include thousands of names.

· Renewal Opportunities. With contracts and grants, successful early birds often learn and successfully apply the rules of the game. These rules act as barriers that discourage new entrants.

To read the article, click here. To learn more about the seven income sources, subscribe to Added Value. Recent issues covered individual giving and mission earned income.

Got Fresh? 8 Ways to Immerse Yourself in New Income Possibilities

2011-05-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what value does an inspirational idea have when it helps you to solve a challenge? A library? Maybe an Amazon.com warehouse? When money seems like the obvious stumbling and impossible to earn, you need to find new ways to look at your situation. Have hope. You can solve your challenges. Over the last seventeen years, my work has been known for its innovation and creativity. Here are eight sources of inspirations I use when I need ideas to help nonprofit leaders deliver on their missions’ including the money to fund it. Pick one or more of the following and get fresh.

1. A children’s or teen book on the topic.

2. An adult book on topic—something old that you haven’t read in several years or something new.

3. New research on topic. Read whole articles or just the abstracts.

4. Art. How do artists depict the area you serve?

5. Scan new and old media: TV, video, newsletters, YouTube, ads, podcasts, and listservs.

6. Others like you. Visit nonprofits in an adjacent city when you travel. If you can’t afford the time, visit their websites. Call to introduce yourself and learn more.

7. Others not like you but who share the same or a similar need. How has the construction or another industry handled it? What would a past or current presidents do? How would someone whom you admire solve it?

8. Call on an expert. Consultants and national nonprofit service groups offer advise, articles and materials to help.

Need More Board Help Raising Funds From Individual Donors?

2011-04-27T05:35:00.000-07:00

This month’s Added Value includes a board member primer on individual donations. Besides providing basic knowledge about this funding source, it includes a section on how board members can help. Here is an excerpt.

How can I help as a board member? “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” Do you remember this song? It reminds us of the need for individual donations from nonprofit leaders. Individual donations begin with the people closest to the organization. The board, volunteers, staff, and customers make gifts first. Why? This group knows and loves the organization and is closest to it. They believe the cause is wonderful and vital. Some organizations set a specific dollar amount for board donations. Others ask for a meaningful gift that each board member determines his or her self.

Besides first gifts, sharing your passions with your connections is critical. For grass-root groups, this can be as simple as sending an upcoming special events announcement to your email list with a personal note, and following it up with five personal invitations. For larger organizations, consider serving on committees that plan for and ask for gifts. Make calls to make appointments with your peers. Make calls to thank donors. In all cases, help the nonprofit to network with potential donors.

Click here for the article, Waiting for Super Donor, What Board Members Need to Know About Individual Donations. This article is the second in a series of board primers about nonprofit income sources. To read rest of the series, start your free subscription to Added Value today.

Guilty! Prove Your Board Supports Your Organization

2011-04-04T07:23:00.000-07:00

A friend, a young pastor in his first congregation was exhausted. He was overworked. His board was not pulling their weight. Finally after months of frustration, he told the board how overworked he was and how he really needed their help. After three minutes of ominous silence, one member responded, “Pastor,” she said, “We’re glad to help. What would you like us to do?” He told them. He got the help.

Might more board help be available to you if you ask specifically for what you need? The March 30 Non-profit E-News of from the Community Foundation of Sarasota included an on-point tip about providing your board members with the support they need. This post shares two additional resources recently featured in Added Value (our free monthly newsletter) to help your board understand expectations and the support they can offer.

Resource #1. Guilty as Charged: Prove Your Board Supports Your Organization, lists specific items of board support you would use to if you wanted to convince a jury that your board supports your organization. Here are two of ten pieces of “evidence” to prove guilt:

Evidence #1. Gifts. Determine the amount of money your board gives over the course of a year. What is the total? What is the range of gifts? Has either increased in recent years?

Evidence #6. Stewardship. Besides leading in giving to the organization, guilty board members also encourage others to give. How many of your board members encourage existing donors to continue and enhance their relationship with your organization? For evidence include activities, like making thank you telephone calls, meeting with county commissioners who contract with your organization and visiting with donors to learn about their interests or to request major gifts.

Resource #2. The Board Support Chart takes the proofs of support discussed in the Guilty as Charged article and presents them in a graphic form. Provide each board member a copy of the chart, or one you adopt to fit the needs of your organization, in a file folder. Each meeting ask them to update it, so you can both measure their efforts to support your nonprofit.

To get the board help you need, ask for it. Be specific.

The Barricade: Solve Your Main Income Challenge

2011-03-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

You are driving smoothly along on the interstate. Ahead you see orange and white saw horses blocking your path. Behind them, large earth-moving equipment moves mountains of dirt. You slow down and prepare to stop.

Almost every viable nonprofit confronts a barricade in the road ahead. The barricade usually concerns income. For established organizations, the barricade is lack of money to pay for one specific need. For many, it is operating expenses or some portion of it, like staff costs. For others, their barricade equals funds for their least-donor-appealing clients. Funding for children might be relatively easy but for young adult males difficult. Is your barricade funding for one of your yearly production? Or, is it a capital need? Organizations that provide housing units barricade is money to construct or buy more units. What is your barricade?

Whatever makes up your barricade, it keeps you from achieving your mission in quantity. To make progress, you need to remove or reduce it. Do you believe the barricade can be removed or improved? How have you sought to overcome it in the past? What steps are you taking now? Have you decided to build new road or create a detour?

Our work, for the last seventeen years, has been helping nonprofits identify ways to make progress on their most pressing needs—often reducing or removing income-related barricades. We can help you to identify the key ingredients required for your success, find innovative ways to solve them (perhaps borrowing from sources beyond the nonprofit field) and move ahead. Contact us if you need help removing a barricade, barricades, building a new road or finding a detour that works.

Can You Make Money with Your Mission?

2011-03-21T06:09:00.000-07:00

Questions for Board Members to Ask

Are you a board member looking for earned or mission income opportunities? Before you start new income activities study your organization’s other mission income experiences. Has your organization earned mission income in the past? Were the efforts successful? Can their success be traced to marketing, the products or timing? Are the circumstances repeatable? What percentage of the cost of providing the service did or does the income cover? In short, what strengths and skills has your organization gained with mission income?

For more see March’s Added Value newsletter. It presents a quick overview of this nonprofit funding source for board members.

How Twitter Makes You a Better Presenter

2011-03-12T21:10:00.001-08:00

For a nifty exercise on how to hone the message you deliver when you present, see my new blog post for The Communications Network, How Twitter Helps Hone Communication.

Need Money? Check Your Assumptions

2011-03-10T06:10:00.000-08:00

From peers in the nonprofit world do you often hear assumptions about how nonprofits can or cannot earn income? Assumptions that hinder their ability to raise funds and earn money like:

“We could never charge a fee.”

“We can never get corporate money.”

“We can’t raise money from individuals.”

If your nonprofit can use more income (and which nonprofit can not?) it makes sense to re-consider the seven nonprofit income sources at least once yearly. Invest time to determine if conditions have changed. Identify any assumptions that need testing.

To help your review, here are the sources in order of the amount of revenue they provide for nonprofits sector as a whole:

1. Earned or mission income

2. Individual donors from annual appeals to bequests

3. Governments

4. Foundations and other groups

5. Corporations

6. Other income, non-mission related (the room that you rent and soda machine change)

7. In-kind, which is not cash but acts like it when matched to your needs

For more help see the most recent edition of Added Value and other fundraising and income related articles on our website.

Our Boards Must Understand How They Operate

2011-03-05T22:10:00.000-08:00

I just finished analyzing a governance assessment completed by 15 different organizations participating in a board building program sponsored by our local Community Foundation. It was fascinating. In many cases there would be one person from an organization that would answer the question in the affirmative about whether that organization had a Whistleblower Policy or a Records Retention policy – policies every organization must have. The rest of the respondents would answer “no” or “I don’t know.” In each of these cases, the executive director/CEO completed the survey along with board members. While I didn’t have the access required to manipulate the data, I’d bet my bottom dollar it was the executive director/CEO that was correctly answering the question because he or she was the one who ensured compliance. Even the answers to questions such as whether the organization employs term limits or a consent agenda revealed that oftentimes more than half the board members did not know if they did or didn’t.

While not surprised, I must admit I’m a bit disappointed. Clearly the majority of these organizations are operating according to proven practices, but the board is not aware of it. According to their answers to the question about the ease of getting a quorum, it doesn’t appear the problem lies with nonattendance. It seems as if the chief administrative officer is implementing the right policies and procedures but failing to share this with the board along the way.

What is the answer? First, maybe it’s time that the executive director/CEO turn over the implementation of board-related responsibilities to the board. Using the example above, this would mean that the development and dissemination of policies would be done by the board. And, if the board handles the job, the members would know the policies exist.

Second, perhaps the content of board education should be changed to focus more on proven practices and how the board complies with such practices. The bylaws committee might mention what section in the bylaws is guiding each action. The board development committee might create more or different talking points or initiate a short quiz at each board meeting designed to test whether the board knows how it is/should be operating. The orientation might be enhanced to ensure new board members understand what is expected and why.

Finally, there has to be a better communication. At meetings the board chair might make it a point to explain why certain actions are being taken. Committees might use a report form that spells out how recommendations relate to the organization’s strategic initiatives the budget, staffing and so on.

Hopefully, by working together more as a board each member of the board will know exactly how the board operates and why. Ultimately, that has to result in a more effective board.

Can Your Education Events Help You to Raise Money?

2011-02-14T05:27:00.000-08:00

Is one of your goals to educate the community? When you educate others do you do so in a way that enhances fundraising? Is it possible to educate and leave your audience more committed to your cause? The answer is yes. Here is an example:

A hospital foundation holds an annual education luncheon. The event’s cost covers it’s cost. The goal is to educate the community and enhance donor relationships. Staff and board members are on-hand to greet and welcome guests. The event’s one page double-sided program contains two brief presenter bios and the day’s events. It includes a paragraph noting that the event’s sponsor had, “through the generosity of the community, provided $4.5 million to advance oncology in the community.” A slide show throughout the event shows the foundation’s logo. All this is basic. You’ve seen these elements before and include many if not all of them in your events.

The Difficult But Worthwhile Difference to Replicate

The main program consisted of two doctors sharing the latest breakthroughs in their field. Sprinkled throughout their presentations they referenced, and in one case showed pictures, of new equipment purchased by the Foundation. They shared how it helped their work. They shared how it made a difference in the lives of their patients. While one can argue that this was self-serving, since the doctors were thanking donors for their gifts and hoping for more, the impression the doctors gave was one of grateful humbleness (not always a common doctor trait) for having access to cutting-edge tools. One never sensed it was a commercial. Instead, it was a sharing of facts from their perspective and the equipment was a natural part of the breakthroughs.

The event left one educated about newest advances—some of which attendees will remember a week later. More than facts, the education attendees got was an understanding of the foundation’s case. Buying new equipment, in this age of quick technology turnover is not exciting. What is exciting? Giving to enhance my hospital, to make it more competitive, to provide residents (including possibly me and my family) local quality care and creating grateful dedicated doctors.

This community education event did double duty and more. Do your education events do as much for your cause? For more ideas about how to develop income for your organization see the many articles, podcasts and other resources on our website.

Why Reduced Government Funding is a Good Thing

2011-01-31T13:11:00.000-08:00

You, like many nonprofits, are facing a cut or one of many cuts in your funding from government agencies. To many this is unwelcome news. While I see much handwringing by nonprofits about reductions, cuts can also be a blessing in disguise. Why? For many reasons, here are four:

1. Re-Invent Yourself. Reductions are an opportunity to decide how you wish to be funded. Government funding is only one of seven major nonprofit funding streams. Often, nonprofits chose it by default or because the money arrives in large attractive chucks. Is this the ideal way for you to be funded? This is a chance to examine the options and choose your ideal path.

