Who Speaks

It matters, a lot.

Whether board members present the latest financials at the board meeting, or the CFO carries that portion of the meeting.

Whether board members discuss amongst themselves what they’re going to do to build up attendance at the annual benefit.

Whether board members feel the “message” is one they can carry to their friends – and if they don’t get it, do they speak up and say so?

We all want to avoid the “nod-and-avoid” syndrome – where you have board members who genially agree with whatever’s on the table…and simultaneously check out.

One shortcut around this is a classic middle-school technique – a presentation from a classmate. It’s the same principle, really – you listen to your peers, you snooze to the teacher.

Another middle school staple to borrow? The working group. (A committee by another name.)

And when you combine the two – the working group stands up at the lectern to lead a discussion on the agency’s new messaging – well then the room comes alive.

It’s peer-to-peer, middle school style.

Is it that we haven’t progressed?

Or is it that these techniques call upon the verities of human nature, which surface in middle school (if not before) and stick around for life…?

Getting To Know You…

“I’m a great Italian cook.”

“I swim across rivers.”

“After dropping out of college, I went back and got two master’s degrees.”

“I lived in the bush in Africa for a year.”

So began a board-staff retreat we led last weekend – with similar reports the week before, and the week before that.

It’s the summer…time for retreats. And time for slowing down, enough to get to know your fellow nonprofit travelers – as people.

The prompt? A standard: “Tell us something personal that no-one in this room knows about you. Something you’re proud of.”

The result? A roomful of people who appreciate each other a little more, who have a little more respect for the out-of-the-box individual before them.

Sure, we’re all here to further the mission. And we all bring professional strengths to the table – comfort with finances, an understanding of risk, instinct for what makes a good story, a group of friends who show up when we ask. But we’re also in it for the juice…the ease, comfort and interest we get from each other’s company.

Boards of Directors work well when people are glad to see each other, when the pleasure and respect is mutual and helps tide the group over the terrain when times are tough.

Well times are certainly tough enough, now-a-days.

The personal…is the professional…is what helps us stick around.

The Day After

I have a new theory – that you can judge the success of a board meeting by the flurry of emails the day after.

It’s the holy grail – that our board members will be talking and listening to each other, not sitting passively by as staff drones on.

But it’s when that active inquiry spills over to their own time – personal time, work time – that you get board members thinking about the organization in the shower.

Owning its successes, its challenges, its path.

We had two board meetings in the past week where the emails just flew afterwards. More ideas people had to express, more questions to raise, more excitement to share.

That’s when you know it’s working.

Focused on Meaning

“Focus us on the big picture” one of my fellow board members requested of the executive director. “I love your updates and I really feel like I know what’s going on – but what does it mean?”

It’s that step from the accumulation of information to the creation of meaning…what gives order to a set of random (or not so random) facts, so that we can use them to predict future conditions or behavior.

Are summer camp pre-enrollment fees up or down? That’s one set of information. Does the reason behind the rise mean that they will continue to go up or was it a blip due to non-recurrent circumstances? And if the circumstances could be recreated and even maximized further, is the organization planning to put more effort into generating that revenue? And if so what will that do to staffing, and to mission – will it detract from mission to be running more of a “business venture” or will it add to the organization’s ability provide more mission-based activities to those who can’t afford those fees?

You can see that the set of questions generated from a simple fact – registration income up or down – can lead an organization in many different directions. I believe it’s the executive director’s charge to help the board to contemplate those larger questions – and that it’s the board’s job to serve as thought partners to push the executive director, in fact, to ponder those larger questions.

That’s the board at its highest and best use.

And that’s the kind of board conversations, by the way, that keep attendance at board meetings high, and the board jazzed up, paradoxically, to do the “mundane” work of fundraising.

So often these days we see boards who want to be engaged, who understand their organizations are in perilous times – and who are relegated to “Show me the money” directives by the staff. But without ownership, without a sense of “agency” – fundraising is a mandate unconnected to real impact on the world.

As a board member, as a staff member interacting with board, as a consultant brought in to “fix” the board – it’s our job to craft that real job of the board, that of pondering the big questions…by how we shape and context the information we provide them.

The primary question is not: What?

It’s: So What?

When Board Members Lead…

It’s a delicate balance.

You want a board dynamic where board members are shooting forth ideas, taking initiative, signing on and signing up. Especially in fundraising.

But sometimes what they suggest isn’t practical, is way off the mark, or just simply won’t work.

