Monthly Archives: November 2010

No Way! Demand For Donations Increases

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energy-saving light bulb by AA

Now that makes sense!

I am continually surprised by the recent news articles which talk about donations and how nonprofits are looking for more funding.  No way, I thought organizations would need less money!

I recently read an article on The Non Profit Times titled Giving Increase But So Does Demand.  The article explores the fact that over the first ten months of 2010, organizations reported an increase of donations by 36%  (Nonprofit Research Collaborative).  Over this same time, donations decreased in only 37% in 2010 compared to 51% in 2009.

The article examines how the more the expenditures, the “more likely it reported an increase in charitable receipts.”  This seems like it would be common sense to me.  Wouldn’t an organization work harder to raise funds if their costs went up?

The article makes it seem like it is shocking that in a time of recession that the services provided by nonprofits would increase causing the costs of the organization to increase which might lead to budget cuts (or position cuts).  I think it completely makes sense that the need for these services would increase during a recession and if the organization cannot increase their income, than the organization would have to make cuts.  It works just like the business world.  Although in this case the demand is outperforming the supply available from these organizations.

My one wish is that these “news agencies” would stop publishing articles which are so basic in nature.  By publishing this article with the title they chose, I believe the NonProfit Times is losing credibility.  It reminds me of the sports announcers who make a “duh” comment like “if he made that double play, they would be out of the inning.”  By making this statement you are questioning our knowledge.

If the nonprofit sector wants to be taken seriously, don’t keep making statements which make it sound like these events are a shock.  The demand for donations is going to rise as the need for services rises.  This is common sense in my book.

Nonprofit Gold Gives Thanks

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Nonprofit Gold Gives Thanks

After six months of blogging, there are many people who I need to thank for helping me along the way with my blog and giving me the desire to make this a large part of my professional and personal life.  The following three people have served as mentors and guides for me and I thank each of them as we enter the Thanksgiving holiday.

  • Brad Friedman - President of The Friedman Group and Blogger at the BAF Signal. Without Brad, I would not have seen the power of blogging and how I could use it for my own personal brand.  I also wrote about the BAF Signal in my post “The BAF Signal.”  Brad has served as a mentor and I look forward to working with him on his new project with The Friedman Group: Social Media Marketing for Professionals.
  • Rosetta Thurman – President of Thurman Consulting, Nonprofit Consultant and Blogger at Rosetta Thurman. Rosetta has served as an inspiration to me and showed me to take a risk by stepping out of my comfort zone.  By participating in Rosetta’s Blogging for Branding challenge, I gained a true love of blogging and think this will change my professional life forever.  Rosetta is a true leader in the nonprofit sector and I look forward to learning more from her in the future.
  • Eric Rosenberg - Blogger at Narrow Bridge Finance. Eric helped me establish my self-hosted blog and gave me some wonderful books which have helped me see how I can help other people blog and how it has an impact in the nonprofit sector.  Eric’s love for blogging has worn off on me and his blog has inspired me to make my blog better.

These three individuals have changed my professional and personal life in a way which I will never be able to explain to them but I look forward to following them and learning from them as I grow into this new passion of mine

Partners for Colorado – Can It Work?

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coloradoflagJohn Hickenlooper, Colorado’s Governor-elect, announced on Thursday, November 4 the formation of Partners for Colorado.  Partners for Colorado will serve as the “transition team to the Governor’s office.”  At first glance, this formation raised red flags in my mind.

  1. How was John Hickenlooper going to get a bi-partisan group of individuals together to promote this idea of “partners” without alienating those strong democrats who supported him?
  2. What about the average citizen?  Would they be able to serve as committee chairs or on the committees?

Over the last thirteen days, the answers to these questions have been answered with a wave of excitement.  First, Hickenlooper brought on Governor Bill Owens to serve on the transition team.  While many people did not agree with Governor Owens on many of his policies (or his personal affairs), he was always seen as a strong Republican leader.  Hickenlooper also brought together some other great past leaders to serve as chairs including Albert Yates, Former President of Colorado State University, and Wellington Webb, former Denver Mayor.  In addition, business leaders and community activists were also brought onto the team.

