Daniel Pink wrote Drive. I found it to be one of the most fascinating books on what creates a compelling experience for us as individuals. When you consider engaging and energizing your professional staff, volunteers, donors, members, customers, and community members the thesis Daniel Pink presents is revolutionary. Of course the author and book do a far better job of making the case but here is a TED Talk to give you the fundamentals. Enjoy!
Your Customer Service Comeptition
I have returned items to Zappos, CB2 and REI in the past month. These were items that either did not meet my need or in one case was a warranty issue. Each return was efficient, orderly, informative and memorable. The clear question from each vendor is “how many we help you?”
I find these experiences to be a great reminder of how the social sector needs to consider the service of its customers, members and fans. Where there is a problem there is an opportunity to be memorable for your willingness to address the issue and take appropriate actions. I am not sure what credit a team member at a Four Season hotel has when removing an objectionable item off a folio at checkout but rumor has it that they have a significant autonomy. There is no need to see the manger when the employee you are speaking with has the latitude to solve the problem.
This does not discount the important of a Board Chair or CEO following-up with a phone call. But isn’t is easier to ask, “I hope everything met your satisfaction in this matter?” The alternative is, “I see you have spoken to two of our staff members with no resolution, what can I do?” Two different philosophies and the impacts.
Head to Open Spaces
Huddled around the Campfire, watching the reflected fire light dance on each others faces, feeling warmth on our feet and hands and seeing stars dance overhead is an iconic image of wilderness travel. It enhances a group experience. One person tells a ghost story and everyone is scared. A marshmallow dropped into the fire while roasting brings a collective sigh. You look around and see the faces of friends and feel great. It is a special time precisely because it is unique. Most of us get this campfire experience only a few times a year if we are lucky. We depart the fire ring and head our different directions in the morning.
When we try to stay for too long we become stagnate. Yet that is what many causes do far too often. They attend a training for the latest fundraising system and implement it tomorrow. When all the other local social sector enterprises take the same approach we all find ourselves back around the same campfire. We recruit the same board members, trying to get them to serve our organization along with three other causes, stretching many of them too thin. One group throws an party during the Oscars and then next year there are parties for the every award show.
Sometimes we need to remember that each cause has a unique approach and personality, otherwise they should have partnered or merged. Gather at the campfire for conferences, breakfast meetings, shared-retreats and community gatherings. Then walk-away and return to the wilderness. Those that stay at the fire ring for too long start to look alike as there clothing and faces become caked with ash and smoke. Bring back your stories from the frontier, take pictures and share never seen before techniques on survival.
Head to open spaces, you will stand out and define your world.
Photo credit: eHow.com
Feeding the Monster
Do you ever feel that fundraising success breads uncontrollable growth? A nonprofit organization reaches a certain level of contributed revenue and decides to send their Executive Director onto the road to raise even more money because it is clearly there to be had, or so they have heard. The Executive Director’s absence means a senior program staff member or administrator needs to assume some of the day-to-day duties, which can be tremendous professional development training for an aspiring Executive Director when done thoughtfully. Now the Executive Director can only reasonably spend so much time focused on advancement so they implore the Director of Development to increase the staff’s time on the road. Money is coming in, connections are being made, new networks are being tapped and everyone feels the momentum. Additional staff are added to cover new regions and handle giving levels that are no longer the domain of the top fundraisers. Leadership levels once thought unobtainable are created. The donor database is exploding with entries and a new website is created to encourage online giving to handle the smaller membership contributions. A new module for the fundraising software priced at twenty-thousand dollars is considered so an even more sophisticated approach can be obtained. Donors are receiving email blasts, customized letters assuring them that their funds have transformed the cause, links to YouTube videos, invitations to special events and a summary of the planned giving opportunities that they might consider in their estate. Mailings are outsourced to large distribution centers, marketing has taken on two consultants, the board just added five new members all of whom made transformational gifts in the last six months and the Executive Director is now a platinum frequent flyer member of a hotel and airline company. The board’s finance committee reviews a draft budget that shows significant increases in administrative costs but the business manager assures them that the revenue they are generating from contributions will clearly be the best return on investment they could ever consider. Graphs are charted, PowerPoint slides prepared and the board votes in favor of an annual budget that makes last year’s bottom line number look like just a line item in this year’s version. The cycle continues, spinning faster with over-the-top galas, regional gatherings with donors who have never visited the enterprise’s headquarters and national conference speaking engagements titled “How to Fundraising With Style.”
In reviewing the organization’s strategic plan one sees modest projections about fundraising growth, conservative staff growth and an initiative to enhance the programs the nonprofit already produces. The Executive Director’s goals speak of doing more with the resources at hand. There is nothing about the meteoric expansion of revenue and expenses.
The big questions becomes, is the organization aligned to take advantage of real-time opportunity that fundamentally enhances the enterprise’s orbit or is all of this growth feed the fundraising beast? Does more money mean more resources and no way of knowing if the organization is really generating meaningful growth. Or has the sensation of forward movement become an addiction to the point that nobody knows who is at the wheel. Has the monster taken over driving and has the organization decided to pay his gas bill?
