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The Philanthropy News Digest recently posted a great interview with, Sarah Durham, the author of Brandraising. She argues that marketing and communications are fundamental for successful fundraising and gives a snapshot of the principles of brandraising in just four minutes. She also predicts that mobile communications and fundraising is the next big thing. Watch the video and let us know what you think!
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My work planning for, evaluating and deploying technology at nonprofits requires that I have a good understanding of fundraising concepts and practices, and I do. It's an area that I'm sufficiently knowledgeable about, but no expert. So my current personal fundraising campaign for Idealware is an amateur effort. It is, happily, a successful one. I did some things right, including, I think, making strategic use of my social networking connections and channels. I might have done a few things differently, given what I've learned. And much of the success has been instructive.
Setting Up The Campaign
As both a board member and an ardent supporter of Idealware, I give annually and encourage my friends to do the same. But this year I wanted to step it up, so I suggested that we use Razoo, an online personal fundraising platform, to host campaigns. It turned out that I was behind the times -- fellow board member Steve Bachman had already started a Razoo campaign, and Idealware had registered as a Razoo charity. I signed up for my Razoo account, and clicked the "Fundraise" link. Setting up the campaign was pretty akin to setting up a profile on a social network -- name, description, graphic upload, etc. I went for not too fancy with the name and graphic ("The Idealware Research Fund" and the logo, respectively), and set about to write as plain and honest a description/appeal as I could, approaching it as what I would say if I asked you to donate to Idealware and you said "Why?".
I set a modest goal of $750, and announced my intention to match half of that. I was a little cagey about the matching requirements, saying that I would match up to $375 when I had already pledged that amount to Idealware. My expectation, going in, was that I could probably raise $375 and my match would bring me to goal. So I'm happy that, as of this writing, I've raised $750 and added my donation to that, well exceeding the goal.
Campaigning
My campaign targets were my social media contacts. To that end, I downloaded an Excel spreadsheet of all 530 of my LinkedIn connections and pared it down to the 325 or so that met this criteria: they were either familiar with Idealware and supportive of the work or, maybe unfamiliar, but likely would support it. I didn't target my staff and co-workers, and I left out some family and non-professional connections that I didn't imagine would be all that personally motivated by Idealware's work. But I left a bunch of them in, too. I wanted the appeal to clearly come from me, so I didn't send the appeal through LinkedIn. I used my personal email. I wanted to avoid spam filters, so the email was plain text, and I sent it in batches of ten people at a time, cutting and pasting from the spreadsheet to Gmail's "to" field, which was nice enough to automagically format them with commas between each email address. The mailing process, from LinkedIn download to final click of the "Send" button, took about four hours.
I made it clear up front in my email that the recipients were LinkedIn contacts of mine. I'm sensitive to spam, even for worthwhile causes, and I wanted everyone to know that this wasn't a random email, nor was it a list that would be used again. Next campaign, I'll start from scratch again. With the emails sent, I tweeted, Facebooked, and Google+ed the effort.
Follow-up
I got a healthy response to my email blast, raising $500 in a couple of days. It was great to also get emails from friends who passed on donating to my campaign because they'd already donated directly, or through another campaign. As donations came in, I tweeted and posted thanks to the donors on my Facebook page. The tweets included a link back to the campaign, of course. A week and a half in, I posted new tweets and statuses and that, too, got a good response. At $80 to goal, I tweeted how close we were, and longtime Idealware contributor and advisor Michael Stein jumped in and brought us to $750, at which point I added my $375.
Takeaways
I think my key successes were in keeping it human, relatively low-key (no follow-up emails or persistent nagging, but between the public thank yous and a ten day social media reminder, a fairly consistent broadcast); and having the benefit of supporting a cause that's pretty unimpeachable.
I'm pretty sure that sending more personalized emails and making phone calls would have yielded more funding. Next time, I might trim the number of people I reach out to personally, but increase the personal nature of the appeal.
25 of my 26 of my donations came from people who were already familiar with Idealware (one was from someone who works here!). I'm sure all 25 of them have been to one or more NTEN conferences. I had little luck convincing people new to the cause to donate. Some of my fellow board members are focusing on family and other associates, and it's a harder sell. I think that's somewhat understandable. We all support causes that are important to us, and Idealware is going to appeal to either sympatico types like myself (I was on board with Idealware's mission before Laura set up shop) and people who have directly benefitted. For myself, I regularly support Idealware and orgs like them, my own employer (because the earth really does need a good lawyer!), and a collection of causes that have missions that really resonate with me, as well as reputations that hold up. But it's a fraction of the orgs that I would contribute to if I had more to afford. Who we pony up the checks for is a very personal matter. I'm thrilled that a significant percentage of the people that I appealed to heeded the call, and it speaks to the great work that Idealware does. But I fault no one that I appealed to, as I'm certain that the ones who passed up my cause have worthwhile causes of their own.Note: Peter's campaign, while officially over, is still accepting donations if you want to support Idealware too! Click here to donate. _________________________________________________________________________________________Want to fundraise like Peter for your favorite organization? Check out the Marin Human Race! Have you had success with a personal fundraising campaign? What surprised you? What advice do you have for others? Share your story in the comments!
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Martin Luther King Day is a national day of service designed to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his vision of a “beloved community.” To honor his legacy Volunteer Marin and over 50 volunteers worked throughout the county on Martin Luther King’s national holiday.
Volunteers started the day in Marin City in conjunction with the Conservation Corp North Bay to spruce up the Mattie and Clarence Boatman community garden. The Conservation Corp was able to use 30 Volunteer Marin volunteers to beautify the garden, plant new fruit trees and lettuce plants, and pick up litter in the Marin City Marsh. The garden looks great and the Conservation Corp got twice as much work done as they'd expected.
