Nonprofit Management

SUCH A GREAT IDEA from Lollypop Farm, the Humane Society of Greater Rochester (NY)

TREAT…. Like for a dog or kitty or horse or ….

But in this case, it’s a TREAT for one of your colleagues. Together Recognizing Exceptional Actions Today….

You want to commend a colleague for something great today. Just take a look!     (By the way, check out Lollypop. Great photography. Wonderful writing. Interesting programs.)

Driving in the car…Tom and I talk a lot. (And when hiking, too! We have to carry pad and pen.)

The other day we were talking about inventing new stuff – for clients and for speaking and books and articles and…

We presented in Tucson in January. Our AFP Southern AZ pals are so supportive when we invent new stuff. We test new ideas there.

• Our joint plenary: Savvy Fundraisers’ Quiz Show…This is soooooo cool and fun and everyone talks and there’s laughing and!!
• Then Tom did a whole new writing workshop thing.
• And I did a drawing workshop.

YES! Drawing. Mapping. Diagramming. How and why it can work. Participants posted their drawings. We took pictures. Hey Tusconians…I hope some of you are trying this at work!!

Sometimes when you’re well known, people think you only can do or present about the stuff you’re already known for. I suppose some people are like that. Actually, I do know people like that.

But how boring. Tom and I are always inventing and changing and reinventing and…

I like it best when an organization or conference or host comes to me and says: “We have this tiny kernel of an idea. We think maybe you could develop this.” Oh my gosh. Wow. How cool. Yes yes yes. (Of course I do know what I really don’t know and can’t or won’t learn enough about to provide a good experience. Honestly, I will say…”Digital? Nope not me!” Or “techonology including robotics – hey, I’ll fall over laughing…”)

Someday I suppose I’ll choose no longer to read and learn and initiate and invent and… But I’m planning on that not happening for a long time. I’m having too much fun still learning and changing and inventing and….

Hmmm….. Now what do I want to do? I did that whole power thing at IFC 2016. But there’s so much more and different to do about power. More about social justice. Maybe how to hire the best fundraiser, interview questions and all. I want to deeply explore measures for nonprofits and how to do it and teach it and tools and… Maybe the process of founding an organization (oh that is done sooooo poorly so often!) How about managing or getting rid of founders… More and more people talk to me about how to start and grow their own businesses. Maybe that? Or really really how to effectively enable your boss and board members and the board itself to do well what they’re supposed to do and stay away from the other stuff. Too many people (EDs and FRers) just don’t know how to do this.

So much to do. Why don’t you ask?

Do you know CharityChannel – and its press?

You should. I think CharityChannel Press is publishing more fundraising / nonprofit sector books than anyone else these days. And pretty cool titles, too! For example: 50 Asks in 50 Weeks. Fundraising for….Churches…Museums…Hospitals and…(Separate books!) The Nonprofit Consulting Playbook. Storytelling in the Digital Age. Opening the Door to Major Gifts. And so many many more! Just take a look!

CharityChannel Press published my book Firing Lousy Board Members. Have you read it? You probably should. All about boards and board members and making sure you don’t have to fire them. [In fact, just carry the book around in front of your board and board members… And maybe they’ll be curious and choose to learn and you can help them!]

And how about this…. CharityChannel’s Masters of Fundraising Summit. On line for your convenience. Reduced price for your wallet. And good presenters for your learning!

Are you continuously learning? What’s on your bookshelf? What are you reading?

The boss and board want a 10% increase in charitable gifts. The CFO says an annual 15% increase is required. And on and on.

STUPID   DUMB   SILLY   EVEN STUPIDER   EVEN   DUMBER…

Read this great blog from Veritus Group: “The Unrealistic Expectations of Management,” by Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels. Then show it to all those people. Boss. Board of Directors. Finance Committee. CFO. Development Committee. Anyone else?

Now read my blog (Simone Uncensored), “Setting your charitable contributions goal,” October 12, 2015.

How long do we have to fight these stupid, dumb, silly battles? When will we get good enough at explaining and enabling? When will those others get smart enough to understand?

If not the car, what is BMW? Bitch. Moan. Whine. ! ! ! ! ! ! !

YES! I so believe in BMW…NOT the car kind!

I just love this KICK from Marc, the Fundraising Coach.

Several excerpts to entice you to read the whole darn Kicker blog…

For the next 10 minutes, all you’re allowed to do is bitch, moan, and whine. (Imagine, permission to do that. Hey, Tom Ahern, give me permission. Oh, that’s right…I just take permission and he rolls his eyes…albeit graciously!)

I set the timer and started yelling at God….I went on and on. It felt kind of risky. Was a BMW session a legitimate form of prayer? Was I allowed to talk this way?

But at the same time it felt really good. I went on as long as I could and then a bit longer. When I strated repeating myself, I looked at the timer. I still had four minutes left.

The crazy thinig? If I hadn’t done a BMW session, I would’ve spent my entire car 45-minute drive stewing in negativity.

