The Paceline

A Visual Guide to Giving

2009-12-31T16:39:00.011-06:00

It's that time of year again - at least it's the time when nonprofits make one more appeal before the year ends - and before they start appealing again in the new year. Nothing like a deadline - real or self imposed - to make something happen.

Earlier this month, a terrific infographic on giving, Charity: Who Cares?, was released by mint.com and WallStats.com. As a visual kind of guy who thinks in terms of who gives what and why, I love this kind of information.

It puts into perspective the $300B given to charities and the $404B given to WalMart every year. According to mint.com, the charities collect less than a third of what they need to keep the lights on. Nothing like a little context to get your brain spinning about reality.

The data for the infographic comes from three sources:

Charity Navigator, one of the most significant, independent, national charity evaluators (Guidestar is another)
The National Center for Charitable Statistics, established in 1982, it's the national clearinghouse for nonprofit data
The Center for Philanthropy, the nationally renowned center of nonprofit studies at Indiana University

These sources are about as neutral and accurate as can be. However, there is always someone who wants to disagree. Based on the comments at the bottom of the chart, the report does step on a few toes.

Decide who and what you want to believe. While you're thinking about it, I hope you're doing all you can to nurture your individual donors. If you haven't noticed, they're kind of important.

One last note: to keep your brain spinning, take a minute - literally - to check out theYouTube explanation of just how much is a trillion. Some say trillion is the new billion. Think big.

The Santa Claus Myth

2009-12-06T21:57:00.005-06:00

Today in history.

Don't read any further if you still believe in Santa Claus.

The Santa Claus myth has its origin in the historical reality of a guy named Nicholas, born in the third century in what is now Turkey. He grew up a devout Christian in a wealthy family, but was orphaned at an early age.

Taking Jesus' words seriously to "sell what you have and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his entire inheritance to assist those who were needy, sick, and suffering. His life of radical discipleship led to him being consecrated Bishop of Myra while he was still a young man.

During the persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Diocletian, Nicholas suffered for his faith and was exiled and imprisoned. He survived prison and was part of the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. He died on this day about 1700 years ago.

He was well known throughout his life for his generosity and love for children. It really doesn't take a 501 c 3 to work for the common good.

Less is More?

2009-11-18T11:38:00.008-06:00

The year end nears. For those of us in development, it's the final push to get those moving letters and compelling proposals to people and foundations still perceived to have deep pockets. While I'm asking for amounts from $5,000 to $20,000 and much more - there are fundraisers that are doing just fine at $25 a pop.

Mr. Obama did pretty well at that before he became President. There's an excellent report from PBP Executive Reports that looks at the lessons from the Obama campaign. Over time he grew his e-mail list from 90 thousand addresses to 13 million and attracted nearly 4 million donors. The average donation according to some reports was just over $100.

Amazing numbers! Yet there are three contradictory articles in the latest Chronicle of Philanthropy.

One report states that Social Networks Produce Dismal Results. Caroline Preston reports that out of 250 nonprofits surveyed, 74% said they had raised less than $100. Few of them could determine how many volunteers or how much money they had actually raised through their forays into social networking.

Another by Ben Gose Urges Charities and Donors to Focus on Small Gifts. Gose reports that Wendy Smith's new book, Give a Little, reminds us all how the little gifts can really add up. Individuals gave $229 billion dollars in 2007. For some context, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave just $2 billion the same year. Smith contends most of those donors are from households earning less than $100,000 per year.

Finally, Sean Stannard-Stockton writes an excellent article on tactical philanthropy using Twitter. He makes a great point that Twitter is THE new forum for discussing philanthropy. It far outstrips traditional media among young readers. All those young readers are the ones making small donations - for now. What will they give as they get older??

More significantly, Stannard-Stockton states: "...philanthropy is no longer a topic of discussion reserved for the ultrawealthy, nonprofit executives, or academic researchers. As with any topic that goes mainstream, many insiders will complain that the subject is too nuanced for the masses to understand.

But the people and organizations that can figure out how to speak authentically about philanthropy to a mainstream voice — without dumbing down the subject or talking over the heads of the newly formed crowds — will dominate the discussions about the nonprofit world in the coming months and years."

My $12.96 GoodSearch contribution this year isn't much. Some nonprofits turn up their noses at the pennies per search concept. Some don't. They are getting checks of over $1,000 this month. The pennies add up.

Heaven is in the details. Details are often very small. But they always make a difference.

Stones or Guts?

2009-10-29T21:31:00.008-05:00

Back in the day, it was called having "guts." Today, it's called having "stones." Whatever you call it, it is a necessity for making big decisions.

Seems that the decisions are now bigger than ever. The President is trying to decide whether or not to send more troops to Afghanistan. The House and Senate are trying to decide how to improve health care. Nearly 25% of the children in Dallas live in poverty. About 16% of those have no idea where they'll sleep tonight.

Big issues. Bigger consequences. Huge costs.

Right now, the President is trying to decide how much more to commit to Central Asia. Lots of people have lots of ideas - and agendas - about what's right for now and for the future. The cost, short-term and long-term, will be huge. The decision will take some stones.

Today, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that the new House Bill for health care will offer:

* Affordability to the middle class
* Security for seniors
* Responsibility to our children

She said that for less than $900B over ten years, we will be able to insure 36 million uninsured Americans. I cannot tell if it was gutsy for her to announce that or just not very bright.

The number is $894B. That's about $248,000 per uninsured American over ten years - or about $25,000 per year. Make that $100,000 for a family of four. Sure seems like a lot to me. Last time I checked, I'm paying less than that. Apparently she's not running for reelection, but at least she's trying to do something about a problem that none of her predecessors were willing to tackle.

Earlier this week, Children's Medical Center released the latest data for "Beyond ABC: Growing Up in Dallas." Beyond ABC is a report on the quality of life for children in Dallas. The data was presented in a symposium hosted by Children's President and CEO, Christopher Durovich. Closing the symposium, Durovich explained that the costs to help children were staggering, but that for every $1 spent in prevention, we can avoid spending nearly $3 in treatment.

Quality care costs. It can be outrageously expensive. But at that kind of return on investment, it makes no sense to not invest in prevention. After the symposium, Durovich reminded me of what the old Fram oil filter commercials taught us - you can pay me now or pay me later.

How much will it cost to stay in Afghanistan? How much will health care really cost? What will it cost to improve the lives of children in Dallas? What are the paybacks over time? When will we see a difference?

Larry James, CEO of Central Dallas Ministries, is a man I greatly admire. He also spoke at the Beyond ABC symposium. He said that the costs to build a stronger, healthier community in Dallas are beyond our taxes (what government delivers) AND beyond our charitable contributions (what nonprofits deliver). He went on to say that "tax" is not a bad word. That took some guts to say that in Dallas, Texas.

I hate taxes. I really hate the idea of higher taxes. But I must grudgingly admit that Larry James may be right. Internationally, nationally, and locally, the problems we face today are bigger, more convoluted, and costlier than ever before.

Donations are down. Will higher taxes drive them down further? The thing known certainly: costs will continue to grow.

There are no easy answers here. You can bet there will be unintended consequences. Simply throwing more tax dollars at problems will not get the job done. But avoiding tough decisions while big problems deteriorate may be a worse sin.

From our national leaders to those of our smallest nonprofits, now is the time for some tough decisions. Call it what you want. Be "with it" and call it stones, or be a "throwback" and call it guts.

Back in the day, my church choir leader called it something else since he thought the word "guts" was a little disgusting. He called it "intestinal fortitude." Somehow that seems to more accurately describe what's needed to face the tough decisions ahead of us.

Here's to the Vols!

2009-09-22T22:51:00.005-05:00

Amazing numbers: 61.8 million people - over a quarter of our population- volunteered at least once in 2008!

Most of them were women. Most of them were between 35 and 44 years of age. Most of them did this through faith-based organizations.*

Watch your television sets carefully in October. Hollywood is focusing on the week of October 19 to promote volunteer service. The vols will be involved in at least 60 programs across the spectrum.

Elie Wiesel wrote a short, horrific, must-read book titled Night. For that amazing piece of history and much more, Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. In his acceptance speech, he stated:

"There is so much to be done, there is so much that can be done. One person - a Raoul Wallenberg, an Albert Schweitzer, a Martin Luther King Jr. - one person with integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death."

Today, when you look across town, one or two states over, or across the oceans, you see so much to do - so many who need help. It is overwhelming, especially to people who are thinking of volunteering.

If your nonprofit is not making maximum use of volunteers, you are not making all the impact that is possible. Make it easy to volunteer. Make it fun. Make it compelling. The script writers in Hollywood are trying to help in 2009.

Wiesel is right. One person can make a difference. Your nonprofit is the vessel in which the next Wallenberg, Schweitzer, or King may sail. Be sure you have it ready for more volunteer sailors.

*Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Volunteering in the United States, 2008"

Decisions. Get 'em right!

2009-08-30T13:18:00.006-05:00

Outliers. The wisdom of crowds. Committees. Intestinal fortitude. Group think. Leadership. Where do I start??

Suzy Welch has written a book with some excellent ideas about decision making. In 10-10-10 she describes a simple but effective system to avoid impulsive or merely expedient decisions and make smart choices instead. In a nutshell, to determine the right decision, ask what the results will be over three periods of time.

What will be the effects of your decision in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years? If you are satisfied with the anticipated results at all three stages, you can be reasonably confident you are making the right decision. I like simple.

That's why I don't much like committees. There is something to be said for more eyes looking over a proposal and more brains seeking solutions. A 2005 book extolled The Wisdom of Crowds. Some say a former governor and rising star is now a falling rock because she neither sought nor accepted the wisdom of others.

But group decisions offer no assurance of wisdom and prudence. Rarely do they offer boldness. "Fortes fortuna adiuvat" is commonly translated to "fortune favors the bold." Bold committees are a rarity.

Jason Zweig, writing for investors, wrote an excellent article about "group think" in the Wall Street Journal. In "How Group Decisions End Up Wrong-Footed" he looks briefly at all the committees who have made VERY bad decisions over the last few years. According to Zweig, the "idiots, liars and thieves...torched billions of dollars." But the unwisdom of compensation committees on Wall Street, investment committees at leading universities, nonprofits, and in many states, and boards of directors across the nation all contributed to our current financial crisis.

Can we learn from this disaster? If not, the "tuition" expense of this particular lesson in the "university of life" will be unbearable. What is the take-away lesson for nonprofits? Here is my mash of ideas from Zweig's five points and Welch's concept.

Welch believes that each organization must be very clear on its values, then begin a decision dialogue based on 10-10-10. Start with complete candor on values, performance, desired goals, etc. If you walk on eggs to avoid ruffled feathers, you are courting disaster. Overcome the fear factor by reflecting on how many lives you have to live and what's the worst that can happen. Fortune does favor the bold. Don't be reckless, but don't be fearful either.

