Pressure Mounting to Measure Outcomes?

Charity Navigator announced two days ago that it was moving away from rating nonprofits based on their overhead to program expense ratios, to looking more deeply into transparency, governance, financial strength, and lo and behold, outcomes.  While some might say (and are), “Charity Navigator, you are arriving rather late to the party,” the entity, like Guidestar, is a prominent resource that many donors use when making decisions about whether or not to support a nonprofit.  They have 3 million users and research shows that their ratings impact donor behavior.   Thus, they carry a lot of weight in getting donor perceptions to change about how best to evaluate nonprofits’ effectiveness and impact.

At the same time, Ken Berger, the new-ish CEO of Charity Navigator, who is leading the changes in how the organization evaluates and rates nonprofits, back in February reported that, in doing research to guide their new direction, they found that less than 10% of the charities they polled had systems in place for measuring their actual outcomes, and that their findings had been corroborated by others in the field.

Many of us track the number of clients that participate in our programs, how many pounds of food / supplies are distributed, and so on, but these are outputs, not measures of how programs are changing lives and impacting well-being. Reasons commonly cited include:

1. Doing so generally takes more effort (and resources) than measuring outputs,
2. Historically most funders, while wanting evaluation results, do not fund the systems development and staff time it takes to measure outcome-based results, and
3. Most nonprofits feel the highest-priority use of their resources should be to funding programs.

With Charity Navigator, and others – among them, Guidestar, Philanthropedia, GiveWell and GreatNonprofits – denouncing overhead ratios and purely financial measurements as indicators of charity quality and focusing more on outcomes, it is realistic to assume that nonprofits will be feeling some pressure over the coming years to focus more on outcomes measurement.  And closer to home, there is at least one group of funders working on a common reporting guidelines that focus specifically on impact/outcomes.

I know that outcomes measurement can be (at least perceived to be…) difficult, but was very surprised that Charity Navigator’s findings were in the 10% range.

So in the interest of doing some informal research, I’m curious…  If you work in the nonprofit sector, does your organization measure its outcomes?  If so, how… and is it an onerous process?  How does doing so benefit you?  And if you are not measuring your outcomes, why not?  No clear benefit? Lack of resources?  What would it take to motivate you to do so?

Thanks for your feedback!

5 Steps to Telling a Compelling Story

I believe an organization’s success is contingent on its ability to tell compelling stories. It’s how we share the meaning of our work and move others to take action.

Unfortunately, quality storytelling isn’t easy. In hopes of alleviating some of the challenge, I have outlined below what I believe to be an ideal process in developing a story.

1. What’s the point? Before getting started, have an idea of who or what the story will be about, and who you are writing for.
2. Do your research. Spend as much time as possible immersing yourself in the world of the story. Do everything within your capacity to know the people, environment, culture, history, struggles and accomplishments that together make up the essence of your story. You can’t proceed in developing a compelling story without understanding what compels your audience.
3. Suspend assumptions. Be open and receptive to all information and insight. I don’t know who coined it, but the phrase “you can’t connect the dots until all the dots have been collected” applies quite well.
4. Identify a focus. To determine a focus, ask yourself: what is the goal, key concept or core message of the story? Be sure you have ONE focus; only ONE goal your story must achieve. The more messages you try to include, the less of an impact your story will have. With a focus in mind, organize the information and ideas you have collected as they relate to your story’s message.
5. What’s it all mean? How is your story’s focus relevant to the reader? Which of your audience’s values or needs does your story address? Without clear, relatable meaning, the story won’t contain value. Weave the meaning throughout the different elements of your story. You may want to read up on the 5 Elements of a Good Story and Seth Godin’s Ode: How to tell a great story.

Upon preparing this post, I stumbled on another great read on storytelling from The Nonprofit Quarterly arguing the need for “value-based storytelling whose big story is about overcoming boundaries between people to engage in common-ground problem-solving.” It may also be helpful to skim this post on story framing.

If you’re struggling with creativity, I highly encourage you to watch this TED video in which Elizabeth Gilbert speaks on nurturing creativity.

