volunteers – Page 7 – The Healthy Non-Profit

Nonprofit blog carnival: “Dear board volunteers . . .”

April 30, 2013 erik Board development, volunteers

I love the Nonprofit Blog Carnival because it is an online collaborative space where bloggers can focus on a specific nonprofit theme and readers can easily access different points of view on the same topic. I am very honored and humbled that the DonorDreams blog will host the May Nonprofit Blog Carnival.

Let’s get this party started with the immortal words of Dr. Seuss from “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!“:

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.

Attention all bloggers: Calling for submissions to the May 2013 Nonprofit Blog Carnival

The theme for May’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival is . . .

“Dear Board volunteers . . .”
If you could write an anonymous letter to a nonprofit board about something they do that drives you crazy, what would that letter look like and what suggested solutions would you include?

carnival mask

I encourage you to have a little fun with this topic. You can write it from any of the following perspectives:

executive director
fundraising professional
fellow board member
nonprofit consultant
donor
volunteer
program staff

You can also theme your letter on any number of issues pertaining to: fundraising, board development, leadership, financial management, planning, organizational culture, volunteerism, etc. The possibilities really are endless!

And remember to keep the letter “anonymous” just like the Mardi Gras carnival!

Go visit April’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival hosted by Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog

In April, the carnival was hosted by Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog and the theme was “Best Advice“. She asked bloggers to consider the following questions:

How has it transformed your work?
What is your own best single piece of advice for people who work at nonprofits?

If you’re interested in reading what some very smart and talented bloggers had to say about this Nonprofit Blog Carnival theme, click here.

But wait . . . there’s more!

If you couldn’t tell from my introduction, one of my favorite writers is Dr. Seuss, and he has been described by many as an “architect of social change“. In my opinion, the genius behind his writing is that he talked about social issues in a way that even a child could understand.

So, those of you who can incorporate some reference or tip of your hat to Dr. Seuss in your Nonprofit Blog Carnival submission for May will get bonus points.

It can be as simple as incorporating a quote or a moral to one of his stories into your anonymous letter to nonprofit board volunteers. Or it can be as complex as composing your entire letter in a Seuss-like format.

I’ll even help by providing you with these online resources and ideas:

What exactly do bonus points get you? Simply put, it increases the chances that your blog post will get included in the Nonprofit Blog Carnival in May, which will be published on the DonorDreams blog platform on Wednesday, May 29th.

Finally, if you choose to accept the Seuss-challenge, be careful about copyrights, trademarks, and all of that legal stuff.

How to submit your work for consideration?

You are welcome to write your blog in a house or with a mouse or in a box or with a fox; however, I must receive your submission by the end of the day on Monday, May 27, 2013:

How do you submit? Simply email the following information to nonprofitcarnival[at]gmail[dot]com:

Your name.
The name of your blog.
The permalink of your post.

Who will make the decision on what gets included?

During the entire month of May, I’m turning the DonorDreams blog over to the Nonprofit Blog Carnival theme of “Dear Board Volunteers . . .”

In the last few weeks, I’ve invited a ton of executive directors, fundraising professionals, board volunteers, and nonprofit consultants to do the same thing that I’ve invited you to do, which is write an anonymous letter with some advice in it to their nonprofit board volunteers. Of course, I didn’t ask them to get creative with the Dr. Seuss curveball because they aren’t creative bloggers like you! 😉

I am publishing their work at DonorDreams throughout the month of May. (If you are looking for some inspiration, I encourage you to periodically click over to DonorDreams. Something you read may just spark a blog post for you.)

I will ask those nonprofit professionals and volunteers who get published at DonorDreams in May to help me judge what you and other bloggers submit at nonprofitcarnival[at]gmail[dot]com. Remember, the big carnival celebration happens on Wednesday, May 29th.

Miscellaneous details?

Click here to learn more about the Nonprofit Blog Carnival. If you want to view the archives, then you want to click here.

Do you want to become a “Friend of the Carnival” and receive email blasts twice a month with reminders about the Carnival? Click here if you want to receive those reminders.

Here’s your final piece of Seuss-inspiration: “You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go . . .”

I am very much looking forward to see what you decide to do and where you decide to take this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival.

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

Should we compensate our non-profit board volunteers?

