Introduce Effective Nonprofit Practices into Your Organization

What: Raquel Gutierrez, Ph.D. of One Tree Many Seeds Consulting, will facilitate a discussion which will deepen your understanding of:

how strengths-based processes enrich your effectiveness and that of your organization
how to determine the best processes needed for the task at hand
how you can introduce new practices into your organization

You will learn from and with peers about how to utilize practices and create an organizational culture that is effective and positive.

When: Mar 24, 2011

Takeaways:

In order to be an effective leader in my own nonprofit, I'm really going to have to overcome my non-confrontational status. One of the group activities we had to do was act out a situation in which a conversation between a manager and an employee turned negative and petty. I'd never been in a situation like that before, so I had no idea what to really say or do. Good thing there were 3 other people at my table who were really good at play acting. LOL.

The minute I read the scenario, my instinct was to distance myself. I automatically didn't want to do it and hoped that one of my other table mates would volunteer. Luckily they did. It just really made me see how lucky I've been.

And how much I need to improve on certain things.

The For Impact Experience - Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits

What: Spend the morning with Major Gifts Guru and For Impact Founder Tom Suddes, who has raised more than $1 billion for causes around the world. This "non-workshop" will challenge the traditional social sector paradigm, offering tools from successful entrepreneurs, salesmen, and visionaries. Most importantly, it will give participants practical and field-tested ideas with "how-to" instruction to make a quantum leap in funding. Attendees will leave with practical tools, a funding roadmap, and plenty of real-life examples. Enjoy Tom's blunt, simple, "tested-in-the-ring" style and an immediate return-on-investment.

When: Mar 10, 2011

I have to confess that after attending this workshop, I wish this had been like a 2-day workshop. I got so fired up about his message, I could barely explain it to my coworker and my husband. I'll be starting from scratch when I open my nonprofit. With the information he gave us, I can start fresh. I don't have to change my whole way of thinking like he was telling everyone else, because by the time I'm ready to open my nonprofit, I'll already be thinking this way.

Takeaways:

I learned some new words:

~ The Board is not responsible for fundraising  - They are responsible for CHAMPIONING the cause and the case, INVITING others to get involved and engaged, and INVESTING with a commensurate commitment (to help fund the vision).

~ No more special events - only memorable or transforming experiences.

~ No appointments - only live "engagements".

~ Your job is not to beg for money, but to talk about impact

~ Establish credibility

~ You don't have to be good, you just have to be out there

~ When "engaging", sit shoulder to shoulder

~ The better you talk about your mission, the more money you'll get.

~ Present opportunities

~ What do you do? Why do you do it? Where does the money go?

~ From success to significance. Find people with long arms.

~ Create $1000 Leadership Society (something more geared to writing, like the Pen and Quill Society)

~ Just ask

~ Build ideal profile of perfect prospect: identify--prioritize--stragegize

~ Consider women as prospects.

~ Create Angel Investing model

~ Best sales tip of all time: Ask question, listen to answer

THINK BIG

BUILD SIMPLE

ACT NOW

~ Visual business model rather than a business plan


And most importantly

IMPACT drives INCOME

If I could afford to, I would attend all the workshops from the Suddes Group. As it is, they have now been added to my blogroll. I learned so much from Tom it's not even funny.

13th Annual Forum on Nonprofit Effectiveness

Hosted by the ASU Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation: exists to advance nonprofit leadership practice so that organizations can better achieve their mission. Whether the mission is housing, youth development, recreation, or neighborhood revitalization, effective nonprofit organizations improve individual lives and enhance our entire community.  

 

WHAT: "A long-time corporate funder that has sponsored the event has stated that it will no longer provide table sponsorships. How can the nonprofit continue to build a funding relationship with the corporation?"

This day of learning included panel discussions on best practices for relationship building and working together towards common solutions. Facilitators also lead table discussions based on specific situations that involve funder/grantee scenarios. All the topics for the day will surrounded the theme of, "Nonprofit Grantees & Funders: Building Strong Relationships-Assuring Community Impact"
WHEN: Friday, March 4, 2011
WHY: To provide knowledge and tools to enhance the effectiveness of those who lead, manage and support nonprofits.
DETAILS: Featured keynote addresses from Charles Best, Founder and CEO of Donorschoose.org and Travis Manzione, Director of Assessment Tools, The Center for Effective Philanthropy.

• A panel presentation on the "Best Practices for Relationship Building" featured Nate Anderson, Ear Candy; Marilee Dal Pra, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust; Karen Fisch, SRP; and Linda Lyman, Phoenix Youth at Risk. Brian Spicker from Valley of the Sun United Way served as the moderator. 
• Learned from national and local experts about building stronger grantee/funder relationships that assure community impact.
• Funders learned ways to help their grantees focus on what's most important.
• Nonprofits discovered ways to better engage their donors with their mission.
• Fresh ideas were identified for improving communication between funders and grantees.
• Strategies were outlined to work towards common solutions.
• Best Practices were discussed for collaboration and to apply new knowledge and skills for working together.
• Session on Arizona Collaborative Models - "Two Models: Grantee/Funder Collaboration in Action"

My thoughts: This was a really great forum and I was SO glad I was able to go. Charles Best was a great speaker and his organization is providing a great service for teachers around the nation. I particularly liked hearing Nate Anderson's story. He's from a family of entreprenuers, didn't know anything about the nonprofit sector and just...went for it. I'm coming from this same background as him, but  feel like I should know more about the sector. And that's just me being me because I can't just jump in. Granted, I did that with school in general, but starting a business is different. I want to be a little bit prepared and not depend so much on other people.