The Partners for Colorado also reached out to get volunteers to serve on this committees.  Over seven days, they received more than 1,700 volunteer applications.  While there is no way to no who these individuals are (people out of work, people who worked on Hickenlooper’s campaign, or people looking for a job in the Governor’s office), this showed a commitment to reach out to the average Coloradoan.  The transition team has also set up “regional meetings” where citizens can come and give their input on the way they would like to see things change or remain the same in the next office.

As a nonprofit professional and a Coloradoan, I am excited that Hickenlooper sees the importance of reaching out to the average “Coloradoan.”  The work that Hickenlooper has done  with the formation of the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships Commission has shown his commitment to the nonprofit sector and bettering the Denver community.  Often politicians provide empty promises on how they are going to help nonprofits but rarely is there someone willing to put money into making sure nonprofits are accounted for.

I truly hope that the Partners for Colorado works out.  For one, this could help lay the foundation for a state wide initiative towards building better relationships between government and nonprofits.  By building a “partnership,” Hickenlooper hopes to break down many of the “party” games which have hurt Colorado over the last twenty years.  I hope for his sake and for the sake of Colorado that his partnership vision does not become a collaboration headache which will ruin any chances for change in the future.

Blogger For Hire

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After writing Nonprofit Gold for six months, two guest posts on the Next Gen Blog (Election Day: A Time for Jews to Become Active Again and A Jewish Professional’s Sacrifice) and helping design the new blog: Real Scoop in Real Estate, Nonprofit Gold is excited to announce its first service: Blogger for Hire.  Now you might be asking: “What does this mean and how can this benefit myself or my nonprofit?”

Now for the answers.

Orb of Life

Nonprofit Gold: Setting Up Your Blog... Imagine the possibilities!

On a personal level, blogging can help you build your personal brand which can help showcase you as an expert in your field.  Through blogging, you are creating a forum for people to see and understand the value which you bring to the table.  Blogging can also serve as an outlet for you to share your personal thoughts on things going on in a certain field.  (As was shown throughout my Blogging for Branding month, blogging has really increased my own personal brand.  I went from having 2-3 visits per day to almost 15 on average in the month of October.)

On a nonprofit level, blogging is a great outlet for your organization to promote its programs and services through written words.  By setting up a blog, your organization is also advertising that you are the expert in your field.  With a well thought out blog, you can begin to develop new relationships with potential donors and clients while maintaining a sense of expertise.  A nonprofit blog also allows people to interact with your organization by commenting on a certain post you write and allows them to ask questions without “directly” contacting you.  Blogging allows your organization to go to the people rather than them “finding you.”

So, what exactly does a blogger for hire do?

As a blogger for hire, there are three main services which will be provided depending on what you are looking for.

  1. Design and implementation. Through this service, Nonprofit Gold will help your organization (or you) design a blog which will meet your organizations needs.  This includes setting up the blog address, setting up a self-hosted blog (if desired), training staff how to maintain blog, and connecting blog to other social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc.)
  2. Blog writing and maintenance. In addition to design and implementation, Nonprofit Gold offers to maintain your organization’s blog through weekly, bi-weekly or monthly postings.  All these postings will be written by the Nonprofit Gold staff and published to your blog.  This service is great if you are a small organization who does not have a staff member who can be fully dedicated to the upkeep of the blog.

If you are interested in finding out about this new service, please fill out the following contact form and Nonprofit Gold will be in contact shortly.

Helping Nonprofits Shine

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So two months later, I have finally ordered my personal business cards.  After reading many blog posts including the Blogging for Branding post about business cards, I decided to try Vista Print.  Vista Print has amazing offers for free business cards (however the shipping and processing bring up the cost a little) and it is pretty easy to either select a template which already exists or to use your own design.

I am usually not a perfectionist but I went through what have been ten different designs before I picked one which I felt would be the best for my personal brand.  I knew that I wanted to use the black and use the gold bricks which is part of my personal brand on Nonprofit Gold.  So after spending a couple of weeks messing around with a design, I finally had a design I really liked.  But then, I saw that I was missing one thing, I needed a tagline for my personal brand.

I began looking at words which describe gold.

