Communications Manager, Heroes on the Water Los Angeles, CA
Stuart Haniff Chief Development Officer, Harry Chapin Food Bank Fort Myers, FL
Vineet Kumar
Strategy & Management Consultant Seattle, WA
Tangie Newborn
President, Immense Business Solutions Washington, D.C.
Amira Turner Chicago, IL
Director Emeritus
Katie Burnham Laverty Temecula, California
Editorial Advisory Board Members
Amy Good Dane County Humane Society Madison, Wisconsin
Tangie Newborn
President, Immense Business Solutions Washington, D.C.
Publisher
Society for Nonprofits
Purpose: Society for Nonprofits is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. Through Nonprofit World and other communications with its members, the Society is dedicated to bringing together those who serve the nonprofit world in order to build a strong network of professionals throughout the country.
NONPROFIT WORLD is published quarterly and digitally at no charge to members of the Society for Nonprofits. To become a member of the Society, write: Society for Nonprofits, P.O. Box 510354, Livonia, Michigan 48151. Telephone: 734-451-3582. Membership: $129.
No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission. All rights reserved.
Unsolicited manuscripts and letters to the editor are welcomed. They should be addressed to:
Jill Muehrcke, Editor, Nonprofit World, P.O. Box 44173, Madison, WI 53744-4173 or muehrcke@charter.net
FEATURE ARTICLE
You can’t lead your organization to success all by yourself. You need to connect with as many people as you possibly can. There are many ways to listen and put what you learn to good use, as Nancy Schwartz observes. Her article, “Listen in to Boost Action” (page 10) offers a treasure trove of ideas to gain priceless feedback from your key audiences.
ARTICLES
10 Listen In to Boost Action
By Nancy Schwartz
Here are tried-and-true tactics to unearth relationship-building treasure.
12 How to Prevent Employee Data Theft
The risk of data theft by employees is on the increase. These tips will help shut down this ticking time bomb.
14 Old Thinking Won’t Lead to New Ideas
By Susan Robertson
Try these strategies and instantly become more innovative.
16 Why Your Best People Are Leaving & Four Ways to Win Them Back
By William Schiemann
Reduce turnover and boost productivity with these keys.
18 What You Need to Know about Branding
By Jane Cavalier
Every nonprofit leader needs to manage the organization’s branding.
20 Icebreakers to Help You Connect More Deeply
By Karin Hurt
Get the ball rolling with these conversation starters.
22 Mission Accomplished – Really?
By William Calder
It’s crucial to assess your mission and make sure that everyone understands it.
DEPARTMENTS
2 editor’s page
Connecting Heart to Heart By Jill Muehrcke
Isolation is the dream killer..
2 Five Things to Do Next Monday
3 ask the experts | How Should You Collect Promised Funds? By Terrie Temkin
Who’s responsible for getting the money that donors have pledged?
4 people & technology
Get the Best of Both Worlds with Hybrid Meetings By Lisa Apolinski
These four practices will help assure a successful meeting..
6 fundraising forum
Spur Donors to Give Every Month By Gail
Perry
Monthly giving is like gold inside your database, just waiting to be unearthed.
8 the board room Making Board Meetings Work By Peter Gamache & Jackie Sue Griffin
Follow these guidelines for motivating, effective meetings.
25 relevant reviews | Finding the Tools to Create Effective Change By
Terrence Fernsler
You’ll find solid, clear-cut tactics to change the world in this thought-provoking book.
26 nonprofit briefs
Listen for nuggets. How resilient are you? Plus other tips, research, and publications in the nonprofit sector.
31 beyond the briefs
Connecting Heart to Heart
We’ve never been so connected. Why, then, do we feel so out of touch? The answer is simple: Being “connected” through technology isn’t the same as connecting heart to heart.
Although we’re constantly “touching” others through social media and tech channels, those touches are superficial. We’re not connecting in an authentic, fulfilling way. That leaves us feeling dissatisfied.
Beth Benatti Kennedy defines connection as “the result of cultivating relationships.” That highlights the importance of building long-term alliances rather than sending tweets, likes, posts, or other short-term contacts that are ultimately unsatisfying.
Kennedy suggests creating a goal for each person with whom you want to connect (for instance, lunch every four months, e-mail once a month). You probably already have such a plan to keep connected to your donors (or, if you don’t, you’re losing donors quickly) but do you do the same thing with volunteers, paid staff, board members, corporate partners, and other stakeholders? Do you make a point of offering them something useful on a regular basis?
Be open to contacting people with whom you think you have nothing in common, Kennedy urges. Adding diversity to your network stretches you and adds to your resilience. A lack of resilience leads to burnout and low engagement. “How Resilient Are You?” (page 26) explains how you can boost resilience in your self and others in your organization.
An important part of connecting is to learn the discipline of listening. “You can listen like a blank wall or like a splendid auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer,” as Alice Duer Miller has said. Jessica Hartung speaks of the importance of “generous listening” and “listening for nuggets.” To listen with a generous heart is to give people the time they need to make their point.
“People have a deep need to be heard and understood,” Hartung says. When you expand on the ideas of others, you acknowledge their contributions and move to a version of what you both share. The first step is listening to what others are saying with the intention of finding a valuable nugget to build on.
Looking for the nuggets in someone’s words can transform a relationship. One of the best ways to move a conversation forward, Hartung says, is to build on points that others have made – even if you don’t agree (see “Listen for Nuggets” on page 27 and “Listen in to Boost Action” on page 10).
As people feel understood, they’re more eager to help achieve the organization’s mission. “Isolation is the dream killer,” as Barbara Sher observes. Learn more on page 28 (“What’s Love
“Isolation is the dream killer.”
Got to Do with It?”) and page 16 (“Why Your Best People Are Leaving & Four Ways to Win Them Back”).
A focus on heart-to-heart connection doesn’t preclude using the latest technology or having virtual get-togethers, as noted in “Get the Best of Both Worlds with Hybrid Meetings” on page 4. Some of the new technologies are ingenious and can be enormously helpful. But look for ways to combine them with face-to-face and personal-engagement strategies. That’s the secret to true connection.
Jill Muehrcke, muehrcke@charter.net
Five Things to Do Next Monday
Here are a few concrete things you can do right now to begin transforming your organization.
1. Rate your relationship quotient with the questions in “Connecting with Your Heart & the Hearts of Others” (page 28).
2. Take the first step toward a robust monthly giving program to unearth gold within your database (“Spur Donors to Give Every Month,” page 6).
3. Reflect on the questions in “Listen for Nuggets” on page 27.
4. Begin the process of creating a marketing advisory group to gain new perspectives and build relationships. “Listen In to Boost Action” (page 10) offers pointers.
5. Give people in your organization the questions in “How Resilient Are You?” (page 26) so they can assess their toughness and ability to recover from setbacks.
How Should You Collect Promised Funds?
Who is responsible for asking for money that donors have pledged?
QWe recently held a special event, at which a very successful appeal was made. While most of our guests paid their donations by credit card that night, we have to mail invoices to those donors who didn’t. In the past, our CFO would handle all invoicing. We now have a new CFO who is asking the resource development staff to create and mail the invoices for these pledges.
Do you have anything in writing that states the best practice?
My instinct tells me that professional fundraisers should be responsible only for raising funds, not put in the awkward position of also collecting them.
I have no issue before an event occurs if a corporation or foundation asks me, as the head of resource development, to send an invoice for its tickets so it can process a check. However, having the CFO ask the resource development staff to send invoices after the event for pledges made at the appeal places us in an uncomfortable position with our donors. Any guidance you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
ATo answer your question I did two things. First, I went online. Many nonprofit organizations post their gift acceptance policies. These typically include the party responsible for invoicing. I also asked several development professionals I respect. Everything I read and heard placed the responsibility for sending out invoices for pledges on the resource development staff.
While I know it’s not the answer you hoped to receive, let me share some of the points that were made. These may help you reframe your thinking so you no longer see your office as a bill collector – something that would make me uncomfortable, too – but, instead, can embrace this as an opportunity.
One development professional I spoke with has raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the years for a wide variety of organizations. She told me that in only one instance
did the finance office invoice donors. She didn’t find it as effective because the CFO doesn’t have a relationship with the donor. The typically pro-forma letter comes off cold and has the potential for making her job more difficult if someone feels slighted for any real or imagined reason.
This successful development professional says she much prefers to do the invoicing because it gives her yet another donor touch. She uses the opportunity to keep the donor updated regarding what’s happening at the organization and how that person’s money is being used.
She writes chatty, personal letters thanking people for their gifts, telling them what’s new at the organization, reiterating the amount they paid most recently and how it was applied to their pledge of $X, the total paid, and the balance due. She told me she always gets nice feedback from her donors when she sends these letters, to which the invoice is attached.
In your case, I would think the opportunity would be especially valuable. You have a wonderful chance to begin building a personal relationship with individuals for whom the special event may be their introduction to your organization. A letter from you or your department such as the one described above opens the door to future contact far more than one from the CFO could.
“Use your letter to open the door to future contact.”
Another development professional offered a different insight. She says she refers to the invoices as “pledge reminders.” While it may be a case of “a rose is a rose . . .,” the term “invoice” does sound like it should come from the finance office. It connotes the need to collect a bill that is due. “Pledge reminder” is softer. It appeals to the donor’s original intent. It also sounds like it rightfully should come from your office. So, while your office just inherited more work, it actually could make life easier and more productive for you and your colleagues in the long run. Good luck.
–
Terrie Temkin, Ph.D. (terriet@nonprofitmanagementsolutions.com), editor of You and Your Nonprofit Board (amazon.com)
Get the Best of Both Worlds with Hybrid Meetings
These four practices will help assure a successful meeting.
By Lisa Apolinski
According to a recent survey, 50% of employees have one to three hours of virtual meetings per week. And while complaints are frequent about time lost due to technical difficulties, half of employees prefer virtual meetings.
With an even split between wanting in-person and virtual meetings, and with workers spread farther across the country (and world), hybrid meetings would seem like the perfect combination. The trick, however, is planning a good meeting rather than having the outcome be a happy (or not so happy) accident. Here are four tips to get the right combo from the start.
Incorporate Virtual Participants in Unique Ways
When combining virtual and in-person meetings, the question is which venue leads and which is folded into the mix. Simply putting up a large screen would be akin to having people call in on a conference line. Instead, use a moderator both on the platform and at the in-person location to keep virtual attendees engaged. Have several monitors and camera angles located around the room so the virtual audience can be immersed in the physical environment.
