Alignment


April 2, 2008 / Issue IV
Top Five Social Sector Challenges TODAY! This is not Big Picture stuff. This is Ground-Level stuff. What keeps you up at night when it comes to your work? I've asked my clients that question before and at a recent conference with not-for-profit colleagues in New Hampshire, I asked a couple of my peers that same question. This is not scientific, but it makes a lot of intuitive sense to me, and I am hopeful that these resonate with you as well. Identifying your challenges is the first step in overcoming them. Raise it, raise more of it, and raise it quickly. No matter how well prepared we think we are, how fine-tuned our plans are, how well-defined our goal setting process is, and how fully staffed we are at the moment, there seems to be this never-ending pressure to raise more money than last year, in less time. This is a challenge because this type of pressure causes us to lose focus and become scattered. And when we lose focus and scatter our thinking, we often fail to implement things like we have planned. Here's a novel idea! How about purposefully not raising more* money this year, but rather enhancing our relationships--the depth and strength of them--with our donors? Take our time and concentrate on our existing corral of donors. Everything is a priority!* The old saying is true: when everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. Sorry, but it's true. How do we balance personal life and professional life, like we promise we'll do every year, and get it all accomplished? That's the challenge, especially in small shops. With limited budgets and shrinking human resources, how do we simultaneously launch that new planned giving program (after all, we've been planning on doing it for years now!), drop our spring direct mail appeal, and build relationships with our top ten donors? Something's got to give, no? Forget about the new fangled time management routines and theories-they hardly ever work as advertised. Rather, divide your month into a couple of themes. One week is dedicated to relationships, one week to marketing, the end of the month to reporting, and a couple days in the beginning to volunteer relationships, as examples. Then, go deep rather than wide! In other words, lump all of your priorities into theme zones. That might keep you focused and allow enough time to handle those ubiquitous emergencies. Technology is a major hurdle. I recently heard a statistic that the majority of us regular people use no more than 40% of software's full capacity. Put in a different way, we tend not to exploit the full range of functions available to us when we are working with everything from Microsoft Excel and Word to those fancy (and expensive) donor database systems; and from powerful project management software to the myriad donor wealth rating and screening resources we have purchased. I know that my clients over the years have had challenges, as an example, using the full range of information, ratings, and algorithmic tools that come along with those hefty price tags for wealth screening services. We pay a lot of money for this stuff and it just sits on some shelf. When was the last time you used at least half of the data fields on your donor knowledge management program? My point exactly! Technology tends to drive us, rather than the other way 'round. We're not getting our money's worth. What I recommend to my clients is that they take a small group of donors who they already know a lot about and plug them into their technological systems, experimenting on which program features are useful and beneficial. Test things. Learn as you go. Take a summer sabbatical, as it were, and spend a couple days, when everyone else is on vacation, playing around with your office technology, learning a bit at a time. Qualified, self-motivated professional staff is hard to find. I know this might be a tricky one for some, but I tend not to shy away from fact. The number of qualified, highly experienced, self-starting frontline "development professionals" is dwindling. I see fewer and fewer development people who have the capacity to write well, compose thoughtful ideas for various audiences, communicate (listen!), train and mentor others (especially volunteers), understand development theory and practice, manage technology, and possess superb human relationship skills. I don't believe this is asking too much. This may be a downer for some, but not for me. I simply see it as another not-for-profit baby boom, where more folks are crossing over from other professions and just need some proverbial time in the saddle to learn lessons and gain experiences. Those who have successfully completed more than fifteen years in this business either are managing their own organizations, have moved on or retired, or have shifted to supporting organizations such as grant making foundations, government advocacy work, trust management, grant writing, marketing and image consulting, development consulting, and community foundations. Volunteers are worn out, tired, and are lacking motivation. Believe it or not, there is a shelf life for active volunteers. Every day, I witness volunteers whose volunteer work is about to expire. It's sad because few people know how to recognize it and what to do about it. Meeting invitations are mailed on time, email reminders are sent, agendas are distributed in advance, coffee and snacks are promised--and still, fewer and fewer folks show up. And when we assign face-to-face cultivation or solicitation tasks, fewer and fewer tasks are accomplished as planned. What do we do about it? There are monographs written about this stuff, but to keep it short and to the point, I have five suggestions: Treat volunteers, especially the veteran, seasoned ones, as newbies. Probe and listen. I'm convinced that many times we simply do not ask the right questions of our volunteers, which makes their job assignments risky. Constantly train, re-educate, and add value to their work. Give them a vacation. Shift jobs or let them take a sabbatical to refresh themselves. Take time for one-on-one relationship-building. s accomplished in an intimate setting than in a group setting. Find out what their current motivations are. Mario Capozzoli

April 2, 2008 / Issue IV

Top Five Social Sector Challenges TODAY!