Zweig offers five points of decision making for investment groups which I've adapted for nonprofits:

Measure what makes sense. When deciding on a new program or a new hire, determine the factors that most likely predict success. Programs - and people in a much more subjective sense - can be rated based on cost, impact, expected rate of return (objectively and subjectively), history of success in other organizations, and even "chemistry" or fit within the organization.
Neuter the numbers. Rank the factors in order of importance and assign numeric values to those factors for each program or person under consideration. Be prepared to update those numeric values after deeper investigation or interview.
Reframe the question. Determine the good and the bad. Make a list of the best things that can happen if the decision is correct and worst things that can happen if the decision is a disaster.
Use "the five whys." Go beyond questions that have simple "yes" or "no" answers. Instead ask "why" something is believed to be true. If you can drill down with five whys and still be satisfied with the object of interrogation, you can be comfortable in knowing you've explored for any areas of weakness.
Define the default position. Determine a common denominator of success. From that, gradually build to what you want the program or position to be.

That default position may not seem to have any boldness in its properties. But strong trees grow slowly. The bold choice to plant it and the patient wisdom to nurture it will bear fruit for years to come.

The New Normal

2009-07-19T15:42:00.012-05:00

We lost Walter Cronkite last week . We started losing newspapers a couple of years ago. We're losing good old page-turning, paperback books to these newfangled things called "wireless reading devices."

Things are changing. Talk to most of my boomer buddies. They don't like it. They don't like text messages, Facebook pages, or tweets from Twitter. They want pages made of paper that they can turn and fold and use to scribble their notes. They want people they can trust like Uncle Walter. They want things back to normal. The way they used to be.

Get a grip fellow geezers. Pull up those relaxed-cut jeans. There's a new normal coming to town.

Over the last few years, I've spent some time at Camp Esperanza. That's a week long summer camp for 140 children battling cancer through Camp John Marc and Children's Medical Center in Dallas. Those kids can teach us a lot.

A common denominator for every one of them and their families, is that they had to adapt to a new normal. Cancer is an equal opportunity disease. It offers a complete change to a "normal" family life with chemo treatments, surgery, rehab, and more. If it affects your family, the only choice you have is whether or not you'll adapt to change.

Change is coming to the way we read. The new normal for readers will be the use of wireless reading devices. An easier name is "ereaders."

Amazon leads the way with its Kindle. Sony is running a strong second. This week, Barnes & Noble announced their intention to enter the market with an ereader. AT&T announced they will play in this game. Newspapers are scrambling to save themselves.

It's just a matter of time before a group of newspapers find their own hardware vendor to produce an inexpensive ereader tuned to their newspapers - and a few hundred thousand electronic books. The pitch? You can have our cheap ereader - maybe for free - if you subscribe to one of our newspapers for a few years.

It's worked before. Mr. Gillette got rich selling razor blades after he gave away the razor.

The ability to adapt to change - even embrace it - is invaluable. The publishing business will adapt. The public as a whole will gripe - then gradually change. Some faster than others. When you have money, it's easier to adapt to change.

What about the folks without money? What about those living in poverty? Yes, they still read. Maybe not as much, but they are more interested than we might imagine.

Earlier this month, Jenna Russell of the Boston Globe wrote about a book club for the homeless. Her article gives insight into a group of people many want to ignore. It's a heartwarming story about a man who buys books for one small group in Boston.

But what about the homeless and near homeless across the nation? If the move to digital print has the momentum that I expect, where will the poor get their news, sports, and current events? What will nonprofits who serve the poor do to help those poor adapt to change?

How will the nonprofits themselves adapt? This is the first question to answer. If the nonprofits don't adapt, the people they serve will fall further behind.

Yes. There will always be books and newspapers made of paper. Probably even an uptick in donated books. Classics endure. But current events are timely. If it starts costing more to read the news, the poor will be left out even more.

As the digital divide grows, how will nonprofits help the poor stay in touch with the world? How can nonprofits encourage self sufficiency if the poor cannot afford to read what's happening around them?

These questions don't have to be answered right now. But they do need to be considered now. It is early, but now is the time to start playing with the new tools of the 21st century. The more you understand, the easier it is to adapt. The more you are able to adapt, the more you can help others adapt.

The good news with these newfangled ereaders, you won't have to worry about where you left your bifocals. Just crank that font size up to 44 on your ebook or enewspaper, sit back, and enjoy your read.

Big Wow Service

2009-06-29T11:36:00.011-05:00

In the world of grant writing, we strive to impress. Programs and services described with compelling words backed up by impressive numbers. It is a fact of fund-raising life if you're going to make your organization stand out from all the others.

But what is your mission? What is your priority? What service do you really offer?

According to Richard Foster, "service is not a list of things that we do...it is a way of living." While rereading his excellent book, Celebration of Discipline, I came across a sub section on service in the marketplace. He provided a short list of services that each of us can perform on a daily basis. They are the services of:

Hiddenness
Small things
Guarding reputations
Being served
Common courtesy
Hospitality
Listening
Sharing the word of Life

Foster is talking about how individuals can serve. But individuals make up organizations. There is a common denominator of these services that apply to any nonprofit organization.

The service of hiddenness is certainly counterintuitive to our PR driven world. We're all about getting the word out far and wide, loud and clear. But acts of service and generosity don't always have to be material for the next newsletter. Word gets around slowly and quietly that good things happen. If you're just in it for the short term and need kudos before moving on to your next gig to "help" people, you won't understand that concept. But if you're satisfied with making quiet, long-term impacts, you probably know how to spell the word "anonymous."

"There are no small roles. There are only small actors." That's an old show business saying. The world of acting is known for its big egos. The service of small things is another one that probably doesn't make sense to the loud and proud. But details matter. Heaven is indeed in the details.

The service of hospitality seems to pervade most of the nonprofit world. With just a few exceptions in Dallas, I've been amazed at how many people in the nonprofit world are willing to spend time answering questions, giving advice, and listening. That welcome feeling is what makes competitors into partners for the common good.

The service of listening is one more service that's often taken for granted. We have two ears and one mouth. There's your ideal ratio of listening to talking. The nonprofits that hear what their clients need; that hear what their donors want to do; that hear what their staffs can do are the ones that are making the biggest difference.

Yes, there must be adequate funds to perform programs and services. The highly touted, big wow service draws a lot of good attention. But to get it right from top to bottom, you literally must have service in your heart.

A Bridge Too Far?

2009-05-19T21:07:00.007-05:00

In Dallas, the much touted DonorBridge opens to the public tomorrow. Communities Foundation of Texas, the Institute for Urban Policy Research at UTD, and the Center for Nonprofit Management with support from The Dallas Foundation will publicly launch this new online tool.

Think of it as a master connector. If it works, it will link nonprofits, donors, and supporters. There's no reason to believe it won't work. The smart folks at Blackbaud, a savvy software and services company, are behind the technical end of this.

Since early this year, hundreds of Dallas area nonprofits have spent thousands of hours establishing their digital footprints on DonorBridge. Will it pay off or is it a bridge too far?

In 1977 their was an epic film about WWII in which the Allies tried to shorten the war by taking several bridges deep in enemy territory. One Allied advisor at the time suggested that the operation was to aggressive. Too big. Too optimistic. He said, "I think we may be going a bridge too far."

What about DonorBridge? Is it too aggressive? Too big? Too complex? Too optimistic? Will people really use it?

DonorBridge is unique for North Texas - maybe for the nation. It's consolidating regional nonprofits into a one-stop "shopping" experience for donors. It's trying to simplify the confusing milieu of information and numbers regarding nonprofit management, governance, effectiveness, programs, and stewardship for anyone who cares.

It is a big bridge. That's necessitated by the number of nonprofits in the Dallas area. What we really need is a simple bridge - an effective means of crossing the information gaps quickly and easily.

Who will use DonorBridge? According to Paco Underhill, 60% of the wealth in America is held by people 55 and over. Will the "old dogs" use it, or will it only be the "kids" who shop online and are comfortable with Twitter, Facebook, and text messages?

DonorBridge is a terrific step to bring some consolidation to the sometimes baffling array of overlapping choices we have locally. But like much new construction, its benefits may be best realized by future generations - givers who find the simplest ways to cross the bridge.

Hats off to the builders of DonorBridge. Your efforts today will make a difference in the world tomorrow.

Who knows? Tomorrow may come sooner if we can teach old dogs some new tricks.

And remember this - the Allies failed in their attempt to take a bridge too far. But they won the war.

The nonprofits are fighting wars worth fighting. DonorBridge is one more tool to help win those wars.

Art and Science or Art and Process?

2009-04-18T22:57:00.009-05:00

Art and science. Combining the creative right brain and the logical left brain. According to Jim Collins, maybe we need to call it "Art and Process."

In the April '09 issue of Inc., the magazine for entrepreneurs, Collins says that creating better processes is more important than building a better "mousetrap." That's something I learned the hard way in my first sales job.

Way back in the day, I started peddling computer systems for a little know CAD company out of New York. They had a great, innovative system for designing and laying out printed circuit boards. But our business practices - our processes - made it tough to work with customers. It was another "learning experience" for me.

A year later, I began work for a CAD / CAE company out of California. They had a pretty good mousetrap, but they really understood how to make it easy for the user. Their business practices were very customer friendly. They got their processes right. Lots of happy, productive customers meant that seven years later, I lead the nation in sales for that company.

Are you trying to build a perfect mousetrap at your nonprofit? Or are you more focused on making what you already have work really well?

There's always room for growth, but sometimes you've got to go with what you've got and make all those wheels spin together. It really helps if everyone is spinning their wheels in the same direction for the same ultimate goal.

Not entirely unlike cyclists in a paceline. Imagine - working together for the common good. Going further and faster with less effort. What a quaint idea.

If you're personally spinning those wheels, it's often hard to see beyond the crowd. If you're a director or manager of any type, you really need to look at the entire group relationship - and its relationships with other groups.

Creating better processes is not just an exercise in logic. It probably means digesting lots of data and finding a way to visualize it simply. Use your left brain to gather the data and your right brain to display it. Now you've got your whole brain working to improve your processes.

Imagine coordinating air traffic around the world. You have to deal with people, weather, machinery, and even the rising and setting sun. Thanks to a God's eye view from a NOAA satellite, here is global air traffic over a 24 hour period.

Your problems may be a little less complex. But if you can get a good view from 150 feet or 150 miles, you can really develop a sense of what you're trying to solve. That video from space is a thing of incredible beauty with an amazing display of dynamic information. It puts it all in perspective. The right and left sides of the brain are working as one.

Can you put your nonprofit and your partners in perspective? Do the processes in your organization need a healthy dose of BOTH art and science to make them all work well together?

Seize the Day with Free Publicity

2009-03-16T21:36:00.007-05:00

Do you have enough of the public's mindshare? If everyone already knows all about your organization and you're way ahead on donations this year, go ahead and skip this blog.

Spend your time filling out your brackets for March Madness. (That's the college basketball playoffs for those of you who don't know why a lot of guys are taking longer lunch hours this Thursday and Friday.)

