by Susan Detwiler | Jan 18, 2018 | nonprofit
An article about how Wyoming relies on Federal dollars to support its arts, brought back memories of a panel of philanthropists I heard speak many years ago.
It was a frustrating experience. At the time, I was Executive Director of a small nonprofit. The panelists represented major, national level foundations. Each foundation funded national nonprofits and national causes. Each also funded their local communities.
Had I lived and worked in one of their communities, I would have been thrilled to hear how much they funded their home towns.
Unfortunately, my nonprofit was in a small state, with few heirs to phenomenally large endowments. To obtain money from these large foundations, I needed to apply to one of the national nonprofits they funded, competing against other small nonprofits for the trickle-down largess.
During Q&A, I asked what recourse we agencies in the hinterlands had when it came to applying for their funds. Would these large foundations consider supporting us, as well as their hometowns?
The answer was no.
They supported their home towns, and they supported the national nonprofits. It was up to us to figure out how to survive without having ˜angels’ in our midst.
A HARD LESSON
It’s a hard lesson for us in the hinterlands to learn. Of course, I use hinterlands figuratively. All you need do is look around, and see where the major corporations and major foundations reside. Everywhere else, nonprofits start with at least one fewer arrow in their quiver, at least one fewer prospective major funder. Small communities in particular are vulnerable, as they have fewer prospective donors in general. The arts and culture sector can be particularly vulnerable; unlike in the social sector, there are few government contracts available for their work.
Maybe that’s why boards of directors keep saying things like, The Gates Foundation has a lot of money; let’s ask them! and Maybe Meryl Streep will come to our gala! Hopes are high, but the reality is that the local nonprofits are not on their radar.
Yet these nonprofits DO succeed, because the national organizations DO make some funds available. In many cases, the Federal government steps in “ at least for now, in the arts and humanities, there is the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, each funding large percentages of the rural arts and humanities programming. Other Federal agencies serve other areas, like Department of Education, Corporation for National and Community Service, Department of Labor.
BOOTSTRAPS ARE HAD TO COME BY
These outlying nonprofits also do a very commendable job of enlisting their communities. Often there is volunteerism providing support in the form of unpaid labor. But the very fact of being in smaller communities makes it harder to get sufficient volunteers, either because the communities are small, or because there are barriers in smaller communities (e.g., lack of transportation, lack of childcare) that make volunteering more difficult.
Is this a plea for consideration by the large, national foundations? Maybe. I think it’s more a reminder that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Telling small-town organizations in unconnected communities to pull themselves up by their bootstraps is naïve at best, and cruel at worst. First you need bootstraps.
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by Susan Detwiler | Jan 1, 2018 | governance, leadership, nonprofit
Does your staff know what the board does? Really?
In conversations with emerging professionals, I find they often haven’t a clue what the point of a board is. Frankly, I sometimes get that question from Executive Directors, too [but that’s a whole ˜nother issue].
Passionate people working for you.
Right now, I want to talk about the staff. The young professionals. The people you rely on at the front lines to deliver your mission.
Most of them care about the mission. They care about why you exist. Many of them care deeply and passionately. It’s not just a job. Unfortunately, they often lack a big picture of the entire organization as a unified entity, supported by the volunteer board of directors.
They don’t see how they fit into the scheme of the whole organization. Looking upwards, their view often stops at the program manager, director, vice president, or perhaps the executive director level. They don’t even see the board. If they do see the board, its purpose is hazy.
Worse, that view of the board is often negative.
How do you portray the board to your staff? How often do you say things like,
- The board said we have to do it this way.
- We can’t afford it because the board didn’t approve the budget.
- The board retreat is coming up and we have to make sure our presentations are perfect.
What messages do these statements deliver?
The board is demanding,
doesn’t understand their realities
and is only worried about dollars.
Even if staff members can parrot back the purpose of a board, do they understand the ramifications and significance for their work?
What would be different if the staff knew that board members care as much as they do about the mission? That the board makes decisions with the future in mind?
What would be different if the board was transparent in why certain decisions are made? Not because you don’t have the funding, but because the funding is supporting the mission in other ways.
What would be different if staff understood that board members were doing their damnedest to make sure they had the resources to do great things?
Five ways to start building a better view.
- Reframe how you speak about board decisions. Instead of blaming the board for unpopular decisions, or acting like popular decisions are a surprise success, put the decisions into context, including the considerations taken into account.
- Introduce individual board members to the staff. Give staff members an opportunity to meet and get to know the board as a collection of individuals, rather than a monolithic, enigmatic entity.
- Include information about the board in employee orientations. Integrate the board into the organization chart, with information about its purpose “ not just as the last resort for employee grievances.
- Invite staff members to sit in on open board meetings. Board meetings are frequently open, but staff may not believe they would be welcome. Even if employees don’t attend, the fact of the invitation is an indicator of welcome.
- Consider mentorships between board members and staff. While young employees are frequently mentored by senior employees, board members often have special skills they may be willing to impart.
Each contact between board and staff builds a greater rapport, and a greater respect on each side.
