Executive Issues

In the nonprofit world, success is tied to relationships and trust. Both take a hit when the leader leaves and there's no clear successor or plan for succession. On the other hand, if there's a plan in place and someone is ready to step in, or there's a defined path to finding the next leader, you've answered many of the questions that supporters, partners, the board and even staff may have about the changes.

Do your workers just do their job, or do they understand their real job is to be part of your greater vision-focused undertaking? Unless you’ve created a culture of philanthropy in your organization — one where everyone who works there is fully informed and passionate about your work and the values you enact in the community — then you’re inevitably going to blow opportunities to garner vital support. Under-informed workers lead to disengaged workers. Disengaged workers lead to disengaged constituents. And here’s how it happens.

Like most small businesses, nonprofits are born out of passion and the desire to make a difference. While the financial goals of nonprofits and for-profits seem different on the surface, they’re actually both striving for the same thing: to generate revenue and then distribute it.

That’s why leaders of nonprofits might want to take a closer look at the for-profit world of business: There’s much to learn about running their organizations like a small business. Here are four key lessons …

Put yourself in the other person's shoes, and you may enhance your perception and improve your skills as a manager!

Enduring organizations take a proactive approach to innovation and growth.

Here’s the scoop: Development officers quit. Bosses fire development officers. Boards don’t play. Organizations don’t get it. This vicious cycle threatens financing of the sector. And this has been going on for years, and we aren’t really fixing it.

Hmmm. Anyone worried yet?

The scoop is old news if you work in the nonprofit sector. The scoop is old news if you read CompassPoint’s report, “UnderDeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising,” released in January 2013.

"It's a tight market for employers, and our survey tells us that only 33 percent of employers offer a formal training program for new hires," says Greg Albright, founder and chief communications officer at Production Solutions and PS Digital.

Here is our question to nonprofit leaders: Are you addressing the critical fundraising and fund development issues that support long-term nonprofit financials, or are you headed for a fundraising crisis? Refusing to address fundraising fundamentals is a recipe for disaster. Here are a few examples of what we mean.

My 3-year-old daughter recently started youth soccer, which means I’m becoming familiar with the phenomenon called “bunch ball.” For those who haven’t witnessed this firsthand, the scene is not hard to imagine: the ball traveling up and down the field surrounded by a dozen little Ronaldos, all jockeying for control.

I’ve found myself reflecting on bunch ball through the lens of organizational theory and nonprofit fundraising. And I realize that the symptoms of bunch ball bear a great deal of resemblance to the symptoms of a similar malady afflicting many nonprofit fundraising programs.

Sadly, transitions in staff replacements in the nonprofit world typically do not lend themselves to smooth transitions of information.