posts – Page 14 – The Healthy Non-Profit

Are you the future of philanthropy? Meet Danielle Ward

May 12, 2015 erik Uncategorized

For the third year in a row, DonorDreams is proud to be hosting the Nonprofit Blog Carnival in May. On May 4, 2015, we published a call for submissions from non-profit bloggers across the blogosphere on the topic of “You are the future of philanthropy,” which stems from a 2007 TED Talks video presentation by Katherine Fulton. I asked bloggers to pontificate on any number of topics including the democratization of philanthropy, aggregated giving, social investing, and much more. If you are a blogger looking for more details, click here to read the May 4th call for submissions.
We will publish the May 2015 Nonprofit Blog Carnival on May 28, 2015 right here on the DonorDreams blog platform.
In addition to whipping the blogosphere up into a frenzy, we are dedicating our Tuesday and Thursday DonorDreams posts throughout May to people involved in local philanthropy. We’re videotaping donors, volunteers and non-profit professionals and asking them to answer the following question posed by Katherine Fulton at the end of her TED Talks presentation:

“Imagine 100 years from now and your grandchildren are looking at an old picture of you. What is the story? What impact did you want to have on the community around you? What impact did you make?”

Meet Danielle Ward
Danielle Ward opened her non-profit consulting practice, DMW13 Consulting, in late 2014. Prior to this undertaking she worked or volunteered for the following non-profit organizations or consulting firms:

Marklund
Meyer Partners
Lake Forest Symphony Association
Association of Lutheran Development Executives
Toast of the Fox Toastmasters
The Renewal Center

Danielle is a CFRE who loves philanthropy. She recently joined the Fox West Philanthropy Network’s board of directors. On her LinkedIn page, she announces to the world that she proudly supports the following organizations:

For all of these reasons, we thought we’d ask her to take a crack at answering the question that Katherine Fulton posed at the end of her TED Talks presentation.
Danielle’s philanthropy story?
[youtube=http://youtu.be/9QxX9hCZPg4]
(Note: If you receive DonorDreams via email you may need to click here to view today’s video interview.)
Stories from your community?
Katherine Fulton says in her TED Talks presentation:

“We have a problem. Our experience to date both individually and collectively hasn’t prepared us for what we’re going to need to do or who we’re going to need to be. We’re going to need a new generation of citizen leaders willing to commit ourselves to growing and changing and learning as rapidly as possible.”

Have you met someone in your community who you think embodies the future of philanthropy and is a member of a new generation of citizen leaders? If so, please scroll down and use the comment box to tell us about that person.
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

Are you the future of philanthropy? Meet Stephen Taylor

May 7, 2015 erik Uncategorized

“Imagine 100 years from now and your grandchildren are looking at an old picture of you. What is the story? What impact did you want to have on the community around you? What impact did you make?”

Meet Stephen Taylor
Stephen Taylor opened his non-profit consulting practice, Taylor Philanthropic Services, in early 2015, but he has worked in the non-profit sector for a lifetime. Starting in 1976, he joined the Boy Scouts of America as a District Executive and worked his way up all the way up the org chart to council Scout Executive, which is where he served three councils in Mount Prospect, IL; Spartanburg, SC; and Alexandria, LA. After 36 years and retiring from the BSA in 2012, he had stops at Bell Fundraising Consultants and DayOneNetwork.
Stephen is a CFRE who loves philanthropy. He co-chaired the Fox West Philanthropy Network’s Philanthropy Day in 2013 and 2014.
For all of these reasons, we thought we’d ask him to take a crack at answering the question that Katherine Fulton posed at the end of her TED Talks presentation.
Stephen’s philanthropy story?

(Note: If you receive DonorDreams via email you may need to click here to view today’s video interview.)
Stories from your community?
Katherine Fulton says in her TED Talks presentation:

“We have a problem. Our experience to date both individually and collectively hasn’t prepared us for what we’re going to need to do or who we’re going to need to be. We’re going to need a new generation of citizen leaders willing to commit ourselves to growing and changing and learning as rapidly as possible.”

