by Susan Detwiler | May 8, 2009 | miscellaneous
What you should know when making the switch from private sector to nonprofit professional.
It’s certainly not a secret that there are a lot of unemployed private sector professionals. Combine that with projections of 23,000 senior management positions going unfilled in the nonprofit sector, and it’s no wonder that management professionals of all kinds are taking a look at the nonprofit world.
The last post about engagement brought many of them out of the woodwork, asking how to make that switch. Having moved from for-profit to nonprofit seven years ago, and having had conversations with colleagues making similar changes, I can propose a few guidelines to the uninitiated.
First of all, the nonprofit world is different from the private sector. The mind set is often different, with a strong focus on commitment to the mission and doing more with less. Frequently the atmosphere is more team oriented in order to ensure the services are delivered, and more people take on jobs that are technically outside of their own bailiwick, just to make sure they get done.
Less cutthroat? I wouldn’t necessarily put it that way, but I would say that there are fewer Type A personalities. The nonprofit world is populated by many people for whom success is measured less by high salaries than by how much they can achieve in furthering the mission. The extra hours they put in “ and they certainly do put in a lot of hours! — is to further the mission. The good vibes are incredible, but the work is intense.
Often, to the detriment of their personal lives, nonprofit professionals don’t have the time to volunteer outside their own organization; the extra 20-30 hours per week becomes their volunteer time. Family life may suffer because their board meetings and meetings with volunteers occur in the evenings and weekends, when the volunteers are free from their day jobs. Yet the professionals don’t feel free to start work any later because of the night meetings; they just lengthen their days.
Even in good times, the dollars are just not there to do what needs to be done. When times are tough, administration becomes even leaner. Long term projects are frequently put on hold because it’s hard to get the money to pursue them. Relying on government or foundation grants and private donors makes cash flow unreliable. Donors must be wooed, and can be fickle; many are willing to give for special projects, but not ongoing administrative costs. Yet the light bill must still be paid.
Good ideas are recognized….but not always acted upon. Cost-benefit analysis is a nice idea, but if it means not feeding an orphan because you’re spending for a long-term goal, well, you may be hard pressed to convince the powers that be that the long-term goal is more important. Even if that long-term goal will ultimately make it possible to feed even more orphans.
Yet for all the challenges, there are many, many people for whom the nonprofit world holds a life they wouldn’t trade for any other. Working through the difficulties, and still making a difference in the world is a special reward.
After reading all this, if you’re still interested in looking at the nonprofit world for a new start, I’m collecting some tips on the process for the next post. Keep reading!
Susan
by Susan Detwiler | May 4, 2009 | miscellaneous
Before a car can move, you have to put it in gear; engage the engine. In the past few months, a trio of articles prompted an ˜aha’ moment, after idling in the back of mind for a while.
Last week, the Bridgespan Group published a report whose press release was titled Nonprofit Groups Fear Shortage of Senior Management, Qualified Candidates. Then, as I read this report, I recalled an article back in November, titled, Loss of Connection Leading Reason Wealthy Donors Stop Giving, by the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University and Bank of America. Concurrently, I had just completed writing a series on Populating a Board of Directors “ what to look for, and how to recruit them.
There’s a connection here¦engagement. Donors, Management and Board Members all have to feel engaged by the nonprofit they support.
The Bridgespan Group report focused attention on the fact that there is an anticipated 24,000 jobs for nonprofit senior management opening up in 2009. At the same time, there is a worldwide economic situation leaving tens of thousands of highly skilled private sector individuals available to help fill those jobs. Yet despite this vast pool of out-sector talent, nonprofit executives are focusing on the paucity of in-sector talent.
The Center for Philanthropy report found that of 700 individuals with an annual income greater than $200,000 and/or a net worth of greater than $1 million, 38% had stopped supporting a charity in 2007, and 26% had stopped their support of two charitable organizations. Why did these people stop giving? 60% said it was because they no longer felt connected to the organization.
One area I focused on in my articles on Populating a Board of Directors, was to engage prospective directors with the organization. Make new people feel connected to the mission. Nonprofit boards stagnate when there’s a lack of new perspective and lack of engagement of new people.
How are these related? In each case, there is an urgent need to communicate frequently and compellingly with individuals outside the inner circle.
In the case of major donors, consider how often you make an effort to engage them in the work, not just ask for dollars. How often do you ask for advice or tell them what their dollars are doing? Engaging a donor in the mission is vital for maintaining their goodwill toward your organization. Frankly, it’s just plain rude to ask for money and then not show that you also value them as people.
In the case of future senior management, it is important to engage the private sector in your work. Put yourself where the for-profit executives are instead of sequestering yourself in-house. Take the opportunity to talk about your mission at business luncheons. Communicate beyond your known donors, and discuss subjects beyond the need for money. Those experienced managers of the private sector could be the answer to the nonprofit hiring gap. Help private sector executives see that the nonprofit world also offers the challenges that they’ve enjoyed dealing with and mastering.
