erik – Page 58 – The Healthy Non-Profit

Will the lawyer on your non-profit board really provide legal advice?

October 23, 2012 erik Board development, volunteers

An executive director friend and I went to lunch a few weeks ago to catch-up on life and share stories. The company was great, the lunch was good, and I learned something new about non-profit board volunteers who work in the legal community. As it turns out, some law firms seem to be requiring their employees to clear a number of hurdles before serving on a non-profit board.

This revelation came about when my executive director friend said something to the effect of: “. . . and now the lawyer on my board can’t even provide legal advice in the boardroom.”

As you can imagine, I heard that old record player needle scratching across the surface of a vinyl album (ugh . . . yes, I am dating myself and obviously don’t belong to the Millennial generation). I swear the restaurant went dead just like in those E.F. Hutton television commercials, and all I could utter was one simple word . . . “Huh?”

So, my friend went on to explain that a new board volunteer, who just happens to be an attorney, sent him a letter from his law firm requiring the executive director to sign-off on a letter of agreement outlining the conditions of their employee’s board service.

I had a difficult time wrapping my head around this concept and asked my friend to email me a copy of the letter. The following are excerpts from that letter (with the names excluded to protect the innocent):

“The Firm has adopted policies regarding circumstances under which a Firm lawyer may serve as a director for non-client companies, and prohibits such service without permission of the Firm’s Professional Responsibility Committee. An additional prerequisite to my service is that I obtain written acknowledgement from the non-profit organization (The Company) regarding the capacity in which I will be serving on the board, and certain other matters. By signing and returning this letter to me, therefore, the Company and the Board acknowledge the matters stated below:

I will be serving in my personal and individual capacity only. I will not be acting as a lawyer or providing legal services or advice to the Company. I will not be acting as an agent, partner or employee of the Firm.

The Company acknowledges that it is not now a client of the Firm, and understands that the Firm will not be able to represent the Company without first obtaining special permission from the Firm’s Professional Responsibility Committee, which permission is rarely granted or unless I resign as a director.

Because I will not be providing legal services or advice in my role as a director, there will be no attorney-client privilege protecting communications between me and the Company or the Board.

As mentioned, the Firm’s policy prohibits director service by Firm lawyers without Professional Responsibility Committee permission. The Firm’s policy also requires that the Professional Responsibility Committee reconsider this question at least annually. Although the committee has indicated that it will permit me to serve as a director of the Company, it is possible that the Committee could change its view on this question in the future. If this were to occur, I would have to resign as a director at that time.”

I must admit that I’ve read this letter over and over again in disbelief. A number of things raced through my mind each time I read it, including:

Why would I ever recruit someone from a law firm who I might one day want to retain for legal counsel?
Board volunteers are suppose to bring their “Time-Talent-Treasure” to their non-profit board service. If I can only get two of three, is it still worth recruiting an attorney to serve on the board? Or would they just make a better special event or annual campaign volunteer?
Why would I ever include an attorney on my board as part of a board officer succession plan when the Firm can yank them off my board in a moment’s notice?

I am sure that if I thought about all of this for another few minutes, I could come up with additional questions and concerns. But where is the fun in that when I can open it up for discussion with the awesome non-profit professionals and volunteers who subscribe to this blog?

What questions and concerns do you have when you read excerpts from this letter? Have you been asked to sign off on anything similar by an attorney serving on your non-profit board? Does this letter of agreement impact how you think about recruiting an attorney to serve on your board? Why? Why not?

Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts on this important board development subject. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

How to start a successful non-profit YouTube channel

October 22, 2012 erik Fundraising, Mondays with Marissa, technology

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. YouTube is for more than just cute cat videos. In fact, YouTube is home to web networks, political commentary, educational videos and . . . OK, maybe some of the most adorable cats you’ve ever seen. If your organization is not on YouTube you’re missing a great opportunity to reach a new audience. In today’s post, let’s look at how YouTube can be a great resource for a nonprofit in today’s social media savvy society.