If you're struggling to get the word out, stay with me. This blog is not for those of you who have stumbled into free publicity due to involvement with a ponzi scheme or a board member fighting extradition from Antigua. This blog is for the rest of us.

Emmy award winning reporter Jeff Crilley has written a helpful, easy-to-read book entitled Free Publicity. This guy knows what he's talking about. And he's willing to come talk to you about it! He has a heart for nonprofits.

Jeff spoke to a group of us at the Dallas Public Library last month. In a short, entertaining, and informative 90 minutes he listed five key points that every organization needs to keep in mind.

Look for opportunities to speak in public about your cause. Every Rotary, Kiawanas, and Lions club has someone eagerly trying to fill those weekly speaking slots. In a big town, there are lots of choices.
Keep on networking. Even in a big town, word gets around. Make sure its a good word.
Develop terrific customer service. Keep your employees happy. They will keep your customers - aka clients, donors, volunteers, board members - happy. That word will get out.
Work with the media. Get to know the journalists who have an eye or ear for a story about people and nonprofits. People like stories about people. Learn how to help reporters on slow news days. Stage a special event on a government holiday.
The buzz. This is the most important point of the five. It's all about the buzz. Creating it and keeping it alive is vital. If your organization lives - thrives - with honor and integrity and a level of customer service that Southwest Airlines will envy, the word everywhere will be about your organization.

This is not profound. These are not hidden secrets. It's all common sense. But often we need reminders and encouragement about what we can do. Jeff Crilley is out there to help. Buy his book. Give him a call. Send him an email at RealNewsPR. Watch him on YouTube.

Help yourself. Good publicity is available to everyone. And the price is right.

On second thought, if you are fighting bad publicity, this blog is probably for you as well. Maybe especially for you.

Carpe diem!

Give It Up

2009-02-25T20:08:00.007-06:00

So what can nonprofits give up for Lent?

Give something up?? Are you kidding me? We're just barely making it as it is!

Hear me out. This blog has been brewing for days. Hope it's not too late. It is Ash Wednesday night.

In trying times, in a highly competitive landscape, it may be a good idea to do something counterintuitive. Unless you're on a really good roll, maybe a little change isn't a bad idea. Here are a few things you might consider changing for the next 40 days:

1) Give up meetings. Do you really need to have a staff meeting each week? A conference call every Monday? A board meeting every two months? You can still talk to these people if you really need to. A break in scheduled meetings will be a very refreshing change for people having trouble sleeping because of stress.

2) Give up editing every grant your grant writer puts in front of you. If you trust the person writing proposals, give them the responsibility to get it right and get it done. You'll get an extra few hours every week that you spend "improving" proposals. And you'll probably get more proposals submitted in 40 days than you have in the last 60 days.

3) Give up watching the news about how bad the economy is. At least give it up after 12pm so you can sleep better at night. Maybe the extra 15 minutes will give you more time to focus on your mission.

4) Give up an hour a week you spend on your assigned job and spend it with one of your constituents - client or donor. You'll be amazed at what you learn - and you'll probably do your job better.

5) Give up staying tuned to your regular source of news and information all day long. If you look for a new source every day for 40 days, chances are you'll find at least two or three keepers. Not a bad addition for a rapidly changing world.

That's it for for now. There have got to be more things we can give up. Stay tuned.

Hope to Fill Your Glass

2009-02-06T18:04:00.013-06:00

On Christmas night just a few weeks ago, Ray Suarez asked: "When will the muscles in the back of your neck relax?"

During the 25 December edition of The Newshour on PBS, Suarez was talking to three exceptional leaders in the nonprofit world. The panel was composed of the development manager of the Salvation Army, the editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the president of the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. It could not have been a better summary of the challenges facing nonprofits during the current economic crisis.

You're best served by reading the transcript of this excellent interview. What follows is my summary and a few comments.

The glass is half full: it's a bad time for all charities, but social services giving for people in need has increased a little - just not enough to meet the growing demands.

The glass is half empty: If you're not involved with social services, hang on. The arts, the environment, and other parts of the public sector are incredibly important, but they will be in line behind the basic needs of people.

Charities lag the economy. The economy lags the market. The market has yet to turn around although there are small hints of new life. This means there's a "long row to hoe" during this new economy.

That row may last longer than many charities can stand. There are only so many ways to become more efficient and creative. Assuming the only people left on your bus are the right people, it is going to be a short bus ride if you cannot afford gas and tires.

People and foundations are prioritizing their giving. Corporations are barely thinking of giving. Nonprofits must prioritize their spending. Tension is increasing between donors and service providers.

It's tough to ignore the passion of the servant's heart, but the reality is either:
a) don't cut back on services and close the doors this summer or
b) scale back and try to make it to the end of the year. Depending upon how long the row is, you may well get to do it all over again next year.

Faith is an important element here. Yes, God will provide and can stop a locomotive. But He gave you the brains to get off the tracks before the train comes. Now is a time, not just for prayer, but for some thought leadership.

Forward thinking nonprofits will be looking for more partners, collaborators, volunteers, and even mergers. Is it all about you and your nonprofit - or is it really about who or what you serve? As with every crisis, there are opportunities.

Can some administrative services be combined with other nonprofits in your sector or geography? Is there someone willing to create an administrative outsourcing business for nonprofits? At what cost? Who can help peer organizations get past egos and come together to serve the common good?

The response to Suarez's question was that it's time to shift nonprofit thinking to the "new normal" (my words). There is an immediate need for survival. You must manage through this week and this month.

But the row may take many months to hoe. What are your plans for the new economy that does emerge next year - or the year after next? Are you ready to consolidate? to share resources? to share responsibilities?

The new economy is the new normal. There is help for the asking. Is it time to add some partners to your paceline?

There are answers to all these questions. There is hope - it is not a new concept.

Weather Tweets

2009-01-28T14:44:00.004-06:00

It's a new year and time for many of us to start using our new toys. Over at Channel 8, ABC's affiliate in Dallas, WFAA TV is using Twitter to get the weather out.

The chief meteorologist, Pete Delkus, started sending tweets two days ago - right before the big ice storm.

Is this innovation by the corporation? Or did his teenage daughter embarrass him into using a new tool of the 21st Century? It doesn't matter. It's working. Good for him.

He's now got over a thousand followers. Lets see where this goes. If there's too much info, those tweets will fall into the area of noise. It will quickly get tuned out.

If it's timely and pertinent, that group of followers will continue to grow. Tornado season is still a few months away for Dallas. Check out how many peeps follow the tweets when big, black clouds start forming in the west.

Many nonprofits are already in their tornado season. Twitter may be a great resource for the stormy days ahead.

It's so simple. It's so cheap. Why aren't more nonprofits using it to get the word out??

Whether you want to send a quick update on the day's news to your followers, an urgent message to your staff or volunteers, or a dire plea for funds to your impulse donors you have little to lose and lots to gain.

Maybe it's time to embrace some change for the new year.

Who's on Your Bus?

2008-12-12T17:42:00.010-06:00

Voltaire said "the perfect is the enemy of the good." Collins said that "good is the enemy of great."

Most of you know of Jim Collins, management consultant, teacher, author, and rock climber. His books include Built to Last (1994) and Good to Great (2001). In the latter, he studied 11 companies that made the leap from being merely good to being truly great. Their performance greatly exceeded that of their peers and resulted in sustainably extraordinary results for at least 15 years.

Out of his 11 outstanding performers in 2001, two are pretty iffy right now. Circuit City, struggling to remain profitable, is closing 155 stores and laying off 17% of workforce. Fannie Mae was recently placed into conservatorship.

But the rest, Abbott, Gillette (purchased by Proctor and Gamble in 2005), Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris (now a part of Altria Group), Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo, are at least hanging in there during these turbulent economic times. Getting it right on 9 out of 11 is not a bad grade especially in today's economy. The guy seems to know what he's talking about.

Back in the day - when times were good (2005) - Collins wrote an excellent monograph for those of us in the nonprofit world. Entitled Good to Great and the Social Sectors, he reemphasized principles that distinguish good (or mediocre) organizations from great ones. Note that he's not talking about business practices. He is talking about disciplines that benefit all organizations.

Today, in the nonprofit world, I believe one of his points is especially important. It's about getting the right people on the bus.

Unless you're living on another planet, you've already looked at your income and expense projections for the coming twelve months. You've undoubtedly looked at the sad prospect of making cuts. This is stewardship 101.

The tough choices get down to decisions on cutting programs or services (which will hurt your mission) or cutting staff (which is your most expensive cost). This is not a good time for anyone, but it is a vital time to ensure you have the right people on the bus, sitting in the right seats.

Nonprofits are often harder to reorganize than businesses for more complex relationship and emotional reasons. How do you tell an employee who's also a donor or church/auxiliary member that their performance is not good enough? What's the ripple effect among other volunteers if you eliminate a position or bring in a replacement volunteer?

Chances are you have some long-time, very nice, barely competent employees. Can you imagine not having that big smile and big heart around every day? But what if that wonderful person is not carrying the load? Or actually hurting the mission?

The bigger question is: during a recession, can you afford the luxury - the outreach to someone who's taking up a seat on the bus? This is the time when you have to be doing more with less. When the team has to be pulling together. When the paceline has to be working together to go further and faster with less effort.

Nonprofits are nearly always challenged by efficiency. This very difficult time may be the very best time to gently let someone off the bus, or move them to a seat they can share with someone else.

Please tell me that I don't sound like Dwight K. Schrute.

Collins concludes with some simple reminders: "The right people can often attract money, but money by itself can never attract the right people. Money is a commodity; talent is not. Time and talent can often compensate for lack of money, but money cannot ever compensate for lack of the right people."

What a remarkable opportunity exists now to strengthen your team for the long haul.

The Best and the Brightest

2008-11-30T17:03:00.006-06:00

Wow! It's a challenging time for nonprofits right now. Heck. It's a challenging time for everyone.

How would you like to be the President Elect of the nation right now? I'm fascinated - and encouraged - by the team Barack Obama is putting together for the executive branch of our government. Part of my encouragement is that he is a good listener, and he is willing to listen to some great minds to help solve the myriad problems faced by the nation.

Some of those great minds were not necessarily his supporters over the last 12 months. Does this make it a team of egos or a team of rivals? Doris Kearns Goodwin writes about the latter in her fascinating study of Abraham Lincoln.

What kind of "cabinet" does your nonprofit have? Whether you define your cabinet as your key management team or your board of directors - or both - it's important to have a diverse mix of people around you.

You need encouraging, enthusiastic people to support you, but you cannot afford to have all "yes" people. You need positive people around you, but beware of those who won't tell you the truth about what's really happening. It's good to surround yourself with the best thinkers available, but beware of over thinking your problems.

History has not always been kind to the best and the brightest. Eight years ago, the new Bush administration pleased many people with its selection of leaders. Not many of those original choices get very good grades today.

Originally, the best and the brightest referred to the people chosen to work in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. David Halberstam wrote a book by that title. With the clear vision of hindsight, we can see that those leaders of the 60's didn't manage things all that well either.