For even greater engagement, run polls with the virtual audience and share the poll results with everyone. Then ask in-person participants their reactions to the outcomes for further discussion.
Test, Test, Test
Going back to the recent survey, the biggest complaint was that hybrid and virtual meetings often start late due to technical issues that should have been resolved. This is where practice, practice, and practice will come in.
When going for a hybrid meeting model, the weakest link is the technology. Be sure to include AV and IT experts at the conference’s location so they can provide guidance on the equipment. Asking for a “practice run” with the AV and IT teams at that location should be on the to-do list. The on-site team can act as the in-person attendees, and others can join via the virtual venue.
This testing ensures cameras are at the proper locations, lighting and microphones are placed properly, and the location’s bandwidth is able to handle the virtual surge in attendance. Understand and review the location’s back-up plan as a final safety measure in case something fails.
Grab On-Demand Content For Later
Livestreaming the in-person meeting for the virtual audience provides a great post-conference opportunity. By having several camera angles and both virtual and in-person audience discussions, you can develop a post-production video that captures both engagement venues and combines them in a unique way.
Since you have participants already on a live streaming platform, this could be a great time to ask a virtual participant to have a 30-second conversation about the organization during a break. These videos can be curated to make a virtual montage for participants and for socialmedia engagement.
Use Data from Virtual Participants to Drive In-Person Engagement
The hardest part of meetings is the lack of data to make good decisions. When you have virtual participants, you
“
Half of employees prefer virtual meetings.”
“You can gain immediate feedback on how things are running.”
can leverage the data capture. You can gather data on how many attendees are online, how long they stay, and how engaged they are. This is a captive audience who can quickly do a short survey midway through a session so you can gain immediate feedback on how things are running.
Because these audiences are viewing the meeting from a different angle, they can also observe those in person and see how they’re faring. Recording observations is a great way to see whether people are engaged and enthusiastic or tired and bored.
Virtual meetings will be around for quite some time. By combining them with in-person meetings in a calculated and strategic way, there’s great opportunity to get the best of both worlds.
Lisa Apolinski, CMC, is an international speaker, digital strategist, author, and founder of 3 Dog Write (3dogwrite. com). Her book Persuade with a Digital Content Story was named one of the top content marketing books in the world by Book Authority.
Meeting Solutions
Make sure all your meetings are effective. Find more information and guidance with these articles at NonprofitWorld.org:
Get Energized! Create Energy in Your Virtual Meetings (Vol. 40, No. 2)
Zoom Exhaustion Is Real: How to Find Balance & Stay Connected (Vol. 38, No. 3)
It’s Not Over till It’s Over: Five Strategies to Improve Your Meetings (Vol. 30, No. 1)
Connecting through the Camera & Keyboard (Vol. 38, No. 3)
Mastering Virtual Meetings (Vol. 42, No. 2)
Risk & Your Brain (Vol. 38, No. 4)
The Surprising Science of Meetings (Vol. 41, No. 1)
Livestreaming for Good: A Nonprofit Guide (Vol. 38, No. 3)
Yes, You CAN Make Powerful, Affordable Videos (Vol. 14, No. 2)
Follow These Steps for Better Meetings (Vol. 42, No. 4)
Use Humor to Conquer Zoom Fatigue (Vol. 39, No. 1)
please get in touch...
We would love to hear your response to anything in Nonprofit World, your comments about any aspect of the nonprofit sector, and your concerns about your daily work. Please get in touch in any of the following ways:
Drop us a note at: Letters to the Editor, Nonprofit World, P.O. Box 44173, Madison, Wisconsin 53744-4173.
E-mail to: muehrcke@charter.net
Please include your name, organization, address, phone number, and e-mail address. If you’d like your comments to appear anonymously, please let us know. We look forward to hearing from you!
WHAT’S UP ONLINE?
Would you like to discuss some of the issues addressed in Nonprofit World with other nonprofit professionals? Do you have questions to ask or expertise of your own to share?
Society for Nonprofits is actively engaged on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Find us on your favorite social media platform by visiting social.snpo.org
Spur Donors to Give Every Month
Monthly giving is like gold inside your database, just waiting to be unearthed.
By Gail Perry
How do you find the gold inside your donor database? You find it by asking your good old regular donors to become monthly donors. It’s simple, because you don’t have to look for new donors. You just raise more from the donors you have right now.
And the reason it’s like a pot of gold? When donors convert to monthly giving, they usually give three times more. Imagine what you can do with three times the money you receive now. Establishing a robust monthly giving program isn’t complicated, but it does take focus. Here are some tips for success:
Get your organization’s commitment. Understand that this is a long-term project. It often starts slowly and builds momentum over time. Be sure you’ll be able to stay the course. Be prepared to invest time and resources now and even more later to market your program as it takes hold.
Identify your most likely monthly-giving prospects. Who are they? They’re your most loyal donors and those who’ve given several times a year for three or more consecutive years. Often they’re your small donors, who give less than $100 a year but who give regularly. They
“When donors convert to monthly giving, they usually give three times more.”
might think, “I can’t write the big check, but I could do $20 a month.” Pull a report on those who donate under $100 a year but who have given more than once in the past 12 months. Focus on them first for monthly asks.
Create a seamless back-end system. How will you handle expired credit cards and charges that are denied? Make a firm commitment to follow up whenever such situations occur. Your donors want to keep sending those monthly gifts. Call them. E-mail them. Send them snail mail. Whatever you do, just be sure you do follow up when credit cards expire or charges are denied.
Credit-card bugaboos are the biggest problem with monthly giving, so be sure you’re ready to act when these troubles
“
Credit-card bugaboos are the biggest problem with monthly giving.
”
occur. And see the next tip for a way to avoid credit-card concerns altogether.
Encourage electronic funds transfer (EFT) payments so you won’t have to worry about expired credit cards, address changes, and, of course, those fees. Come right out and urge donors to use EFT. It’s as simple as saying this: “If you convert to giving monthly through electronic funds transfer it will save us a lot of money because we won’t have the credit-card fees.”
Use different channels to promote your program – mail, phone, online, your home page, volunteers, newsletters, and any other way that comes to mind.
Give your monthly-giving program a catchy name. Doctors Without Borders calls its monthly donors “Field Partners.” Boston Children’s Hospital calls them “Dream Makers.” Habitat for Humanity calls them “Hope Builders.” Think of an upbeat name for your program (you might even hold a naming contest with your donors) and give it lots of visibility.
Ask on your donation form. Put the option “Give monthly” first, before adding the option “Make a one-time donation.”
Show donors how their monthly gift buys something specific or funds a distinct need. For example:
• $25 will protect an acre of rain forest.
• $50 a month will provide five meals a week to a hungry child.
Today’s donors want to feel they’re doing something specific for the cause they love so much. Tell them exactly what their money will do.
Remind donors of the benefits of monthly gifts in all your appeals throughout the year so that the idea is impressed on people’s brains that there is a fabulous monthlygiving program. It’s also a good idea to have a special appeal just for monthly giving. That sets it apart and gives it depth. In your appeals, be sure you talk about the donor’s benefits:
• how easy it is for them
• how even small amounts make an impact
• how important it is to the mission you serve that the funding comes in on an ongoing basis so you can count on it.
Print the text in large letters so it even looks easy and convenient from just a glance at the appeal.
Create special branded communications for your monthly donors. Find ways to thank them. Monthly
donors will renew when they’re thanked profusely and treated like family.
Report on your progress often. Make it a big deal that everybody talks about. Monthly giving shouldn’t be an afterthought. It should be a priority.
Gail Perry Group inspires nonprofits around the world with cutting-edge fundraising strategies and new tools to make fundraising more successful and more fun. Find smart strategies to help you raise tons of money at gailperrygroup.com
Gain Further Perspectives on Fundraising
Learn more about raising funds at NonprofitWorld.org. Start with these articles: Deeper Donor Relationships = Increased Contributions (Vol. 26, No. 4)
Three Simple Questions that Get Donors to Give (Vol. 35, No. 2)
More Money Together: Shared Fundraising Strategies (Vol. 43, No. 2)
Can You Thank Your Donors Too Much? (Vol. 41, No. 2)
Gain Monthly Givers: A Roadmap to Success (Vol. 40, No. 4)
Think Out of the Box for Fundraising Gains (Vol. 29, No. 5)
The Five Most Dangerous Fundraising Fallacies (Vol. 32, No. 2)
Using E-Mail & the Web to Acquire & Cultivate Donors (Vol. 21, No. 1)
Making Board Meetings Work
Board meetings shouldn’t be boring. Follow these guidelines for motivating, effective meetings.
By Peter Gamache & Jackie Sue Griffin
The best board meetings leave participants motivated and focused. To help your board get there, we’ve gathered these tips for running effective meetings. Following these guidelines will also help increase board member attendance.
Rotate which people lead each part of the meeting. Listening to a new member speak can re-engage board members. Being responsible for starting a discussion or sharing information can boost leadership skills.
Co-create the rules for the meetings. Ask all members to help establish norms and expectations. For example:
• Do your meetings allow the use of cell phones and Ipads?
• How many meetings can board members miss?
Send out the agenda well before the meeting, so everyone knows what to expect and has time to prepare.
Give timely notice. Even if your meeting is scheduled at the same place on a recurring day and time (and it should be
“Rotate who leads each part of the meeting.”
if possible), notify members well in advance, usually using e-mail, about meeting details. To keep people accountable, request a reply to ensure that the information is received. Count RSVPs to be sure that enough people are planning to attend. If not, you may need to find a date that’s convenient to more people.
Limit the time on each agenda topic. Sticking to the timeframe will show meeting participants that their time is valued and respected.
Vote on noncontroversial items as part of a consent agenda . (A consent agenda puts routine reports together so that the board can approve them all at once.) A consent agenda saves time for crucial discussions of strategic topics. Don’t get derailed by topics that aren’t on the agenda. Put them aside for later discussion to ensure that your top priorities are addressed first and to get meeting participants to focus better.
Use periodic surveys, self-assessments, or other tools to gather regular feedback on how well these meetings are working for the board. Use this feedback to improve meetings and help board members be more effective.
Document all decisions. Meeting minutes are considered legal documents and must be scrupulously maintained. Committee meetings, too, require thorough minutes,
“A new member can reengage your board.”
documenting individual and committee commitments to the organization and becoming part of the institutional memory.
If your meeting is virtual, be sure to provide detailed instructions and time for everyone to test the technology before the meeting.