Why YouTube?

Well, think about it. Have you looked at a YouTube video yet today? If not, I’m sure you’ll see one posted in your news feed on Facebook that will catch your eye. The point is that YouTube is a place people go to find videos that are about topics important to them. YouTube is a familiar site for people. When people think of videos on the internet, they think of YouTube.

YouTube has a built-in audience. Many people don’t just go to YouTube for one video, they will often find a video that was linked to their video that they find interesting and watch that one too.Why not use this familiarity, and automatic audience to your advantage and make sure your organization has a YouTube Channel?

YouTube Basics

Once you’ve decided that YouTube is a network for your organization, it’s really simple to get started. All you have to do is sign up. Every YouTube user is given a channel where she can upload videos. This channel’s name is customizable. You will want to make sure that your organization’s channel name is easy to remember and recognizable to your organization.

The background of your channel is also customizable. You can upload banner graphics and change the color scheme to match your agency’s logo.

Beyond the cosmetic changes, make sure you take the time to fully fill-out your YouTube profile. This not only lets people know what your channel is all about, but it also gives them other places on the web to go (e.g. your website, Facebook page, etc). Additionally, filling out the profile helps with the SEO of your channel, which will help Google point people in your direction when they search for you.

Subscribing to other channels also helps you build your YouTube community and can help your organization gain new subscribers. The channels to which you subscribe cannot be seen by others; however, when you like a video or add it to your favorites list this action will show up in your activity feed and users will be able to see that.

YouTube users also have the option of choosing a video that is shown on their channel’s page first. Make sure you choose this video wisely. While some channels make this their most recent video, others choose to make it a welcome video. You can changed this at any time, but make sure that the video that is displayed prominently on your channel is one you think is a good representation of your organization.

As is true with any social media site, remember that sharing is caring. So, share your content on all of your other social media networks.

Nonprofit YouTube Extras

Like many other Google products, YouTube has made resources available for nonprofits to help them achieve their goals. This includes YouTube’s Nonprofit Program.

Benefits of being accepted into this program include:

a donate now button on your channel’s page,
the ability to livestream on your channel, and
call to action overlays that pop-up on related videos for users to participate in.

These tools will help your organization succeed on the YouTube platform. Applying is easy. Your agency just needs a YouTube channel.

I hope this post has given you some insight on how to get started on YouTube. As for what type of content to include on your organization’s channel, that’s a post for another Monday.

Has your organization had success with YouTube? What did you find most helpful when setting up your channel? What did you find least helpful? Leave your tips in comments!

Change 101: Sell-Sell-Sell and then Strategy-Strategy-Strategy

October 19, 2012 erik Fundraising, organizational development

Welcome to O.D. Fridays at DonorDreams blog. Every Friday for the foreseeable future we will be looking more closely at a recent post from John Greco’s blog called “johnponders ~ about life at work, mostly” and applying his organizational development messages to the non-profit community.

In a recent post, John talked about the importance of “selling problems,” and he wasn’t referencing issues that sales teams experience. He literally meant taking your organization’s problems / challenges and selling them as things that must be solved.

A few weeks ago, I attended Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Midwest Regional Conference as an exhibitor and trainer. One of the sessions I presented was “Transformation: Driving Lasting Change at Your Club“. In that training, I shared with participants a six stage process for leading change that I learned at a change leadership training offered by Linkage Inc.

Here are the six stages to that change model:

Make the case for change
Enlist stakeholders to develop vision & strategy
Communicate the vision and strategy
Remove barriers
Set milestones & acknowledge progress
Reinforce the change

If you click over and read John’s post and then click back here to the six stage change model, you will see the first three stages all deal with “selling the problem”.

Of course, this all seems to easy when presented in blogs and six stage models. What could go wrong, right?

Well, there is always that little thing called strategy development that if done incorrectly can lead your organization down a path towards bigger problems.