When recruiting new board members, communicate beyond the usual suspects. There is a wealth of talent outside the old boys’ network, but they won’t think of giving you that talent if they don’t know you exist or if they only think you need money. Engage that talent. Communicate how important they can be in shaping the future of the organizations.
Engagement. When a gear is engaged, it is able to power your car. When a person is engaged, he can become your greatest donor, your next executive, your exciting board leader.
ENGAGE!
by Susan Detwiler | Apr 30, 2009 | miscellaneous
Populating Your Board III: Round up the Usual Suspects…NOT!
Ever notice how a social gathering is richer when there are people with different backgrounds in the mix? Conversations flow about all the different experiences and talents in the room.
The same thing is true for a board. But when it comes time to fill vacancies, too many boards only reach out to people they’re already comfortable with. What does that mean for the organization? Well, it means that you’re leaving an enormous amount of talent untapped. It means that changing the groupthink of the board is that much harder. It’s not a good idea to stagnate in the best of times. In challenging times, it could be a death knell.
OK. So now you have a grid with all the types of people you need on your board (see April 26 post “Too Many Lawyers”). How do you find new people without tapping just the usual suspects? Again, a systematic approach works, aided by serendipity.
- First, recognize that finding new board members is an ongoing process. Waiting until it’s time for nominations is way too late. Just like cultivating new donors by bringing them along the path of interested party to small donor to major donor, by the time nominations rolls around, you should have cultivated several people as possible nominees to fill the vacancies.
- Next, if there isn’t already one in your organization, create a nominating committee/board development committee. This is the group that will filter through the people that emerge in the process, and reach out to prospective directors during the course of the year. They’re also the ones who should be tasked with training your board in all the things they need to know and be able to do.
- Now, engage your board and upper level staff. Get buy-in by carefully introducing the concept of building your board systematically, making each of them aware of the holes you are trying to fill and why.
- Arm your ambassadors with exciting information about your organization, and guidance on how to engage others in conversations about your organization. Of course, this is something they should have no matter what “ that’s how you spread the word about your good works and gain potential supporters.
- Encourage your board members to talk about the organization, not just about their profession and family. Whether they are meeting new people at a cocktail party, a concert, in the grocery store, at a parent-teacher meeting, there are almost always opportunities to start a conversation about your group. Right now I’m working with this amazing organization that helps homeless people get off the streets and reenter society! The organization I’m involved in gives at-risk kids books to own. These are great conversation starters. They encourage the other person to ask, how interesting, tell me about it! Really¦think about it. Isn’t that a lot more interesting than the typical, so, what do you do? I’m a lawyer, exchange?
- Now explore a further relationship. Your ambassadors should know what options are available for engaging this new person. The board development committee should be informed of this potential interest, and suggest ways to engage. Perhaps offer a tour of the facility or to send her some literature. Give his name to your outreach staff, to invite him to a program. During the course of the year, learn about his background and talents. If it’s someone of interest, start the conversation about potentially joining the board.
How does this differ from the old boys’ or girls’ network? The key is to view every encounter with a new person as a potential source for fresh thinking on your board. Your board members may have met this person at a cocktail party held by a friend, but it’s someone new. They may have met at their child’s school, but it’s not someone they see all the time.
One more thing. While your board is looking outside their circle of friends, take a good look at your donors. Consistent donors are people who are invested in your organization. They care about your cause. Pick up the phone and call them; take them out for coffee; engage them in your vision. Consistent donors make good prospects for your board. See what they can offer besides dollars.
Is there anything wrong with including people from the old boys’ network in this process? Not really. But if that’s the only place you look, then you’re doing your organization a severe disservice. And really, you’re also doing all those unengaged people a disservice as well. Just think of all the people who miss the opportunity to help your wonderful organization!
by Susan Detwiler | Apr 26, 2009 | miscellaneous
Populating Your Board II: Too Many Lawyers?
Now you have a good idea of what your board should be able to do as a whole: determine Direction, set Policy, provide Oversight, and Fundraise. But what about the specific talents you need?
What wisdom should they have? What work should they know how to do? If all you have are one kind of constituent represented, how do you know that the policy and direction you set will be acceptable to all the different stakeholders? If they’re all lawyers, how do you know you’re setting good financial or technology policy?
Filling vacancies on your board is too important to leave to chance. It should be a systematic process engaged in by many minds. Create a committee of your board and have your Executive Director join you; maybe your Director of Development, as well. Together, begin the process by figuring out who has a stake in your organization’s success.
What this means is, who cares what you do and how you do it, and are these groups important to your organization? For example, your clients are a likely stakeholder group. In a food bank, that may be a food recipient; in a school, that may be the students (or their parents). Other stakeholders are less apparent. In a university based social/religious organization I once served, we decided our constituents were students, alumni, parents, faculty/administration, community members, and clergy. For long-term viability and relevance, we needed people in each decade of life “ 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, etc. So we determined that as much as possible, individuals from each of these groups should be represented in our board mix. Having this mix allowed each set of stakeholders to feel that they had a say in our policy and direction, and that their point of view was being heard.