Nonprofit Blog Carnival call for submissions: You are the future of philanthropy

May 4, 2015 erik Fundraising

NPBlogCarnivalBanner I am thrilled to be hosting the Nonprofit Blog Carnival this May for the third year in a row. This year’s theme is inspired by a TED Talks video filmed in 2007 of Katherine Fulton talking about the “future of philanthropy“. I’ve seen this video countless times, and I’m always inspired by it, which is why I’m using it as a springboard for non-profit bloggers this month.
Throughout the years, I cannot count the number of times I’ve spoken with non-profit friends who openly worry about who will step-up as their community’s next philanthropic movers-and-shakers. They point to the impact of globalization and how it has transferred wealth and philanthropic decision-making away from Main Street.
Watching Katherine speak reminds me there are forces at work that will likely reshape the future of our work. She talks eloquently about the “democratization of philanthropy,” which always makes me think about how the resource development tools in our exist toolbox probably need to be re-thought or tweaked.
Of course, rushing to embrace these changes too soon is fraught with peril as some bloggers like Future Fundraising Now blogger Jeff Brooks has warned us about in so many wonderful posts throughout the years.
For this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival, I’m inviting non-profit bloggers to first click-through and view Katherine’s TED Talks video and then write something inspired by her words.

The following are just a few ideas I can imagine non-profit bloggers seizing upon as inspiration for what I anticipate will be amazing submissions to this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival:

Moving from closed-small-slow-fragmented-short to open-big-fast-connected-long assumptions
A new generation of citizen leaders
The democratization of philanthropy
Mass collaboration
Online Philanthropy Marketplaces
Aggregated Giving
Innovation Competitions
Social Investing
The Social Singularity

If none of these topics are appealing, I invite bloggers to participate in the picture frame exercise at the end of Katherine’s presentation.
During the month of May, DonorDreams blog is dedicating every post to bringing you videos of non-profit leaders, donors and every day people like you participating in Katherine’s picture frame exercise. If you are not a blogger but want to videotape yourself participating in the picture frame exercise, I am happy to post your vlog on my blog platform. Simply videotape yourself, upload it to YouTube and email me the link with an explanation of who you are and what town you live in.
How bloggers should submit their work for consideration?
You are welcome to write your blog post anytime during the month of May (or even submit a post you may have previously published); however, I must receive your submission by the end of the day on Monday, May 25, 2015:
How do you submit? Simply email the following information to nonprofitcarnival[at]gmail[dot]com:

Your name
The URL of your post
A two of three sentence summary of your post

We will publish the May 2015 Nonprofit Blog Carnival on Thursday, May 28, 2015 right here at DonorDreams blog.
Go visit April’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival
In April, the carnival was hosted by Craig Linton at his blog — “Fundraising Detective” The theme was “A Celebration Of SOFII – Will You Inspire Or Invest?” . He challenged bloggers to submit 100 new articles and exhibits for SOFII (Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration).
If you’re interested in seeing what some very smart and talented bloggers submitted, click here.
Miscellaneous details?
Click here to learn more about the Nonprofit Blog Carnival and sign-up for monthly reminders. If you want to view the archives, then you want to click here.
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

Everyone is a Marketer: Building an Organization-wide Marketing Team

April 28, 2015 erik teambuilding

Hi everyone! I know Erik mentioned, I’d write about technology, but when I sat down to write this post, the topic of building a marketing team just would not leave me. I hope you enjoy it! I’ll see if I can convince Erik to let me guest blog again and I promise that post will be more focused along what I have written in the past, on Mondays with Marissa. Thanks for letting me blog-sit, DonorDreams readers! Erik is back on Thursday!