April 29, 2013 erik Board development, volunteers

Those of you follow this blog know that I’ve been unpacking old boxes of “stuff” in my basement for the last few weeks. There is a small mountain of boxes from my last place of residence. It is stuff that was deemed unimportant at the time of unpacking, but important enough (for whatever reason) not to throw away. As I’ve encountered old non-profit training materials and memories, I’ve shared some of it here at DonorDreams blog.

Last night, I rummaged through another two boxes in an effort to get ready for garbage day on Monday. As I unpacked and recycled more stuff, I came across a March 2004 edition of BoardSource’s “Board Member” magazine. The cover story was titled: “At What Cost? The Board Compensation Debate.” James Orlikoff wrote the proponent article “Yes! In the Accountability Era, Board Members Must Be Paid.” Kevin Murphy wrote the opponent article “No! Paying Boards Is a Solution in Search of a Problem.”

I remember reading this pro-con piece almost a decade ago and I found myself firmly in the “Heck No!” camp. However, I’ve softened over time and enjoyed re-reading this article last night (especially because it took me away from the job of unpacking boxes . . . LOL).

Here is the thesis of Orlikoff’s proponents argument:

“In today’s challenging, complex, and litigious environment, board compensation may soon emerge as a key component of effective governance.”

Here is the thesis of Murphy’s opponents argument:

“. . . compensating board members not only undermines public confidence in the sector, but also begins to erode the underpinnings of our governance system. The media attention to compensation scandals makes one thing clear: With board member compensation, the potential abuses outweigh the potential benefits.”

One reason for my recent defection from the opponent’s camp is that I see many municipalities compensating their city council members. In my hometown of Elgin, Illinois, a citizen who gets voted onto the council received a $1,000 monthly stipend, the ability to participate in the city’s health insurance program, and a few other small perks.

I honestly don’t think the issue of compensation undermines public confidence in our municipal institutions, and I don’t see any erosion to the underpinnings of the governance system. In other words, I am looking at an empirical example and don’t see any evidence of what the opponents to board compensation argue.

Sure . . . the city of Elgin is not a non-profit board of directors, but it also isn’t a for-profit board either.

So, let’s look at a handful of arguments put forth by the proponents:

A lot is asked of non-profit board members, and compensation is a way to reward such work and create an incentive to do a quality job.
For-profit board members are compensated, and non-profits might need to start doing the same thing in order to compete.
Adding compensation to the picture might contribute to a more rigorous board recruitment and evaluation process.

Orlikoff ticks off 10 reasons for compensating non-profit board members, and after reading each argument I find myself shrugging my shoulders and saying “Hmmm . . . maybe.”

However, in my opinion, I am left wondering if compensation might change the dynamics around “engagement” of non-profit board members.

While I have not yet formed an opinion, if someone could show me that non-profit board members would be more engaged in activities like fundraising, financial management and board governance issues, then I might joyfully jump into the proponent’s camp.

I know that some of you might be scratching your heads right now thinking it is illegal to compensate non-profit board members. The simple answer is that it is not illegal to do so. It is just a little more complicated.

According to this BoardSource article, two percent of non-profits currently pay their board members (mostly large and complex organizations), and 25% of foundations pay their board members. Joanne Fritz at about.com answered this question in her post titled “Can a Nonprofit Compensate It’s Board Members?”

So, here I sit again in the middle of a good debate. While I understand board compensation alone won’t improve non-profit board governance, I am left wondering if it isn’t part of the solution.

What are your thoughts? Would adding a small stipend create a change in recruitment efforts? Year-end evaluations? Meeting attendance? Committee meeting attendance? Fundraising? Engagement? What are some of the problems we might create by opening this ‘can of worms’?

Before you share your thoughts in the comment box below, please consider the following quote from American business man James Casey.”

“The basic principle which I believe has contributed more than any other to the building of our business as it is today, is the ownership of our company by the people employed in it.”

I dunno . . . let’s talk about it. Here’s to your health!

Are you building your future base of Millennial donors?

April 24, 2013 erik Fundraising, volunteers

Did you see it? Did you see the front page news in USA Today Monday on Monday, April 22, 2013? The article by Hadley Malcolm was headlined “Millennials show no e-fear“. In a nutshell, this entire article boils down to one simple idea. We are going through an economic paradigm shift, and we’re moving to something economists are calling “The Participation Economy“. I believe fundraising and non-profit professionals need to pay attention because this will likely have a HUGE impact on the future of philanthropy.

