Because of my posts about being a nonprofit wage slave, and being unable to make rent on a nonprofit “salary”, someone took issue with this. Actually, more than one person did, and I’m glad about it. I got a reader email saying,

“I HATE YOUR PITY PARTY! IF YOU DON’T LIKE HOW YOU’RE PAID IN NONPROFITS THEN GET OUT!”

And some other, less choice words.

And well, shoot man.

What are people who want to change the world supposed to do? Some of us are best suited to being social workers. Some of us are best suited to being therapists. Some of us are best suited to being bus drivers or nonprofit office managers. We still deserve a higher wage. I will show you why.

Here’s my question for you.

Why should people in the nonprofit sector make less than every other sector?

Rick Cohen on Blue Avocado says, “It’s official, we’re paid less than any other sector.”

Proof:

And it's not like we're going to get paid significantly more in other sectors.

The fact is man, wages haven’t risen since the 1970s in most sectors.

Proof:

More Proof:

That means MOST people, not just nonprofits, are getting the short end of the stick. Especially women. Especially women of color. So even if we “get out of the sector” it is not much better out there than in here.

And people from every economic strata, such as doctors, nurses, air traffic controllers, hotel maids, pepsi truck drivers, are getting shafted. Here’s a post I did about how no sector is safe. Using data and detailed economic research and in-depth investigative journalism from Mother Jones. One of the top progressive nonprofit news sources in the US.

Starting your own business is not the answer.

You ended with a “start your own business” rant and frankly, that’s not a reality for most people. We shouldn’t have to start our own businesses to make a living wage. Not everyone is suited to being an entrepreneur.

America is also not one of the best places to start a business, contrary to popular myth. The best places? New Zealand. Canada. Australia. According to DoingBusiness.com, the US is ranked 13th in ease of starting a business.

Maybe next time you criticize someone wanting to help people get paid more, you should do your own research into this issue. It’s easy for you, as an english-speaking white man with a cushy job at a foundation in America with many resources to get started as an entrepreneur.

Have you ever stopped to consider what the barriers are for a black woman with two kids? A single mom of any color? What about a black man coming out of the judicial system? What about a hispanic man who may not speak English?

Income equality will help EVERYONE’s standard of living rise. And that IS worth fighting for.

We need to speak for those who need our support to get pay parity. Income equality. Equal treatment no matter what the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, how long they’ve been unemployed, or how many children they have or are planning to have. Maybe you’ve never experienced this discrimination personally, but let me tell you, it’s out there.

The Spirit Level Book (a must read!)

In a truly equal society, as argued in “The Spirit Level, Why Equality is Better for Everyone,” by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, say:

Since we finished writing The Spirit Level in the spring of 2008, there have been many more studies reporting relationships between inequality and health. Nine of the new studies look specifically at rich, developed countries. Seven find, as we do, that health is worse in more unequal societies.

AND

“There is now evidence that inequality played a central causal role in the financial crashes of 1929 and of 2008. We suggested that inequality leads to increases in debt. It turns out that they are intimately related.” For more details, check out this article.

So if you think that it doesn’t matter that people at nonprofits don’t make enough money, then you’re basically saying that you don’t care that people who want to make the world better are less healthy, and that we have more giant financial crashes.

From the same article above:

“In his first major speech as leader of the Labour Party (in the UK), Ed Miliband said: “I do believe this country is too unequal and the gap between rich and poor doesn’t just harm the poor, it harms us all . . .”"

Let me just clarify this once and for all.

THIS IS NOT A PITY PARTY.

I’m here to call attention to disparities. I’m here to be a cultural critic. I’m here to help people think about how they want to change their worlds, their nonprofits, their lives.

My prescription for positive change? Unionize. Organize. Get clear about what you want to change and then change it. I’m not going to change it for you. But I’m not going to pretend that business as usual is just fine with me.

Wake up man! This is NOT a meritocracy.

And this is not a pity party. This is a call to action.

Do you understand me now?

You can tell the pioneers, because they’re the ones with arrows all over their chests.

I’m happy to stand beside Dan Pallotta, a white man who writes for the Harvard Business Review, and author of “Uncharitable” and agitate for a stronger nonprofit sector, to agitate for everyone who is getting underpaid at nonprofits right now. To agitate for better pay and better treatment for everyone. If that means unions, then so be it. If there’s another way, I’d be open to hearing what it is.

I’m happy to speak up. And I hope if you feel the same way, you’ll leave a comment, email me, or say hi on Twitter.

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This is not a pity party. You understand? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on January 16, 2012.

He writes:

“Often exiles from nonprofits because they were ineffective, burned out or just wanted a bigger paycheck, bad consultants can drain nonprofits’ limited funding in return for simplistic advice masquerading as strategic thinking.

Many who could not cut it as nonprofit professionals turn to consulting because they spot easy prey in nonprofits desperate for strategic advice.” . . .

What these consultants are selling is blind faith in their image and self-confidence. But after paying the fees, many nonprofits are left with little more than a consultant’s promise that cosmetic and formulaic changes will improve their organizations.

Nonprofits buy what mediocre consultants are selling because, strained to the breaking point in our damaged economy, and struggling to make ends meet in the face of rising demand for services and of shrinking resources, they need help and want to believe the consultants can provide it.”