Based on history, it may be a mistake to assume that you will ensure success by stocking your nonprofit with the best and the brightest. But to avoid getting the best and the brightest people "on the bus" may be a greater mistake.

Supportive, positive - but not non-critical - people who are thinkers and listeners can go a long way towards success. With that, there's one more mistake to avoid.

All thinking and no action will get you nowhere.

Hope is Not a Strategy

2008-10-28T21:50:00.008-05:00

There's lots of hope in the air these days. With two wars going on, the economy in a shambles, both poles melting, and another half dozen issues over which to wring your hands, you'd better have hope.

As my friend Mark told me: "Both candidates have pledged to lower my taxes, improve my healthcare, make sure my children will be well educated and have clean air to breathe in a country with perfectly safe borders. So regardless of who wins the election, things will get better starting next week. They promised."

It's sort of amusing to see these guys on the national stage selling hope. Often during my long sales career, I spent more time than I wanted selling hope during sales forecast reviews. When the sales aren't there - they aren't there. But try telling that to hardheaded, pollyanna sales managers. When they can't handle reality, it's time to start selling hope.

Now I don't mean to be coming down hard on hope or optimism. We know from life - and the Good Book - that trials create endurance; endurance creates character; and character creates hope. Hope does not disappoint as long as it's placed in the right direction. I've got plenty of hope. I'd like to skip that trials / endurance / character building thing as much as possible in the future.

When it comes to optimism I have gained some wisdom over the last few decades. I am a "recovering obsessor." Yes, I've worried about a lot of small - and big - things that just never turned out to be a problem. It's taken me a while, but I've learned there really is a reason to be optimistic. That's based on personal history.

When you look at national and world history, economists are telling us that things will be okay - eventually. The presidential candidates are certainly telling us this. I do believe this to be true.

But historical knowledge is only based on what has been observed. For many dozen centuries, people believed that only white swans existed. Then Dutch explorers, in 1697, discovered a black swan in Australia.

Based on this improbable discovery, Nassim Taleb has written a philosophy book about our exposure to rare events. There's a fascinating PBS interview with him and the mathematician with whom he studied. This book may not be a page turner, but it does have some important implications for nonprofits.

The world grows smaller and more complex each day. Fragility, unintended consequences, and more interdependence affects us all - at work, at home, throughout the community. What are we going to do about it?

Last month I asked many questions, all related to change for your nonprofit. Of course, now I have more questions.

Are you exposed in the current economy? Are you preparing to make changes? Do you have some real plans for what's next?

What is your strategy? Is it hope?

The Times, They Are A Changin'

2008-09-27T20:48:00.009-05:00

Bob Dylan sang that over four decades ago. It's still true. Read any newspapers lately? Watched any newscasts lately? There's lots of speculation out there. The only thing certain is that we're about to see change like we've never seen it before.

So far, the news is mostly about the commercial world. The Chron and the AFP magazine, Advancing Philanthropy, are doing a pretty good job of summarizing the potential effects on nonprofits. How are you going to manage change?

Paul Otellini is the current CEO of Intel, the world's largest manufacturer of microprocessors. He's a good one for nonprofit ED's to use as a model.

Hmmmm. Okay. You're saying: Intel, $40 something billion a year. My heart and soul cause for good, $400K/year....give or take a few hundred thousand dollars. Exactly how do we make this comparison?

In the WSJ this Saturday, Otellini gave some interesting opinions on management. He said, "A CEO's main job, because you have access to all the information, is to see the need to change before anyone else does."

What's the job of an ED? To meet the mission. Take care of your clients. Maintain relationships with donors. Clearly present the cause with passion. Take care of your staff so they'll take care of you.

You have all the information. You're undoubtedly watching expenses and double checking your revenue forecast. Are you seeing the need to change?

Now is also a very good time to eliminate duplicate services. Who can help you? Where can you partner? Who can join you in the paceline? There are some unhealthy nonprofits that will not survive the next year. That change may be sad, but not necessarily bad.

Who (what organization) can provide the best service for the clients? Once the egos get put aside, that question is often easier to answer.

If your organization is struggling to make it, do you see the need to change? Now is a good time to look at options to merge with a like minded partner.

If your organization is strong, will it stay strong forever? Do you see the need to change? Now is a good time to join forces with a like minded partner.

Merging organizations is never easy, but change is always necessary.

You've Got 30 Seconds...

2008-08-29T20:47:00.003-05:00

...before their eyes start glazing over. Can you tell someone about your nonprofit and what makes it unique from the other 9,000 nonprofits in Dallas?

Last December I talked about doing your due diligence to prepare the justification (or case statement) of why someone should write you a check. This time, I'll talk about the short and sweet way to get your message across.

It may not earn you a donation right off the bat, but it may keep you in the game a little longer. At the very least it will plant a seed that you can nurture.

A couple of weeks ago I called an old friend from work. Hadn't talked with him in months (maybe more than a year). We exchanged pleasantries, caught up, and when he found out that I was working for nonprofits, his tone changed. He assumed that I was calling to ask him for money. "That's what everyone does," he said.

I wasn't. I genuinely just wanted to catch up. A few weeks later, sitting at the dinner table with our wives, the subject came up again. He wanted to know more about what I did and for whom I wrote grant proposals.

Amazing! I have the opportunity, and I blow it!! I've got reams of important data in my brain (intermixed with old phone numbers, the jersey numbers of the 1974 Dallas Cowboys, and the final approach speeds of a few airplanes I've flown). I've written 50 plus proposals in the last year, and as I start start sifting through the details, I see the "off flags" start flickering in my buddy's eyes.

My advice for you (and my hope that I will practice what I preach) is to have your "elevator pitch" ready. That's a term from a previous chapter of my life (selling computer systems). If you're riding with someone in an elevator, and you want to get your point across, you have about 30 seconds to make it happen.

Unless you're prepared in advance, you will undoubtedly witness the glazing of the eyes and a friendly "goodbye" when the elevator door opens. So think about it now.

Take your mission statement, scrub it into a few words your mom can understand, apply what makes your nonprofit unique, and be ready to state it clearly in 30 seconds.

Keep it simple and direct. I love the catch phrase for the upcoming missions conference hosted by Buckner. "Go. Be. Do." They are saying "go somewhere, be a voice, do something."

Isn't that great?? Three words. Six letters total. Amazing! Easy to remember. Easy to convey! Perfect for getting people to be involved with missions.

You're probably going to have to write all your mission, vision, facts, factoids, and distinctions down to get it right. Then you need to practice. Mark Twain said, "It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech."

Better get started now. Who knows when you'll get that next opportunity. You don't want to blow it like me.

It won't happen again.

Twitter Your Nonprofit ?

2008-07-23T18:12:00.004-05:00

Do you "tweet?" That's the language of Twitter.

Twitter is the relatively new micro blogging service offered by our friends at twitter.com. These guys let you send very short (up to 140 characters) updates (tweets) to anyone that signs up to get them. Those people are called "followers." You can also restrict delivery just to your circle of buddies...or coworkers.

Followers can receive these updates on a variety of web sites or via email, instant messaging, text messages to your cell phone, etc. It all starts with a simple question: "what are you doing?"

Think of it as simple social networking on a small scale. Then again that small scale has nearly a million users right now. Some are just teenagers standing in line for a movie sending updates to friends. Others are much more sophisticated and frankly, more interesting. (Don't tell the teenagers.)

Whole Foods Market, Comcast, and Dell are using Twitter at an enterprise level. If you're having trouble with your Comcast service, blast a tweet of your frustrations to the world (the default delivery option). Customer support at Comcast monitors Twitter 24x7 for "damage control." See more on this at TBR (The Bivings Report).

Whole Foods is giving Twitter a serious try. They use it as a means of marketing and customer support. It's another way to enhance relationships with its customers. Hmmmm ..... seems like I've mentioned the importance of relationships somewhere else on my blog.

Universities, government agencies, news organizations, and significantly, the Obama campaign are all starting to use Twitter to keep people informed. Can your nonprofit make this work? Sure you can. But do you want to?

Think of two things. Who will be tweeting for your cause? Who will be the followers (the ones interested in your updates)?

If you Twitter just for internal purposes - to schedule or announce visitors for a tour, prepare for the arrival of volunteers, make a late change to an internal function - your followers will just be your staff. But if you plan to Twitter to the board, volunteers, or donors, you really need to have your act together.

Your "tweeter" needs to be informed, interesting, and able to find the balance of being consistent with new tweets without flooding the followers with drivel. Depending upon your cause, you may also have to be sensitive to certain privacy needs.

Your followers need to not be afraid of new technology. That probably means they'll be under 30, but not necessarily, and they may be some of your best candidates for volunteers and new donors.

Will it work at the nonprofit level? Why not? It's a free service, and chances are you want to improve your communications and you're looking for more volunteers and more donors. It's worth a try.

A caveat. Twitter is not especially fast. Look for competitors to get into this game soon.

Brobdingnagian Vision

2008-06-27T16:27:00.007-05:00

It's easier to call it "BV."

Brobdingnag is that imaginary land that Jonathan Swift claims Lemuel Gulliver discovered in 1703. It's any fictitious place where everything is enormous in size or quantity and especially in scope or extent.

Does it sound familiar? In your own non-fiction world, what is the extent of the problem you're trying to solve? Aids in Africa? Homeless in America? Foster children in Dallas?

Whatever it is, there's a pretty good chance that it seems overwhelming ... completely daunting ... almost unimaginable that it can ever be solved. But are you dreaming big enough?

Kids (and their parents) in the 50's dreamed of rocket packs and space travel. I loved going to Tommorowland at Disneyland. I thrilled at the rocket launch to the moon. It was terrific fun seeing all the time saving devices in the House of the Future. Just 20 years later, we actually got a microwave oven!

All that stuff is so blase now. From jet packs to instant communication, we've made absolutely incredible technological progress in the last few decades. Many of those dreams from "back in the day" have come true or will be realized in just a few more years. (Seth Godin talks about this in his terrific book of thoughts, Small is the New Big - The Future Isn't What It Used To Be. Thanks again, Seth, for stimulating my mind.)

So today, do we dream more or do we worry more? It's probably the latter given that the world is getting smaller. Anyone's problems can affect everyone. It seems that our dreams are not quite as grand as they used to be.

What about you? Are you thinking about just existing, getting along, making it to the end of the year? Or are you dreaming about solving big ... really big ... problems??

You cannot afford to forget the here and now, but if you're not already doing it, I strongly encourage you to use your BV. Brogdingnagian Vision is a multi-syllable way of alluding to "BHAG" (big, hairy, audacious goals).

Between BV and BHAG, I'm pretty sure I know which acronym will stick. Jim Collins (the Good to Great guy) and Jerry Porras coined BHAG for their books on Building Your Company's Vision and Built to Last. I love big thinkers. I'm no Jim Collins, but I do know people who are setting bodacious goals to address some of our nation's ills.