2. Farewell to Restrictions. If you are tired of being unable to serve people who need it, because they fail to meet funding restrictions, more flexible funding with fewer restrictions is a “yes!”

3. Less Unnecessary Work. Perhaps your nonprofit is unique, but almost all nonprofits find that government funding requires extra work that you wouldn’t do (it doesn’t improve your outcomes) except to comply with the rules and retain the government money. If you can shift this effort into productive outcomes, it’s worthwhile.

4. Closer to Your Community. Getting your income from large chunks of government money, especially from state, province or federal sources, often isolates nonprofits from local market influences and needs. Growing diverse income sources will bring you in touch with these needs, demand new partnerships, innovative thinking and create greater income stability.

Why is reducing government funding is a good thing? In short, it opens up new possibilities. With creative effort and hard work, you can overcome the reductions you face. Before your current government funding shrinks further (it will!), take steps to grow your future using the resources you have now. If you wait, you risk having to start from dead stop. The sooner you begin the sooner you will be to say, “Reducing government funding was one of the best things that ever happened to our nonprofit.” Contact Karen for help.

Painless Giving

2011-01-29T14:54:00.000-08:00

Last month I blogged about three graduate students at Rutgers University that made a life-long pledge to give a significant portion of their incomes to those less fortunate. A common response I got to the post was similar to what the three themselves have heard: “How admirable. But I wonder how long they’ll maintain that pledge once they start having families and facing the everyday responsibilities of a mortgage and car payments? But must these commitments be mutually exclusive? Can’t one still give generously without negatively impacting one’s lifestyle? There are those that would answer a resounding “no” to the first question and “yes” to the second.

After posting that last blog, I heard back almost immediately from a colleague, Dr. Donna Goldstein. She wanted to share what she does to make a difference in others’ lives that take little more from her than her time. One idea she presented is that when she goes to the grocery store she takes liberal advantage of the frequent two for one offers, even though she rarely needs the second item. She keeps the one she needs and donates the second to her local food bank. She also haunts the second-hand stores, often finding just the perfect item for her wardrobe or home. She takes the money she saves by not buying new and donates it. On top of the good feeling she gets from that, she enjoys the pleasure of the hunt.

My brother, Dr. Larry Temkin, is a Professor II in the Philosophy Department at Rutgers. A moral philosopher internationally recognized for his work on inequality, he lectures on this topic regularly. He tells his students that while some, like Donna, may actually prefer finding something unique at the second-hand store, they can still buy new and make philanthropic contributions, all without necessarily affecting their desired lifestyle. As an example he might suggest that perhaps they have been lusting over a special pair of jeans that cost $150. They are going to buy the jeans, but they just haven’t gotten around to it. Then one day, the jeans go on sale. They pick them up for half off. They were perfectly willing to buy the jeans at $150, but only had to spend $75. They could take the $75 they saved and donate that to charity without taking a dime from the pocket they know they should be designating for charitable giving.

On a smaller scale – that does add up – they can become coupon shoppers. Fifty cents here, two dollars there… If they put aside their savings, in short order they will have a full piggy-bank to share with someone less fortunate. Again, it’s all out of money they have mentally already spent, so it seems less onerous than having to come up with “extra” money that they can donate. And, of course, if they are among those that empties the change from their pockets each night and throws it into a can to sit for years and years, they have a ready source of cash that will never be missed.

I’d love to hear your suggestions for painless giving.

Touch Goals

2011-01-04T05:51:00.000-08:00

Q: “Many boards like to set monthly goals for “touches” with new prospects. In your experience, what is a reasonable amount of “touches per month” for new corporate and individual prospects? My boss wants something like this and I don’t want to be way off base.”

A: The quick answer is that it varies organization-to-organization and situation-to -situation. No magic one-size-fits-all number exists. To establish your customized touch goals for new donors, consider several factors. The most important ones are results, flexibility and common sense. If you establish touch goals and find that your results are inadequate, revise numbers or your definition of what constitutes a touch. Also, any new touch goals (i.e., ten individuals and five corporations) should be comfortably placed on the backburner when other more beneficial opportunities arise. That is, if you have opportunities to work with seven known donors this month to bring in $25,000 each and it takes all your time, your touch goals become secondary—with no penalty. A donor-in-hand is worth more than twenty in the bush. Jerry Panas states that it can take 4.5 times the resources, staff, and energy to acquire a new donor as its does to keep a current one.

To establish the discipline necessary to meet your touch and other development office goals, see http://www.kedconsult.com/articles-resources/tracking-worksheet-for-donor-development/ . I developed this for donor development. I use something similar every day. On unstructured days, it will help you to remember to keep “the main thing” the main thing. After you adapt and use one like it for your work, evaluate it at the end of every month for results. Jiggle what you do until you find a stretch that motivates you, pleases your boss and creates the long-term results you seek.

Holiday Gifts for the Non Profit Communications Pro

2010-12-23T14:59:00.000-08:00

My new post at PhilanTopic, the Philanthropy News Digest blog, featuring great examples of Heart, Head & Hand(TM) communication, and the strategic use of story.

What Everyman Can Learn from Student Philanthropists

2010-12-22T12:37:00.000-08:00

I’m an avid NPR listener. For awhile, now, I’ve regularly been hearing a message from the Community Foundation of Broward (Florida) on my local station that goes something like this: Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are encouraging their fellow billionaires to pledge half their fortunes to charity. But why let them have all the fun. You can participate in the joy of giving by making a gift through the Community Foundation.

I don’t know how well people are responding to this proposition. While I think it’s extremely clever and I hope it’s successful, I’m sure a large number dismiss it, believing that the Gates and Buffets of the world can afford to give half their money away to charity and never even miss it. After all, Gates’ 2010 estimated net worth is $54 billion and most of us assume that one can still live pretty nicely on $27 billion. But for Main Street USA, where, according to the Federal Reserve Board’s 2010 survey, half of Americans have a net worth of less than $84,000, giving away a significant portion of your money to charity doesn’t seem very realistic.

Yet, three graduate students at Rutgers University think it’s doable. Philosophy majors Nick Beckstead, Tim Campbell and Mark Lee have made their own significant pledge to give away a set percentage of their annual income to causes that they feel will do the most good in the world – not just over the next few years, but for life.

The three say they were influenced by Australian applied ethics philosopher Peter Singer, who holds dual appointments as the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne. In 1972 Singer published an essay entitled “Famine, Affluence and Morality,” in response to the mass starvation found in Bangladesh. In that article Singer argues that it is a moral imperative for persons of affluence to give more to humanitarian causes than they typically do: "People do not feel in any way ashamed or guilty about spending money on new clothes or a new car instead of giving it to famine relief. (Indeed, the alternative does not occur to them.) This way of looking at the matter cannot be justified. When we buy new clothes not to keep ourselves warm but to look 'well-dressed' we are not providing for any important need."

Few would classify graduate students as affluent and therefore individuals to be held to Singer’s standard. But in a December 11, 2010 Wall Street Journal article by Shelly Banjo, “Pledging to Give What They Can,” Beckstead says. "Someone who makes $25,000 is in the top 3% of the world's wage earners." Campbell adds, "It puts things into perspective and makes you realize you're on a much higher ladder than you think."

When I read the Wall Street Journal article I was incredibly impressed and began sharing the story with friends, family and colleagues. The responses I got all credited the three for pledging something so admirable. But, almost to a person added that they’d like to follow the three over the next 10 years as they graduate, start to have families and take on obligations for feeding, sheltering, educating and paying health care costs for those families – especially in America, where the costs for such basics are far more than in many other parts of the world.

The three have obviously been told this to their face. Beckstead is again quoted in the Wall Street Journal article as saying, "When people see us pledging to give away their income, some are critical and say this is an idealistic idea that they'll realize is unworkable in the real world. We think otherwise; this is a long-term decision."

I believe that a clear vision and commitment to that vision are the first steps in actually creating the world we all want to live in. Beckstead, Campbell and Lee have that vision and commitment. Whether or not they move away over the years from the level of financial commitment to which they’ve recently pledged,they will undoubtedly continue to give. And, right now they serve as extraordinary role models. Obviously, they are role models for other young people, who might be influenced to give more of their discretionary funds to charity or even join or start a chapter of Giving What We Can – an organization pioneered in Oxford, England that the three are bringing to Rutgers. But they, probably more than Gates and Buffet, are role models for the rest of us too. After all, if they can make this commitment on a 20-something’s salary, the rest of us should be able to pledge at least a bit more.

There is beautiful saying by Leo Burnett, “If you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.” Keep reaching Nick Beckstead, Tim Campbell and Mark Lee.

Rent to Own

2010-12-20T11:40:00.000-08:00

Our November 2010 issue of Added Value focused on space solutions for nonprofit organizations. Many organizations expend a large portion of their income on rent, mortgage payments and space costs. After personnel, it’s usually the second largest expense. The article offers a broad list of options to explore your space needs—its likely that one of these will help you to spend less on space and more on mission, either now or in the years to come. If you have space challenges check it out. If you want to increase the resources your organization has for mission, study it and implement your best options.

The article starts with fifteen options. It will remain permanently under-construction. I will add to it as I encounter new ideas. To help, send me your space answers. If you wish, I’ll be glad to credit you for them.

Here is the first addition:

#16. Rent to Own

Consider if you have a relationship with someone with who can buy a space for you. If yes, work with them to purchase it and then enter into a rent-to-own agreement with them. Assuming the rent payment in similar to the one you now pay, over time you will move from being a renter to owner, without the need for capital campaign. One local organization recently found that this arrangement allowed them to house all their staff in one building (instead of scattered sites in two counties), pay the same rent and put down permanent roots.

Give Your Regards to Broadway

2010-12-13T06:48:00.000-08:00

A recent Wall Street Journal article, “A Different Kind of Broadway Twofer” provides an excellent stepping off point for nonprofits that seek to improve their relationships with potential donors and the community. Improved relationships lead to greater nonprofit income opportunities.

The article explores different techniques theaters have recently added to enhance patron’s experiences before and after the show. Designed to match the play’s content, they include things like singing for departing audiences, offering refreshments around the theme and creating a “football shrine” in the lobby.

According to the article, audience enrichment efforts help patrons to feel, “welcome and well-tended, and, in the process giving them a little something extra for their money.” Most are low-cost and employ a creative twist that makes them perfect in concept for nonprofits to adapt and adopt. Read and study the article. Consider what you can offer at public performances, special events or around counseling sessions with troubled teens. What can you offer that will make your guests, whether donors, customers or members of the community feel welcome, well-tended and give them a little something extra for their money or time?

For more about improving customer experiences, whether they are donors, customers or the community, listen to our newest podcast with retail expert, Doug Fleener.

Want Money? A Basic Toolkit

2010-12-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

What lies between you and income for your nonprofit? Here are eight key glass-shattering tools to use to break the glass between you and the income your organization needs:

Board Credibility. When you list your board members, do people nod and indicate their respect? Do you have a nominating committee looking at board member recruitment for this year and future years?

Ask. Does anyone ask anyone for money? Both passively (i.e., a written request) and in person, “Will you donate to the annual appeal this year?”

Realistic Ideas and Actions. You have neither too many fundraising ideas (they swarm around you like mosquitoes at dusk) or too few (the same old, tried, true—and boring). Instead, you have two or three that energize you, your board and staff. One stands out. It’s ripe. In ink, you schedule time to bring it to completion.