This is not Big Picture stuff. This is Ground-Level stuff.

What keeps you up at night when it comes to your work? I've asked my clients that question before and at a recent conference with not-for-profit colleagues in New Hampshire, I asked a couple of my peers that same question. This is not scientific, but it makes a lot of intuitive sense to me, and I am hopeful that these resonate with you as well. Identifying your challenges is the first step in overcoming them.

Raise it, raise more of it, and raise it quickly. No matter how well prepared we think we are, how fine-tuned our plans are, how well-defined our goal setting process is, and how fully staffed we are at the moment, there seems to be this never-ending pressure to raise more money than last year, in less time. This is a challenge because this type of pressure causes us to lose focus and become scattered. And when we lose focus and scatter our thinking, we often fail to implement things like we have planned.

Here's a novel idea! How about purposefully not raising more money this year, but rather enhancing our relationships--the depth and strength of them--with our donors? Take our time and concentrate on our existing corral of donors.
Everything is a priority! The old saying is true: when everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. Sorry, but it's true. How do we balance personal life and professional life, like we promise we'll do every year, and get it all accomplished? That's the challenge, especially in small shops. With limited budgets and shrinking human resources, how do we simultaneously launch that new planned giving program (after all, we've been planning on doing it for years now!), drop our spring direct mail appeal, and build relationships with our top ten donors? Something's got to give, no?

Forget about the new fangled time management routines and theories-they hardly ever work as advertised. Rather, divide your month into a couple of themes. One week is dedicated to relationships, one week to marketing, the end of the month to reporting, and a couple days in the beginning to volunteer relationships, as examples. Then, go deep rather than wide! In other words, lump all of your priorities into theme zones. That might keep you focused and allow enough time to handle those ubiquitous emergencies.
Technology is a major hurdle. I recently heard a statistic that the majority of us regular people use no more than 40% of software's full capacity. Put in a different way, we tend not to exploit the full range of functions available to us when we are working with everything from Microsoft Excel and Word to those fancy (and expensive) donor database systems; and from powerful project management software to the myriad donor wealth rating and screening resources we have purchased. I know that my clients over the years have had challenges, as an example, using the full range of information, ratings, and algorithmic tools that come along with those hefty price tags for wealth screening services. We pay a lot of money for this stuff and it just sits on some shelf.

When was the last time you used at least half of the data fields on your donor knowledge management program? My point exactly! Technology tends to drive us, rather than the other way 'round. We're not getting our money's worth.

What I recommend to my clients is that they take a small group of donors who they already know a lot about and plug them into their technological systems, experimenting on which program features are useful and beneficial. Test things. Learn as you go. Take a summer sabbatical, as it were, and spend a couple days, when everyone else is on vacation, playing around with your office technology, learning a bit at a time.
Qualified, self-motivated professional staff is hard to find. I know this might be a tricky one for some, but I tend not to shy away from fact. The number of qualified, highly experienced, self-starting frontline "development professionals" is dwindling. I see fewer and fewer development people who have the capacity to write well, compose thoughtful ideas for various audiences, communicate (listen!), train and mentor others (especially volunteers), understand development theory and practice, manage technology, and possess superb human relationship skills. I don't believe this is asking too much.

This may be a downer for some, but not for me. I simply see it as another not-for-profit baby boom, where more folks are crossing over from other professions and just need some proverbial time in the saddle to learn lessons and gain experiences.

Those who have successfully completed more than fifteen years in this business either are managing their own organizations, have moved on or retired, or have shifted to supporting organizations such as grant making foundations, government advocacy work, trust management, grant writing, marketing and image consulting, development consulting, and community foundations.
Volunteers are worn out, tired, and are lacking motivation. Believe it or not, there is a shelf life for active volunteers. Every day, I witness volunteers whose volunteer work is about to expire. It's sad because few people know how to recognize it and what to do about it. Meeting invitations are mailed on time, email reminders are sent, agendas are distributed in advance, coffee and snacks are promised--and still, fewer and fewer folks show up. And when we assign face-to-face cultivation or solicitation tasks, fewer and fewer tasks are accomplished as planned. What do we do about it?

There are monographs written about this stuff, but to keep it short and to the point, I have five suggestions:

Treat volunteers, especially the veteran, seasoned ones, as newbies.
Probe and listen. I'm convinced that many times we simply do not ask the right questions of our volunteers, which makes their job assignments risky.
Constantly train, re-educate, and add value to their work.
Give them a vacation. Shift jobs or let them take a sabbatical to refresh themselves.
Take time for one-on-one relationship-building. s accomplished in an intimate setting than in a group setting. Find out what their current motivations are.

Mario Capozzoli