Image (Vector)
Loading the Lift
Adding a new member to your nonprofit board is a bit like managing a lift line at a ski area. A good governance process is hopefully always in the process of adding potential board members to the line and then guiding towards the loading area. You are checking their interest and measuring their skills in the same way a lift attendant checks a ski pass. The lift line provides an opportunity to have a conversation about their interest and prepare them for the experience. Ultimately your goal is to load the lift without having to slow or stop the chair. The skiers on chairlift have a common goal, to keep it going as efficiently and safely as possible. If the lift needs to come to a stop it feels like all momentum has been lost. A long stop feels painful, especially when you are out-of-sight of the loading or unloading zones and have no idea what incident has taken place. When you add board members who is not prepared or oriented, they typically require assistance and the loading process comes to stop while they get prepared. Or an unprepared board member stands watching multiple chairs go by without loading before they load themselves, this slows the nomination process for many organizations. A inefficient loading process can be frustrating and demoralizing to the rest of the board and limit the ski lifts capacity.
How do you use your nominating process as a chance to have a lift-line conversation with potential board members? How do you prepare them for what to expect? Do you partner them with an existing board member to ride your ski lift the first time?
(Image: conorneill.com)
The Backboard
If you are hitting against a tennis backboard you next shot is dictated by your last stroke. The height, speed, spin are already inputs as the tennis ball bounces against the backboard. If you are playing another person your challenger can alter the inputs and completely change the pace, location and appearance of the return.
I am reminded of this when organizations only look internally for clues about their culture, strengths and perception. Performing a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, threat) analysis by asking only insiders to respond has challenges. Some organizations have a strong resistance to ask the broader community about their perception of the enterprise. There is a belief that what the board, staff and close donors perceive about the organization is what the rest of the community sees. SWOT analysis can be like planning tennis against a backboard, you control the inputs.
What is the cost of planning for the next 3-5 years without confirmation of how the community perceives your organization? What is the value of asking for advice from your members and community? Are you transparent if you do not include a broader constituency in your planning?
Serving Somebody Elses Time
One of my mantras when making major decisions for any enterprise is to consider the perspective of the board who follow me. If a board’s term limit is six years, I am thinking about how a decision today is going to impact the board seven years from now when nobody on the current board will most likely be in the room. Does the opportunity seem like the appropriate course of action today and years from now?
The downside to poor decision-making is that you are asking a future board to serve time for you. In some cases poor judgment today is the equivalent of a jail term from a future board. Consider the investment committees that positioned an enterprise’s funds with Madoff; the board that took on massive debt to build a new facility; a marketing campaign using a celebrity who is later charged with illegal activities.
How do you keep a longer term perspective? Who speaks for the future board when strategic decisions are being considered? Do you document the criteria you used to make a decision?
Memorable Mistake and Artistic Correction
We received a donor recognition form in the mail addressed to us but the letter was intended for another donor. I returned the letter to the local nonprofit with a polite request to forward the misplaced letter to the proper donors and asked for a copy of our letter for tax records. A week later an envelope arrived with our address written in beautiful calligraphy and a donor recognition letter inside.
No apology needed. Somebody had taken the time to add their craft and customized the envelope. A simple extension of individual talent left me with a far superior view of the organization than had the mistake not taken place. I realized that the cause was being served by passionate people who took the time to correct an issue creatively.
Getting Attention: You Just Missed Conan O’Brien
Seth Godin makes a compelling argument in his book Linchpin that attention is one of the most valuable resources. With so many entities vying to be noticed it is hard to be seen. The classic nonprofit refrain is, “we are the best kept secret in town.”
I am encouraging organizations to think beyond just fundraising when they discuss the development and advancement activities of their organization. In the same way that corporations link their philanthropic activities with a marketing plan, I think social enterprise organizations need to consider the same tactic with a slight twist.
Possible scenario. Conan O’Brien is on Twitter. He has over a half-million followers and he just started following one person nineteen hours ago. His tweet reads:
“I’ve decided to follow someone at random. She likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. Sarah Killen, your life is about to change.
Imagine if this first follow had been your cause? In 140 characters he would have drawn the spotlight onto your enterprise. Imagine the fun you could have had with this opportunity. I see an invitation to visit, a parade, a gold plated key, honorary membership, and a YouTube video going viral. Without asking for a dollar this is a pre-built marketing campaign.
Okay, we all missed the opportunity with Conan. But who is your organization connected to that might have the ability to bring authenticity and attention to your cause. Is there a graduate of your program with 5,000 followers on Facebook? Does a volunteer’s spouse write a blog with five hundred readers a day? Is there a film-maker in your midst? Perhaps none of these individuals would show-up on a screening of potential donor capacity. But each one is an artists and has a craft to share. They offer a different philanthropic talent, a chance to move your organization into the center ring of a circus with four thousand other acts competing for attention.
Who do you know? Do you really know all their talents? Are you concentrating on the right people and screening for the right treasure? What could an artist do for your cause? Consider what one unemployed celebrity did in one tweet.
Key Questions
One of the questions I learned to ask when I served an arts organization as board chair was “what is our outcome?” In a smaller community it was easy to have day-to-day or at least weekly contact with the Executive Director. Typically there was a new fire burning each time. Donors who had been disappointed by not being able to get tickets to a sold out concert, local artists who did not get into an arts and crafts festival, a community member who thought an instillation was too provocative.
The temptation was to solve the problem with the Executive Director. It was easy to start thinking through the action steps and role play the possible scenarios. I quickly learned that this was akin to both of us abandoning ship and rowing around in life boats in rough seas. A lot of energy expended and no real results. Instead I started asking, “what is our outcome?” Then I would follow-up with, “why is it important and what critical steps do we need to take to meet the outcome?” These three questions framed our overall goal, touched on the emotional issue (the why) and outlined the most important action steps for moving forward. By asking these three questions the answers brought clarity and everyone could stay on the boat. It became a template for our conversations and served us well since everyone understood what we were trying to achieve.
What important questions do you ask? How do they focus your process and response?
