Nonprofit University Blog

In the short life of this blog, I have hit often on the message that nonprofits must be more business-like in their operations. And though as I write or think that phrase I generally am referring to finances, human resources, and overall management, I also include customer service. And just as many businesses could take a page or 10 from Disney’s and Nordstrom’s customer service books, so could many nonprofits, particularly those larger ones.

Two diametrically opposite experiences last week have me going on this. I met with a group of women who were all working in local community resource centers, helping clients gain access to emergency funds to prevent utilities shut-offs. They told stories of being called liars and other names, being yelled at, and much more, all while they were trying to help. And the response of these women was to go well beyond what they “had” to do as they provided the explanations that others before them should have provided, encouraged getting budgeting help and where they might go for such help, corrected misunderstandings, and so, so much more. All while barely making enough themselves to keep their utilities flowing and working in offices that were, to say the least, less than plush. But without even going to Disney Institute (which their organizations never could have afforded), they understood what should be done.

Switch gears: large—and I mean large—organization: plush offices, great location, nice salaries, the rich and famous begging to be on its board (as opposed to how it generally happens: boards begging folks to serve). I finally renewed my membership in this organization after years away (realizing as I did why I had lapsed) and was unable to get the website to cooperate in giving me the benefit which was the sole reason I re-upped.

I sent an e-mail to the Membership Office expressing my frustration and dissatisfaction, only to receive an e-mail telling me to go to the website to order my tickets. I wrote back and said I’d tried their suggestion several times and that their right response should have been to solve my problem and let me know that my tickets were waiting at will-call. Perhaps they should use some of those unrestricted dollars from their membership revenue to send a few people to Disney school.

As we seek to make ourselves more business-like, let’s selectively take what is good from the business world rather than swallow it whole. Let’s take what they consistently do well, or better than we do in the nonprofit sector, and keep what we do better, what, in many people’s eyes, we are known for. Let’s us not forget that we are supposed to be the sector that works on behalf of the public good, and thus must value that public as much as we can–even more than our own convenience.

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To most, if not all, in the nonprofit sector, September 11^th was doubly devastating. There was the sense of horror, loss and disbelief that everyone in this country suffered. And later there was the fear for the health and well-being of their own nonprofits. Would it survive? Would donors be willing to give to 9/11 efforts as well as the organizations they had given to before? Would they, depending upon their mission, be able to handle the increase in demand for services as people tried to cope, or the loss of demand as people hunkered down in their offices and homes? Would the sky really fall?

For some, the sky did fall. But post 9/11 analysis revealed that to the extent the sky fell, it was due to the economy tanking and not 9/11. Despite the fact that this news came out fairly quickly, we saw a 9/11 effect on the behavior of nonprofit employees. They hunkered down in their offices, afraid to come out, afraid that the organization would somehow fall apart at best, or at worse, disappear, if they left. And in so doing, they missed the very opportunities they should have been out seeking.

The Nonprofit Center’s 2005 Nonprofit Wage and Benefit Survey for the Greater Delaware Valley, revealed that 82% of the responding organizations pay for professional development “when funding allows.” Eighty-six percent pay for attendance at professional conferences (one source of professional development), again when funding allows, and 69% pay for professional memberships (another source of professional development), again, you guessed it, when funding is available. Read “when funding allows/is available” as so long as economic times are good. It is safe to say that it is “common fact” that professional development lines in budgets are the first to go at the first sign of tight financial times.

Is this the wisest response? Or, is this the classic response of nonprofits who don’t understand the basic business principles of it takes money to make money and return on investment? Though Ben Bernanke tells us we are not in a recession, everyone else with any financial savvy says we are. But this is not the end of the world. Not only is it not the time to retreat, it is the time to push forward. Seek new ideas, reinforce skills and develop new ones, build networks and collaborations, buy the loyalty of your employees. Now, more than ever, is the time to be an open, flexible, learning organization.

The sky is not falling, nor will it. Unless you let it.

Do as I say, not as I do. Is that the message executive directors are sending the rest of the employees and the board of the organizations they lead? Our anecdotal evidence has me worried.

After many months of market research and planning, The Nonprofit Center launched Executive Director University (EDU) in March. EDU is designed to meet the call that we heard from executive directors: “we want to learn in groups of just other executive directors and we want topics tailored to our needs, our position in the organization, our challenges.” And so we responded by creating EDU. We built it, and so far very, very few have wanted to come. What is this all about?