Interfaith Housing Coalition has been addressing the needs of homeless families in Dallas since 1985. They do a great job of helping accountable families break the cycle of generational poverty and transform themselves into contributing members of the community. They do it at a remarkable cost of just $25 per resident per day.

But given the increase in the number and needs of very poor families (the fastest growing segment of the homeless population) and the significant decrease of government safety nets over the last 10 years, something big needs to be done. And it needs to be done fast and cheap.

Interfaith Housing has a big idea. Based on programs in their own residential model that have been replicated nationally, they have launched a prevention model using best practices from their 23 years of experience and three other nationally known nonprofits. They strongly believe that by proactively working with very poor families before they become homeless, they can reach nearly triple the number they have in residence, avoid the huge disruption to the families (especially the kids), and do it for less.

Beyond that, the Interfaith folks think this new program will be an easily replicable model for use across the nation. That's a LOT of people getting some help.

Can they do it? Will it work? Will it catch on with others? Will it really make a difference to a lot of people across the country?

Stay tuned. The potential is enormous! Thank goodness we still have some people dreaming big ... really big.

Hugs for Nerds

2008-05-20T22:44:00.005-05:00

Have you hugged your grant writer lately? Okay. Not all grant proposal writers are nerds.

But lets face it. Who comes to mind when you're thinking of someone who not only writes, but really understands numbers, enjoys spread sheets, gets into research, actually uses good grammar, and thrills at finding just the right word?

Hint: it's not someone on the Yahoo! Buzz Log. You might try looking up "nerd" at Dictionary.com - "an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit."

A Director of Development of a ~$2M nonprofit just told me that she's covered her budget with over four months left in the fiscal year. More significantly, the organization's foundation revenue for the year has doubled from about $300K last year to over $600K this year.

Not too shabby for fund raising during these "interesting" economic times. What did she do differently in the last year?

For one thing, she got more help. A year ago she had one full time person who helped her coordinate volunteers, run special events, manage the data base, do the research, and write newsletters, thank you notes, appeals, progress reports, and grant proposals. That's a lot of spinning plates for two people trying to grow a 1.5M dollar operation.

That other full time person was replaced twelve months ago with three part time people with focus. The database person knows fundraising databases inside out. The volunteer coordinator energetically keeps finding new hearts and minds to involve in the organization. And the grant geek just researches and writes proposals.

Now to be sure, all four are working together to help each other. There is some overlap. And the three part timers are generating a few more hours each week than the single full timer did a year ago. But the small, additional investment of focused labor is paying some big dividends.

More significantly, the Director of Development can work on the big picture of "growing the business." When it comes to grants, she does the final review of all the proposals without spending time in the tedious business of matching numbers to words or ensuring that all six copies of the nine attachments are printed on three hole paper and attached to this week's proposal.

Do you have a good grant proposal writer? Do you have a forecast? a pipeline? a coverage model? These are things your favorite nerd can handle while you're building relationships with the donors.

None of this works without those donor relationships, but the paperwork has to be exactly right (and on time) if you want to see that big check in the mail. Don't forget to hug your grant proposal writer. They're suckers for just a little appreciation.

Best Nonprofits

2008-04-18T19:08:00.007-05:00

We have lots of lists of best companies and best places to work. Fortune offers their 100 best companies at which to work.

AARP offers their list of best employers for workers over 50.

Christianity Today offers their list of the 40 best Christian places to work.

Fast Company offers their list of 45 social entrepreneurs who are changing the world.

Why don't we have a list of the best nonprofits at which to work? or volunteer? You can show how effective (to some degree) your nonprofit is at charity evaluators like Guidestar and Charity Navigator.

But how do you tout your nonprofit as one of the best places to work? How do you stand out from all the rest? Not to short change the need to be effective (see my thoughts on Due Diligence), but why not have another way to distinguish yourself from the others?

This helps you not only attract smart, competent people for the staff, but makes it a whole lot easier to attract and keep great volunteers. Success breeds success.

The best places to work are the ones that consistently outperform their rivals. The Great Place to Work Institute shows that graphically in the for profit world. I'm pretty sure the same principle applies to nonprofits.

So how do you do it?? How do you make your nonprofit the best place to work? Maybe those are more lessons to be learned from the for profit world.

Stay tuned.

Competent or Brilliant?

2008-03-25T19:49:00.004-05:00

What’s your nonprofit like? Is it really good, semi-great, or just limping along?

Master marketer Seth Godin in his book, Small is the New Big makes the point that people and companies can either be competent or brilliant. Given those two choices, I think you would hope your organization is competent. Or would you?

Godin contends that competent organizations have “a predictable, reliable process for solving a particular set of problems. They solve the problem the same way, every time.” Sounds good to me.

Competence is a good thing when you’re going out for your favorite burger and fries. You want what you want. You don’t want any variations. You depend on getting exactly those flavors you crave.

A competent burger joint in my neck of the woods is Gazeebo Burgers. They have maybe the best vege burger in town. It’s good food at a good price. There buns are great! It’s always consistent. It’s something you can depend on when you’re hungry. The good folks at Gazeebo Burgers are very competent in what they do.

But it’s real tough to get a green hatch chili burger there.

A brilliant restaurant a couple of miles away is Tramontana. These guys get a “wow” when it comes to satisfying your taste buds! But their menu changes on a regular basis. It’s almost always great…but not always always great. Sometimes, they don’t come close. It’s those times that I find myself wishing for that good ol' Gazeebo burger.

The Tramontana chef creates menus based on what provisions are available. He adapts to what is in season. Often those creations are brilliant. But they’re not to everyone’s tastes. That's the risk he takes with changing menus.

So there are my (and Godin’s) comparisons of a competent eatery to a brilliant restaurant. The competent is consistent. To the point of always being the same. Not a bad thing as long as you don’t have to adapt to change.

Now are you getting my point about organizations? When is the last time you looked at your strategic plan? When is the last time you had to change because your clients or your donors were facing new challenges?

It’s good to be competent. Necessary even. But you have got to have a little of that brilliant gene in your organizational DNA. You need it not just to react and adapt to change, but to anticipate it. Otherwise you may soon find a brilliant burger joint moving in around the corner.

Fruit of the Nonprofit

2008-02-25T16:30:00.004-06:00

It's been right under my nose all this time, and I just now saw it. I love nonprofits. Actually I love good nonprofits and find myself wanting to gently weed our garden of the bad nonprofits.

What does it take to make a good nonprofit? A lot of seeds are planted to grow nonprofits. Some turn out much better than others. They bear fruit. How do you get that good fruit? The answer was in the Bible right under my nose.

Pull out that dusty old Bible of yours and check out Galatians 5:22-23. Don't worry, you don't have to be a believer or even a spiritual kind of person to read this (it does help if you're literate).

That passage says that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." To me, these are the common denominators for good nonprofits:

Love - is your organization motivated by genuine love for your cause?

Joy - do the key leaders exhibit a steady, contented joy, even during trying times?

Peace - do staff and volunteers feel a sense of peace as they tackle the mission?

Longsuffering - can you wait patiently knowing you're doing the right thing and wait for people and programs to grow steadily and strongly?

Kindness - do the people of the organization really care about who or what they serve?

Goodness - does everyone really want what's best for its constituents...even if it means stepping back to allow others to do a better job?

Faithfulness - are we keeping our commitments to the mission?

Gentleness - is our strength under control? can we speak loving truth?

Self-control - do we have the discipline to stay within budget and make progress towards our goals?

Not a bad checklist, huh? I'd like to take credit for coming up with this, but a guy name Paul wrote it around 50 A.D. (amazingly, there's a few original copies around, I think). Also, John Maxwell in his Leadership Bible uses the same characteristics to describe leaders.

Fruit is a good thing, isn't it?

Conversation with the Mayor

2008-01-23T15:29:00.000-06:00

Had a little visit with my buddy, the mayor, earlier this month. Okay, it wasn't just me. It was me and 200 or so others active in the nonprofit world of Dallas.

And, though I believe Tom Leppert is a good guy, we're really not buddies. But I sure have to give him credit for spending time answering questions off the cuff on a wide variety of subjects. I'm not sure previous Dallas mayors have spent time in a town hall meeting like the one organized by the Center for Nonprofit Management on January 16th.

The Center is an active member of the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, the national coordinator of the Nonprofit Congress. Other nonprofit groups are meeting in various cities around the country in preparation for the upcoming national meeting in June. There they will address the three current national priorities for nonprofits:

Organizational effectiveness and efficiency (a familiar subject in earlier postings)
Acting collectively for positive change (a more familiar subject from the past)
Public awareness

There were a lot of good ideas and good questions from this meeting. For example, are nonprofits asking what the donors want? Public awareness is not a one way information push.

The mayor believes that the future of Dallas is in the hands of the nonprofits. He wants to encourage an entrepreneurial attack on problems from different angles. Some solutions will work. Some will not. Even in failure, there is value from this approach.

Mr. Leppert went on to say that unless the poorer rooftops of the city are improved, the more wealthy rooftops cannot continue to support the city. His goal is to make Dallas more competitive. Not just in Texas. Not just in the U. S. He wants Dallas to be more competitive among world cities.

Hear, hear, Mr. Mayor. Set that bar high. Extremely high. We've got a lot of work to do.

Due Diligence

2007-12-31T16:03:00.000-06:00

There's over 9,000 nonprofits in Dallas County today. More than 3,500 of them filed a 990 tax return so say the smart folks at Urban Institute. With that many working nonprofits in town, chances are that there's someone trying to do the same thing you're doing.

Okay. Let's narrow the field from that 3,500+ and add another filter to look just at your cause: healthcare, poverty, children, environment, aging, the arts, whatever. Chances are that you've still got somewhere between 5 and 25 other nonprofits trying to do something very similar to what you're doing. That makes it a little challenging to raise more money and excite more volunteers year after year.

You may be slightly different or very different from your peers (aka partners .... aka competitors). But to potential donors who want to help fight poverty, for example, all the homeless organizations look the same at first blush. The fact is they are mostly very different.

How do you distinguish yourself??

It's no longer enough that you have a compelling case statement. (Although you can take some comfort in knowing that some of your peers have not reviewed or updated their mission statement or web site in years.) Being current and relevant certainly helps you distinguish yourself.

Each year, donors ask better questions and perform more due diligence about the nonprofits to whom they may give. It's important for the nonprofits to improve their own due diligence.

The keys for many donors are:
- show me the numbers!! (quantities, percentages, benchmarks, results, results, results)
- show me some independent evaluation
- show up (as either a volunteer or a site visitor)

Showing up is not a popular choice for many foundations, donors, and evaluators. It takes time. You might be uncomfortable in the surroundings. You might get dirty. (I'll save this rant for another time.)

GiveWell is a new foundation in NYC with the noble intent of evaluating charities in different fields and making the results public. They began this with big hearts, good business brains, and a real drive to bring efficiency and order to the evaluation process (ahhh....the appeal to my own left brain....). There are other evaluators across the country.