Promote healthy discussion during the meetings by allocating specific timeframes. If someone is talking for too long, politely call them out. Expect respectful behavior and discourse at all times.
Peter Gamache, PhD, is president of the Turnaround Achievement Network. Jackie Griffin, MBA, MS, is development director of Turnaround Life and executive director of Jackie Sue Griffin & Associates ( jsg-associates. com). Turnaround Life works to turn around problems, deficits, and barriers within human service systems.
Fire Up Your Board
Design board meetings that inspire and energize your members. See more tips at NonprofitWorld.org:
Seven Creative Ways to Energize Your Board Meetings (Vol. 16, No. 3)
Do All Board Members Speak Up in Meetings? (Vol. 40, No. 3)
Ipads in the Board Room (Vol. 31, No. 6)
Using Board Portals to Keep Directors Connected (Vol. 18, No. 3)
It’s Not Over till It’s Over: Five Strategies to Improve Your Meetings (Vol. 30, No. 1
Increase Your Organization’s Influence in Just 15 Minutes a Month (Vol. 38, No. 1)
How to Run the Perfect Board Meeting – While Inspiring Board Members to Raise Funds (Vol. 36, No. 4)
Beyond the Board Package (Vol. 27, No. 5)
Powerful New Communication Tools for Your Meetings: Engaging Both Sides of the Brain (Vol. 26, No. 3)
If It’s Not in the Minutes, Did It Happen? (Vol. 14, No. 6)
Board Member Self-Assessment (Vol. 15, No. 6)
Twelve Ways to Liven Up Your Board Meetings – And Your Board (Vol. 36, No. 3)
Coming Up in NonprofitWorld
• Mastering Today’s Financial, Funding, & Other Top Challenges
• How to Use AI without Losing Your Leadership
• A Tool to Prioritize Opportunities
• Use Design Thinking to Solve Worrisome Problems
• The Five Essentials for Workplace Wellness
• Why – and How – to Hire for Skill over Experience
• What Happens When Funders Truly Listen to Nonprofits
• Find the Funding You Need: Grant Management Best Practices
• Software Management in the Age of Blockchain
• The Secret Ingredient All Leaders Need
• How to Tap into the Latest Giving Trends Plus much more!
Listen In to Boost Action
Here are tried-and-true tactics to unearth relationship-building treasure.
By Nancy Schwartz
There’s a proven way for your organization to strengthen relationships with the people whose support, loyalty, and actions you want – donors, volunteers, and even staff (too often overlooked).
This approach is easy to execute. It’s something you do on a personal level all the time: Get to know others with whom you want to build a friendship – learning what’s important to them and how their days go. These insights help you focus on what’s of interest to both of you and keep in touch via a commonly-used channel (social, mobile, text, mail) at the time that your folks will be most receptive.
Here are four methods you can use to harvest these priceless insights:
1. Launch a Marketing Advisory Group
Begin by identifying your target audiences. Prioritize segments of each that share wants, needs, and preferences. Then put together a marketing advisory group incorporating as many of these perspectives as possible. This way, you’ll have the right people to turn to when you need them. In addition, this group will provide a solid diversity of opinion when you solicit input.
Next, invite prospective team members to participate. If you don’t have people in mind who represent all the
“You’ll have the right people to turn to when you need them.”
perspectives you need, ask program or other colleagues for recommendations.
Make sure to specify your expectations and to keep them modest. Ask team members to help at most once or twice a month, asking for no more than five to 10 minutes of their time for each ask.
Put your marketing advisors to work in the way it’s most beneficial. This may vary depending on the task at hand. Ask a few of them for input on draft messages for the new advocacy campaign. Ask a few others for a critique of the draft mini-site for the campaign. Or ask all of them to complete a brief online survey to share their perception of the new program and the gap it will fill. Whatever your decision, make sure you ask with thought and don’t overburden your advisors. And – most important of all – thank them frequently.
Try it for six months, refining the program over time to be of greatest value for you and least burden for your marketing
advisory team. When you do, you’ll connect with your audiences better than ever before.
2. Listen to Social Conversations
There’s so much being said online – about your organization, causes, issues, campaigns, and the organizations you compete with for donations and attention – that you’ll learn a lot by just listening. By monitoring social channels for conversation on relevant topics, you’ll see what resonates and why, enabling you to better engage your people.
Keep in mind that with this kind of social listening you won’t necessarily know who’s talking and how that person maps (if at all) to your targets. Nonetheless, if there’s a groundswell of conversation on a topic important to your organization, you want to hear it.
Social monitoring options range from free tools like Google Alerts to paid services such as Mention and social listening services such as Attentive.ly. These tools illuminate what people in your e-mail file (donors, volunteers, e-mail subscribers, and others) are saying on social media. They’ll also help you identify who is influential so that you can improve targeting and increase engagement.
Case Study: American Friends Service Committee Uses Attentive.ly to Connect
A few days after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), noticed a significant shift in focus on social media to the hashtag #Ferguson. They could quickly see that terms such as “police” started trending, nationally and among supporters in AFSC’s database.
AFSC created a saved search to see exactly who in its database was talking about Ferguson on Facebook and Twitter. Next, they invited those supporters to a Google Hangout that resulted in record-high participation and donations. That’s incredible targeting.
3. Connect in Social Communities
If your organization has an active community on Facebook, X, Instagram, or other interactive platforms, you have a focus group ready to roll. Before you just ask, and ask, and ask again, prioritize what you want to know. Also, decide how to filter and weigh what you hear, since your social communities may not map exactly to your donors and prospects. Here are a few ways you can use Facebook to get to know more about your people:
Run your organization’s donor or e-mail list against Facebook subscribers who have liked your page. The results will make it easy to map responses to your prioritized audiences.
Facebook’s Live Video tool is an excellent way to gather quick feedback on a draft logo, design, message, or e-mail
format (anything, in fact, that’s easy to view via an online video) – if you have a huge and active following on Facebook. Polling is super easy to set up and respond to using one of Facebook’s survey tools.
4. Ask Folks as They’re Leaving a Program or Event
This technique is ages old but works well, as long as you ask just one or two quick questions. If your question is brief, ask verbally. If you want to gather names or have a couple of questions, then have tablets on hand for responses. If the event is online, pop up a quick survey before the finish.
Put These Insights into Action
What you learn about your audiences is valuable only when you log, share, and analyze that information across your organization – and then act on it.
This process will position you to put your findings to work most effectively right now. Then go one step further to extend the value of your new information by adding it to supporter data.
That’s your path to getting closer than ever with your people, and activating them to move your mission forward. Go to it, friends.
Nancy Schwartz (nancy@smartmedicare.com) is a medicare coach who is well known for her blog and newsletter “Getting Attention.”
Broaden Your Reach
Connect more powerfully with more people by using the pointers in articles at NonprofitWorld.org:
Top Five Ways to Engage Donors with Social Media (Vol. 33, No. 3)
Benefits & Risks for Nonprofit Leaders Using LinkedIn (Vol. 31, No. 2)
Why Feedback Is the Key to Your Success (Vol. 35, No. 3)
Remember Your Brand when You Market with Social Media (Vol. 33, No. 4)
Integrate Social Media into Your Website (Vol. 35, No. 1)
Ignite Passion by Connecting Online (Vol. 34, No. 4)
E-Mail Deliverability: Increase Your Chances of Getting Through (Vol. 23, No. 2)
Surveys Provide Crucial Feedback (Vol. 22, No. 5)
Three Tools to Manage Social Media (Vol. 32, No. 2)
Be a Better Leader by Being a Careful Listener (Vol. 37, No. 1)
Listen Your Way to Major Gifts: Power Questions Your Donors Will Love (Vol. 39, No. 3)
HOW TO PREVENT Employee Data Theft
The risk of data theft by employees is on the increase. These tips will help shut down this ticking time bomb.
Agrowing number of malicious data breaches are caused not by unknown criminals but by the organization’s own insiders, The increased number of employees working remotely heightens the risks.
It’s hard to defend against employee data thefts because they come from people you trust. You can’t predict these thefts, but you can prepare by understanding why and how they occur, explains Oliver Noble, a cybersecurity expert at NordLocker (nordlocker.com).
Why Do They Do It?
Why might your employees want to steal your organization’s data? Here are the most common reasons: Most are financially motivated. They try to cash in on the information they steal.
An employee might hold a grudge against the employer and steal data out of spite or revenge.
Some people embezzle confidential data to start a competing business or benefit their future employer.
“Inside jobs are frighteningly frequent.”
You may have unknowingly hired an inside agent acting on behalf of some external party.
“Whatever their reason might be, malicious insiders are a ticking bomb once given trusted access to the organization’s resources,“ says Noble. “They know how valuable and critical the information your organization handles is, and they’re on the mission to steal or leak it.”
What Tricks Do They Use?
What ways are used to steal information?
In many cases, insiders leak photographs or screenshots. Wrongdoers may also make physical copies of documents. Other leaks occur through instant messaging, e-mail, or social networks.
An employee can infect your organization’s computers with malware that may sit there undetected for days or even months before damaging your systems or leaking information.
Every organization has information of value which may be attractive to other parties, Noble points out. To get it, insiders will do anything, even if it takes them long months of observing their colleagues and studying the organization’s systems. Thus, every organization should have data theft prevention in place to eliminate risks as much as possible.
How Can You Avoid Malicious Inside Jobs?
Even though it’s impossible to completely prevent inside jobs, the following measures will help mitigate the risks:
Establish the principle of least privilege (POLP) to limit who has access to your critical data. Only those people whose roles require the information should have access to it.
Implement an intrusion prevention system (IPS) to analyze real-time traffic and detect any suspicious network traffic flows.
Store data backups in an encrypted cloud. This ensures the information doesn’t get leaked and access to it isn’t lost in the event of a ransomware attack.
Get data loss prevention (DLP) software. Such software detects potential data breaches, exfiltration, and destruction of sensitive information.
Install digital signatures to sign every critical action within your organization’s systems with a secure mark of authenticity so it’s easier to find the culprit if an incident occurs.
NordLocker (nordlocker.com) is a file encryption tool with a private cloud. It was created by the cybersecurity experts behind NordVPN – one of the most advanced VPN service providers in the world. With NordLocker, files are protected from hacking, surveillance, and unauthorized data collection.