Work Quality. You produce results worthy of investment whether you call them outcomes, outputs or products. These change people’s lives. You offer donors the chance to participate in helping to make those changes.

No Secret. There is good word about you “on the street.” People talk about your efforts and create a positive buzz. This is no accident or byproduct. You intentionally let people know about your important work. You are never too busy to get the word out.

Strategy for Us. Your strategy embraces a community. In return, it invites that community to embrace you monetarily and with their esteem. A neighborhood school’s community is both the families it serves and the neighborhood. If you’re a parenting education program you’re “them” includes parents and all people in the your service area who care about children and families.

Sustainability. You have a long haul plan to thrive. Donors who invest in you today or include you in their estate plans recognize both as worthwhile investments.

Partnerships. While you might do it alone, you recognize that partners enhance resources, bring new dimensions to your work and provide your customers better outcomes. You help those who invest with you to understand that you provide a “match” to their gifts through partnerships. “If you give us $10 in cash, we turn that into $100 of service with our various partnerships.”

Use these glass-shattering tools to raise your organization to reach through he glass ceiling that keeps you away from earning the money you need to meet your mission. For more help regarding income, see our Money-tastic Audio Series at and sign-up for our Monthly Newsletter Added Value.

Let Someone Else Take Care of the Hood

2010-11-29T06:39:00.000-08:00

I saw the power of decay this month.

Our neighborhood is forty years old. It includes 80 homes that share a common water front-lot and entrance. Years ago the deed restrictions unraveled. The good news is that there are no neighborhood cops running around fining people for infringements. We all act as reasonable human beings with a vested interest in maintaining our curb value. If not, you get anonymous phone calls to take in your trashcans when you leave them out too long. Your neighbor will mow your lawn if it gets out of hand and let you know about it. Neighbors collect your papers and put them at your door, if you neglect to cancel them before a trip. Good community at work. Peer pressure at its best.

The bad news in that since dues are optional, recruiting board members for the neighborhood association is a struggle. People move in and are enthusiastic for about three to five years. After years of monthly meetings, the recruits tire and are ready to let someone else “do it.”

This exhaustion combined with steeply declining real estate value lead to the front entrance became an overgrown tangle. Yet, every day the residents saw it as they drove in. Seeing the entrance is a nasty condition lead to movement.

Last month, in one long-hour 30 people joined to rid our neighborhood of 3 years of Florida abundant growth. Seeing is believing. People had to see that their contribution was important. People had to see what lack of leadership meant before they were motivated to act. People needed to see the decay. At the event, Jim ran around collecting names and emails. He found a set of willing and enthusiastic board recruits.

One takeaway from this article is the excellent concept of creating a one-hour cleanup party at Sunday noon. Another is your thoughtful answer to this question: is there something you should intentionally let go of at your nonprofit to fire up your community to action?

All the More Reason for Nonprofits to Collaborate…

2010-11-23T14:54:00.000-08:00

I recently returned from the BoardSource Leadership Forum in San Francisco. BoardSource President and CEO Linda Crompton opened the convening. One of her comments was that innovation is not necessarily an event or a singular killer idea. It tends to be emergent – the result of group interaction.

I was not home more than a day before my business partner, Gail Meltzer, send me a YouTube video featuring Steven Johnson who wrote Where Good Ideas Come From. In it, Johnson suggests that true innovation comes from a series of “slow hunches” that build on one another and require time to truly incubate. Most often, he says, it is the collision of idea from others that makes the hunch lurking at the back of one person’s mind actually develop into something worthwhile. He states, therefore, that we must find spaces that will allow people with different ideas to come together and bounce those ideas off one another. He offers the analogy of the coffee houses and salons of the early 20th Century that resulted in such great art and literature.

If Crompton and Johnson are correct, then the leadership of organizations that focus internally – that is, determining how they can become better funded, attract the strongest board or gain a reputation as the ‘premier organization’ in their field – are actually working counter-productively to that end. Their organizations will never be recognized as exceptional if they don’t innovate. And, as long as they choose to avoid the interactions with the larger environment that lead to the cross-fertilization of ideas, they are doomed to merely doing more of the ‘same old, same old.’

In my mind this means that leaders must create opportunities to meet frequently with their counterparts in a wide variety of organizational entities to dialog about and to piggy-back off of ideas. The entities they choose to meet with must not only be those that are doing similar work, or that share similar visions for the future, but organizational entities that bring very different viewpoints to the table.

Obviously, this requires a certain level of trust. Therefore, the convening groups will want some rules of engagement. The guidelines for brainstorming are appropriate here – e.g., to generate as many ideas as possible, to avoid judgment, to allow time for clarification, etc. The most important guideline, however, is adopting an attitude that, once thrown out, an idea belongs to the group as a whole. Any modifications of that idea are for the benefit of the community as a whole.

Just think what we could accomplish in our communities if we all took this approach!

Grateful

2010-11-22T06:11:00.000-08:00

Its that time of year. What is on your list of items for which you are grateful? This week, as you are thankful for parents, children and siblings, the turkey, the stuffing, the cranberry sauce and friends near and far, remember to be thankful for the opportunity to work in the nonprofit field. Where you experience--

Miracles. People who give money and time to improve your community in ways that they see and ways they never see.
Little Steps. Nonprofit leaders who improve their organizations and reach their missions every day by reaching out to one more donor and finding a way to serve one more person.
Big Steps. To make them more responsive to changing market conditions, leaders undertaking major changes, i.e., switching from government to individual donor or earned revenue funding streams.
Company. People forming new partnerships to improve their reach and offer more.
Growth. Growing professionalism of staff, board members and supporters both inside and outside of nonprofit organizations and
Changing Lives. In nonprofits changing live is an everyday opportunity.

Space Solutions

2010-11-15T05:49:00.000-08:00

The November issue of Added Value, our newsletter for nonprofit leaders, contains an article with fifteen tried and true space solutions for nonprofit organization. To read the article click here. These solutions will help you to solve many of your nonprofit space challenges.

However, you probably have used other solutions to solve space dilemmas. Everyday nonprofits creatively solve space needs. Help us to grow this solution list. Share your ideas here and we will update the article and credit you. Help nonprofits move from spaced out to spaced in.

Little Salt Spring: A Model to Explore Your Possibilities

2010-11-08T06:26:00.000-08:00

Last week, we had the privilege of attending an event cosponsored by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County and the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The event shared the University of Miami’s work at Little Salt Spring, uncovering prehistoric remains in south Sarasota County. Attendees at the standing-room-only event were members of the Community Foundation’s Legacy Society and Rosenstiel alumni.

While I ate my plantain and bacon skewer, I identified these win-win outcomes for the event’s cosponsors.

For the Community Foundation of Sarasota:

- An interesting program about a local resource for Legacy members as a benefit for their continued relationship with the Foundation

- An opportunity to meet local University of Miami graduates and share with them the Foundation’s work

- Open the door to future partnerships with University’s’ advancement office and explore using the joint program model with other institutions

For the University of Miami:

- Offer an onsite program to the many University of Miami graduates in the greater Sarasota area

- Share an interesting project in need of funding for its next phase with alumni and Sarasota philanthropists

- Open the door to future partnerships with other community foundations across the state

- Enhanced name recognition in the Sarasota area for freshmen recruitment efforts

How can you use this model, or elements of it, in your nonprofit to grow and expand your relationships with people who potentially care about your mission? Consider these questions to help you identify potential partners and programs:

1. Which universities or colleges either local or outside your area have a large alumni presence in your community? Or if you are a college, where do you have a large alumni presence?

2. For any college or university you identify, does the college have a distinguished speaker or project in your field locally? For the college, what connections do you have with that community?

3. Can you offer an education program using their resources at your site to appeal to your donors/community and to their alumni?

4. If no, what other possibilities for interactions are there to create win-wins for future partnerships?

For more on partnerships see: Added Value February 2010

Do Your Fundraising Efforts Raise More Than Money?

2010-11-01T06:22:00.000-07:00

In your income development work-- what can you obtain besides money?
Consider . . .

Enhanced branding
Activities that induce future gifts
Educated supporters
An educated community that understand why contributions & support matter
A smarter, more invested board
Enhanced relationships with community leaders

Which of these besides money do your fundraising efforts create? What might you create with a little tweaking in your income development effort? Can you obtain all of them? Is there something else that you can add to the list that obtain or would like to obtain?

Does your income development work create something more?
For more ideas, read 7 Lessons to Increase Fundraising Success

Study on Women Donors Presents Lessons for Board Recruitment

2010-10-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

A study released this week by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy showed that women are the largest donors. They give more in actual dollars and they give more frequently than men. This is a reality that holds true regardless of the women’s own economic status; and, the disparity of giving increases with the individuals’ income. For instance, 35.2 percent of women who earn $23,509 or less annually make charitable contributions, opposed to 27.5 percent of men who earn at that same level. When income rises to at least $103,000, 96 percent of women give to charity, while only 75 percent of men of similar means give. The results, culled from a sample of 8,000 American households, also revealed that women typically give because they care about the work that is being done. Men tend to give because they are asked.

This study is already shaking up many who have traditionally turned to powerful men in the community for large financial commitments. However, it should also shake up those who are recruiting for boards of directors. According to the Urban Institute study, “Nonprofit Governance in the United States: Findings on performance and accountability from the first national representative study” by Francie Ostrower, while women make up almost half of all boards in the US (46 percent), they tend to be found on the boards of smaller organizations – typically organizations with budgets under $100,000. The percentage of women serving on the largest (budgets of $40 million plus), most prestigious boards is only 29 percent.

One reason for the above may be that, according to Ostrower’s findings, women often do not make the cut when organizations use financial skills and reputation in the community (“affluence and influence”) as recruiting criteria. If board members are expected to be among the biggest and most committed givers, the Women’s Philanthropy Institute’s study should cause us to question whether organizations are shooting themselves in the foot when they actively solicit more men than women.

Perhaps of even more import is the difference the study found in why people give. Will Brown’s work shows that belief in the mission is the most important factor related to board performance. Conversely, Candace Widmer, in a now classic study, found that joining a board because a friend asks is a temporary incentive and provides neither ongoing rewards nor participation. So, unless the organization is quickly able to provide these board members with other, more meaningful incentives, they will not stay involved. Does it not make more sense, therefore, to recruit those who are already motivated by what the organization is doing? We now know empirically, this means recruiting more women with a demonstrated interest in our organization’s mission.

Using Good Peer Pressure

2010-10-25T05:34:00.000-07:00

The Secret to Turning Consumers Green, a Wall Street Journal article last Monday, discussed effective methods to encourage consumer green behavior. Which hotel placard did researchers find to be the most successful to get guests to reuse their towels? The one with the most peer pressure. “Join your fellow guests in helping save the environment.” Customizing the wording created greater towel reuse, “80 percent of the guest who stayed here in Room 231 reused their towels.” Peer pressure, it turns out is the magic that entices green behavior.

Since this is the case with green behavior, can you also apply peer pressure to encourage support to your organizations? Anyone using placards in your conference room that state that the last five people who sat in the seat gave $1,000 to help bring children art? Are you using a monthly “peer pressure” chart that lets board member know how their giving stacks up compared to their fellow board members? Are you encouraging giving with your season ticket holders or members with peer pressure? On the reply card, do you state the percent of your season ticket holders that make additional donations of at least $10? How do you use good peer pressure to increase your income or other support to your organization? How might you?

Are Your Income Expectations Realistic?

2010-10-18T05:37:00.000-07:00

Do you expectations match reality? Use this checklist to test them.

