Tell Those Words to Chill Out

It’s kind of like a contest.

The challenge: with shorter attention spans and thousands of daily messages from every direction, how can you break through and urge your supporters to love your nonprofit more than any other?

If you take a tour of nonprofit profiles in The Giving Partner, you will see lots of words. Words that take time to read, a few jargony things, some acronyms here and there. Brevity is often not the first consideration.

Now put yourself in the shoes of prospective donors. Would you have time and interest to scroll through lots of heavy text that doesn’t get right to the heart of your messages and impact?

We’re forced to play with the idea of giving enough of the right information and stories about our organizations without overwhelming our readers. I don’t think it’s easy. But it is a good exercise.

Read about the Twitter campaign against Obamacare and the response from Obamacare supporters.  For the purposes of this blog, it’s not about the politics; it is about the vehicle and the message design. Each side is articulating the “why’s” in 3 words or less.

I love the concept.

Twitter is forcing all of us to be better writers.

Standford Social Innovation recently explored the 8-word mission statement—another jewel to read and digest.

(Remember when Maggie Osborne joined the Community Foundation of Sarasota County for the program outcomes workshop in the Fall and shared this 8-word concept with us? It was good stuff—some mentioned that it moved their organizations to redesign their mission statement.)

So here’s the action item for you: visit your nonprofit’s profile in The Giving Partner.  How would you whittle down the narrative portions to the essentials with concise and compelling stories, sprinkled with enough good facts?

Now check out that mission statement. Is it a looooong sentence? More than one sentence? More than one paragraph? Yikes! How in the world does your board and staff remember it?  Let’s see if you can take another look.

-Susie Bowie
Community Foundation of Sarasota County

“Be sincere, Be brief, Be seated.”  ― Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

“It Looks Bad If We Have a Surplus.” Oh Really?

This is our third installment of “Oh Really?” We hope you have been enjoying the humor.

If you take some time to review the financial section of nonprofit profiles in The Giving Partner, you will notice that projected total revenues and projected total expenses are exactly equal for many organizations.

Many nonprofits deliberately work to establish this kind of budget each year under the pretense that it is more appealing to donors and funders.

Other organization leaders have long been growing the bottom line of their nonprofits in celebration of sustainability and making more mission possible over time.

As Peter Kramer of the Nonprofit Finance Fund so eloquently states, “Nonprofit is a tax status, not a way of operating: Positive operating results (unrestricted revenue consistently exceeding expenses) are an indicator of strong financial management.”

In his blog post Top Indicators of Nonprofit Financial Health, Peter talks about a few easy concepts that can reframe the way we consider our organization’s financial picture. Financially healthy nonprofits have…

1. A track record of unrestricted dollars coming in year after year.
2. Consistent surpluses year after year.
3. Revenue projections that account for the whole picture–including depreciation, debt reduction, operating reserves and future opportunities.

Here’s a special challenge: take a look at your organization’s projected revenue vs. expenses in The Giving Partner. What steps can you take to ensure a model that allows your organization to serve the community to its fullest potential while starting to build some additional reserves?

Read Tom Kramer’s blog post here.  He’s the first to point out that one business model will not work for every organization, but financial health should be every organization’s priority.

-Susie Bowie
Community Foundation of Sarasota County

The Power of Tension in Your Nonprofit Work

When you really think about it, your nonprofit is as innovative, as productive, and as successful as the people who lead it and the people who carry out the program and administrative sides of your work.

Tensions between you and others on your team are inevitable. Different perspectives. Different backgrounds. Different approaches to solving problems. Different stresses outside of work that color your daily experiences.

The tensions around you—and between others—can either motivate or destroy your effectiveness in your role at your organization.

Sometimes you feel powerless to impact change at your organization because the forces around you will not allow you the space to speak or to be heard. Other times, the tensions may create a cascading scenario of conflict that does little to address the root issues.

How can you harvest these tensions to create a better organizational culture?

• Use tension as a connector. We thrive on connections. Find ways to connect with the people who have points of view very different from your own. When you do this, you may not resolve philosophical differences, but you can build bridges on a personal level with your associates. This will help you appreciate each other even when you do not agree.

