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.

Our Boards Must Understand How They Operate

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.

Do Your Fundraising Efforts Raise More Than Money?

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

Summer Reading: The House That Love Built

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?

Values as Visuals

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.

Instead of Low Overhead…Show How You Make A Difference

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.

The Magic of Thirty-Five

Lyle Schaller, church consultant, writes, “You can’t overdo communications. All important messages should be sent out on at least five different channels of communications.” Marketing experts have long suggested that messages, to be heard, need to be repeated at least seven times.

What are your important messages? How are you getting them out to people via five different channels seven times? I’m working on a chart, five across, seven down, for a client to look at how we are helping people to remember his nonprofit in their wills. While we might not reach the magic number 35 this quarter, the tool is helping us to explore different communication methods and frequency. Quick jot down your most important message… what media are you using to share it? How often?