Although the day went smoothly the biggest difficulty was logistics. Projects like these can become chaotic. The best way to manage this chaos is to provide as many details to the volunteers as is possible. The times where the day wasn’t going smoothly were due to lack of communication between the partnered agencies.We had a lot of volunteers (30) and two sites. We had to figure out the best way to manage all the adults and kids, keep them engaged in the work, and connect the work to the larger issue we were addressing. We had a few hiccups during the day but we got a lot of work done and got people excited about volunteerism.
Volunteer Marin’s day then moved on to the Marin Food Bank. There our volunteers helped to bag chili for hungry families in Marin. We brought twenty volunteers to support the Food bank on a day when staff does not typically work. We were able to bag several thousand pounds of chili in order to feed several families in Marin.
Volunteers are one of the most important parts of the nonprofit sector. They are an invaluable labor source that some organizations otherwise couldn’t afford. As a staff member, I needed details and early planning to be prepared to manage both the projects and volunteers. We had to make sure we used our systems to communicate beforehand with volunteers, then use our database to collect information which allows us to maintain contact with the volunteers in the future.
Want to plan a project next year? Here are my tips to lead a successful MLK Day project:
-Communicate with volunteers 48 hours in advance via email and 24 hours via phone
-Give really specific instructions
-Make a meeting spot obvious and accessible and give volunteers the specific directions/instructions (We use Starbucks as our meeting point and ask everyone to wear a specific color shirt)
-During the project try to meet everyone and, if you can, talk about why the work is important
-After the project lead a reflection discussion
-Survey the participants so you can learn how to improve
-Follow-up with a thank you email or handwritten note
Ashley Kelly is an AmeriCorp VISTA serving in the Volunteer Services Department of the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership. She recently graduated from Elon University in Elon, North Carolina with a BS in International Studies with a focus on human rights and development. Ashley has varied experience in the nonprofit world but focused most of her time working in after school programs and with at-risk youth.
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By Julie Mozena
It seems as if I’ve been writing grants since time immemorial, and while a few things have changed over the years (grants.gov, anyone?), most of the basic rules I’ve learned over the years still apply. Today I’ll focus on what I think are the two most important parts of a grant proposal: The Needs Statement and The Goals and Objectives (or Outcomes).
The Needs Statement: You have a great idea for a new program—now what? Clarifying what need you are trying to meet is critical to ensuring your argument holds water with the funder. Here are some tips to keep in mind:
1. Success is achieved thru adequate preparation: Invest your time in learning what the problem really is—don’t just assume you know it. Find research that offers evidence in support of your argument, so you can refer to it as you write your needs statement.
2. Ask yourself the important questions: Is the need you are trying to meet—and the program design you want to propose—truly in alignment with your agency’s mission? And—do you have resources/expertise to carry it out?
Typical mistakes in writing a Need Statement:
o Assuming the funder already knows the problem (they don’t know YOUR unique situation)
o Throwing out a laundry list of statistics without “humanizing” them (offer a case study or anecdotes to personalize the problem)
o Skipping the need statement and focusing on how you’ll solve the problem; or, focusing on past accomplishments without addressing the current need and proposed solution
o Making the proposal about your organization’s needs rather than the needs of your constituency. For example, an agency should not seek funding to upgrade its computers because it will benefit its staff. Instead, focus on the clients – how will the capital improvement benefit them?
Goals/Outcomes/Objectives: These provide the underpinning/infrastructure for your great idea. Everything you write must tie back to these. By clearly stating your goals and objectives (or outcomes – the terms are used interchangeably), an agency assures potential participants and funders that its programs produces results, and shows the general public that it produces benefits that merit support. Tips include:
There is not a right number of outcomes for a program: Depending on the size and scope of your project/grant request you might focus on one outcome, or two, or three….
There are 3 types of outcomes:
1. Initial outcomes are the first benefits or changes in a participant’s new knowledge, attitudes, or skills: “Women are knowledgeable about basic financial literacy and basic business English.”
2. Intermediate outcomes are changes in behavior that result from participant’s new knowledge, attitudes, or skills: “Women follow guidelines for improving their financial situation and English language capabilities.”
3. Longer-term outcomes represent meaningful changes for participants, often in their condition or status: “Women achieve financial independence.”
There are innumerable resources to learn more about grantwriting. Some favorite resources include Story Telling for Grantseekers by Cheryl Clarke, workshops at the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership (Grantwriting workshop on February 9!), and The Grantseeker Institute at the Foundation Center.
Julie Mozena, principal of Mozena and Associates, is a successful fundraising professional with over 20 years of experience in program planning, grantwriting, research, and training. She has helped countless nonprofits, school districts, and government agencies around the nation raise over $60 million in funding for needs such as after school recreation and enrichment programs, mental health and substance abuse services, public policy advocacy, and much more.
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Our resource library is a perfect place to begin researching grants. The Library also houses an extensive collection of nonprofit literature on topics ranging from governance and board recruitment to step-by-step guides on how to start a nonprofit (501c(3)). Visitors to the Library and Resource Center can access the Foundation Center Online database with more than 100,000 grantmakers and one million grants.
We encourage you to take a look at these resources on your journey in search of the money:
Organizing Your Grant Writing Calendar
20 Tips Every Grantseeker Should Know
Grant Makers reveal the Most Common Reasons Grant Proposals Get Rejected
Come on by and visit our library. If you have visited before, please tell us about your experience.
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By Christina Dragonetti
What is a Benefit Corp and what is an Flexible Purpose Corporation?
Under traditional corporate law, companies are legally bound to maximize shareholder value by pursuing profit and the directors can be sued by shareholders if they feel the directors aren't focused on that goal. With these two new incorporation types, companies can pursue social benefit goals, in addition to profit, without fear of lawsuits.
The clearest explanation of the two types of incorporation I could find is on Bloomberg.com. Flexible Purpose Corporations canwrite one or more special missions into their articles of incorporation. They can be as ambitious as fighting climatechange or as modest as maintaining a park near the company’soffice. The law instructs directors to consider the specialaims in their decision-making, even when it could mean lowerreturns for investors. To make the appeal as broad aspossible, the law’s authors avoided setting a minimum standardfor what a “special purpose” could be.