• Realize that different perspectives make your organization stronger. As annoying and time-consuming as they can be, different perspectives on your staff and board add value to your organization. Our community is diverse and addressing the issues in our community requires diversity in thought. If you are a leader at your nonprofit, think about the culture you have established. Is it one that welcomes various points of view? Or makes people feel as if they cannot speak up?

• Use tension to build your own leadership abilities. When you view tensions in your work as a personal challenge, you can only build your strengths as a leader. Consider a confidentiality buddy who can bring a balanced view of situations to help you understand tensions within the context of the larger picture. Sometimes viewing the world outside of your own lens is necessary. Then take an active role in recognizing and working through tensions instead of waiting for someone else to do it.

• Understand the motivators. Are the tensions in your nonprofit work based on different approaches to the work itself, or based on personal insecurities and ego? Figuring out your role in making people feel comfortable can do a lot to harvest the positive aspects of tension. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Help bring out the best in people. It will bring out the best in yourself!

Within our work, we find many challenges—some driven by the complexity of the issues we are addressing, and some driven by people.

There are silver linings in the ways we choose to harvest tensions. What has worked well for you and your organization? I bet you have lots of ideas. Post a comment and share them.

-Susie Bowie
Community Foundation of Sarasota County

Thanks to the Southeastern Council on Foundation’s Hull Fellows retreat for helping me think through some of these opportunities through my own lens and the lens of others.

 

Why Me, Why Here, Why Now?

Historic Banning Mills

This week I have spent my days in the woods at Historic Banning Mills with the 2013 class of the Southeastern Council of Foundation’s Hull Fellows.

The experience has been very meaningful for me, both within the context of the Southern philanthropy we are charged with stewarding and within the framework of personal leadership development.

Not a day goes by when I am not extremely grateful for the responsibilities with which I have been entrusted, as a caretaker of donor funds intended to make our community and nonprofits strong.

Many of our conversations at the retreat this week transcend the role of foundations in philanthropy and speak to you as well—as leaders, program staff and board members of nonprofit organizations and as donors supporting those organizations.

Here are some gems for your Friday, borrowed from conversations with Janine Lee, president and CEO of the Southeastern Council of Foundations and Alicia Philipp, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta:

• Take your work very seriously; take yourself less seriously.
• Learn something from everyone.
• Surround yourself with smart people. Hire people smarter than you.
• Be more than your job.
• And my personal favorite…do something every month that makes you want to throw up.

Finally and most importantly, check in with your position at your organization (or the organization you support) from time to time.

• Why me?
• Why here?
• Why now?

Do the answers to these questions affirm where you are and what you are doing? If not, remember these positions in philanthropy are privileged. Be good to yourself and to your organization. The day you stop loving your job is the day it’s time to move on to a new adventure.

Looking forward to coming home to Sarasota!

-Susie Bowie
Community Foundation of Sarasota County

Do Your Know What Your Organization’s 5 Greatest Needs Are?

Donors and funders can take a look at your nonprofit profile in The Giving Partner and know its five greatest needs right away.

Reviewing quite a few profiles over the last year with our donors, foundation staffers have noted what is most helpful for them:

• Bullet points–easy to read.
• Specific needs–easy to understand how a contribution will make a difference.
• Specific dollar amounts–easy to figure out how much to give.

We understand that listing these may not be an easy exercise, but it’s a good one.

Do your executive director and fundraising director agree about your greatest needs? Do your board members agree?

After you refresh your list, make sure your board members can articulate your needs. Give them updates at every board meeting.  Believe me, this will help them as they talk about your organization to people in the community…or perhaps when they run into funders at a social event or meeting!

Have you applied for a grant lately? We hope the funding you are seeking matches one of the needs listed on your profile. It looks a little strange if there isn’t alignment, right?

Once you make The Giving Partner part of your routine, reflecting organizational changes in your profile becomes like second nature to you. And you help all of us stay in the loop about what your nonprofit needs most.

-Susie Bowie
Community Foundation of Sarasota County

“Finding New Board Members Is Only Difficult for Our Organization.” Oh Really?

We hear from many organizations looking for the right board members to join their teams, and some believe they are alone in this difficult effort.