A few weeks ago, Erik reflected on a quote by Warren Buffet, “The people own the brand.” That got me thinking; if the people own the brand, then we as nonprofit staff, are all marketers. It doesn’t matter what position you hold in your organization. Every single staff member is a marketer or at the very least can be part of the marketing team.
As a member of the marketing department, it is my job to grow an audience of participants, supporters and influencers for our organization through various means of communication. This is a challenging job and one, in my opinion, should not rest solely on the shoulders of one department. It is not possible for me to know all of the programs that need to be promoted, see the impact we are making in the community, and attract new members all at the same time. I need help. So together with the other members of my department, we worked to create an organization-wide marketing team.
Here’s how we did it and how you can too:

Create a marketing strategy – It is the job of the marketing department (or person) to figure out which audiences are reached by which media channel. Perhaps your participants are all on Facebook, but you can reach all of your supporters via email. Take time and figure this out. Also, meet with each department to figure out what that department’s goals are. Put all of in this information down in one place. It can be as basic or as detailed as your time and resources allow and the format does not matter.
Identify key team members – Look at your entire organization. Who communicates with the marketing team (or person) the most? Are there members of other departments that want to develop marketing skills? These people will give the marketing team (or person) the information they need to execute their marketing goals. Nonprofits tend to become siloed because each department is focused on their own set of goals, it can help to have a person who is a bridge between their department and the marketing team. Also, other members of each department might feel more accountable to a member of their own team and as a result, marketing information might be more readily available.
Decide on a communication system – Email can get clunky, but if it is what works best for your organization, run with it. However, maybe you’ll find that project management software, like Trello, helps organize things and keeps communication fluid, and focused. Or perhaps, it could be a communication call where a representative from each department (ideally, a member of your team you figured out in the step above) shares what needs promotion in their area. Whatever it is, make sure there is a clear system on how communication will flow.
Test it out – Now that you have your strategy, team, and system in place, see how it works. It is important to keep an open mind; ask for feedback and make adjustments.
Be transparent – After testing out, let the rest of your organization know how the marketing team is now spread across all departments and explain the impact it is having. Where I work, we have seen that creating a team of promotion managers has allowed the marketing department to go from only being scheduled a week ahead of time, to being scheduled at least two weeks ahead and having promotion items on the calendar a full month ahead.

What I described above, is a step-by-step method for creating a structured marketing team that is spread throughout your organization. Maybe your organization needs something more flexible. In that case, the most important thing is to find a communication system that works best for your organization. This is the anchor for everything.
In many organizations the marketing team, is really only one person. It is important to lean on the entire staff to provide this person with information needed to create participants, supporters and influencers. In order for that to happen people need to know what to do with the information they are submitting to the marketing team and get feedback from the marketing team on how they are going to use it.
On a recent episode of Mad Men, Donald Draper said, “Behind every great ad, is a great story.” Building an organization-wide marketing team can make it easier to find the stories needed to create that great ad/blog post/social media post – one that can grow the organization’s membership, donor base, and awareness.
Do you work in the marketing department of your organization? How do you manage internal communications to ensure you have the information you need to tell your story? Let us know in the comments!

The Importance of Succession Planning for an Organization's Leadership

April 23, 2015 erik human resourses

Hi, DonorDreams Readers! Hope this week is treating you well! It’s Marissa here, with a great post written by Heather Eddy, President and CEO of KEES: Kristner Eddy Executive Services and Alford Executive Search. While we’ve talked a lot about retaining key employee in the past few posts, today Heather talks about how to plan for when people move on to another opportunity. Succession Planning along with employee retention makes for a strong nonprofit. Thanks again, Heather! Enjoy!

