Top 3 strategies for successful collaboration

October 16, 2013 erik Uncategorized

relationships Greetings from Reno, Nevada! I am currently at Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s (BGCA) Pacific Leadership Conference. Today, I helped organize and facilitate a day long training track for executive directors and their local school superintendents focused on the idea of collaboration.

It is truly awe-inspiring when a group of dedicated non-profit professionals and their collaborative partners take a day out of their busy schedules to talk about how to collaborate at a higher level.

I’ll keep today’s blog post very short.

One of the facilitated exercises engaged participants in the following simple question: “What are the most important strategies for developing collaborative relationships?”

Here are just a few of the answers provided by participants:

Focus on a common goal
Create continuous open dialog
Clearly establish and understand roles & responsibilities
Persistence
You must seek to understand your prospective partner’s needs before you expect them to understand yours
Always keep in mind that you must earn trust and respect (all the time)
Build a shared vision
Actively create opportunities to engage and remember that food at those meetings is very important

I’m sure that none of this is new to many of you; however, when is the last time you actually practiced these principles?

I don’t know about you, but I can recite lots of best practices just like a third grader can recite their newly memorized multiplication tables. Sometimes when I put myself on autopilot, there is a disconnect between KNOWING and DOING.

As you review this list of strategies, do you think anything is missing from the list? If so, then what would you add? Do you have any special tricks to keep yourself from sometimes cutting corners and forgetting about best practices like these?

Please scroll down and use the comment box below to share your thoughts and experiences. 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
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Does your non-profit have an ‘Abs of Steel’ conference strategy?

October 14, 2013 erik Uncategorized

abs1 The month of October is brutal for me this year. On top of working with my existing client base, I am attending three different conferences in three different regions to help another client with implementation of a specific training track aimed at executive directors and school superintendents. As I attend these conferences, I see non-profit professionals hopping from session-to-session and find myself wondering, “What is their conference strategy?”

When I was an executive director, I loved attending conferences and trainings. It felt like I was nurturing the inner non-profit professional inside of me. However, after a few years on the job, I found an entire bookshelf in my office full of conference materials and notes. I wasn’t using them. I wasn’t referencing back to them. They were just gathering dust.

The analogy I use to describe this useless activity involves the popular “Abs of Steel” workout DVD, and it goes something like this:

For those of you who know me, you know that I do not possess abs of steel. In fact, I don’t possess anything of steel anywhere on my body. So, if I went to the mall and purchased an Abs of Steel workout DVD, some people might consider that a step in the right direction. This is akin to you deciding to attend a conference or training session.

However, if I came home with my new Abs of Steel workout DVD, popped a tub of buttery popcorn, and watched the DVD while sitting on the couch and eating that popcorn, I would be no closer to my goal of obtaining abs of steel. This is akin to you attending a conference, coming home with a bunch of notes and materials, and putting them on your shelf to collect dust.

The reality of the situation is that you need to do the exercises on the workout DVD in order to achieve the desired result. Of course, the same is true with what you learn at the conference. When you get home, you need to turn your new-found knowledge into action. The act of doing what you learned will build your organizational muscles and grow your organizational capacity.

So, what is your conference abs of steel strategy? Do you have one?

todolist After a few years of proverbially eating popcorn on the couch after attending conferences and trainings, I decided to do something different. My strategy was simple. Rather than taking notes on what the trainer was saying, I only wrote down action items that came to mind while listening to the speaker.

These were things I planned to transfer to my To Do List when I got home.

I decided that I didn’t need to write down what the trainer was saying because they were most likely handing out copies of their PowerPoint presentation along with a dump truck of materials. Besides, those notes were no good to me if they were just going to sit on my book shelf and collect dust. Right?

I’ll admit that this strategy didn’t always work perfectly. Oftentimes, I’d get home from a conference and my desk was piled high and my To Do List was long. Nevertheless, I found this strategy to be better than the previous one and so I kept it.

I personally liked the “action-focus” of what I was trying to accomplish.