So, what is “The Participation Economy“? Jeff Fromm, who is a blogger at Millennial Marketing and co-author of Marketing to Millennials (ugh … how old fashion . . . a book . . . what is THAT?), really describes it well when he says in USA Today:

“They’re (millennials) willing to accept advertising, but they want something out of it. The willingness to share where we are, who we’re with, what we like with the virtual world is part of ‘the participation economy’.”

The reporter dug up some interesting data from the University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future:

25% of Millennials would trade personal info in exchange for more relevant advertising (for those of us 35+ years old only 19% agreed with this statement)
56% of Millennials would share their location to receive deals from nearby businesses (for those of us 35+ years old only 42% agreed with this statement)
51% of Millennials would share info with a company if they get something in return (for those of us 35+ years old only 40% agreed with this statement)

Consumers are willing to “participate” if they get something in return, and this especially applies to younger consumers (aka people who will have the money in the not-so-distant-future).

Looking at this from a different angle, people are willing to ENGAGE if they get something in return.

If you want more proof, I suggest that you turn on your television set. The shows that people tune into most are participatory (e.g. American Idol, The Voice, etc).

What does any of this have to do with your non-profit and your resource development program? Well, here are just a few of my thoughts:

Millennials live their lives in both the physical world as well as in the virtual world. Fundraising programs will need to set-up shop in both spaces in the future.
Ten years ago, many of my fundraising colleagues warned against over-investing in ePhilanthropy strategies because Millennial donors were young and years away from participating in serious philanthropy. Well, the oldest Millennials are now 34-years-old. Uh-oh! I think “the future” is knocking on the door. It might be time to get serious about what ePhilanthropy looks like and what strategies and tactics are effective.
The idea of PARTICIPATION holds the key to engagement for this up-and-coming generation of philanthropists. So, it stands to reason that if you want Millennials to take the place of their Baby Boomer parents over the next 10 years, then your resource development program can’t simply treat donors like Cash Station machines (ATM). We need to get beyond the “you ask and then you get” mentality. We need to shift our paradigm to “you involve, you ask, they give, and they stay involved“.

At first blush, we’re obviously talking about volunteerism being the key to engaging the next generation and developing your future base of donors. Here are a few interesting resources for those of you who understand that you have some work to do around strengthening your agency’s volunteer recruitment and management program:

However, I think focusing on your volunteer recruitment, management and retention program and strategies is just the tip of the iceberg.

Here is a crazy thought out of left field. What if you and a handful of Millennial aged supporters sat down and asked the question: “How do we build great participation (both physical and virtual) strategies into our resource development program?” Here are a few wacky questions and ideas to chew on:

How can your agency partner with the business community to entice Millennial consumers (aka donors) to “check-in” on Facebook or Foursquare at a local business. What benefit will the business get out of it? What benefit will your agency get out of it? What benefit will the consumer (aka donor) get out of it? How can the business and your agency share that data? What will you do with it once you have it? For some reason, I am envisioning a scavenger hunt fundraiser. I am also envisioning passports with QR codes linked to YouTube videos containing clues, instructions and cultivation/stewardship info.
How can you get your Millennial aged donors to participate in the act of allocating where their donation goes? Are we at the threshold of entering “The Restricted Gift” era? What can you do to involve donors as volunteers in programs that their contribution helps support?
What tools will your fundraising volunteers need in their toolbox if they are going to evangelize you mission online and solicit people in the virtual world? Will those strategies need to look different than the current structured campaigns we’ve been running in the physical world? If so, what accountability and urgency strategies will fundraising professionals need to develop in order to drive productivity?

Does your head hurt? I know mine does. So, let’s focus on one simple question: “What two or three things can you and your agency do to start transitioning your resource development program into alignment with the new ‘Participation Economy’?” Please scroll down and share a few thoughts in the comment box below.

Here’s to your health!

Great non-profit advice from those boxes in my basement: Part 3

April 11, 2013 erik volunteers

On Monday, I shared with you that in the corner of my basement, there is a small mountain of boxes from my last place of residence. I’ve decided after seven years, none of it can be very important. So, I’m opening the boxes and starting to trash the contents. In the very first box I found a treasure trove of training materials from when I worked for the Boy Scouts (BSA) as a District Executive in the 1990s. I decided that the readers of this blog might find some of it helpful and useful. On Monday, I shared with you BSA’s tips for running an annual campaign. Yesterday, I offered you the Scouts’ perspective on volunteer management. Today, we will look at volunteer retention.

