Nonprofit

Maybe it is Just Me

Maybe it is just me but I have taken notice of the following items this week:

  • The Chronicle of Philanthropy is now posting a section announcing mergers.  For example it highlights the pending merger of three United Ways in N.H. or an agreement between a land trust and farmland conservation group in Washington State.
  • Forbes Magazine’s April 12 issue has a section dedicated to SecondActs that highlights the work of once highly compensated employees from the financial sector who have taken on a cause in the social sector, often without compensation or with a significant reduction from their previous salary.
  • His Holiness the 14th Dali Lama is using Twitter to spread his message of compassion.
  • TED held a session titled TEDxVolcano with participants from a previous conference who were stuck in London due to the suspension of air travel.  Checkout Peter Greenberg’s talk about the impact on air travel.
  • The iPhone App store is now selling applications specifically designed for nonprofit fundraising.
  • The Nonprofit Quarterly’s Newswire posted a link to a story that pondered the potential collapse of the nonprofit bubble.
  • Seth Godin’s Levy flight mathematical concept changed this blog just in a week’s time.

Change is constant.  Sometimes it is just subtle enough that I do not fully appreciate its impact until I seem the parts summarized.  A couple years ago I would have been amazed at any one of these headlines but now I take them in stride or barely notice their impact.  It is a great time to be in the social sector, despite the challenges of mergers, a recession, limited volunteers, competition, or the fear of pending doom.  The sector has more direct communication and control over its message, impact, outreach, networks, sphere of influence and fans than anytime in history.  For some causes the captain may have turned on the seat belt sign or perhaps that noise I was the wheels touching down at another great destination.  I am going to have a look around.

Testimony- Just Ask

If you could have one person in your community or from your geographic region speak to the benefit your organization provides, who would it be?  What would be most compelling about having this person advocate for your cause?  What barriers if any keep this individual from committing to this opportunity?  Who do you know who could ask them on your behalf?  In what setting would this person’s personal testimony have the greatest impact?

Sounds like you have a plan already- time to make it happen.  Your organization deserves the recognition.

Deadlines and Destinations

The debate taking place within the NASA community concerns the future role of the agency.  President Obama recently highlighted his mission for NASA when he spoke at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on April 15.

“So the point is what we’re looking for is not just to continue on the same path — we want to leap into the future; we want major breakthroughs; a transformative agenda for NASA…  Critical to deep space exploration will be the development of breakthrough propulsion systems and other advanced technologies. So I’m challenging NASA to break through these barriers. And we’ll give you the resources to break through these barriers. And I know you will, with ingenuity and intensity, because that’s what you’ve always done.”

President Obama        

What has some NASA insiders concerned is that there is no specific mission.  President Obama has presented a vision but some space supporters are concerned that it is not compelling enough. 

“Talking about a goal like that so far in the future- anyone can do that…What is the vision for NASA?  One of the things that the old hands at the space agency all say is absolutely crucial is timetables and destinations.  A firm destination and some idea of when you hope to be there.  The open-ended nature of what the Obama Administration is proposing has bothered some of those space hands…folks are worried about the long-term survivability of this plan”

William Harwood- CBS New Space Analyst              

Many of us who were alive during the moon landing or grew-up in the shadows of its legacy can recall the power of President Kennedy’s famous refrain, “send a man to the moon by the end of the decade.”


When planning organizational goals, how important is a deadline and a specific destination?  I would argue to NASA it is everything.  Study projects, congressional funding, attracting astronauts, sustaining key independent contracts, retaining the best and brightest assembled around a specific itinerary. 


How important are deadlines and destinations to your organization?  Deadlines force you to thrash early and then ship (see April 14 blog post).  Destinations provide direction.  If we agree that Jim Collin’s challenge to get the right people on the bus and then put them in the right seats is essential to success- can we also agree that the bus better be headed to a compelling destination?

Growth

Robert Litan’s research provides an interesting window into job growth and its impact on the US economy.  Interviewed by Marty Moss-Coanes on WHYY radio yesterday, Robert presented data that demonstrates that almost all the job creation since 1980 has come from entrepreneurs creating small businesses that were less than five years old.

The research is also the subject of a November 6, 2009 Wall Street Journal piece written by Carl Schramm, Robert Litan and Dane Stangler.