Many nonprofit evaluators are still learning that there's a lot more to evaluations than just cranking the numbers and publishing the results. For one thing, the numbers on true effectiveness are elusive. It's often made more difficult by our mobile society and the fact that many clients just don't stay in touch on a consistent basis.

The best way to distinguish your nonprofit is to show everyone how effective you are. Until you can get the donors and evaluators to show up for site visits or as volunteers (....do you have a really good volunteer coordinator???....), you need to be able to show you're effectiveness. It takes a process to measure your successes. That costs time and money, but it needs to be done.

You may learn something about your organization. It may mean a very critical self examination of what's working and what's not. It may take real guts to change. But you've got to ask yourself, why you do what you do? Who are you really trying to help?

Whether you're new or have been in this business for years, it's absolutely vital that you not only show everyone you are different, but that you make a difference. Due diligence and investments in process, self examination, and change will pay big dividends for everyone involved.

Wiki Social Science

2007-12-22T16:55:00.000-06:00

Does your nonprofit really offer what your end user clients need? Or are they just taking what's offered even though they really need something else?

Currently I'm on a church committee with a goal to facilitate social, economic, and spiritual transformation in one of the poorest areas of Dallas. Realizing it's nearly impossible to find a solution until you've identified the problem, I've been a part of two different surveys to determine the main problems in this area of need.

Results from both surveys were very similar. But two things bother me about these surveys:
1) they were conducted by well meaning people who had little training in preparing or conducting surveys
2) over 90% of the participants represented only about 40% of the people in the area

How can we be sure we are addressing the real problems in the area???

The Wall Street Journal recently had an article on investment research and wiki's. Wiki's are a fascinating way to me (a yawner to my wife) of collaborating on most anything. Wikipedia is currently the most prominent example of lots of people working together.

In Everybody's an Analyst the writer discusses a new kind of web site that offers financial information from a broad group of people acting unofficially (and with little regulation) in concert.

This has significant limitations when it comes to investment advice, but what about research? Especially in the area of social science.

Accurate surveys cost money. Even if you get a nearby university to put its students at work on this.

But if there was a demographics wiki web site available, it seems to me that lots of nonprofits could take advantage of better information on their end user clients.

Imagine that. Getting more efficient on the cheap. Actually working together, maybe even towards a clearly defined goal.

Are there any smart people out there working on this?

Who's Your Buddy?

2007-11-28T21:02:00.000-06:00

Coordinating volunteers.
Coaching kids soccer...or any other sport for kids under 8.
Getting your church committee to do SOMETHING besides talk.
Starting a new business, a new project from scratch.
Riding bicycles in a pack.
Shopping at the mall after Thanksgiving.
Finding other organizations to work with yours.

Yes. They all have the common denominator of cat herding.

Can't we all just get along?

No. Well sometimes yes.

So what do you do if you're one of the 837,027 U.S. nonprofits trying to do more than just exist from month to month? (Nearly 40% of you ran deficits in 2003.)

How 'bout finding a buddy??

Remember. It's not all about you. At least it's not supposed to be. Aren't you doing this for a cause? Who else is trying to do the same thing? Can you help them? Can they help you? Each of you probably has unique strengths. If you're duplicating each other, someone needs to go...or change. Remember, you're trying to do good, not just look good.

Life is full of chaos, but often in the middle of that confusion is someone going the same way you are. There's your potential buddy. Watch a bike race sometime. The Tour de France is the big one, but there are lots of others.

The riders ride in a pack for miles. They're mostly competitors, but they're actually helping each other along the way. It's amazingly more efficient to ride in a pack. They are cooperating at the same time they compete against each other. It's chaos at its most elegant.

The chaos turns into pure teamwork when the teams pull out of the pack and form pacelines and work together to go further and faster with less effort. (I'm trying valiantly not to repeat an earlier blog...but this is such an important concept.)

Nonprofits are in a competitive business. David LaPiana wrote an excellent book about this. It's called "Play to Win, The Nonprofit Guide to Competitive Strategy."

You've got to be a successful competitor or you'll fail. But you've also got to be a buddy to get along in this herd of cats.

Starts and Finishes

2007-11-18T14:23:00.000-06:00

Time to start your next project? Or are you just too whipped to think about climbing a new mountain?

Wonder when this current project will EVER finish? When will we ever get out of this valley? Is it time to give up?

Don't like those words? Try these: It's time for someone to feed us. We've been feeding others long enough.

Ahhhh....the joys of projects, especially those that start with good intentions, but seem to lose their luster and energy as time goes by.

The November issue of Christianity Today has an excellent article by Greg Snell titled "Developing Good Development." More than a few skeptics think millions (billions?) of dollars are being wasted (they probably are) and that all that generosity is harmful to its recipients (in many cases it is).

Some of those skeptics are saying "give up." That's just what you wanted to hear, right? A reason to quit. Mr. Snell disagrees. There are others who share the views of Mr. Snell.

Ram Cnaan, in his book, The Other Philadelphia Story, talks about how faith-based giving initiatives in Philadelphia are making huge differences in that urban environment. His studies conclude that faith-based nonprofits in Philly contribute as much as $250M a year for vitally needed services that the government does not have to maintain.

Byron Johnson of Baylor University looked at Ohio and concluded in his study that faith-based programs in that state can bring about "dramatic increase in the cost-effective provision of social services that otherwise go unmet in so many communities." It seems to me this applies to the world, not just a city or state.

John DiIulio, does a good job of summarizing the works of Cnaan and Johnson in his Wall Street Journal article, The Other Philadelphia Story. Mr. DiIulio has also just released a book, Godly Republic: A Centrist Blueprint for America's Faith-Based Future. A magazine that presents a vision of liberal philosophy, politics, and public life, The American Prospect gave the following review of his book: "If there were more liberals who shared John DiIulio's passion for justice, liberalism would be better -- and so would America." My comments on faith vs. secularism and liberals vs. conservatives will have to wait for another time.

Back to "Developing Good Development." Mr. Snell offers ten principles (my comments are in parenthesis):
1. Know more than your mission statement (make sure everyone knows it)
2. Avoid deficit auditing (live within your means)
3. Seed the project with local seeds (insure there's "skin in the game")
4. Make the rounds early and often (relationship 101)
5. Build values before buildings (see number 1)
6. Practice cost sharing (find partners willing to invest)
7. Use the eyes and ears of locals (relationship 102)
8. Don't patronize (relationship 201)
9. Answer questions slowly (relationship 202)
10. Plan your exit strategy (plan on eliminating yourself)

Whether your working in Kenya, Mississippi, or Dallas, Mr. Snell offers principles that every nonprofit will do well to consider.

Big Heart, No Plan

2007-10-30T17:21:00.000-05:00

This is nonprofit variant to the Texas idiom: "big hat, no cattle." I've worked intimately with a lot of great nonprofits over the last year. A common denominator is a huge heart and passion for making the lives of children better than anyone can reasonably hope. This is not only a big plus for the kids, but a big lift for our communities and even our planet.

But there's a big problem with some of them. They've got no plan. They just grab onto the latest concept or donor or volunteer or foundation and HOPE that will solve solve their problems. They call that their strategy.

Hope is not a strategy.

The most recurrent problem is under funding. Sometimes the "strategy" is to work harder for a home run; or wish for the Hail Mary pass for the touchdown; or just pray more fervently.

Don't get me wrong. Prayer is a very good thing. A necessary thing. But get off the railroad tracks before you start praying for the train to stop. Take that first step (to the side for your safety) then the next step forward. In other words, get a plan. Like my dad always said, "plan your work, and work your plan."

In Brian Hurd's excellent paper, "Growing Ministries the Right Way," he makes the point that successful, sustainable fund raising is not just scheduling a series of events and making a bunch of asks. It's about putting a system in place. Planning a process and sticking with it.

This is not rocket science, but it does take time and persistence. It also means taking the first step. If you think you've run out of time to plan because the bills are due, you're wrong. The bills will always be due. A good way to insure you never catch up is to never plan and never put a system in place to run your organization like a healthy business.

Where do you start?

Peter Drucker, the legendary business consultant, gave us five must answer questions in order to run an effective nonprofit. Do you even know the questions?? Hint: they're about mission, customer, value, results, and plan.

There's that word again. Plan.

If you expect to get funding from big donors, whether sophisticated foundations or individuals, make sure you've got answers to all those questions. The big donors are big because they live in a world that works to the answers from those questions.

Where do you think they got all those funds to donate? From well run, for profit organizations with good answers.

If you're a brand new or very small nonprofit without a 990 or audited financial results, you at least need a good business plan until you get bigger. People want to give to people, especially people who are helping children. It's the easiest of all fund raising.

But savvy individual donors and virtually all foundations want to insure their funds will go to good stewards no matter how good their cause. They will be asking to see the results and understand your plan before they contribute to your great organization.

So take all those strengths that helped you develop a great heart and develop a great plan in order to have a great organization to help those in need. And don't let the ego from the big heart get in the way of what's best for the kids.

Paluxy Lessons

2007-10-15T13:37:00.000-05:00

Life is good! Did a bike ride in the hills around Glen Rose, Texas Saturday. The weather was gorgeous, the vistas beautiful, the long runs down county roads thrilling, the people among the best in the world! And the food was good. Just wished I'd slept better.

Tossed and turned in our B&B the night before the ride called the Paluxy Pedal. Wasn't sure I could really finish the 45 mile route laid out for us. If I'd be going it alone. If I'd get lost. If I'd have a flat. If I'd make it over "the wall."

The "wall" is a steep hill....a 19% grade. It is a third of a mile hill climb at about the 22 mile point in the ride.

As usual, my concerns the night before just weren't that big a deal after the sun came up. Sitting on the banks of the Paluxy River that afternoon, I had time to reflect on my lessons learned. Actually relearned. Somethings just aren't that new. They just bear repeating. Or maybe I'm just a slow learner.

Lesson numero uno: having a partner makes a HUGE difference. My best buddy, Mark, rode with me the entire way. He wasn't any more sure of being able to finish than I was. At the go / no go point about 15 miles into the ride, we both agreed to go. And we agreed that if one of us had to ask for help, we'd both ask for help. Sort of a pact to not be too macho. (As an amendment to our pact that we weren't gonna let a bunch of wienies outride us.)

Lesson numero dos: obstacles can be bigger in your mind than in person. The hill known as "the wall" was a grueling climb physically for this old guy. But it was also a big pysche job. You approach it with a steep hill sign on your right and notice the pavement changes because normal paving of this section is not possible. Your brain tells your legs, "this is not good."

You start the slow grind upwards and rapidly reach your lowest gear before you're even half way to the top. You look up to see a curve to the left which means you cannot even see the top. Your brain tells your now burning legs, "this is really not good."

Your legs yell at your brain, "NO KIDDIN' MEATHEAD...GET OFF AND WALK RIGHT NOW!"

Your brain half-way listens but keeps your head down trying not to look up in order to postpone disappointment at how much further you have to ride. Your brain also remembers other climbs that were even more disappointing because you quit just before a summit that was closer than you thought.

