Serving on a Nonprofit Board is Good Business

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

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

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^th such 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?

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

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?

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

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.