—————————————————

Ouch! Obviously Todd has talked with nonprofits who have been burned by consultants who didn’t really help them or deliver on what they promised to deliver.

Here’s my response.
————————————-

Dear Todd,

I appreciate you bringing up the fact that we have to vet nonprofit consultants more carefully.

And I agree, a nonprofit should be wary of general strategists simply because no one consultant can be an expert on strategy for every type of nonprofit. I’d be more inclined to trust a consultant who specialized in, say, K-12 educational strategy than someone who said they provided general nonprofit strategy.

In my own consulting practice, I don’t give simplistic advice or offer empty strategy. I wrote a book called The Wild Woman’s Guide to Fundraising and I teach webinars offering step by step guides on how to do various tasks, including finding sponsorships, finding grants, and putting out direct mail pieces.

There may not be regulations on consultants, but I do my best to be transparent, which means I disclose exactly how much I’ve personally raised with the methods above.

I don’t just rely on my own experience. I read books, go to conferences, attend trainings, and research online and look at the best examples I can find in the field before offering advice to nonprofits. I’m always learning, always trying to provide more value for nonprofits.

I think the best consultants can offer nonprofits the gift of shortcuts and best writing samples, at the very least, if they are focused on hands-on, how-to instruction.

When it comes to successful fundraising or strategy, you forget that you need a trained and motivated board, a dynamic leadership, and an engaged community. Probably most nonprofits don’t have these, which is why they come to a consultant in the first place.

People need to take responsibility for the situation they created, not blame the consultant for not giving them a quick fix.

• One consultant alone cannot overcome the fact that no one on the board has ties to a foundation.
• One consultant cannot transfer 10 relationships with corporations to a nonprofit to get those sponsorships.
• One consultant cannot overcome a 5 year lapse in sending appeals with the first appeal.
• One consultant cannot overcome the lack of any development staff to carry on the work once they leave.

You talk about nonprofit consultants not taking responsibility for their actions. I’m not trying to pass the buck here. I’m trying to talk about what can realistically be accomplished with the assistance of a nonprofit consultant.

Rather than expecting the consultant to solve all organizational problems in the space of a week or a month, why not just help the consultant train the ED or other development staff to write a better appeal letter, or how to do speaking engagements more effectively?

Or if you think the consultant is still too removed, what about creating contracts where the consultant works together with the nonprofit, checks in with them over a period of 6 months to 1 year, to help them tweak their fundraising and development?

What do YOU think of these solutions?

Are you looking for a nonprofit consultant?

What has worked best for you in terms of hiring someone to help your nonprofit, from the outside?

If you are a nonprofit consultant, have you ever felt like people expected you to overcome too much?

How did you deal with managing expectations?

Please share your experience in the comments.

A response to “Bad Nonprofit Consultants” from Inside Philanthropy originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on January 9, 2012.

Think about who you can partner with in a host-beneficiary relationship. This could be part of cause marketing, or it could be just creating business partnerships with your neighbors in the strip mall.

A host-beneficiary relationship is one that people probably try to talk you into all the time. It’s when you are sitting at your desk, minding your own business, and the local mattress store calls you up and says,

“Hey, put an ad about us in your newsletter!” And you say,

“Why would I do that?” And they say,

“Well, we’ll give a discount to your newsletter subscribers!”

Uh huh.

So this is a clumsy and not effective way to try to get someone to be a host for you. How can you be smarter than the mattress salesman?

1. Define your target audience and think of local businesses they frequent. Think about who your natural partners are. If you’re a food bank, would partnering with local restaurants be a good idea? Local grocery stores? And could you use their mailings or e-newsletters to talk about your nonprofit? Yes?
1. Start with your favorite local restaurant and see what they say.
2. Poll your staff and see where they eat when they go out. Start with places you’ve already built relationships with. Life is so much easier this way. So think about the whole package of your donors, your volunteers, etc.
3. Approach the restaurant, talk about all of the business you give them, collectively, and ask if they’d like to partner. If so,
4. Could they do a special night where you get part of the proceeds?

Another example. If you’re an environmental nonprofit that does outdoor land cleanup, do they get their hiking boots at the local Army-Navy Store? Could you partner with this store?

Yet Another example. If you’re a nonprofit serving people with developmental disabilities, what sorts of people donate to you? Are they the families of people with developmental disabilities? Do you know which products they use, what books they buy, what support groups they go to? How can you help your nonprofit help them even more effectively by connecting them to the resources they need?

2. DEVELOP A SEPARATE OFFER FOR EACH PARTNER.  As far as possible, come up with a service that has a high perceived value for the consumer.  Do as much as possible to make this offer unique to each new partner.  Remember that some of your customers may already be customers of several potential partners. So maybe you can offer to highlight them in your newsletter, but more than that, if they are doing pinups for you at their store, maybe you can drive more people to their store to buy the pinups, or come there yourself and help their staff talk to customers about your nonprofit, get people excited about your cause.

3. HIGHLIGHT THE BENEFITS TO THE HOST BUSINESS.  Show them that your plan offers a way for them to reward their customers at minimal expense and with little effort.  It’s also a great way for them to reach out to their customers, reminding them of the long-term relationship. Your pinup campaign, for example, contributes to employee satisfaction and customer loyalty.