“The more precise factor is not the size of businesses, but rather their age. According to the Census Bureau, nearly all net job creation in the U.S. since 1980 occurred in firms less than five years old. A Kauffman Foundation report released yesterday shows that as recently as 2007, two-thirds of the jobs created were in such firms. Put more starkly, without new businesses, job creation in the American economy would have been negative for many years.”

Although the research does not focus specifically on data in the social sector the Kauffman Foundation has funded studies examining the impact of entrepreneurship on social responsibility as Bill Green speaks about at the foundation’s website.

One could argue that small nonprofits have contributed to this pool of new jobs.  According to the National Center  for Charitable Statistics The nonprofit sector is composed of 1.56 million tax-exempt organizations and accounts for 8.1% of all wages and salaries paid in the United States.

What is the impact of the nonprofit sector on your community?  Is your organization a younger nonprofit that is part of the job growth?  Are you able to communicate the importance of the social sector to your community’s economy?

Assessments

I am sure we have all seen a variety of assessment instruments.  Board self-evaluations, 360 degree CEO assessments, exit interviews and customer surveys come to mind.  Perhaps the most effective and efficient evaluation tool I have come across was developed by the Gallup Organization and outlined in the book, First, Break All the Rules authored by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.


The copyrighted questions are as follows:

  1. I know what is expected of me at work.
  2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
  3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
  4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition and praise for doing good work.
  5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
  6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.
  7. At work, my opinions seem to count.
  8. The mission/purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
  9. My associates (fellow employees) are committed to doing quality work.
  10. I have a best friend at work.
  11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
  12. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

The Gallup organization found that a high level of agreement to these twelve questions indicated a strong workplace.  The assessment became known as the ‘measuring stick.’  The data they collected was extensive (as one would expect from an enterprise know for its surveys) and outlined in the book.


How would your staff answer these questions?  Would you consider these questions as part of an exit interview?  How might your board respond if you altered the questions slightly?

Turn Right To Go Left

In the movie Cars, Doc teaches Lightning McQueen that sometimes you need to ‘turn right to go left.’  After many painful attempts, Lightning finally learns the art of the power-slide and cornering on dirt.  Sometimes the opposite force works more effectively than common logic would recommend.

Checking on my social community of Facebook friends I see friends stuck everywhere from Frankfurt to Turkey and on to Dubai.  They are waiting on the cloud of volcanic ash to disipate enough to allow for air travel to resume.  Suddenly booking a EuroStar train ticket is next to impossible, bus tickets are in high fashion and long road trips are the only alternative for everyone from Opera singers to cyclist trying to get to their weekend performances.

You never know when the world might turn right to go left and your organization may be the unexpected beneficiary of a global power-slide.  Being able to respond in real time to opportunities has become a competitive advantage for many organizations.  Is your enterprise ready to counter-steer?

Putting the Tribe Back Together

I have watched a couple organizations struggle to keep all their constituents connected as part of one tribe.  These are groups who started small and formed a loyal base of supporters.  As the cause grew and the membership increased suddenly there was need for new staff, databases, email newsletters, and phone systems.  Now the staff who were part of the organization’s early years and the original members are trying to regenerate the intimacy that they so cherished.  They have proposed multiple strategies and programs to re-create community.  Some of the initiatives are goals in the strategic plan.

It took me a while to see the common denominator in theses causes.  The challenge is that the tribe has grown larger than the organization’s could handle.  As Seth Godin points out in the aptly named book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us a tribe needs two things.  The two elements are a shared interest and a way to communicate (they also need a leader as Seth points out later).  In the case of the aforementioned organizations the shared interest had begun to deviating and communication was fractured.  There is another point.  At about 150 members a tribes typically begins to outgrow a level of intimacy and either splits into separate tribes or become less of a community.  That is why a national organization such as Alcoholics Anynomous has local chapters, so individuals can form their own tribes within a local community and still connect to a larger national tribe.  For an independent day school serving kindergarten through twelfth grade it might mean allowing tribes to form within the Elementary, Middle and High School.

Are you providing your tribe with information that resonates with their shared interest?  Is your enterprise constantly enhancing communication not only to the tribe but between its members?  Does your tribe need to split in order to thrive?

Tolerance and Thrashing

Is there somebody at your organization that always has the wild ideas?  You know the zany concepts about radically altering the way your organization does business?  Does this individual contain an bottomless well of new approaches?  Does your organization thrive on the suggestions or is it disruptive?