Are your income expectations realistic? Yes, if you . . .

1. Base them on experience. You earned a similar amount in the past.

2. Establish them around industry standards. That is, someone in your sector regularly achieves this outcome with the same kind of inputs you plan. Your organization will struggle to make the funds it needs if it invests 5 percent of its budget to obtain foundation funding vs. the national standard of around 18 percent.

3. Support them with a solid strategy. Expenses less other income does not equal the amount of individuals’ donations you will raise. You can have all the pieces to make a ship model in a bottle, but without the instruction sheet, the strategy that gets you from here to there --the model will gather dust. For income, how exactly will you increase individual donations by 5 percent next year? What will you do today to work toward that goal?

4. Have access to the required resources. You can’t make spaghetti if you lack pasta and tomatoes. Do you have what you need to do the job? For your planned giving effort, do you have donors who have been giving consistently for seven years?

5. Own or invest to gain the necessary skills. You can have a bathing suit, plenty of grease and be at the shore, but this doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful swimming the English Channel. Do people in your organization feel comfortable asking for money?

6. Commit. You, your board and members may understand surviving requires different actions, but if all of you continue to embrace change halfheartedly, over time your expectations will become unrealistic.

7. Flex, as needed, in response to changing conditions. Groups who had the base, industry knowledge, skills, strategies, resources and commitment for a winning capital campaign, faced new challenges in the face of the Great Recession.

The more of these criteria you can say yes to the more realistic are your income expectations. For more about setting realistic expectations see Setting Realistic Expectations About Income. This article is the lead article in this month’s Added Value Newsletter, subscribe today.

Thinking of Entering a New Market?

2010-10-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

Here are five key questions to ask and thoughtfully answer as you plan this step:

1. Who are you?

2. What services will you offer?

3. Why are you needed?

4. What value will you provide?

5. How will you relate to other efforts?

Your customers, potential donors and supporters will ask these questions, even if they use other words. Use your answers to structure your planning efforts.

Low Cost Employee Reward: Add Meaning

2010-10-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

At Friday’s planned giving luncheon, I asked Fran Levinson, Vice President at the Sarasota Boys and Girls Club, to identify the best part of her job. “The time I get to spend with the kids,” she replied without hesitation. Fran works in the Club’s administration offices, so she relishes the chance to provide club tours which gives her an opportunity to interact with hundreds of youth.
In August in this blog, I shared the availability a podcast Laura Mikuska and I created about low-cost employee rewards. The podcast shares a dozen or so ideas. To the list of rewards let’s add, “Helping employees to identify what provides meaning for them and incorporate it into their routine.” For many, like Fran, creating meaning will be a chance to see the impact of their work first hand. For some this will mean mixing with the youth you serve. For others, it will be talking with customers after a performance. For some, it might be a chance to deliver meals for a week once a year. Your organization has many meaningful “touch points.”
The list of low cost employee rewards need to continue to expand. What ideas do you have? What works in your shop?

Focus on Mission to Achieve Results

2010-10-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

Last week Kathy Kingston, Fundraising Auction Consultant and Professional Auctioneer, provided us with an overview on auctions and revenue streams for non profits. The most important thing to remember, she stressed, was to focus on your branding, mission and message at all times. In her experience, non profits that are good at this are great at raising funds.

She explained that most non profits who hold events and charity auctions focus their energies on promoting the event itself, rather than the reason behind the event, which is, of course, to support the non profit's mission. While it's fun to attend a party, you need to pull at your attendees heartstrings by focusing all your remarks, stories and materials on your mission. She reminded us that events are just another vehicle to enhance your messaging, just like your newsletter or website.

Focus your energies on your mission at all times - you will achieve better results in the long run.

Laura Mikuska
Fund development & event specialists
Mikuska Group

Partnership Unknowns

2010-09-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

Partnerships always include unknowns. This summer, my husband and I vacationed in the Canadian Rockies. In Banff, because of grizzlies, Consolation Lake Trail was limited to groups of four or more. Day Three of the trip, we headed to the trailhead hoping it wouldn’t take long to double our party so we could use the highly recommended, but less frequently used path. As we approached it, we discussed that since we were Floridian flat-landers still getting our mountain legs, we didn’t want to hold up any eager young athletes. We needed older adults or a family for hiking partners.

At the trailhead, we found Walter and Granita, an older adult couple from Germany, waiting to hike to the destination. Delighted, we set off on the gorgeous, cool morning following their lead past the bear warning sign and over the boulders covering the trail. As we walked, we discussed travels, this trip and our respective homes. As we waked father we discussed-- us huffing-- that they loved to hike in the Alps and that they did so year-round. Walter and Granita, it turns out, were excellent, experienced hikers who attacked Consolation Trail with gusto. For three hours, we pushed to keep up with them.

Partnerships, even when you get exactly what you hope for, often turn differently than you expect. Nonetheless, they may have great value. The trip to Consolation Lake was a highlight. Even though arrived at the destination much faster than expected, our partnership with Walter and Granita, made the journey much more rewarding . . . and amusing.

To expand your thinking about partnerships review our September Added Value Newsletter (http://www.kedconsult.com/wp-content/themes/kedconsult/newsletters/sept-2010.php)

Accountability for Non Profits: A cautionary tale

2010-09-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

This week the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) broke the story that some charitable organizations in Canada were using "professional fundraisers" to raise much-needed cash for their cause. It turns out some charities are paying astronomical sums for little return. In the case of an organization raising money for research into childhood leukaemia, $3.2 million of the 4.2 million raised over the last four years was paid to the telemarketing firm they hired. Read the story.

There are reasons why non profits and donors alike should pay attention to news like this. An organization has to be accountable to its donors. If it is receiving only one quarter of the money raised in its name, it should be re-examining how it chooses to raise those funds. As a donor, I would be appalled to know that my chosen charity was not receiving maximum benefit from my donation.

That said, it does cost money to raise money. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) guidelines stipulate that expenditure to revenue ratios should be no more than 35 per cent. If you're spending more than that, you're not spending it on charitable activities, and you should have your charitable status questioned or even revoked.

One additional comment about the CBC's use of the term "professional fundraisers". Those of us who pride ourselves on being part of the profession of fundraisers take umbrage with the negative undertone of the use of the term. We agree to abide by the Ethical Standards set out by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. AFP works hard to inform both its members and the giving public that there are ethical ways to give and raise money. Those that choose to ignore these standards do so at their own peril.

Non profits should continue to use outside consultants if they lack internal expertise or are short on staff. Hiring an expert to guide you through a capital campaign or help plan an event makes good fiscal sense. Finally, it's the relationships you build with your constituents and donors that will increase your bottom line - not farming that job out to the lowly telemarketer on the other end of the phone line.

Laura Mikuska
Fund development & event specialists
Mikuska Group

Return on Every Dollar You Spend

2010-09-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

What do a group of marketing specialists have to share with nonprofit leaders about how to make their limited advertising dollars count?

Plenty, it turns out.

The following condenses down five 8 x 11 pages of notes from today’s one-hour presentation with experts J. Clifford Curley, Jane Bennett, Rue Ann Porter, Carrie Rasmussen and Gayle Williams during the 2010 Nonprofit PR and Marketing Forum.

In your ads and marketing materials:
• J. Clifford Curley suggests we use donor centric communications or “people talk.”
• Jane Bennett gave four rules of thumb for preparing winning ads: attention (draw eye), interest (you have seconds), desire (I want to be involved) and action (call for response). Knowing your vision, mission, strategy, business goals, marketing plan, target audience, etc., comes before designing ads or other materials.
• Gayle Williams shares that social media is a game changer—yes, but it also not a game changer. Social media is another tool or tactic for your nonprofit but it needs to fit within your overall strategy (not a game changer). Yes, social media is a game changer. It provides platforms that allow you to speak directly to your audience.
• Rue Ann Porter reminds us that PR and paid ads can work very well together. She suggests you consider your key prospect in both quantitative and personal aspects. What is their age and demographics about them? But, also what is their day like?
• When you look for media partners, Carrie Rasmussen recommends that you know what you want and what you want to achieve. She encourages you to be aware of the benefits you offer to the community and to your media partner. Collaboration is a powerful tool to help you “stand out.”

Overall, how can you take advantage of limited advertising dollars? Much planning and some work. Find your content in a quality strategic plan. Develop a PR and Marketing plan that includes the messages you want to share in the next few months. Then, work the plan.

The Tray of Reading Glasses

2010-09-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

At the front desk of the restaurant --fifth day of travel, thirteenth meal-on-the-road —sat a small tray with six pairs of colorful readers. This small gesture, aimed at helping 40+ patrons see the menu in the candlelight, was like a lighthouse at dusk. It indicated more. It promised that in the next hours, Newport’s Bouchard Restaurant & Inn was going to provide more than calories to satisfy hunger. And indeed it did.

You care about the people who come to your sites. What simple gestures can you make to let them know this? Traditionally, banks offer children lollipops and waiting areas have magazines. Can you offer something distinctive—that people need but often forget—that communicates your care for them?

The Feasibility Study - Take the Guesswork out of your Capital Campaign

2010-09-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

Your non profit organization decides it needs to raise a significant amount of money for various projects and you want to run a capital campaign (also known as a comprehensive campaign). The cost of all the projects becomes your campaign goal. But how do you know if your goal is realistic?

One way of gauging your goal is to conduct a feasibility study. You can test various things in the study, including your case for support, your organization's reputation and recognition in the community and your campaign components and goal as well as your campaign readiness. The results of the study may surprise you.

One post-secondary institution was convinced they were ready to launch a major campaign for various projects on campus. They wisely decided to invest in a feasibility study to be as confident as possible in their decision to launch the campaign. They polled 50 prominent citizens who were top prospects and were astonished at the results.

The respondents felt they were not ready to launch a campaign, for many reasons:

- their reputation in the community was not as favourable as they assumed

- they would have had difficulty recruiting a campaign cabinet because of their community image - few wanted to be associated with their brand

- they felt their goal was 10 times too ambitious

- only 20% of respondents said they would donate to the institution.

Once the reality set in, they regrouped and spent the next 5 years turning things around. They built relationships, improved their image by investing in the community and recruited board members from leading corporations and institutions. The result? They were able to launch a highly successful multi-million dollar campaign to build new campus infrastructure and fund research, scholarships and bursaries. They continue to receive community support for their initiatives - their efforts made everyone sit up and take notice. All because they invested in a feasibility study!

Laura Mikuska

Mikuska Group

Fund Development & Event Specialists

Summer Reading: The House That Love Built

2010-09-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday one of my emails included this quote from Jean Monnet, “Nothing is possible without individuals; nothing is lasting without institutions.” The need for individuals and institutions and the potential conflict between them recapitulates one of the themes in The House That Love Built--the story of Millard and Linda Fuller and Habitat for Humanity.

Does it really take individuals? When Fuller was asked about how much money you needed to form a Habitat chapter, he said, “You have to have at least a dollar. It would be fiscally irresponsible to start a project with less than a dollar. But if you have dollar and you’ve got committed folks you can start and God will bless your meager resources…” Today worldwide Habitat for Humanity and The Fuller Center for Housing, which the Fuller’s began in 2005, have over 1,500 affiliates and partners—while it takes a more than a dollar to sustain them, single dollars created the initial foundations for over 350,000 homes these two organizations have built.

While the book is often a treatise in defense of Fullers, the book’s value for the nonprofit leader is the questions it raises about founders and the institutions they create. Might it have been possible for Habitat and Fuller to reach an accord without the public conflict that took place when the board fired Fuller? What might the Fuller have done differently? The Board? When might those efforts have started? How can an organization continue to benefit from the gifts of dynamic founders if and when they come into conflict with organization building? From this example, if you are a board member, what changes will you make at your organization? If you are a founder, how can you help your legacy to continue?

