Why Organizations Thrive Lessons from the Front Lines for Nonprofit Executive Directors By Jonathan Poisner Smashwords Edition Copyright 2013 Jonathan Poisner Smashwords Edition License Notes Thank you for downloading this free Ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied, and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. Table of Contents Introduction How to use this book About the author Lesson 1: Relentlessly focus on relationships Lesson 2: Communicate excessively with your board Lesson 3: Transform your organization through one-on-one meetings Lesson 4: Embrace your role in the network Lesson 5: Long-term and short-term planning are both essential Lesson 6: Pick some aspect of your program and get exceptionally good at it Lesson 7: Synergize Lesson 8: Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate Lesson 9: Excel at personnel management Lesson 10: Build a fiscal management system that connects to strategic decision- making Lesson 11: Invest in a great contact management system Lesson 12: Manage one big institutional change at a time Lesson 13: Know and tell your stories Lesson 14: Become a very good public speaker Lesson 15: Give away your power Acknowledgements Introduction On January 2, 1997, I showed up for my first day of work as the Executive Director of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters (Oregon LCV). The Board shouldn’t have hired me. I was only 30. I had zero fundraising experience, virtually no personnel supervision experience, and had only been involved previously with one other nonprofit organization. A few weeks into the job, I had the good fortune of attending a four-day boot camp designed for nonprofit Executive Directors. The boot camp was very valuable – almost a lifesaver as I struggled to learn new skills. The boot camp covered traditional areas of responsibility for an Executive Director, such as fundraising, financial management, personnel management, strategic planning, and board development. But even with its value, there was something missing from that boot camp and from other nonprofit trainings I attended over the years. What I rarely encountered was training that identified the patterns of behavior that separate Executive Directors who make their organizations thrive from those that merely do well. Of course, part of what separates thriving nonprofits from others will always be better performance at the discrete skills that go into being an Executive Director. All things being equal, the better fundraiser will raise more money. More money allows organizations to do more good. But in my own experience over a dozen years as Oregon LCV Executive Director, and in collaborating with, volunteering with, and consulting for dozens of nonprofits, I’ve come away convinced it’s not primarily about the skill set. It’s about how those skills are applied, with what emphasis, and with what mind-set. Ever since I launched my organizational development consulting practice in late 2009, I’ve been working to encapsulate my thinking into a series of Lessons that any new or newish Executive Director would benefit from learning. Together, these Lessons attempt to give an Executive Director a path by which they can transform their discrete skills into effective leadership. In the end, this is the book I wish I’d been able to read in my first year as an Executive Director. Or my third. Or my fifth for that matter. Of course, the book has clear value as well for board members thinking about their role overseeing an Executive Director and for nonprofit staff who’re contemplating a future as an Executive Director. How to use this book This Book’s fifteen Lessons are based on my observations of both organizations that have thrived and those that have gone astray, and the more common group in the middle that muddle through doing good, but not great. Of course, my observations aren’t based on statistically valid experiments. The book is intentionally short so that it can be read in a single sitting. My suggestion is to read it, let the concepts marinate in your mind, and then re-read it again perhaps a month later. At that point, I’d consider writing down a half-dozen things you should do differently in reaction to the book. If possible, it would be even more valuable to find three or four other Executive Directors with whom to discuss it, either immediately or after thinking about it. Several reviewers of an early draft of this book asked about the priority order of the Lessons, in some cases presuming that Lessons presented earlier must be higher priority. In reality, I am reluctant to declare any one of these lessons as most or least important. Instead, I present the Lessons thematically. Relationships are at the heart of managing a nonprofit organization. You should relentlessly focus on relationships (Lesson 1). But not all relationships are equal. In particular, you should place extreme emphasis on your board by communicating excessively with them (Lesson 2) You should transform your organization by developing relationships through one-on- one meetings (Lesson 3). Relationships are particularly important as you embrace your role in the network (Lesson 4). In this book, I use the word “strategy” as a catch-all term for deciding what it is your organization does. Good strategy requires you to equally emphasize both long-term and short-term planning (Lesson 5). In deciding what to do, you should pick some aspect of your program and get exceptionally good at it (Lesson 6). You should make sure your various efforts are synergistic (Lesson 7). No strategic thinking can be optimal unless you also evaluate, evaluate, evaluate (Lesson 8). In managing organizational nuts & bolts, you should excel at personnel management (Lesson 9). You should build a fiscal management system that connects to strategic decision-making (Lesson 10). You should invest in a great contact management system (Lesson 11). You should also manage one significant institutional change at a time (Lesson 12). Superb communications are also critical. That means knowing and telling your stories (Lesson 13) and becoming a very good public speaker (Lesson 14). Lastly, I close with an overall lesson I call: Giving away your power (Lesson 15). About the a uthor Since 2009, Jonathan Poisner has worked as an independent meeting facilitator and organizational development consultant, with a focus on fundraising, strategic planning, coalition building, and communications for mission-driven organizations. In the last 3 years, Poisner has worked with more than 45 clients in the Pacific Northwest and around the country, ranging from small volunteer organizations to large organizations with a national