One of the concepts I have come to readily adopt is the idea of thrashing.  Thrashing is represented by the active brainstorming and manipulation of a new or existing idea.  It can take place in many stages of development and its impact varies.  Perhaps a visual representation offers more clarity.





Thrashing works exceedingly well at the inception of an idea.  It is what allows a foal to find its legs and begin to walk.  Without a willingness to put everything on the line the foal is doomed to suffer an unfavorable evolutionary ending.  Thrashing works less well when done later in the development stage.  The results can be more destructive than productive.







Seth Godin’s book Linchpin makes an interesting case for the value of thrashing.

“Thrashing is essential.  The question is: when to thrash?  In the typical amateur project, all the thrashing is near the end.  The closer we got to shipping, the more people get involved, the more meetings we have, the more likely the CEO wants to be involved.  And why not?  What’s the point of getting involved early when you can’t see what’s already done and your work will probably be redone anyway.  The point of getting everyone involved early is simple: thrash late and you won’t ship.  Thrash late and you introduce bugs.  Professional creators thrash early.  The closer the project gets to completion, the fewer people see it and the fewer changes are permitted.”



Tolerance is an amazing part of any organization’s culture.  It allows for innovation and new concepts.  An enterprise with a willingness to tolerate a wide range of ideas is powerful.  Having a value system in place to be accepting attracts lots of fans.  However, creating an agreement about when the time for input is being closed is equally important.  At some point you need one person to make the decision, even if it is a decision to vote.  One person needs to take all the inputs and write the strategic plan.  One person needs to be empowered to enter into a contract on behalf of the organization.  If you thrash late you may never seize any opportunities now matter how great the idea.

Mixed Message

I caught a couple minutes of an National Basketball Association game on television this weekend.  During the broadcast a commentator highlighted the environmental sustainability steps taken by the NBA.  I thought, ‘good for them.’  As I held this thought I watched a commercial jet take-off from our local airport and I began to wonder.  After a little time on the internet I discovered that a couple of NBA teams are working to incorporate carbon offsets or green architecture into their franchises to mitigate their carbon footprint. What I could not find was a program to address the impact of the NBA’s travel schedule.  82 games a season with 41 away games equates to 82 at least segments in a private/leased jet (before you account for preseason and playoffs).  Thirty teams play in the league which totals 2,460 take-offs a season.  Just focusing on the air portion of the travel I could not discover any specific initiative to schedule games in a manner that prioritized efficient air travel.  If the NBA wants to incorporate a real statement about its commitment towards sustainability they might focus on scheduling games using the same strategy of a small company.  If you put a sales associate in New York, why not continue to New Jersey, Boston, and Philadelphia instead of flying back to Denver or Los Angles between visits to each city?

Major League Baseball, the National Football League, National Hockey Association, and collegiate sports all have an opportunity to make an remarkable statement about their environmental sustainability commitment.  It is a positive step to see conservation and sustainability programs in place but if this is a core value for a league, address the largest sources of your environmental impact.


If Walmart started charging five cents for each plastic bags at checkout, it would give license to many stores to match their lead.  If one professional sports league addressed their carbon footprint caused by air travel it would put a spotlight on all the other leagues.


Is your organization living its core values?  Do you need to show-and-tell all the steps you have taken or is it self-evident?

Beyond Donation to Contribution

I donate to organizations and causes that generally align with my personal values.  I am usually moved because they grab my attention.  The organization is remarkable enough that I take the time to donate.  Many causes fall into this category and most get a donation of some predetermined value.

I contribute to organizations who provide me a chance to engage and interact.  A staff member calls to ask for advice.  I attend an event and suggest a resource to enhance the program’s effectiveness.  I communicate with a board member who helps keep me advised on the enterprise’s focus.  I serve on a task force.  I bring the organization ideas and feel the resources are considered.  I am able to use my talents on behalf of the cause.  I understand how I can impact the mission and programs of the organization.


I donate to these organizations also but at a much higher level.  Not only do they receive a financial contribution ten times greater but they get my talents.  I do not have time to contribute to every nonprofit but appreciate the ones that provide the opportunity.


Are you trying to cultivate donors or contributors?  How do you know which approach will most engage an individual?