4. SUPPLY A LETTER FOR THE HOST’S USE.  Providing a letter that can be sent to the host’s customers on the host’s letterhead will help put the plan into motion quickly.  It will also show your potential partner how easy it will be for them to participate. Let’s say you want to do an event in the parking lot of a local pet store, advertising your free spay and neuter day. They have an email list they can send this out to.

5. ENSURE YOU HAVE A STRATEGY TO CONVERT THESE LEADS INTO LONG TERM PARTNERS.  This, after all, is your long-term goal.  Once you get enough local business partners, you can start to develop a reputation as a good nonprofit to help businesses with their marketing, customer loyalty, and employee volunteerism, as well as someone who thinks strategically, long-term, and more like a business in this way too. This might lead to them sponsoring your annual walk-a-thon, or recommending you to other partners, and more!

Have you ever done cause marketing? Or participated in a host-beneficiary relationship? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!

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What is a host-beneficiary relationship, and how can you work it for your nonprofit? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on August 29, 2011.

Do you take risks?

How?

Last week in the Harvard Business Review, Dan Pallotta talks about how taking risks is important. if we didn’t take risks, we wouldn’t have cures for diseases. We wouldn’t have so much of what we have now. But in the nonprofit world, risktaking is discouraged. Funders would rather see that you have a tried and true model before they invest. They want to see that you have a lot of money and that you are a “safe bet.” This seems backwards to me. Like foundations want to be investment bankers and get the greatest yield for their dollar amounts.

Well, guess what, strategic philanthropists. The greatest yield for your dollar amounts is in a developing nation, where people live on pennies a day. Phil Cubeta, over at GiftHub, writes:

“Albert, a community foundation leader orginally trained in philosophy asks such questions (on his blog under his own name, even). For most, though, the answer about goals is, effective and efficient strategies with measurable outcomes is the operative goal. Giving Smart gets results. Let’s get results. We will then be smart.” As the best salesperson I ever knew once said to me, “Phil, don’t ask why there is air, just breathe.” Maybe Albert should stop asking why the poor suffer so, and just get on with the grantmaking. The more we explore root causes the more complicit we realize we are, and the more demoralized and the less our smart grants seem sufficient expiation for our moral blindness. Better to choose goals by passion, prejudice or whimsy, and concentrate on the effectiveness of the means.”

So, if wages of most people had moved up with the rest of the moneyed classes, we wouldn’t need to court the favor of the big foundations, because our communities would have the money to take our nonprofits higher. The trouble is, they have most of the money now. Don’t believe me? It’s true. The top 10% of America’s wealthy hold over 75% of the wealth in the USA. I have statistics. I can back this up.

Top 10% have 75% of the wealth

We can try grassroots fundraising, but the reason its’ not working so well anymore is because people have less and less money to give you.

So what is a nonprofit professional to do? The way I see it, we could do several things.

1. One of the things we could do is raise wages for everyone who works at nonprofits. Since this probably won’t happen voluntarily, we should consider getting unions for nonprofit workers, so that people will have cost of living raises, healthcare paid for, and be insulated from wrongful termination. When we start to address income inequality within our own organizations, we are truly making a difference at the grassroots level.

2. Second verse, same as the first!

3. We can start agitating on a local government level, or if you prefer, advocating, for a better working climate and more unions for people in our local economies. Whether that’s day laborers or other people who work at nonprofits, this is something that we can all agree that we want. If it’s too big of a problem to look at how politicians are bought and sold on the national level, then look at the local level. Should commissioners of your city or your mayor be bought out? Perhaps not. Perhaps these elected officials are still small enough to listen to you, if you get enough people around you. If you shout loud enough. So start there.

4. Run for office yourself. Get a sense of the political process. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the problems, start to be part of the solution. Abolish At-Will Employment.

5. Or you could just sit there and whine and complain and talk about moving to another country. Someplace “safer.” But where is going to be safe if the US crumbles? We’ve got all of the world’s currencies tied up with our own. I’ve done the whine and complain thing, and all I’ve felt at the end of it was just hopelessness and despair. Because there really is no place like home, and we can fight to take it back.

6. Civil disobedience. What does this mean? Go to protests. Be visible. Make graffiti stencils and put these around different neighborhoods in your town. Why not? There’s nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

7. Start to build a social media following, of people who want the same things you want. Clean air. Clean water. Higher wages, better local economies, better food for everyone, less dependence on oil, equality, true equality.

Maybe I’ve been reading too much Terry Pratchett lately, I’m talking like a revolutionary. But what’s so revolutionary about wanting better treatment for all nonprofit workers?

Do you have any ideas? How can we get out of this mess? The roof is on fire! What’s your solution?

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Is your nonprofit a “safe bet”? Let’s Get Dangerous! originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on August 24, 2011.

My little brother’s story

Let me tell you about one of my little brothers. He graduated college a couple of years ago, and has since bounced from job to job, trying to find his place in the world. He worked in a supermarket, at the fish counter. He works mowing lawns and trimming hedges. In the winter he works snowplowing the roads. He is selling cars right now and looking for another job. His boss canceled all of his days off so that he could be on the lot for 3 weeks in a row, trying to sell cars in one of the worst economies this country has ever seen. He never complains. I have never known a more hardworking person. He is living with my parents and has lived with them since he graduated, because he can’t afford his own place.