Although this blog has covered retaining employees for the past two posts, sometimes it is time for people to move on, even a revered and beloved leader. How an organization and it’s leadership undertakes this transition says a lot to other employees. It can make a big difference in general employee satisfaction and what might trigger a good employee to leave. A Board may not realize it, but having thoughtful and articulate plans in place about the organizations future (Strategic Plans, Succession Plans, Compensation Plans, Capital plans, etc.) speaks volumes to the general employee base.
Succession Planning is a term used in private and nonprofit sectors (less so with governmental entities) to describe the process that an organization (typically a Board of Directors) undertakes to plan for its next leader. Interestingly, with the term being common in leadership lingo, a limited number of organizations actually have a written Succession Plan. How do we know this? It is a question that we survey groups about frequently. The responses often come back as: maybe, no, I don’t know, yes-we’ve had a few meetings about it, yes-it’s in my head, and my favorite….yes – we talked about it once and someone has the notes somewhere. An idea, wish, intention or concept or does not truly constitute a solid Succession Plan. I find that less than 15% of the nonprofits we interact with have a written Succession Plan that is that is widely understood by organizational leadership (Board and Executives), and could be accessed and implemented with ease. Note – often times the “emergency “plan (what to do when the ED gets hit by a bus or wins the lottery) is confused with the Succession Plan. The two can be related, but are entirely different.
A relevant and ideal Succession Plan should have an overview of the following, with specifics to be filled in at the time certain triggers occur. A Succession Plan should be reviewed every 2 – 3 years if the sitting leader will be there for a while, and every 1 – 2 years as s/he gets closer to natural retirement.

An overall philosophy of leadership and the role of the Executive leader
A clear statement of the Board’s role in finding, hiring, evaluating, growing, and changing leadership.
An ideal timetable for a natural transition process to occur (having a 90-day buffer helps)
A job description of the current Executive leader and all of the immediate, direct reports.
An organizational chart, identifying the key functional areas of leadership, and which direct report or other key staff person “back-fills” the top Executive in these functions. Note: this could add another dimension to the plan if all/most of the top leadership is roughly in the same 5-year window of possible retirement and/or the same team has been in place for 15+ years.
Current thinking (point in time) about the organizations greatest needs in the coming 3 – 5 years. This can be derived from Strategic Planning.

If your organization does not have a written Succession Plan in place, I urge you to have a conversation at the next Board meeting. Try to gain a commitment to invest time in addressing the points above. The Board may not be ready for a full Succession Planning process, but at least document the above six points and make sure the whole Board is on the same page. If the commitment is there to do more….ask the Governance Committee, Executive Committee, or ad hoc Committee to take this on as a special project (60-90 days with 2 – 3 meetings and follow up in between).
We urge you/your organization to not only focus on Succession Planning, but what we call Leadership Transition Planning. This type of planning focuses on how an organization transitions, whether to a new executive leader, an entirely new leadership structure, or growing leaders within the top levels of leadership as the organization grows.
With the enormous workforce transition we will undergo, in all sectors, not just nonprofit, hiring managers (Board’s included) are struggling to find desired talent brings skills to meet current needs, and potential grow with the organization. In some nonprofit sub-sectors, it is anticipated that as many as 20% of the leaders currently at the helm will retire in the coming five years. It is also estimated in those same sub-sectors that, perhaps, at best, 4 – 8% of “ready” next leaders are in place. This upcoming gap is a direct result of nonprofits doing a great job of hiring good talent and getting every bit of expertise they can, but failing to invest in that good talent, to make it great talent. There is an enormous need for organizations to grow and develop talent, at mid and upper levels of management, to meet this potential gap. Does your organization have a leadership development program? If so, please tell us about it in the comments.
Leadership Transition planning helps you define what you have, what you want, what you need/think you need and what is a realistic expectation for the leader(s) at the next phase to meet organizational needs. It then guides you to put that transition in to a timetable, articulate the resources needed (often budget related), and define how you will communicate with internal and external audiences. Based on the type of leadership transition coming up, the timetable and audience focus could be completely different. And, based on the organizational capacity, the ability to invest resources in developing and transitioning leaders varies greatly. Leadership Transition Planning is a process that should be collaborative between the top Executives and the Board. Both leadership groups have a vested interest in the organizations future success, and should work together to ensure the right leader(s) are in place to achieve that success.
While your organization many not face an imminent retirement or departure of its top leader, both Succession and Leadership Transition Planning are essential for the continuity and sustainability of your organization.

