Nonprofits Need to Embrace Innovation

Innovation… it’s a word that generally brings to mind a for-profit corporation such as Apple or FaceBook, not so much a nonprofit organization. But innovation is essential to the success of a nonprofit: creative solutions for challenging problems, timely response to new opportunities and changing community need, creative partnerships, and the urgent need to improve business systems and reduce operating costs. Innovation needs the right Petri dish in which to cultivate; in other words, the right culture and leadership. Elements that create the best climate for innovation include:

• an openness to change by the board of directors and management team and all the messiness that comes with managing change,


• a diversity of thought and perspectives,


• a forum that encourages / invites creative ideas from every corner of the nonprofit (including the front line team, clients and volunteers),


• a willingness to take a calculated risk and fail at times,


• a comfort with involving all constituents and actively communicating with them about challenges and changes, and


• a shift from dependence on strategic planning to strategic thinking. What tools can help you?


• Build a diverse board and continually bring on new board members.


• Establish a consent agenda and move past agendas that focus on reporting on past performance and focus on the future.


• Pursue ongoing professional development for the board and leadership team including team building activities.


• Establish ground rules at planning sessions and new planning approaches that encourage looking at challenges and opportunities in new ways; and encourage breakthrough thinking.


• Use business plans to evaluate new opportunities and ventures and mitigate the risk.


• Understand the complexities of managing change and become very proficient at change management (including the engagement of constituents). You’ll find some great articles, tools and templates for business planning, board/leadership development, strategic thinking and consent agendas in the NorthSky Online Resource Center at http://www.northskynonprofitnetwork.org/resource.php

Can we learn anything from political campaigns?

It's election season and once again we're being bombarded by phone calls, mailings, radio and television ads; all focused on capturing our attention and influencing our vote. With every candidate driving to be successful on November 2. It triggers the question, doesn't it? How do we launch a successful campaign for our own cause or nonprofit organization? How do we borrow the best from political strategists and effectively use their techniques to advance our mission and forward our cause?

Andy Knott, executive director for The Watershed Center, led a great professional development session at NorthSky last week on Grassroots Advocacy. Some tips he shared:

• Build your advocacy network by identifying and recruiting individuals who support your cause and share your passion. How do you find these folks? By going public with your cause --perhaps through an education session, event of some sort, or media story.
• Carefully craft your message and train the members of your network to deliver it. Don't assume that they can convey your message effectively: arm them with materials and train them to deliver the message.
• Communicate with and build relationships with politicians and opinion leaders. Use letter writing campaigns, phone calls and meetings to get to know one another.
• Build coalitions with other organizations who share your mission and support for the cause. List and publicize your coalition partners to gain support from other individuals and organizations.
• Meet with officials at the local, state and federal level. Remember: you'll have more impact if other coalition members and constituents participate. And, develop a print piece that you can leave behind.

Successful grassroots advocacy depends on relationship building and using others to deliver your message over and over again. You need to become an exquisite communicator with the ability to infect others with your passion. It takes time and energy.

Other suggestions to share?

Recovering from a Service Failure

Service recovery- ever heard that term? It's common in the for-profit sector and emerging in the nonprofit sector, particularly in the health and human services arena. The term refers to addressing a failure in customer service (and rapid recovery from the problem in the eyes of the customer.) The goal is quick response and problem resolution as to maintain customer confidence and goodwill.

I had a service recovery moment this week when a NorthSky webinar went very wrong. The technology failed during our first session of the Fall series including the phones, the computer, and the Internet connection. And it occurred during a session that was well attended with an excellent speaker. Bad, bad timing...

So what do you do? Well, hopefully you do, what I did: everything to make it right including a re-broadcast of the session and a tuition credit. Your service recovery solution will be different than mine but the basic success factors remain the same: sincere regret, quick response, strong communication, and ultimately, a solution to the problem.

The tricky part of service recovery rests in the reality that it's your front line staff and volunteers that need to be prepared to respond. Time delays can be deadly, resulting in a disgruntled constituent communicating their dissatisfaction throughout your service area. Successful service recovering relies on the empowerment of your staff and volunteers. Are you ready to give up some control?