Guard against Cyber Theft, Fraud, & Financial Misuse
You’ll find ideas on dodging potential threats in a host of articles available at NonprofitWorld.org, including:
Avoid Internet Dangers: Practice Safe Surfing & Defensive E-Mail (Vol. 39, No. 3)
Are You Prepared for a Cybersecurity Incident? (Vol. 38, No. 4)
Protect Your Resources from Insider Theft (Vol. 20, No. 4)
Wire Transfer Fraud: It Could Happen to You (Vol. 35, No. 3)
What to Do When an Employee Becomes a Cybercriminal (Vol. 39, No. 4)
Ransomware Readiness & Recovery: Do’s and Don’ts to Safeguard Your Data (Vol. 42, No. 4)
Hacking People: Why Your Biggest Vulnerability Isn’t in Your IT Department (Vol. 37, No. 1)
Don’t Get Caught by Phishing Schemes (Vol. 35, No. 2)
Can Your Organization Afford to Lose $100,000?
Safeguards Every Nonprofit Needs to Implement
(Vol. 30, No. 3)
Nine Surefire Steps to Lock Down Your Cybersecurity (Vol. 36, No. 3)
Are You Breeding the Conditions for Fraud to Occur? (Vol. 39, No. 3)
Old Thinking Won’t Lead to New Ideas
Try these strategies and instantly become
more innovative.
By Susan Robertson
It’s all too easy to meet each new challenge using your typical day-to-day thinking. It feels familiar, and it works on most things.
But using the same old thinking will lead you to the same old ideas. Instead, you need to do something different. Here are some ways to ensure you (and your team) shake up your thinking so you come up with the fresh ideas you need. Change your environment. Get outside your office. Do your reading in an art museum. Or take your team to the zoo with the objective of coming back with innovative approaches. Depending on what part of the country you’re in, you could send your teams to the Mall of America, Walt Disney World, or a trendy area of your city to look for inspiration. If you can’t physically get out of the office, find a way to get out metaphorically. Ask people to imagine how they would solve the problem-at-hand if they lived in Antarctica, or if they viewed it from the perspective of a submarine captain. Bring outsiders in. Invite other perspectives into your idea-generation processes. Your project team will be amazed at the range and diversity of ideas that come when they’re exposed to new viewpoints. They’ll think of strategies they never would have arrived at on their own, due to their embedded assumptions about the topic.
Engage with your stakeholders. Don’t rely on secondhand data to understand the needs of your donors, board members, staff, clients, and other “customers.” You need to actually talk to them. Go to their homes or offices to see the problems they need solved.
All too often teams looking for an idea will say, “We don’t need to do any discovery in advance because we already have ‘lots of data’.” Such a comment should make you wary, because it rarely means they’ve discovered any real insight into people’s needs. Challenge yourself to find a more engaging and interactive process. It will be far more effective to immerse your team in real customer understanding. Question everything. Do some exercises that force people to confront their assumptions about the topic. For example: Ask the team for approaches that would solve the problem but that they think can’t be implemented. Then, ask them to reframe each idea by saying “We might be able to implement this idea if . . . .” What comes after the “if’s” will help surface a lot of assumptions about barriers – and ways to break those barriers down.
Let some crazy in the room. The academic definition of creative thinking is “the process of coming up with new and useful ideas.” The only way to get new notions is to start with seemingly crazy ideas. Every truly groundbreaking
“Every truly groundbreaking idea seems a little crazy at first.”
idea seems a little crazy at first. Ideas that are comfortable are probably not very new.
So, encourage people to throw in extremely wild ideas. Then, play a game called “If We Could.” Instruct the team to temporarily let go of the problems in the idea and ask, “If we could implement this idea, what would be the benefits?” Once you’ve identified the potential of each crazy concept, narrow down to the most promising few and ask the team to look for possible solutions to the barriers.
Not every idea will be served by the same type of thinking. Once you recognize that a new situation needs new thinking, it’s fairly easy to shift to a more productive mode. Then shift back to the more familiar day-to-day thinking for your daily tasks.
Susan Robertson (susanrobertsonspeaker.com) empowers individuals, teams, and organizations to more nimbly adapt to change, by transforming thinking from “why we can’t” to “how might we?” She is a creative thinking expert with over 20 years of experience speaking and coaching. As an instructor on applied creativity at Harvard, she brings a scientific foundation to enhancing human creativity.
Your Brain on Innovation
For more ways to find fresh ideas and solutions to your challenges, turn to these articles (NonprofitWorld.org):
Spark New Ideas throughout Your Organization (Vol. 39, No. 2)
Find Ways to Innovate – But First Move Past Inertia (Vol. 40, No. 1)
Mind Mapping Is Essential for Leaders (Vol. 38, No. 4)
The Perils of Problem-Solving – & How to Dodge Them (Vol. 40, No. 1)
Don’t Let These Threats Derail Your Project (Vol. 44, No. 1)
Risk & Your Brain (Vol. 38, No. 4)
Creating a Climate for Innovation (Vol. 29, No. 4)
Outside the Comfort Zone (Vol. 25, No. 3)
Why You Need Deeper Knowledge – & How to Get It (Vol. 42, No. 1)
Powerful New Communication Tool for Your Meetings: Engaging Both Sides of Your Brain (Vol. 26, No. 3)
Enjoy Reading NONPROFIT WORLD?
Here are more benefits of membership in the Society for Nonprofits
• 12 issues of Nonprofit World Funding Alert, providing monthly updates on grant and funding opportunities.
• Complete access to over 1,200 printer-ready management articles, searchable by author, key word, or subject.
• Reduced enrollment fees from the Learning Institute for the Society’s Certificate Series of educational programs.
• Free job postings on our NonprofitCareers.org job site.
Why Your Best People Are Leaving & Four Ways to Win Them Back
Reduce turnover and boost productivity with these keys.
By William Schiemann
Research from the Metrus Institute says that between 50 and 80% of employees aren’t fully engaged. Less than full engagement leads to poor performance and high turnover. Worse yet, your best talent — those people with lots of options — are the most likely to leave.
On day one, most employees are totally engaged, excited to begin a new experience. The challenge is to keep those engagement levels high. Here are four ways to do so:
1. Change Work-Life Balance to Work-Life Integration
A major reason for reduced engagement is the stress caused by work-home conflict. Today, work and home aren’t separated by a firm boundary. A large majority of workers respond to work-related texts or e-mail at night or on the weekend, or work feverishly to finish a report or presentation while at home. Yet many are afraid to address personal issues that come up during their workday. This
“Why do engagement levels drop so dramatically?”
pressure detracts from their engagement because it feels one-sided. Use these tactics to forestall stress and burnout:
Focus on the results people achieve rather than the amount of hours they work.
Review workloads frequently to ensure that people –especially the high performers – aren’t becoming overloaded to the point of burnout.
Educate people on how to integrate different sectors of their lives.
Update policies to let workers control how, when, and where they work. It’s amazing what people can accomplish when they’re allowed to match their hardest jobs to the times and places where they have the most energy and focus.
2. Help Employees Build Resilience
Developing resilience is vital in a multitasking, rapidly changing world. Roughly 95% of people interviewed in the Metrus Institute study had major setbacks at some point during their lives and many intermediate setbacks yearly. But very few had the coping mechanisms to quickly recover and get their lives back on track. Here are ways to help people build those strengths:
Make it easy for people to say they need support. Make guidance and resources accessible to anyone who needs them.
3. Empower People to Take Charge
Engagement isn’t something you can give people. Research shows that people control at least 60% of their own happiness and fulfillment. Over time, however, many employees develop learned helplessness, often at the hands of leaders who constantly say “no” and take away people’s ability to control their performance. After a while, people stop trying to change things because they keep hitting barriers. Tear down such barriers with these steps:
Pass more authority and accountability to employees. Empower them to take the actions they believe will accomplish results.
Get to know employees as individuals so you can help them achieve not only their work goals but their life goals. Find out what they’re passionate about, what fuels or saps their energy. Discuss with them the elements of the workday they can control better and help them manage their own engagement.
4. Train People in the Skills of Engagement
Engaging others is an ability that doesn’t come naturally to most people. Yet few are given engagement training when they begin oversight responsibilities. Help people learn these valuable skills with these tips:
Add classes in networking, collaborating, and other forms of engagement to the repertoire of training you offer. Provide employees with people within the organization who can coach and mentor them.
“A major contributor is the stress caused by work-home conflict.” “Focus on results rather than hours worked.”
Train people in how to negotiate, work with difficult personalities, and solve conflicts.
Give everyone the chance to work within teams, lead teams, and learn the nuances of teamwork.
Let people choose the training they feel they need.
William A. Schiemann, Ph.D., is a thought leader in employee engagement and author of Fulfilled! Critical Choices – Work, Home, Life, available at amazon.com
Reboot Engagement to High Levels
Use articles such as these (NonprofitWorld.org) to put you and your employees on the road to a highly engaged workforce:
Don’t Let “Sick” Workers Undermine Your Organization (Vol. 23, No. 1)
What Makes a Great Team? (Vol. 32, No. 6)
Motivate Workers with Training Opportunities (Vol. 33, No. 3)
Use Coaching to Retain the Leader’s Edge (Vol. 28, No. 2)
The Overwhelmed Office: Six Fixes for the StressedOut, Productivity-Challenged Workplace (Vol. 28, No. 4) Manage for Today, Mentor for Tomorrow (Vol. 23, No. 5)
When It Comes to Time Management, It’s All about Energy (Vol. 36, No. 4)
Are You Offering the Right Perks? (Vol. 35, No. 1)
A Path to Stronger Programs, Greater Engagement, and Less Burnout? (Vol. 36, No. 1)
What You Need to Know about Branding
Every nonprofit leader needs to manage the organization’s branding.
By Jane Cavalier
We live in a topsy-turvy world where the old rules no longer apply. Many call it a VUCA world – volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. People are driven by a new essentialism where things matter less and relationships, experiences, and self-being dominate all. In this new world, workers are restless, customers fickle, and the public has an appetite to cancel. To rally everyone to stand behind an organization, leaders need to draw upon emotions, as rationality will not carry the day. They have one tool at their disposal to do this delicate work – the brand.
Although often associated with marketing, brands are actually cultural icons that symbolically carry meaning. In just a nano second, they evoke common emotions across all people. In a world where everything is uncertain, brands can be trusted to stand true.
Now, if you don’t have a brand, you can build one. Anyone can. It takes commitment to people, to tell their story and represent their interests. If you create a brand that represents the highest common denominator between your people (employees, donors, clients) and your services, then you can forge an enduring partnership that will yield surprising dividends. It all begins with understanding the basics of what a brand really means for your organization.