Strategic Compensation: An Effective Tool in Recruiting, Promoting and Retaining Highly Qualified Employees

April 21, 2015 erik human resourses

Happy Tuesday! Marissa here! We are continuing our discussion about retaining employees today with a post by Evette Simon, VP of Alford Executive Search. Thanks, to Evette for sharing her expertise with us. Enjoy!

HR system design and a consultative executive-level approach have quickly replaced the traditional philosophy that HR simply serves as an administrative function in support of achieving organizational goals.
The non-profit sector, more than any other industry, has had to quickly make the shift from the philosophy that HR is something that they we HAVE to do, to viewing HR as a strategic partner in organizational development and sustainability.
In an environment where organizations of all types and sizes have begun to recognize that our human resources are among our most valuable and costly assets, attracting and retaining highly skilled employees has become a high-level strategic priority, in order to gain or maintain a competitive advantage.
More than ever before HR practices are being intentionally designed with business outcomes in mind. However, the notion of building strategic compensation systems and policies remain a daunting endeavor for many non-profit organizations due to the lack of trained HR professionals on staff and/or the limited strategic compensation expertise available. As a result, most organizations simply take the best-case default approach of aligning position titles with market surveys and compensating within the reported ranges. And, in many cases, market surveys aren’t used and employment offers are made based on what the compensation of the incumbent in the position at the time of separation or what they were hired at any number of years earlier or even some arbitrarily contrived number in between the two.
Because compensation, whether we like it or not, is usually visible within our organizations, having a written compensation policy that is clearly and consistently communicated throughout the organization is critical toward ensuring that employees understand how compensation decisions are made.
An effective compensation policy will successfully communicate the following:
Internal consistency which highlights and clearly places each job in the organization into an ordered job structure that recognizes the differences in job functions. Placing at a higher level in the structure jobs that require higher degrees of skill and expertise, include more responsibility and more complex tasks, than those jobs requiring less skill, less responsibility and less-complex tasks. Compensation professionals use systematic job analysis and job evaluation to establish pay differentials for each position in the organization.
Market competitiveness refers to the pay practice used most often in compensation policies geared toward attracting and retaining highly qualified employees. In order to determine how the organization’s compensation structure lines up against market competitors, the internal job structure is compared to the competitive external market using compensation surveys. As a result of this analysis, organizations are able to strategically determine whether they wish to lead the market (Market Lead), lag behind the market (Market Lag), or match the market (Market Match).
Many internal and external factors should ultimately play into deciding which market position an organization chooses. An organization might actually choose to lag behind the market for some job categories, lead the market for some and meet the market for others, depending on the internal value placed on specific job categories and the external market conditions for those pools of talent. However, the best practice is to have one market position across the organization. This more equitable philosophy lends itself to internal consistency and is easily justifiable.
Recognizing and rewarding individual contributions should be a key component of an effective compensation policy. Similar to the process for establishing internal consistency using job analysis and evaluation to distinguish the differences between two job functions, attention should be given to the fact that no two employees perform the same job equally, nor do they usually possess the same credentials or expertise. Therefore, when completed, effective pay structures should include defined ways and rationale for recognizing and rewarding employee contributions in order to promote the retention of valued employees.
Other structural components of compensation policies include pay grades and pay ranges. As another outgrowth of the job analysis and evaluation processes, pay grades are used to group job functions determined to have similar compensable factors and, pay ranges outline the minimum, maximum and midpoint pay rates for each pay grade. This allows HR professionals and managers to more consistently apply the organization’s pay policy.
Strategic compensation practices, like every other component of human resource management, must also take into account all of the legal and compliance related factors associated with employee recruitment, compensation and separation. Therefore compensation professionals must also consider all of these factors as part of the high-level strategic process.
Once legally compliant compensation policy and structures are in place, managers and other HR functions will be able to use them as effective tools in recruiting, performance appraisal systems, professional development, labor relations and even terminations.
How does your organization retain highly qualified employees? Let us know in the comments!