Your stubborn brain, though totally focused on the moment, looks up one last time, sees the top of the hill, and pleads with the legs, "just a few more turns!" The legs are too tired to talk back.

With the goal in sight, you get a few more strokes from your aching legs and actually make it to the top with a smug smile. You'd dance in celebration except that your legs would totally embarrass you...or by not working, keep you from embarrassing yourself.

These lessons apply to nonprofit organizations as well as to cyclists. Every nonprofit endeavor needs partners, allies, buddies. Can you make it alone? Maybe. But you really can go further and faster with less effort with a good partner you can trust. And if you can do that, you can do more good. (Is it about helping more people, or is it about your ego?)

There will always be hills to climb, some dauntingly steep. But you've got to try them. Even when you don't quite make it one time, it's great "ammo" for your brain to hang a little tougher a little longer so you can make it the next time. Or the next.

Keep working "heads down," focusing on the details to make things happen, but don't forget to look up to see where you're going. (Do you have a goal and a strategy on how to get there?)

In the meantime, ride safe, have fun, and try not to slobber with that big grin while you're zooming down hills.

TMI

2007-09-28T14:07:00.000-05:00

Too much information.

You know the feeling. It's usually when your wife starts talking about female medical issues or your Uncle Hiram in Niceville starts telling you about all the desert choices at the retirement center.

But there's another, more insidious, danger from TMI besides being grossed out or bored to death. It's called reinventing the wheel.

Two things affecting everyone in the commercial and nonprofit world this century:
1) how do you do more with less?
2) how do you sort through the tons of information available today?

This isn't rocket science folks. Whether you're trying to avoid starting a redundant teen pregnancy center in a single zipcode or trying to build a high tech immigration data base to protect our borders. What you need is to find who's done this before you. Chances are good that someone has tried. Maybe even succeeded.

The problem is, how do you find out what's been done so you're not starting from scratch or building something new that turns out to be not so new?

I can't help you a whole lot with the past, just encourage you to look and dig and talk to others before you start spending lots of time and money on a "new" idea. But starting now, I can encourage you to start using "tags."

This is a popular concept in Web 2.0, but even this isn't a new concept. In 1989, my mentor persuaded me to include keywords in the subject line of EVERY email I sent. It's easy to do. It only takes a little discipline. Once done, it's amazing how easy it is to search for just the right email you need.

It's also amazing (and frustrating) how many emails I get with little or no information in the subject line. Heck, sometimes they're even asking a question about an email written hours or days before without attaching the old email. I've noticed that sometimes I have another distraction or thought after I sent that email. Until my clairvoyance gets perfected, you're just wasting time and bandwidth.

So here's the deal folks. Starting right now. Take a breath. Put a significant word or two in the subject line of each email you send. This helps sort the clutter into categories. It helps bring order out of chaos. It gives you the opportunity to tell people you are practicing folksonomy (your new word for the day).

It you want to see how well this works, check out the folks at Technorati. They've done incredible work by getting the masses to put category names on blogs, photos, music...pretty much all the garbage - and treasure - that's on the web today.

Trust me. It's gonna help your life get simpler. And it's gonna make it a lot easier for those following you to discover your brilliant ideas and apply them to changing the world. You might even get credit for it. At the very least, it will help you find the recipe for Uncle Hiram's favorite, homemade cough syrup.

Spies, Terrorists, and Donors

2007-09-19T17:30:00.001-05:00

What in the world do these groups have in common?

From today's news: "since February of this year, none of our phones have been tapped without a court order. Don't know if I feel relieved or disappointed about that."

Indignant is probably a better description. I like my privacy. I think I guard it pretty well. But between my frequent buyer cards, my frequent flyer cards, my frequent stayer cards, and just about anything else that calls for either a plastic card or my phone number, there's not too many marketeers out there that don't know a lot about me.

So pardon me if I'm more than a little annoyed that big brother isn't listening to conversations of suspected bad guys. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a fan of big brother. But do you really think the government has more of an agenda than all the marketeers collecting data on us??

Everyone has a right to privacy, but at what cost to the common good? Nonprofits are public organizations that must operate "in the sunshine" and at the same time protect the rights of their donors. Apparently some of our most noble np's are not very open about their operations. Ask the Smithsonian.

It's a good thing to give without expecting accolades. For those who really want to maintain their privacy, the BBB of giving acts as a watchdog that will bark loudly to insure there are plans to "take action to ensure that privacy concerns of donors are respected in the collection, dissemination, and securing of personal information, and allow donors opportunities to have their names removed from solicitation lists."

It's called a donor privacy policy. It's important to publish. It's easy to do.

On the other side of the coin, the public does have a right to know and a right to expect accountability of our funding - both expenses and income. That's not hard to solve either.

The answer to the question at the top? What do spies, terrorists, and donors have in common?

PRIVACY.

Some groups need the privacy of working in the dark to "succeed." But bad things rarely happen in the light of day.

Privacy is not a bad thing when kept it in balance. Take care of your donors. They take care of you.

Three Seconds After the Snap

2007-08-31T20:31:00.001-05:00

It's amazing what we're trying to do now. At least what some are trying to do.

Today's college football quarterbacks need to take a football snapped from the center, drop back a few steps, look over about a hundred square yards of grass, and decide what to do with the ball. They have about three seconds to make up their mind and execute the plan...or improvise....or get crunched. That's a lot quicker than 10 years ago.

Heck, I'm from Texas. I have trouble saying a simple sentence in three seconds. Don't even ask me to put "philanthropy" in that sentence.

College teams all over the country are spending big bucks for simulators from companies like Gridiron Technologies or Visual Edge to get their qb's into a better place mentally to make quicker decisions. The Air Force Academy allegedly has their football players jumping on trampolines and reading two eye charts, one inches from their face and one 10 yards away.

Is this a trend for social capital in the 21st Century??? Wikipedia describes social capital as the "advantage created by a person's location in a structure of relationships."

College football is all about having an advantage in the relationships on the field. The game is faster than ever. There are more options than ever. The relationships are more complex than ever. The costs are higher, and there's more money at stake than ever before.

This holds true for the rest of life as well. Relationships are the common denominator. What you do to maintain healthy relationships and prepare for change in a rapidly changing world is vital.

Sure hope my bifocals stay on when I'm on the trampoline.

Diversity is Dead!

2007-08-21T22:02:00.000-05:00

Long live diversity!
Who ya gonna believe? Google "diversity" and you'll get 93.1M hits. It's an idea, a system, an industry, a hope, an argument in waiting.

Lately, it's getting even more interesting. Is it alive or is it dead? This all started recently at The Saguaro Seminar. In a nutshell, according to renowned Harvard social scientist Robert Putnam, diversity doesn't really build better communities. His studies show that the more ethnically and religiously diverse a community is, fewer people vote; less volunteer; fewer give to charity; and less work on projects for the good of the community.

But wait, there's more. Along with a decline in civic engagement, you get an increase in economic and creative innovation. This is actually kind of funny watching the conservatives and liberals switch sides of the diversity table.

For a really good summary of this new look at diversity, immigration, and social capital see Michael Jonas's story in The Boston Globe , "The Downside of Diversity" on August 5, 2007. Is this a new incovenient truth?

This Putnam guy is one of our nation's best when it comes to studying and understanding people. He's met with both Presidents Clinton and Bush. Putnam virtually coined the concept of "social capital" aka "social networks." His contention that when social networks of friends and associates are in good shape whether in church, around your home, at work, wherever - then you will have a greater number of voting citizens living in safer, healthier communities.

Hmmm....there's a key. Social networking. Wonder if that concept will ever take off in the 21st century?? In Dallas, The Williams Institute has some very interesting research on social capital and what makes a city healthy and whole.

Maybe the best (and shortest) read on Putnam's findings is by Daniel Henninger. See "The Death of Diversity" and make up your own mind.

So what's to be learned with all this new information? Things aren't always as they seem.

The Battle at Kruger

2007-08-07T19:43:00.000-05:00

Okay kids. It's a battle for survival. Who you gonna place your bet on? Your choices are a lion, a crocodile, a water buffalo. Actually, lets make it a baby water buffalo...a calf.

If you've not seen this video, it IS amazing. Don't read any further if you want to sustain the suspense of the ending. It's on YouTube 24x7 and national tv tonight. Joe Bob says check out the Battle at Kruger. Background to the video is on the ABC news site.

If you don't have eight minutes to watch this, then bookmark it for later. It's a fast and fascinating video. Rated PG13. Some violence, very little blood, but heavy child endangement.

If you're an animal lover, you'll start with heart in throat and end with a grin. The least among them wins! It's not the stealthiest (or sneakiest). It's not the fastest and flashiest. It's the humble water buffalo who prevails.

And why did they win? Because the herd worked together (and showed a lot of courage). Funny how this paceline thing of working together to succeed keeps popping up in the world.

Do our bovine buddies have something to teach us more advanced animals? Do you think ANY of our politicians get it??

Lets hope our nonprofits get it when they're trying to save those that are the least among us.

Parallels

2007-07-29T22:16:00.000-05:00

This year's Tour de France ended today. Camp Esperanza ended yesterday.

The Tour de France is a 100+ year old bike race across Europe. Camp Esperanza is a 25 year old summer camp for kids fighting cancer in Texas.

Le Tour is 21 teams of 9 vying for fame and glory (and considerable monetary rewards) by racing bicycles across Europe to get to Paris first. Camp Esperanza is 10 teams of 6 volunteer counselors working with 10 groups of about 14 children ranging in age from 6 to 16. All the kids are or have been fighting cancer at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.

The Tour lasts for nearly three weeks and covers over 2000 miles of beautiful European countryside. Camp Esperanza lasts for one week at the Camp John Marc facility on the border of the beautiful Texas Hill Country near Meridian, Texas.

Both have sophisticated support staffs and spend many months planning each year's event. (Camp John Marc is probably one of the premier camps for medically fragile children in the world.)

What amazes my simple mind are the remarkable parallels between these two radically different adventures. It gets back to working together. The guys on the bikes can go fast and help each other by riding in pacelines. (See my blog of July 10, 2007.) The same goes for the men and women working with the nearly 140 kids who epitomize diversity.

Three busloads of children arrive on Sunday and depart for home the following Friday. The kids range from future linebackers to some who are near the need for (or are actually in) hospice.

For some of the children, it is the first time they've been away from home. For some of their parents, it is the first time they've let go of their children since they've been diagnosed with cancer. For nearly everyone, it is the best week of the year.

It is an exhilarating, exhausting, challenging, fun, sad, hope filled week. It's tough for me to restrain myself from writing way more than you wanna read about this special week in July.

My point today is that the ONLY way the volunteer counselors get through that incredible week is by working (and playing) together.

It is a beautiful thing to see. Just like a paceline.

BTW, "esperanza" is Spanish for "hope."

Can't We All Just Get Along?

2007-07-10T22:00:00.002-05:00

Ever wonder what a paceline really is? It's a great example of playing nice...when it works.