Unlike the last two BSA documents that I blogged about, this last one was not what I would call “simple”. It was not a brochure or a laminated card for your wallet. It was a 32-page manual titled “Selecting District People,” and Section VIII is all about “Volunteer Retention“.

I really love how the BSA starts Section VIII off with the following limerick:

There once was a chairman named Tad,
Who recruited new people like mad;
A whiz we all thought,
But the trouble he brought
‘Cause they left ‘fore they served; it was sad!

I think this really says it all! Don’t you?

The BSA credits the Boy Scouts of Canada with coming up with the following “seven keys to the care and maintenance of volunteers:”

Recruit the volunteers you need.
Reclaim the volunteers who left scouting.
Refuse/reject volunteers who are not suitable.
Retain the volunteers you have.
Recognize the volunteers you have.
Rotate volunteers who need more challenging work.
Refer the volunteers who move.

Wow . . . seven ‘”R’s” . . . pretty clever. 😉

This section goes on to offer many different retention ideas, and the following are just a few:

Know your volunteers’ interests and align their volunteer opportunities with those interests.
When you see a volunteer exhibiting “burn out,” don’t wait until it is too late. Engage these volunteers early and help them change to new duties.
Volunteers sometimes drop out for personal reasons (e.g. health issues, divorce, work stress, etc). When this happens, keep in touch with them and invite them back when the situation is resolved.

For me, a good volunteer program has one central value that guides it . . . volunteers are members of your family and should be treated as such.

Just a few days ago, I received an email from my online friend Joanne Fritz at about.com. One of her stories was titled “What Do Your Volunteers Want? 10 Ways to Make Volunteers Happy“. She really takes the issue of volunteer retention to a new level. If you have a minute or two in your busy non-profit day, I strongly urge you to click-through and read this post. I know it will generate a few “AH-HA” moments for you.

While the mountain of boxes in the corner of my basement is still large, I’m stopping this series of blog posts here before it gets too stale. Besides, I’ve only gotten through one box so far and I have to pick-up the pace. LOL 😉

Is your agency trying to build a volunteer recruitment and management program? If so, how is it going? Do you track volunteer retention? What are you doing to improve your retention rates? Please share a few of your thoughts and ideas in the comment box below. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Great non-profit advice from those boxes in my basement: Part 2

April 10, 2013 erik Board development, volunteers

On Monday, I shared with you that in the corner of my basement, there is a small mountain of boxes from my last place of residence. I’ve decided after seven years, none of it can be very important. So, I’m opening the boxes and starting to trash the contents. In the very first box I found a treasure trove of training materials from when I worked for the Boy Scouts (BSA) as a District Executive in the 1990s. I decided that the readers of this blog might find some of it helpful and useful. On Monday, I shared with you BSA’s tips for running an annual campaign. Today, I will offer you the Scouts’ perspective on volunteer management.

The document I pulled out of the box is super simple. It is a brochure titled “Six Major Tasks for Volunteer Success: To Strengthen District Committees and Commissioner Staffs“.

Define Responsibilities. Volunteers must know what is expected for them to be successful. Carefully define, in writing, the responsibilities for each position.
Select & Recruit. Fit the right person to the job. Consider each prospect’s skills, interests, and other relevant factors. Consider the variety of motivating factors for people getting involved. (And then BSA instructs its employees to use recruitment best practices and references other manuals)
Orient & Train. Provide each person with prompt orientation on the individual assignment and with adequate training to be successful. (Again, BSA references another three manuals for training curriculum)
Coach Volunteers. Provide ongoing coaching as needed. Build a volunteer’s confidence and self-esteem. Help conserve a volunteer’s time. Coaching should be provided by the appropriate chairperson or professional.
Recognize Achievement. Prompt volunteer recognition has an important impact on the tenure and quality of service in the district. Recognition must be sincere, timely, and earned. Use the great variety of formal BSA recognition items, but also be creative with frequent locally devised thank-yous. Even more effective may be the personal “pat on the back” for a job well done. Recognize volunteers on a face-to-face basis, from a person of status, and preferably in front of the volunteer’s peers.
Evaluate Performance. Help district volunteers regularly evaluate how they’re doing. (Would you be surprised to learn that they reference yet still more manuals)

For those of you worrying that I’m violating copyright law, rest assured there is nothing on this brochure that indicates this is copyrighted. Additionally, these six points are all best practices dating back to Biblical times (maybe I’m exaggerating . . . or am I?). Finally, I am infamous for ending my blog posts by saying something like “please share your thoughts in the comment box below because we can all learn from each other“. I guess I’m just imposing my teachable point of view on the Scouts.