How to Retain Employees in Today's Job Market

April 16, 2015 erik nonprofit, organizational development

Hi, DonorsDreams Readers! It’s me, Marissa. I’m covering for the blog for Erik as he sails the ocean blue on a well-deserved vacation. Today’s post was written by Denise Benages, an HR professional for over 16 years. She shares with us best practices for retaining employees in an ever changing job market. Thanks, Denise!

Once upon a time, people stayed at their first job, moved up the ladder and received a gold watch when they retired. How very Ward Cleaver!
Welcome to 2015, where the average worker will have 12-15 jobs in their lifetime. Ten of those jobs will be held before the age of forty. So how is a nonprofit to function in the land of no golden watches? Well, we must ask ourselves, how do we retain employees.
First, let me ask you, do you have a retention strategy? In a 2013 survey of nonprofits, 90% did not have formal retention strategy. However, the majority of them did have informal retention strategies. Let’s talk about how you make an informal retention policy into a formal one.
Your first step is to evaluate your policies. What are you doing to keep your employees? What is your turnover rate? Are you turning over staff in a particular department? These questions will lead you to discover what issues your nonprofit faces when it comes to retaining employees.
Remember that statistic about having 10 jobs before the age of 40? It should not be surprising that entry and mid-level staff were reported to be challenging to retain (30% and 40%). It is interesting to note that the numbers were much lower at the experienced-level (17%) and executive level (only 4%). Yet, most HR training dollars are spent on leadership training rather than job specific or business skills training. When surveyed on staffing challenges, 49% of non-profits are concerned with retaining entry level staff.
Retention is extremely important to nonprofits because turnover costs can be as much as 50-60% of an employee’s annual salary when you consider the cost of recruiting, onboarding, accrued time off, workflow disruption, lost clients and replacement costs. So it’s imperative that we look at why employees leave and how we can monitor this.
Here are some of the most common reasons employees leave their current positions:

Dissatisfaction – To examine this, immerse yourself in each department. Pay attention and monitor the feeling in the office. Conduct exit interviews to determine why people were unhappy at your non-profit.
A Better Opportunity – Employees are always looking to move up, you will not be able to stop some of this turnover. But you can ensure they know you have a career path for them. Build goals into the review process, so employees are clear of what they need to do to move forward. Employees only look when they don’t see their next step.
Following Their Map of Success – Some employees know they have do to A, B & C to get to the next place in their career. Their current position may have been a stepping stone from the beginning. Turnover can be stopped before an employee is even hired. Dig deeper in your interview to see where an employee aspires to be. If their dream is not available in your organization, they might not be the right candidate.
They Just Quit – This is the most important turnover to dig into because they are reacting to something negative in your organization. You need find out if it’s the job, harassment, bad management, skipped over for a promotion or any other HR situation. You may not be able, or want, to save that employee but it’s important that you resolve a systemic issue before you replace the employee.

We touched on why people leave, but it’s equally as important to know why they stay. You would be surprised to hear it’s not the money.
Here’s some reasons employees find more important than money when considering staying with an organization:

Job Satisfaction – Employees need to enjoy their work and believe their job is important. Give them feedback on how they are doing and how it’s helping the company. Tell them randomly during the year, not just in a review.
Employer/Employee Relationship – It’s imperative for employees to have good communication with their supervisor and have a good working relationship. They don’t have to be friends, but need to be considerate and fair. Make sure your team is trained on how to deal with employees. Observe their interactions and coach them.
Training and Development – Your investment in them shows them loyalty and commitment. They will give you the same in return.
Work/Life Balance – Your organization may not be able to be competitive with salary, but you can also compensate staff with paid time off, flexibility in schedule, or telecommuting.