As I facilitate my sessions and sit in my exhibitor booth during the month of October, I can’t help but wonder what are other people’s conference strategies. Are you popping popcorn or are you doing something else? Are you building your organizational muscles or are you just making yourself feel better because you now own the transformational resource?

Please scroll down to the comment box below and share your conference and training strategies. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Don’t worry about being awful at the beginning. Go climb that pole!

September 27, 2013 erik Uncategorized

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

I’m going to do something a little different this week for “O.D. Fridays” at DonorDreams blog.

Yesterday, I opened an email from one of my favorite social media blogs — Social Media Examiner. The post was titled “3 Unique Ways to Get Started With Business Podcasting,” and it was written by John Lee Dumas. It is a great post. If you have a little time, it is worth the click.

In the middle of the article, the author solicits tips from the three podcasters he interviewed. Two of the interviewees said the same thing, which jumped out at me and changed the direction of today’s post. Here are those inspirational tips:

“Don’t worry about being awful at the beginning. Everybody is. Every master was once a disaster.” — Michael O’Neal

“You’ll cringe at your earlier work, but that’s okay, because it’s a necessary step along the way to putting into the world that thing that’s in your head and doing it on the level your capable of.” — Jonathan Fields

I thought it would be fun to use this “O.D. Fridays” post to go back to the beginning of the DonorDreams blog as well as johnponders ~ about life at work, mostly.

When I went back to my first few blog posts, I found Jonathan Fields words “You’ll cringe . . .” ringing in my ears. Ahhh, those early days were tough and painful, but in hindsight I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Those experiences are gold.

Then I went back to the very first johnponders blog. I indeed cringed but not for the reasons you think.

getting started John’s first post ever was titled “Don’t Climb That Pole.” It was a classic John Greco type of post about the power of organizational culture. It set the stage for everything he has done since that time with regard to organization development and change leadership.

In fact, “Don’t Climb That Pole” is one of my top five favorite johnponders posts if not my very favorite.

I really wanted today’s “O.D. Fridays” post to be about organizational culture; however, it organically turned into a post about change and more specifically the power of taking that first step. This idea is best summed up and translated into “non-profit speak” by Anne Frank:

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

In most of my visits with non-profit professionals, our conversations typically turn to what is stopping them from doing something. It almost always has to do with one or more of the following reasons:

Time
Money
People
Not believing that you know where to start or having the knowledge on how to start

If you currently find yourself in this position at your agency, you can find answers on how to move forward in both of the blog posts I’ve referenced today.

John Lee Dumas’ interviewees point to the power of just getting started and not worrying about what it looks like in the beginning.

John Greco points to the power of looking at things through the eyes of a newbie who hasn’t been conditioned to think and behave in ways influenced by your organization culture. Oh yeah, I guess John also would say we need to like bananas and cold showers. (If you’re like ‘huh … what does that mean? Then I guess you just need to click-through and read one of my favorite johnponders posts.) 😉

Are there things that you know need to happen at your agency, but you’re just not moving forward yet? Have you ever been paralyzed and found a way forward just by taking that first step? Have you clicked through and read either of the posts I mentioned earlier? Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts or experiences. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health! Now go get started on that thing you know needs to happen.

Obamacare and your non-profit: Part Two

September 26, 2013 erik Uncategorized

On Monday of this week, I blogged about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and what it might mean for non-profit organizations including those that have fewer than 50 employees and don’t think this legislation applies to them. At the end of my post, I asked a few questions as I always do. Within 24 hours, one person did weigh-in and others sent me direct emails. So, I decided to share that expert feedback with you today.

Feedback from a federally qualified healthcare center

The following is a comment from Rose Reinert who is a community outreach liaison from a healthcare non-profit in my hometown of Elgin, Illinois. I’m sharing it here because I know many of you don’t get an opportunity to loop back around to former posts to read the comments.

Great post Erik! As you know, I work as Community Outreach Liaison for an area Federally Qualified Health Center that meets the medical and dental needs of all, regardless of ability to pay, and I can say there are a lot of changes coming. It reminds me of when we used to play hide and seek and scream, “Ready or not! Here I come!” In this case, we have to make ourselves ready, and there are a lot resources to do so.