Let’s look at a real world example that many non-profit organizations deal with at one time or another. This is the issue of fundraising efficiency and productivity. Here is how I’ve seen this change initiative unfold too many times:

The agency needs to do better with its fundraising program.
The executive director sells the problem to the board. Facts, figures and charts all demonstrate the need.
The executive director and board members sell the problem to donors, who generous agree to help with their pocketbooks.
All of stakeholders agree that the strategy needs to be increased organizational capacity in the area of fundraising. The solution? Hire a fundraising professional! (or more fundraising professionals as the case may be)
The new fundraising professional joins the team, and the problem doesn’t get better (in fact it sometimes gets a little worse).

Huh? What happened?

In many instances, I’ve seen the executive director take a victory lap and then wash their hands of their fundraising responsibilities. The board does a similar celebration and then disengages from the resource development program. Board members think: “Phew! Thank goodness we hired that person to do all of our fundraising. Now I can focus on other things.”

Oooops! Maybe the problem was deeper and more complex.

When leading change, the first order of business for the non-profit executive director is “selling the problem”. As John points out in his example, if you can make this a self-discovery process for key stakeholders, it will be that much more powerful.

Immediately, after you secure engagement, strategy and vision development becomes critical because selling the right problem with the wrong solutions will get you nowhere fast.

I don’t mean to imply that the aforementioned strategy of hiring a fundraising professional is a wrong solution. However, understanding cause-and-effect is important and anticipating potential scenarios will help you avoid some heartache. Additionally, understanding the entire problem and being comprehensive in your strategy development is key.

Has your agency ever solved a problem without engaging key stakeholders in what the problem was in the first place? What was the result? Have you ever solved a problem and found yourself surprised that the solution didn’t solve the problem? What did you do? How did you correct course and change your change initiative? If you are a fundraising professional who has gone through what I just described, please share how you re-engaged your boss and the board and got things on track. Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts and examples.

Birds of a feather meets angry non-profit birds

October 18, 2012 erik Board development, volunteers

Yesterday, my post was more of a question than anything else. I hoped you would join me in wondering if most board development processes really just result in boards replicating themselves. For example, a board full of middle management white-collar employees will beget more of the same. I ended the post with more questions focused on the idea of board transformation and asked if anyone has ever seen this done effectively.

After writing yesterday’s post, I jumped in my car and started a multi-day business trip. At my first stop, I had the pleasure of being able to continue this discussion about: bird of a feather flock together, boards replicating themselves, board transformation, and other board development approaches.

It was a robust discussion, and it reminded me of why I love non-profit work. Here are just a few things that popped out of that discussion yesterday:

there is no doubt that boards replicate themselves,
birds of a feather do indeed flock together, and
board transformation (whatever that may look like) needs to be managed very carefully to avoid hurt feelings and damaged donor relationships.

All of this got me thinking about situations where I’ve worked with a blended board of directors. What I mean by “blended board” is a group of volunteers who come from significantly different social circles, groups, sectors, etc.

It exists . . . in fact many non-profits are actually pursuing this idea all in the name of “board diversity.”

I am specifically thinking of one organization who I’ve worked with, and their board room contains:

a few CEOs and big business people,
one or two blue-collar construction folks,
a few country club wives,
a handful of middle managers, and
a former client.

So, you’re probably still wondering what inspired the title of this morning’s post. Simply stated, the “birds of a feather” refers to yesterday’s post, and the “angry birds” reference is a cautionary tale for non-profits who are aggressively pursuing the idea of blended boards and diversity.

When you have a blended boardroom, there are two big things that I think executive directors need to be on the look-out for:

Avoid board segmentation

I’ve seen blended boards where the “business people” and “folks with tons of influence” take on certain responsibilities (e.g. fundraising) and let others off the hook.

Here is what I’ve seen when blended boards segment themselves into “those who can” and “those who can’t”:

resentment
exhaustion
confusion
condescension

Every road leads to a bad place, and I’ve never seen it end well.