A Brand Resides in the Mind, Not in a Logo.
Although expressed in a logo and a tagline, a brand is a mental construct that lives in people’s memories. Branding is the process of creating the brand in the minds of people. It is typically done by creating things and experiences (such as marketing materials and product design) that “express” the brand.
Brands also live in the culture. Powerful brands become social concepts that continually give people cues and establish the brand as a part of society.
Brands Set Meaning.
Is an anti-lock braking system a breakthrough in performance (BMW) or safety (Volvo)? That depends on the brand. The brand is a mental lens that provides immediate meaning. Tiffany means luxury and quality. Apple is about unleashing creativity, while IBM is about improving productivity. The brand provides context which tells people why a product or service is important to them.
Brands Carry Emotional Power.
Like great art, brands are designed to elicit a response, both emotional and rational. Like art, they can enchant and captivate people, creating desire. Marlboro was the first filter-tipped cigarette and was initially launched as
“People defend the brands they love against all odds.”
a woman’s cigarette. That brand failed. The same product was re-branded as the ultimate masculine smoke and, with the swagger of the Marlboro man, still remains one of the most powerful brands in the world. Powerful brands are mythologies that evoke emotions that swell to desire.
Brands Are Fiction, Not Fact.
Branding is poetry, not journalism. Messaging matrixes and value propositions belong to marketers and are fact-based. Branding is concept-based. Branding brings out the big gun – an idea. A powerful, transcendent, mind-tweaking idea designed to engage the mind and heart at another level. The idea is what catalyzes new behavior and thinking. When Tide gets clothes clean, it means that Mom and Dad are good parents. The Home Depot brand makes it a Home Center for any do-it-yourselfer.
Brands Defy Logic.
When you have a powerful brand, you’ll be surprised by what it can do. You’ll see strong conviction and commitment across employees, clients, and supporters despite challenges. People tend to defend the brands they love and stay loyal against all odds – better alternatives, cheaper alternatives, easier alternatives. To achieve that kind of priceless cohesion, you have to build and maintain the brand campfire – and make it into a bonfire for the whole world to see. At John Deere, they say people bleed green because the brand is so deep.
Brands Deliver Value Multiple Ways.
Because powerful brands are sticky, they have the ability to build a moat around the organization. Customers remain loyal even in the face of superior performing or lower priced competitors. People forgive and forget errors. They’re more willing to try new products, services, and experiences from brands they love. A brand will amplify the upside and mitigate the downside.
Wise leaders view the organization’s brand as more than a marketing tool. They see it as an asset, part of the organization’s strategy. While executives may come and go within the organization, the brand can endure forever – as long as it is well maintained.
In a world of constant shocks and disruptions, brands are a reassuring presence that people can depend on. Powerful brands nurture the people who come to work and support the organization. They connect people on a human level.
Use Branding to Bring Your Vision to Life
If you have a vision, a brand will galvanize it in people’s imagination. These resources (at NonprofitWorld.org) will help you build a brand, preserve it, and keep it safe from lawsuits and encroachments in a volatile world.
Why Telling the Right Brand Story Matters So Much (Vol. 32, No. 3)
Defining Your Leader Brand (Vol. 25, No. 2)
The Nonprofit Branding Exercise (Vol 26, No. 1)
The Most Important Question You Should Be Asking Right Now (Vol. 27, No. 2)
How to Transform Your Brand (Vol. 28, No. 5)
Grounded Visioning: A Quick Way to Create Shared Visions (Vol. 26, No. 4)
Simple Lessons to Preserve Your Brand (Vol. 31, No. 4)
Dealing with Change in a VUCA World (Vol. 37, No. 4)
The Power of Story: Bring Your Brand to Life (Vol. 34, No. 4)
A Better Brand = More Loyal Supporters (Vol. 38, No. 4)
Brands are creative concepts that stimulate the imagination and emotions in ways that most CEOs cannot. With a powerful brand, the CEO has a tool to open minds, raise hearts, command attention, bring everyone together, and protect the organization in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world.
Jane Cavalier, CEO and founder of BrightMark Consulting ( brightmarkconsulting.com), is a nationally recognized brand strategist, board member, blogger and author of the bestselling book The Enchanted Brand (amazon.com). She helps organizations conquer a changing world with powerful brands and reputations.
Icebreakers to Help You Connect More Deeply
Get the ball rolling with these conversation starters.
At a time when so many people crave supportive relationships, icebreakers open the door to deeper trust. When you use these warm-ups in a meeting, program, or retreat, you’ll feel an instant shift in the energy of the room.
One reason this activity works so well is that all participants get to choose how they want to start talking and what they want others to know about them. No one is put on the spot.
There’s a reason that Gallup includes “Do you have a best friend at work?” as a cornerstone question in its employee engagement survey. When people feel connected at a human level, they’re more enthusiastic, committed, and productive – and they’re more likely to stick around.
Deeper Conversations Build Stronger Teams
Have you been in this situation? Someone asks, “How was everyone’s weekend?” and the replies are quick and shallow:
“Good.”
“Yeah, same here.”
“Not much, just chilled.”
By Karin Hurt
Meanwhile, someone – let’s call him Kevin – is silently struggling. He’s thinking, “My weekend was rough. My kids are sick, my wife is overwhelmed, and I’m running on fumes. But I don’t want to bother anyone with my problems.” So he says, “Same,” and you move on to the work.
Kevin doesn’t get the help he needs, and you miss an opportunity to show your team you care.
This is where practicing deeper conversations makes all the difference. It’s not about turning your team into a therapy group; it’s about creating a space where real connection feels normal and safe. When people feel seen and supported, they bring their best selves to work – and to each other.
Try These Compassionate Openers
These icebreakers work great as a quick warm-up to a remote meeting or as part of a speed-connecting session at a virtual kick-off. You can share them in advance or distribute them at the start of the meeting. The magic in this activity is that it makes people feel safe to be vulnerable – because each human gets to choose what to disclose. Use the following to give people a chance to open up:
Conversation Starters to Help People Learn More about One Another:
• One thing you don’t know about me that might surprise you is ___________________.
• On weekends I love to ___________________.
• Some of the people most important in my life are ___________________.
• One thing I’m really looking forward to outside of work is ___________________.
• If money were no object and I could pick any career I wanted, I would love to be a ___________________.
Icebreakers to Inspire Your Team to Celebrate and Encourage One Another:
• Who on this team was particularly helpful to you this year? Why?
• What do you appreciate most about working on this team? Why?
• What kind of recognition do you find most meaningful?
• One idea I have for us to be more supportive of one another is ___________________.
• Next time we accomplish something big, I think we should celebrate by ___________________ (insert realistic idea here).
Queries to Encourage People after a Tough Year:
When your team has managed to get through a hard year (or other difficult stretch of time), these questions will help them feel safe to share difficult feelings and create new bonds:
• What has been one source of inspiration or strength for you this year?
• If you had a one-word mantra to describe your approach to this year, what would that be?
• As you reflect on the turbulence of this past year, what makes you proud?
• What are you grieving most from this past year?
• What are you learning about yourself?
Probes to Encourage People to Share Their Concerns:
• One thing I’m worried about is ___________________.
• I don’t think we’re spending enough time talking about ___________________.
• My biggest hope for this year is ___________________ and my biggest fear is ___________________.
• If there was one thing that could derail our team’s success this year, what would that be?
• At a personal level, I’m most worried about
Do It for the Long Term
Of course, it’s not just the one conversation that makes a difference. These questions can help people form a habit of being a bit more real with one another. And after a while, they won’t need an icebreaker to start a compassionate conversation.
Once people have some regular practice with these conversation starters, you can also ask them to BYOQ (Bring Your Own Question) – inviting them to think of a new probe that will serve the team.
Karin Hurt, founder of Let’s Grow Leaders ( letsgrowleaders.com), helps leaders around the world achieve breakthrough results. She and David Dye are the award-winning authors of numerous books, including Courageous Cultures.
Be a Relationship-Builder
How well do you lead people to connect with each other, form compassionate bonds, and nurture a culture of caring? Resources at NonprofitWorld.org offer additional tips and tactics to motivate people and encourage them to connect at profound levels:
High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Drive Engagement (Vol. 42, No. 3)
Powerful Phrases for Difficult Discussions (Vol. 42, No. 4)
Embrace Mindfulness as a Leadership Practice (Vol. 36, No. 2)
Find the Glue that Binds Your Team (Vol. 40, No. 4)
Practices to Help You Thrive in Challenging Times (Vol. 39, No. 4)
How to Coach People through Stress: Use Reflective Inquiry for Best Results (Vol. 38, No. 4)
Assess Your Work Style for Better Communication (Vol. 37, No. 4)
Easing Stress in the Workplace (Vol. 25, No. 4)
Bring Yourself Fully to Your Nonprofit Role (Vol. 41, No. 1)
The Value of Rock-Solid Relationships in Turbulent Times (Vol. 30, No. 1)
Mastering the Mastermind: Making the Most of CrossMentoring Groups (Vol. 40, No. 4)
Workplace Environments & How They Influence Productivity (Vol. 41, No. 2)
Dynamic Retreats: What Nonprofit CEOs Need to Know (Vol. 42, No. 3)
What Kind of Team Leader Are You? (Vol. 32, No. 5)
How to Fix Communication Breakdowns (Vol. 29, No. 1)
Mission Accomplished – Really?
It’s crucial to assess your mission and make sure that everyone understands it.
By William Calder
Your mission is the most important and observable declaration you make to help people understand why your organization exists and what you want to achieve. Many mission statements, however, are too vague, lack stakeholder involvement in their development, and are replete with meaningless platitudes. There’s a strong need to embed tangible benefits (or outcomes) into a mission.
Why & How to Assess Your Mission
Having a mission that’s all talk with no real commitment can undermine leadership and credibility. Misalignments of the “what,” “how,” and “why” may exist because of longheld, outdated practices. That’s why it’s vital to hold regular assessments to see how others (both in and outside your organization) perceive your mission. Only then can you decide whether updates are needed.
As part of that assessment, take a look at how you measure success. Scrutinize your key success indicators. Do they align with your organization’s goals, intent, purpose, values, and results? Pinpoint what is important as opposed to what is urgent. And choose every word carefully. Ambiguous wording will complicate your assessment attempts.
“It’s
vital to hold regular assessments.