Summer Reading: Jumping Hurdles

2010-08-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

The History of the Schoenbaum Human Service Center of Sarasota

In my hunt for books that tell nonprofit stories, I found this booklet. Dr. Kay Glasser, who died early this year, tells about her magnificent obsession to create a human service center. At the Center she created, nonprofits receive “free rent” and those in need receive multiple services.

The booklet’s biggest lesson is to remind nonprofit leaders of the importance of creating by-laws that serve your organization. The Center’s first by-laws called for a board of directors composed solely of representatives of the agencies housed in the Center. This resulted in two challenges. First, board members had the natural tendency to vote in their own agencies interests. Second, according to Dr. Glasser, she had to do the fundraising without board help because they were busy fundraising for their own organizations. Would the Center have been better served by creating a board of influential citizens with agency representatives serving an advisory role?

Dr. Glasser also shares the many other hurdles she overcame in the eight years or so it took to move from concept to grand opening and serving 15+ agencies. Here you can read stories of trying and trying again and finding people willing to help, especially in banks and in city government. Besides the by-laws lesson, the nonprofit leader, in this short read, will be reminded about the value of perseverance, asking for help and asking for money . . .from people who have it.

Who Should Facilitate the Exit Interview?

2010-08-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

The other day a respected colleague and good friend, Carol Weisman, sent a copy of her latest blog post entitled, “Don’t Just Whack’em and Plaque’em: Exit Interviews for Retiring Board Members.” As all of Carol’s writings, it dealt with an important subject, was informative and had me in stitches – Carol is one of the smartest and funniest people I know. She spoke to the value of doing an exit interview and shared five excellent questions to use in such a situation. My only quarrel was that she put the responsibility for doing the exit interview on the executive director. I have always believed an exit interview should be conducted by the board, in the person of the chair or a member of the governance/board development committee.

She and I went back and forth with our arguments. She felt that the executive director is the constant – the one who will be there after the entire board turns over. I reasoned that there is no guarantee that the executive director will be there tomorrow, let alone years down the road. I know too many organizations that make that position a revolving door. But even in the most stable organizations, a lot of long-time executive directors are reaching the point where retirement is starting to look pretty good. We’re also starting to see a number of less fortunate dying with their boots on.

Carol asked me to honestly examine how many boards step up to the plate and take on this responsibility. While I concede that the job often defaults to the executive director, by accepting that role, the executive director makes it that much easier for the board to abdicate its responsibility in the future. It is the board that benefits most from learning what it could/should be doing differently to maximize, or at least improve, its directors’ experiences. The interviewer should be taking notes that can be kept in a board book for easy referral by future boards. Carol argued that future boards won’t bother to look back. I of the “you get what you expect school” retorted that debriefing should be an expected part of the job. After heating up cyber-space for a couple of days, we agreed to disagree.

However, I was like the store clerk who gets in an argument with a customer. Long after the customer leaves, the clerk is whining about that customer to everyone else she comes in contact with that day. I ran the arguments by another colleague, Jane Garthson. Jane said definitively that it was the board’s job to conduct exit interviews. However – sneaky devil! – she said she understood if an executive director wanted to conduct his or her own exit interview to learn what he or she might do differently in the future. So, this brings me to the question of the day. What, if any, are the arguments that we are all missing? If you even agree that exit interviews for departing board members are valuable, who do you want to see facilitating them? Why?

More Than A Pat On The Back Low Cost-Low Work Employee Rewards

2010-08-23T05:59:00.000-07:00

You don’t have a lot of money or other resources, but you do want to your staff to know how much you appreciate them. Listen to this new podcast. In it, Laura Mikusa and I share a dozen inexpensive and effective ways to help you show employees your gratitude.

Quality of Your Mission: A Cautionary Tale

2010-08-16T11:57:00.000-07:00

Amongst the many items in the storage unit from my parent’s house was a letter from 1945 from the Buffalo Evening News. It thanked my mother for helping to raise $506.43 for the “News Smoke Fund.” The letter went on to thank her and her friends for their efforts to “keep ‘em smoking”. It offered thanks on behalf of “every solider, sailor, marine, coast guardsman and others from Buffalo and Western New York.”

My mother never smoked. She was careful to provide an ongoing education to make sure her four children never smoked. Yet in 1945 before any of us existed, she helped to raise funds for cigarettes to support the war effort and those in the service during World War II.

Why is this a cautionary tale? It reminds us that:

1. Missions need to be reexamined to make sure they are current.

2. Missions need to go deep. Over sixty-five years, “Let them know we care about them” would have served better than “keep ‘em smoking”. The latter has not aged well—in fact its rather horrifying. Missions built on core values will age better.

3. Mission activities need careful planning. What else might the people of Western New York done besides “keep ‘em smoking”? Likewise, what else might you do besides your current programs?

For a related article on writing mission statements see How to Develop a Great Mission Statement.

The Doors in Your Castle

2010-08-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

Picture yourself in the large castle your organization has developed over the ages. It is well built and solid. Today, you discover a new part of the castle. A hallway leads you into an expansive room filled with doors. Each door represents a different future you might pursue. Perhaps, you would like to go to the garden outside, because it is lovely and full of fruit. Or, perhaps you would like to climb high to the turret and see the countryside around you. Or, it might be time to clean out the dungeon.

Finding all of the doors and identifying where they lead is critical to future planning. Finding all the doors in advance helps you to find all the great possibilities. Finding all doors allows you to compare and to contrast different futures—before you follow them. You don’t do this alone. You ask others for their help. Finding all the doors invites others to bring you ideas that may intrigue and entice you.

Finding all of your possible doors the first step of future planning for nonprofit organizations, the “D” in the four-step DOOR process. Read more about D.O.O.R. in this month’s Added Value.

Summer Reading: Whatever It Takes

2010-08-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Cheryl Pollock recommended this book at a collaboration presentation sponsored by the Nonprofit Leadership Center of Tampa Bay late last year. In the presentation, Pollock shared the success of the Y’s Community Learning Center program at Sulfur Springs Elementary School. Before starting the program, after a year of research, the Y selected the Harlem Children's Zone, discussed in this book, as a model for the Sulfur Springs program. The Harlem Children's Zone is a community-based program that serves 17,000 children in a 100-block area of Harlem in New York City.

Except for the concept of finding board members with extremely deep pockets, you will not find any answers here about how to fund your programs. However, if you seek moral support for solving an enduring, multifaceted, challenging problem, which many nonprofits do, or if you wish to help end “the cycle of generational poverty”, Paul Tough’s book will give you insight into the thinking and actions of the Zone’s leader Geoffrey Canada. Along with sharing five years of investigation, the author who is the former editor of the New York Time Magazine, shares history, related research and the background story on recent efforts to end poverty.

Summer Reading: Banker to the Poor

2010-07-27T05:50:00.000-07:00

Muhammad Yunus’ book traces the start of the now international Grameen (village) micro-lending program in Bangladesh. It has three vital lessons for nonprofit leaders.

1. Never underestimate the value of a small amount of resources in the right place at the right time. The people Yunus started serving with mirco-loans made the equivalent of two cents a day.

2. Never forget your mission. As micro-lending became perceived as successful, Yunus received many opportunities to lend money to people who were poor, but not necessarily the poorest of the poor. Yunus remained focused on his goal to serve the lowest 25 percent of the population.

3. Never forget to shape your requests to donor and others in packages that help them “see” your needs in ways they can appreciate. At one point working with the Central Bank, Yunus sought to develop a housing loan product. The Central Bank declined these since a house constructed from a $125 loan would not add to the country’s housing stock. Next, Yunus requested a “shelter loan.” This too was rejected. Finally, Yunus asked for a “factory loan” since the borrowers worked as entrepreneurs from their homes. With the assistance of the Governor of the Central Bank, Yunus received permission to begin his loan program.

For other reading suggestions see Recommended Reading.

Should Board Members’ Contributions Be Designated To Pay For Their Education?

2010-07-26T18:07:00.000-07:00

I was speaking with a couple of colleagues the other day and the subject of board contributions came up. Later in the conversation we transitioned into the importance of ongoing board education and organizations building a sufficiently-large line item into their budgets for this. And then the idea bubbled up: What if one of the expectations of board service was that a portion of each board member’s personal contribution to the organization went to pay specifically for board education?

Such an expectation would do several things. It would communicate to the world that the organization believes an educated board is important. It would provide necessary dollars for such board education, without cutting into dollars dedicated to programming. And, it would help board members value the education the organization provides, because research affirms that people ascribe more value to something for which they pay rather than get for free.

There are some issues to consider. When my colleagues and I were talking, someone arbitrarily threw out $500 as the portion of each board member’s contribution that would go into this board education fund. While a substantial amount, with an average-sized board of 16, that only puts $8000 into the education coffer. True, $8000 is more than most boards currently devote to board education. But, $8000 won’t go far if the money is to be used for a true retreat, conference expenses or coaching, for instance. Asking for a number larger than $500 might be a non-starter for most boards – at least at this stage in the game. And, what happens in those organizations that ask for a personally meaningful gift from each board member instead of a contribution of a specific dollar amount? Yes, the leadership could opt to allot the entire board member contribution to its education fund, or designate a percentage, but how can any organization create an education budget if the ultimate total is an unknown? Perhaps the answer is that the board would still have to assign to the board education line a dollar amount from its general operating funds and use the contributions just to enhance its educational opportunities.

The biggest issue may be that some people will resent this set-aside, either out of principle or the belief that they do not need education – perhaps they’ve sat on many boards over the years and believe they have the job down pat. My guess is, though, this reality may be off-set by those that clamor to join a board that devotes so much attention to its board members and provides leadership training that they can then take back to their jobs or on to other organizations.

As someone who firmly believes in ongoing board education at every meeting, I love what this concept could “buy.” But I recognize it would require a major culture shift in most organizations. What do you see as the pros and cons? Is this an idea with sufficient value to push?

Summer Reading 2010 Work Hard. Be Nice.

2010-07-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

by Jay Matthews

Although they did not start out as a nonprofit, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin’s work resulted in one: the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Foundation. In 1994, Feinberg and Levin, Teach for America graduates, started an inner-city school program for middle school students. Today, 82 schools in 19 states and the District of Columbia are KIPP programs. KIPP serves 21,000 mostly middle school age children. While many KIPP students begin fifth grade at least one or more grades behind their peers in math and reading, after four years at KIPP, 100 percent of eighth grade classes outperformed their district averages in mathematics and reading based on state tests. Word Hard. Be Nice. tells the story of the early years of KIPP.

What can a nonprofit leader learn from this book? The value of partnerships and perseverance. While the relationships were not always rosy, in fact they were often difficult and challenging, KIPP had to work with local schools and school boards to succeed. If you are faced with a partnership you must make work, Work Hard. Be Nice. will give you insights about how to survive, grow and thrive in this environment and how to hold on to your vision in tough times.

Should US Nonprofits Adopt a Patron System?

2010-07-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

I worked recently in Singapore. While I found many similarities in the ways nonprofits do business both there and here in the United States, I found differences as well. One of the biggest was their use of a patron system. Besides having what we would consider the familiar board structure with a chairman or president at the helm, a large number of organizations there also have a patron. Some even have a patron and a patron in chief. These are powerful individuals who wield tremendous influence. For instance, the patron in chief of Singapore’s Lyric Opera is the President of the Republic of Singapore. Its patron is the Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defense. The intent is that these individuals will provide support – including, in many cases, political clout – and encourage others to support the organization as well.

