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.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Brobdingnagian Vision
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Hugs for Nerds
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.
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.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Best Nonprofits
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Competent or Brilliant?
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.
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.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Fruit of the Nonprofit
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?
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?
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Conversation with the Mayor
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:
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.
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
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.
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