Service failures are inevitable as hard as you work to avoid them. Your nonprofit's success relies on being poised to respond. Have you prepared yourself and your team? Have you developed guidelines and conducted contingency training? Literature abounds on service recovery. You'll find an excellent article at www.greatbrook.com/service_recovery.htm

Any thoughts to share?

Look Out the Window

The view can be not only inspirational but an education. We all forget to do it. It’s easy to become absorbed by the internal workings of our organizations. We respond to our clients, staff, donors and other constituents and increasingly view the world through a narrower lens. Overtime, we may base decisions, conclusions, and recommendations on an internal perspective without drawing information from a broader environment.

Yet, to gain a truly comprehensive and objective mindset, we need to open the window, watch and listen to what’s going on outside. We need information and knowledge from the larger world.

Exceptional nonprofits are in touch with the outside world in a way that others are not. They regularly receive and internalize information on community need, perceptions, and behavior. They monitor and anticipate trends and are masters at adopting change and best practices. They establish listening posts and viewing stations and use exquisite listening skills to process incoming information to perfect their strategies. So, how do they do that?

1) Establish creative and active listening through informal meetings, town meetings, focus groups, surveys or key informant interviews with a wide range of people.
2) Create a culture of non-defensiveness and receptivity to change by rewarding adaptability, encouraging information exchange, and incentivizing continuous learning.
3) Set up listening posts encouraging customer and public suggestions through comment boxes, email, survey or a dedicated phone line. And then, review and respond to the information you receive.

Most importantly, get out of the office mentally and physically. Talk to people, listen to them and observe. You'll learn a lot!

Push for More Productive Meetings

Life intensifies in the summer as we try to juggle work and home life during the short, sweet vacation season. Yet, it’s nearly impossible to cancel every meeting and postpone every project until the fall. One high leverage opportunity—get better at conducting meetings and work sessions. You’ll feel better about scheduling the time and the team will be more energetic, enthusiastic and productive. Here are some techniques I’ve found to be helpful.

1) Always, always have an agenda with clear objectives for the meeting. Send it out ahead of time; help the team prepare to use the time well by supplying any documents or pre-reading that you can.

2) Identify a good location that provides quiet space, no distractions, reasonably comfortable seating (preferably with a table) and a flip chart/ white board for capturing ideas. An excellent (and greener option) is to use a laptop and projector to capture brainstorming ideas electronically and project them up on the wall for the team to reference.

3) Set ground rules and post them. It will be easier to pull folks back on to the agenda if the team has agreed to “stay on the subject.” If you have “chatters” who dominate the discussion, a ground rule about sharing speaking time, assists the chair in cutting them off.

4) Start and end on time; don’t reward latecomers. Be respectful of those in attendance and get them out the door as promised.

5) Keep a meeting record of decisions, assignments and next steps. Distribute it in a timely manner. Again, a laptop can help efficiently capture meeting ideas in one smooth key stroke, so to speak.

6) If the agenda just isn't working, stop and revise it. Don’t waste time on discussion items that are not helpful. Learn to read the group and improvise as needed.

7) Learn and use online meeting tools. Doodle.com and meetingwizard.com are great free tools for scheduling meetings. Meeting wizard also has tools for creating agendas and minutes.

8) Use online meeting tools to work on documents together online. Google Docs and pbworks.com provide real time access to documents and project work. The team can update and revise documents together. You can post the project workplan, meeting schedule and other team information.

Budgets are tight, time is compressed, and we are all protective of our schedules. Gain the reputation for scheduling and conducting valuable meetings. You’ll have better attendance and more enthusiastic participants.

Any tips to share for more productive meetings?

My Head is Spinning!

No, not like that young girl from the Exorcist! Just another great technology webinar this week with Andy Wolber, Executive Director, Highway T. He discussed the “Accidental Techie” and wow! There certainly is a lot to learn. I immediately “defragged”, checked my cables, and cleaned the crumbs off my laptop. (Just out of respect!)

If you missed the session, you’ll find the recording at:
http://drop.io/highwayt/asset/effective-virtual-meetings-feb-9-2010
It’s worth reviewing, even if you’re not the technology guru at your organization. There are plenty of applications for home computer use.