In case the whole opening-my-own-nonprofit idea doesn't come to fruition (but I'm going to be wholly optimistic that it will), I still want to serve in the nonprofit sector somehow. After attending this forum,  and talking further with the mentor from my HR course, I've decided to become a grant writer. I'm currently taking the Get Grants! course through the Scottsdale Business Institute and have been learning quite a bit. I figure since I'm a writer, I might as well utilize my writing skills and learn as much as I can about grant writing. Attending this forum gave me a little bird's eye view of the relationship between granters funders.

Takeaways:

Defining Relationships -

~ Fairness of treatment by foundation
~ Comfort approaching foundation if a problem arises
~ Responsiveness of foundation staff

Communications -

~ Clarity of communication of foundations goals and strategy
~ Consistency of information provided by different communications

Key Elements to Strong Relationships -

~ Understanding - funded organizations goals and strategies

~ Selection - helpfulness of selection process, mitigation of pressure to modify priorities

~ Expertise - understanding of the field and the community

~ Contact - initiation and frequency; be upfront

Best Practices for Relationship Building

~ All funders are not alike
~ The Golden Rule does not rule
~ All grantees are not alike
~ It's not about who you know when getting funding
~ The relationship does not end with a check
~ Help funders understand the issues your organization is facing
~ Stay in contact with funders beyond the yearly ask - 2 to 3 times a year
~ Have an annual request, not multiple times a year
~ Involve your board members
~ Measure your need: input - what did you put into it? Output - how do you succeed?
~ Grantors are your partners
~ Be transparent- tell funders about changes
~ Use board connections with funder
~ Be prepared
~ Ask funders for help
~ Listen to your funder

How to initiate relationship

~ Internal contact - find someone on the inside
~ Invite to event
~ Ask someone to be a volunteer

KICKSTARTER.ORG - a place where people can donate to your cause

Crowd sourcing - getting your customers to help you

WWW.AZGATES.ORG - a place to search for funding

And it continues...

I've had many great mentors over the past year and a half that I have to share

Georgia McBride, author and founder of YALITCHAT.ORG mentored my Creative Writing II: Revising Your Novel course (to cover my Writing and Literature Breadth) in Summer 2010:

As a writer, my revision process is to finish the first draft, set it aside for a few weeks, go back and read it over a couple of times, then send it off to a beta reader. This course forced me to step outside my normal routine and look at the revision process in a more organized way. After an initial review of the material--as well as feedback from my mentor, other authors and teen readers-I was able to define and work on the following: up and down moments for the protagonist, tracing major plots throughout the chapters and making sure there are up and down moments, creating more conflict, showing the best and worst characteristics of the main characters, reducing meaningless chatter, pacing, creating distinguishable characters, changing and developing relationships between characters, and thinking more like a teen, but writing like an adult.


Creating a revision outline helped considerably. It gave me a guideline to work with and I am hoping to adhere to it as I continue to revise the remainder of my novel. Even though I only revised the first 50 pages of my fourth novel, I can now apply what I've learned to my future books.

The wonderful Kristi Edwards, formerly of the Arizona Community Foundation, mentored my Nonprofit Explorations Course in Spring 2010 where I learned the basic overview of certain aspects of running a nonprofit. I learned how to write a mission statement, a vision statement, a value statement, and a case statement. I created a fictious board of directors, staff job descriptions, wrote an action plan for an event, and created evaluation forms for board and staff members.

Chantal Sheehan, former CFO of New Global Citizens,  had the formidable task of mentoring my Sustainable Financial Mgmt course in Summer 2010. She did a great job even though I was thinking I could've benefited from an Accounting 101 class before jumping into this one. In this course I determined which type of organization I would have, analyzed financial statements of 3-4 nonprofits (including that of Chantal's employer), and learned the steps to take to protect my future organization from fraud.

The most work I've done to date has been in my Fundraising and Resource Management course, mentored by Maureen Baker, Mgr of Individual Giving, at MIM (Musical Instrument Museum). I learned so much from Maureen, it's ridiculous: became familiar with fundraising terminology, honed my writing skills by drafting a number of documents including a case statement, annual appeal letter, letter of inquiry, proposal and budget, prospect profiles, e-newsletter, event committee letter, acknowledgment letter, and membership campaign letter. Through role play, I rehearsed common fundraising-related scenarios including an in-person gift solicitation, thank you phone call, leading a development committee meeting, and giving an "elevator pitch." I also gained an understanding of important concepts, practices, and strategies for implementing a successful fundraising campaign, including strategies for donor identification, cultivation, solicitation, and acknowledgment/recognition. I even designed an event and prepared related documents such as a flyer, budget, plan, and timeline. Utter craziness, that, but it was so great.