By contrast, Benefit Corporations mustcommit to creating a material, positive impact on society and the environment, as measured by a third-party standard. Companies that incorporate as Benefit Corps must consider anarray of stakeholders beyond shareholders, includingworkers, suppliers, the environment and the local community.
*Alphabet soup note: "B Corp" is a certification earned by any corporation from B Lab and a "Benefit Corp" is a legal entity. More on the distinction here.
Proponents
The biggest cheerleader for the Benefit Corp laws is B Lab - a nonprofit organization "dedicated to using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems." In this video, B Lab co-founder Jay Coen Gilbert shares his vision to harness the power of business to solve society's problems through B Corps (via TEDxPhilly). Social entrepreneurs and investors are pretty happy with the new types of corporation. They allow companies like Patagonia, Revolution Foods, Give Something Back, Cleanfish, SaveUp and many more to pursue social and environmental goals without fear of shareholder lawsuits. It also gives them a great marketing angle for customers and potential investors.
B Lab expects nonprofits to benefit from Benefit Corps in three ways. Benefit Corps are more likely to donate a larger percentage of their profits, encourage employee volunteerism and have less negative impact on communities and the environment than traditional corporations. Also, Benefit Corps offer everyone the opportunity to use their money for good - regardless of their desire or ability to donate. Instead of investing in a company that pollutes or may have ties to child labor, investors can choose from a variety of businesses with social missions that will also bring them a return on their money. In the end, this puts more dollars to work for the common good.
Opponents
Opponents of the law point out it's lack of oversight and accountability. Nonprofit organizations have boards of directors that are legally responsible for the fiscal health and mission focus of the organization. Benefit Corps are only legally accountable to their shareholders. The Benefit Corp law simply protects the company from having to focus only on profit. While this is appropriate - nonprofit money is public (whether donated or government) and Benefit Corp money is private - the burden of proving that every dime is spent appropriately falls heavily on nonprofits and not at all on Benefit Corps. There is a provision for Benefit Corps to publish independently verifiable reports on their social and environmental impact, in addition to financial data. However, the independent source is not specified; specific guidelines and standards have not been set. B Lab publishes one of thethird-party standards and, for a fee, certifies companies assustainable businesses (even if they're not incorporated as a Benefit Corp). It is assumed that, should a Benefit Corp not fulfill it's social and financial mission it's investors (and, presumably, customers) will go elsewhere.
Confusion and Competition
There is also a potential for confusion because many nonprofits have earned income strategies that operate like businesses - e.g. Homeward Bound of Marin's Fresh Starts Culinary Academy. Donors may assume that a nonprofit that sells anything has converted to the new Benefit Corp model and is no longer accepting traditional donations, or they may assume their donations are no longer tax-deductible. Additionally, many argued during the debate about lowering (or eliminating) the tax deduction for wealthy donors that the deduction is not what drives donations. So traditional donors, it is feared, will abandon their philanthropy and invest instead in Benefit Corps.
Finally, Benefit Corps have access to capital markets which gives them unrestricted cash they can use for things like raising salaries, offering bonuses, or quickly responding to a shifting market. In direct contrast, the money in nonprofit coffers is mostly restricted to specific programs, making it difficult for nonprofits to be flexible or to compete for talented staff.
But perhaps the Benefit Corp legislation opens opportunities to nonprofits looking to spin off their earned income programs. For example, GlobalIntegrity is likely to spin off a project called Foglamp, which it started,into a flexible-purpose company. Foglamp has a worldwide network of 1,200people that provide research, for example, on a country’s political stability.Hedge funds, institutional investors and global companies pay market rates forthe information. Nathaniel Heller, Global Integrity’s managing director, said that on atleast two occasions recently, it had to turn away venture capitalists wantingto invest in Foglamp. “As a nonprofit, we have no equity to offer them,” Mr.Heller said. As an FPC, Foglamp will be able to accept venture capital and use that unrestricted cash to grow much more quickly than it could as a nonprofit program. Another example is CouchSurfing - an organization that unsuccessfully tried to incorporate as a 501(c)3 and will now be incorporating as a B Corp. (Their website explains what they're doing and the impact it will have for their members.)
It remains to be seen if philanthropists will move their donation dollars into their portfolio accounts, or if Benefit Corps will be able to remain committed to their causes while competing in a tough market. If it works, though, Benefit Corps might let us have a market economy without a market society.
How do you think B Corps will impact nonprofits? Tell us in the comments!
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We want to say CONGRATULATIONS to each of the 131 nominees and 12 winners of the Heart of Marin Awards! You are the Heart of Marin!
The Center is honored to host the Heart of Marin Awards Luncheon every year. The 2012 event was held yesterday, and the nonprofit, business and volunteer community gathered to celebrate individuals and organizations who are committed to building a better Marin. A crowd of nearly 800 people filled the Marin Center Exhibit Hall at the county fairgrounds in San Rafael.
Here are a few words from some of the winners:
Over the past three years, Ernesto has been building his EcoBaby Project. Based on a simple idea: recycle the baby items from communities of privilege into communities in struggle.
By stretching the idea of recycling beyond paper and plastic, Ernesto has been able to push being 'green' into alleviating poverty. This action goes beyond charity; it is an act of social justice.
Excellence in Leadership - Diane Linn,
Ritter CenterThanks to Diane's leadership, Ritter Center has become a sustainable agency that is focused on changing the lives of clients and creating positive outcomes for the community.
Diane believes that sound partnerships and networks can often deliver social services more effectively and efficiently than one organization alone.
In partnership with Marin City Health and Wellness Center, Ritter Center received a federal Health Resources and Services Administration Grant to become a Federally Qualified Health Center serving the homeless.