It would be easy to become overwhelmed by all the technology changes, demands, and complexities we experience on a daily basis but here’s what I think. I just try something new every week or so and focus on mastering that. I find it too discouraging to consider everything I could and should be doing but if I tackle one thing at a time, it’s actually fun and I feel brilliant. By dipping a toe in, I actually become more immersed in technology solutions that if I plan on diving totally in. You know, I just get swept away with the possibilities.

How about you? Any thoughts to share?

Without a Strong Case for Support, Fundraising is Doomed…

Well, it’s most definitely the fundraising season. Northern Michigan nonprofits are percolating with fundraising events, board planning sessions, training, and strategizing. And the NorthSky consulting team is in the thick of it… assisting with planning, capacity building, and learning along with you. I’ve been dazzled by the innovation emerging from your work and impressed that you’re not letting a sluggish economy slow you down. But no matter how bold, creative and innovative your strategies, there’s really no escaping the necessity of having a vibrant case for support as the foundation for your fundraising program. Donors simply have too many choices. Your nonprofit must stand out as being uniquely qualified to fill a critical need. And your case must resonate on both an emotional and business level. So where do you begin?

Developing the case statement is hard work and not very sexy, I’m afraid. It requires team effort (in the form of ideas and input) yet works best if a single heroic soul authors the document. You’ll find some great tools including a worksheet and a PowerPoint presentation in the NorthSky Online Resource Center. http://www.northskynonprofitnetwork.org/resource.php#JumpFundraising.

The case statement represents the nonprofit's business plan and outlines all the reasons a funder should invest in you. It should grab the reader's attention, provide your irrefutable case and "wave the flag" as to why your nonprofit is uniquely qualified to address the need. You'll find an outline and some samples in the PowerPoint presentation in our Resource Center. It's ideal if you can lay out your case using stories or testimonials that make it stick in the audience's mind.

Do you have any suggestions or sample case statements to share with us?

Results-oriented Nonprofits Lead in Performance!

The pressure is on nonprofits to capture data and report outcomes. Well, let’s be honest. The pressure has been on for quite awhile. Increasingly, our funders, accrediting agencies, and legislative bodies have required nonprofits to capture and report results. Now, it’s becoming more and more mandatory to actually use our data to improve performance! A series of studies report that nonprofit organizations that collect and use performance data to improve service delivery, business systems, and leadership practice, actually do perform better! Amazing! It works! But where to begin?

I think it's important to start with our clients. How well are we doing with them? Are they satisfied? Can we improve? What else do they need? Are we getting results? Collecting this information relies on communicating with users of our services. It can be as simple as capturing point of service surveys or as complex as tracking users via longitudinal studies. Regardless of the research tool, it's critical that clients are comfortable providing honest feedback and that we solicit it in an objective, unbiased manner. It's also important that we are open to acting upon our findings and making changes as needed.

In the NorthSky Online Resource Center, you'll find a number of tools to assist in collecting client satisfaction data. Check it out at http://www.northskynonprofitnetwork.org/resource.php
and share your own tools and ideas by posting them here.

Enjoy the spring!
Pam Evans, NorthSky Principal Consultant

Change is in the Air...

It’s the planning season with nonprofit teams throughout our region working tirelessly on new initiatives, partnerships, and strategies to bolster performance and address a dramatically shifting environment. The NorthSky team is involved in some of this work and we’ve been dazzled by an impressive display of innovation, open-mindedness, and yes, dare I say it, courage!

Change isn’t easy for anyone. And as dramatic as it sounds, it does take courage. Whether you’re the change agent championing a new approach or initiative that the rest of the team isn’t quite ready for, or the “changee” being pushed to do things differently; it’s tough work. Even the most positive change, such as moving to new office space, using new computer technology or enhancing management systems, can be uncomfortable and challenging.

Yet, being effective change agents and understanding when it’s time to take on change, is an essential skill and competency for nonprofit leadership. It’s an ongoing part of our nonprofit world and we need to be very good at it.