While retaining employees might seem challenging; the good news is the most important thing you can do to retain your employees is to listen to them. If you do that, you have all of the answers right in front of you and may be able to hand out a gold watch or two.

The 6 Questions Nonprofits Need to Ask Before Hiring an Event Manager

April 14, 2015 erik Fundraising

Lisa Green is an aspiring blogger who has graciously agreed to provide this amazing post while I am taking a much-needed vacation for the next few weeks. Thanks, Lisa! ~Erik

lisa1 An event hosted by a nonprofit is often fighting an uphill battle even before the first committee meeting is scheduled. A finite amount of funds and resources are often all that is available to these worthy causes, which makes raising money for cancer research or underprivileged children even more crucial. However, the lack of resources can leave those involved frustrated, overworked and unsure of how to make an event impactful while working under such budgetary conditions.
Even when working with such few resources, a fundraising event can be successful if a nonprofit organization has a high standard of excellence for any sponsor or company they work with rather than aiming for whoever offers the lowest price on the market. A prosperous nonprofit should instead look for sponsors, vendors and companies that can help provide excellent support and top-notch service as well as having experience working in the industry, all while being affordable.
One way to accomplish all of these goals for a fundraising party or dinner is to invest in an event manager. This might on the surface seem like an unnecessary expense, but a quality event management company will know how to make the most out of what is available as well as how to raise the most funds for a cause.
To ensure you are hiring a stellar event manager that will benefit you in the long run, you will need to do your research. In particular, you will need to know what specific questions to ask to help you determine exactly what you’re getting when you hire a company.
Do you know how to work with a nonprofit budget?
An event manager should never ask you to spend outside of your budget. Instead he or she should maximize the amount of funds you have and help you make your gathering look like it cost far more than it actually did.
Verifying that your event management company has worked in the industry previously and asking for specific references or companies they’ve worked with will let you know if they have this capability and if they can provide all that they claim.
What is your experience with fundraising and money collection?
A huge portion of a fundraising event is collecting and keeping track of donations. This can be a tricky business, particularly when working with promised amounts and personal information.
That’s why it is crucial for to verify that an event planning company has a clear plan on collecting funds from your supporters. Whether that is through a verified mobile bidding service that allows you to collect bids from around the globe or a paper-based system that focuses on the crowd in front of you, your event planners should have a sterling reputation with money as well as a clear plan for when you will receive your donations.
It is also important to verify that your event planners have certain connections and abilities to help save you money in the long run. For example, a smaller business might have to pay a large fee for your guests to pay with a certain credit card, but a company with a relationship with that particular card can save you from paying such a large charge.
How involved are you?
This is how you can determine if you are getting a day-of coordinator or a planning partner. An event company that gets involved from the beginning is preferable to one that comes in late in the game, as an involved planner will know your budget, help you craft a doable timeline and will care about your cause as much as you do.
How can you improve our donations?
Part of the appeal of hiring an event planner for a nonprofit fundraising event is the idea that if the event runs more smoothly and looks more enticing, donations will increase. The company you hire should be able to outline a clear way in which they can help you earn more for your cause, be it a specific marketing plan or an online payment method for auctions.
Do you have any guarantees on your technology?
Should the event planning company have any technology that they offer to employ for your event, be it a customized website or an online auction app, you will need a formal promise that the company has a back-up plan in case of an emergency. This guarantee should come in the form of a service-level agreement (SLA) that details specific ways the company will ensure that you do not lose money in case of a power outage or other disaster.
For example, with a mobile-bidding app, an event-planning company should plan in case of bad cell reception. A SLA would detail what would be done in this case, such as installing cell signal repeaters to ensure constant coverage.
How do you improve guest experience?
Earning money for a good cause is obviously the primary goal of any fundraising event, but it is also important to create an atmosphere that helps attendees enjoy themselves. These event planners should help you plan games or entertainment, as well as help ramp up competition on auctions to help increase donations and interaction among the attendees.
A great event planning company for a nonprofit should do more than just contact caterers or set up a silent auction. They should put the cause first and respect the needs of a nonprofit, ensuring that your charity earns the most donations possible to accomplish the true goal of this event – helping those in need.