Avoid volunteer alienation

I’ve seen blended boards who work very hard at maintaining uniformity in expectations, roles, and responsibilities. So, the “CEO-type of board member” is held to the same standard as the “stay at home mom on the board”.

While this might sound “fair” to some of you, I assure you that this road is equally ugly. Here is what I’ve seen in these situations:

feelings of inadequacy
feelings of incompetence
finger-pointing
excuse making
under-performance

What I’m trying to say this morning is that if you are one of those non-profit professionals who actively fights against the “birds of a feather flock together” phenomenon, then you need to also be on the lookout for “angry non-profit birds” syndrome.

Here are just a few quick thoughts in my head for my non-profit executive directors friends out there:

Make sure your board recruitment process is followed. You are the guardian of process at your organization. Resist board members requests that sound like: “Awww, let’s just ask Betty to join the board. You know she’s perfect. Let’s just cut a few corners in the process.”
Make sure that your board development process educates prospective board volunteers on roles, responsibilities, and expectations BEFORE asking them to join anything.
Make sure your board development process includes regular doses of “education and training”. Using small training modules in the board room and infusing training into annual campaign kickoff meetings and board retreats ensures your board volunteers are growing.
Manage relationships. When you see board volunteers struggling, don’t look the other way. You can either personally engage and provide coaching to a struggling board volunteer or you can employ other board volunteers to provide that coaching. The end result might look different in every situation with some volunteers growing into their board roles and others finding other more comfortable seats on the bus that don’t involve serving on the board.
Don’t set people up for failure. If someone is a bad fit for the board, don’t ask them to join just because they have a large checkbook. There is no shame in asking someone to sit that is a better fit for their talents and passions.

Do you have a blended board with lots of diversity? How do you manage it? How have you kept it from splintering into “us” and “them”? How have you kept individual volunteers from feeling out-of-place or like they aren’t pulling their weight? Please scroll down and share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Do non-profit board volunteers of a feather really flock together?

October 17, 2012 erik Board development, leadership, volunteers

My mind has been stuck in a board development rut lately, and I can’t stop thinking about whether it is possible for a weak board to get itself out of the ditch. Author Jim Collins in his book “Good to Great” talks about the importance of getting the right people on the bus and in the right seats. Cross apply Collins best practice with that old expression “Birds of a feather, flock together” and that is where I get stuck.

So, the picture to the right of you screen represents a very traditional board development process for the average non-profit organization. I found this particular board development cycle in old materials from my last job, and is was apparently adapted from “The Board Building Cycle: Nine Steps to Finding, Recruiting, and Engaging Nonprofit Board Members”, Second Edition by Berit M. Lakey (BoardSource, 2007).

Have you ever sat in a non-profit board room, looked around the table, and saw a bunch of people with big hearts, small checkbooks, and very little influence?

How many times have you seen a group of people fitting that description try to transform their boardroom? I have seen it too often, and in each instance they toss out the names of the “Whose Who” in your community. Yet, at the end of the board development process, none of those names seem to be occupying seats around the table.

Every time I start to focus on this phenomenon, the expression “Birds of a feather, flock together” comes to mind.

Sure, sometimes I see “Average Joe” and “Average CEO” sitting around a boardroom table talking about governance, fundraising, mission, and all things non-profit. However, it is the exception and definitely not the rule.

This all leads me back to where I started this post. Is there a different process that non-profits should use to transform their board of directors into a group of highly influential people?

I’ve recently been speaking with an old friend who emphatically says “YES” to this question.

His process is external to the board. It involves recruiting one board recruitment champion who: 1) is not a board member and 2) has so much influence that it is virtually impossible to say “NO” when s/he comes knocking on your door. There is more to his process, but in the final analysis the boardroom is transformed with most of the old board members finding different seats on the bus and the new board volunteers being highly influential, effective and engaged.