Achievement in Nonprofit Excellence (small budget) - Dan Mankin,
Dance Palace Community CenterIn the past year, the Dance Palace had 255 volunteers who helped serve 28,622 people. On average they offer or provide space to 35 weekly classes, 141 performance and 125 community meetings. Annually they serve 1,000 senior lunches.
Whether a class, cultural event, government meeting, disaster shelter, the Dance Palace is woven into the life of the West Marin Community.
Congratulations to the winners:
Volunteer of the Year- Jim & Ann Patterson, 10,000 Degrees
Excellence in Board Leadership- John T. Curtis, Family Service Agency of Marin
Corporate Community Service- Matt and Jeff’s Carwash & Detail Center
Youth Volunteers of the Year- Kyra Deeth-Stehlin, Dilsy Mendez, Ernesto Garcia Jr., Rachel Blackman and Ivan Shaw
Excellence in Innovation- Marin Organic
Excellence in Leadership- Diane Linn, Ritter Center
Achievement in Nonprofit Excellence- Dance Palace Community Center (small budget) and Point Reyes National Seashore Association (large budget)
Who do you think should be nominated next year?
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For many of us in our personal and professional work, a new year means a new start with formidable resolutions. In the spirit of Wordless Wednesday we leave you to pontificate on this question:
In 2012, what are the three things you know you can realistically do that will help your community?
Photo Source
Inspiring Generosity encourages you to create a practical list of resolutions to help you stay on track toward your goals.
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Last week, the Chronicle of Philanthropy invited a diverse group of leaders and thinkers to share their 2012 resolutions for the nonprofit world. A few of our favorites are:
May 2012 be a year of courage for philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. We face an extraordinary assault on programs serving the most vulnerable in our society, voting rights we long took for granted, and harsh anti-immigrant policies that undermine our values. Now is the time for our sector to find its voice and support advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement.
Rather than focus on protecting tax incentives that primarily benefit the well-to-do, and fighting limits to the charitable deduction, nonprofit leaders should concentrate on addressing income inequality and the social problems that creates. Let us resolve to remember who we are: the voice of the common good. Our job is to propose answers to the question of how a country can guarantee all its inhabitants a life of freedom, security, and peace. We are smart enough to figure this out and, at 10 percent of the work force and well over a trillion dollars passing through our coffers every year, we are powerful enough to make it happen. This year, let’s be brave enough to actually do it.
2012 may, I hope, be the year of data. Not only do I see more organizations looking for ways to be data-driven in decision making, communications, campaigning, and marketing, but also a growing interest and understanding of the value in sharing data. Just as we want to be data-driven inside our organizations, the more we share our data with each other, the more data-driven we can be in our work collectively.
2012 must be
the year of deeper vs. wider. We must resolve not to pursue every opportunity to serve—like a raccoon chasing every shiny object it sees—but instead focus our efforts on where we can maximize impact.
We were inspired by each of these resolutions to make our own:
May 2012 be a year of honest reflection and assessment. If nonprofit organizations, and individuals within those organizations, take the time to realistically assess their strengths and weaknesses they will be in a better place to build upon their strengths and make plans to address their weaknesses. So often, we are loath to admit our weakness for fear of losing funding and respect. However, being transparent about what we do well and what we need to work on will only make us more credible and effective organizations and leaders.
--Ami Ehrlich, Director of Programs
What is your 2012 New Year's resolution for the nonprofit sector or your organization?
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By Marilee Eckert, CEO, Conservation Corps North Bay
Last year when Conservation Corps North Bay (CCNB) was nominated for the Achievement in Nonprofit Excellence award I knew the competition would be stiff.
There are many nonprofit organizations in Marin County doing important work in our community. Some people think that there isn’t much need in a county where the average household income is one of the highest in the country. The truth is that for those fortunate enough to have financial resources this is a great place to live, but for those trying to survive on a low income it can be very difficult. It is very expensive to live in this county and those without adequate resources or with special needs can feel very isolated and disheartened. This situation makes the work of Marin’s nonprofit community that much more important. Fortunately there are many high quality long- standing nonprofit organizations that have developed to meet this need.
So when Conservation Corps North Bay was among a couple dozen other well established organizations nominated I was hopeful but in no way thought it would be a slam dunk. At the awards ceremony, my good friend Susan Gilmore from the North Bay Children’s Center has just won the Excellence in Leadership award and I was very excited for her. Next came the Achievement in Nonprofit Excellence. My feelings were high from Susan’s win, especially because Susan’s daughter was in the audience to witness her mother receiving the honor.
The pressure mounted as Julie Wilder from Autodesk came to the stage to present the Achievement in Nonprofit Excellence.
When Conservation Corps North Bay was named as the winner I got a rush of emotions and a big smile covered my face. I was so happy to have CCNB in the spotlight in that room filled with so many other people who are doing such great work in our community. As I made my way to the stage I caught a glimpse of my colleagues smiling and congratulating me. It was very exciting. When I got to the stage all I could think about was all the youth we serve and how this would help us to be able to serve even more.
As I looked out at the crowd I thought about how hard our corpsmembers work to improve their lives. The projects we do in the community mostly include hard physical labor and all of our corpsmembers also participate in a rigorous educational program. Sometimes the hardest work they do is changing their self-defeating behaviors and making changes in their lives that will keep them on “a path to a better future.” With eyes brimming with tears and my heart full of pride, I accepted the award in their honor.
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Did you attend the 2010 Heart of Marin Awards Ceremony? Tell us about your experience in the comments.
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A few of our favorite tweets from the last week:
Today, the breakdown of local community has robbed us of our historic safety net. What to do? Great post by Scott Doyon
: Check out this reading list if you want to stay in the know of what's going on in the world:
: Great post from : Why does YOUR nonprofit need young board members?
