How does your staff and board put their signature on their actions?
21st Century Enlightment
What is your cause’s role in the 21st century enlightenment? Is your vision moving your organization forward in this context? Why?
Destination Postcard
If you asked your customers and donors to paint a picture of where your cause is headed, what would they draw?
Board Members Wanted
What would a “board members wanted” advertisement look like for your organization? How would it stand out from another nonprofits? What attributes would you list? What would be your unique selling proposition? Could you answer why your cause is worthy of support without listing facts and results? How would you define your board’s chemistry? Can you define the loyalty of your board members? What could you do to differentiate your organization for the others in your community?
Image: http://www.culture24.org
Open Dashboards
Social sector organizations use dashboards with varying degrees of success. Some enterprises produce an active dashboard that is the first document that goes to the board and staff at predetermined interval. Other organizations use a summarizing document to track strategic initiatives. Another grouping of causes finds dashboards to be distracting and irrelevant to their work.
I have always approached dashboards as an inside/out method. The data is generated inside the organization and then communicated out to a small group of individuals closest to the organization. A blog post from Beth Kanter got me thinking about possible paradigm shifts.
- What if the dashboard was distributed to a larger audience, say your entire membership base?
- What if the data on the dashboard was reflective of input provided from the outside (customers, donors, volunteers, community members, partnerships)?
- What if the dashboard was assembled by a different partner or peer organization?
What information would you choose to include in these scenarios? What data would be meaningful? What would be valuable to track if the audience became your entire membership? What if the dashboard was an outside/in proposition?
Comfotable
A piece on NPR suggested that consumers are getting more comfortable with their financial position. They are willing to invest in purchases that they had previously postponed. Does that mean that donors are willing to make long term commitments to campaigns that are seen a viable and necessary? What are you seeing within your social sector enterprises? Are funders returning? Are they willing to discuss multiple year commitments?
I am seeing some great leadership giving taking place. I am also witness to organizations being more purposeful when they design a request or submit a proposal. Donors are no longer a limitless resource.
Visible
How do you measure progress?
But what happens when the landmarks are hidden.
Are you still able to measure progress? What tools do you use when you are in the fog?
Real or Fake
The big debate in cycling right now focuses on the use of drugs or doping. One friend argued that as a casual fan he will take the excitement of race that has the ultimate dual, such as stage 17 of this years Tour de France.
I do not know if this stage was an authentic effort of two clean cyclists or if it was the sideshow performed by athletes who managed to game the system. Purist would argue that this finish is a more realistic moment in the sport.
How important is authenticity? Are your patrons more excited about the show and results or the honor in which you approach endeavors? How does your cause measure trust?
Who Does Your Membership Program Benefit?
Just received two mailings from nonprofit organizations seeking new members. All the benefits seemed to be at the expense of existing members. Do you consider the cost of a attracting a new donor compared to retaining an existing donor? Can you build fans if you have a membership program looks like a revolving door?
Praise for Effort or Intelligence
The beginning of Ashley Merryman’s presentation has some fascinating information for those of us trying maximize the impact of praise. This has me wondering how self-esteem impacts the social sector? How do you praise professional staff? Or build a board’s engagement? What is the best way to frame your comments? And by the way, if you watch the whole presentation you may want to adjust your sleeping patterns.