In the United States, our honorary boards could be considered the closest equivalent to the patron system of Singapore. Some organizations here are able to engage major players, such as the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation which counts among its trustees James Baker, Dick Cheney, Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger and Donald Rumsfeld. But the number of organizations with the capability of attracting names of this caliber are far and few between. Would it be easier for nonprofits to attract a single patron? Would a patron help nonprofits that feel they lack sufficient access to affluence and influence?

I do believe that it would be easier to find a single patron than an honorary board. However, I do not believe that it would necessarily be easy. Think of all the nonprofits that have tried unsuccessfully to find a celebrity spokesperson. And, we certainly know how quickly a good name can become a liability. Tiger Woods, anyone? Singapore has experienced this with the patron system as well. The patron of their National Kidney Foundation, the wife of Goh Chok Tong, former Prime Minister of Singapore and current Chairman of the Central Bank, was forced to step down after defending the pay of the CEO, saying that his $600,000 (S) salary was “peanuts.” At least with an honorary board, one would hope there will be others whose reputations remain sterling, even if one of the names on that board turns bad.

As to whether having a patron would be helpful to organizations lacking affluence and influence...I'm not so sure. Singapore is a very small country. People tend to know one another and a patron's name alone carries clout. Here, the individual would have to be willing to actively use his/her influence on behalf of the organization to bring others along. Research done by Herman and Renz suggests that this does not happen as often as nonprofits hope. Besides, the reach of a single individual versus a larger group is necessarily limited, especially in a country the size of the United States.

So, even though I believe nonprofits in the United States can learn much from their counterparts in other countries, I'm not so sure I'd suggest our turning to a patron system here. But, I’m curious as to what others think. Is such a system an answer for us, especially in these difficult times?

Where, Oh Where are Our Nonprofit Money Trees?

2010-07-12T05:42:00.000-07:00

Nonprofit leaders would like to have access to a money tree—a big healthy one.

In truth, they do. Healthy nonprofits grow groves of money trees composed of six* main species. They include these species of trees and yield, on average, these fruits.

1. Earned income: 28- 40 percent

2. Individuals gifts including bequests: 16-29 percent

3. Government: 21- 30 percent

4. Other income, like interest and entrepreneurial income: 10-16 percent

5. Foundations: 2-3 percent

6. Business/Corporate: 1-2 percent

Money trees start, as all trees do, either as a seed like an acorn or a planted seedling. Then nonprofit leaders tend, water and protect them. If you take care of your groves and continue to plant new trees, you will harvest fruit for years.

Which trees have you planted in your nonprofit? Which of your groves need tending? Which new trees are you learning to grow?

For more information about nonprofit income sources see:

How Will We Pay for This? 14 Ways to Obtain Income

Money-tastic #2: Nonprofit Income Opportunities

* A seventh species is the In-Kind Tree, where groups receive resources in lieu of cash.

Consultants Must Coordinate Efforts

2010-06-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

I have recently been writing about the need for departments within a nonprofit organization to work together as a single team, and for organizations to work with other community entities in true partnership. I’ve been hearing a lot of “Amen,” which leads me to believe that people see the advantages of such holistic approaches and are willing to work toward them. But, there is another area in which this philosophy should be encouraged, yet few organizations even consider it. That is in the use of consultants.

When an organization’s leadership turns to consultants it is typically because that leadership has determined that it requires help with a discrete task such as facilitating a fund raising campaign or a board retreat. The leadership does its due diligence and brings in a person or firm that the group feels has the expertise to move it forward in this arena. The only problem with this is that fund raising, for instance – successful fund raising – cannot occur in a vacuum. It relies on the existence of an infrastructure with policies and procedures, on a board that understands how it can contribute to the fund development process, on the integration of a PR/marketing plan, on research, and so on. The same concept holds true regardless of the identified task. Trying to take one element alone and move the organization forward by committing time and money to just that one element is almost always less than optimal.

Many consultants understand this and try to help the organization see the light. Fine. The only problem with this is if they try to pass themselves off as a Jack-of-all-trades. Such Jacks are often the master of none. Today, as never before, consultants cannot rely on offering up bromides. They really have to understand the trends and nuances of the area(s) in which they consult in order to be of real use to their clients.

This probably means the organization must work with a number of specialists in order to move forward. But, actual damage can occur when the leadership identifies multiple needs and hires an array of different consultants to help the organization achieve its various goals. Why? Too often, while each of the consultants hired may be the best in their individual fields, each is taking direction and offering solutions in a vacuum. The result is that the organization can be pulled in different, if not opposing, directions.

Nonprofits would do well to take lessons from the field of medicine. In the last 15 years it has become the gold standard to go to a Mayo or Cleveland Clinic where the doctors, nurses, therapists, pharmacists, etc. act as a coordinated team, discussing as a team each patient’s needs, treatment plans and physical and mental reactions to the plan. Our sector must start demanding that the specialists they hire work together, creating intervention and accountability plans that are integrated.

Today’s technology, with its ability to promote and enhance communication between far-flung parties, certainly makes this feasible. But, it makes the job of hiring consultants that much more difficult because the organization’s leadership has to ensure that the consultants understand that coming into the organization, doing one’s thing and leaving is no longer sufficient or acceptable. The leadership has to ensure that everyone it hires is committed to the team approach. It has to determine that the chemistry is not only right between the leadership team and the consultants, but among the various consultants as well.

Unless the organization can hire a consulting firm that has the appropriate talent and is built around these principles, the task is daunting. But, it is not impossible. And, the potential for positive impact is huge.

Values as Visuals

2010-06-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

My new post at PhilanTopic, the Philanthropy News Digest blog, explores the use of new tools for articulating values, vision, and mission.

Imagine using Dialoogle and Picture Your Legacy with non-profit and philanthropic leaders, helping them to articulate their passion for the organizations for which they work or volunteer, and uncovering stories that could be shared when soliciting donations and other forms of organizational support. Imagine using the cards and iPhone app to commence group discussions, and to move into collaborative problem solving.

Build A Hive

2010-06-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

What if you gathered the best brainpower for your nonprofits success?

In recent weeks, we’ve all heard hundreds of news reports about BP’s response to the Gulf Crisis. One set of reports has particular interest to nonprofit organizations. These contain information about how BP created The Hive as its “Apollo 13 Brain Center”. Do you have a challenge you want to tackle? What if you created a Hive to collect the best thinking about your nonprofit and your challenge? Here is how to build one based on the reports.

Set aside a creative, thinking space. The Hive is a repurposed research center and “houses a dozen video screens…” You need space where a group can work undisturbed. Make it large enough so everyone can be seated comfortably and see each other. Add computers with Internet access so information can be gathered and checked on the spot. Include space for ideas to be captured, posted and viewed by all with easel pads or white boards.

Best minds. Gather the best minds to talk about what your organization might do to respond to the challenge. Who might you invite to your Hive? Consider board members, former board members, staff of local foundations and civic leaders.

Hundreds of engineers from universities, rival oil companies and the federal government immediately went back to work, in shifts lasting 13 hours or more.

Dream team. Okay, you drafted a list of the best minds. Now, imagine who would be on your dream team. How about leaders in the community known for their creative approaches, even if they now do little in the nonprofit world? Academics? How about a leader from a foundation that specializes in your work from across the county? These team members may not be available, but unless you ask them, you will never know.

Then came the "dream team" that President Barack Obama had ordered his Nobel-winning energy secretary, Steven Chu, to assemble: out-of-the-box thinkers including a nuclear physicist, a pioneer on Mars drilling techniques, an MIT professor whose research interests include "going faster on my snowboard," an expert on the hydrogen bomb, and a controversial astrophysicist…

As a Gulf resident agonizing over the oil spill despoiling our beautiful gulf, I remain hopeful that soon the leak will be plugged so that full recovery can begin. One good thing to come of out this disaster is that nonprofits can also learn how to build hives to call forth and capture great thinking to solve their challenges.

For some Hive tools, see How to Be More Successful With Your Brainstorming and see this article on building trust.

Time To Breathe Deeply

2010-06-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

Happy first day of summer! Breathe deeply and relax.

In summer, many nonprofits leaders have more flexibility in their schedule. One nonprofit takes the whole month of August to learn and plan. If you would like things to be less hectic this fall, consider investing time this summer the same way. We have a beach bag full of new resources to help you improve your time management and strategy planning. They include:

• Mission Brilliant Podcasts

• Added Value Newsletters

• Time Management Workshop (in conjunction with the Nonprofit Leadership Center of Tampa Bay)

• Raising the Bar on Strategic Planning in Your Organization Teleconference

• Time Management for Nonprofit Leaders Booklet
To start you off, here is one tip:

27. Block Islands. For large tasks, set aside a two-hour block of time. Repeat over several days or weeks, as needed, to make progress on key activities. Prioritize these time islands just like you would appointments with key donors.

As you learn and plan this summer, you will be able to breathe even more deeply knowing that you and your organization will be in a stronger and better place this fall.

How Does Time Management Relate To Nonprofit Strategy?

2010-06-14T05:46:00.000-07:00

Good time management impacts not only how you do great strategy planning. It also helps you to achieve more of the strategy you select.

Good Meeting Time Management during planning sessions will help you to have the time to do the strategy thinking you need to do to be effective. Here is a tip about how to run strategy and other meetings:

72. Plan the Flow. Include a time estimate for each agenda item, i.e., “Special event opportunity -15 minutes.” During your meetings, as you approach the time limit, bring this to the group’s attention. State: “We have just spent 10 minutes on this topic. Would you like to come to a conclusion and move on in the next 5 minutes or schedule it for a future meeting?” Stated time estimates help groups move forward and balance the needs of the current topic against other agenda items.

Good Time Management and Strategy. Even the best strategies in the world are only effective if people have time to implement them. Here are two bonus tips to help you with strategy implementation.

128: Resist the Temptation to Just Do, Do, Do like digging in the sandbox to China. Instead take time to ask: 1) Must this task be done? Does this mesh with our strategy? 2) Might someone else do it? If so, who? 3) Is it best to do the task now or to schedule it for later?

129: Set Your Intentions. Before a meeting or other event, decide two things. 1) What is the minimum you want to get done? 2) What is the maximum you to hope to achieve? Armed with these clear parameters you are in the position to benefit from your activities.

We’ll be talking more about good time management at the workshop, Time Management for Nonprofit Leaders on July 30 in Tampa. Register today to get a free copy of Time Management for Nonprofit Leaders- 121 Time-Tastic Tips for Your Most Important Resource –-just a few seat available with this special offer.

Fund-raising Discourse is Story-Deficient, Research Finds

2010-06-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

Kathy Hanson, Ph.D., explores storytelling in the nonprofit sector in her most post at A Storied Career. Frank Dickerson, Ph.D., has uncovered “a dysfunctional pattern in the way fund raisers communicate", documenting that most “fund-raising discourse” fails to create “interpersonal involvement.”

Program Evaluation and Narrative

2010-06-08T06:25:00.000-07:00

My most recent post at the Philanthropy News Digest blog, PhilanTopic, explores how narrative can work alongside evaluation to determine organizational strategy. Here are some excerpts:

• Theories of Change should be accompanied by Stories of Change! Not simply an expository description of your Theory of Change, but an actual story with a beginning, middle, and end, conflict, and resolution. What is the future aspirational end toward which your organization is working? Where, and in what ways, have you already told that story?