scope. In 1997, Poisner became Executive Director of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters and its sister organization, OLCV Education Fund. During his twelve years leading OLCV, he grew the combined revenue of OLCV and OLCV Education Fund from $200,000 to $1.1 million per year. During his tenure, OLCV’s staff grew from just one and a half full time employees to more than 11, while dramatically increasing its capacity to involve thousands of volunteers in its work. Under his leadership, OLCV's electoral program defeated more than a dozen anti-environment elected officials and helped elect many more environmental champions to office. Also during his tenure, OLCV spearheaded the conversion of the Oregon Conservation Network from a loose collaboration of environmental groups playing defense to a strong coalition that brings forward shared priorities to the Oregon Legislature every session. “Priorities for a Healthy Oregon” has had significant success in passing legislation to promote renewable energy and energy conservation, to establish a system for recycling electronic waste, to protect farmland from sprawl, to safeguard clean water, and to protect marine ecosystems, among other things. From 1997 through 2007, Poisner served on the board of the Federation of State Conservation Voter Leagues, where he was a strong voice for launching and growing other state LCVs around the country. From 2007-2009, Poisner served on the boards of the League of Conservation Voters and LCV Education Fund. He chaired LCV’s State Capacity Building Committee, while serving on its Executive and Finance Committees. Poisner holds dual degrees in Economics and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He has a J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law at the Universrity of California Berkeley. Prior to his leadership of OLCV, he practiced law as an associate attorney at the law firm of Arnold & Porter, served as Environmental Law Fellow at Lewis & Clark Law School, taught as an Adjunct Law Professor, and worked as regional staff for the Sierra Club during the 1996 election year. Poisner can be reached via his website: www.poisner.com. Lesson 1: Relentlessly focus on relationships. Organizations that thrive relentlessly focus on relationships. This must begin with the Executive Director and the Executive Director’s relationships. What do I mean by that? I mean that successful organizations are constantly expanding their pool of relationships and strengthening existing relationships. Then they consciously activate those relationships. To understand why, it’s helpful to take a giant step back and talk about network theory and social change. A wide variety of books have come out in the last decade detailing the various ways in which social change happens via networks of people connected by relationships. The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, is a good example from this genre. While people receive information outside of relationships, relationships have a powerful role in how people react to information. People listen more to people with whom they have a relationship. People are more likely to be persuaded by people with whom they have a relationship. People take action more when requested from people with whom they have a relationship. Of course, the quality of the relationship matters too. The deeper the relationship, the greater the odds that we will listen to someone, be persuaded by them, or take action at their request. As a practical matter, the power of relationships can impact organizations in many ways. One example related to Executive Directors: An Executive Director may give a pitch-perfect donation request to John Doe. A board member may give a mediocre donation request to the same John Doe. If the board member and John Doe are friends, the mediocre board request is more likely to succeed. Yet, it would be a mistake to think of relationships as just about fundraising. Relationships impact an organization’s interaction with volunteers, media, allied organizations, elected officials, and people the organizations are working to serve. Any time you’re trying to shape behavior, relationships matter. So how should an organization systematically expand the number of relationships its Executive Director and other key leaders have with those that matter? Here are a few examples of ways I expanded my pool of relationships as an Executive Director. * I attended fundraisers for peer-organizations, if possible sitting at the table of people I didn’t already know well. * I instigated lunch or coffee with the leaders of current and potentially allied organizations, particularly those I didn’t already know well. * I asked board members to invite me to any non-fundraising parties they were throwing so I could meet more of their friends. * I asked elected officials for advice, as a way to get to know them. * I attended conferences more with an aim towards meeting new people during breaks and social times than out of a desire to tackle the subject matter of the conference work sessions. None of this would have worked if I hadn’t been genuinely interested in getting to know these people. You can’t fake authenticity in building relationships. Of course, relationship building isn’t just about the Executive Director’s relationships. In planning programs and fundraising, relationships by everyone on the staff and board should be front and center. Some Oregon LCV activities, for example, never made sense as stand-alone activities. Examples: * Hosting brown bag lunches to compare notes with allies; * Volunteer appreciation parties; * Trainings for members of the community; * Hosting happy hours; While they had some value, their primary value was to build relationships that our staff could subsequently tap into in other ways. If you’re using this approach, staff should know their role at events like these is to get to know new people rather than hanging out with existing friends. There are three other practical implications that follow from relentlessly focusing on relationships. First, you need to be systematic in planning for relationship-building and tracking relationships. As an Executive Director, that means setting specific goals (e.g. 5 per month) for how many new relationships you want to develop in the most important categories (e.g. peer Executive Directors, elected officials, potential major donors). And it means actually using a “database” – whether your donor database or otherwise – to track relationships. Second, you need to recognize that not everyone is equal when it comes to relationships. In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell writes about three types