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.
Showing posts with label volunteers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label volunteers. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, December 31, 2007
Due Diligence
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Who's Your Buddy?
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.
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.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Parallels
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."
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."
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