For more, check out Marc’s “Fundrdaising Kick: A weekly coaching email for nonprofit fundraising.”

Thanks to all the cool people who send me cool stuff. Cause there’s lots of cool stuff out there!

So check these cool-nesses…

“3 incredibly important emerging issues. For me, these are next level issues that don’t get discussed enough, if at all,” says Canadian collegue Deborah Coult. And Deborah says  watch this “amazing video.”

• Spend down vs. perpetuity
• Justice versus need
• Tax implications

And from Connecticut colleague Maxine Bleiweis: Skipp Richard, Leadership Insights.

Theresa May said “Information has been weaponized.”

Colin Habberton was talking about information and communications and weapons at the AFP Toronto Congress.

And how about this NYT article? “If Everything Can Be ‘Weaponized,’ What Should we Fear?” 

SURPRISING SIDEBAR: So I’m reading the aforementioned NYT article. And 2 sentences in, the article refers to Milton Rokeach, social psychologist. Milt Rokeach?!!! He lived down the street from my family…on Lantern Hill Drive, East Lansing, Michigan. A family friend. Professor at Michigan State University, just like my dad. The Rokeach and Joyaux kids all went to school together.

I knew him as the dad down the street. And I knew he was a psychologist. But now I know he was a social psychologist and developed a very important values classification instrument, the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS). With 18 terminal and 18 instrumental values. Check it out! Really cool. And various attempts haven’t “beaten” Milt’s instrument. Sure looks good for philanthropy.

NOW BACK TO WEAPONIZING: Information has been weaponized. And wow is the internet and social media great for deploying the weapon! Bullying. Politics. Outrage. Manipulation.

At AFP Toronto Congress, Colin talked about “demilitarizing information.” How can we do this? Can we use information as a weapon for good? Check out Colin’s work.

Do some thinking on your own. Talk about this with your staff and with your board. And talk about this with some of your favorite marketing/communications people. Can we demilitarize information?

Have you read Seth’s marvelous blog “No way Out?” 

Sometimes it’s easier to just leave or quit… or not engage in the first place. For the military, “no way out” refers to something that’s a huge gamble. Because big gambles mean there’s no way out. So we burn the boats and stay till we fail or succeed. But failure is, I suspect,  more likely.

On the other hand, risk isn’t as bad as gamble. And calculated risks are actually usually pretty smart. In fact, sometimes the bigger risk – the ultimate dumb gamble – is not taking any risk.

Seth comments that the best approach could be learning something, toughing it out, engaging with the challenge. Because if you actually get through, “…you’ll be different. Better.”

Seth reminds us that “we always have a choice, but often, it’s a good idea to act as if we don’t.” Burn the boats. Take the gamble. Go for it.

And in my document “Planning for any future that could come along,” here’s what I write: Differentiating between risk and gamble…

• How do you create a shared understanding of risk and gamble within your nonprofit?
• What criteria can your nonprofit use to differentiate between risk and gamble?
• What is a good process to effectively manage risk and avoid a gamble?
• How does an organization identify the stop-loss moment?

Don’t you just love useful tools to help get various things done?

We have fundraising databases. We have financial tools and techn.

But what about boards?

The board and its various members. The board and its various committees. Meetings and resource materials for those meetings. Reminder notices.  Checking info if you missed a meeting.

Maybe we want to chat before a meeting…you know, online back and forth.

How about a tool to do all that governance prep/support stuff effectively and efficiently.

Check out Boardable. Board Management Simplified…

Just imagine…making all the stuff and systems and processes and stuff! easier…less time consuming.

Maybe this is the answer for you?! Boardable.

Ah Cohort 27 (and your two Cohort 26 colleagues)….. You’ve been so fantastic in Emerging Issues for SMUMN’s Philanthropy and Development Program.

Hey out there in the world…What kind of emerging issues have you been observing, do you anticipate might become trends… (And absolutely do NOT NOT NOT say anything about Millennials or social media. I mean really…. Emerging? Not hardly!! Emerged. Past emerged. Life.)

So what were those 12 marvelous colleagues in PHDE 657 Emerging Issues writing about?

Things like:

• Can we really afford to close our borders?
• Building a new era of trust
• Girls in the Boy Scouts
• Trauma informed and feedback movement in the social sector
• Change coming in our diocese – or can we be agents of change?
• Apocalypse Soon: The need for standards
• Valuable recruits are following emerging issues
• Fundraising for the New NCAA (No one Can Abuse Athletes)
• Emerging into my new
• Instability and uncertainty in the development director role
• Throwing away the rubber stamp: a board self-assessment to drive growth

And how about that NCAA thing? That’s collegiate sports for those of you not into sports (like me)!!! And how about taking the knee in NFL games? So we had all this great wonderful back and forth in the online classroom, talking about race and racism and athletes. So very very cool!!

And the author of the final project for the “new NCAA” emailed me with the new Sports Illustrated cover.  His email to me said, “This month’s cover of Sports Illustrated… The NCAA is Broken (but you knew that). Interesting stuff and sad the exploitation of young African American athletes.”