”
All too often, mission statements are a cluster of words that only a few people can fully understand – words such as “integrated services,” “quality programs,” and “clientfocused.” Or the statements are vague, such as “Our mission is to contribute to community success,” “to provide outstanding support services for a changing world,” or “to be passionate about a client’s success.” Words like “contribute,” “provide,” and “passionate” aren’t precise, nor are they focused on defining what successful results will look like. The change for clients is the real mission.
A well-defined mission includes two parts:
• a verb that indicates a change in status, such as to increase, to decrease, to prevent, to eliminate, to produce, to gain, and so on
• the condition or problem to be changed, such as hunger, cancer, or healthcare.
Examples of Mission Statements, Good & Bad
Let’s look now at some mission statements to see what differentiates the useful ones from those that aren’t strong, detailed, or comprehensive enough to allow the organization to assess whether it is meeting its mission.
One nonprofit, for instance, made this statement: “We are a client-centered organization serving community and regional stakeholders and offering high-quality programs and services.”
This statement certainly has commendable points, but it focuses on qualities of the organization itself rather than the results for its clients, community, and others. And what does the term “client-centered” mean? It’s essential to define it. How does a client-centered operation act differently from one that’s not focused in this way? “High-quality” is another imprecise term. What, specifically, does it mean?
Another inadequate mission statement is written this way: “To anticipate and meet the needs of our clients and community through outstanding programs and services with a human touch.”
“Anticipating” and “human touch” are not mission words. The outcomes for clients and the community are absent in this statement.
The mission of a women’s center – “to provide comprehensive counseling services” – is deficient because it describes a method of helping (counseling) rather than pointing out an
“Many mission statements are replete with meaningless platitudes.”
expected result. Rather, the mission might be “to improve the mental and physical health of women as single parents.”
One organization crafted its mission this way: “Our strategic mission is to prepare our clients for an active role in the community’s economy.” This statement does address results for clients, but terms like “strategic,” “active,” and “economy” need to be defined. Otherwise, accurate assessment won’t be possible.
Here’s another nonprofit mission: “We empower our clients to be caring, competent, responsible citizens.” This statement is comprehensive enough and gives a sense that the organization has thought through its operations. The next step for this organization’s leaders is to add an addendum to define what’s meant by each of the words. Only then can they put proper metrics in place to find out how well the organization is achieving its desired outcomes.
A social-services agency says that its mission is “to eliminate homelessness.” This statement is powerful and concise. There are no wasted words, no jargon, and no ambiguity.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 24
It expresses a clear purpose, with a strong verb and noun. That’s what a mission statement should do.
How do organizational initiatives translate into tangible results for others? What is the positive change? How have things improved? All these questions need answering before you can assess whether you’re fulfilling your mission.
Move from Mission to Action
And so, when it comes time to assess a mission, the words used in the statement are critical. The explanation behind the words may not necessarily appear in the statement itself but should be available as a postscript.
A properly defined mission can be an excellent framework for performance assessment. The true test of your mission comes by measuring how well your organization is performing. Such measurements may lead you to make a few adjustments in your mission statement. Missions aren’t static and may need to be revised as times change.
A mission statement keeps leaders focused and helps stakeholders understand expectations. It serves as a basis
Are You Meeting Your Mission?
Your organization exists for the sake of its mission. Learn to use the many tools available to assess how well you’re living up to your organization’s mission. Here are some places to begin.
References
William Calder,“Achieving an Institution’s Values, Vision, and Mission,” The College Quarterly, 17(2).
Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. Penguin Books, Inc. Resources Available at NonprofitWorld.org:
Sharpening Your Mission Statement (Vol. 35, No. 4)
Do You Know Where Your Goals Are? (Vol. 26, No. 5)
Performance-Based Management Builds Funding & Support (Vol. 23, No. 6)
Creating a Values-Based Road Map (Vol. 23, No. 2)
A Better Brand = More Loyal Supporters (Vol. 38, No. 4)
Grounded Visioning: A Quick Way to Create Shared Visions (Vol. 26, No. 4)
Using a Balanced Scorecard (Vol. 27, No. 3)
Four Steps to Evaluation Success (Vol. 23, No. 2)
Measuring Outcomes in the Real World (Vol. 30, No. 6)
Are You Walking Your Walk? Rate Yourself with This Easy-to-Use Grid (Vol. 29, No. 5)
Using Your Outcome Measurement System (Vol. 18, No. 1)
Is Your Organization Achieving Optimal Performance? (Vol. 29, No. 3)
Don’t Let Jargon Destroy Your Message (Vol. 41, No. 3)
“Mission development may be the most useful of all planning tools.”
for better decisions because it unites everyone around a common purpose.
Mission development may be the most useful planning tool of all management activities. Your mission is the starting point for your organization’s identity and becomes a vital part of your branding promise to your present and future stakeholders. Your mission thus has a huge influence over ongoing performance initiatives.
A mission is strategic when its initiatives and actions are subject to evidence-based and data-driven measurement. Being strategic means that a mission’s claims have evidence and confirmation.
To assess your mission, you need to ask your constituent groups what they think. Do they know what the mission is and what it means for them? The responses from internal and external groups will help you understand how close you are to fulfilling your mission.
Questions for you to ask include: How well is your mission articulated and understood? How relevant is it to people’s lives? How achievable is it? How well is it aligned with your programs and services? Is it consistent with your core values?
Added to this assessment, leaders need to explore the achievement levels of the mission itself. If an organization claims that clients are effective citizens or have the essential skills for relevant employment, then leaders must evaluate this information. It may mean further analysis of organizational outcomes, using not only quantitative measures but also qualitative assessments (for example, citizenship).
Assessment is an indispensable tool in measuring the results that matter to individuals and the community. Claims of achievement are a large part of the decision-making and planning processes. They’re crucial tools in gauging goal advancement and success. When you focus on the connection between your values and actions, your mission assessment becomes a beacon to lead you to a successful future.
Dr. William Calder (williampat@execulink.com) is the founder of the Centre for Values, Vision, and Mission Research. Dr. Calder is a former college president and has served as a board member with several nonprofit community-based organizations. His University of Toronto doctorate is in planning and applied research.
Finding the Tools to Create Effective Change
You’ll find solid, clear-cut tactics to change the world in this thought-provoking book.
Reviewed by Terrence Fernsler
The Toolbox: Strategies for Crafting Social Impact.
By Jacob Harold. Hardcover. 328 pages. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., wiley.com
In The Toolbox, Jacob Harold provides nine tools for social change that he learned through his long experience in the nonprofit sector. He details how each of his tools acts upon social-equity work.
Storytelling connects us to the work, strategy gives us direction, and institutions provide grounding, Harold explains. He believes community organizing works best as a grassroots effort to face down inequitable power, whatever form it takes.
All in all, this book offers some good jumping-off points for reflection by those in nonprofit organizations. Harold plainly wants us to consider how today’s decisions will affect our descendants’ quality of life – a crucial aspect of achieving social equity. He acknowledges the challenges of implementing change and gives us some direction in working toward it.
Harold puts it like this: “How do we make change? There are no easy answers. Instead, there are tools.” He defines tools as frameworks for thinking and acting.
Having a “toolbox strategy” means assembling a variety of instruments to solve complex problems. “The complexity of the world,” he says, forced him to create a toolbox that would help carry out effective, long-lasting, and meaningful change. He demonstrates an understanding that working for a better world is an act of love and persistence that requires continual learning. He hopes the book will catalyze a lifelong learning journey into the systems thinking needed to sustain social-justice work.
Terrence Fernsler, MNPL, PhD, has been a nonprofit professional for over 40 years. He is currently an instructor and advisor in the James Madison University Nonprofit Studies minor program, and instructor in Nonprofit Management and Leadership for the Master of Public Administration program in the Bush School of Government and Policy’s Center for Nonprofits and Philanthropy at Texas A&M University.
The Tools
The great power of The Toolbox is in the concrete nature of the nine tools Jacob Harold describes. Here are a few:
Storytelling is the human impulse to understand the world through narrative. And, Harold reminds us, “those who set the narrative set the stage for the actions of others.”
Mathematical modeling is the practice of putting numbers to our assumptions. Math, Harold says, “is a way to honor the things that matter” by putting a clear value on them.
Behavioral economics is a tool that gives insight into human behavior as it is – not as we wish it to be. Harold describes the biases and illusions that often cause us to miss the truth – and lays down ways to avoid these pitfalls.
Design thinking, also called “human-centered design,” is rooted in three mindsets: listening to others, feeling empathy, and realizing that we won’t get everything right the first time and must keep trying.
nonprofit briefs
Nine Qualities of a Successful Thank-You Message
Everyone knows that thanking is good. But after you’ve sent those thank-you letters to donors, it’s hard to measure the results you receive. And that means thanking is done poorly or often just never gets done.
Short-term, you’ll get away with bad thanking. Long-term, bad thanking will torpedo your fundraising program.
We need help in the area of thanking: How to do it well. How to think clearly about it. What makes a difference in what we do and how we do it. That’s why we all need to read Lisa Sargent’s Thankology (hilborn-civilsectorpress.com). This book will inspire you and energize your organization to care about thanking. That’s how you transform your donor relationships. For a taste of what you’ll find in Thankology, here are nine thank-you-letter essentials:
Use donor-friendly language. Just as when writing appeals, you need to be hyper-aware of your donors – what they know, what they want. Then speak to those things in your thank-you.
Consider the audience. Your donors are older people, tilt heavily female, and know a lot less about your cause than you do.
Use acronyms with care. Acronyms can be a real time-saver. But not if they aren’t understood. Your donors don’t know your acronyms. Not even the “obvious” ones.
Apply good tone and pacing – a colloquial, personal, friendly tone.
Attend to the letterhead. Keep it simple and straightforward. Defeat dehumanizing details. As much as you can, avoid or downplay donor ID codes and other tools your computer wants you to use. Your letter should feel as close to a real letter from a real person as possible.
Respect the rules of readability. Keep the reading-ease level to grade 7 (Flesch-Kincaid). Don’t use type any smaller than 12 point. Use black ink over a white background. Look after page architecture. Try not to make it look exactly like an appeal letter.
Make it personal. Use the donor’s name in the salutation at least. And please make sure it’s spelled correctly. Thankology is both a how-to and a why-to book about thanking donors. It’s written with heart and it practices what it preaches, using a breezy, readable style like a great thank-you note. It’s one of those must-read books for smart fundraisers.
–reviewed by Jeff Brooks
“Bad thanking will torpedo your fundraising program.”
How Resilient Are You?