Its a simple start to a new year of building the trust needed for accepting and working with hard decisions and new opportunities.
May 2018 be a year of harmony, respect and trust!
by Susan Detwiler | Dec 1, 2017 | nonprofit
The plans say you’re responsible for this. Make sure you get it done by June.
Too often, we treat planning and execution as two separate things. Leadership make plans; departments and workers are told to execute them. Meanwhile, those charged with execution don’t see the full vision of the plans. They end up in silos, blithely executing their tasks, without knowing how their work affects the work of others, or how their work is woven into the whole.
But planning and execution are a seamless fabric; planning must include execution, and execution must reference the underlying plans. Building execution into the planning, and including those who do it in the process, makes for a smoother transition from the theoretical to the practical.
There is a cascade from vision to plan to strategy to action, that creates a picture of how each action contributes to the whole. When this cascade is shared with “ and built with! “ those tasked with execution, everyone has a common language and goal; everyone understands where they fit into the whole. Whether it’s a small museum or a large public garden, including staff in planning generates buy-in and pride in the organization. Ultimately, each person sees how they contribute to the enterprise.
Yet detailed, inclusive planning comes with a risk.
When everyone knows where they are headed, and execution is planned in detail, changing course can seem as impossible as turning around the Titanic. This is where a culture of innovation and risk leadership is important.
This is a second benefit of including everyone in planning the execution.
There is empowerment when everyone in the organization knows and participates in generating the ultimate goal and strategies. This empowerment means they feel permitted “ perhaps even obligated “ to bring new ideas to the table. Instead of focusing on new ways to execute a strategy, they can seek new ideas for reaching the ultimate goal. They can think of solutions at levels beyond their own tasks.
When everyone in the organization can bring new ideas to the table, the sheer abundance of new ideas provides fodder for thought. Goals may stay the same “ but strategies will benefit from the abundance of ideas.
Inclusive planning takes advantage of the brains, experiences and points of view of many more people. Why waste these talents?
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by Susan Detwiler | Nov 14, 2017 | leadership
- Did you read that article about risk leadership?
- What about that museum that lost $11 million?
- How did that agency get the government to move the needle big time?
Being able to reference new research “ or outrageous nonprofit behavior “ is a great way to engage board members. It’s a fresh entre’ to talking about the ramifications of changes all around us.
Find an article that is intriguing to YOU, and see where it leads your board.
That said, it’s sometimes hard to know how to stay on top of innovations in nonprofits; or what changes in society mean for your institution. There is an abundance of sources for nonprofit news, and numerous blog posts and articles by people who spend their time analyzing the effect of the world on the world of nonprofits. Some do it so engagingly, that it takes you a moment to realize how profound their message is.
How do you find them? Which ones are important to pay attention to? As one leader asked,
Is there one place where they’re all brought together?
Well, this list is not exhaustive, but it does include some consistently good sources in the nonprofit world, suggested by practitioners who work around the globe.
Resources for Nonprofit Organizations
This page has just been updated, and includes the sources for many of the articles I use in teaching about nonprofit leadership, governance and planning. Following them keeps me up-to-date on nonprofit news, and sparks ideas on what it means for my clients.
Check it out, find an article that interests you, and explore it with your board. See where the conversation leads. You might be surprised by engaged board members.
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by Susan Detwiler | Oct 5, 2017 | metrics, nonprofit
My colleague, Shoshana Fanizza, posted an interesting analogy in her blog, Specials for What They Buy. Shoshana specializes in audience development for theatres and performing arts, but her insights are definitely relevant to more than cultural institutions.
Her point is that grocery stores and stores like Target send you coupons for what you are most likely to use, based on past purchases. Why can’t venues use their databases of attendees and subscribers to pinpoint specific audiences for special attention?
It made me think about boards and their audiences. While cultural institutions can mine their databases for ˜likes,’ many nonprofit organizations can’t just go to their records and see who likes what, not to mention those potential clients whom you’ve yet to touch. But that doesn’t mean that the concept of knowing your audience has no validity.
Do you know your audience?
How well do organizations really know who their audiences / clients / targets / constituents are? How well do we know what their interests are, or what will be most useful to them (remember, we started with targeted coupons)?
In program evaluation, we are thankfully spending more time looking at impact than merely counting participants. Yet we are still often measuring things which matter to third parties, not necessarily what is important to the constituents themselves. We measure that students graduate from college and are employed. But does that person end up with debt? Does that person end up with a job that doesn’t pay as well as one she could have gotten with a 2-year certificate in plumbing? Maybe she’d rather be working with her hands.
Co-creation of programs requires not just offering ideas and getting feedback from constituents. It means bringing them in at the beginning of any effort, and asking, what is it that you want your life to be like? and what will it take for that to actually become reality? Developing ways to measure your impact means working with constituents to determine meaningful benchmarks.
Then, when you know this, you can offer more like it.
Really knowing your constituents “ your audience “ allows you to effectively tailor your programs and collaborations to their true interests.
Surely, that’s at least as important as knowing when they need to buy more paper towels.
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