Some suggestions that come to mind as you embark on a major change:

1) Involve folks in the change. While it may be tempting to go underground and map out the strategy in a bunker, the more you involve people along the way, the more engaged and supportive they will be…even of unpopular changes. Let them help identify challenges and develop solutions.


2) Navigating successfully through major change requires superb communication skills. Understand all your constituent groups and how to effectively reach them. Listen and respond to their concerns. You may not be able to meet everyone’s needs but you can provide clear information and a forum to hear their issues.


3) Be honest even if it’s a difficult message to deliver.


4) Stay focused on your mission and your clients/ customers. While internal changes to operations, staffing, or structure, may be uncomfortable, if it means a better, more secure, or stable way of serving the community, it will be easier to accept.

We’re all going through a great deal of change right now. Any other suggestions to share?

Clear as Mud: Defining Organizational Capacity Building

We’ve been spending time this week discussing organizational capacity building. It’s the world NorthSky lives in and we are frankly, immersed in it; considering such topics as how to build board effectiveness, infrastructure development, executive director talent, systems, measures…. well, the list goes on and on. But just try and come up with a clear definition of organizational capacity building. Barbara Blumenthal defines it as “the actions that improve nonprofit effectiveness including organizational and financial stability, program quality, and growth.” That doesn’t really go far enough, does it? Because we know that elements (beyond actions) such as behaviors, skill sets, attitudes, and culture all play a role in the capacity of an organization to thrive and sustain to fulfill its mission.

Paul Light, author of Sustaining Nonprofit Performance, describes capacity as “an output of basic organizational activities such as raising money, forging partnerships, organizing work, etc.” I like this definition better and it seems more in line with the real life experience of nonprofits.

While the definition may not be clear, it is clear that capacity building is worthwhile for every nonprofit. Completion of an organizational capacity assessment http://www.northskynonprofitnetwork.org/resource_drillDown1.php?recordID=185 is a good first step in that it not only provides data identifying where you are stronger and weaker but a forum for board and staff to learn and grow together.

Capacity building efforts can include a broad range of activities such as training, leadership coaching, systems development, performance measurement, and capabilities enhancement (such as marketing, financial management, and fundraising). The right formula varies for each nonprofit and is dependent on its history, leadership, and stage of organizational life cycle. The needs of a start-up organization are far different than that of a mature nonprofit… although, for some, they can be frighteningly similar. Well, that’s another story…

Paul Light says it well. “These are times that try the nonprofit soul.” Well, amen to that. But nonprofit leaders are a persistent group and we keep working at it.

Please share your thoughts on defining organizational capacity and strategies for strengthening it.

The Need of Our Nonprofit Sector for Committed and Competent Volunteers is Greater than Ever

Just a quick scan of the local newspapers, newsletters, and websites, illustrates the urgent need for volunteers of all types by nonprofits throughout northwestern Michigan. Volunteer recruitment, development, and management are key components of nearly every strategic plan that we’ve seen at NorthSky over the past six months.

Successful recruitment and retention of volunteers relies on a nonprofit’s ability to tell its story and define community benefit in a compelling enough way to activate volunteerism. It’s essential to attract and then hold those volunteers through the power of your work and the community’s need for your services. Where to begin?

As boring as it sounds, data collection is the place to start. Documenting the numbers, types, and impact of your volunteer team provides quantifiable proof of your community benefit and the support of the community for your organization. It also helps to excite and motivate your volunteers. So share it!

The first and most basic step, is to capture who your volunteers are-- contact information, age, affiliations, and residency, and begin logging their hours. The average financial value of every hour can be estimated at $20 (per the Volunteer Centers of America) so now you have a financial story to tell your board.

Beyond the basics, begin measuring volunteer satisfaction, conducting exit interviews and using volunteers to provide input on how to improve services and performance. Begin interviewing and collecting testimonials and success stories. No time? Assign a seasoned volunteer to take charge of collecting volunteer logs and to input data into a database. And yes, please, use a database. Almost every fundraising software product has a volunteer module. You'll find cost effective options at http://www.techsoup.org/.

Check out the NorthSky online Resource Center (http://www.northskynonprofitnetwork.org/resource.php)

for an analysis of software options, sample surveys and logs to help launch your data collection.