Spring 2011 is nearing a close. Chantal is now the Executive Director of NGC and I'm lucky enough to have her as a mentor again this semester for my Human Relations class. Shoshana Ross, Volunteer Mgr for Free Arts AZ is my mentor for my Volunteer Mgmt course as well this semester. The semester ends May 5th and I'll be sharing my self-evals of these courses around that time.

The pros of this program definitely outweigh the cons (searching for and asking complete strangers to mentor my courses). I've been learning so much from my mentors so far, that the minute I graduate next year, I feel like I'm going to be so ready to open The Write Zone.

I'm like SpongeBob right now, soaking up all this information like a sponge to squeeze out later. Now that I'm a member of a couple of local nonprofit organizations--and have subscribed to the ASU Lodestar Newsletter--I'm attending more seminars, workshops, forums and whatnot. I'll be sharing my thoughts on those in upcoming posts.

The more I immerse myself in this sector, the more excited I am to leave my current job and get started on my real career. LOL.

IF YOU'D LIKE TO BE A MENTOR FOR ONE OF MY CLASSES, PLEASE CHECK OUT MY "COURSE MENTORS WANTED" PAGE AT THE TOP, IN THE SIDEBAR.

The journey started in Aug 2009...

In going back to the beginning of this process, I'd forgotten that I had started a blog for this particular purpose. It was called Non-Profitation. Kinda snazzy, eh? I started school at the end of August 2009 and went up to Prescott for the 3-day orientation. I wrote about it on my author site:

Orientation: Day One

Orientation Day Three

Smell The Learn

Smell The Learn Part Two

Smell The Learn Part 3 - with a mention of the previous blog that no longer exists.

Dang it! I'm almost wishing I had those posts back. Just to remember what it was like when I first started out and had such a hard time adjusting after not being in school for 17 years!

Fall 2009 was a defining moment for me. In a post on Sept 28, 2009 I'd written:

I’ll be taking 3 classes next semester and I’ve lined up mentors for two of them. Because the third class will be taken online at Rio Solado. A Modern Fiction class. This first semester has been overwhelming for me and I think it’s because I haven’t been in school for a long time. Unlike Stella, I’m trying to find my groove. Not get it back. Because I’m pretty sure I never had one in the first place when it came to the whole school thing.

I’ve had little breakdowns along the way and have had to get pep talks from people. Not to mention a comforting “you-can-do-it-everything’s-going-to-be-all-right” hug from Mr. Maul. There’s required reading for my Math class (yeah, I know that sounds weird), and simultaneously I’m scouring the Net for articles to read for the paper that’s due for my EIS class. To make time for both, I came up with this: two chapters a day for Math, look up articles the rest of the time for EIS. It’s working so far. It was really hard to finish two chapters on Friday, but I rewarded myself by reading a fun book when I was done. And by fun, I mean an adult romance book.

It’s probably going to kill me. By the end of this semester I imagine I’ll have less hair (from all the pulling), possibly even a few gray hairs to pluck, and high blood pressure (from all the overwhelming-ness), but here’s to hoping I’ll have a groove.

And yes, that second semester really did almost kill me. LOL.

Here's the School Daze post that still makes me laugh.

I found some other posts about my EIS course and the Math Explorations class. This one, too.

My grad date has since been pushed back, of course, but by the end the semester, quite the impression had been imbedded:

Math Explorations self-eval:

This course allowed me to readjust my perception on the subject of Math. Based on my responses to the Math Therapy Exercise, my mentor understood my initial opinion on a subject that has always eluded me. I found it interesting that a teacher would want to know when and why a subject became difficult, or how they could make it better.

Through material written by Bill Bryson, and Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, I discovered the inter-related fields of math, cosmology and general scientific knowledge. In completing the Math Exercises, I had to set aside my prejudices regarding word problems and develop reasoning skills. As a result of the material in this course, I was able to create mock-up floor plans for my future business. This gave me an opportunity to visualize what I hope my business will look like and provide an actual blueprint. Overall, this unconventional course deprogrammed my view of this subject and helped me understand that math is not always about numbers.

EIS (Explorations in Interdiscplinary Studies) self-eval:

As someone who has not been to school in 17 years, I am very glad I was required to take this class. As a participant, I learned how to access and successfully navigate research sources, contact the Writing Center for assistance, and interact with my fellow peers. As a result, this crash course in college has allowed me to create a plan that will guide me in my educational future, write a 10-page research paper, and complete a social literacy activity that involved me journaling about my time as a mentor for a nonprofit organization.

This course has helped me ease into and adjust to being in school again. Jill was very patient, supportive, and kind mentor. She's even good with the pep talks when I started to feel a little overwhelmed. With the skills I learned in this course, I feel that I can now move forward and enjoy working towards my goal.

I want to thank Gary Stogsdill and Jill Young (former core faculty) for being such great teachers. I can't wait to honor them in my graduation speech next year.