of people who play a particular role in social change: Connectors have an unusually large number of relationships. Mavens have a strong need and ability to help solve other people’s problems. Persuaders are particularly likeable and charismatic. In hiring, in recruiting board members, and in recruiting volunteers, Executive Directors should keep an eye out for people who fit these descriptions and put an extra emphasis into developing relationships with them. Lastly, the organization should think hard about how to maximize the value of relationships once they are generated. In my experience, the key step in maximizing the value of relationships isn’t the initial “ask” you might make of someone (e.g. donate, volunteer, etc.), it’s in having your relationships tap into their own relationships on your behalf. As I write this, I have 581 people in my Linked In network. Those 581 people have 127,965 direct LinkedIn connections. Of course, LinkedIn is just being used as an illustration of a point: the people with whom any individual has relationships open them up to a vastly larger network of relationships than they can ever tap directly. Organizations that thrive don’t just systematically build and activate first-order relationships – they get first-order relationships to tap into a further network. As a practical matter, thriving organizations tend to turn donors into fundraisers and volunteers into volunteer recruiters. How do you make that happen? In the online world it’s seemingly easy – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and dozens of other sites are specifically geared to allow people to spread information and “asks” throughout their social network. But while easy to spread information and asks, online response rates are abysmal. The real payoff comes when people spread information or make requests where two- way communication is happening in real-time – which usually means on the telephone or face-to-face. How do you get your first-order relationships to turn around and ask their friends for donations, to volunteer, to attend an event, to write their Congressman, or just to talk up your organization when at a cocktail party? At the simplest level it’s by having a compelling message that motivates them. (More about this in Lesson 13, Know and Tell Your Stories). [...]... excessively with the board, but be smart about it I sometimes think of the Executive Director as the conductor and the board as the orchestra If they aren’t on the same page, they may still play, but it won’t sound very good One common mistake that new Executive Directors make is failing to recognize the gap between what they know about the organization and what the board and other close friends of the organization... where they are, not where you are Put yourself into the head of a board member and give them the information they would want to know That means staying focused on information relevant to the board’s role, not information that’s important for staff 3 Repeat yourself Remember that you live this and they don’t Just because you told the board something the prior meeting, doesn’t mean they’ll remember it The. .. use the same categories The budget uses one set of categories and the financial statements another The result is that the financial statements never really can tell you how you’re doing compared to budget * The system for creating the budget is too simplistic because the system for developing the budget isn’t thought out Often this results in budgets that are really shots in the dark so that the Executive. .. donations For large national organizations, large and meaningful might mean $100,000 donations From 1997-2009, I served on the board of a network whose mission was to launch and grow state conservation voter organizations As I talked to Executive Directors of the new and growing organizations, I noticed a very clear pattern: When I asked them about how their fundraising was going, Executive Directors from. .. overlap with another nonprofit Their response: strategically position themselves as the “bad cop” to the other organization acting as “good cop” when advocating to elected officials for policy change Conversely, failing to take into account these organizations can lead an organization astray in setting strategy I once was on the board of an organization that developed a brand strategy for their organization... has experienced is that organizations (whether for- profit or nonprofit) underestimate the amount of time and energy it takes to do good strategic planning Then, when they finish it, they skip or skimp on short-term work planning, whether out of exhaustion or a backlog of small, urgent items on their to-do list The very next day his point was proven to me: I was talking with the Executive Director of... connections Organizations that understand and embrace their role in their network are more likely to thrive than those who view themselves in isolation Why should you embrace your role in the network? And how do you embrace it? Let’s start with the why question: What benefits flow from embracing your role in the network? Margaret Mead was right that a small group of people can change the world But they’ve... which your organization plans, you should assess the organizational landscape Ask: * Who are the major organizations that serve as allies and opponents? * For allies, what distinguishes our role in addressing shared problems from their roles? * How can we best take advantage of the work they’re doing? *How do we account for the interactions we have with these organizations when competing to secure resources... to move forward is either missing or inadequate Time is wasted in meetings discussing next steps Making positive change becomes harder The organization runs like a rat around the wheel, but never gets the wheel to the next level In my experience, these organizations fail to hit the next level because they fail to recognize the critical importance of both long-term and short-term planning Given the fact... and, ironically, the only meeting where there was perfect board attendance was the one where I told them I was leaving The danger is that board members who miss meetings aren’t aware of key decisions and become disconnected from the latest happenings of the organization Minutes usually don’t come out quickly and for most organizations the minutes are solely focused on action items where the board voted . Why Organizations Thrive Lessons from the Front Lines for Nonprofit Executive Directors By Jonathan Poisner Smashwords. one other nonprofit organization. A few weeks into the job, I had the good fortune of attending a four-day boot camp designed for nonprofit Executive Directors.