: 6 ideas for Tweeting your campaign
: Finding the right mgmt software: by
Bonus! Hilarious holiday music spoof from Mission Minded (video): http://www.mission-minded.com/holiday2011/
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Recently, we have been exploring the use of asset maps in our own organization. We found this method to be helpful because it encourages community participation and it goes beyond the paper and pen format or filling out a survey on a computer. We think they are great tools that involve partners and want to share what we have learned with you.
What is an asset map? An asset map provides a visual representation of the strengths and resources in a community.
Nonprofits have used asset maps as a way to find available resources, make program decisions, or map local public services, institutions, and/or community partners. Asset maps also promote connections or relationships between individuals and organizations.
There is no right way to make an asset map, but many opt for computerized mapping in which the locations of resources, institutions or programs are listed on a geographic map (also known as GSI mapping) . Below are a few tools we recommend to help you develop your asset map:
· GSI mapping on Google
· HealthyCity’s mapping tool
Asset Mapping in Practice
· Mapping for youth development
· Asset mapping to improve schools, develop communities, and promote volunteerism
· Asset mapping as a planning tool (Mapping 2011)
Want to continue exploring? See these additional links:
· Identifying community assets and resources
· Asset mapping in detail
Have you used asset maps in your work? Please share examples with us!
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By Leyna Bernstein
from Leyna Bernstein Consulting's Blog
I’ve been serving on nonprofit boards since 1994, and I’ve been providing board training and consulting since 1998. So you’d think I would have figured out what it takes to develop a highly effective board of directors, right? Uh….not so much.
While I consider myself a certified “governance geek”, I still have more questions than answers about how we make the “unpaid volunteers managing paid professionals” thing work. There are, however, a couple of things I do know for sure.
I know that if you’ve seen one board…..you’ve seen one board.
A board model that works great for Habitat for Humanity doesn’t work at all for the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra. Even the board that worked well for you a few years ago may not be the right board for your organization now. You can go ahead and stop reading this now if you’ll promise to ask your board the question:
What does great performance look like for this board at this time in the life of our organization?
The other thing I know for sure is that you cannot have an effective board without the right board chair. All the training and consulting in the world won’t build you a great board if your chair isn’t the right leader for the job.
I know this first-hand because I was a pretty lousy board chair. Why? Because I’m often certain that I have the answer, I’ll quickly give an opinion even when I don’t know the answer, I enjoy the sound of my own voice, and I’m not the most patient soul in the world. Trust me, these are not traits you want in the leader of a collaborative group of volunteer leaders.
So what makes for a really good board chair? In very effective organizations, the board chair is a facilitative leader—helping to develop the board, focus its attention, engage it appropriately in governing the organization, and build a strong partnership with the executive director.
Here are my top 5 traits for a really good board chair:
Listener
Rather than broadcast her own voice, a board chair should draw out the ideas, opinions and knowledge of the rest of the board. This means paying a lot of attention to who is speaking, and for how long, at board meetings. It means spending time one-on-one with board members to learn how they make decisions, and how comfortable they are speaking up when they disagree with the majority. And it means soliciting ideas for making board discussions as rich as possible.
Planner
Most board meetings waste the precious time that boards have to discuss and make decisions together. Since the authority of a board rests only with the group, not with individual board members, time spent at meetings should be very efficiently used.
In partnership with the executive director, a really good board chair sorts out what is most critical for the board to do. She identifies important issues and questions to discuss at board meetings, and crafts agendas that make the best use of the board’s time in meetings.
Match-Maker
Board members really do want to feel productive and engaged. A good board chair makes sure to match each board member with the committee/task force/project that best taps her unique skills, interests and contacts. The chair should also ensure that the board is always thinking about its own evolution, and that there is a system in place to regularly identify needs, recruit new members, and advance promising leaders to greater levels of responsibility.
If I had a dollar for every board chair who told me they took the job because “no one else would do it” I would be a much bigger donor than I am.
Partner
Executive directors know their lives can change overnight based on who the board elects to serve as chair. A good board chair works hard to develop a partnership with the executive director, and helps maintain clear boundaries between the ED’s accountability and that of the board. The chair should be available and accessible, act as an advisor and sounding board (when asked), and provide support and constructive feedback within the context of clearly defined performance expectations.
Diplomat
The chair should be the model for board members’ behavior, both in and out of the board room. She should be able to represent the organization well in public settings, and handle delicate situations with tact and skill. A good board chair will be both diplomat and ambassador, opening doors for the organization and helping make useful connections in the community.
We’ve seen the amount and quality of leadership training for nonprofit executives increase dramatically in the last decade. I’ve yet to see similar programs for board chairs. Maybe that should be a topic of conversation at the next Governance Geek convention…
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A lot of people love this time of year: the trees changing colors, the cold weather and, for many, getting ready to have a feast with friends and family. But for most of us in the nonprofit world, this week represents the beginning of Year End Appeal Season. Many small agencies rely on the year-end appeal to make or break our budgets. Below I have put together a few tips that may help ease your anxiety and increase your rate of return for the mailing.
1. Set a realistic goal and articulate it to your donors, staff and board. This will help your stakeholders feel like the agency has strategic goals to meet to ensure the fiscal health of the agency.
2. Be specific. Treat the appeal like a campaign by giving it a finite beginning and end. Articulate this to your stakeholders: “we want to raise $15,000 by January 15 to ___(produce 3 new plays from local artists)____. Won’t you help us meet our goal?”
3. Keep the letter to one page (single sided). Make it easy on your donors: state the case, tell a story, include a picture and then make the ask. Direct people to your website where you can tell the story of your work in more detail. Sample letters from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
4. Personalize your letters! This week I received over a dozen appeals in the mail and half of them were addressed to Dear Friend – if I gave you money in the past, I am more than a friend, I am a supporter, a believer and…I have a name! 20 phrases that will make your donors feel like heroes.