A typical paceline is a group of people in a hurry to get somewhere that follow in line right behind each other. Sounds kind of goofy if you remember playing follow the leader as a kid, especially when you thought it was really fun to stop all of a sudden when you were in front.

You ain't seen goofy till you've seen some guys wearing dorky little helmets matching their garishly colored spandex and riding bicycles in a paceline. And when you see this, and understand it, you might revise your opinion of what goofy is.

The Tour de France began again on Saturday with 189 riders. A bunch of crazy guys have been riding this epic bike race across France since 1903. Le Tour and Versus offers us some quality visuals on working together...or not.

The strategy of the race is pretty simple. Survive and get to the finish line first.

The tactics aren't much more complicated. Teams of nine guys ride in a line...a paceline. The first guy leads and the rest follow closely behind him using about 2/3 the effort. When the first guy gets tired, he rotates back, and someone else leads...starts pulling the team from the front.

These teams are sometimes closely choreographed and sometimes not. Most of the time the teams form a larger group or pack (the peleton) to fight the wind for the long haul. They're still working together to save energy even though they're competitors.

Sometimes a few impatient (or really ambitious) guys will break away from the pack. Those individuals will become their own ad hoc team (for a while) to work together to beat the pack. Most of the time, but not always, the larger group will catch and pass the smaller group just by working together.

Do ya get the theme here yet? This sharing the load - getting along - working together thing?

It is pretty neat and works amazingly well. Working together to go further and faster with less effort. Wow! What a concept.

So why don't more people do it? Why don't more nonprofits do it? Especially if their hearts beat to the plight of the same cause?

Who's Running the Show?

2007-07-05T22:33:00.001-05:00

Okay, boys and girls. Time for a quiz.

According to FP (that's the catchy acronym for Foreign Policy magazine) how many nations still have monarchs as head of state?

A) 34

B) 44

C) 54

The answer is of course later in this post. In the meantime, here are some questions closer to home.

How many monarchs are running nonprofits? Optionally you can answer the following question:

Is your nonprofit being run by a monarch? Take your time. It's an essay question.

The answer may be readily apparent, or it may need to develop while you're on one of your long runs or standing under a hot shower. Wherever you do your best thinking and talking to yourself.

So what's the answer to the question on rulers in those faraway lands?

According to FP, there are 44 countries that still have a monarch as head of state. They say that's quite a bit fewer than last century, but it still seems like a lot to me. Of those 44, Queen Elizabeth reigns over 16 of them.

To put it in context, I went to my friendly spy service, the CIA World Factbook. They tell me there are 268 countries in the world. So just over 16% of the countries on this planet are ruled by some sort of potentate.

How many nonprofits being ruled by just one person? My gut tells me it is more than 16% of the total.

Is yours one of them?

You Want Fries With That Mission?

2007-06-26T23:58:00.000-05:00

Monday's Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about charities getting into the franchise business to raise some extra money. Profits on the Side told of some pretty amazing gains and some pretty big losses.

"Social franchising" is what they call it at Harvard Business School. Interesting is what I call it.

Good nonprofits need to be run like a good business. Different rules. Different motives. But you still owe it to everyone involved to run it efficiently and effectively.

To be competitive, you often need to think out of the box. Before you do that, remember to tend to the basics. That starts with your board.

If you're serious about opening a franchise for your nonprofit, do you have someone on your board who already has franchise experience? More than just the smell of French fries on their clothes?

Help From The Vols

2007-06-24T16:49:00.000-05:00

So you've got a bunch of volunteers showing up to "help" in a few weeks. What are they going to do? What are you going to do?

Which of those questions is more important?

If you just wait for them to arrive, hand 'em a bottle of water and a t-shirt, point them to the tools, and show them where to go to get started, you can get some pretty good stuff done.

Sometimes free labor is just worth what it costs.

You're competing for volunteer time with other organizations who love to use volunteers. If the time is well spent, the vols will want to come back to you.

If you're not ready to efficiently make the most of their time or if they feel like their contributions are minimal or just a band aid for what's really needed, you may not see them again.

Depending upon your staffing, you might not always be able to prepare much in advance. You may not even have a process to hand off to a temporary volunteer coordinator. It is what it is.

That just means you spend more time recruiting new volunteers...re-inventing the wheel for your next lalapalooza. What are you going to do?

It's your choice. Spend the time before the vols show up so that they make real progress, learn to love your mission, and want to come back as experienced volunteers (and recruiters), or spend the time recruiting the next batch of vols so you can throw something together and make things look good. For a while.

It's your choice. What are you trying to accomplish?

O yeah. Did I mention that good volunteers often turn into good donors of things besides time?

Today's Experts

2007-06-22T09:38:00.001-05:00

The Wall Street Journal today says you can hire a consultant to help you name your baby. A friend of mine told me yesterday that a couple of years ago she worked part time as a consultant to individual families to help them get their high school kids into the "right" university.

If I stopped blogging right now and went for a run in my neighborhood, I'd pass at least three consultants, aka "nannies," taking their charges out for a stroll. Ah....the wonders of "outsourcing." Life in the 21st Century. Don't cha just love it!

This isn't a rant against it. I like to cook, but I often outsource our meals. I know where to go for some really good food ready to reheat and serve at home. The chefs at Whole Foods and Central Market are terrific! Those folks are experts at making good, healthy food.

There are lots of "experts" out there. An old joke is that an "x" is an unknown factor. A "spurt" is a drip of water under pressure. Therefore an "expert" is an unknown drip under pressure.

Experts are often called consultants. If they come from out of town, they're more of an expert. Or not. They are unknown, but rarely are drips.

Through 20+ years of selling computer systems to large corporations, I mostly practiced consultive selling myself. Some things, especially complex things, are just not a quick sell.

Frankly, more than consulting, I probably did more coaching, advising, encouraging, and gathering of experts, technical wizards, and gurus to solve problems for my customers. I've always been a little suspicious of the consultant who is also the guru.

Business author Michael Treacy says that "there are way more gurus than there are new ideas." There are new tools for the 21st Century, but basic, good ideas are centuries old.

If your organization is looking for a consultive guru, it might be wise to read "Bad Consultant Confidential" in the Chronicles of Philanthropy. If you're a new nonprofit, I highly recommend a subscription to the Chron.

In a nutshell, the article says that good consultants can really help, but a bad choice can at a minimum lose you considerable time and money. It goes on to say that consultants need to thoroughly understand your organization. That means they're either a really quick study or they have previous experience with organizations similar to your size and your mission.

You also need to be prepared for additional work if change is to truly be implemented. Change will probably not happen quickly. And it will only happen if you act. (I've coached one nonprofit that listens politely and smiles at my recommendations. Little action has yet to occur.)

Finally, if your income is weak, don't count on magic bullets from a development guru to help you raise funds. There's no speed dating in this game. Relationships with funders are everything. Good, solid relationships take time.

Now we're back to one of those basic, good ideas that is centuries old.

Social Venture Capital

2007-06-19T17:11:00.000-05:00

venture |ˈven ch ər|
noun
a risky or daring journey or undertaking : pioneering ventures into little-known waters.
• a business enterprise involving considerable risk.

So whadayagit when you gather a hundred smart people willing to risk several thousand dollars and hundreds of hours every year to make a difference? The answer in North Texas is the Dallas Social Venture Partners (DSVP).

Just returned from an intro to DSVP in preparation for this year's grant cycle. I'm impressed. This is venture capital at its best. The capital is not just their bucks, but their brains and hearts to assist nonprofits in capacity building.

By December, DSVP will select one or two nonprofits focusing on youth-at-risk and edu issues and help those orgs start attaining some really big goals. The help comes from investments by the partners in the form of funding, and more significantly in the form of expertise...critical skill sets of every type that well run organizations in any business need to succeed.

What a concept! Increasing your joy to stuff ratio and working together to change the world.

This will be fun to watch. Sort of reminds me of a paceline.

So What's Next?

2007-06-18T23:36:00.000-05:00

There's always something next. Okay, so this isn't one of those really profound blogs. What'd you expect from an Aggie?

The bigger question is how do you prepare for and react to what's next? You can prepare so much that you don't get anything else done. "Be Prepared" (p. 96 of the Boy Scout Handbook) is sometimes easier said than done.

Do you have a business continuity plan? It's very important, but even commercial businesses with tons of money tend to ignore preparing for really stormy days.

There are lots of components to lose sleep over. What will you do for emergency fundraising? I'm not talking about making up for lousy funding because your development people are afraid to ask or write grant proposals like a remedial English class. (That sounds more like an HR issue.)

I'm talking about things like Texas tornadoes, runaway cars, plumbing leaks in the attic, criminal acts in the front door...all the things that probably won't happen. They always happen to someone else. Right?

What's your crisis communication plan? If you suddenly have a missing child, do you have anything in place better than the PA announcement that birthday cake is ready in the kitchen? Who's prepared to be the voice of your nonprofit? Who's authorized to be that voice?? Think about it.

None of this is fun. Business interruption...life interruption can be a real hassle. How you react is as important as being prepared. It's part of the preparation.

If you're a basketball fan, watch the Krzyzewski coached team at Duke react to things when something doesn't go their way. There's no time lost throwing their arms in the air or yelling at the refs (as if we even have refs in our game). Their immediate reaction is "what's next?" They focus on getting back in the game right now...preparing for what's next. That's a pretty healthy way to live your life or run your nonprofit.

There are ways to prepare both physically and mentally for that curve ball that's suddenly heading towards your nose at 85 mph. (Can ya tell I'm a guy who loves sports?) Physical preparation may be as simple as just thinking about your nightmares and writing down the first two or three things you'll do. That's a good start.

With that, you've also begun your mental preparation...thinking about what things might get in the way of your normal life so that when you react...when you jump out of the batter's box...you're the only one who knows that you're about to croak inside.

When you're prepared, you'll be amazed at what you can do (and who you can inspire) when you stay cool and rapidly adjust to the "new normal." It can make all the difference in the world to you, your organization, and to the people you serve.

The Slow, Rolling Start

2007-06-16T11:05:00.000-05:00

Strong trees grow slowly. I've learned (but don't always practice) that a warm-up steadily increasing in intensity will get me into my best game faster than if I just jump right in.

So I begin.

Starting is so important. Kind 'uv like just showing up. My dad always said, "Plan your work, and work your plan." It's often easy (and safe) for us left brainers to plan. But plans are useless without action.

Perfect plans (another means of safety for the a/r among us) are things of beauty. Heaven is indeed in the details. But the perfect can often get in the way of good.

Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. observed that "A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan executed next week." Now I'm not recommending violent plans for nonprofits. Patton's job was the business of war making. Violence was expected.

But the business of nonprofits is to change the world. If you're not executing a good plan, you're wasting time and money. More significantly, those you're trying to help are still waiting for your help.

If you're trying to change the world, you need a good plan. If your nonprofit is mostly just herding cats, you'd better make some time to answer the big question:

What's next?