Well, that’s easy enough to deflect by suggesting your board members engage in some feasibility outreach – talking to a few of the people who’d be critical to the successful implementation of their idea. Surveying the intended targets – it’s a great way to involve board members in hearing the lay of the land directly from the horse’s mouth (and in the process getting board members talking to donors/intended donors). Misconceptions fall by the wayside, and you’ve done nothing in the process to discourage board members’ enthusiasm (and sometimes they even get a better idea once they hear where prospects are really at!) .

But sometimes it’s not that board members are coming up with bad ideas – it’s the manner in which board members leap to action. Like the board member who takes on leadership of the development committee and comes to the next meeting with a fully-fleshed out fundraising plan for the rest of the board to take slots in.

That wouldn’t work if the staff simply handed a fundraising plan to the board to carry out – and it won’t work either if one board member merely gives assignments to the rest of the board members.

Ownership begets responsibility – word that were burned into my brain from my first nonprofit fundraising job. Those who are involved in coming up with an idea are the ones who feel most responsible for implementing it successfully. We take that to mean that board members have to have a hand in developing their fundraising plan of action – but sometimes the dynamic goes deeper. It’s board member(s) – not a board member. Process is a (not the only, but a) determinant of outcome.

The moral – don’t sit back in relief once you’ve got a take-charge fundraising committee leader, and assume that all will go well from here. Keep watching that dynamic – cause one leader and 12 passive not-quite-followers is better than a whole board of balking-fundraisers – but you’re not there yet.

The Moocher

I was reading a parenting column the other day about the “Mooching Parent.” The person who’s always sending her kid home with yours on a playdate – at the last minute. The one who never hosts a sleepover. The one who texts asking you to pick up their younger child as well as your child’s best friend.

The one who’s using every lifeline they’re offered, and more.

I started thinking about that in light of a conversation I had earlier this week with someone about my board.

I was asking this person to find me someone with expertise in finance, and explained that I had one board member I leaned on heavily in communications, another who had expertise in strategic planning, another in HR, etc. How, really, I had a board of thought partners, each with their own area of expertise.

And that, together, we powered this nonprofit into much greater impact, in the manner of a nonprofit with a much larger staff.

We do that with volunteers, too – rope them in to help add to our professionalism in all sorts of realms, from social media to office systems to financial analysis.

It takes a village, to haul out a very tired phrase.

But for nonprofits, so true. Not mooching –corralling.

For the public good.

The Canary In The Coal Mine

Last week we were sitting with a group of board members, would-be board members, and nonprofit staff…whose boards don’t work.

(Could that be any nonprofit? Nah… But I digress.)

We were talking about what happens when an individual joins a board and is enthusiastic, responsive, ready to roll up their sleeves – and then finds there’s “something rotten in the state of Denmark.”

Or not rotten, perhaps, just flaccid.

Sometimes that new member’s energy and vitality points up something you knew but were pushing to the back of your mind – that there’s something wrong here, and that that something has to get fixed.

But without being invited on with that specific request – to be a change agent – the new board member sits there bursting with energy…puzzled.

“Where’s everyone else at this table?” she wonders. “How come they look as pale as ghosts?”

And the moral is – it’s better to be honest. To explain to a board candidate that you are embarking on a board transformation, that they’re one of the first steps in that process (subtext: and that’s why they’re so important to the organization!); and that they have to be patient, purposeful, and determined – to create a new board climate.

Otherwise you end up with a canary in a coal mine – someone who points out how toxic the air is, and who ends up dead in their cage from breathing the atmosphere without protection.

Not to be melodramatic, or anything…

In Defense of the Board Fundraising Committee

It might seem strange that I have to write something with this title, but I was at a meeting yesterday where a board member proudly explained: “We don’t have a fundraising committee – we don’t want to relegate that function to a committee. Fundraising is every board member’s job.”

Well yes – but…

It’s the old saw…If everyone takes it home, no-one takes it home. Who thinks about it in the shower?

It is certainly important for every board member to participate in fundraising. To search honestly and deeply for how, in their own lives, they can bring their nonprofit board service to the fore. To be a 360° advocate, raising friends and uncovering hidden fans at every turn.

But there’s something special about a group that is specifically committed to steering the board’s willingness into action, making sure that each piece is more than the sum of its parts. Whose job is not just to do, but to shepherd. And which has the responsibility for driving the big picture forward.

There’s a theory floating around that board fundraising committees – nay, all “standing” board committees – are dinosaurs. That instead of a board fundraising committee per se, what is needed is ad hoc activity-related task forces, like an event steering committee, annual appeal working group, capital campaign committee, etc.

