When The Obvious Doesn’t Come To Mind

I was facilitating a fundraising planning meeting last night – a brainstorming session with people who care a lot about a community-based advocacy group and were trying to think about who else might care enough (like them) to become a regular contributor.

“Beyond the Event” was the theme of the evening, because the organization had a lot of event regulars – people who came to their special event year after year because they threw a great party, but didn’t give to the annual appeal or in any other way. And while events are great for visibility, they’re a pretty expensive way to raise money if they’re all you’ve got!

So we generated a lot of ideas, from new moms because they’re concerned about safety issues with young kids, to consumer product manufacturers because they need to “green-wash” their reputations – and then I took a second look around the room.

I noticed how many health professionals were around the table – doctors, public health officials, professors – and I was struck with how the issues this group worked on were considered by these professionals to be matters of life and death for the community.

Why wasn’t “health professionals” up on the board along with all those other, more exotic ideas?

When I piped up and asked that question, a lull went over the room. It was the hush of recognition: “Oh yeah, there’s lots of us here.” Ergo, there was a kinship with this cause and a set of social values around public health – and reason (i.e. case) for giving.

So why hadn’t people come up with that themselves? Why had they been grasping at more tenuous rationales instead of looking around at the familiar?

It’s that view of a donor as someone “other” – someone “with money,” someone alien, someone to be chased after and found, rather than someone who’s growing in the soil right next door. Now that soil metaphor could lead us down a whole gardening path of cultivation, water and sunlight, etc. – but I’m going to stop with the notion of reaching down right below your feet. Not searching out into fields unknown, but looking at the materials that shaped you and others just like you – for it’s genuinely true that donors ’r us.

We behaved better today

The “halo-by-association” effect happened at Cause Effective today.

We asked a colleague to come to a meeting to help us shape a project that we knew we ought to be doing – but somehow we just couldn’t get ourselves started. The task isn’t important, what matters is that this was a project we knew how to do, from start to finish – in fact we knew about four different ways we could have completed it. But we hadn’t.

Well, I just sent this person a thank you that spoke about his “facilitation-from-behind” and his ability to “pose the questions and get out of the way” – but the fact is, we behaved much better for him than we do amongst ourselves.

The halo rubbed off – that behaving-better-for-strangers-than-for-familiars factor.

Now it’s not that we’re a back-biting crew; it’s that there’s the familiarity of the family, the Cause Effective family. We work hard, we know each other’s warts, we even know each other’s spouses (and kids’ problems with school). We’ll come through for each other in the trenches – but we don’t have to impress each other with our effectiveness at this point in the game.

Sound like your board?

There’s a reason for bringing a consultant into the mix, and it’s not just the expertise brought to bear. There’s that, sure, and there’s also the lure of an outside appraisal that can pick up something new – and then there’s the halo effect.

I once facilitated a retreat, and aside from the fact that it started two hours late (child care issues and then the board president circled the block for 45 minutes looking for parking, I kid you not) – the group behaved pretty well. We brainstormed who might be interested in the free medical counseling they were offering, and who could lead them out from their insular circle of contacts, and I was pretty happy with the ideas that were generated and the follow-up commitments that were made.

Well, in the debrief the following week, I was told that the board had behaved much better since I was there – that they didn’t dare act out like usually happened during board meetings – with a stranger in their midst. “Hmmm,” said I, “Then I’ll just have to keep going till they learn how effective – and how pleasant – paying attention to the task at hand can be.” And I did, till behaving well became a habit.

What’s the big take-away? Get the right tool for the right job. Sometimes bringing someone in from the outside can upset the equilibrium, in a good way.

You Ought To

“You know what you ought to do? You ought to get a celebrity to endorse the Center – that’d get you a lot of publicity!”

“A lot of people who care about social justice would be interested in knowing about your counseling of ex-offenders.”

“If you have a reception, people would come to the gallery and see the work.”

What’s wrong with those sentences coming out of the mouth of a board member?

You got it – the word “you.”

When board members are really at the table, they’re on the same side of the table – rolling up their sleeves and bringing their personal networks and energy to bear on the organization’s behalf.

When board members are in an advisory stance, they’re on the opposite side of the table – giving you the benefit of their wisdom and perspective, yet leaving you to scramble to put the pieces together.

