Homes Juegos Carreras Real Estate Investing | Expanding Your Circle - Your Nonprofit Vision
Saturday, July 24th, 2010homes I think of an organization’s vision as something bigger, even loftier, than a mission statement. It’s your dream. It’s the ideal that you work towards bit by bit every day. You started out with a very clear vision - you could imagine what the world (or your community) would be like if your organization accomplished its goal. But the everyday challenges of running an organization may have caused you to lose sight of your dream. The very same vision that once had you ready to conquer the world may have faded.
Try to bring that vision back into focus. Now, imagine having tens, hundreds or even thousands share a passion for your vision, working together to make it happen. What would happen? Would your organization grow? Would you be serving more clients or greeting more guests? Would you have a larger budget and a highly qualified staff? Would the world be safer, happier or better educated? Would you have solved the unsolvable problem?
juegos carreras Interesting!
As the discussion progressed, it was clear that the young professionals truly have adopted ’social media’ (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) as their means for communicating. They do not attend the meetings - nor do they join the community organizations - that were the mainstays of the past. This phenomenon places large numbers of non-profit organizations in jeopardy. Where are tomorrow’s leaders? How does the mechanism of ’social marketing’ find its way into the governance process required of nonprofits? Countless articles have been written about the scarce resources that continue to spiral downward for organizations in the nonprofit (charitable) sector.
And, thoughtfully, this group of young professionals believes ’survival of the fittest’ is very appropriate, particularly in this economic climate.
When you stop and think about it, the young professionals are correct - even by the standards of the ‘old timers’ (like this author). We have watched nonprofit organizations proliferate, compete, fuss and fight, refuse to collaborate, and provide ’services’ that are no longer beneficial by the community. Curiously, communities have not proactively rid themselves of irrelevant and duplicative nonprofits. Ostensibly this is because even the most irrelevant and duplicative nonprofit organizations still have some modicum of interested supporters (and funders).
So, what does The Center for Ethics, Governance, and Accountability (CEGA) recommend?
Well, for starters, our entire focus at CEGA has always been on ethics, governance, and accountability - and so it shall remain. If a community or a funder or a nonprofit organization were to focus on the ‘accountability’ aspect of the equation, would not that identify issues of ‘irrelevance’ and ‘duplication’ among the nonprofit sector?
real estate investing However, the focus of this article is leadership development, and in workplace giving campaigns there are campaign events known as “charity fairs.” In a charity fair, selected charities from the workplace giving catalog are invited to come to the organization’s offices, and staff a table with their representatives, give out their materials, and answer any questions that the potential donors might ask. One of the biggest “hidden treasures” of workplace giving campaigns is that they can be the ideal “practice field” for emerging non-profit leaders.
Should we ponder merging similar nonprofits?
Most discussions that I have been involved in over the years that concern ‘duplication’ of activities among similar nonprofits have predominately centered on the issue of ‘job protection’ for the executive director. While this is entirely predictable, it should be recognized that the issues driving the missions of nonprofits are not easy to solve and there may never be enough people to get the job done. Accordingly, the merging of similar (duplicative) programs and agencies seems to be a very reasonable way of addressing the community needs and the individual protectionism among executive directors and even board members who have long-standing ties with certain organizations, despite the possibility that those organizations are now either ‘irrelevant’ or ‘duplicative’ to the objective reviewer.
Charity fairs are one of the best leadership development opportunities that exist in the non-profit world. Non-profits that have learned how to integrate workplace giving campaigns into their overall leadership development efforts can use them to provide low risk, high value opportunities to their staff in a number of areas, including project management, public speaking, and team building. For example, the skills that can be developed and practiced through participation in charity fairs include:
Oral Communication - public speaking skills -you can practice your “elevator speech” dozens of times in the course of a campaign.
Team Building - the non-profit action officer can get practical experience in creating and leading a team, whether they are paid staff or volunteers.
Listening Skills - the non-profit team will have the opportunity to listen to hundreds of people in your community - what are they saying, what’s most important to them, etc. These are your potential donors and supporters - does your mission resonate with them, are they aware of your organization, etc.?
Written Communication - there are multiple opportunities to develop one’s writing ranging from simple memos to an analysis of the comments from the members of the community that were made at the charity fairs that is prepared for the executive and board leadership You can be published without charge. You can to republish this article in your website or blog. Please provide links Active.