We at Cause Effective have a big problem with this theory. And that is – that this reduces fundraising to isolated strategies, and directs the agency’s attention towards the what, not the who. In other words, the primary driver of board fundraising deliberations becomes What activities should we do for fundraising? instead of Who might care about us and how can we reach them successfully?

The board fundraising committee should be looking at the totality of prospects (friends, fans, volunteers, donors) within the universe in which the organization and its advocates move. That universe, and its interests, connections and possibilities, determines the activities the board should take to raise funds and friends. It’s the old cart and horse.

You may end up at the same place – a series of cultivation activities punctured by a couple of direct asks – but you’re starting from an understanding of the why and the who – which will ultimately result in deeper connections to an ever-expanding donor pool.

This…is what the board fundraising committee should have on its mind, and be mulling over in the shower. The stability, the sustainability, and the grow-ability, of the organization’s circle of supporters.

The Nay Sayer

There’s always someone with doubts. Pure human nature.


“We tried that [10 years ago] and it didn’t work for us.”


“Our donors won’t give those kind of gifts.”


“We’re not that kind of a board.”

When you’re dealing with a chronic complainer on your board, the best idea is often to pair them with someone who’s relentlessly cheerful – and unflappable.

Or…to take them aside and explain that you’re trying to give the younger generation a chance to flex its wings, and that maybe they could keep a lid on their cynicism just long enough to allow the younger folks to give it a shot.

But when the nattering nabob of negativity is in a position of authority on a board of directors, paralysis can occur.

And that’s in a best-case scenario – worst cases can include acrimony, back-biting, duplicity, or just plain rudeness and contempt.

Believe me, as a board specialist in hard knock cases, we’ve seen it all. Dysfunction can actually be benign – compared with malfunction.

So how do you manage with a nay-sayer on the board who won’t zip their lips? The short answer is: surround them with a cocoon of silence. Practice selective hearing. Focus on the light. Move on around them, despite them, and ahead of them.

But above all, do not place them in positions of leadership, in which they are entrusted with maintaining forward momentum. Because, at heart, they are interested in stopping progress, not stepping into the unknown.

And these days, we are seeing many boards stepping into unfamiliar vistas of fundraising and governance.

And we say - Go!

Time for the Trees

I was at a one-topic board meeting last night.

And, natch, the topic was fundraising.

The board deftly dispatched some legal issues, financial trend-spotting, and new program development in a half-hour – and took 5 minutes to recognize and thank the executive director for an extraordinary leadership effort in opening a new afterschool center.

Then, with 1.5 hours to go, the board settled in to the question: “What are we going to do to raise money in the next 4 months?”

And without much sidetracking – except to look back at the benefit’s results, and to look forward to potential fundraising activities for the next year – board members rolled up their sleeves.

The result? Plans for a wine-tasting with a take-home fundraising packet…a summer Hamptons house party…a general appeal to parents led by board volunteers…one-to-one calls to select major donor prospects…and the formation of an advisory council to further the organization’s fundraising reach.

Pretty fruitful for one board meeting, yes?

Now there are two elements of note in this tale. One, is the use of a dashboard for pretty substantial areas – finance, legal, new program development – which allowed the board to quickly digest the issues, see where the organization stood, and ask particular questions without having to go through the whole story.

Which gave it more time for the details.  The proverbial trees, in the forest.

Because Two, is that the dance is in the details – and in the relationship between the fundraising committee and the board as a whole.

Sure, the fundraising committee could have come up with these or similar ideas on its own, but then the board wouldn’t have owned it.

But in order not to get lost in each detail, when the discussion got too nit-picky the chair was able to relegate continuing the conversation to the committee to work out the particulars.

In other words, the board came up with an idea, took ownership over it, and then asked the committee to come up with a plan. And, board members got home in time to tuck their kids into bed.

Sounds like a win-win, yes?

Fixing the Board

We’re getting a lot of calls these days to “fix the board.”

Mostly these calls are coming from staff, but sometimes it’s a frustrated new board leader on the phone.

Rarely is it the rank-and-file who’re the subject of the needed fix.

What’s my point?

That it’s about consensual governance.

That we’re not paid enough, any of us, to govern through hierarchy and strife – and that we need to create a climate that celebrates and encourages the best interests of the cause.

While the economy may be “rebounding” in some sectors, in many others, including our own, times are just as stressful as they’ve ever been. Board members are holding on tight, just as we are. Starting from a position that the board has been “lazy” or “uncooperative” or “unwilling” doesn’t call up the desired behavior, nor does it provide the stick that so many are hoping it will. People move towards light, because they see the reason why and they see the path how.