Has anyone out there every seen a non-profit board transform itself? What did that process look like? How did it unfold? What role (if any) did the existing board play? Please use the comment box below to share your observations because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

What non-profits can learn from a homeless man in Indianapolis

October 16, 2012 erik Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

A few weeks ago I attended Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Midwest Leadership Conference in Indianapolis as an exhibitor. I love conferences because they are great opportunities to learn and meet new people.

However, this time I walked away a little surprised at myself because the biggest takeaway for me didn’t come from any of the sessions or people I met, it was an ah-ha moment generated by a homeless person panhandling on the streets of downtown Indianapolis.

Meet Fred (or at least that was what I was told his name was). Fred is homeless and needs money. His revenue generating strategy is to sit on the street and ask people to give him money. From what I’ve seen, this is a fairly typical strategy employed by many homeless panhandlers.

However, Fred knows something that many non-profit organizations don’t understand and something that Seth Godin blogged about this morning:

The easiest way to get people to do what you want them to do… is to start with people who want what you want.

Please take a close look at the two pictures of Fred that I’ve included in this morning’s blog post.

Fred’s revenue strategy goes beyond the typical homeless person’s approach that I’ve seen, which includes tugging at my heart with a story about being stranded, cold, down on their luck, or hungry.

Fred figures that you already know the typical homeless person’s case for support, and he communicates that without having to say a word. However, he is trying to do something that makes him stand out from every other homeless person in downtown Indianapolis.

As you can see from these two pictures, he is flashing a simple message about the Presidential election to people who pass him on the street. If he sizes you up as a Republican, he flashes his anti-Obama sign. If he thinks you’re a Democrat, then he reaches for his anti-Romney sign.

Here are a few things that I think non-profit organizations can learn from Fred:

A picture is worth a thousand words. Your case for support can be effectively supplemented using a visual or picture.
Know your audience. Your case for support doesn’t change, but how you talk about it and present it can vary based upon your audience. Segmenting and targeting your audiences is critical to your fundraising success.
Grab their attention. Prospects and donors are bombarded every day (in fact every minute of every day) with information from other non-profits and for-profits. You need to figure out how to cut through that noise if you want consideration. (Note: I wouldn’t advise that you use Fred’s tactic, but whatever you decide to do, it should be equally effective)
Personalize your message. Fred’s approach of sizing people up by guessing their political affiliation base upon your appearance sends a powerful message of: “Oh, he is talking to me“. I’ve always believed that “general appeals, get generally ignored”.
A smile and good humor go far. OMG . . . everyone is so serious and uptight nowadays. Using humor (e.g. jokes) can be dangerous when talking about serious issues; however, smiling, good humor (e.g. mood, temper, state of feeling, etc), and having fun when cultivating, soliciting or stewarding prospects and donors will likely set you apart from others.

Again, Seth Godin summed it up best in his post this morning better and quicker than I can: “The easiest way to get people to do what you want them to do… is to start with people who want what you want.”

Not only did I want Fred to get some food in his belly and get off of the street, but I wanted to laugh along and join in the joke that: 1) my small contribution can sway his vote in November and 2) this down on his luck gentleman was mocking Obama and Romney for their pandering to voters and donors. LOL (Maybe I’m over-thinking this, but I think I’m close)

How have you targeted your prospects and donors? How have you adjusted your messaging to different audiences without changing your case for support? What appropriate visuals have you used to convey and supplement your case for support? How do you prepare and support your volunteers to have fun, smile and break through the noise with their network of friends with your case?

Please use the comment section below to share your thoughts and experiences. Not only can we all learn from each other, but we can learn from some unexpected and surprising people. Please take a minute or two out of your busy day and share with your fellow non-profit professionals and volunteers.

Here’s to your health!

