Things I thought were interesting…more than cat videos

1. Is Your Nonprofit Recording In-Kind Goods & Services? from Susan Hammond with scHammond Advisors

Many nonprofits receive non-cash donations.  In fact many count on it for their survival and for the delivery of the services they provide to their constituents.  However many do not [...]]]>

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Things I thought were interesting…more than cat videos

1. Is Your Nonprofit Recording In-Kind Goods & Services? from Susan Hammond with scHammond Advisors

Many nonprofits receive non-cash donations.  In fact many count on it for their survival and for the delivery of the services they provide to their constituents.  However many do not reflect the value of these goods or services in their financial statements.

Not recording in-kind donations has several implications…

2. 14 Powerful Ways to Choose Engaging Topics For Your Nonprofit Blog from John Haydon:

Now that you set goals for your blog and have selected the right blogging platform, what are you going to write about? This is the number one question that keeps every blogger up at night, and is exactly why it’s referred to as “feeding the beast”.

3. Year-End Fundraising Brings in 40% of online donations, Are you Prepared? from Frogloop, by Allyson Kapin

Here are some great tips to develop a solid year-end fundraising campaign and raise as much money, or even just tweak your existing plan, with some simple and cost-effective ideas you can easily start now.

4. Planning and Executing Your Next Big Event from Network for Good, by Joe Fazio, Liz Glover Wilson and Rebecca Higman:

Events are a great way to cultivate support and attract new donors. But great events take a lot of planning, financial support and hard work. Before securing that banquet hall or scheduling those tee times, you need to ask yourself a few questions.

• Should you even have an event? As much fun as events can be, you want to have a clear idea of what the end result should be.
• Who is my audience? Is this for existing supporters or are you trying to reach new ones? Maybe your event is for clients. You need to know who your target audience is before you start planning the event itself.
• What do I want them to do? Have a clear call to action for attendees.
• Is an event the best solution? Events can be time consuming and expensive so make sure it is the best way to reach your goal. If your goal is only to raise awareness, you may want to think twice.

5. Top 5 Staffing Tips from CTOs from NTen, read more, but here is the list: Unse your networks, Value your time & your team’s time, Let go og the mission and focus on the task, don’t shy away from creative solutions and hire people that know more than you do.

Here are some guidelines for Protecting Your Nonprofit Corporation’s Tax-Exempt Status.

An organizational communication student of mine recently tipped me off to a blog post from Terri Griffin at Santa Clara University about changing the way we think about supporting group work from a technology standpoint. It was a short but thoughtful piece that commented on the rapidly [...]]]>

Guest Post by Chad O’Connor, Communication Consultant & Adjunct Professor

An organizational communication student of mine recently tipped me off to a blog post from Terri Griffin at Santa Clara University about changing the way we think about supporting group work from a technology standpoint. It was a short but thoughtful piece that commented on the rapidly shifting availability of tech tools for improving collaboration. Clearly nonprofits benefit from this current environment of cheaper bandwidth and a plethora of competitive and feature-packed technologies [this of course raises a new set of problems in terms of your staff's comfort with using such technology and truly showing how this technology helps make their work better rather than making it more burdensome]. Griffin insists that those of us who offer communication improvement advice (consultants, IT people, and the lot) need to “shift to helping teams make decisions about what technology tools and organizational practices to adopt.”

For instance, your small team of 4 people made a decision to work on docs collaboratively using Google Docs. In many cases this decision has been made out of practical necessities (no finances to get everyone copies of MS Office; virtual office setup) as an ad hoc solution. Your group likely didn’t decide to take hours out to sit down, read up on options, and decide which one would be best. It likely came down to someone having a Google Account already, having played around with Google Docs on their own, and suggesting it to other members of the team [even better if there's a couple of people who've had the same experience as it instantly confirms and legitimizes the suggestion]. In the case of this example, the decision here isn’t necessarily wrong, but it’s not done in an optimal fashion. What if there are other tools out there that could do the job better for this team? Does the team know how to think about what they need, research options, and decide fairly quickly so as not to waste time/money/resources in some sort of trivial decision paralysis? If we can train people to systematically think about what they need to work better and more collaboratively, then that in itself can create a meta-collaborative end [collaborating better about collaboration] and should create both a better process and better chance for a good outcome.

I’d love to hear how you pull groups together and come up with working solutions that balance interpersonal communication and collaborative technology, and if you ever stop to think about the process of how you do it!

Chad O’Connor has taught communication at Northeastern University and Emerson College in Boston, serves as a connector forBoston World Partnerships, and works with various individuals, companies and nonprofits as a communication consultant on issues such as public speaking, message strategy, and improving organizational communication. Chad can be contacted at his gmail account, chad.a.oconnor@gmail.com ,and found on Twitter @chadoconnor.

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I have been thinking a lot about non-profit boards, and what  I have experienced with the organizations I have been involved with. The challenges and rewards.

I ran across an opinion article from The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Every Board’s Guide to Strong Organizational Leadership in 2011, by Michael W. Pergrine. He speaks about the [...]]]>

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I have been thinking a lot about non-profit boards, and what  I have experienced with the organizations I have been involved with. The challenges and rewards.