Someone once compared board-staff relations to a marriage, and here’s where I’m going to show my bias. The point is to get along and move closer to the goal – not to be right.

Get the garbage on the curb. Get the money in the door. Same idea…cooperating to create a path that works.

The Value of Snow Days

There was a lot of groaning in my household this morning, at the decision to keep the NYC public schools open.  And while I pushed my kids through their disappointment and out the door, I realized that I, too, was a little chagrinned.  I was looking forward to having a day to catch up, reassess, and think strategically.

Maybe, I thought in the shower, this is a sign that I need to build in some reflection time.

I know one nonprofit that does Thank You Thursdays.  And another that does Friendraising Fridays.  Without carrying the alliteration too far, maybe, to be successful fundraisers, we need to build in a Strategic Snow Day – oh, about once a quarter. 

What might we do on a Strategic Snow Day?

Reconsider friendraising lists and think about who’s grown closer who could now be asked to become an asker…examine key written materials and decide which ones need freshening up…analyze appeal returns to pinpoint minor shifts which could portend potential major donor interest…et al. 

There are so many ways in which we get into the rut of “the usual,” as we try to carry out a development function in which the tasks – and the need – are overwhelming and never-ending.  Assumptions that we made a year ago – or several years ago – may no longer hold, and not just in a negative sense:  it may be that someone’s exhibiting increased interest and we’re not picking up on it because we’re not paying attention.

Strategic Snow Days.  A chance to pay attention out of the ordinary – to pick up a piece of the puzzle and turn it over to see if it might now fit in a different way.

What Does It Take To Be A Team?

A fundraising team, that is.

How do you move from a board made up of disparate individuals – different social circles, different capacity, different reach – to a group that can work together towards a common goal?

And to wit: a common fundraising goal?

I was ruminating on this the other day when I went to another of this season’s fundraising events, and I was comped. Well, that often happens, because some of the nonprofits we work with like to have us around, and their events aren’t priced for those of us working in the nonprofit sector. So at the last minute, as is often the case, I get asked to come sit at a sponsor’s table who has extra seats. The nonprofit knows I will be a good representative, and I want to be supportive, and there you have it.

But I knew that some of the group’s board members were also comped – or given a separate, off-line, price of admission. And that got me thinking about team-work.

Is a fundraising team primarily composed of individuals who can give and ask at a “stretch” ticket level? Or is the aspiration to have every board member pitching in on fundraising – as each as they can?

And if it’s the later, how do you get around disparities – the $250 ticket-price event that 5 out of 12 board members can sell tickets to; 5 others can scrape up the cash to buy one ticket themselves; and 2 can’t even hope to come close? How do you get that group to function as a team, with such different relationships to that event?

I think – no I know – you can, and the answer lies in creating a structure, and an ethos, where each board member knows their job, does their job, and feels responsible for their job on the board. And where all members are on a train moving in the same direction, even if some are in the lead, some in the caboose, and some standing to the side watching the oncoming traffic so they can direct the train to switch tracks without crashing off the rails.

An example: that $250-a-head cocktail party. One board member created the e-vite and other promotional materials. Another obtained an in kind wine donation, and a third made follow-up calls to Advisory Council members to remind them to come (and to pay). Two other board members hit the streets to sell tickets to their friends, and the board member that was hosting the event cleared out her space, got her husband on board, and reserved a babysitter so her kids would be out-of-sight, out-of-mind on the night of.

Not all board members had a cadre of potential $250 donors to whom they could pitch the event, but all understood that that was the right direction for the organization to be heading in, and all pitched in to make this initial foray a success.

On the night of, since the event wasn’t sold out and the per-person additional cost was negligible, all board members were asked to come, and those who couldn’t afford full-price admission were asked to make a gift at a level they could manage. Then, all board members were given a “cheat sheet” annotating expected attendees so that the most important future major donor prospects were approached by several people over the course of the evening.

Team work. Not all are alike, but all put in equally to stoke the engine forward.

Nonprofit Boardinghouse Reach

I ran into a nonprofit CEO today who told me something I don’t hear often: “We have as much money as it takes to do our program. We don’t have to fundraise.”

Why did that surprise me?

It wasn’t the economy, or the difficulty of going back to the well yet another time.

In fact, it wasn’t anything she was expressing about the hard slog of fundraising that startled me.

It was the fact that, for most nonprofit visionaries I know, their reach always exceeds their grasp.

