Nonprofit Management

I hope not. Because asking and talking and (sometimes but not always) deciding is the business of business. This is your work. And the work of your colleagues and boss and board and …

More CRQs…especially focused on boards and governance:

1. How can we create a board environment that is hostile to apathy and the rejection of diverse opinions? (Cohort 15)
2. How do we create a culture that allows us to question whether we’re doing governance or management at board meetings?
3. To what degree – in what ways – might program and services be affected when a board lacks diversity? (Pleasance, Cohort 23)
4. What are the red flags that the board needs to be aware of? (Cohort 20)
5. How does an organization make sure that not only is the community represented in the organization’s deliberations – but that the community is actually heard? (Brenda Brown, Cohort 23)
6. How can boards know what they don’t know? (Cohort 23)

These are the kinds of cage-rattling questions we ask in my classes at SMUMN. And these are the kinds of CRQs that we strive to begin answering. Join us. We have lots of fun and learns lots more.

There is an infinite number of CRQs for any organization. Identifying, asking, talking, and learning together is what produces meaningful change. All this is the work of staff and board.

Is your organization using these CRQs?

1. How do we bring people to consciousness about sensitive and potentially offensive topics? (Cohort 20)
2. What is our role – as leaders – in the organization’s ecosystem? How can we make the greatest possible impact? (Cohort 17)
3. How can we partner with others? (Cohort 17)
4. What role does “experiencing life differently” play in the health and effectiveness of a corporation? (Cohort 23)

Thank you to so many cohorts at SMUMN for recognizing the value of CRQs and conversation.

Make sure you review the over-arching theory in my blog of October 3. With the over-arching theory in mind, take a look at these cage-rattling questions (CRQs), useful for any organization.

Keep this in mind:

• “Ask tough and cage-rattling questions…questions that are a product of a fair dose of curiosity, a sense of humility, the strength to challenge the status quo, and the willingness to share… including the willing to challenge the status quo, and the willingness to share…including the willingness to relinquish privilege, resources, and power.” (Kelly Hurd, Cohort 19.)

Some of my favorite CRQs:

1. Why is there so little movement on asking, exploring, answering?
2. Where (and why) is there resistance? Is it fear of questions, fear of change, fear that there will be no answers?
3. What is the nature of communications that builds understanding? (Cohort 15)
4. How do we incorporate noble failure to build an adaptive, effective organization? (Cohort 15)
5. How do we create cultures of accountability?

Who are these cohorts? Students (and graduates) of the Masters Program in Philanthropy and Development at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. Great thinking, engagement, and commitment.

Here’s the overarching theory:

1. Ask essential (and cage-rattling) questions to generate conversation.
2. Conversation as a core business practice, according to systems thinking and learning organization business theories.
3. Conversation generates learning.
4. Learning produces change.
5. And all 4 steps – when done well – create stronger organizations.

So the right questions (not the weak, chicken questions) are essential. And cage-rattling questions are particularly critical. What’s a cage-rattling question (CRQ)? See my next blog.

Okay. Finally. Yes. I know.

I joined Twitter. So now I Tweet on Twitter.

@spjoyaux

John Lepp kept nagging me. Others got all excited when I joined up. Thanks, people. So there I am.

I can’t remember who said this to me. But it’s absolutely MARVELOUS!!! (And if you read this, please contact me so I can give you credit!)

Plethora of ignorance + paltry integrity = pathetic performance.

Then I suggest adding the following: A dash of privilege.

And top it off with an unwillingness to inconvenience oneself…

That all equals negligence…whether criminal or just plain lousy

Which produces crushed organizations and bad reputations for the individuals involved and well-deserved disrespect.

So here’s the total equation. And how many times have you seen this or elements thereof? Because I sure have.

Plethora of ignorance + Paltry integrity + Dash of privilege + Unwillingness to inconvenience oneself = Pathetic performance + negligence + crushed organizations + well-deserved bad reputations and disrespect for the individuals involved.

What kind of professional do you want to work with? Check out some of the comments on this Agitator blog.

Whom do you want advising you? Someone who focuses on your expectations or someone who actually questions your expectations?

Do you want a trusted advisor who’ll be candid and honest and teach you and help you? Or do you want someone who tells you what you want to hear?

John Lepp, Agents of Good, tweeted this image. I love it!! John and I plan to start a group of kick-ass professionals who are trustworthy, candid, honest, teachers, doers, helpers. We promise to be all those words. We’re your nightmare sometimes. But mostly, we’re your dream come true because we help you learn and change and do better!

Worst Nightmare…

And how about the “unicorn in the balloon factory?”

Thanks to John for sharing that great statement from Seth Godin. Make sure you read Seth’s daily blog and his books.

Yippee.

I keep promising to use song lyrics to blog about fundraising and philanthropy and the nonprofit (NGO) sector. And, of course, life too. And I’ve done so a bit. So here are a couple bits…And I promise to do more and not such little bits.