• Narrative evaluation can support more seemingly rigorous methods of quantitative evaluation. In fact, narrative evaluation can uncover truths that may be difficult to surface in other ways.
• Grantees must be provided with a safe context in which they can share stories about their failures and unresolved challenges, as well as their successes. Self-reflection is critical to program and organizational development. Space can be provided for sense-making activities that explore the characters, challenges, settings, and other elements that contribute to success or failure. What are the emergent themes?

• Encouraging the sharing of stories among program officers often leads to insight, innovation, and more effective targeting of resources. And helping program officers become better listeners -- and better story sharers themselves -- is likely to result in more story sharing by grantees. True narrative leadership means prompting stories through the sharing of stories; asking for stories and then fully listening to the stories that are shared; recognizing and exploring commonalities among the stories one hears; and acting on the knowledge gleaned through those stories.
• Evaluators should spend more time thinking about how they can present their findings through narrative: Do their findings lend themselves to a presentation with a clear beginning, middle, and end? Why did the organization decide to measure the things it did? What were the barriers it encountered along the way? Was it successful? What, if anything, has changed as a result of gathering that data?

• When approached thoughtfully, the knowledge gleaned through story sharing and narrative analysis can contribute considerable value to the strategic focus and programmatic effectiveness of any organization.

Looking at the Grown Up Side of You

2010-06-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

I just received a new magazine from Disney World –not unusual for a Florida household. This one caught my eye. Along with the recognizable Disney logo on the masthead was the phrase, “the Grown-Up Side of Disney.” While I think of Disney parks as ideal for the 8-25 crowd, Disney also offers many grown-up opportunities, like culinary events, adult classes and garden festivals.

Its time to play, Non-profit What If. . .that is, take a successful concept used elsewhere. Consider how you can apply it at your nonprofit for fun, profit and mission enhancement.

Taking the Disney approach, if your organization offers children services, what is your grown-up side? Can you strengthen your children’s services with some adult services? Perhaps opportunities like parenting classes and then also, opportunities to approach donors with interests in family welfare.

On the other hand, if you offer services for seniors, what is your young adult or child side? Perhaps support for caregivers or programs for grandchildren and also, perhaps a place for donors who have interests in serving children.

Take this beyond age related ideas. If you are a very serious organization, like a disease eradication entity, consider your other side. Is it playful? Proud of your progress? And vice versa. If you are playful entity, like a children’s hands-on museum, what is your serious side?

Continue to play “Nonprofit What If” with additional pairs of opposites. Where are you missing an audience or donor because you have yet to share a hidden or less apparent side? Where do you shine below other’s radar screens?

For more creative thinking about your mission, message and programming, see
Your Future. At What Are You Really, Really Good?

Do You Need Board Members?

2010-06-01T05:30:00.000-07:00

At a community training session, a development director shared her organization’s challenges finding board members. They had tried to the nonprofit board bank. They had interviewed several people. The mission of the organization was difficult...helping children who had been sex offenders. I asked about her mailing list--about their list of people who had a passion for their cause with whom they communicated regularly. None existed.

At this point, our conversation was interrupted. What I wanted to tell her, I share here: Great Board members are an end product not a starting one.

To find board members for a difficult cause or even popular causes:

1. Figure out who in the community cares about your mission.

2. Find and connect with as many of these people as possible.

3. Nurture them and ask them for their help--as donors, task force and committee members.

4. In this crowd of supporters, you will find your board members.

Enhancing Board Trust

2010-05-24T06:15:00.000-07:00

You cannot guarantee others will be trustworthy, but you can create a climate that improves trust on your board of directors. That climate, no surprise, is built on healthy relationships.

Your board trusts you because they know you and see your work. However, it is likely they do not know or may not trust other board members whom they meet one time per month in a formal setting around your large conference table.

You can create a climate of trust among these strangers. Naturally, you will help select and support the election of board members whom you believe will be trustworthy. Once they begin serving, provide opportunities for them to understand, know and learn to trust other members. One way is to help each board member to articulate why your cause is important to them and share their commitment to it by sharing their personal story—perhaps once per year for everyone or one member per month. To further create a climate of trust, include regular opportunities for one-on-one conversations during your meetings. Also, take 20 minutes to get board members into small group work during a board meeting and report back to the group as a whole. You will also want to work with your chair to enforce the consequences the board sets for itself, especially in terms of attendance and donations. Also, let all the board members know how others fulfill their commitments and be willing to help less organized members remember their promises with minutes, email reminders and check-in telephone calls.

For more about building trust in and around your nonprofit, email us at Karen@kedconsult.com for a copy of our May 2010 Added Value newsletter, “Frankly My Dear I Don’t Trust You.“

Managing Donor Relationships

2010-05-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

I recently heard from a development professional about her discovery on taking a new position - the administrative professional responsible for maintaining donor files had taken it upon herself to shred the information in each file and discard the file folders. Why? She wanted more drawer space in her filing cabinet for other, presumably more important, files.

She also discovered that there were no fewer than four separate databases with donor information. Clearly, there is a need in this organization for records management!

Records management is key to maintaining crucial relationships with all your stakeholders. Having central donor files and a comprehensive database will ensure that anyone that has to have contact with the donor will have all the necessary information. Nothing is worse than being embarrassed because you didn't know something that was in someone else's file (or even head!).

The example above could have been avoided by having a comprehensive policy on what to do with your records. If you are unable to handle the volume of records on site, consider outsourcing your records management. Outside firms will catalog and store your records for as long as you require, and can retrieve records in a timely fashion. They can also provide backup to your database and securely store the information off site. All of this can be done cost-effectively.

Remember - you are the stewards of your donors' information and securing it is of utmost importance.

Laura Mikuska

Mikuska Group

Fund Development & Event Specialists

www.mikuska.com

The Future of Low-Salary-Good-Benefit Jobs

2010-05-17T05:26:00.000-07:00

An April 22, 2010 Wall Street Journal article, “Perils of Church Related Pension,” shares that, “Employees and retirees of Minneapolis publisher Augsburg Fortress are suing their employer, alleging in their complaint that it allowed their pension plan to fail…” Augsburg Fortress is a non-profit organization.

For years, many nonprofits, like Augsburg Fortress, have offered relatively low salaries and offset them with excellent benefit packages. Are good benefit packages a vestige of the past? If indeed low-salary-good-benefit packages are another victim of the great recession, what does this mean for nonprofits? If your nonprofit offers an excellent benefit package, can it afford to continue it? If not, how will it encourage new employees to select a career with your organization? Will passion be enough?

Create Institutional Memory

2010-05-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

I hope this is a blog post you really don‘t need.

Log your interactions with your donors—individual, foundation, government and corporate. The foundation, government and corporate donors are relatively easy. You know from the start that you seek a long-term mutually profitable partnership with them. Individual donors are more challenging. When does someone become a donor of interest? Develop your own trigger point, perhaps when someone gives more than $100 three time three years in a row. The most important thing: log information about important donors.

What should you log?
At a minimum: their name, the date of the interaction and the content of your conversations, i.e., what they said especially in terms of their giving interests and any possible links with your mission, and anything you promised. Quick notes work as shown below:

6/10. Sally G. prefers direct service to children. Board is more family orientated and meets quarterly. Sally brings top 5 recommendations; Board usually selects those, but also reviews other requests and occasionally selects one. Promised to submit for 7/15 cycle.

7/13. Submitted request for $10,500 for family program, if funded will serve 100 new families in 18 months. Filed draft of grant, electronic and hard copy. Follow up date: 8/15.

Store your log records in a locked file. Share with other staff members and volunteers that they should not destroyed but built upon over the years. I hope you already do this. If not, begin today. Successful organizations go to bat over and hit home runs over and over again by creating institutional memory based on logging interactions and using these to shape their future.

Can You Afford To Be Forward Thinking?

2010-05-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

A recent presenter shared that nonprofits were so busy worrying about survival that they could not look ahead. Yet, if we look into the past we see that forward looking and survival are not two different events, but two components of one event.

For example, the Y’s website shares, “The Great Depression brought dramatic drops in Y income, some as high as 50 percent.” However, in the Depression the Y developed program models involving exercise and educational classes were both up, along with vocational training and camping….” The idea spread widely and YMCAs discovered they could survive handily if they served a large number of people and had low building payments. In fact, the Chicago Y was able to organize a new South Shore branch in the depths of the Depression.”

Along with survival, think forward. Consider these questions: How can you enlarge the pie? How might you include more members of the community in your mission? How might you improve the stewardship of your current resources, i.e., spend your time better? If money were not object what would you do differently to improve your outcomes? What might we do differently, since money is an object, to achieve outcomes? How will you take advantage of the coming up swing?

For more forward thinking strategic questions, email karen@kedconsult.com, ask for the Month-By-Month Strategic Organization article.

Should We Be Considering Professional Board Chairs?

2010-04-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from Australia where I facilitated a series of master classes in governance. While the US and Australian systems are similar, there are some distinct differences. One, to which I was introduced this trip, is a trend toward hiring professional board chairs. Though not wide-spread, it is prevalent enough that there are actually companies there that provide such individuals to organizations as required.

Clearly, there are advantages to such a concept. You ostensibly get a board chair that is unbiased, skilled and willing to give the time to the job since he or she is getting paid to do it. One would expect that such a person keeps up with the latest governance trends and has a broad perspective from working with different groups – both conditions that can lead to increased board effectiveness.

Some of the drawbacks are obvious, but not necessarily insurmountable. One board member complained to me that the professional board chair working in his organization was working with twenty other boards and often came to meetings unsure of which organization’s meeting she was actually at! I would think that far fewer than twenty boards may still be too many for a board chair to handle well. Of course, this is a relatively easy problem to circumvent. The board has an obligation to do its due diligence. A single question would have determined that this woman was over-committed. Still, in an emerging field where there may not be that many qualified individuals available for hire, organizations desperate for leadership may opt to move forward anyway and take their chances.

I would be concerned that any board chair for hire actually has the facilitation skills necessary to do the job effectively and is familiar with today’s proven governance practices. I meet a lot of people who tell me that they have chaired many boards over the years and know what they are doing. Unfortunately, I have observed that far too many of these individuals are mired in how things were done back in the days when they began their board service and are totally unaware of practices common throughout the sector now.

I also see the potential for conflict of interest. A professional board chair might work for several organizations with similar missions. While it could be advantageous to hire someone who has a depth of experience in your organization’s mission area, how can you be sure that your ideas, deliberations and decisions will remain in-house until they are ready to be shared with the community? Of course, this could prove an issue with anyone in the boardroom and if you deal with a true professional, this should not be a problem. More critically, the board chair is privy to discussions that can personally impact him or her, for instance whether the contract should be renewed and at what rate. If the organization has policies for dealing with such situations, this also can be handled in a transparent and judicious manner. Australia has the same duty of loyalty requirement we do in the US and conflict of interest has not been a sticking point for the nonprofits in that country.

The culture in the US may be the biggest barrier to such an idea taking hold here. I can foresee donors reacting negatively to the idea of having their money go to pay a professional board chair. So many already resent money being spent on even the most critical administrative fees. Link this to the expectation that has taken hold here – but not in Australia – that all board members must make a personal contribution and we have yet another potential obstacle. This expectation would imply the professional must “pay to play,” something that is unethical if not illegal. Yet, if the organization excludes the chair from the requirement, resentment is sure to build in the other board members who are held to the giving standard. They may already be upset, wondering why they shouldn’t get paid for their time.

Then, who wants to be the first to test the IRS response? Surely, as paying for a professional board chair is not accepted practice in the US, the board and organization may be liable for a hefty excise tax on that fee if it is deemed excess benefit.

Yet, I can’t help thinking about the potential benefit – boards running more efficiently and effectively. Acceptance of such a practice might even stimulate new jobs as individuals with the appropriate skills move into this arena and programs crop up to certify these professional board chairs!