Way back when, there was something called “Boardinghouse Reach.” As my uncle, who grew up in a large family that took in boarders during the Depression, explains it, it describes the way that boarders could reach all the way across the table, over other people and their plates, to get to the salt or the bowl of potatoes or the extra piece of pie. It means taking care of one’s own needs, reaching beyond right what is right in front of you, to grab what you want from afar.

It’s a funny term – it’s pejorative, implying a lack of manners; yet it’s also admiring, as in someone who knows what they want and goes for it.

There’s something of that in every nonprofit visionary.

They imagine what’s not there…they see a need to be filled…and their reach always exceeds their grasp.

Their vision precedes their funding and – almost always – exceeds it.

Which is what makes nonprofit visionaries so exciting to follow and so easy to fundraise for – and so important to fundraise around. Because there’s always a new need to fill or a new program to launch…and those take money. More than is easily at hand.

In essence, it takes that kind of audacious nonprofit vision to move people to engage in fundraising – an activity that’s often uncomfortable and awkward, at least at the beginning.

What gets people over the hump?

It’s boardinghouse reach – and the scramble to raise the resources to keep up with it.

Before the Ball Begins: Asking the Big Questions Before the Contract is Signed

We’ve been doing a lot of special events “pre-counseling” these days – helping groups figure out if they should do their annual event, what they could get out of it, and what, exactly, would make the effort worth it in these times.

In fact, we’ve been having these conversations so often, we created a list of 10 questions every group should ask as part of this assessment process.

What I want to talk about here is getting to that dialogue – having the guts to back away from the “peach vs. plum-colored tablecloths” discussions, or even from the fascination of “let’s-have–chicken-this-year-because-it’s-cheaper-than-salmon.”

Events bring out the detail-oriented dog-with-a-bone in each of us.  In fact, often the most valuable board or committee member on event duty is someone who relishes wrestling with the details, creating the total picture, tracking all the micro-decisions that add up to a really fabulous event.

And although that kind of person will sigh at the inception of yet another event, they truly love getting down in the muck and making it happen.  So even in these times, they’re ready to work twice as hard to pull your event off.

But sometimes, and especially in these times, that kind of “put-your-head-down-and-get-to-work” stance isn’t what’s called for.

With events, it’s all too easy to lose your shirt if you don’t get it right.  And that “it” is not just the hula hoop versus karaoke machine details of event production – it’s the match of audience, activity, and goals. 

That’s the conversation that has to happen this year.

Every year – good to have.

This year – essential.

The Missing $1,000

We came across two separate cases of missing money last week.

Actually, it wasn’t really missing money – it was a $1,000 donor that’d been overlooked.

Even worse.

In both cases, a harried end-of-year campaign with too few resources allocated to it (and who didn’t have too-few-resources allocated to development in the past year?)…a charismatic executive director who inspired confidence in potential contributors…and a turnover in development staff – all combined to create a scenario in which money came in but records were not kept as carefully as they ought to have been.

Ergo, a $1,000 donation that went unheralded.

And not just a donation that remained unseen, but a donor – who could potentially repeat their gift in years to come, possibly increase the amount, and maybe even bring in others at that level.

Oops.

In both cases, a new development director was meeting with Cause Effective to look over the organization’s individual donor base and cull out who might be asked to upgrade or to become an asker (a conversation we’ve been having often these days, with nonprofits re-assessing their private donor base with an eye toward growth).

But while we can usually find a number of leads through these brainstorming sessions, especially when board members are included in the conversation – we don’t usually find as dramatic a case of missing money as we did in these two cases.

The answer, in both instances, was to have the executive director and/or a board member give the forgotten donor a call, and, with a rueful tone, apologize and give a heartfelt thanks along with an update of what their contribution had made possible.

WITHOUT another ask – yet.

There’s some fence-mending to be done before they’ll be properly ready for the next ask...but better a fence to be mended than none at all!

Board Service – The Importance of Humor

In these stressful days for nonprofits, it may seem odd to have the words board service and humor in close proximity.  But I was reminded of the importance of levity in board bonding at a retreat I facilitated last weekend.

The group worked hard all day, then went out for an early meal together.  I could see there was a method to how the board chair indicated seating around the table.  And then I watched a long-standing board member unwind and work his wit on one of the newest board members.

As I saw the newer board member throw back his head and laugh, I realized I’d been worried about the ability of the board culture, in a time when the board was facing tough decisions about cutting programs, to absorb this new recruit.  I was concerned that he wouldn’t stick it out – that times were too tough, it wasn’t fun.