I never talk about him, because I feel so sad and helpless to do anything for him. I see him suffering and want to help him find his place in the world. I want to help him find fulfillment, a job with true security, and direction. But with the world the way it is, I doubt he will find any of this.

Let’s talk about context. I want to talk with you about three lies, and three truths.

Lie: All our lives, if we are American, we are taught that interdependence is weak.

Lie:We are taught that we have to go out and be the lone hero.

Lie: Our culture has taught us that consuming goods will solve our problems and ease our pain. It even implies that without consumer goods, we have nothing and therefore we are nothing.

So if you’re a new graduate, and you don’t want to live with your parents, but get out and be the lone hero and buy lots of stuff, you may feel pretty low right now. Why are you losing?

Change gears for a second. Have you heard about the protests in London and how they are spreading to the rest of England? Then you’ve probably heard about the riots in Egypt, in Spain, in Denmark, in Greece, in France, and other places too. What’s the deal? A whole bunch of people, graduates without a future, rising up? We could see them as thugs and violent anarchists, but what’s the greater context behind the protests?

Um, hello? The austerity measures that the EU is trying to put into place are basically helping millions of people fall off the poverty cliff, and I am not down with that.

People in Europe are protesting enforced austerity measures which mean that they are going to have to pay more for college, that their social services programs are being cut, that they are going to have much poorer lives while the bankers who ruined the economy, and the biggest corporations who don’t have to pay taxes get off SCOT FREE.

Dr. Cornell West and Tavis Smiley on the Poverty Tour

And now here we are, in America, with the same austerity measures, poverty of graduates with no future. Luckily Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornell West are on tour exposing poverty in America.

Paul Mason of the BBC talks about “A new sociological type: The graduate with no future.” in his article, “Twenty reasons why it’s kicking off everywhere.”

Nothing left to lose
His article explains that when people graduate and there are no jobs for them, they decide to get connected and go and protest. I don’t agree with everything that he says, specifically when he says;

“This evaporation of a promise is compounded in the more repressive societies and emerging markets because – even where you get rapid economic growth – it cannot absorb the demographic bulge of young people fast enough to deliver rising living standards for enough of them.”

Londoners seem to think that there are root causes people like Paul are overlooking. I think we could all have better standards of living with better corporate taxation and better funding of NGOs, nonprofits and charities from the government. And as I understand it, the protests in Tottenham Court in London happened in part because youth clubs were shut down and youth had no place to go. A case for funding more social services and more charities if I ever heard one!

Diane Abbott, on Tottenham Court riots

According to “This Can’t be Happening”The slashing of social service funding, particularly for youth related matters from education to recreation, by Britain’s Conservative led coalition government, has accelerated the conversion of Tottenham into a “tinder box waiting to explode,” declares Diane Abbott, the first black women ever elected to Britain’s Parliament. Abbott represents a district adjacent to Tottenham.

When people protest, and break shop windows and set fire to cars, as they did in London a few nights ago, it’s because they have nothing left to lose. They are galvanized enough to demand change. You may not like their methods, but they may feel they have no other choice, that no one will listen unless they resort to violence.

Egypt Protests

Social Media aids protests
Paul goes on: “6. Horizontalism has become endemic because technology makes it easy: it kills vertical hierarchies spontaneously, whereas before – and the quintessential experience of the 20th century – was the killing of dissent within movements, the channeling of movements and their bureaucratization.”

The methods employed by many protesters in Egypt, England, and France include social media, which allows for people to act more like the Apaches, who resisted against American “manifest destiny” for years because they were decentralized and everyone could be a leader, communicate with each other and then drop back into the scenery and be an ordinary citizen again.

We’ve got protests by graduates with no future. they are in debt for school, and they are struggling to find work, or giving it up and just getting mad at the system, and deciding a brick through a window is better than sitting at home just feeling depressed. They call up their friends, and learn to do things together to express what’s happening.

They are illustrating interdependence, expressing their dissatisfaction with the state of the world. I am not advocating violence. I am advocating acknowledging our interdependence, and thinking about collective power.

Truth: Interdependence makes us all stronger. We are better together than we are apart.

Truth:The lone hero is capitalist propaganda. We are all in this together. This is what fundraising keeps reminding people. We are all in this together, so let’s do our bit.

Truth: Consuming goods is neither good nor bad. Obviously, buying fair-trade and local is important, but apart from that, consuming is as apolitical as brushing your teeth. No one really cares if you don’t drive a Ferarri. No one really cares that your clothes don’t come from the most expensive shop in town. Your life is worth just as much if you have a million dollars or one dollar. When we help donors care about our causes, we are encouraging them to step out of a dream of consumerism, and into one where we can help make people who are economically disadvantaged matter more.

Greece Protests

When I see those protests in London, Paris or Greece, I think, “My little brother, if he was a bit more politically aware, could be there. He could be allying with people who have nothing left to lose. He could be attempting to make change.”

How does this apply to us, here, now? What can we do, where we are, in this moment?

We need to be helping new graduates ally with our nonprofits and help them see that they can help make a better world without violence.

We need to depend on each other, to recognize the strength in building networks of friends, colleagues, and family members. To build coalitions and alliances with other sister nonprofits so that we can set the example for others, save money, save time, and get more things done.

No matter what your political inclination, you must admit that the world economic system is pretty broken. We all need to work together now.