I have also found a lot of confusion surrounding the Affordable Care Act. Having said that, our organization, Greater Elgin Family Care Center has received federal and state funding for In Person Counselors who can assist in education and enrollment.

If anyone is in the Greater Elgin area and would like to learn more about the Affordable Care Act, please let me know. We can come to you to give talks to your staff, your clients, or any one who might want to learn more!

Rose Reinert, rreinert@gefcc.org

Feedback from an HR professional

The following is an email from a former volunteer and friend of mine who is a human resources professional. Her comments reference resources she recently blogged about. (I should note that she is one of my favorite HR bloggers and I subscribe to her site) If you want to check out her blog, click here to visit her site which is titled “Don’t bite the apple . . . Work is not a fairytale”.

Here is what she said in her email:

Erik,

Hi there, I hope all is well. Great Article on Obamacare. I didn’t want to post my blog to yours and some of my information doesn’t apply. I just wrote a post on the notices with a link to the DOL approved notices.

ALL businesses subject to FLSA (which is pretty much everyone) has to send notices to employees to tell them if they are or are not providing insurance by October 1st. It has to go to ALL employees f/t, p/t and even if not on insurance. It’s a great thing to post about and provide the links. The first page of the notices explain to the employees how to go out to exchanges and look at healthcare. It also notifies people that if they buy from there and the employer pays part of the premium they can lose their match.

Feel free to take anything you’d like out of the post and if you need anything else, I’d be happy to help. I have access to a lot of info through SHRM.

Have a great day,
Denise

Feedback from an insurance professional

Dan Walter is a board member for my local United Way and he is a partner and senior vice president for Lundstrom Insurance. After reading Monday’s blog post, he sent me a guest commentary he recently wrote for The Daily Herald newspaper.

Here is his article about the Affordable Care Act:

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is about to enter its most far-reaching phase. In 2014, the ACA mandates that nearly all citizens purchase qualifying health insurance or pay a penalty. Guaranteed insurability will provide access to health insurance coverage regardless of health history. Health plans must accept pre-existing conditions that might have been denied or limited under the present rules.

The Health Insurance Marketplaces, also known as the public Exchanges, are scheduled to be operational on October 1^st, with coverage that can be effective as soon as January 1, 2014. Rather than create its own exchange, Illinois chose to partner with the exchange established by the federal government. Illinois consumers will have access to six carriers, far fewer than originally anticipated.

By October 1^st of this year, most employers are required to distribute a notice to every employee informing them about the Health Insurance Marketplace. The Marketplace/Exchange will provide access to private health insurance plans as well as certain government-based health plans like Medicare and Medicaid. Also, the public Marketplace/Exchange is the only place an individual can access premium and cost-sharing subsidies. Premium subsidies are available on a sliding scale up to 400% of the federal poverty level (FPL) and consider the entire household income for eligibility. Cost-sharing subsidies help offset high out of pocket costs for people with incomes up to 250% of the FPL.

Insurance will continue to be available through brokers and carriers without going through the Marketplace. Brokers will have access to many other plans and other carriers, as well as those on the Marketplace/Exchange. Some carriers like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois have also created their own private health insurance exchanges which brokers can access on behalf of their clients.

New ACA Fees and taxes will also go into effect in January. Two of these new costs are the Health Insurer Fee and the Reinsurance Fee. Starting at $8 Billion in 2014, the Health Insurer Fee will apply to health insurers offering individual coverage and fully insured group plans. The tax is allocated among health insurers based on relative market share. By 2018 this tax will have grown to $14.3 Billion.

The Reinsurance Fee is scheduled to be in effect for a three year period, decreasing over that time from a starting point of $5.25 per person, per month and applies to individual coverage and fully insured group plans, as well as self funded plans.

Combined, these two fees will add an estimated 3-4% to the premium. The amount will vary based on the number of people covered and a formula applied to the carrier’s net premium for the prior year.