Is this a bad idea if no organization is required to move in this direction or consider itself locked into a paid chair if it has used such a service in the past but now has the appropriate leadership in-house? What do you think?

Instead of Low Overhead…Show How You Make A Difference

2010-04-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, Don Pallotta, author of Uncharitable, spoke locally. His key thesis, backed up with a lot of data, is that rating nonprofits based on their overhead asks the wrong question. Instead, he suggests that potential donors should ask: “Does the nonprofit make a difference? Do I trust them?”

For years, many nonprofits have completed extreme aerobics to keep their overheads low. Others simply report bogus numbers. Read a handful of 990’s. You’ll see some examples of creative accounting. What’s more, the whole sector has scars from decisions that were made to keep overhead rate low. Scars that were gained seeking low costs rather than improved results.

Let’s endeavor to use Pallotta’s work to reduce the frequency of the overhead question and increase the “does your nonprofit make a difference” question. How might you demonstrate your effectiveness? Pallotta shared several ideas. He suggested video clips that share your goals and progress. He also mentioned sharing the results of your customer satisfaction surveys. Add these and other proofs to your website and Guidestar information. Show how you make a difference.

If you are interested in making more of your outcomes first class, see How First Class are Your Operations? at www.kedconsult.com. Or, email me karen@kedconsult.com , I will send you a copy of the April Added Value article on this topic.

Planned Giving- Keep Your Income Flowing

2010-04-19T05:29:00.000-07:00

At a recent planned giving event, Tom Waters, Vice President of Charitable Planning at the Community Foundation of Sarasota shared that planned giving efforts often ebbed and flowed in nonprofits organizations.

As someone who helps nonprofits to make dramatic improvements in their effectiveness, I asked Waters for his suggestions on how we can institutionalize planned giving to avoid these ups and downs. In a busy nonprofit, it is too easy to get busy, drop planned giving efforts and in the hiatus miss a $250,000 gift.

To institutionalize planned giving, Waters suggested:
1. Designing your planned giving work to create future and current gifts.
2. Involving the Executive Director. Waters recommended that this be a significant part of their job descriptions and measured in their evaluation. While planned giving efforts need Board support, Waters believes the key leader is the executive director.
3. Adopting a long-term vision about planned giving.

Are you serious about planned giving? Are you serious about creating a planned giving program that lasts? Build your program around these elements.

If you seek additional information about obtaining income for your nonprofit, red this article: How Will We Pay for This? 14 Ways to Obtain Income.

Do Nonprofits Partner Enough?

2010-04-12T09:53:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday while leading a Manatee Human Services Network training session on the Power of Partnerships, I conducted an index card survey of the 60 participants. The goal was to compute the number of their current partnerships. The total? 1,076.

Do you often hear that your nonprofit needs to cooperate more? If so, to respond with strength, tally the number of your partnerships and share it often. For instance, “Did you know that we are already involved in 47 partnerships of various sorts? We’re always interested to learn more about potential partners –who do you have in mind?”

We need to educate the community about the highly cooperative nature of nonprofits. What’s your number?

Your Non Profit's Playing Field

2010-04-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

Have you examined who is on your non profit's playing field lately?

It's logical to consider your board on your playing field. They are the people ensuring the mission and vision of the organization are carried out. But you must also consider who else should be there and either enlarge the field or ask them to step onto the field from the sidelines.

Staff and volunteers are part of the field, although some may feel that they are relegated to the sidelines if they are not invited to be part of the action and decision-making. Ensure that the field has room for everyone's intellectual and creative contributions as well as their community connections. Enlarge your field to ensure your players are helping you achieve your goals.

Laura Mikuska

Mikuska Group

www.mikuska.com

Creating Clairvoyant Board Members

2010-04-05T05:30:00.000-07:00

Do you wish your board members could read your mind? If so, you may wish to read and share an article that appears on Charity Channel’s website this month. It lists a dozen thoughts nonprofit leaders often think during board meetings that they wish their board members knew. It also suggests board members actions.

Here’s one more additional “thought.”
“Listen to the community for us.” Sometimes, as a board member, you learn things no one else knows. Action: Share this information and your insights to help our nonprofit understand the community’s response to our work and take actions to use this knowledge to our advantage.

Stuck on Nonprofit Goals?

2010-03-29T06:29:00.000-07:00

Does your nonprofit struggle with setting goals? Next time you embark on a goal setting exercise, consider adopting the following four universal nonprofit needs as a framework:

1. Create great mission outcomes
2. Develop leadership
3. Provide resources to create great mission outcomes
4. Develop realistic future strategies to do more of the above

You can use these goals to build a strategic planning session. And, you can also use them to measure your current status with the following.

Where do you stand on each? To find out, use this quick exercise at your next board meeting. On the 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being the highest, ask your board members to privately rank your organization’s achievement of these goals by placing a number of an index card you distribute for each area. Collect the card and post the results. Discuss: What reactions do you have to our results? What do our ranking tell us about what we need to do next? Are we investing in the right priorities? Do we invest adequate time on them?

For more reading on the topic of creating successful nonprofits, see: Karen’s Ten Steps to Create a World-Class Program.

Use Your Vision to Find Untapped Resources

2010-03-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

The March 22 edition of Philanthropy Journal featured an article with the headline, Business partnerships seen boosting nonprofit causes. But, how do nonprofits identify the most appropriate partnerships? They can start by turning to their vision statements.

A well-written vision statement will have a community focus, that is, instead of speaking to how the organization will be seen – e.g., as the best, most successful, well recognized, etc. – it points to the impact it promises to make in the community. Most organizations have vision statements that actually reflect several such strategic impacts. For instance, a senior care facility might have a vision that commits to providing a warm, caring and safe environment where seniors requiring some level of outside support are able to spend their days living with dignity and respect at their full potential. In this case, the strategic impacts are 1) providing a warm, caring and safe environment for seniors; 2) helping seniors that require some level of outside support; and, 3) ensuring that these seniors have the opportunity to live to their fullest potential with dignity and respect.

Begin by identifying the strategic impacts in your vision statement. Then, for each, brainstorm those businesses or institutions that might also be interested in, or would benefit from, having a similar impact. In our example, those that might be interested in warm, caring and safe environments could include the police, security companies, other senior care facilities, real estate developers, families facing the need to find somewhere to place a loved one, families that had a bad experience when placing a loved one and who don’t want anyone else to go through something similar, doctors that know that their older patients do better – live longer and healthier – in such environments, nurses, home health companies, those that run training programs for nurses aides, and so on. Stretch. Get creative when listing possibilities.

After you have identified as many broad categories as possible for each strategic impact, determine which have the greatest capability to serve as a good strategic partner and/or to provide resources to your organization. Plug each of these types of businesses into a search engine such as Google, along with “vision” or “vision statement” and the words that make up your strategic intent. What will return are the specific businesses that share your beliefs, concerns and commitment. You now have several entities to approach and a common bond from which to start a conversation.

Avoid going in with hand outstretched. Research what their needs are and ask for an appointment to discuss how you might help each other accomplish your shared vision. Focus on advice – not money – at least at the beginning. People are almost always willing to offer intellectual capital. That often leads to money or gifts in kind however once they get to know your organization and become invested in it. In any case, your organization has successfully begun the important process of community engagement. That will bring its own rewards (the subject of another blog!).

Thanks to my colleague Steve Bowman of Conscious Governance in Australia for generously sharing this concept.

Karen’s Facts of Life about Money

2010-03-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

Do you need more cash for your nonprofit? Nonprofit leaders always answer yes to that question. This month’s Added Value, a monthly newsletter for nonprofits, contains a dozen facts about nonprofit money. Here are two from the lead article:

3. Know Thy Sources
Individual contributions are fabulous because of their flexibility, but
the majority of nonprofit income year-to-year is earned income. Action: Know the sources of your organization's income and how they compare to nonprofits in general (see Where Do Nonprofits Derive Funding? and Where Do Nonprofits, Except Healthcare, Derive Funding?) This knowledge will help you to make faster and more effective decisions about resource development.

10. Easy Money
Along the way, you will obtain some easy money. Easy money is an exception to the rule -that proves the rule. After you win at the easy money cash machine, avoid lingering around it for another hit. Too many organizations waste resources trying to get easy money sources to produce again. True opportunities follow consistent and proven preparations. Action: Undertake consistent actions to increase your income from sources that consistently provide nonprofit income.

For the rest click here.

Want More Donors? Create More Philanthropists

2010-03-17T06:01:00.000-07:00

Most people think philanthropists are Capital P Philanthropists. Capital P Philanthropists include people born with last names like Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, Buffett and Gates. Most people associate philanthropy with people who give a series of large gifts. Since your donors don’t bear these last names or related assets, they do not consider themselves philanthropists. Consequently, they fail to see their personal commitment to lifetime giving and the philanthropic patterns in their lives.

A philanthropist is “someone who makes charitable donations intended to increase human well-being.” Therefore, the mother who drops off a can of food at your food bank to increase the well-being of another mother is a philanthropist. The student who donates community service hours for the betterment of his hometown is a philanthropist. So is the father who sends in an extra $10 for a scholarship so his child’s classmate can attend the field trip. Also on your list of philanthropists, include the woman who has made a habit out of giving to others, including designating your organization in her will. Without your help, she will never appreciate that she is a philanthropist. Finally, include yourself because you give to increase human welfare.

Start by calling your supporters philanthropists, especially those who give multiple gifts. Help people who give to your organization including time, talent and money-- to see their acts as lifetime habits instead isolated events. Help people to connect the dots in their lives. It will support their future giving--because giving reflects who they are.

One small way to help your philanthropists to see themselves as philanthropists is to thank them for their gifts. To get started and to refresh your expressions of gratitude, try any and all of the ideas found in 20 Ways to Say Thanks.

Growing your own talent

2010-03-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

Many non-profits lament the fact that there are not enough fundraising professionals in their local area and that attracting talent to their organization is difficult. I challenge this by asking "are you willing to invest in the position and the person you bring on board?"

I see many aspiring up and comers leave the profession because organizations feel they don't have the funds to invest in their professional development. If someone has the qualities you are looking for, is passionate about your cause but lacks experience, consider engaging a consultant to be their mentor. The consultant can tailor the learning experience to fill in the knowledge gaps. You may argue that sending them to conferences and workshops is cheaper, but the ability of the consultant to customize will actually provide a better return on investment. The result will be a more confident and knowledgeable fundraiser.

Invest also in the tools needed for effective fundraising - a database, a laptop computer and a smartphone. That way your fundraiser is not chained to their desk when they should be out meeting with donors.

Laura Mikuska

Mikuska Group

Fund Development and Event Specialists

Very Good Services and Organizations

2010-03-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

Saturday, I stopped by the local vitamin store to buy refills of two supplements. I handed the clerk the bottles and said, “I'd like one each of these, please.”

He came back a few minutes later with new bottles. As he rang them up, he showed me one of them, “These are not very good. We have much better. “

After that opener, I expected to be offered a selection of superior products,
Instead, he took my plastic and said, “That’s $21.32. Debit or credit?”

I entered the store a satisfied customer; I left perplexed. Why would he sell something that was “not very good?”

Nonprofit take away: In any way, do we tell our donors, customers or clients that “we” or “our services” are not very good?” Or instead, do we frame lesser services, like the free class, the mini-play or the initial session as entry points? High esteem draws others and their resources to you. If you are interested in building your nonprofit’s esteem and thinking more about how you explain your services, see 12 Tickets to Healthy Nonprofit Esteem.