Can you make a commitment to reaching out to a nonprofit with a similar cause to yours this week? Even if you feel like your plate is full, can you lend a hand to someone for an hour?

Fundraising can be a lonely job. The more we communicate with each other, the more we can depend on each other, create relationships not just with donors but with other fundraisers, and share our knowledge, our expertise, and our time to help lift everyone up.

And yes, I’m walking my talk. I’m reaching out this week, and I will reach out next week too. If you want to chat, I’m here. This is my phone number. 512-763-5161. Go for it.

Do you know a Graduate with no future? What is up with these protests? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on August 16, 2011.

Flickr image by GinasPics

First off, if you like how I write, you are going to LOVE how I teach. Because then it’s like I’m writing, but you can hear me talk, and then we can have a conversation, too!

Here’s a neat thing: My Wildly Successful Events Webinar on how to get sponsorships on July 13th is all sold out! For the THIRD TIME IN A ROW! PEOPLE REALLY LOVE IT! I am so happy! If you just want tips on how to get mega-sponsorships, then my next sponsorship webinars are September 1st and September 27th with charityhowto. And you can sign up right here.

I also have a new Charityhowto webinar, and it’s all about appeal letters! It’s called Tons of Money in the Mail. September 14th! And here’s where you can read more about it.

And if you just can’t wait for some new info right this month, I’ve got a webinar on managing your online reputation on July 15th that has a few extra spaces left in it. Just go here to check that out!

Have you ever worked with a nonprofit leader that just would say NO to everything you suggested? Did you ever think, ‘Oh M. G. I can’t take it anymore” and run out? Did you ever want to partner with other nonprofits but feel stymied because your organization wasn’t nimble enough to take advantage of opportunities like that? Too much bureaucracy? Or maybe you just didn’t have the power to decide that partnerships could happen?

I’ve noticed some of these issues and I’ve come up with a theory of what makes an effective leader. Whether you’re getting your Master’s in Nonprofit Management or your Master’s in Public Administration, I think these can be useful for you.

Do you have what it takes to be a good nonprofit leader? As I’ve made a study of what helps people be good leaders over the last five years, I’ve come up with six key things that can make or break an organization’s effectiveness. And we all want to be effective, right?

Here are the six qualities of effective nonprofit leaders.

1. Listen to what other people tell you and say yes to their suggestions.
This is as simple as someone saying, ‘Hey, can we partner with Nonprofit X? We could get some more exposure out of it’ and then just say YES. Or if someone else says, ‘Can we get a donor database now? I’ve researched them and this is the best one’ then just say YES. It’s a principle of one of the most successful car companies in the world. Ever heard of Toyota? Anyone at Toyota can make a suggestion and it will be tried to improve the effectiveness of their processes, whatever they are. This is lean methodology, also known as Kaizen. I have a whole section in my book devoted to this concept, and it can make such a difference in terms of making your nonprofit effective.

2. Appreciate people who work for you.
You need to build relationships all of the time, and especially with the people that you work with. These people need to see that you respect them. And when you appreciate them, you show them you respect them, and why they should continue to work even harder for you. A little thank-you when they do something right can mean so much. Maybe a big smile and a “I really appreciate what you did there” at other times. But in my experience so many people don’t know how to do this. If you don’t know how to do this, watch other people who do it really well. And emulate them.

Flickr Picture by Eric Schoon

3. If you have a problem with someone, meet with people and communicate with them clearly. I guess if it gets too serious, you could always use a finger puppet to say things for you?
There is so much bad communication in really tiny nonprofits, and there’s just no excuse for it except that people need to figure out how to communicate without blowing their stack. And what I find helps the most is weekly check-ins with people in your team. Even if it’s just you and the executive director. Get in there and have that meeting. Sit in the waiting area and chat about what’s going on, what you need help with, ask about priorities, etc. If you are off track, it can be corrected quickly with weekly meetings. When you are no longer meeting, communication breaks down and then it’s just a matter of time before you don’t have a job anymore.

4. Have passion for what you are doing and share credit whenever you can.
When you have true passion for the mission, when you are connected to the deepest pains of your clients or donors and you can articulate that to everyone around you, when you really love what you do and how you do it and how it all helps others, then people are going to love working around you and with you. You connect with the pain and then you can connect with a solution. Everyone likes problem-solvers. And also people who share the credit for doing something right. So when you do your work, appreciate the people who helped you do it. When you hold up people of lower status than you, that makes you look like a generous leader. And you are if you can make it a habit.

5. Push yourself to develop new skills and go beyond your comfort zone.
This means instead of saying, “Well, we’re not doing that because we don’t know how therefore it doesn’t matter” just ask someone. Say, why should we do this? What makes it a good thing? What will it get us? And then if there’s an opportunity for you to learn something, like a more effective way to deliver services, then learn it. It doesn’t take that long to learn about what other people are doing. We are getting so interconnected now that almost as soon as an innovation happens, when it’s published online, other people can get aware of it and start to replicate it, or connect with the person doing it and figure out how to make it happen on their scale. This can help you be more eligible for grants, when you take best practices of other nonprofits and apply them to your own. It can also keep you on your toes.