In July of this year it was announced that the penalties and reporting requirements of the so-called “Employer Mandate” would be delayed to 2015. This portion of the law affects businesses with 50 or more full time equivalent employees and obligates them to offer coverage that meets certain standards of coverage and premium affordability. Not doing so will risk fines ranging from $2,000 per full time employee, to $3,000 for each full time employee who obtains a subsidy on the government Marketplace/Exchange. Other requirements and timelines of the ACA remained intact.

This is only a brief summary of some key points of ACA. If this sounds confusing or complex, it reinforces why individuals and businesses should be very discerning about ACA related information. Be sure to identify whether the information you rely on applies to individuals, small or large employers, and even whether it applies to your state or not. Obtain good counsel and guidance to help you understand your choices as well as your compliance obligations and potential penalties.

The impact of ACA is far reaching. With appropriate guidance, you will navigate it just fine.

My final thoughts on this issue

If you think your non-profit won’t be impacted by ACA, you are most likely wrong. At a minimum, this legislation will get your employees talking about healthcare benefits in your workplace. It would be wise to read up on ACA, talk to your insurance people, and be prepared to talk intelligently with your employees about this issue if and when questions arise.

This blog thread appears to have resonated with DonorDreams readers. Do you have more questions or comments? If so, please use the comment box below to share your thoughts and experiences.

The truth about your agency’s budget versus its mission

September 25, 2013 erik Uncategorized

budget1 Full discloser . . . I went out for a few glasses of wine on Tuesday night with a non-profit friend and got back home a little late at night. So what? Who cares? Well, I need to be up and on the road at 5:00 am to visit an out-of-state client, which means I needed to write my Wednesday blog post on Tuesday night. Oooops! So, I’m heading to bed in the next few minutes and wringing my hands about not writing something in the morning. Luckily, my friend said something provocative over a glass of wine and that will the be center of today’s post.

I can see that you’re now curious. 😉

OK . . . so, you’ve probably figured out that we were more than one glass of wine into the evening when I had my epiphany . Regardless, I think his point is still provocative. He said . . .

“For non-profit organizations, it always comes down to the budget in the final analysis.”

I can already see that some of you are saying, “Duh! Really, Erik? How much wine did you drink last night?” However, I know many of you very well, and some of you are saying, “Ummmm, NO! The budget is important, but it always boils down to a question about mission and vision.“

When I first heard my friend’s point, I must admit that I was taken back to high school and American History class. I thought that the debate about budget vs. mission is analogous to the founding fathers putting a series of checks and balances in the United States Constitution.

How so?

Well, the executive director and staff are typically focused on issues of mission. They are always advocating for clients and programming that best meets the needs of the community. Whereas, the board of directors typically uses the power of the various policy documents (e.g. agency budget, strategic plan, etc) to place parameters on staff to ensure accountability and sustainability.

So, who is right?

At the risk of fueling your suspicion that I might have had one too many glasses of wine on Tuesday evening, I point you in the direction of the following classic 1970s television commercial featuring George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin to resolve this conflict:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_zDcQV6_6k]

Which side of this classic debate do you come down on? In the final analysis, does your agency budget trump everything else or does your mission and vision define the budget? Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts and experiences.

Here’s to your health! And, ohhh yeah . . . cheers! 😉

What is your non-profit predicament?

August 30, 2013 erik Uncategorized

In a post titled “My Predicament Is Not My Problem,” John makes a distinction between things that are “problems” and things that are “predicaments“. In short, he talks about how predicaments are a special kind of problem that require different leadership skill sets and approaches.

Here is how John sums it up:

“And, while predicaments are (of course) problems, they aren’t problems that can be solved in any ordinary problem solving way. And therein lies the problem. For when leaders treat predicaments like problems — analyzing the components, fast-acting on this part or slow-tweaking that part, they make their predicaments worse.”

predicament2 I find this distinction really fascinating, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I read this post. So, I’ve been focused on identifying some non-profit related “predicaments” and here is what I’ve come up with . . .

