Of Cliffs and The Mid-Air Moment

I was quoted this week in a pretty blunt statement: “Board members are realizing they have to walk off the cliff” I tossed off, in an article in this week’s Philanthropy Section of Crain’s New York Business.

Well that’s quite a directive…

But it’s a real acknowledgement of how fundraising is, for many if not most, a stretch far outside their comfort zone. And how it’s taken the past couple of years’ dire economics to push boards into taking responsibility for their organization’s financial survival.

But there’s no turning back now.

As the article makes clear (featuring the gains realized by two Cause Effective clients, St. Nicks Alliance and Hartley House), change-around is possible. After the shock and awe wears off, the strong have come out kicking, cunningly thinking outside the box of their institution’s history – determined to serve their constituency in whatever form it takes.

Cause Effective is in a Capacity-Building Collaborative with the Lawyer’s Alliance and Nonprofit Finance Fund – funded generously by the New York Community Trust – and together with our colleagues we have been reflecting on what is happening in terms of survival strategies in the field.

Here’s what we’ve concluded.

There was a period where many “Too Big To Fail” nonprofits were tottering.

Still happening, for some, for sure.

But there’s another layer of “throw caution to the winds, go for broke and walk off the cliff” folks who choked, and choked again, and then…embraced change.

Those folks are breaking new ground.

We saw this when Hartley House embraced FaceBook-led volunteering to connect with a new generation of donors – and they responded.

Or when St. Nick’s Alliance’s board members challenged themselves to increase their personal “friendraising” as well as fundraising, and became so engaged they ended up increasing their own giving as well – tenfold.

At Cause Effective (and Lawyer’s Alliance and Nonprofit Finance Fund have noticed it too), we have countless other tales from the last several years – of board members (and staff) walking off that cliff. With determination, onto air, without a net.

But with commitment to mission.

So on the eve of the Holiday Season, here’s to them. To the nonprofit leaders, and followers, and admirers, who’re hanging on. Who are making a difference, again, and again, and again.

To Us.

Shoulder To Shoulder

A couple of times a year, I come across the notion that a board of directors is an antiquated fossilized structure designed to mimic a top-down hierarchical corporate culture. Or something like that.

Yet to my way of thinking, the opposite can also be true.

With the right kind of energy spent on their care, boards can be the means to keeping our organizations porous – responsive of and to our publics, constituents, fans/critics, stakeholders. Boards are what keep us beholden to and drawing from our communities – they take us out of our silos and put us in the mix.

Sometimes I have the image of the board and staff standing in a circle holding hands – the organization within and the world without. And the hand-holders constantly shifting perspective from facing in…to facing out…to facing in…to facing out…

So why isn’t board service more like this poetic image?

Let me start by acknowledging how stressful life is. We simply don’t have enough time, those of us who’re trying to manage jobs, families, and volunteer save-the-world interests – to do everything well.

And so we triage. But not with equanimity – with guilt.

And board service is one of the places we can shrink back, thinking “the executive director can/will handle that.” But we know, in our heart of hearts, that that isn’t right. So we snap at someone, or don’t answer emails, or fight over turf, or in some other way let our frustration leak out that we can’t step up to the plate in a way we know we ought to.

Taking the weight off Atlas’ shoulders – and carrying it together.

It’s a radical, collectivist notion, this idea that boards are what position us as shoulder-to-shoulder – and keep us honest.

Try it on for size.

A Moment of Thanks

Thank you…


    Thanks so much…


          For your continued support…


                For your help which enables us to make an impact…


                        For everything you do and continue to do for us…


                               Thanks for “paying it forward…”


                                        How can I count the ways?


A little woozy, just came off writing 100 personal notes on our annual appeal letters.

And it’s almost Thanksgiving, to boot!

But it is a moment for acknowledging what a village we are…as in, it takes a village to create social change.

Scrolling through our list, I see vendors, consultants, clients. Former staff and former board members. Personal friends and, yes, relatives. Fans and colleagues and advisors. And that’s just my list – each of our board and staff members have their own similar lists.

The request? To enable Cause Effective to be there for the nonprofits who need us. It certainly makes it easier to ask for help for others – rather than simply for ourselves.

But isn’t that what we all do – ask for help for our beneficiaries, our clients, our communities?

And so I wear out my hand muscles penning thanks – on behalf of everyone working for community-based change, to everyone who might be part of this family, this village toiling together.

Ownership begats responsibility.

Act as if.

And give thanks – for the gift, for the intention, for the communality.

The Paper Bag Appeal

It's Appeal Time!

All over town, nay all over the country, people are folding and stuffing - and exhorting their board members to write inspiring, heartfelt notes at the top.

What an engine this is... well-oiled and rolling.

And Yet.

I was at a meeting last week where a development director remarked "I could send out an appeal on a paper bag and as long as I got it out early, it would be effective."

Well, kinda sorta.

It does matter that there's white space, and a catchy opening, and that the organization's impact is personified. And that there's a note so the letter is from a person to a person.

But, yes, it could be a note from my board chair on a paper bag, and if she sent it to someone who mattered to her, the equation stops right there.

Should that discourage those wordsmiths among us from carefully crafting a compelling case? No, because that inspires the asker - those note writers - as much as it does the recipient.

But it does mean that inspiring the asker, all year long, needs to be as much of a focus as gathering the names and addresses come mid-November.