5. Write a personal note on each and every letter. Have your board, staff and key volunteers write personal notes to their contacts. For the others in your database write a sincere note to ask for support. Advice on making your letters more “conversational” from Guidestar
6. Pay attention to the envelope. Hand address each one. Your letter gets noticed and increases the chance of someone opening it. Want to increase those odds? Use a colored envelope that is not red, green or blue.
7. Post the appeal on your website. This will catch the attention of those donors who are comfortable with online giving – your letter may lead them to your site but the web is highly distracting and posting the appeal online reminds them why they are there.
8. Email the letter as a reminder to your supporters. If you have a monthly e-newsletter, send the appeal out to that list and include the ability to share it via social networks.
9. Thank before you bank. Sounds simple but takes putting some processes in place. A thank you note in a timely manner goes a long way to build good will. A late thank you note (say - after the New Year for a donation given in November) has the opposite effect.
The Art of saying Thank you and How to write a better thank you note.
10. And at last – CELEBRATE! It’s January 15 and it’s the end of the appeal campaign. Gather your staff, board and volunteers, run the final numbers and celebrate. Even if you didn’t meet the goals you set, celebrate. Include your donors in this celebration and make sure to articulate the results of the campaign to your constituents.
Want more advice? Check out Dear Joan and Mal Warwick and Associates (Direct Mail Guru).
By: Atashi Chakravarty, Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership
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Lately I’ve been having moments of deep existentialvertigo. Everything seems off-kilter. Progressive mayors dismantling Occupyencampments. Students rioting in support of a football coach who downplayedyears of child sex abuse allegations by one of his trusted staff. Presidentialcandidates “forgetting” big settlements connected to sexual harassment claims.Earthquakes in Turkey.Earthquakes in Oklahoma.Reality TV lauding a family with 20 biological offspring. 11/11/11. Asteroidsalmost colliding with earth. Lions, tigers, bears. Oh my!
My daily newspaper reads like the “Weekly World News” thesedays. The voice of my long-dead grandma rises up through the ages to ask “Whatin God’s name are you all up to in there?” Frankly, often I have no idea. Whatare we up to these days? Sometimes it seems that I can’t count on anything.
And then I feel the joy at all the unexpected opportunitiesthat disruption can present.
I notice my heart beating. I hear the laughter of my staff.The moon is full tonight. The waves of the bay lap against the shore. Acolleague dies. A friend is pregnant. I recall the sound of my partner Kim,breathing as she slept beside me last night.
Think back a year ago – who could have predicted the ArabSpring? Students and activists took to the streets in Paris,Santiago and Barcelona. Then in New York, and in thousands of cities andtowns across the country and world. Did we plan for this? Probably not. Are weswimming with grace in this new, full river? I hope so.
In a time of constantly shifting sands, good leadershiprequires that we become adept at dancing. We will need to become increasinglyskilled in ambiguity and comfortable with chaos. We can no longer depend on thestructures supporting the decaying, archaic systems that are swiftly crumblingbefore our eyes. We’ve never been here before.
This is really good news.
How amazing is it that we get to lead in times like these?We have the honor and obligation to shepherd in a new and emerging age. Howdelightful is that?
We’ll need new tools, new ways of being and new paths. We’llneed to take unprecedented leaps of faith. I imagine that many around us willfeel unsettled – we’ll probably be pretty unsettled ourselves. We’ll need tocount on more than our egos, our shiny plans and our outdated traditions.Here’s to artful spontaneity, willingness to be present with what is emerging,and the ability to flex!
Part of our jobs as 21st century leaders is to hold steadyin trust that we’ll collectively get through this time. That we won’t be thesame when this transformation is complete. And that is as it should be.
So I’ve decided to count on the cycles of the moon, birthand death, Kim’s breathing, sweet laughter and the tides to get me through.
Oh yes – and I will count on your partnership.
What will you count on?
From my heart to yours,
Akaya
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The 2011 Marin Nonprofit Conference was an amazing day of spectacular speakers, presenters and attendees all conspiring for the common good. We started the morning by writing our intentions on leaves that decorated handmade wire trees. If you missed out on the excitement, look for photos of the leaves on our website soon! We documented the day through video as people made their way in and out of sessions. See what they had to say below:
"The keynote speaker managed to bring together a lot of thoughts that I've been having." -Robert Jenkins
"I found the sessions incredible...I went to the session with Jeanne Bell and I got a lot out of it and I'm still thinking about it." -Sheryl Cardoza, Chief Development Officer at The Marin Humane Society
"It's been exhilarating! It's always fun to get together with members of the nonprofit community." -Bruce Burtch, Executive Director at 10000 Partnerships
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How often do you think about the correlation between economic inequality at the state/federal level and the crises we see in the every day lives of many of our clients? In this interesting video from TED Talks, Richard Wilkinson (co-author of The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger) charts the hard data on economic inequality. He shows that, when rich and poor are too far apart, there are real effects on health, lifespan, and such basic values as trust.
Kim Klein's keynote address at Conspiring for the Common Good: 2011 Marin Nonprofit Conference on November 2nd uses The Spirit Level as a jumping off point for talking about the social sector's leadership role in creating a healthy society. She will then lead a "lab" session for a smaller group to continue the conversation. Want to join in? Register now at www.cvnl.org.
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The board model - the mandated structure of volunteer governors responsible for the health of a nonprofit organization - is challenging even in the best of times. In tough times, the challenges multiply and weak points are magnified. So what do we do?
Never fear - there are lots of resources to help you iron out the wrinkles!
Online Resources:
or visit the website and click on Free Resources (top); then underTopics, click on Board.
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By Dulce Galicia
Last week, I attended a conference in DC to explore the neighboring concept. The first annual Neighboring Boot Camp was held this September 26th-28th in Washington, DC. Over 35 Affiliates, AmeriCorps VISTAs, and neighborhood volunteer leaders came from across the country to participate in this training. We took tours of the neighboring sites and heard success stories.