Over the last decade, donors’ needs have shifted. Investing in an organization’s mission isn’t enough anymore. They want to see results . . . outcomes . . . data. But wait! That stuff is boring and they want it all wrapped up in an engaging narrative that is spun by someone who is a good storyteller. Too much data or too much storytelling, and the whole experiment in philanthropy seems to fall short.
The Great Recession started in 2007 with a stock market crash occurring in 2008. Before the crash, many non-profit agencies’ fundraising plans appeared to work well enough to get them what they needed to function. After the crash — what some people are calling ‘The New Normal’ — those same fundraising plans for some agencies don’t seem to work as well, but abandoning the plan and starting from scratch doesn’t appear practical or reasonable.
In the middle part of the 20th Century, non-profit boards were composed of local business leaders who were CEOs and owners of local businesses. Fast forward to the end of the 20th Century and the early 2000’s, and big box stores have replaced locally owned businesses. CEOs and business owners are located in major cities and in some cases halfway around the world. Many non-profit boards are full of middle managers, and many people are left asking “Who will be the next generation of big time local philanthropists?“

In John’s post, he talks about needing a special kind of skill set to solve “predicaments“. Specifically, he points to interpretative thinking skills, patience, and sustained attentiveness.

Heading into this Labor Day weekend, I’m asking you to scroll down to the comment box below and consider doing two things:

Share your opinion on whether or not the three things I’ve identified above are “problems” or “predicaments” or neither. You are also welcome to talk about other “predicaments” you see in the non-profit sector or at home in your agency.
Do you or others in your agency possess the special skill sets that are identified as being necessary to handle “predicaments“? Are there other skills you think are necessary? If you, your employees and your board don’t possess these skills, how are you planning to acquire them?

Enjoy the long weekend and please take a moment to contemplate and respond to these questions. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

We shall overcome! Celebrating MLK and non-profits 50 years later.

August 28, 2013 erik Uncategorized

Fifty years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement marched on Washington D.C. and history was made. Today, all of us should take a moment to reflect and pay tribute to a great man and a powerful movement. However, I encourage you to also take another moment to think about the role that non-profit organizations played in Dr. King’s dream and the impact his message has on our sector.

First, let’s start in the beginning with this YouTube video of MLK and his famous speech of 50 years ago:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs]

When listening to Dr. King’s speech, I am most struck by how many non-profit organizations today are engaged in the struggle he articulated. His impact is still felt 50 years later, and his legacy is his gift of a “vision statement” for so many non-profit organizations.

The following is a list of non-profit organizations from 50 years ago. Do you know what they all have in common?

Alpha Phi Alpha
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Women’s Political Council
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Penn Community Services Center
Detroit Council for Human Rights
American Committee on Africa
SNCC Freedom Singers
The Fellowship of Reconciliation
The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change

Yes, these are all non-profit organizations with connections to MLK. If you’re interested, you should click-through to an amazing Blue Avocado article titled “Did You Know? … Ten Nonprofits that Shaped the Life of Martin Luther King Jr.”

When you go to GuideStar and type in the words “civil rights nonprofits” a list of 6,1,63 different non-profits come up under the category of Civil Rights and Liberties. While not all of these charities are tied to MLK, they are all connected to the legacy he helped sow.

Fifty years later, we use Martin Luther King Jr. Day to encourage our fellow citizens to use it as a “Day of Community Service“.

As I reflect on MLK’s accomplishments and use a non-profit lens to do so, here is what I see:

The man and his point of view was influenced by non-profits.
His movement was fueled by non-profits.
His “I have a dream” speech is a vision statement for countless civil rights organizations to this very day.
His messages and his tactics are his enduring legacy, and these things are still used by all sorts of non-profit organizations.
The national holiday celebrating his birthday has transformed into a day of service benefiting countless non-profit organizations.

It is an amazing legacy with non-profit fingerprints and connectivity associated with it. I hope you have a few moments to reflect on all of this today.

Do you have a dream? What is your non-profit organization’s dream? How is your organization’s mission and vision rooted in Dr. King’s iconic “Dream speech“? Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts or just leave a tribute to MLK.