It’s tough work. But if you use a year-round process of discovery and cultivation, your organization may not get stuck in the lurch of board member deficit disorder or dwindle down to leadership by just a few volunteer leaders.

For a few years, the Community Foundation of Sarasota County tried a grand experiment called the Board Bank. It was an online connector where people in the community who were seeking meaningful volunteer leadership opportunities could look for open board positions at local nonprofits.

The concept was wonderful. Some excellent, long-lasting matches were made.

But it was very time-intensive to maintain, and many users believed that finding what looked like an optimal “match” online didn’t require any of the hard work we might typically do before making a serious board commitment.

We found that there was little “getting to know you.” Some boards were desperate to fill several key positions. Some candidates made the leap to join a board without taking the time to understand expectations.

BEFORE you ask a prospective board member to join your board, know what your organization is looking for–who you’re looking for.  (Hint: that’s why The Giving Partner asks whether you have written board selection criteria.)

BEFORE you ask a prospective board member to join your board, know what you want that person to do. If you need a person with marketing expertise, make sure your candidate understands what role she is expected to fill as it relates to her experience.

BEFORE you ask a prospective board member to join your board, know how many other boards that individual is serving on. Think about a candidate’s ability to represent your organization fully if they are already heavily involved in other organizations.

If you are currently looking for new board members, be sure to…

• Talk with your constituents, volunteers and supporters. Schedule some interviews with people who are already vested in your organization. We’re working with an organization in the middle of this process now. (We will tell you how it goes!)
• Take a deep look at your working committees and task forces. If someone is doing an amazing job and loves your organization, give them an opportunity to step up their commitment.
• Meet with board members of other organizations in our community. Ask them if they know others with a passion for your mission.
• Ask community leaders for their advice and suggestions.
• Consider using LinkedIn or Facebook to find people who are passionate about what you do.

Recruitment is an ongoing process.  And good cultivation of board members, like cultivation of donors and supporters, takes time. It isn’t always easy. But doing it with thought and intentionality will reduce turnover on your board and allow the right people to become your volunteer leaders of the future.

Don’t let board deficit disorder strike your organization. Keep those wheels of recruitment churning by getting out there, networking in our connected community, and talking about your nonprofit wherever you go.

Side note:  Thanks to Dr. Sandy Hughes for teaching so many of us everything we know about board governance. Aren’t we lucky to have her in our community?

-Susie Bowie
Community Foundation of Sarasota County

A Thought for Friday: Philanthropy As a Way of Being

Giving to an entity classified as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization by the IRS is probably what comes to mind for most of us first when we think of philanthropy.

The Giving Partner has been implemented in our community to help guide those giving decisions based on in-depth information about impact, leadership, finances, needs, programs and more.

But for every gift made to a nonprofit, there are many hundreds of other acts of caring, kindness and “informal” philanthropy beyond what we can calculate by gathering data from nonprofit tax returns.

Let’s consider philanthropy not only as the act of giving or as the portfolio of your charitable gifts, but as a way of being.

Ambassador James Joseph will lead a session at the Community Foundation of Sarasota County on May 24 for board chairs and executive directors on one of his favorite subjects, “Leadership as a Way of Being.”

He said, “There is a need for leaders who are comfortable with ambiguity, who are aware of themselves and others, leaders who seek to serve before they wield power.”

What amazing translations to the world of philanthropy. We cannot always foresee the circumstances that will intersect our daily lives and map the plan for how we could make a difference. But we make the choice to be where we are needed and make that difference!

Consider your interactions with your co-workers, neighbors, friends. Making a connection, lending your ear, helping with a project…they all count.

We do not have systems in place to account for how these acts support the fabric of our communities–what Anne Mosle might call our social capital. But great things happen around us all the time because so many live in this philanthropic frame of mind.

These acts add up. They inspire others. I wish we had some way of understanding their collective impact; imagine what that Giving Challenge Leaderboard would look like! On the other hand, it’s nice to know that human kindness cannot be measured.

Wishing you a fabulous Friday and a weekend full of your own kind of philanthropy.

-Susie Bowie
Community Foundation of Sarasota County