C’est la vie!

Reviewing this old 1997 BSA volunteer document, I am struck with the following thoughts:

It is super impressive that the BSA seems to have a manual for everything, which gives new meaning to the expression “They wrote the book on that.”
BSA is dependent on hundreds of thousands of volunteers to implement their programming. It makes sense that they’ve invested countless time, energy and money in developing resources. I wonder if there are collaboration and strategic alliance opportunities for your organization around volunteer recruitment and management. What’s stopping you from reaching out to your local council and starting a dialog?
Boiling it down into six simple tips is misleading and confusing because the devil is always in the details. It is easy to say “Coach volunteers,” but the trick is doing it. There is nothing simple about these six steps, and the BSA has been honing their expertise in the area of volunteer recruitment and management for more than a century.

Is your agency trying to build a volunteer recruitment and management program? If so, how is it going? How many manuals have you developed and on what subjects? Have you hired a volunteer coordinator yet? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box below.

Here’s to your health!

High Functioning and High Profile?

April 9, 2013 erik Board development, volunteers

Dani Robbins is the Founder & Principal Strategist at Non Profit Evolution located in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve invited my good friend and fellow non-profit consultant to the first Wednesday of each month about board development related topics. Dani also recently co-authored a book titled “Innovative Leadership Workbook for Nonprofit Executives” that you can find on Amazon.com.

There are some very high-profile and high functioning Boards on which community leaders serve with distinction. There are other high-profile yet lower functioning Boards on which people serve because they believe in the mission and it’s also good for their company, career or ego. It’s hard to tell which is which, and it may even be hard to decide which you want.

High profile Boards where nothing strategic is happening but everything is basically fine may be enough for you. Then again, it may not. Even if it is, “basically fine” is hard to qualify. How do you know?

If you are invited to serve on the Board of a respected community organization, the best – and really only – way I know to find out what type of board it is, is to ask lots of questions. Those questions include asking about a typical meeting, about the agenda, topics covered and the quality and quantity discussions; about the CEO and how he or she operates.

Is it a yes Board or a working board?
Is it a Board whose meetings include generative and strategic discussions or one that solely focuses on its fiduciary responsibilities?
Does the organization have a vision of where they’d like to be at some specified point in the future?
Are there organizational values?
Do they align with your values?
Is there a strategic plan?
Are there goals the CEO is working toward?
What are they and by who were they set?

The answers will tell you a lot.

If a typical meeting has no written agenda, you know going in that conversation is likely to wander off topic.

If the meeting is described as primarily votes and committee reports with approvals to follow or the vote being tabled until the discussion at hand is taken up by the committee, with others invited to attend, you know there is a Chair who knows how to run a meeting and who is also running a primarily fiduciary focused Board.

If there are robust discussions that challenge the status quo, decisions that move forward the organization’s vision and generative discussions that consider all constituent groups’ positions, you have a Board that is fiduciary, strategic and generative.

Alternatively, if there is very little discussion, you may have a high-profile but lower functioning Board. Further evidence of this will be if there are no organizational values, no vision, no strategic plan and if the goals were set by the CEO for the CEO.

The CEO’s goals are usually tied to the Board approved strategic plan. In the absence of a plan, the Board sets the CEOs goals and evaluates the CEO based on the accomplishment of those goals. CEOs that set their own goals without any Board input also tend to set the direction for the Board, both signs of a lower functioning board and also an indication of boundary issues. Other evidence of boundary issues, though on the other side, includes Board meeting topics that are operational in nature.

Boundary issues mean the Board acts on things traditionally done by the CEO, and the CEO performs duties traditional completed by the Board. The combination creates a lower functioning Board that, high-profile or not, may not meet your Board service goals or its governance responsibilities.

As described in a previous post The Role of the Board, “the Board is responsible for governance, which includes Mission, Vision and Strategic Planning; Hiring, Supporting and Evaluating the Executive Director; acting as the Fiduciary Responsible Agent, setting Policy and Raising Money. Boundary creep makes the accomplishment of governance responsibilities challenging, which in turn compromise the achievement of high functioning.”