Here’s to your health . . . “Let freedom ring!”

Non-profit CEOs need to be themselves

August 16, 2013 erik Uncategorized

In a post simply titled “You,” John talks about how important it is that people try to be themselves and not other things to other people. Not only is it important, but it is courageous, stressful and scary.

John’s post got me thinking about those days when I was an executive director. Looking back, I now see that on most days I was not trying to be ME. I was trying to be the position, which when you think about it is a crazy thing.

Here are just a few of the things I remember:

My CEO friend Karen was a hard worker. She obviously worked long, tireless hours and was attentive to every last detail at her agency. I saw her successes and thought I could replicate it by working insanely hard.
My CEO friend Marc was one of the best fundraisers I ever met. His polish and ability to effortlessly build meaningful and lasting relationships with donors was the key to his success. I saw his successes and thought I could replicate it by being friendly, approachable and social with donors.
My CEO friend Gretchen was soooooo passionate about her mission. She would give selflessly of herself until there was nothing left to give if it meant helping a client. I saw her successes and thought I could replicate it by constantly talking to anyone who would listen about my organization and clients.
My CEO friend Fred was persistent. He believed there was nothing in this world that couldn’t be successfully accomplished as long as you kept at it. I saw his successes and thought I could replicate it by bringing that proverbial “can of elbow grease” to every board meeting, committee meeting, and project.

Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I believe coaching and mentoring are very important when it comes to success. I am so grateful to everyone who influenced the type of executive director I became. If you don’t have coaching or mentoring relationships, I suggest that you figure that out quickly.

be you2 However, John’s post gives me cause for pause. I wonder if I was so wrapped up in what a good non-profit CEO looked like that I forgot to look in the mirror and be myself.

Maybe not … maybe so. It doesn’t matter because it is all in the past, and I can’t change any of it even if I wanted to. And yet that isn’t the case for YOU if you are still working on the front line.

If you haven’t done so yet, click-through to John’s post, read it and reflect upon these simple questions:

Are you being you? How do you know you are being you? If you are holding back, what are you afraid of? What would be the consequences of letting the entire you shine through?

Not totally related to this post, but still important questions you should be asking:

Are you letting your organization consume you?
Are you giving more to the agency than you are to your family or to you?
Are you taking professional things way to personally?

If you’re answering YES to any of these last few questions, then perhaps you’re not being YOU. You might be trying to be your organization or your position. Maybe … maybe not. But it is worth thinking about don’t you think?

Here’s to your health!

What are the golf balls in your non-profit organization’s jar?

August 5, 2013 erik Uncategorized

I have people in my life who I consider friends that like to spam my email inbox. I bet you have friends like that, too. It isn’t malicious, but it is annoying. However, every once in a great while they catch me in the right mood, and I open one of those emails. Typically, I find sappy stuff about friendship and other times it is a modern-day chain letter. This last weekend, I opened one of those emails and found a fun little video about life and priorities. After a little reflection, I decided there is a lot of wisdom in that video as it pertains to your non-profit organization.

Rather than spam your email inbox, you can either click here or on the picture below to view the short little inspiration video produced by simpletruths.com.

Cute . . . sappy . . . everything that I promised. Right?

However, what if the pickle jar in the video wasn’t your life, but it instead represented your non-profit organization? What would those “golf balls” (aka those things that are most important to your organizational mission and success)?

Here is a short list (in no particular order) of what I think your golf balls should be:

Clients
Staff
Board volunteers
Donors
Program volunteers

jar of golf balls I suspect many of you are nodding your heads right now. However, stop and think about your last week and where you spent your time. I suspect that many of you focused lots of time, energy and resources on the pebbles, sand and liquid in your non-profit jar such as:

an upcoming fundraising event or campaign
facility issues
technology challenges
bookkeeping or accounting issues
donor database administration
reconciliation activities

I suspect many of you are now starting to rationalize how these activities are related to the golf balls in your non-profit pickle jar. If you’re doing that, then I encourage you to STOP.