Peter Brinckerhoff, who will be the keynote speaker at The Nonprofit Center’s Annual Strategies Forum in June, recommends at least 40 hours of professional development annually. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were all doing that! But alas, the reality of nonprofit budgets as they are currently developed do not provide for that. Nevertheless, plenty of executive directors are investing in professional development—but for the other employees in the organization. And of course, we’re all for that. As Brinckerhoff says, “A stewardship organization knows that lifelong learning results in innovation, continued excellence, and effective mission provision.”

Our workshops on all different aspects of fundraising are packed, if not sold out. Yet our workshop last week on “Maximizing the Executive Director’s Role as a Fundraiser” had to be cancelled because only three executive directors signed up. Do executive directors all know how to maximize their role in raising funds on behalf of the organization? Have they learned from a fellow executive director who has raised funds for both large and small organizations? The week before we also cancelled the class on “Legacy and Succession Planning” because no one enrolled.

Executive Directors, hear me: it is inevitable that at some point you will be leaving the organization that you will have invested heavily in for some period of your life. Do you not want to leave the organization in the best shape possible? make the transition for your successor as smooth as possible? Give the organization the greatest chance of not missing a beat when you step down and someone else takes over? Perhaps the other staff who you supported to come to the financial management workshops, the fundraising workshops, the supervision workshop, will keep the organization afloat while the new executive director figures things out.

And while I am at it, is it any wonder that your board thinks it knows it all and won’t consider engaging in its own professional development? It is simply following your lead.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have a deep appreciation of the demands that nonprofit EDs face and I personally understand that professional development comes in many forms. There are those of us who find it in the stack of books next to our beds. There are others of us who find it via peer-to- peer-learning, or a coach or mentor, or a longer list of options. But the point is we need to be constantly engaging in developing and refreshing—and perhaps most importantly of all, modeling.

“Lifelong learning is an area where you have to lead in both word and deed. First, the organization needs to value continuing education in its budget, in its personnel evaluations, and in its board and staff meeting. You, as a steward need to attend training of varying types, ad then report what you’ve learned to others…”
       -Peter C. Brinckerhoff, Nonprofit Stewardship: A Better Way to Lead Your Mission-Based Organization

One of the positive things about writing a blog is that it gives the author time to stop what she is doing, sit back and, OMG, think and reflect. For those who read blogs and respond, (and the response is the critical part here), the same thing is true: you sit back, contemplate an issue, form a response, and share it with the world. Giving oneself permission to stop work (that is, doing your share to deliver on the mission of the organization) to cogitate is something too. Too many people in the nonprofit sector see as a luxury when, in reality, it is truly a necessity.

As a college professor, I have always harangued (at least I’m sure that is how the students hear it) my students to think. I have promised them from the first day of class of every semester that I am not going to teach them what to think but how to think. And while there are plenty of professors around who see it as their jobs to teach students what to think, the majority seem believe that their real job is to equip students with the tools for being independent thinkers. But, increasingly, I find myself asking why? If upon graduation and joining the workforce people start to see pondering and musing as something that impedes their ability to get their jobs done, then why bother?

I was recently reminded of the Myth of Sisyphus, and Sisyphus’ task of rolling the boulder up the hill each day, only to have it roll down the hill each night. Although Jackson Browne’s song The Pretender is about so much more than the Myth of Sisyphus, I have always associated the line, “Get up and do it again, Amen” with Sisyphus. But never with the nonprofit sector. Those of us working in that sector are not supposed to feel drudgery in going into work, but rather joy. But I’m hearing the drudgery creep in to more and more people’s voices. And I think I know why.

Yes, it has to do with the fact that nonprofit employees are, by and large, overworked and underpaid. But that has always been the case. So, what is new now? My answer? We have sent the message, mostly obliquely, that thinking on the job about the job is not allowed; only doing the job is. We have robbed employees of the time to deliberate, ruminate, meditate, etc., on the key questions of their work: how could it be done better? Should we be doing it this way? Or at all? And the list goes on. Organizations have relegated strategic thinking to a periodic possibility, something that comes out only in the course of doing strategic planning. The reality is that strategic thinking by staff (and board) needs to be a pervasive, constant and cherished component of every nonprofit.

I think, therefore I am.