What non-profits can learn from a man skydiving at 128,000 feet

October 15, 2012 erik Mondays with Marissa, technology

This week’s “Mondays with Marissa” post is going to be a little different. Something happened yesterday. Did you see it? Follow it? Of course, I am referring to a man by the named of Felix Baumgartner who jumped out of a capsule attached to a balloon 128,000 feet above Earth. Take a moment to think about that.

Beyond the pure awesomeness of this feat, what I want to draw your attention to today is:

the social media that supported the mission, and
some ways that non-profits learn from the coverage of this event.

For those of you unfamiliar with what Felix did yesterday, here’s a brief overview:

Sponsored by Red Bull, this mission had a goal of studying the effects of acceleration on the human body in order to produce better spacesuits for space professionals and eventually space tourists.
Beyond that, Felix Baumgartner became the first human who wasn’t attached to an aircraft to break the sound barrier .

NASA’s evolving mission has led to private companies such as Red Bull stepping in to provide financing to make these types of missions possible. When the day came millions of people around the world tuned in to watch the live stream of the Red Bull Stratos leaving the Earth and eventually see Baumgartner jump out of it. You can read more about the story here.

Looking beyond the scientific significance of this event, let’s look at it through the eyes of a non-profit special events planner. When it comes down to it, that’s what it was, right? This was an event run at a specific time and for a specific cause.

Sponsorship

This space mission was funded by Red Bull and everyone knew it. Finding a corporate sponsor, especially a title sponsor, to cover the costs of your agency’s special event means profitability and ensures that donations from attendees will likely go directly to support programming. Similarly, finding a corporate partner that will match donations helps in the same way.

Word of Mouth

People knew about this event for months. If you have a once in a lifetime special event in your organization’s future (e.g. celebrating a milestone anniversary, etc), letting people know about it early and often only helps your cause. You can and should use social media to do this. How?

Create an event on Facebook.
Create an event on Google Plus.
Post about the progress being made during the preparation of the event.

Give the Event Its Own Website

Depending on the size of the event, it might warrant its own website. Doing so will make it easy for people seeking details about your event to find those facts easily online.

Take a look at the website for the Red Bull Stratos. Everything you need to know about that event is there. Make sure that you include the social media sharing buttons on the website to allow people to share what they find with others.

Videos

One of the great things that Red Bull did during the preparation for this event was to post videos about the progress leading up to yesterday. If it makes sense to do so for your event, videos are a great way to update people. Make them short and sweet, little clips and people will share them with others. If you can’t post videos as often, photos can work in the same capacity as well.

In addition to posting video to promote your event, you can also post clips of the actual event if you were lucky enough to secure a celebrity to speak or the event was particularly noteworthy. Click here to view a YouTube video of Felix Baumgartner’s historic jump.

Live Stream It

Again, this depends on your event and the legality surrounding it, but if it makes sense then you may want to consider live streaming it.

For example, if you are holding a competition such as a race, live streaming can help spread the word about what is happening and allow people to donate on the web during the event.

Sites such as YouTube and UStream allow users to set up their own channels to share with others. The videos from these channels can be embedded on your own site so you don’t have to send viewers somewhere else. Also, all of the live streams can be saved for future viewing as well.

Hashtags

While we were watching Felix jump out of his capsule at 128,000 feet above the Earth, many of us were participating in a social conversation on Twitter about what we are seeing as it happened. Creating a hashtag for your event can allow people to share news from your event in real-time. What’s great is that you can also use it to go back and easily see what people were saying after the event is over. For example, take a look at #livejump from yesterday.

Events like yesterday’s only come around once in a while. It is important to step back and see what we can learn from them when they do. I hope today’s post might have highlighted some new techniques for you when it comes to running special events.

Have you used any of the tools mentioned in today’s post? I’d love to hear about it in comments!