But again, if all of those stakeholders are lawyers, how do you know you’re setting good financial, human resources or technology policy? That’s when the committee and ED take a good, hard look at all the different kinds of decisions the board and executive have to make, and determine what kind of expertise you need to have on the board to make those decisions and provide oversight for their execution?
Do you have to make IT decisions? It would help to have an IT person on board. Do you have to make fiscal policy? A CPA will help. Do you have personnel decisions to make? Look for Human Resources expertise. And despite my kidding around, yes, you should have a lawyer on the board. Then look at your board and see where there are holes.
Here’s an easy way to start; open up an Excel spreadsheet and make a grid. Down the left hand column, list all the expertise you’d like to have on your board, and all the different stakeholder groups you can think of. Next, across the top of the sheet, in each column, list the name of a board member. Go down each column, and put an ˜X’ in each constituency and each expertise that particular board member can represent. Two-fers are good! A 50 year-old alumna who is a parent and also a marketing expert is a bonus. A 40 year-old community member CPA who conducts IT audits as part of his firm’s consulting practice is a nice plus.
Now, look for the holes. What expertise and constituents are you missing? Using this rough grid, you’ve made a start on figuring out the kinds of people you should seek out to join your board.
Will remaking your board happen in a single election cycle? Of course not. But by being systematic about the process, your ED and each member of the board can keep an eye out for likely prospects and your nominating committee will have good direction. When nominating time comes, your committee will have a way to think about whether an individual who is passionate about your cause can also bring something fresh to the board.
Of course, there are still some things that remain to be considered. How do you reach beyond the usual suspects? How do you go beyond the old girls’ network to find truly new people to consider? Stay tuned¦that’s another post!
by Susan Detwiler | Apr 22, 2009 | miscellaneous
What should your board members be able to do?
A lot of nonprofit organizations don’t appear to systematically consider who should be on their boards and how to go about getting them. Since entire workshops are conducted on this topic, I started to write an overview. It still turned into a longer post than I anticipated, so here’s Part I. What should your prospective board members be able to do? More in subsequent posts!
How do you populate your board of directors? There’s always the old girls’ (or old boys’) network. That’s worked in the past, or at least you were comfortable with the people you brought on. It’s hard to argue with past success.
But I’m going to argue anyway.
Classic wisdom says that seeking new board members is a case of looking for the 3 Ts: Time, Talent and Treasure, or the 3Ws: Work, Wisdom and Wealth. Each board member should have at least 2 of the 3, and the board mix should have all three well represented. It is true, many boards do a good job of looking for those three characteristics as they seek new directors among their friends.
However, to really have an effective board, you need a more systematic approach. Fundamentally, you need to find people who understand and care about the mission. But beyond that, they also need to understand and fulfill the major roles of a nonprofit board of directors: Direction, Policy, Oversight and Fundraising.
In terms of Direction, you need forward looking people who can think top level, in order to direct the organization to fulfilling its mission in the future. Sure, there are people who have been with the organization since it began 40 years ago, and having historical perspective is helpful. But understand that the world changes and your organization will also change. That glorious past is prologue¦what was, isn’t necessarily what should be now or in the future. Your prospective directors need the ability to understand where you are now and work together to provide direction for the future.
Setting Policy is the second aspect of board responsibilities. The Executive Director is hired to be the Chief Executive Officer. It is the board that sets the policies that the ED executes. What should be the policy on security, on personnel, on finances, on client care, on community relations? Your prospective directors should include people with a wide variety of experience in all the different areas of operation, in order to set sensible policies for execution, and be in-house resources to the ED for setting guidelines.
Concurrent with setting Policy is Oversight. Once you set Policy and hire the Executive Director, the board must make sure that those policies are being executed properly. Just like commercial corporations such as Enron, Bank of America, and others of their ilk, the boards of directors of nonprofits organizations are enjoined to oversee their operations, and make sure that their policies are properly enforced. There is a reason nonprofit boards need Directors & Officers insurance “ the Directors and Officers are ultimately responsible for the operations of the nonprofit. As with setting Policy, prospective directors should include people with experience in all the different areas of operation, so they can provide proper Oversight of each area.
Now we come to Fundraising. Raising funds is paramount to a nonprofit organization. In fact, when you ask some people what the role of a nonprofit board is, many will say, Fundraising, and stop there. No matter how much good will your directors have towards your mission, unless you have the dollars available to execute that mission, you will fold. While prospective directors may have deep pockets themselves, they cannot and should not be asked to carry the entire burden on their backs. This means that as you seek new directors, you must find those who understand their roles as chief cheerleaders and fundraisers for your mission.
Contemplating your current board of directors, consider whether each member understands each of these roles, and consciously accepts them. Whether you need to replace directors or fill vacancies, the next step is finding new directors who can fulfill these roles. Broadening your search to get the best possible talent pool means thinking strategically. How do you determine which skills you need on your board? How do you find the people who have these skills? How do you entice them to make your organization a priority? That’s fodder for another post.
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