If you want to build resilience, you need to focus on five key areas, Beth Bernatti Kennedy tells us in Career Recharge: Five Strategies to Boost Resilience and Beat Burnout (capuciapublishing.com):
“What are you doing in the next three months to learn something new?”
1. Well-being. Do you give your body the sleep, exercise, and nutrients it needs to perform? Do you know your stressors and have strategies for dealing with them?
2. Self-awareness. Do you have a clear purpose? Are your values aligned with those of your organization? Do you regularly set intentions for the future rather than just letting things happen? Are you adaptable when things change? Are you aware of your personality style and how it affects the way you deal with others? Are you flexible in your interactions with people whose styles are different from yours?
3. Brand. Do you know what your personal brand is? Can you articulate what makes you unique and the positive impact you’ve made? Is your reputation consistent with the brand you want to have? Do you regularly get feedback the way the best brands do?
4. Connection. Are you around people who move you forward? Do you have a key group of people you trust and from whom you get feedback? When others talk, do you listen attentively, suspend judgment, and acknowledge the other person’s views? Are coaching and mentoring key strategies throughout your organization?
5. Innovation. What are you doing in the next three months to challenge yourself and learn something new? Do you take time for fun for yourself and others in your organization? Do you encourage risk and failure as ways to learn and innovate?
Giving Fundraisers
the Support They Deserve
Discomfort, stress, burnout, turnover. These are some of the hardships that fundraisers in nonprofit organizations face, whether they’re paid or volunteer. The problem is that fundraising is too often seen as transactional. But missions and visions are transformational rather than transactional in nature, and fundraising should be viewed that way too, as Mallory Erickson asserts in What the Fundraising: Embracing and Enabling the People Behind the Purpose (wiley.com).
Fundraising is real work, requiring strategy, not just warm bodies producing numbers of dollars or contacts. Fundraisers have more to offer than raising money, and Erickson stresses a shift in attitudes about fundraising from raising dollars to sharing assets for community benefit. People change and grow, and their preferences shift with new circumstances.
Focusing on a shrinking pool of supporters with high financial net worth isn’t sustainable because it doesn’t rest on creating a sense of community and shared goals.
Relationship-building involves connecting with people’s abilities and knowledge as well as wealth. Offering opportunities to make society better is a social and pluralistic endeavor, and Erickson explores how that can work for your organization’s fundraising efforts.
–reviewed
by Terrence Fernsler
AI Won’t Replace Nonprofit Jobs – It’ll Save Them
In a recent interview, Anthropic’s CEO predicted that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs. In the nonprofit world, however, a different story is unfolding.
Max Friedman, CEO of Givebutter (givebutter.com) – a fundraising platform built specifically for nonprofits – offers a strong counterpoint: In nonprofits, where teams are lean and talent is hard to come by, AI won’t replace jobs; it’ll help preserve them.
Friedman believes AI can reduce burnout and boost impact by automating repetitive tasks, freeing people to focus on the work only humans can do: building relationships, engaging communities, and growing support. Unlike sectors where AI may replace entry-level roles, nonprofits depend on personal connection and trust – something AI can’t replicate.
This, coupled with an environment where budgets are tight and hiring is challenging, means AI can and will serve as a relief valve, not a replacement. “Givebutter is already seeing this in action,” Friedman informs us, “with over 1 million changemakers using the platform to work more efficiently and effectively with the help of AI.”
“In the nonprofit world, a different story is unfolding.”
Global Insights on How to Change the World
To date, most studies on philanthropy have been viewed through a Western lens, disregarding vast areas of the world. Badr Jafar fills this gap in The Business of Philanthropy (harpercollins.co.uk) through diverse conversations he’s had with leaders across the globe. His book unveils the impact of philanthropy world-wide, including often-overlooked regions such as the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia, where the potential for creative solutions is immense.
His talks with leaders are framed in the context of trends that are fueling the growth of global philanthropy. These trends include:
• a growing population of young people, highly connected through digital technologies, who are focused on impact and evidence
• a historic increase in personal wealth and the opportunity to pass on those resources to the next generation
• greater involvement of businesses in social issues, through cross-sectional collaboration and partnerships
• new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, creating breakthroughs in many areas of interest to nonprofits
• the use of digital platforms and tools that encourage and simplify giving
• the expansion of networks that help philanthropists access data, learn from one another, and collaborate more effectively.
These developments “augur well for the future of strategic philanthropy across the world” and, Jafar makes clear, we can’t afford to waste this moment.
The book is for anyone, Jafar says, who is “eager to learn about different methods of generating impact.” Above all, the book offers “a muchneeded dose of hope and optimism” that we can create collaborative, successful change.
“You can understand a point without endorsing it.”
Listen for Nuggets
To discover what people have to say, you need to hear them out. Too often we interrupt, change the subject, or stop listening before the speaker has revealed the nuggets of information we most need to hear.
These useful nuggets rarely emerge in a clear, obvious way, Jessica Hartung (jessicahartung.com) reminds us in The Conscious Professional. They often come cloaked in anger or confusion. You may disregard the message because you consider the speaker to be boring, arrogant, ignorant, or otherwise not worthy of your respect. None of these judgments matter in relation to your ability to listen.
Next time you’re listening to someone, ask yourself a few “listening questions”:
What point has the speaker just made? Use this answer as the basis for further communication on the subject. What is the essence of the issue? Seek insight into the heart of the matter. Think of different ways you could frame it. Of all the different angles, which is most critical?
What emotions are being expressed? And why? Most people base decisions not on facts but on how they feel. Tune in to the speaker’s emotions and address those feelings when it’s your turn to speak.
What can you learn from this person? Focus on discovering something new rather than defending what you knew before the conversation.
What if you disagree? You can understand a point without endorsing it. If you can’t listen and learn from something you think is flawed, you’re missing out on a valuable source of innovation.
In a quiet moment when you’re alone, reflect on these questions:
When you’re listening to others, what do you listen for? What do you tend to filter out?
nonprofit briefs
How would you rate your performance as a listener? When do you do your best listening?
Do you have different listening habits for different types of people, roles, or situations?
What are your barriers to listening?
How do you respond when you disagree with the speaker? Do you stop listening when someone espouses an opposing view? How can you overcome that urge?
What’s Love Got to Do with It?
The key to unlocking your leadership potential, according to Tom Garland, is to “lead with heart.” That means connecting deeply with your own heart and the hearts of others. Once he learned to do so, Garland says, he became comfortable with a word you don’t often hear in a work setting: love. It’s the kind of love, he writes, that allows leaders to be vulnerable and courageous enough to open up and let people see who they really are. It’s the love that ancient Greeks defined as “the deep, comradely relationships that develop when you see yourself in others; are there for each other; share your beliefs, your thoughts, and your emotions; and feel the loyalty created when you strive to succeed together for a noble cause in which you mutually agree.” This, he says, is the sort of love behind leading with heart. It’s the love that creates a high-performing, engaged culture and leads an organization to transformative growth.
Connecting with Your Heart & the Hearts of Others: Questions for Self-Evaluation
The questions we ask ourselves, and how deeply we answer them, shape who we become. Explore these questions, and then review your answers from time to time, letting them evolve. Your responses will serve as road signs on your leadership journey.
• How would you describe your ability to build relationships?
• What is one thing you could do to connect more deeply with people?
• How can you show your volunteers, paid staff, donors, board members, and other stakeholders that you care about them? How can you put yourself in their shoes? What questions could you ask them to get to know them better?
• Do you confer with coaches and mentors to gain support, discover new perspectives, and make sure you’re considering all options?
• When you have an important decision to make, how many people do you talk with about it?
• Do you prove yourself a trustworthy person by keeping your promises, telling the truth, and always doing what you say you’ll do?
– adapted from Lead with Heart (benbellabooks.com) by Tom Garland
“Our questions shape who we become.”
A Path to a Culture of Belonging
While diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are being dismantled and their effectiveness called into question, there are still plenty of positive conversations happening around inclusivity and how it adds to an organization’s purpose. There’s a great deal you can do to help people feel seen, valued, and included, as the authors of Daily Practices of Inclusive Leaders (bkconnection.com) detail.
Leading in equity means building a culture of inclusion, not just imposing programs onto people. It entails a change of ongoing practice, which can be seen in daily small approaches. It’s intentional, becoming a part of how an organization operates and shares accountability. It relies on team members listening to each other.
Most nonprofit organizations are small or medium-sized and will find Part I the more useful of the book’s two parts. You can consider this first part as the theory behind inclusiveness. It explains why belonging is important to sustaining your organization and how you can develop a culture of inclusivity. It recognizes the value of courage, persistence, and accountability.
Part II of the book reveals the authors’ experiences with multinational organizations. This part of the book includes many examples of what you can do to encourage inclusivity and belonging – not merely tokenism – in your daily work. Despite its corporate leanings, there are many valuable nuggets of information for nonprofit organizations of all sizes in Daily Practices of Inclusive Leaders. This guide will help you go beyond just talking or holding occasional training sessions. Reading it will set you on a path to building a culture of belonging.
–reviewed
by Terrence Fernsler
What’s Right with America
Is America’s future as bright as its past? “YES!” argue Paul Johnson and Larry Aldrich in What’s Right with America – & How We Can Keep It That Way (posthillpress.com). “But, the greatest threat to this bright future is the rising pessimism from both the right and the left – an outlook that prioritizes fear over facts,” declares Johnson. “If we allow emotions – instead of datadriven decisions – to dictate policy, we risk making choices that could undermine the very progress that has defined America’s success.” Johnson (co-founder of Redirect Health and host of “The Optimistic American” podcast) and Aldrich (former federal prosecutor and founder of Tucson Ventures) offer many incisive points about America’s present, past, and future, including the following:
Don’t bet against America. Throughout its history, America has weathered crises that seemed insurmountable –Revolution, Civil War, economic depression, and global wars. The divisions of today mirror past turmoil, from the McCarthy era to the Civil Rights movement. Yet, time and again, individual ingenuity, resilience, and commitment to progress have proven stronger than political dysfunction. Betting against America has always been a losing proposition – and remains so today. Pessimism about America is overblown. Headlines proclaim crisis after crisis: political gridlock, economic uncertainty, cultural decay. Yet, if history is any guide, these moments of upheaval don’t signal America’s decline but rather its capacity
for reinvention. From economic recessions to civil unrest, America has faced and overcome darker days.