Non-profit executive directors take the heat every day

October 12, 2012 erik Uncategorized

In a recent post, John (who is a major Chicago Cubs fan as am I) wrote about the July 9, 2005 game between the Chicago Cubs and Florida Marlins. That was the game where Adam Greenberg got hit in the head by a pitch during his first plate appearance in the major leagues. John didn’t try to spin this story into an organizational development gem and just filed his thoughts under the category of “Just Because“. However, this post got me thinking about how difficult it is to be a non-profit executive director.

A few days ago a dear friend of mine approached me over coffee and asked what I thought about him applying for a local non-profit executive director vacancy. In hindsight, I wish I could take my words back because they were in the neighborhood of “Are you effin’ crazy?”

I know the source of my response came from a good place in my heart because what he doesn’t understand is that every day non-profit executive directors step to the plate and every day they get hit by pitches thrown by board members, volunteers, donors, staff, clients and random people on the street.

Perhaps, this is a dramatic analogy (and I am not comparing it to what Adam Greenberg has dealt with), but I do think at some level there is an appropriate comparison to be drawn.

There are lots of fast balls, and the good non-profit CEOs have great batting averages. Yet, there are still lots of hit batsmen. Here are just a few examples (all real, some silly, and some not so silly) that I’ve seen my fellow executive directors get hit with throughout the years:

One board member chewed out their executive director for not including tuna fish on the menu at an annual campaign lunch kickoff meeting;
One very large and influential donor just didn’t like the executive director (aka personality conflict) and would set-up periodic meetings that included herself, the executive director and a few of his board members. During those meeting, she loved to throw the executive director under the bus and make accusations about inadequate management.
One fundraising professional decided that she would make a better executive director than her boss. She started setting up meetings with other staff members, important donors, and key board members and subtly steering conversations in that directions.

Ahhh yes . . . and this is just the beginning of what I’ve seen executive directors deal with. The high-and-tight fastball isn’t just a thing for which major league baseball players need to prepare. It is something non-profit executive directors and probably all workplace leaders need to be on the look-out for.

I also think I am begging a question here:

“What talents, traits, skill sets, and characteristics are important for a non-profit CEO to possess if they are to be successful?”

A dear friend of mine, Joe Lehr, from the Boys & Girls Club Movement once wrote an article titled “The Essential Talents of the Non-Profit Leader“. In that article, he identified five talents that he believes are foundational for non-profit leadership:

Belief — passion, fire, and strength of conviction all stemming from organizational mission, vision and purpose.
Vision — an ability to see the organization’s future and getting others to see and believe in it, too.
Focus & clarity — sorting through a lot of information, knowing what is most important, and getting others to see clearly see it.
Maximizer — a burning desire for greatness and an ability to act as a catalyst for all other stakeholders to reach for greatness (via accountability, transparency, urgency, etc).
Empathy — self-awareness, emotional intelligence, along with the intuition and ability to sense what others are feeling and thinking and use that to effectively communicate with others.

There are many other skills sets that involve fundraising, board development, and organizational development issues. I personally like what I once read in a book titled “How to Think Like a CEO: The 22 Vital Traits You Need to Be the Person at the Top” written by D.A. Benton.

From a skills, traits and characteristics perspective, what have you seen the best and most effective non-profit leaders? What resources (e.g. articles, books, websites) have you seen that do a good job of putting their finger on this issue? Most importantly, how have you seen boards figure all of this out during an executive search process?

Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts and experiences.

Here’s to your health!

More lapsed donor best practices

October 11, 2012 erik Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

For the last few days, we’ve been talking about lapsed donors. On Tuesday, the discussion started with a personal example of a LYBUNT letter from HRC. Yesterday, we talked about one lapsed donor reactivation strategy that Gail Perry at Fired-Up Fundraising talks a lot about. Today, I am circling back around to the HRC lapsed donor letter that started this entire discussion.

A few days ago, I was critical of the tone in HRC’s lapsed donor letter as well as their ineffective list segmenting efforts. Putting those criticisms aside, it is clear that the folks who constructed HRC’s LYBUNT letter were successful at employing a number of other best practices, such as:

They tried to be very personal and mentioned me by name a number of different times throughout the letter and response card.
They pointed to a number of their recent accomplishments in an effort to say that another investment from me would be well used by them.
They spoke of a few deadlines to create a sense of urgency.