Of course, high functioning and high profile Boards are not the only options. The opposites, low profile and low functioning, are quite prevalent and also easier to spot.

Like anything, it’s important to know what you want out of your Board service before you determine the Board that is right for you to serve. High profile doesn’t necessarily beget high functioning. What’s right for you?

As always, I welcome your experience and insight.

Non-profit lessons in a pot of split pea soup

April 4, 2013 erik Fundraising, organizational development, volunteers

After last weekend’s Easter celebrations, I had a lot of ham leftovers. So, I decided to do what I normally do . . . I went to the store and bought all of the ingredients for split pea soup. This is what my mom did when I was a kid, and this is what I now do as an adult. Unfortunately, this year’s undertaking went horribly wrong, but the good news is that I walked away with a story that all non-profit organizations will appreciate.

I worked on this pot of soup all day long on Monday. Split peas, celery, carrot, onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt, pepper, marjoram, and leftover ham from Easter. Boil . . . then simmer . . . then gently heat throughout. Stir, stir, stir some more. Taste, stir, taste, stir . . . you get the idea.

As this process unfolded, I kept retreating to my home office to work on projects for clients. Long story short, I got really wrapped up in something work-related and forgot to stir the soup for an hour-and-a-half. Needless to say, I burned the soup. Here was what I ended up doing between 6:00 pm on Monday night and 11:00 am on Tuesday morning in an attempt to remedy the situation:

Call Mom and cry . . . then ask for her expert advice.
Transfer soup from burned pot to new pot.
Add water.
Add more spicing.
Add more onion, celery and carrot.
Add more peas.
Add more ham.
Add more spices.
Go to Google and search: “I burned my split pea soup.”
Read lots of crazy internet content about how to fix a pot of burned split pea soup.
Deep breath . . . add a heaping tablespoon of peanut butter to the soup.
Cry some more because now I had a pot of burned peanut butter soup.
Sleep and dream about burned peanut butter (supposed to be split pea soup)
Wake up to attend a meeting at a local coffee shop. Bringing a mug of my burned soup to the meeting and ask friends to taste it and weigh-in with their opinions.
Call Mom and brother fromon my way home from the Tuesday morning meeting to beg for any advice they may have been holding back on.

Let me stop here and bridge this topic over to our work as non-profit and fundraising professionals.

As I look back upon my time on the front line, I dealt with a ton of burnt pots of split pea soup. Here are just a few examples:

Hiring the wrong person to do a job.
Recruiting the wrong person to help with a fundraising campaign.
Recruiting the wrong person to serve on the board of directors.
Asking the wrong board members to serve on the wrong standing committee.
Investing way too much time cultivating a prospective donor who had no intention of ever making a contribution.

In each of these business examples, I did the same thing as I did with my pot of soup. I kept sinking more time, energy and resources into fixing a situation that just wasn’t fixable.

In the case of making the wrong hire, it was additional meetings, coaching, corrective action plans, and more corrective action plans.

In the case of the fundraising volunteer, it was additional meetings, taking tasks off their plate and doing it myself, and recruiting a co-chair and other volunteers to supplement the work I originally had counted on them to do.

My partner (and the love of my life) is a corporate sales tax guy. He hangs around accountants all day long, and he is constantly telling me:

“Sunk costs are never a consideration!”

As much as it pains me to say, he is right.

As for my pot of burned pot of split pea soup, my mother and brother convinced me to throw it out and start from scratch on Tuesday morning.

All of those sunk costs kept making the pot of soup bigger and bigger, which is what made throwing three gallons of soup in the trash so difficult. If I had only listened to what my partner is always telling me, there would’ve been a lot less food (and money) going in the garbage.

As it relates to your non-profit organization, it is important to remember that your time is money. This means hiring the right people and recruiting the right volunteers is very important. Failing to do so is the equivalent of making an ever expanding pot of burned split pea soup.

You might as well open your wallet and start burning dollar bills. It is the same thing! And what non-profit organization has enough money laying around to do that?