But what exactly is neighboring? Neighboring is an approach that utilizes the talents and resources of the residents in their communities in order to find sustainable solutions to address local challenges. I traveled from one coast to the other to learn how neighboring works in DC and how I could apply those concepts in Marin County.
The neighboring model encourages partnerships between nonprofits and residents. Through this partnership, residents take on a leadership role in order to find solutions to their local problems. At its essence, neighboring encourages the engagement of residents to become active participants in their communities instead of simply being beneficiaries of nonprofit programs.
Neighboring works best when nonprofit organizations help residents take ownership of identifying the challenges and solutions to the issues in their communities.
An example of this is in a DC neighborhood that I toured, where residents worked together to create a safe recreation center for children to play and learn after school. This reminded me of a community meeting in the Canal that I attended in September. Residents were actively brainstorming ideas on how to make their community safe and how to find a solution to the economic burden of car impoundments in the Canal area. Residents stood up to share their stories and then broke out into small groups to brainstorm solutions.
This is a great illustration of how neighboring empowers community members to lead the local change efforts, as opposed to being recipients of externally imposed solutions.
At the Center, we believe that, when nonprofits engage community members as contributors and partners, their programs are more effective and sustainable. We also know that this is not always easy to accomplish, which is why we have
Miguel Gavaldon, Director of Development at Equal Justice Society to speak at the
Marin Nonprofit Conference on November 2
nd. He will discuss concrete ways to engage the Latino community as donors and partners. Come join us for a stimulating conversation and share your thoughts on this issue!
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Guest Post by Shelley Hamilton
I tend to find myself drawing “Landscape Maps” a lot these days. Sometimes as part of a concrete project and sometimes just to help me make sense of a complex, multi-faceted issue. So its no surprise that when Ami Ehrlich at The Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership asked me to write a guest Blog post on Social Enterprise as part of the lead in to the Marin Consultant Network’s Brown Bag lunch conversation, the first thing I did was to grab my journal and start drawing a Landscape Map.
First I started with a brainstorm of all the terms, catch phrases, acronyms, and organizations that in my experience fall somewhere on the Map. I then tried to group them or at least cluster them in some kind of sense-making arrangement. But when I went to put a title on the Map, “Social Enterprise” just seemed too small a term to encompass the breadth and complexity of what I saw on that piece of paper.
What I see is not just a new earned income or business-like tool to make nonprofits more financially stable or operationally efficient, or a new corporate “do-gooder” strategy that either intentionally or as a byproduct attracts employees and customers, or even the emergence of a 4th sector, but rather a tectonic shift in the social contract underpinning our Civil Society. Where we once had 3 independent and discrete sectors: Government (Public), Commercial (Private), and Nonprofit (Social) - (think finely balanced three legged shaker stool holding up our Civil Society), we now have a blurry, shifting landscape of entities blending multiple purposes within one organizing structure (think squishy, web-enabled beanbag holding up our Civil Society).
But will a society, shifting around under a new beanbag support system still be civil? Or, since the shape of the bag shifts depending on who’s sitting in it, will we lose our common framework to such an extent that we lose our shared vision of, and commitment to, the common good?
What is the new social contract when nonprofits are running commercial enterprises (i.e. Goodwill Industries, MarinSpace, BlueSky Café, YLI, Image For Success, etc.), government is backing loans for socially good, but financially risky, commercial ventures (i.e. Fannie & Freddy Home Loans, Solyndra Solar Power Solutions, etc.), and businesses and private entrepreneurs are solving global health and poverty issues (i.e. LuminAID Light, Gameen Bank, etc.)?
So I say to Howard Buffet, grandson of Warren Buffet, in response to his “…bring more private sector savvy into the philanthropic world …” comments in a recent
Fast Company article – “I think you’re looking too narrowly at the problem.”
And to well-meaning Social Entrepreneurs and Social Capital Market makers – “I think you’re looking too narrowly at the solution.”
And to both, I say, “Please be careful, think deeply, look widely, and consider the 7th generation impact of your actions. What’s at stake is nothing less than the future of our Civil (or not) Society.”
Shelley Hamilton is the Executive Director at MarinSpace.
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This week, I attended a panel on nonprofit collaboration at the Foundation Center in San Francisco that inspired me more than I expected. Of course the panel addressed why collaborations are worth exploring: they save money; they prevent duplication of efforts; they help organizations have a greater impact.
The panel also discussed why collaborations are challenging: nonprofits are competing for the same resources; it is difficult for different organizational cultures to work together; there is not enough funding for collaborations. And they shared solutions: create guidelines; communicate openly; focus on the needs of the community.
The reality is that the rationale, challenges and solutions discussed were not revolutionary. We have heard them many times before, and nonprofit collaboration remains a stubborn puzzle to solve. So why was I inspired? It was a comment about an individual's emotional experience of collaboration, rather than an intellectual argument for or against collaboration, that got my attention.
Ana Perez, the Executive Director of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), San Francisco was on the panel. She was representing the San Francisco Immigrant Legal and Education Network (SFILEN). SFILEN is a collaboration of thirteen immigrant service providers and advocacy organizations in San Francisco that provides free legal immigration assistance and community education to low-income immigrants.
Ana spoke about her initial resistance to joining SFILEN and said she had to stop and ask herself, "What are the fears stopping me from reaching out?" Ana realized that her biggest fear was that CARECEN would lose clients to other organizations.Once she acknowledged this, she also realized that what was important to her was that those clients would be getting the services that they needed. She was then able to join the collaboration focused on what was best for the community that she was serving.
This part of the conversation perked up my ears because it was not about the the technical questions of how a collaboration is formed and how it functions, which are relatively easy to answer. It is much more difficult to answer the questions: "How do you let go of your fear that your organization will be compromised? How do you begin to trust that other organizations have the best interest of the community in mind?" Ana herself was not even clear on how she had done it; she just knew that it was an integral part of the process of collaboration.
