Author: whatifconcepts

Empowering those that inspire so they can excel at the work that matters.

Big Announcement!
This is Big!
Sensational Information to Share!
New Partnership Announced….
Please click on the PDF link to read about the change in the newsletter.
Anti-climatic?  What happened, you could not find the link? What if there was big news- perhaps a partnership with a major enterprise?  A whole new platform, a bigger audience, a larger megaphone, higher stakes, more networks.  Our tribe was joining forces and everything was going to change.  Should it come in a newsletter?  I am shocked by how many causes broadcast their biggest story by using just print.  In the age of YouTube, webcasts, Twitter, Facebook, interactive greeting cards, and personal delivery services we resort to a flat platform.  This is your chance to shout, “Everest Basecamp, this is Everest Summit, we made it!”  Pick-up the satellite phone and make a few calls, take some pictures, hang banners, dance, take the oxygen mask off for a second and breath the highest alpine air.  Nobody composes a newsletter and emails it out when the reach the summit of Everest.  You alert everyone in your tribe and if you can make them realize that they are part of the team, all the better.  Gather your community, huddle, look them in the eyes and allow them to gauge the significance of the announcement.  Let your fans ask questions, provide guidance, and celebrate the news.  Can you do better than sending hyperlinks with transformational news using the same document that contains a coupon and the school lunch menu?

My Nonprofit

Michel Martin on NPR’s Tell Me More program discussing President Obama’s address to the business community introduced one of the guests as the owner of two nonprofit businesses.  I gave me pause, can one ‘own’ a nonprofit?

The concept of owning a nonprofit is like laying claim to the sun.  One cannot posses the enterprise and it does a disservice in my mind to assign ownership to a cause established to serve the public trust.  By conferring dominion to a single individual we take the greatness out of the entity.  None of us are able to own a nonprofit.  It exists to meet a need that has a qualifying public benefit.  The concept for a social sector cause may originate with a founder but by incorporating as a nonprofit, the founder is conveying their idea to the public.  It is the ultimate gift.  If they wished to retain ownership then a for-profit structure provides far greater protection of competitive advantage and proprietary information.  If the social sector wishes to fully realize the magnitude of its influence and reach, it must be done by recognizing its dependency on others and not by building fortresses on the highest hills.  Seth Godin found a far more eloquent way to express our need for inter-connectedness and building community in his blog post today.

Being Prepared
Planning is knowing what to do when you get there. Panic is getting there and not knowing what to do.
-Simon Sinek
A colleague pointed out that one typically attracts that which you are are prepared to handle.  Do you have clarity about what you are going to do when you reach the destination you have talked about for years?  Few of us would travel to Hawaii and step-off the plane without some sense of purpose.  Am I on vacation, transferring planes, coming to live, or on assignment?  Why talk about a destination without having context for what value a new platform will offer?  Write it down, assemble images, draw-up an acceptance speech, and have suntan lotion in the bag.  Be prepared for success or else you might appear like the keystone cops responding to a house fire.

Surging Ahead of Just Keeping Up?

Attending a board meeting for an independent school today, I was struck by the realization that we had not only accomplished some of our strategic initiatives but had surged off the scale.  Incredible momentum.  How had we done this?  The Head of School has been telling the school’s story for years and expressing a vision that far exceeded the scope of the plan.  He was dreaming big but not focusing on the details.  He could tell his audience why the project was important.  At the right moment a confluence of circumstances such as budgeting (a reduction in building costs), momentum  (very motivated donors), and talent (board members with immense experience as project managers) produced an oppening to realize an even greater dream.  Equally important was the attribute of trust.  The Board and Head of School trusted that the vision was revolutionary and essential.

The Head of School has been telling the school’s story, creating a following of those who were ready to invest in taking the dream across the matrix and into reality.


How big is your enterprise’s dream and who is sharing the vision?

Great Question

I had the pleasure of facilitating an advisory session for a growing company that provides essential back office services for social sector organizations.  One of the session attendees asked a compelling question of the leadership team, ‘if you could work for another company, who would it be and why?’  His query sent me on a mental job hunt.  Who would I want to work for?  What do I perceive to be valuable in another enterprise?  Is what that organization posses tangible or intangible?  If it is concrete then it is probably easy to import to my company.  Better base salary, more generous vacation package, dynamic social media presence, more donors.   Where it gets tricky is when the thing you value is abstract.  Another cause’s sense of purpose, organizational culture, collegiality of the team, sense of significance, identity.  It is often these intangible pieces that serves as the gatekeeper between good and remarkable.

Which organization/cause would you want to work for and why?

You Count
How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next RenaissanceI caught a segment of yesterday’s WHYY Radio Times interview with Parag Khanna.  He is a Senior Research Fellow in the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation and just published a book titled, How to Run the World.  The concept that he discussed and impressed me most was the influence of the citizen’s of the United States when it comes to financially supporting Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) across the globe.  According to Parag Khanna’s research, the contributed income from American citizens vastly exceeds the aid offered by the government of the United States and overshadows all other countries.  America remains the sole super power when you measure the generosity and giving patterns of its citizens in their capacity to support international causes and relief efforts.  The philanthropy of the people shapes our country’s policies in ways I had never fathomed. 

Contests- Wanna Race?

Have you noticed the numerous contests offered by social sector causes?  Many are being generated from social media platforms or via organizational websites.

A very quick web search delivered the following contests:

Contests are relatively easy to run at a low cost.  They can drives traffic to your website or social media platform, provide contribution from your fans and general public, engage community, and amplify your cause.  
The Case Foundation has a great tutorial on how to run a video contest for your nonprofit.

The Importance of Storytime

A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Excellent Education for All

The field of education is receiving a lot of attention right now.  Education budgets are being cut as states try to balance their fiscal houses, assessment scores of US students are being compared to those of the rest of the world, and the President spoke about education reform in the State of the Union.  Online course options are ever expanding, charter schools are competing for students and sustainability, and movements such as StudentsFirst are launching to significant media coverage.  Wendy Kopp recently authored, A Chance to Make History an interesting book from her perspective as a leader with Teach for America.  The Lottery and Waiting for Superman are now mainstream films that are part of our daily discussions.

Many great ideas are being surfaced in this period of high anxiety and a collective consciousness towards education.  Other brilliant causes within the education sector are being left in the shadows.  A specific reason for success and failure may not exist but there are certainly clues.  I was struck by the comments of Nicholas Kristof in his interview with Randi Zuckerberg at the the World Economic Forum in Davos.  When asked how groups should distinguish themselves from other similar movements, he suggested that humanitarian groups needed to do great work on the ground but also practice the art of storytelling.

What is your story?

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