AFP Western Massachusetts and we’re talking about change. I started out with Dylan’s The Times they are a changing…

And then I add this caveat, which I often say when I’m presenting or consulting:

“So you read all the blogs and books and go to the conferences. You learn and you change (improve a bit, dramatically reconcile, whatever) your fundraising. But even then — following best practice and applying body of knowledge and reading research and — even then…. Maybe you can raise enough money to create a sustainable organization. Maybe it just can’t be done. Maybe your  cause just isn’t important enough to enough people. Whatever.”

And the faces stare at me. And then I say: “Maybe you won’t get what you want. Are you prepared for that possibility?”

That’s what happened at AFP Western MA in March. Dylan times… + Simone’s Are you prepared to not get what you want? And those AFP Western MA peeps responded in Stones song: You can’t always get what you want.” Marvelous!

P.S. And maybe you won’t even get what you need.

I like conferences when I learn something new. Or get a new idea about how to apply and express something old. Or reinforce an angle or an approach. So here’s some stuff I liked a lot at the AFP International Conference in Boston, March 19 – 21…All in the Rebels, Renegades, and Pioneers Track.

Leadership by Marcia Coné [Making change easier]

• Seeing from 30,000 feet, then deploying on the ground. Leaders have both perspectives.
• Normative behavior is safe and secure. Change is: Turbulence (rocking the board). Inviting controversy. Forcing discomfort. Causing difficulty. Upsetting people. Causing a problem.
• Research says that change makers have these 5 qualities: Persistence. Biased to take action. Transparent. Optimistic. Adaptability.
• Visit Marcia’s website. Attend her workshops. Read her stuff. Great info. Great presenter.

Why business won’t change the world [Michael Edwards]

• Read Mike’s marvelous book, Small Change – Why Business Won’t Save the World. 
• 3 sectors: Government. Business/for-profit. Nonprofit (also called civil society). They are different! And the differences matter. Today’s blurring of lines are rather troublesome.
• Business (the marketplace) satisfies wants and needs at a price.
• Civil society (the nonprofit or NGO sector) provides entitlements without price. The strength and impact of the nonprofit sector may actually be diminishing. See Mike on YouTube.

Raising money for justice [Roger Craver, Jennie Thompson, Daryl Upsall]

• Solidarity. Movement. Activism. Fighting for justice. Roger, Jennie, and Daryl have worked in social justice and movements for years and years. Oh the stories they told!
• All movements begin with a small group of people seeing something wrong. Grassroots organizing then morphs into organizations. And then the long march into the political arena. Citizens > Political > Mainstream
• Threats: Intimidation by government and special interests.

Gender equity…diversity…dominant and non-dominant groups [Laura Liswood]

• We need to have enough people involved to make change. Just one “different” person doesn’t work.
• The dominant group’s performance is improved by the non-dominant group. Heterogenous groups are great! To make change in any organization requires much more than diversity. Read Laura’s book The Loudest Duck.
• What do you think women leaders – of nations – are talking about? Check out Laura’s book.
• Check Laura’s presentations on YouTube.

You MUST ABSOLUTELY READ Laura Liswood’s book THE LOUDEST DUCK!!!

• About diversity. But about much more than diversity. About the complexities of building a better organization (for-profit or nonprofit) for creativity and change and success.
• About the dominant people and the non-dominant people. About power and position… gender and sexual orientation and race and so much more than diversity. And unearned privilege.
• All managers should read this book. All employees should read this book. Anyone who wants to be a leader and to be productive and successful and and and …. should read this book.
• Yes. I really like this book. I’m going to assign it to some class of mine. Go to Amazon right now!
• And you can hear Laura Liswood present in the very special track of Rebels, Renegades, and Pioneers at the AFP International Conference in Boston, March 2016.

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And check out this information from the wonderful Melissa Brown.

• 60% of Americans give to charity in a year, and voter turnout is not likely to be much higher than that, based on prior year’s experience (it was 62% in 2008, the highest in a presidential election year since 1960). Further, of registered voters, 43% are independent of a party, so are not likely giving to the party coffers. 
• More telling, according to OpenSecrets.org, just 0.4% of the US population gave more than $200 to a political campaign in 2012. That includes contributions to parties, PACS, or campaigns. An average donor household in 2008 gave about $2,300 to charity.
• Charitable giving total is $360Billion + or minus.  ALL campaigns in a presidential year total somewhere south of $10 billion (The Federal Elections Commission reports $7B spent in 2012).
• $10 billion is 3% of of $360 billion, and following the OpenSecrets report, almost all of that $10B is from a very small number of donors, most of whom are engaged at a high level in the political process. (Think Koch brothers, George Soros, the Bass family, Michael Bloomberg, etc.).
• It is possible that some subsectors where legislative activity is important – such as environment, civil rights, or movements such as for charter schools — will feel the pain more than arts, higher education, health care, etc.  It is possible that communities where highly politically engaged donors live will feel the pinch – Fort Worth or parts of New York, for example.
• But for the rest of us, it is not likely that politics will siphon dollars away from charity.
• And a survey of donors just released also supports this: Dunham+Company Survey Indicates Charitable Giving Won’t Be Affected By Presidential Election Year | Dunham+Company | fundraising research