I ran across an opinion article from The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Every Board’s Guide to Strong Organizational Leadership in 2011, by Michael W. Pergrine. He speaks about the challenges of growing competition for funds, government’s questioning of tax breaks as well as scandals such as embezzlement and high salaries and perks for NPO leaders, and because of that, directors and trustees need to be even more diligent in their oversight.

It is more important than ever that the leadership of an organization be knowledgeable on their fiduciary responsibilities and be attentive.

And while most board members are passionate about focusing on
the cause their organizations promote, they must recognize that
their aggressive role in oversight will help to preserve and expand
the ability of their nonprofits to serve the public interest.

If you are a board member of an organization, here are just a few of the areas you should be concerned about:

• Fundraising practices: is your organization following the wishes of the donors, are they aware of state and local solicitation laws?
• How much of a difference does your organization make: Make sure that everyone is following the same strategic goals, and keeps the mission in mind.
• Do you have an audit committee? and are they doing their job? Is your organization keeping abreast of new regulations and laws.
• Executive compensation
• Board structure and size and term limits:

Members should also challenge traditional assumptions about governance structure and consider alternatives that offer increased oversight, efficient processes, and diversity of perspective. Screening processes to nominate new members should concentrate on candidate qualifications, time commitment, independence, and fitness to serve.

• Avoid conflicts of interest, making adequate and timely disclosures of potential conflicts of interest, is not just for legal reasons, but also any appearance of partiality can harm an organizations reputation.

Leadership in an organization means many things, don’t just “show-up” at your next board meeting, if you really want to help your organization through these trying times.

What else do you think board members can do?

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I met Ja-Nae about a year ago at Podcamp Boston, and couldn’t [...]]]>

Last week I was so pleased to have Ja-Naé Duane speak at the Monthly Breakfast at the South Shore Women’s Business Network, SSWBN. Each year the Education Foundation (a nonprofit organization that gives scholarships to women over 35) sponsors the event and finds a speaker.

I met Ja-Nae about a year ago at Podcamp Boston, and couldn’t believe her energy and talent. She is about making things happen, and here is her talk:

Creating Revolutions: How to Be the Change You Wish to See

Every choice that you make impacts not only you, but others. Some you know and some you don’t know. How do you make the right choices? How can one person empower others to make a positive change; to turn ones life around and be the change they wish to see in the world.

Here is the video of her inspirational talk:

What do you do to create change in your organiztion?

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This weekend 2 important things happened to me, that will change my direction in life. I labeled this post building bridges because one event was created to build bridges, and they did it o-so-well, the other thing that happened to me is an example of “what-not-to-do” and [...]]]>

Image by Al_HikesAZ via Flickr

This weekend 2 important things happened to me, that will change my direction in life. I labeled this post building bridges because one event was created to build bridges, and they did it o-so-well, the other thing that happened to me is an example of “what-not-to-do” and I will talk about that in a later post…

Let’s go with the Fantastic and Positive! This weekend I was fortunate to be able to participate in New England Give Camp-an event held at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge. As NE Give Camp’s new website tells us in a nutshell:

• 1 weekend
• 29 Nonprofits
• 110+ Volunteers
• Infinite possibilities

As the web site tells us: “GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where technology professionals – including designers, developers and database administrators as well as marketers and web strategists – donate their time and unique talents to provide software solutions for local charities and other non-profit organizations.”

I had the pleasure of working with Jessica from Respond Inc. who had also participated in GiveCamp last year. Respond Inc. received a website last year, and this year Jessica was here to get it more “Social” I hope I gave her some good information, and will be looking in on her progress from time-to-time. She is an amazing person, and the NPO does great work, and I am please to help, and feel like I was a (small) part of their cause.

I was also able to help another group with some graphics support for a website they were creating.

This was a great experience, and I hope to participate again next year. Thank you to the organizers for all their hard work!

What kind of technical help does your organization need?

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Heritage Retirement Planning is a relationship driven organization that provides assistance to help organizations choose, implement and support a successful and vibrant retirement plan.

They believe that a healthy commitment to saving today is the cornerstone of a financially secure [...]]]>

We are grateful to our sponsors Heritage Retirement and South Coastal Bank for their support of our events.

Heritage Retirement Planning is a relationship driven organization that provides assistance to help organizations choose, implement and support a successful and vibrant retirement plan.

They believe that a healthy commitment to saving today is the cornerstone of a financially secure tomorrow.

Frank Leonard, CLU and Howard Nellhaus, JD, CRPC, CFP will be there to answer any questions

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you may have about services as an employer and what they offer for employees.

Please stop by their table and ask them how they can help you.

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South Coastal Bank is again one of our sponsors, and they are offering a free business banking review. Can they help you with better service, products, rates? Why make an appointment to see Tricia Dandrow, their experienced commercial lender to see, or contact Stacey Cocco, Business Development/Branch Manager at 77 Granite St, Quincy Branch. 617 984-0207.