Yes, everything is interrelated. Of course! But take a moment to step back and see the bigger picture.

It is far to easy to focus your attention as a leader on things at the granular level (aka sand). In my experience, leaders are able to focus on the little things as well as the big things.

When putting your calendar together, make sure that your schedule reflects BOTH big and little things. For example, you should be sitting down with your board volunteers in between board meeting as well as putting the agenda and board packet together. You should be meeting with the annual campaign committee to plan the next pledge drive as well as sitting down with donors over a cup of coffee to talk about how their contribution is making magic happen.

The pickle jar analogy can be used to analyze any number of activities related to your non-profit organization. You could be asking questions like:

What are the golf balls in my fundraising plan?
What are the golf balls in my board development plan?
What are the golf balls in my program plan?

The following are links to other bloggers who offer other lists of golf balls for other pickle jars:

grassrootsfundraising.org: “10 Most Important Things You Can Know About Fundraising“
The Fundraising Authority: “The Ten Steps to a Successful Fundraising Event“
Nonprofit Law Blog: “Top 10 Non-Profit Governance Mistakes (And 5 More)“

Did I get your brain working on this wonderful Monday morning? Which pickle jar are you thinking about? What are the golf balls in that jar? What strategies do you use to make sure you aren’t just focusing on the sand as the days and weeks slip through our hands? Do you have time management best practices that you would like to share with your fellow non-profit friends?

Please take a moment to scroll down to the comment box and share your thoughts and experiences. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Outcome measurement madness

June 20, 2013 erik Uncategorized

Today’s DonorDreams post is from a guest blogger, Rose Reinert. Rose is a young non-profit professional who happily serves in the trenches and grapples with our sector’s newest challenges as they relate to data, impact, and program outcomes. When it comes to data systems, she has experience with membership management databases, financial management software, donor databases, and program outcomes measurement systems.

Outcome measurement madness

By Rose Reinert

In a former life, I served as an Executive Director of a youth serving organization. As you can imagine, as in any non-profit, the heat was on illustrating short-term and long-term impact. These efforts, of course, were to show that we were fulfilling our mission of preparing young people to be contributing citizens. Unfortunately, more often than not, we focused on short-term impact in order to keep funders and donors engaged and happy so they would renew their investment.

One of those funders, who I would work at keeping happy with their investment of money and time, was my board of directors. I used to love packing my board book with tons of statistics “showing” our hard work. I would use pretty graphs and pie charts, comparisons from the previous year, week, minute.

I was so proud of those thick board packets!

Now, the tables have turned and I serve on a board of directors for another area non-profit. In a recent board meeting, as I was overwhelmed with pages of statistics I sat thinking, “So what! What does this all mean?”

Oh the irony!

When I was leading my organization, we used to measure anything that moved. We were swimming in pre- and post-tests. By the time we closed out one session, we were at it again with pre-testing.

There were days, amongst the insanity, where I would have moments of clarity. I realized how many opportunities had been lost. We were caught up in the “Outcome Measurement madness“. We lost opportunities to truly, without defense, use the data to assess how we were doing and if we were moving the needle.

What would happen if we got off the hamster wheel and took a step back? What questions could we ask about our outcome measurement strategy?

One great tool that I found to help re-frame and create a strategy is a publication titled “Intermediary Development Series: Measuring Outcomes” at DareMightyThings.com.

If you are just starting or if you could use a fresh look, these questions can help:

Where should we focus?
What do we want to accomplish?
Who is on the team, and how do we involve others in organization?
What resources will you need?
Do we need additional help?
What is our timeline?

Taking a step back to reframe, or create a strategy to ensure that we are measuring what matters is critical. There is no escape from outcome measurement, and there shouldn’t be. Data is critical; it guides decisions, informs investors, and points out areas for improvement. However, you can measure a lot and still have no clue.

How have you found clarity in the outcome measurement madness? How does your organization involve all levels in developing the strategy and executing it? How do you share your data with stakeholders? Please share your experiences in the comment box below.