News for Social Entrepreneurs

Nonprofit Day Wrap Up

Heather Carpenter — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:03:00 +0000

Nonprofit Day 2010 was the BEST nonprofit conference that I have EVER attended – and I have attended many nonprofit conferences!! I am not just saying this--there was truly something magical about this conference. The awesome theme, networking opportunities, and talented speakers made this event top my charts.

The theme of Nonprofit Day was storytelling. This theme allowed for attendees to briefly pause the busyness of running their nonprofit organizations and learn how to tell REAL stories about the people that we serve, the lives that we touch, and the communities that we impact.

Stories can be shared in many different formats through video, audio, verbal, and text. In fact, a nonprofit organization Storytellers for Good created videos for select nonprofits during the conference and StoryCorps audio recorded nonprofit stories during the event! We definitely need more positive videos (stories) about nonprofits and the amazing work that we do.

Emotions emerged and flowed through the space as a result of the conference theme. There were many instances in which the tears were flowing down the faces of many attendees because of the compelling stories that were shared by the speakers.

There were also many breaks throughout the conference and extended periods of networking. This allowed for conference attendees to spend as much or as little time as they wanted to networking, visiting exhibitors, or catching up on their work. I thoroughly enjoyed the networking time and reconnected with people I hadn't seen for years and people I had only "met" digitally.

The last piece that made this conference so phenomenal was the speakers. In the sessions that I attended there was much audience participation! We networked and engaged in partner activities.

After the conference ended there were two happy hour events. One, an official part of the conference, was hosted by Eventbrite and the other was hosted by YNPN SFBA.

Many people tweeted about the conference. These tweets can be found on the Nonprofit Day Live page or by using twitter search #npd10. @jdeancoffey @jakenyon @wiserearth @fitz350 @tccgroup @gtak @hollyminch @lisa_sherrill @stories4good @missionm @nonprofitsrule & more tweeted the event.

A few of us also wrote blog posts about the different sessions that we attended.

From Nonprofit Law Blog -- CompassPoint Nonprofit Day 2010 Recap
From Nonprofit Leadership 601 -- My Story about CompassPoint
From Jara Dean Coffey -- Social Change for Service Providers
From Wiser Earth -- Next Generation Leadership
From John Kenyon -- Next Generation Organizations
From Wiser Earth -- Is your Nonprofit Leveraging Volunteers Effectively?
From Nonprofit Leadership 601 -- Reimagining Service/Effective Human Resources Management Practices
From Nonprofit Leadership 601 -- Coaching--a form of supervision

How to Get Your Donors More Engaged

Joe Garecht — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:00:31 +0000

Every development professional I know spends a lot of time thinking about how they can get their current donors more engaged with their fundraising efforts. We ask questions like, “How can I get our donors to get involved on an event committee?” And, “How can we get Mr. Smith to introduce us to his colleagues in the legal profession?”

Generally, the answer on how to get a particular donor, or group of donors, more engaged isn’t a one shot ask, meeting, or phone call. Instead, the best way to get your donors more engaged is to develop a strong, organization-wide donor cultivation program that keeps your supporters informed and energized about your mission and current initiatives.

Your donor engagement plan should focus on the following five components:

1. Motivation
First and foremost, you should keep your donors energized about your mission. Donors can forget a lot of things and still stay interested in supporting a non-profit… what they can’t lose sight of is the reason your organization exists: your mission. Spend time making sure your donors hear stories about the people you help, see pictures of the work that you do, and understand why your work is vital and necessary in today’s world.

2. Information
Your donors want to feel like they are part of your team. The best way to ensure that they do feel like a part of your team is to keep them informed. Let your supporters know what your latest successes and initiatives are. Make sure they understand recent changes at your organization, know where to go for more information, and have a contact person they can reach for help or answers. In short: communicate with your donors, often (but not too often). Regular e-mail newsletters, the occasional snail mail letter, and social networks all should be a part of your communications mix.

3. Small Asks
Engaged donors are active donors. Help your donors become active in your organization by making a series of small asks. Not all of these asks should be for money. Ask your donors for their advice and insight, for their time (as volunteers), for their leadership (on committees and boards), for their voice (in advocating for your cause and helping you find new supporters), and for their financial support. Start with small asks, and get people involved in a way that makes them feel comfortable and appreciated.

4. Recognition
Constantly recognize your supporters for their work on your behalf. Let volunteers and donors know how much you rely on their support. Tell them what their support has meant for the people your non-profit serves. Publish lists of your volunteers, donors, committee members and friends. Your supporters (usually) aren’t helping you because they want to be recognized, but it sure does help them stay engaged when they know you appreciate their work.