6. Ask for help.
This is huge. This could be partnering with another nonprofit, this could be bringing in an accountant to do your taxes, this could be asking someone to help you with board recruitment, this could be asking your board to help you fundraise, this could be even bigger, this could be getting a consultant to help you do better organizational communication, or getting a scholarship for continuing education for your employees to improve their knowledge. Maybe they just need to learn how to administer the website better. Maybe you need to ask an event manager for help. Asking for help is different than not paying for things. But sometimes, right, there’s founder’s syndrome and/or type A stuff where you think you have to do it all and be it all and you can’t show that you don’t know something, and seriously, it is SUCH a relief to ask other people to do things for you, and/or pay them, and know that it’s going to get done.

Do you agree? Disagree? Any more qualities that you think I’ve left out? Please leave a comment.

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6 ways you can be an effective nonprofit leader originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on July 11, 2011.

Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed, Desiree! I appreciate it!

0. What is your background in nonprofits?

My background is actually social work. I started my career working with at risk youth. I worked at and managed summer camps for over 10 years and working with young men and women on probation. I have With twenty-five plus years of progressive nonprofit management experience. I have served in senior-level roles in the nonprofit and grant management sectors for such renowned organizations as Habitat for Humanity International where I was the Sr. Director of Volunteer Mobilization and Rotary International where I was the director of their largest Humanitarian Grant program. My industry expertise also includes information technology, youth focused non-profit, social justice non-profit, and faith based organizations. I look to ensure that the organizations I work with have the systems in place in order to leverage social, human and financial capital. I have lived, worked and traveled to over 20 countries including Germany, Mexico, India, El Salvador, Mozambique, Tajikistan, Bali, Egypt, Dubai and South Africa.

1. What drew you to nonprofit work?

It was my passion. I was an International Development major in college and wanted to work and live in Africa. The more I learned about the complexity of development work the more I realized that some of the skills around community building where just as applicable to my community on the south-side of Chicago as it was to a community in South Africa. I started working with inner city youth at a summer camp while in college and was hooked. Designing programs that engaged people and built communities was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

2. What do you like about blogging?

Well I am a horrible writer—horrible! So the thought of writing regularly for other people to see terrified me. My best friend has been blogging for about 5 years now. Her blogging actually led to a book deal. I am not looking for a book deal at all but once I started, I had no idea how much I would love blogging. I have gotten great response from readers and it is now one of my favorite things to do. I actually have gotten quite a few clients from blogging.

2.5. What’s one of your favorite blog posts (or most controversial) so far, and why?

Hmmmm I have a few.

One of my favorites is a post entitled Bold, Brave and Fearless. It’s me calling out the nonprofit sector…pushing folks to paint a new vision for our industry. What if we invested in R&D or marketing like for profit companies do. What would our impact look like then?

Another favorite is a post title: The Courage to Create. It’s my love letter to all the cultural creative change agents among us. Every day they stand up and share their voice. Share their vision. Share their passion…. That takes courage and I wanted to acknowledge that.

One of my most popular was actually a milestone post. It was my 100th blog post. Its titled Do Not Apologize. It’s very different from what I normally write but this was for the nonprofit professional who is always apologizing for what they do— to partners, parents, friends… I am giving people permission to live out their beliefs and passion, regardless of voices telling you differently.

3. How do you find new clients?

Twitter, Facebook, word of mouth, networking event, conferences, connections in the industry—any and everywhere. I like people and am passionate about my work.. I like talking about it and I like being of service. I may have helped someone with a quick problem 6 months ago for free…. And today when they are looking for outside help/support they will call me.

4. What advice would you give people who are starting to be nonprofit consultants?

It takes a lot of hard work—you have to be willing to hustle. You have to be willing to promote yourself. Start doing a few projects on the side while you still have your regular gig. Understand what it means to get hired by a client—negotiate a contract and expectations around the work, make sure your prices fit well within the market. Have systems and templates created for handling money and contracts . After the project is complete get feedback—have an evaluation system in place so your clients have a formal way to offer suggestions so you can continue to grow.

5. What advice would you give to people who want to get into entrepreneurship?

The best advice I ever got—create multiple revenue streams for your business. Large consulting projects can take months to close and get approval through internal channels. Government projects will not pay until 90 days after work is completed—what cash/income will you have coming through the door during down times?

6. What keeps you going when things get tough?

My belief in that my worst day being self-employed was better than my best day working for others. I love the flexibility…I love know that I can choose who I work with and when I work. I have taken on a lot more risk but I have also taken on a lot more creativity and doors have opened that I never saw coming.

7. How do you deal with fear when starting a new venture or career?

You acknowledge it. It is scary. You have to create a tribe of folks to support you who are in the same place. I cannot talk to my mom about starting a business. She retired from her company after 40 years on the job, She can be sympathetic but she does not understand. I talk to people who have experience balancing cash flow issue, or finding health insurance. When I feel exceptionally vulnerable I go on a “naysayer diet”- naysayers are those friends and family who think they are helping by telling you to go get a “job”. Nope. I do not want to hear that….so when I am feeling weak I do not contact those folks or let them into my world at all. I call my council of jedi knights who believe in both me and my business.

8. What is one thing that a nonprofit person can do, right now, to take control of their career?

Understand that everyone is self-employed. You may get a weekly check but you ultimately own your career and professional development. There is on security—only opportunity. You have to be willing to go where the opportunities are. Also know when it’s time to go. It may be time to weigh your organizations needs and the needs of your own heart.

