Enlarge your circle and define opportunities to attract more volunteers

We often hear these days about the lack of volunteers in the non profit sector and program cutbacks and closures as a result. In the "good old days" not only did people feel it was their duty to help out, but we had a willing and ready volunteer workforce made up of women who did not work outside the home.

Times have changed dramatically and so must the way we treat and attract volunteers to our causes. What makes someone volunteer?

• they like the people involved in the activity or cause
• they have an opportunity to use their skills or to learn new ones
• they want to have some fun!

How can we create better conditions to attract those volunteers?

1. Ensure your vision is clearly and consistently articulated
2. Help volunteers understand the role they play in achieving the vision
3. Show them how the vision fits into the broader community needs

Linking the vision to broader community needs means you can cast a wider net beyond your obvious supporters. There may be people that are unaffected directly by your cause, yet see an opportunity to contribute to the community by using their skills and having some fun.

Clearly define volunteer roles and responsibilities in position descriptions so people know what they have signed up for. Then treat them as a vital part of the organization and you'll both reap the benefits. Get rid of the attitude that someone is "just a volunteer" by encouraging and expecting them to do the best they can at whatever they have been assigned.

Shifting your attitudes and enlarging your circle will allow you to attract and use your volunteers effectively - a win-win situation for everyone!

Laura Mikuska

Mikuska Group

Fund Development & Event Specialists

mikuska.com

in celebration of International Women's Day

On March 3rd, I attended The National Council for Research on Women's panel, From Turbulence to Transformation. Christine Grumm, President and CEO of the Women's Funding Network, shared this call to action:

I saw what money does for movement building. Women have been under-capitalized. This is the point in time for the women's movement to become capitalized. ...If this is a female economy, like the Harvard Business Review said, then let's see the money!

Jacki Zehner, philanthropist and Founding Partner of Circle Financial Group, added:

The world in which we are all liberated from gender roles is a safe and healthy and better world for all.

The following day, I attended the Global Fund for Women's event, Women hold the Solutions, featuring author Nicholas Kristof. He shared a wonderful analogy illustrating the short-sighted focus on the "scalability" of nonprofit programs: "Restaurants like McDonalds are infinitely scalable." But there are many small, local restaurants that are wonderful and very much about the owner and/or chef. The event also featured activist Pinar Ilkkaracan, of Women for Women's Human Rights in Turkey. She shared the following insights:

You can't work against honor crimes; you can empower women to work against honor crimes. Feminist analysis has taught us that all inequalities are interconnected.

What, Why & How Story Matters

My newest essay, What, Why & How Story Matters, is now posted at PhilanTopic. If you are interested in hearing and sharing stories from your donors, board members, colleagues, and clients, you will learn vital tips for recognizing and eliciting real stories.

It begins:

I fear the term "story" is being used so broadly as to render it meaningless.

Messages are not stories. Statements of belief and opinions are not stories. And, most of the time, answers to direct questions are not stories.

Many well-intentioned professionals are rushing out and thinking they are asking for stories, when they are not. What gets shared as a result of their efforts is often called story, even when it is not.

Click here to read the full post.

Toyota R Us

Recently, I had lunch with a local nonprofit leader. Earlier this year, her organization faced a crisis when one of their former employees was arrested. We compared that event and similar challenges at nonprofits to the recent Toyota recalls. Like Toyota, we must gather large public respect to advance our work. Like Toyota, we build our future on trust. Like Toyota, errors, lapses and missteps, violate that trust and can rock our foundation. Like Toyota, we need to respond to crisis (a time when a difficult decision must be made.)

Toyota Not R Us. We do not have to follow Toyota’s missteps. Nonprofits with a solid mission, vision and a clear understanding of their strategies —have the tools they need to respond to recalls, arrests and other crisis. These tools can answer questions like: how can we continue to best serve our customers in light of this incident? What does the public need to know? How do we avoid such events in the future? How can we communicate our plans to do so?

Mission, vision and clear strategy thinking are not only for blue-sky days. They are musts for days when our organizations are rocked by storms. These thinking tools help us to understand the actions we must take to weather the storms that are part of life. For a list of strategic questions to ask your board see http://www.kedconsult.com/articles-resources/month-by-month-the-strategic-organization/.

Providing Value

Andrew Kakabadse, Professor of International Management Development in the School of Management at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom, recently conducted a study of over 1200 boards from around the world. Fully 75% of those boards reported not knowing how they contribute value to their organizations. While sad, I am not surprised by this finding. The culture of most boards precludes engagement. And, if there is no engagement how can we expect anyone to have even a sense of belonging, let alone of providing import to the organization?

For instance, when was the last time your board was engaged in a substantive discussion? I don’t mean that the directors were asked to vote on a recommendation or to discuss the merits of the two companies submitting bids to fix the roof. Rather, they were expected to ask “What if…,” to explore working in tandem with a group that has always been seen as the competition or to consider how to turn a risk into a unique opportunity to move the organization forward?

I routinely ask boards with which I’m going to work to share with me their typical agenda. Most follow a format that is strong on reports. How much value can board members bring if all they are doing is listening to reports? What’s worse: reports focus on the past. Nobody can change the past. If you want board members to feel they are bringing value to your organization, you must engage them – their excitement, commitment and unique talents – around issues that they can impact. This requires providing them with the information they need or request, turning them loose to grapple with the issues and supporting their conclusions. If you have grounded your board around your organizational vision and values you have nothing to fear and much to gain.

There’s an old adage that, “If two people in business think alike, one of them is unnecessary.” We need the diversity of thought that our boards bring to the table. Our decisions become better. Best, the process cuts both ways. People who have had the opportunity to offer input feel valued.

But, all of this is for naught if we don’t share with our boards the results of their efforts. Otherwise, for all they know, they wasted their time in merely a mental exercise. If we want our boards to feel valued, we have to demonstrate that their product – their intellectual capital and their efforts – made a difference. And, it doesn’t hurt to thank them for that, either!

Partnership First Steps

Lately, we’ve been focusing on partnerships as a way to increase nonprofit resources. We developed a list of ideas to help the nonprofits we work with to expand their resources for mission. The suggested activities can help you to expand your resources too—and explore potential relationships. They all are geared to be short-term to “see how the relationship works,” and to establish trust. Here is one of them:

*Meet quarterly for one year to brainstorm topics for your monthly newsletter column and other places where you contribute regularly but often feel “stale” and short of ideas.

For a list of the 25 other ideas email me at Info@kedconsult.com. Write “partnership list” on the reference line.

Positive Spin Blinds Group

Amidst the turmoil of a sudden forced resignation, a group lost an opportunity to receive a major grant. The donor asked for a document with a deadline that fell one week after the resignation. When the group subsequently did not receive the grant, they developed this explanation: “The donor did not give us enough time.”

Technically, this was true. More time would have allowed the group to comply. Underneath this positive spin, was the fact that the group, because of the resignation faced a leadership void at a critical hour. The spin blamed the donor. The spin, which over time became the organization’s reality, meant that instead of planning how to restore the donors trust in the organization, the group is blithely plans to apply again to this “capricious” donor.

By all means create a positive spin for the challenges you face, but avoid spinning so much that the dust you generate blinds you to reality and critical action steps.