The best practice that I liked the most was that they included a survey in the envelope and asked for feedback. The survey started off with this language:

“Erik, if you have decided not to renew your HRC membership, please let us know why by completing this brief survey and returning it right way in the envelope provided. Your input will help HRC understand the reasons for your decision and help HRC strengthen our grassroots support . . .”

I really like this language because it clearly communicates one simple message:

“We’re listening and what you have to say is important to us!”

The survey was short and sweet and to the point. They asked the following four questions:

Which HRC accomplishment are you most proud of helping make possible over the past year?
Why have you decided not to renew your HRC membership for 2012? (please check all that apply)
Which of the following statements best describes your view of HRC’s advocacy efforts?
Please rank the following HRC advocacy priorities in order of importance (1 = most important)

Obviously, these were multiple choice questions, and the entire survey takes no more than 30 seconds to complete before sliding it into a “business reply mail” envelope.

What best practices have you used to reactivate lapsed donors? What have you seen other non-profit organizations do that struck you as particularly effective? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box below. We can all learn from each other because no one has time nowadays to re-invent the wheel.

Here’s to your health!

Reactivating lapsed donors doesn’t have to be complicated

October 10, 2012 erik Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

Yesterday, my blog post titled “Take great care when trying to reactivate your LYBUNT donors” focused on a direct mail story of mine that I thought contained some valuable lessons for all of us. Today, I will attempt to pivot and start a discussion about simple things you can do to reactivate lapsed donors at the end of the year.

Last week, I spent the entire week in Indianapolis at Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Midwest Leadership Conference as an exhibitor and trainer. When I saw one of my favorite bloggers — Gail Perry at Fired-Up Fundraising — as a general session speaker, I got very excited because she is a bundle of energy when it comes to fundraising.

As she dazzled the audience with her fundraising stories, she turned her attention for just a moment to the idea of reactivating lapsed donors. She talked about the boring, ineffective and sometimes upsetting LYBUNT letters (like the one I talked about in yesterday’s post) that too many non-profit organizations use at the end of the year to re-engage lapsed donors. While direct mail is probably a necessary re-engagement tool, Gail suggested that throwing a party for some of those donors might be a better strategy. She shared a story about such a party that she had themed:

“We love you, we miss you, we want you back!”

These 10 simple words got my mental wheels turning. I envisioned a Thanksgiving or holiday themed event with a room full of lapsed donors who didn’t pay a penny to attend. I pictured mission-focused activities and possibly even activities (e.g. focus groups) designed to solicit input on how to improve your fundraising and donor communication programs.

Hmmm . . . how does this strategy compare to the HRC letter strategy that I talked about in yesterday’s post? For me, it feels like night and day. I like Gail’s suggestion of throwing a party for the following reasons:

It feels personal
It is what we do with our family and friends (and aren’t donors part of our extended family and friends circle)
It is fun and energetic
It fits with the spirit of the season
It sends a donor-centered message rather than a “me-me-me” message

For some non-profit agencies that have a large direct mail program and hundreds (or thousands) of lapsed donors, this strategy might be a little more difficult to implement. However, this problem is easily overcome by segmenting your LYBUNT report into two lists: 1) those who get invited to a party and solicited at the event or using a follow-up solicitation letter AND 2) those who just get a well-crafted, personal LYBUNT letter that doesn’t use “guilt” as the message.

There is literally a bushel basket full of good ideas and best practices when it comes to reactivating your lapsed donors at the end of the year. Throwing a party is just one of those ideas.

Would you please take 60 seconds out of your busy day and share one idea from your agency’s year-end LYBUNT strategy playbook? You can easily and quickly do this by using the comment box found at the bottom of this blog page. Please? After all, we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!