How do you make sure you are hiring and recruiting the right people? How do you know when to pull the trigger and cut your losses when it comes to volunteers and staff? Please use the comment box below to share stories or best practices because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Non-profit boardroom diversity includes a man named Thomas

April 3, 2013 erik Board development, volunteers

Easter was just a few days ago, and I still have things like fake basket grass, plastic eggs, and empty calories on my mind. I’ve also been working hard at turning leftover ham into split pea soup. Apparently, other bloggers have Easter on the brain because I just read a great post titled “Who’s Your Thomas?” that Tom Okarma posted on the Fox West Philanthropic Network’s LinkedIn discussion board. I loved this blog post because it was better than anything the Easter Bunny brought me . . . it was the gift of “AH-HA”.

As you probably get from the title of the post, Tom talks about the value of having a board volunteer who is not a rubber stamp. In fact, this person actively doubts all sorts of things that your agency is about to undertake. They express their concerns. They ask questions . . . lots of them. They share what they believe is the “unvarnished truth” regardless of whether or not the timing is convenient.

When I was on the front line, my Doubting Thomas was a board member named Lee.

I wish I could tell you that I used Lee’s talents appropriately, but I cannot. I worked hard to silence him, and more than a decade later I now see how wrong I was.

Gosh darn it . . . hindsight really is cruel. LOL

Guarding against the rubber stamp

I cannot count how many times I’ve seen a group of people sit around a table, discuss an issue, and look like a bunch of bobble-head dolls. Let’s face it. People are busy and on any given day we can get distracted and fail to focus on the business at hand.

If you have “Board Member Thomas” sitting around the table, the odds are much higher that the bobble-head dolls might bobble at a slightly slower pace and fewer mistakes/oversights might be made.

Improving the decision

One of the things I’ve seen work when it comes to satisfying “Board Member Thomas” is answering their questions. This usually entails more than just verbally telling them what they want to know. It almost always involves data, reports, and documents. After receiving these things, it also almost always involves discussion, discussion and more discussion.

In the end, this information and discussion results in better boardroom decision-making.

Too much of a good thing is always bad

On a few occasions, I’ve had the privilege of being in a non-profit boardroom full of Doubting Thomas board members. Just thinking about those few experiences still sends a chill up my spine. LOL Would you be surprised if I told you those boardrooms brought the expression “paralysis by analysis” to life?

There are two important points that need to be made here:

Diversity is about more than just age, gender and ethnicity. It includes all kinds of other factors: profession/occupation, personal and career experiences/successes, social networks, and . . . yes . . . personality types (e.g. Doubting Thomas).
The funny thing about diversity is that if you over-pursue one thing, then you end up losing your diversity. Target too many Millennial and GenX board prospects, and you end up with a young and ineffective board. If you recruit too many Doubting Thomas board volunteers, then you end up with grid lock. So, tread carefully!

Do you have a Doubting Thomas on your board? How do you manage that asset? How do you work with your board development or governance committee to identify and target such a board prospect? Do you have any Doubting Thomas boardroom stories to share with your peers? Please scroll down and use the comment box to share a thought or two on this very important board development topic. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Is your non-profit board old? Paging all Millennials and GenXers?

March 26, 2013 erik Board development, organizational development, volunteers

Recently, I’ve heard at least three or four of my non-profit friends lament that their board lacks diversity in the area of age. It seems as if their boards of directors are primarily packed with Baby Boomer generation volunteers in their 50s and 60s.

At first, my response to each of my friends was:

DUH!!!

Isn’t it obvious that young people between 20- and 40-years-old are climbing life’s challenging career path trails? Not only are these individuals focused on career, but they are having children and raising families. In my opinion, these ingredients are a cocktail of NO TIME + NO MONEY.

So, I wasn’t surprised to learn the following facts in an article published in The Guardian titled “How can charities attract young trustees to their boards?“:

The mean age of a non-profit board member in the UK is 57.
Only 0.5% of board volunteers are between the ages of 18 and 24.
One-fifth of board volunteers surveyed said they lack age diversity on their non-profit board.

I am a fan of diversity and believe it is important, but I am not a fan of tokenism. You do yourself and your non-profit organization a great disservice when you recruit people to fill gaps just for the sake of filling gaps.

When your organization decides it is time to add more young people to its board of directors, your board development committee has its work cut out for itself because the prospects you identify, evaluate and cultivate must be able to hold their weight with other more experienced and better resourced board volunteers.

Young board members must be able to:

make a personal financial contribution;
be willing to attend board meetings, committee meetings and events;
have the ability and willingness to solicit their personal and professional network to support the organization.