It’s a subtle but critical shift – from outside helper to inside collaborator …from someone with advice on the way things ought to be, to a fellow searcher for the right path…from an advisor to a member of the team.

You can tell which stance I prefer – it’s a question of “put up or shut up.” Really, truly, it takes so much effort to move a nonprofit forward, that you’re at a tremendous disadvantage if not everyone who’s on your team is really on your team.

No, let me rephrase that. We in the nonprofit sector need all the help we can get. We need everyone rowing the board forward, not just telling us how to grasp the oar.

So the $1,000,000 question is – how do you turn around this energy? How do you move board members from “pronouncements on high” to getting their hands dirty?

The general answer is: the same as when you want a major donation out of someone – you seduce them. You make them fall in love (with your program, not with you), and once they’ve drunk the Kool-Aid, they’ll be a full-fledged member of your team.

This is an ongoing process – wooing your board members so they feel a part and not apart – and the lack of that is a major cause of board member drift and eventual deadwood status.

They need to be burning with passion for your work, and it’s up to you – no, it’s up to us – to imbue them with it.

8 Million Stories

I’ve been having lunch with people a lot recently.

Or coffee…or a cup of tea…or a glass of wine after work…a couple of weeks ago my companion and I conversed together over breakfast-at-lunchtime, a new way to break up the day.

Why? To connect. To figure out how I can help others, and how they can link up with me and help my organization move its mission forward.

Not a formalized my-assistant-will-talk-to-your-assistant date, but an opportunity to chat.

I suppose it’s the same impulse as a Four Seasons power breakfast or a Match.Com speed-dating jamboree – but with a nonprofit “we’re still standing” aura.

To Wit: People in nonprofits that have maintained their viability have done a lot of creative maneuvering in the past year. And even people in nonprofits who jumped ship (before, or as, the ship sank) have started to think outside the box as they recreate their career.

While we’re not out of the woods yet, it’s time to take a step outside the maelstrom for a moment and support each other through this looking-glass universe. I’m finding it fascinating, hearing the tales of survival, adaptation, and renewal – how does the saying go, “There are 8 million stories in the Naked City?” And for each and every enduring nonprofit, a twisted tale of survival.

Just this morning I was talking with someone who’s spent the last two months meeting with every funder they’ve ever had, in preparation for transitioning the work of the nonprofit into a new, smaller and more focused entity. Will it work? They hope so – but the gamble was essential to keeping the group‘s mandate and cutting its losses.

Keep in touch. Let’s learn from each other, cause it ain’t over yet.

WE DON’T KNOW ANYBODY…

But if we did, we know they’d want to fund us!

This refrain comes up a lot in Cause Effective’s work – because we encourage nonprofits to think outside the box to find new donor prospects…new funder markets…new worlds to introduce themselves to and make their case.

How do you leapfrog over who you know to make connections to the world beyond? The short answer is: you invite someone to come think with you.

“Ask for advice, you get money. Ask for money, you get advice.” How many years has that old chestnut been bandied about? But it’s true – when you ask someone for their thoughts, you’re implying that you value what they bring to the table.

It’s flattering, and it certainly makes someone want to help more, if they think you’re really looking to grab ahold of what they have to say.

I often offer to take someone out for a meal – or for coffee, if I’m feeling tight – there’s something about breaking bread that relaxes people and makes them want to come up with something for you. Plus, they feel like they owe you a tidbit in exchange for the meal. Psychologically, it de-charges the encounter.

So try it: “I’m trying to understand what Neighbors for Trees might offer to the community banking sector, and as someone who really has his pulse on that sector I’m hoping I could take you out for coffee some time and pick your brain…” – sounds pretty innocuous, right?

It’s cultivation, it’s identification, and it might even be solicitation all wrapped up into one if you play your cards right (or, at the least, an invitation to proceed further with a conversation leading to solicitation). But at any rate, it’s putting the two of you on the same side of the table, problem-solving for the benefit of your organization.

To get back to the beginning question, what you’re looking for in this encounter is entry – to other people in their sector who might become fans if they knew about your organization and were introduced to it by someone whose credibility they trusted.

    …You’re asking your lunchmate for their network, and their name to help you get there.

                  …You’re asking for access.

And that – in a nutshell – is how you get beyond the folks you already know.