5. Organization
As your non-profit engages more and more supporters, donors, and volunteers, it will become increasingly difficult to motivate and communicate with your network. Successfully engaging with a large group of donors and prospects will require a highly organized, well-planned effort. My best advice is to write out your donor engagement plan and specify which team members will be responsible for the tactics it includes. Set up a system for regular donor communication and recognition. Plan what asks you will make, and when. Ideally, once your plan is in place, you will simply be able to place new prospects into the appropriate point in your strategy and let the system take over.

*Joe Garecht is the founder of The Fundraising Authority (http://www.thefundraisingauthority.com), which provides free articles and how-to information on fundraising for small and medium-sized non-profits.

Luxury on Loan

Entrepreneur.com - Startup Business News and Articles - Starting a Business — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:01:00 +0000

High-fashion rental entrepreneurs are giving couture-hungry consumers a small--and affordable--taste of the good life.

Live blogging Nonprofit Day: Coaching–a form of Supervision

Heather Carpenter — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:04:00 +0000

When I was a nonprofit manager I utilized a professional coach on a regular basis. My coach listened to me, asked me prompting questions, and then provided me suggestions for how to handle situations in new ways.

In Judith Wilson's session this afternoon, she explained the importance of informal coaching. (Workshop presentation and materials here). This means that people like you and I can coach our co-workers, subordinates, and supervisors. She explained that informal coaching is a form of supervision and involves active listening.

I have to say I really struggle with active listening. I am so passionate I often have to remind myself to shut up and listen!...I mean really listen and ask follow up questions. So this session was VERY helpful to me.

Too many times supervision involves reminding employees of tasks and following up with them with the question, why didn't you do that task? There is often a major disconnect between supervisors and employees. This method turns the focus away from the task and onto the solution and next steps. Employees feel empowered with they are part of the solution!

This informal coaching method starts by asking the question to your employee, co-worker, friend: What challenge or opportunity do you need to work on right now?

Then....listen....really listen.

Next...ask several follow up questions like...what new things would you try? (rather than what did you try to solve the problem) Judith said that asking what they already tried doesn't help people, it only brings them back to square one.

Next...ask the question....what are you going to do next?

Judith said that you can still provide suggestions but in the form of stories and ideas--not on how they should do things differently. **Also, don't take over the conversation**

I like this pro-active version of supervision where the employee comes up with the solution and next steps. Additionally, in this way employees are not micromanaged.

We got to try this method with a partner and it really works.

I personally think that all forms of supervision should be coaching.

Judith also wrote the book Coaching Skills for Nonprofit Managers and Leaders: Developing People to Achieve the Mission

Live blogging Nonprofit Day: Reimagining Service/Effective Human Resource Management Practices

Heather Carpenter — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:07:00 +0000

Jeanne Bell CEO of CompassPoint moderated a morning plenary session titled "Reimagining Service." (Audio recording will be available after 8/31). This session was all about how effective volunteer & human resource management improves nonprofit capacity and organizational effectiveness.

Recent research by the TCC group through the Core Capacity Assessment Tool reiterates the importance of effective human resource management practices within nonprofit organizations. This research shows that organizations with more volunteers and larger budgets manage volunteers more effectively. It also shows that once organizations hit the $1mil budget mark they struggle with scalability and capacity to manage volunteers. The organizations that do succeed through the scalability transition create strong and well developed human resources practices.

Bobbi Silten CFO of Gap reiterated this fact when she spoke about an amazing new initiative titled Reminaging Service, which is:

A self-organized community of individuals from nonprofits, government, and the private sector. We are inspired by the renewed call to service, and believe that volunteerism can help solve some of society's most pressing problems. In order to maximize the potential of service, we seek to convert good intentions into greater impact.

This community promotes service enterprises: "nonprofits or for profits that fundamentally leverage volunteers and their skills to successfully deliver on the social mission of the organization." Since nonprofits generally leverage ten to twenty times more volunteers than staff, Bobbi expressed the importance of strategically recruiting and managing volunteers. She said, "volunteering only matters if it addresses issues related to you and your community." She also said, "don't let supply dictate your volunteer program, you wouldn't hire every potential employee that comes into the door." The solution: Bobbi expressed scalability --start small with a one time volunteer event and work your way up to multiple events. Be proactive versus reactive towards volunteers.

Peter York also emphasized focusing on both the program (skilled and unskilled) and operational staff and...most importantly invest in human resources. "We need board members to understand the importance of human resources." If you don't have the capacity to serve more people, stop serving people until you can invest in more operational staff to scale up.

Great session!! I highly recommend you listen to the audio recording when it becomes available here.

Volunteer Management Resources shared during the plenary:
Talent Initiative by CommonGood Careers
Betty Stallings
Volunteer Center San Francisco
Nonprofit Risk Management Center

Live Blogging Nonprofit Day 2010: My Story about CompassPoint

Heather Carpenter — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:25:00 +0000

Storytelling is the focus of this year's Nonprofit Day. Before I get into the notes from the keynote this morning, I want to tell a story about CompassPoint.