Bon voyage

April 9, 2015 erik Uncategorized

cruise Starting next week, this non-profit blogger is running off for a few weeks of a well-deserved cruise through the Panama Canal. But never fear! Your DonorDreams blog community will continue providing quality content to help you generate ideas to improve the organizational capacity of your non-profit organization. In my absence, Marissa Garza will take the wheel and ensure everything runs smoothly. (That’s right . . . Marissa is the same person who wrote non-profit tech articles a few years ago for DonorDreams. Welcome back, Marissa!)
We’ve lined up some fun guest bloggers while I am floating around the Caribbean on my vacation. Here is some of what you have to look forward to while I’m gone:

Lisa Green is an aspiring blogger who will write about “The 6 Questions Nonprofits Need to Ask Before Hiring an Event Manager”
Denise Benages of HR Midwest and blogger at Don’t Bite The Apple will blog about staff retention strategies
Evette Simon of Alford Executive Search will write about compensation and how it factors into creating a strong team
Heather Eddy of Alford Executive Search will follow-up Evette’s post with an article on leadership and succession planning
Marissa Garza will thrill you with another one of her technology posts
At the end of the month, I’ll return with a “call for submissions” post because DonorDreams is hosting the Nonprofit Blog Carnival in May

April is shaping up to be a fun month with an important focus on human resources related issues!
Rest assured that I will be thinking of you while I decompress and recharge my batteries on vacation. While most of May’s blog posts are already mapped out, I promise to publish a “special edition” with pictures from my various stops in Aruba, Columbia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Cabo San Lucas.
Enjoy the next few weeks, and as always thank you for your readership.
Here’s to your health!
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

You don't own your non-profit brand

April 7, 2015 erik Uncategorized

The other day, I was in my home office trying to wrap up some work before dinner. The television in the other room was tuned to PBS and Charlie Rose was interviewing Warren Buffet and a few other rich guys. They were talking about the late Coca-Cola President Don Keough who recently died. I was trying hard to ignore the background noise and distraction, but then the following five simple words floating into my office:

“The people own the brand.”

These words came from Warren Buffet’s mouth in response to a question Charlie Rose asked about the time when Coca-Cola removed its Classic Coke from the shelves and replaced it with a reformulated New Coke and the public appeared to backlash.
These five simple words got into my head and have rattled around for the last few weeks. They bothered me, but they certainly sounded wiser than I ever might be.
It got to the point where I actually typed these five words into a Google browser, which is when I found a post titled “You Don’t Own Your Brand Anymore, Your Customers Do” over at iYogi Blog written by Sairam K.
I love the iYogi Blog post, and it is certainly worth a click from you. It crystallized everything for me and got me thinking about the following questions for your non-profit brand:

When is the last time you talked to your donors, clients, staff, and volunteers about what the brand means to them?
What are your key messages (and I don’t mean your marketing tag line) and how do they align with what people think about your brand?
How do you monitor your brand and what people are saying about your brand (especially on social media)?
Have you thought through how and what your responses might look and sound like in the event your brand comes under attack in social media circles? And more importantly, have you thought about the damage you might do if your strategy is simply “deleting” posts on your Facebook page?

I think the reason Warren Buffet’s words rattled me so badly was because I thought the organization owned the brand, but in reality staff and volunteers simply care for and steward the brand. The people (aka donors, community leaders, staff, clients, the community at-large, etc) do indeed own the brand.
What does this mean for your organization and your marketing/communication efforts? Please scroll down and share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box below. 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