  • Splurge – not something nonprofits want to be known for.
  • Richness - all nonprofits want to be rich so they can keep doing their mission but they also don’t want to turn away potential donors by being only for the rich.
  • Perfection – a word which sets the bar too high.  Why would anyone work with a consultant or blogger who is set on perfection?
  • Glamour, romance, stunner - um, what do these words have to do with nonprofits?

None of the words I found really described what I wanted to portray with my personal brand.  And then it hit me.  When you see gold, you see that it has a little shine to it.  The way the light hits it can have a glare and brings attention to the item.

I want to help nonprofits shine.

Whether it be through a strategic plan or a social media plan or through program evaluation, I want to help nonprofits shine in their mission and vision.  They need to be seen with a “luster” by donors and clients to set them apart from the nonprofits around them.

So today, I am excited to announce my personal tagline.

Nonprofit Gold… Helping Nonprofits Shine.

Unfair Nonprofit Expectations: Rich Americans

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Phat Wad, Break me off some

Give them some slack, they might be hurting also.

Today, the Huffington Post wrote an article, Rich Americans Are Giving Less, Thanks to Recession, which explored how the rich are giving less money.  However, it also found that over 98% of the wealthy are still giving money back.  Why is it not fair for these wealthy individuals to cut back on their donations but it is okay for the average American to cut their donations?

Yes, many nonprofits would not be able to survive if the wealthy did not support them but these organizations would also hurt if the the small $50-$100 donations stopped coming in.  We cannot have this expectation that the wealthy are going to provide 100% backing for these organizations and we should not be surprised when a donor pulls money.  According to the article, the wealthy stopped giving money to certain organizations because “that the particular charity solicited money too frequently or asked for inappropriate amount.”

It is not fair for nonprofit organizations to rely so heavily on the wealthy just as it is not okay to rely on grants as a crutch.

Nonprofit organizations need to start realizing that when times are tight, we cannot and should not expect the donations which came when times were good to continue at their same rate.  We ask for more when we are home tightening our own financial belts and even cutting our own donations.

The times are tight and we all need to work together to make things work.

The Collaboration Headache

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Litte things: Advil

The Collaboration Headache: A Nonprofit Nightmare

Collaboration… The twelve letter buzz work which is being thrown around the nonprofit sector.  What does it mean?  How can it benefit your organization?  What do you gain?  These are all questions which are asked when discussing collaboration.

Collaboration, while it sounds good at first, is a headache and sometimes even a heartache.

From a programmatic standpoint, collaboration sounds like an awesome way to double or triple the number of participants for a certain program.  From an executive director’s viewpoint, the number one question is “why would we partner with them?  Aren’t they just going to take our members, clients, etc.”  From a bookkeepers’ viewpoint, “why do we not get 75% of the proceeds when we paid for 75% of the program.”

While in a perfect world collaboration would allow organizations to do less work and to partner with organizations who are doing the same mission, this is not how it always works.

Many times, one organization provides all of the money for the program while another organization provides the location.  One organization does all the marketing (making their logo appear bigger) and another does all the planning.  One organization writes the press release leaving out the other “partner” organizations and another keeps all the money because the reservations were given to them.  And one organization runs the name collection and doesn’t share the list.

The real issue with collaboration is that there are too many organizations which are trying to accomplish the same goals.  These organizations would not have to “collaborate” if they just joined forces and formed one organization.  Imagine a world where rather than twelve different organizations working with the homeless there was one central agency which had many different programs.  What if these organizations opened satellite offices which still ran the same programs but rather than forming a new organization, people could open these satellite programs.  This model works in the business world, why not try it in the nonprofit sector.

Yes, collaboration can bring a sense of unity to a community but it is a short lived euphoria which wears off after time.  These are one time events where people come and enjoy the programs but then they go back to the insular “security blanket” of “their” organization.

After the week I have had, I know that I need a large Advil for my collaboration headache.

Know Yourself – Myers Briggs

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MBTI 16 types - Myers-BriggsLast night, I took the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for the third time in my life.  This time it was for my nonprofit consulting class at Regis University where we were discussing the importance of knowing the people that you are going to be consulting when you take on a new client.  While I think that this is true that you need to know your client, I think it is also unrealistic to be able to complete a Myers Briggs Type Indicator for each organization you are going to consult.