Americans like being known for their generosity. No country has given more – whether through foreign aid, philanthropy, or scientific and medical breakthroughs shared with the world – than the United States. Critics argue that America’s wealth is built on exploitation, but the reality is that generosity has been a fundamental driver of its success.
A spirit of giving has fueled American innovation, prosperity, and global influence.
Are we forgetting who holds the real power? As government regulations expand across industries, speech, and personal liberties, it’s easy to believe that Washington dictates the future. But history shows that real power lies with individuals – entrepreneurs, scientists, activists – who shape society far more than politicians ever could. Reclaiming this truth is essential to America’s continued success.
Americans should be proud of their history. The modern tendency to judge historical figures by today’s moral standards risks erasing the very ideals that made progress possible. Instead of focusing on historical imperfections, we should ask a fundamental question: Did these leaders move us closer to the ideal of “all men are created equal”? If so, they deserve recognition. By abandoning the pursuit of perfection, we can preserve and advance the American experiment.
What’s needed is optimism. If Congress is gridlocked and the two-party system broken, should we despair? Not necessarily. Political paralysis, while frustrating, often forces innovation at the local level. Historically, periods of government dysfunction have led to remarkable individual-led progress. Today’s political stagnation might be a sign of, not a threat to, American vitality.
207 Ways to Write Better Fundraising
If you want to write better fundraising material, you can make a good start by reading Very Good Copy: 207 Micro-Lessons on Thinking and Writing Like a Copywriter. Written by Eddie Shleyner, founder of VeryGoodCopy (verygoodcopy.com), it has 207 chapters, all of them short. The longer ones are 4-6 pages. Most are shorter. Some much shorter, like “Length,” here in full: “If your copy is fascinating, the length is irrelevant.”
The cool thing about this book is you can read it any way you like: Start at the beginning and read through to the end. Or open it at random and read a chapter or two. Either way, you’ll learn a ton of useful things about writing. Here’s just a sample from the book:
Making the reader feel something is central to good copywriting, which is why it helps to be sentimental as a writer, sensitive to life’s nuances, moved by tenderness and sadness and nostalgia. If you zoom in close enough, these moments become stories we can all understand and, yes, feel
When possible, write three bullet points, or three benefits, or three steps. Three is the magic number. If you can, avoid presenting information in twos or fours. It’s harder for the reader to remember.
Use the cross-out test: (1) Write your copy. (2) Cross out any references to your organization and its mission. (3) Write in the name of a similar organization and its mission. If the copy still fits, you have a problem – and some editing to do.
Image captions are the second-most-read copy after headlines. Whenever you fail to caption an image, you’re wasting valuable real estate.
And here’s one that’s not about fundraising, but it’s wonderful: Want to change someone’s life? Prop them up before they’re great, before they have anything except potential. Prop them up for the humanity of it – and they’ll remember you, maybe forever.
–reviewed by Jeff Brooks
“Three is the magic number.”
From Toxic Burnout to Sustainable Work
Burnout starts with deception, Arianna Molloy posits in her profound and useful book Healthy Calling (Intervarsity Press, ivpress.com). Many nonprofit leaders see their work as a calling rather than a job, and the result, Molloy says, is workaholism, chronic stress, cognitive overload, and self-delusion. The good news, she adds, is that burnout is a manageable problem. At the end of each chapter, she provides guiding questions you can use as your blueprint to create a sustainable organization and a healthy life for yourself. Examples:
Have you been trying to do everything by yourself? Why do you think you haven’t asked for help? What door could you knock on?
What do you notice if you close your eyes and pay attention to what your body is telling you? Do you feel tense, tired, anxious? Or relaxed, calm, and at ease?
Where in the learning process are you feeling weary or stuck? Where could you turn for help and support in your learning? What knowledge pathways have you neglected?
Who’s the one person you talk to most each day? Does this person support you, listen to you, and lift you up? Is there someone else who might be more helpful and encouraging? What’s something you need to let go of that’s of great value to you but may in some way be holding you back?
Can you think of a time during the past week that, upon reflection, you may have missed cues from other people?
What practices are you engaging in that aren’t helping you? What change can you make this week to employ more useful strategies?
nonprofit briefs
Working Locally to Build a Better World
To paraphrase Margaret Wheatley, leadership arises when it is needed. Don Hall, the author of The Regeneration Handbook (newsociety.com), notes that leadership today is arising from people working together to confront these challenging times, beginning at the local level. Hall is most familiar with transitionrelated organizations, a network of dispersed groups with the broad purpose of gathering people to regenerate the world. He refers to this network in many examples throughout this book to describe transformation that could spread globally. And he includes many organizations from outside the network with similar purposes, some with their own networks.
The book describes the “meta patterns” of transformation, which begin at the individual level and expand when people find common purposes. Joining together involves communicating to create a vision based on regeneration of socio-economic and natural systems for a more sustainable planet. Forming healthy groups that can work together begins with personal assessments and sharing information through activities.
In nature, evolutionary change can be represented as a sigmoid (or “S”) curve, not as a straight-line slope as it is usually depicted. Transformation begins with observing an issue, recognizing our own role, then building upon it to develop change. Hall uses this concept to set out a path toward sustainability or stabilization of new alternatives. We’re all at different points along the regeneration curve, so this book explores activities that will create new visions for a variety of individuals, groups, and, eventually, society. Concurrently, we need to keep testing a variety of options for learning purposes. The Regeneration Handbook does not necessarily lay out a specific plan that works for everyone but rather guides us to consider what resources each of us can use, as individuals and groups, to move us toward a better place together.
–reviewed by Terrence Fernsler
The Momentous Impact of Generative AI
Generative artificial intelligence (also called gen AI or GAI) is experiencing unprecedented growth, and in The Rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (e-elgar.com) Nir Kshetri does an exceptional job of delving into the ways it’s transforming our organizations. Kshetri defines generative AI as a deeplearning model that applies algorithms (such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek) to identify patterns in previous material and then uses the results to create new content. He highlights the
key benefits and challenges of this revolutionary technology, including the following insights:
Generative AI is reshaping marketing and fundraising. Gen AI can create high-quality writing, images, and videos more quickly and cost-effectively than human teams. It can also produce personalized content based on people’s profiles and thus improve interactions with donors and other stakeholders. One of the ways GAI empowers organizations is in helping them attract top talent. GAI streamlines job-description creation and interview preparation. It can facilitate hiring decisions by predicting candidates’ culture fit and performance. Employee well-being can be enhanced through GAI tools such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek, which can search through people’s e-mails and online searches to identify health-risk behaviors. GAI can provide workers with real-time support, personalized assistance, and instant access to resources, which can boost productivity.
Currently, generative AI standards haven’t been adequately developed. The nonprofit World Privacy Forum has concluded that many GAI tools use methods that are “inappropriate” or “out of context” and has noted the need for standards, especially in quality assurance. Likewise, it’s up to each organization to create its own ethical guidelines and codes of conduct as well as confronting the issues of privacy, security, and the propensity for GAI models to perpetuate societal biases, leading to discrimination in such areas as hiring.
Take a Leaf from the Court to Make Your Words Sing
“Great writing anchors great achievements,” Jill Barton says in her wise, helpful book The Supreme Guide to Writing (Oxford University Press, oup.com). And, she adds, poor writing can cause chaos, legal problems, broken relationships, and a host of other misfortunes. Her book takes a deep dive into the writing of the justices on the Supreme Court. As she notes, these legal scholars “shape the law, employing language that often sings.” In legal writing, there’s “no room for error, but instead a demand for nuance, persuasion, transparency, and above all, perfect clarity.” In other words, their writing provides excellent lessons for you to follow as you craft your own messages. Here are a few of these good ideas: Use contractions to make your writing clear and conversational. Contractions (can’t instead of cannot, wouldn’t rather than would not, we’ll rather than we will, and so on) make writing easier to understand. The meaning of a passage is quickly apparent, even if someone is skimming through the words. Many legal writers avoid contractions, thinking they’re too informal, but unless you want to obscure your message, it makes good sense to use them.
Choose shorter words. As Justice Thomas once advised, “the genius is not to write a five-cent idea in a ten-dollar sentence. It’s to put a ten-dollar idea in a five-cent sentence.” One way the justices create these five-cent sentences, Barton tells us, is by starting them with short, punchy conjunctions. For instance: “And that’s only the half of it”; “But the argument gets things backward”; “So why waste time and money?” The goal, Barton explains, is to “achieve clarity and simplicity without losing meaning.”
“Start your sentences with short, punchy conjunctions.”
Use a comma “when clarity or cadence compel one,” Barton says. A misplaced comma can “throw off the flow of your writing, and ruin the forcefulness of your point.” Read over what you write, either silently or aloud, and add a comma when you naturally pause. Chief Justice John Roberts has said, “Some things strike my ear differently, and that’s very important. And I’ll spend a lot of time trying to get a sentence to read in a way that seems comfortable and well paced and conveys the meaning and isn’t choppy.”
In sum, says Barton, good writers “slash excess. They prune anything that doesn’t add meaning to a sentence, cutting whatever goes beyond the intended point.” In the words of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, “What I tell people, there are no natural writers. What there are, are writers who have learned their skill and know how to edit.”
Beyond the Briefs
To explore issues raised in these briefs in more detail, take a look at these articles (NonprofitWorld.org):
Practices to Build Your Resilience (Vol. 42, No. 2)
We Need to Elevate the Conversation about Inclusion (Vol. 41, No. 2)
What the Heck Are You Trying to Say? (Vol. 34, No. 2)
A Path to Stronger Programs, Greater Engagement, and Less Burnout? (Vol. 36, No. 1)
Get Closer to Supporters than Ever Before (Vol. 39, No. 2)
Nested at the Heart: A New Approach to Nonprofit Leadership (Vol. 29, No. 6)
Strategies to Reboot & Refresh (Vol. 41, No. 3)
Can You Thank Your Donors Too Much? (Vol. 41, No. 2)
Assess Your Work Style for Better Communication (Vol. 37, No. 4)
The Power of Story: Bring Your Brand to Life (Vol. 34, No. 4)
Don’t Let Jargon Destroy Your Message (Vol. 41, No. 3)
What You Need to Know about AI (Vol. 43, No. 1)
Determining the Value of Your Collaborations (Vol. 33, No. 4)
Be a Better Leader by Being a Careful Listener (Vol. 37, No. 1)
Should Chief Happiness Officer Be One of Your Titles? (Vol. 36, No. 3)
How to Engage the Next Generation of Donors Now (Vol. 20, No. 1)