As a facilitator and trainer, I am fascinated by this human side of collaboration and believe that, if we can better understand how to address people's fears, there will be many more successful collaborations.
Want an opportunity to discuss collaboration in Marin? Come to the Marin Nonprofit Conference on Wednesday, November 2nd and listen to Steven Boyer, Makini Hassan, Dianne Linn, Mary Kay Sweeny and Linda Davis share their experiences with collaboration.
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The media often focuses on the overwhelming “economic downturn” that touched every aspect of our lives in disastrous ways, from a personal to an institutional level, but they often forget to mention nonprofits. As a college graduate learning about nonprofits, I wonder what the future holds for those aspiring to have a career in the nonprofit world. What will nonprofit management look like? And how will our leaders sustain a sector that is also financially attacked? Pieces of news articles seem to be illustrating a dreary panorama.
The
National Council of Nonprofits stated that nonprofit postal rates are under attack. The
United States Postal Service is losing money and one suggestion seems to be the elimination of a 40 percent discount rate for nonprofits and such discount was authorized by Congress in 1951. The 40 percent discount would be reduced by 5 percent a year, and to 10 percent after six years.
This made me reflect on an experience I had recently at the Center. I was told how invaluable it is to know how to do bulk mailings for nonprofits by two knowledgeable and experienced colleagues. It seemed humorous at the time to joke about how mailing is a skill; then I heard about the proposed elimination of postage discounts for nonprofits.
I thought: what does the elimination of postage discounts mean for nonprofits? Will nonprofits rely only on electronic mail? How will this affect fundraising and many of the tasks that revolve around postage?
We are less likely to talk about postage discounts compared to something more pressing such as jobs. The
Chronicle of Philanthropy recently published an
article focusing on an analysis of the U.S. labor statistics reporting that the growth in nonprofit jobs slowed in 2010 compared with other recent years. The number of nonprofit jobs grew by just under 1 percent from 2009 to 2010, according to a study of figures in 45 states by the John Hopkins University’s Center for Civil Society Studies.
So here's the question: what does this economic downturn mean to the nonprofit sector and what does it mean to your organization specifically? Tell us what you think: how will the reduction of the bulk mail discount impact your nonprofit? Is it important or should we only focus on the "larger" fights? Also, what are your opinions about job creation in the nonprofit sector? How can we best be included in the conversations of job proposals?
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In late August we published a blog titled
Are you Classifying your Interns Correctly? In this second post, we want to clarify some lingering questions and confusing points that may have come up. Please enjoy and feel free to share your experience!
The rules for unpaid interns seem to be less strict for nonprofit groups because people tend to do volunteer work for nonprofits, but it must be clear whether interns are unpaid volunteers or paid employees.
According to the
Department of Labor and
Law for Change, “unpaid internships with nonprofit charitable organizations and in the public sector—where the intern volunteers without expectation of compensation—are generally permissible.”
The federal government has established six criteria that California embraces in order to determine when internships can be unpaid and the six criteria to be considered can be found
here.
The New York Times reported that the California Labor Department revised its guidelines. California, by way of the US Court of Appeals for the 10
th Circuit, embraces a less strict test stating that the “totality of the circumstances must be assessed.” This means that when taking on interns, one must consider his or her role and duties in the organization. Overall, internships must be educational and predominantly for the benefit of the intern, not the employer.
Most importantly, internships at nonprofit organizations and government agencies fall into a separate category of regulation. Interns at these organizations can be considered to be donating their time (as volunteers), and are thus not required to be paid even if they are performing qualifying activities as an “employee.”
As always, the legality of any situation can be convoluted and open to interpretation but we encourage you to post your own stories.
Helpful tips:
· A nonprofit should draft a written position description that clearly describes the internship as a volunteer position.
· When interns are unpaid, it’s a good idea to clarify that they are "volunteers" and protect the nonprofit from liability risks.
· Clarify the interns’ non-employee status in writing at the beginning of their internship.
Helpful resources:
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I listen to NPR every day on my commute. Most of the time the stories serve to enrage or depress me with news of political and economic disasters. However, every so often there is a great little story that stimulates my personal and professional creativity, like this piece about Zoe Keating, a cellist who uses her musical “mistakes” to improvise new music.
At the end of the story, the reporter says: “Though Keating says she still makes plenty of mistakes onstage, you'd never know it. When I ask her to improvise something, she closes her eyes and, without a second thought, begins to play. Each note comes out as if it were born organically from her instrument, and what could be a mistake is easily transformed into a new direction, a new sound, a new expression. At that point, it's hard to imagine the piece sounding any other way.”
This got me thinking about improvisation and innovation in the nonprofit world. Earlier this week, one of my new colleagues mentioned in a casual conversation that, if nonprofits are going to innovate, they (and their funders) need to be comfortable with failure.
Another way to look at it is that new ideas that fall flat are not failures, but experiments that take us in new directions that have a greater impact than what we were doing before the “mistake”. The risk taker in me loves this perspective, while the pragmatist in me has some lingering questions:
How do we avoid innovation for innovation’s sake? Currently, innovation and entrepreneurship are industry buzzwords. Conferences, blogs and twitter feeds about social innovation abound. In the midst of all of this chatter, I think it is important to remember that innovation does not always mean starting something new; it can also mean introducing an existing idea to a new environment.
How do we judge whether innovations have been successful? Measuring the success of our work is always a challenge, and measuring the relative impact of a new approach can be even more difficult. I don’t have any easy answers to this, but really enjoyed Beth Kanter’s recent blog post on “curiosity driven” organizations. I do think that we need to be as creative about measuring success as we are about developing programs.
What do you think? How do we create an environment in the nonprofit sector where risk taking is truly encouraged? How do we encourage intelligent risk taking that is based in the experience and knowledge that we already have? What are innovative ways to measure the success of our innovations?
Posted by Ami Ehrlich