I get it. I felt physically and emotionally at the end of my rope when I left my last organization. I was drained and felt guilty that I was not giving the organization and communities that I loved my very best. Until I realized one critical thing: I was not alone! Crazy, I know!

So I started talking with others nonprofit professionals and found out that so many others were feeling the same way. Suffering in silence was not good for me, my family, my staff or the communities we served. And it’s not good for you !For the good of your organization, the communities you serve and your professional reputation make sure you truly present. If not then it may be time to go.

Desiree Adaway

Thank you so much for such a fabulous interview Desiree! If you want to get into Desiree’s coaching program, her website is here. And if you have any questions for Ms. Adaway, please leave them below!

Do you want to be a nonprofit consultant? Read this interview with Desiree Adaway originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on June 6, 2011.

Did that experience leave you frustrated, or just stymied by how it all works?

Do you ever find yourself wondering, “What IS fiscal sponsorship, anyway?”

Today’s Reader Question is all you!

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Dear Mazarine,

There needs to be some education around Fiscal Sponsoring, being a lead agency & the need for Collaboration.

I’ve asked many local agencies to become my partner fiscal sponsor, etc… and 99.9% of those people (in the non profit arena) didn’t know what I was talking about. They’ve never heard of that before. How can I educate them and do you know of this being a problem for anyone else but me?
 
Sincerely,

Dianne Sikel
www.Life-Love-Money.com
Communication & Relationship Consultant

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Hi Dianne!

I do think it’s difficult to find nonprofits who have heard of this concept. Especially small nonprofits. So you will find yourself educating them. Which isn’t bad, if they are open minded and willing to collaborate! But you have to build a partnership first!

How do you birth a partnership? How do you INCUBATE your idea inside a larger nonprofit, and get to do the work that you want to do?

1. What is Fiscal Sponsorship?
Well, when a nonprofit loves an individual very much, they get together and 9 months later fiscal sponsorship is born!

You + A Nonprofit = Fiscal-Sponsorship-Marmoset! Picture by floridapfe from Flickr

There you have it! A beautiful baby marmoset!

Just kidding. It doesn’t take that long.

(Prepare yourself for Marmosets everywhere!)

Fiscal Sponsorship means that a nonprofit allows an individual to use their 501 (c) 3 number to get money from foundations, corporations, or individuals, and allows the nonprofit to be a “pass-through” for the money. The nonprofit may or may not take responsibility for what the individual does.

2. How can I get fiscal sponsorship by a nonprofit for my idea?
You need to do the grant research, OR the sponsorship research/acquisition, on your own. Preferably, you also need to have been volunteering your time at the nonprofit so that they know you, they know what you do for their organization, and they are pre-disposed to like you. Come to them with the money in your hands, and say, “I have the money to do what I want to do for your organization’s constituents. Will you give me fiscal sponsorship?”

3. How do I educate nonprofits about what fiscal sponsorship means?
I never met a nonprofit yet that didn’t like money! You can tell them, “I have a foundation or corporation ready and willing to pay for my work that I already do for your nonprofit, but I need to get fiscal sponsorship from you, which means I need to have your blessing to use your tax id number. You would get a percentage of the money.” And then you can negotiate how much that is. Could be 5-10% of the money. They may ask you, “What sort of paperwork will I have to fill out, and when is it due?” So prepare that information in advance.

4. What if the nonprofit says no?
If they say no to money, did you ask the right person? Did you look for your own money, or did you walk in there wanting a piece of their grant money? (That’s never a good idea, by the way). Is someone being a gatekeeper? Did you spend enough time building the relationship by volunteering? Did you introduce yourself to the executive director? Are they in the middle of a crazy-making cycle? (Is their big event next week?) Is the development director stressed to the max? All of these things can impact whether or not they want to be your fiscal sponsor.

5. How can I research which nonprofits might be interested in being my fiscal sponsor?
Ask around to other people who have been successful at getting fiscal sponsorship. How did they do it? And who did they go through? Look at your local community foundation. They might be willing to be a fiscal sponsor. If no one in your town or city wants to have a partnership with you, look at your idea again. Is it really, truly useful? If it is, look at national nonprofits that deal with your same issue. Start to build a relationship with them, and then ask about fiscal sponsorship. You can also research http://idealist.org to discover which nonprofits might be open to the idea of collaboration. You can call them up and say, “How often does your nonprofit collaborate with other nonprofits or individuals?” That will save you a lot of time right there.

Do you have any more ideas about how to get fiscal sponsorship? I’d love to hear them in the comments below!

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Reader Questions: How do you partner with a nonprofit, get AKA Fiscal Sponsorship? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on April 27, 2011.

So tell me, as a fundraiser, would you like a higher salary? Would you like grants to fund your salary so that you can keep this nonprofit afloat, instead of your org looking at you as a necessary evil?

Would you like a larger marketing budget? Would you like a marketing budget, period?

When I read this on the RE:Philanthropy blog, I was floored.

Dan Pallotta, bestselling author of “Uncharitable” and founder of the AIDSRide and 3-Day breast-cancer walk, tells 1,000 foundation representatives that nonprofits should “step boldly” into radically new ways to scale their impact.

His first time to address a large group of philanthropists, Dan Pallotta challenges 1,000 members of the Council on Foundations to shake up the system. How?