Fun – now there’s a novel concept for nonprofit board service….

Humor is a great way for people to bridge the gap between their personal and professional selves; between the matters at hand and their life-experiences perspective; and to simply swallow the bitter medicine that is part of board service nowadays.

"If you’re going to tell people the truth, you’d better make them laugh. Otherwise, they’ll kill you."

- (variously attributed to George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and others)

We may not be able to change the grim environment we’re forced to spend board meetings responding to – but the quality of the company we keep can make all the difference in how grim the process is of meeting today’s board challenges.

Navigating New Terrain

New York City is gradually recovering from a deep but surprisingly short recession that ended in November, said the Federal Reserve Bank last week.

Hmmm…

So what does this mean for nonprofits?

We’ve said before that we’re seeing money start to move – and that fundraising is psychological. That feeling that you have the capacity to give…that you can take care of more than your family’s basic needs…is based on a gestalt, a shared communal mood, more than on a simple number in a bank statement.

OK, so we’re seeing money start to move – but where is it going?

The answer, in one sentence:

To nonprofits which have strengthened their ties to their communities so that they’re ready to ask those overlapping circles of (potential) supporters to step up to the plate.

Well that sounds simple (nay, simplistic), but how does that apply to your organization?

To help nonprofits answer that very question, we’ve developed Cause Effective’s new Fundraising Tune-Up Consultation. Thanks to a generous grant from the New York Community Trust, we are able to offer low-cost fundraising consultations to a limited number of nonprofits facing out-of-the-ordinary fundraising challenges due to the economic downturn.

In a single, practical session at Cause Effective’s offices, Cause Effective will serve as your personal thought partner to assess your organization’s funding environment during a time of rapid economic change, review planned fundraising activities, and brainstorm new ways to get back in the action after two years of unpredictable results. Eligible organizations will receive this consultation, normally valued at $600, for the nominal fee of $50; and longer term support at discounted rates may also be available.

If this sounds like it might be helpful to you, take a look at this flyer and email Susan@CauseEffective.org to discuss your organization’s circumstances, or apply directly at http://www.causeeffective.org/consultingapp.htm.

Come on in – the water’s getting warmer…

The Choices You Make

We were sitting with a board chair yesterday who was telling us about a summer fundraising picnic his group was sponsoring – everything was donated except for a few incidental costs, resulting in a $50 admission price which would net out at $45 per person to help the organization’s bottom line.

At a 200-person projected capacity, that was starting to add up to some real dough.

The choice?

The organization was planning to serve beer and burgers, but part of its constituency (including a few of its board members) consists of Muslims who don’t drink – or eat non-Halal meat.

The crux of the choice? The beer (and the burgers) had been offered as a donation, thereby increasing the net…and wasn’t that the board’s primary job? To raise money?

But what about the message that gave – that the Muslim community wasn’t welcome?

(Because while there would be some Halal-meat off to the side, the message surely was that the Muslim families were a secondary component, not the main audience, for this event.)

What was most important in the long run?

And – could the organization afford to make a long-term choice with less short-term monetary return? In this day and age?

Or turning that question around – could the organization afford to make a short-term decision that would work against its long term future?

In Appreciation…

FaceBook sure has changed birthdays.

It was my birthday last week, and I heard from my oldest, closest friends (they called).

I heard from my employees (they got me a set of espresso cups for the office).

I heard from my nearest and dearest…my family (they got me books, natch).

And I heard from about 30 other friends/colleagues/acquaintances – my FaceBook friends who took the time out to wish me a happy day. And in so doing, to show me how they valued me.

I have to admit, it felt kind of good. Especially because it wasn’t a big birthday that I was particularly focused on, it felt like an “Appreciation Day.” For Me.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if we did that for our nonprofit organizations too?

I’m imagining a day in which we’d celebrate the accomplishments, the impact, the quirky individualism and fiercely-held values, all the why an organization really matters.

Sure, the video at the event that pulls at the heartstrings is supposed to do that – but that’s more akin to a big blow-out party that provides just as much stress as gain.

I’m talking about a day in which we stop and think of something particularly special/unique/valuable about a nonprofit organization (that’s not your own) – and let the people involved with the group know that you notice.

A Day of Thanks For…

Because we all go above and beyond in the nonprofit sector. And we’re certainly not in it for the money.

A Day of Thanks For…

Living a life of service. And successfully making a difference.

A Day of Thanks For…

Celebrating. The Glue that Holds Us Together.