Before I moved to San Diego (from the San Francisco Bay Area) I took full advantage of all the amazing professional development resources and trainings that CompassPoint provides. While I was working as a nonprofit manager for Low-Income Families’ Empowerment through Education (LIFETIME) in Oakland, I attended the Fundraising Academy for Communities of Color and learned from some talented fundraisers in the sector: Kim Klein, Robert Weiner, and Madeline Stanionis. I also attended several professional development workshops on creating a nonprofit website, being an accidental techie, and conducting nonprofit bookkeeping and accounting. In addition, I purchased and vigorously read Sue Bennett’s Accidental Techie Book and Jeanne Bell’s Financial Leadership for Nonprofit Executives book. And, I attended numerous Nonprofit Day Conferences.

CompassPoint is continually evolving and sharing best practices that reach nonprofits, nonprofit leaders, and social change agents where we are at.

I was awe and inspired by Peter Bratt, this mornings keynote speaker who discussed the importance of storytelling in our lives and in our nonprofit work. I didn’t realize how much the stories we learn and we share are embedded in how we perceive the cultures within our society. He said “Unlearn some stories that have been imposed over us and reclaim new ones share them with your community. Share ourselves in a new light!! ” As a storyteller and movie producer (see La Mission -- wow!) He also opened up the floor for the audience to be able to share their own stories about the nonprofit community. I personally feel that storytelling is a form of nonprofit marketing. When we improve storytelling in our organizations, we improve our marketing efforts and how the community views our organization.

Now that I shared my story about CompassPoint and notes from this mornings keynote, what is your nonprofit story and how will storytelling help your organization?

As a point of clarification I am volunteering for CompassPoint and not getting paid by them to say these nice things about them. :) I just really like the services that they provide and how relevant these professional development opportunities are to the current needs of the nonprofit community.

There’s A Lake

Jason Dick — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:00:09 +0000

My father does a lot of work in Latin America, specifically in Nicaragua. He has said a number of times that the poor of Nicaragua don’t need a handout, they need the motivation to do something themselves. We are all very much that way; if we can do something the easy way we will. If someone will give us a handout to solve our problem we’d much rather take that than work for it ourselves. The traditional slogan, “Teach a man to fish” does not go far enough, most of the time we already know how to fish and need to be told, “There’s the lake. “

The “Teach a man to fish” approach does have a great deal of value and is a trend many organizations are beginning to take. By hiring local people and training them to take over businesses, they have an opportunity to create and manage their own economy. I get excited when I hear about what an organization is doing to train the local people to be self-sufficient. But, training a group of people to be self-sustaining in farming or business, or building up local community health systems to serve the breadth of needs in their communities—this is bigger than teaching man to fish.

By empowering a community to take care of itself, you show a depth of respect for the human spirit. In humanity’s greatest moments, we encourage each other to be more than we currently are. Our organizations need to encourage people to provide for themselves and have the desire to be more. I wonder what would have become of the US Space program if President JFK had only been taught “how to fish.”

There are times when people need medical help or providing them with a meal is really the very best first step. But, when we think about on-going and systemic change, we need to provide opportunities for people to help themselves. Not only does it allow our organizations to continue to serve urgent needs in other areas, but it raises the overall quality of life for everyone.

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When the World Is Your Office

Entrepreneur.com - Startup Business News and Articles - Starting a Business — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:41:00 +0000

These globetrotting entrepreneurs are turning their passion for travel into successful businesses.

I’ll be blogging Nonprofit Day 2010

Heather Carpenter — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:14:00 +0000

On Tuesday, August 31st I'll be live blogging CompassPoint's Nonprofit Day 2010 in San Francisco. I am super excited to attend this conference and spend time with my nonprofit peeps in the San Francisco Bay Area!!

I'll be blogging and tweeting (@Heather Carpente) the conference alongside some of my long-time friends and colleagues in the sector including:

Gene Takagi of the Nonprofit Law Blog (@GTak)
Curtis Chang of Consulting Within Reach
Jara Dean-Coffey of To What End (@jdeancoffey)
John Kenyon, Nonprofit Technology Educator and Strategist (@jakenyon)
Peggy Duvette of WiserEarth (@wiserearth)
& Nelson Layag of CompassPoint (@nonprofitsrule)

If you cannot attend the event or want to read about all the sessions, check out the Nonprofit Day 2010 Live page. This page includes a Nonprofit Day blog roll and a compilation of tweets from the event (#npd10).

5 Easy Ways to Kick-start Your Business Planning

Entrepreneur.com - Startup Business News and Articles - Starting a Business — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:21:00 +0000

Don't know where to start with your plan? Here are some tips to get you going--today.