“Stop asking about overhead and start asking about impact,” -Dan Pallotta

(what a radical concept!) -Peanut gallery

His own launch of the AIDSRide brought in returns of $108,000,000 in 9 years–that’s 1,982x the original seed grant of $50,000; and that’s the secret to scale. Pallotta tasks philanthropy leaders with finding “the next AIDSRide, the next Newman’s Own, or Product Red. They are out there, right now.”

“Fund fundraising,” he says; invest strategically; use your corpus to try loan guarantees; and and start acting like for-profits in 5 key ways:

• Offering competitive compensation
• Spending on advertising & marketing
• Taking risks to pursue new donors
• Allowing longer time horizons for outcomes
• Investing in risk capital for social causes

“We need a venture fundraising movement,” declares Pallotta. With a combined asset base of $1 trillion, U.S. foundations have more power than we realize. “A unified theory of charity is beginning to evolve, and that gives me hope,” he says. It has three components:

• Funding fundraising
• Hyper-vetting for effective nonprofits
• Working together for collective impact

 

Here’s what I think about funding risktaking. “OF COURSE!” What a good idea!

How about you? What do you think? Are you not allowed to make mistakes in your job? Does it make you feel unable to really make free movements and big changes at your nonprofit?

 

 

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First Name: 

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Can I get a hell yes? Thank you RE:Philanthropy & Dan Pallotta! originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on April 26, 2011.

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Thanks for writing!

As far as I know, usually American think tanks are funded by a few rich people who believe in the think tank. Sometimes this makes kind of a joke think-tank that simply parrots the ideas of the rich person. So, I am glad you are creating a think tank that helps create clear political dialogue.

Look for funding in other countries
If you have approached people, corporations, foundations in your country in vain, it is definitely time to go where people appreciate your work. If you are getting recognition in Poland, London, and in the Ukraine, I would focus your international fundraising efforts there. For funders, you might want to look to the UN for development money, or the Soros Foundation, they care very much about international government, as well. You could also check into the Gates Foundation.

Research other think tanks
Look at who funds think tanks in Spain, or think tanks in France or the USA. Would they be interested in funding you as well? Get the annual reports of 10 think tanks that you admire, and start researching the names, addresses, emails and phone numbers of these major donors.

Social Media Outreach
Also, if you want to get more exposure for your ideas, I would start a blog and a twitter account, and find out who the influencers are on Twitter for think tanks, and get them to write about you. In this way, you can gain more amplification for your ideas, and more exposure for your need for help.

Areas of improvement
I looked at your website, and I noticed several things that are missing that would make me want to take action.
1. Large pictures.
2. Snappy headlines.
3. A clear call to action.

Take a look at http://Kiva.org. Their call to action is simple and clear, and they have changing pictures all of the time about the people that they are helping. Because you are a think tank, it may seem too abstract for people. You have to make it REAL. Visceral. Make them understand the consequences of your nonprofit NOT being there. Make them feel the pain of democracy obstructed. Speak to their fears. Speak to their needs. Speak to their joys. And then ask them to give.

Also, take a look at http://plannedparenthood.org. Their giving page helps people give in many different ways. It could be useful to rethink your donation page that way as well.

Also, look at http://imamuseum.org. They have a dashboard that helps you see how they use the money, each of the different things that they are doing.

Also, look at http://mercycorps.org. They make it very clear what they are doing, with lots of pictures, and give you lots of ways to get involved. There are little articles all over their site on how to give.

The Networked Nonprofit, by Beth Kanter, has a case study that might prove useful for you.

Wildlifedirect.com, based in Nairobi, Kenya, started with 7 blogs in 2007 and raised $350,000.

As of 2010 they have 73 blogs, all about different animals and habitats, and they have increased their donations four-fold. They use their rangers to blog about the animals, and even though most of their donors will never visit Africa and have no tangible connection to their cause, they have managed to thrive by providing consistent specific and transparent content about what they do.

So you see, having several blogs making issues real for people can be very powerful and can be a real source of money for your nonprofit.

Make a plan
I would also make a fundraising plan, and I would use my book to help you make that. My book is $40, and it’s $8 international shipping. it has all of my experience and advice inside it, and a CD too, full of editable templates that you can use to start making more money right away for your cause. You can buy it here.

Go where people can hear you.
It’s incredible how numb and uninterested people simply go along because they do not have the vocabulary to describe their experience, and so cannot at first name and then claim what is happening to them, and then envision a better way of life.

Rankism
Once I learned about Rankism, by Robert Fuller, I found a vocabulary to help me speak to people who were numbed and uninterested, and it helped them to understand what was happening, to name and claim what was going on.

I have made a few blog posts about it:

Change your Language, Change your life
18 ways to demand dignity
What rank is your boss playing? (What Copenhagen can teach us about power)

And I devoted a large section of one of my book’s chapters to this subject, because I think it so important, when agitating against oppression, against a corrupt and unjust system, to learn the language that will set you free, to become a persuader and an activist.

As you know from your think tank, there is nothing more powerful than ideas, except possibly the vocabulary that expresses those ideas. Vocabulary, in my opinion, can expand awareness to new levels of consciousness.

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Do you know how think tanks get funded? Do you have any advice for this think tank? Have I left something out?

Is there an incredible nonprofit website that I should be telling this reader to look at?

Please leave a comment and help us out!

Reader Questions: How can I get funding for a think tank? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on April 21, 2011.