Can you imagine sitting down with a staff of ten handing out the MBTI for the third time, explaining what the results mean, and then dive into the problem… (maybe it is a fundraising project)?  This is going to come across as a waste of time to the client and is not necessarily going to help you complete the project you were hired for.

While it is not realistic to give out this test, it is possible for you to witness the organization at work through staff meetings, individual interviews, board meetings and regular work days.  By observing the employees and the relationship between staff and between board members, you can gain a great deal of information to help you address the issues which are happening.  This also takes time and can only be accomplished if working on a long term project.

So while the MBTI is not feasible to characterize an entire organization, I believe this is one of the best tools for nonprofit professionals to use to get to “know yourself.”

With this tool, you can see how your characteristics balance with your peers and whether you are in a job where you can use these strengths.  If you are someone who is introverted and you are the development director, there are going to be many hurdles which you may have to overcome.  You will have to learn how to put a game face on so when you are on the ask, you come across as being an extrovert.

By knowing yourself, you can also learn how to “market” your characteristics for a future job and build your personal brand.  You will be five steps ahead of your competition by knowing how to address your weak areas and how you can be seen as a team player if you know that someone is a little opposite from you.

For the second time in my life, I found out that I am an ENFJ.  For each of the characteristics, I could agree with 95% of them and how they relate to my personal and professional life.  I also saw areas of weakness that I need to work on to become a more skilled individual.

Get to know yourself better by finding where you can take the Myers Briggs Type Indicator by visiting Myers Briggs Foundation.

Trucking Across America to Get Home to Vote

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Intel Trucks

Trucking Across America to Vote... Let's Put Our Differences Aside

Yesterday, I had the privilege of working as an election judge.  This is something which always fascinated me and I really wanted to find out what it entailed.  Too often, I had heard that election judges were “old,” “retired,” “cranky” and “slow.”  I knew that my grandfather had served as an election judge for many years and found a sense of pride in working the polling booths.  So when I received the letter in early August asking if I was still interested in being an election judge, I thought this would be a great way to honor my grandfather’s memory and one of his passions.  (He passed away in January, three days after we celebrated his 90th birthday with him.)

About two weeks ago, I attended a training where I met 75 other people who were going to serve as judges.  There were people of all ages as the county I live in wanted to make an effort of reaching out to high school students and give them a sense of ownership over the election process.  While the training was pretty boring and I walked out thinking, “what did I sign myself up for,” I also knew that I had to follow through.

So yesterday morning, I arrived at the polling place at 6 a.m. to help set up the polls.  I was greeted by three individuals, Bill, Don and Maria who all lived in the same townhouse complex.  Two of them had served as judges in the past and had great stories to tell about how things have changed since they first started serving as judges.  One of them said, “you can call me Judge Cook, today,” which helped break the ice.

As the polls opened at 7 a.m., I knew it was going to be a long day when we didn’t see our first voter for 30 minutes.  Over the next 7.5 hours, we only had a total of 30 voters and I was beginning to be cynical about how much money the county was wasting by having us work the polls with so little votes (yes, election judges do get paid!)  As we entered the last four hours, I began watching as people who worked all day had made the effort to rush over and vote.

A daughter walked into the poll with her mom grinning from ear to ear as she took pictures of this eighteen year olds’ first time voting.  A son with down syndrome voted for the first time with his dad by his side.  A dad voted and then went out to his car so his wife could come in while the children slept in the car.  A mom brought her infant and daughter into the polling booth knowing that she was teaching a life lesson to her daughter.  A father whispered his selections to his first grader so he could press the buttons.

And then finally, there was a man who came in with his trucker uniform on.  He smiled as he signed the pollbook and said, “just trucked across Nebraska to get here in time to vote today.”  This sent chills down my neck as I realized that people really do take voting seriously.  Yes, not all their candidates won but they feel honored and obligated to use their vote.  What other time brings people of all backgrounds and beliefs into one place to “share” their opinions?

Democrats waiting in line behind republicans.  Young people waiting in line with the elderly.  Diversity is welcome in the polling place.

As Jon Stewart said in his Rally to Restore Sanity, “You go, then I go.”  Just like when we are driving our cars, we have the decency to let cars in when we need to merge, people at the polling places set aside their differences and for one moment in time, they are equal.

Let’s remember, “You Go, Then I Go.”