In all honesty, I am a really big fan of getting young volunteers involved in special event planning, standing committees and task forces, and young professional groups first before asking them to join the board. However, if you’re determined to diversify your non-profit board of directors, your board development committee must have the following in place first:

comprehensive new board member orientation,
board volunteer training opportunities, and
new board member mentoring program.

Has your organization brought Millennial and GenX aged volunteers onto your non-profit board? How has it worked out for you? What lessons did you learn? What would you do differently? Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts and experiences. Why? Because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Congratulations on the new Pope and all of your ‘Good Works’

March 21, 2013 erik volunteers

I was Baptized in a United Church of Christ congregation in Park Ridge, Illinois where my parents both grew up. I was raised in a Lutheran Church in Mount Prospect, Illinois where I took my first communion and got confirmed. In recent years, my religion has faded and it seems as if none of my religious training stuck. (Note to self: I wonder if I can get a refund? I should check into that.) However, in recent weeks I’ve been bombarded by all things Catholic thanks in large part to our news media who is stuck in overdrive. All of this coverage compels me to write a little something about our Catholic brothers and sisters, who work by our sides in the non-profit trenches.

Pope Francis: A sight for sore eyes

This Pope’s namesake is Francis of Assisi, who is one of the better known saints. He is the patron saint of animals and the environment, and is synonymous with the concepts of poverty and humility. In taking the name “Francis,” it is widely believed the Pope is sending a message to the world. Many have speculated this message is that one of the church’s major initiatives will be its focus on social justice and its work with the poor.

As someone who has spent almost his entire life in the non-profit sector working in the social services/human services sub-sector, this is welcome news.

You don’t need to be a Catholic to appreciate this development. I am excited about the future and can’t wait to see where this all leads. I hope you are, too.

Beware of false prophets

As I confessed in the opening paragraph of this post, my Baptismal water didn’t take and the church that I now attend on Sunday morning is Meet The Press on NBC. David Gregory is my pastor (which is kinda funny since he is Jewish). Go figure!

This last Sunday one of the roundtable participants was former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, who is a Catholic and served on one of the church’s child abuse task forces. During my hour-long mass, I heard Keating saying something that really caught my attention:

“In the United States, 50 percent of social services are provided by the Catholic church.”

This declaration stuck with me for days until I couldn’t resist Googling around in my free time in an effort to fact check this statement. I guess I wasn’t the only person who was bothered by this statement because PolitiFact has already done the research and posted an article titled “Does the Catholic Church provide half of social services in the U.S.”

If you have a minute or two to spare in your busy schedule today, I strongly recommend that you read the PolitiFact post. It is super interesting and a quick read. It drives home the point that we all need to beware of false prophets. Damn politicians . . . you can’t believe a word of what comes out of their mouths! LOL

Here is the long and the short of what PolitiFact found out:

“So by our estimate, Catholic-affiliated charity amounts to 17 percent of the funds spent by nonprofits on social services — well short of the 50 percent Keating cited. Even doubling this share to create a generous margin of error brings it to 34 percent — still well short of half. But even this may overestimate the footprint of Catholic-supported charities, since it doesn’t include social-service expenditures by the government. In his comment, Keating didn’t specify that he was only talking about social services funded by private groups.”

Truth be told . . . I knew that Catholic-affiliated charities did a lot of work, but I never understood how much work it does. I am still impressed with 17 percent! I think you should be, too.

Celebrating ‘Good Works’

One of the core tenets of the Catholic faith is that “good works are done to glorify God and are done in honor of him.”

There is a lot of confusion around this concept and what it means to Catholics. I found a really good blog post that explains it really well. Click here if you want to learn more.

As a non-profit professional, I really appreciate the fact that there is a network of 1.2 billion people who dedicate their lives to doing good things for other people.

With the media in overdrive about all things Catholic, I encourage all non-profit professionals to take a moment out of their busy day to appreciate the good works of the church and its members. When you’re in the car commuting, simply ask yourself the following questions:

I wonder how many of our board members and volunteers are Catholic?
I wonder how many of our donors are Catholic?
I wonder how many of our clients have been impacted by other Catholic-affiliated charities?

After scratching your head and contemplating these questions, simply end your thought with a simple “Thank goodness for good works!”

Did the “Festival of All Things Catholic” by our news media inspire other non-profit related thoughts for you? If so, please share those thoughts in the comment box below.

Here’s to your health!