Once you have developed your story, put it to work. I found this post from Farra Trompeter very helpful: Multi-Channel Fundraising: Strategies and Tools to Engage Donors through Integrated Campaigns.

I landed my dream job… now what?

My name is Julie Macalik and I am the new Service Excellence Specialist at Greenlights! I am responsible for ensuring that all Greenlights members, and others in the nonprofit community, consistently experience a high level of customer service in all of their interactions with us.  Additionally, I manage the membership program and oversee registration and logistics for all of our events. Working for Greenlights is a dream come true for me! It allows me to work with so many fantastic organizations and do what I am passionate about – plan, analyze, coordinate, improve processes and meet new people!

I absolutely love to make lists and doing my best to get ready for the future. So, I was fully prepared for my interviews, I handled my employment transition with ease, but on my first day of work I found myself asking, what now? As the newest member of the team I knew I had to think fast and come up with an action plan. After my first week I was able to:

1. Inform my current network. I updated my facebook and LinkedIn profile with my new employment information and of course tweeted the good news to my friends and family.
2. Add to my reading list. One of my colleagues recommended that I read, The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels and Ann Starr added Good to Great to my reading list.  Haila, our new Marketing and Outreach Manager, set up a Listening Dashboard for Greenlights’ staff so we can keep up-to-date on Greenlights and nonprofit-related chatter in our community.
3. Expand my network. I put together a list of great organizations in Austin to get involved with and am looking forward to attending future events:  Austin Young Chamber of Commerce, Austin Jaycees (Austin Junior Chamber), Young Women’s Alliance, The Junior League of Austin , Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Austin, and the Leadership Austin Emerge Program.
4. Expect the unexpected. Within my first two weeks I managed to jam our printer, crash my computer, learn a new CRM system, and post my first professional blog entry.
5. Say thank you. I sent my previous co-workers and my references thank you notes for all of their encouragement and assistance during this process. I also thanked my new team for welcoming me with open arms and for all of their support!

Do you have any book or blog recommendations, general advice, or tips and resources for me?  I would love to hear about your entrance into the nonprofit sector in Austin and your first few weeks at a new job.

Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Julie

The World Will Be Saved by The Western Woman

That’s what the Dalai Lama said in September at the Vancouver Peace Summit.   Ever since my sister shared that amazing quote with me, I’ve been thinking of what it means, particularly for the nonprofit sector.

Monica Maher, Greenlights’ new Operations Manager (and one of three incredible women that we recently hired), remarked that “As soon as you said that statement, I somehow knew it was true.”  I feel the same way, too.   But why?

It’s certainly true that the nonprofit sector is all about “saving the world” and that the majority of people working for nonprofits are women.  I’ve always believed that the large number of women in our sector is mostly due to the fact that women are generally nurturing people.  We are programmed to take care of others both biologically and socially, so it makes sense that we would seek out work that is nurturing or helps care for others in some way.

Lisa Witter and Lisa Chen, authors of The She Spot: Why Women Are the Market for Changing the World and How to Reach Them, have provided us with a fascinating and timely view of why it makes sense for us to pay attention to the power of women.  Witter and Chen state that, “Women vote more, volunteer more and there is every indication that they will be giving more than men since they control over half of the total wealth in America. Women aren’t a niche–they’re the primary change-makers.”

I’m just beginning to explore the unique and important role that women play in affecting change in our world, but I am truly excited that our role seems to be more often recognized as critical and truly powerful. So while I continue learning, I will take the Dalai Lama’s prediction as evidence that what my fellow Western women and I are doing is working and needed.

Please share your thoughts and reactions to the Dalai Lama’s quote, “The world will be saved by the western woman.”

When does change lead to opportunity?

Sometimes change is opportunity.  If you have the right help.   

 As I get ready to make my annual purchase of a KGSR Broadcasts CD, the proceeds of which help the SIMS Foundation do their critical work each year, I’m thinking back about how we helped SIMS do just that during a recent Executive Director turnover.

SIMS came to Greenlights with three main needs. 

One was finding the right leadership during the transition to keep providing their valuable mental health and addiction recovery services to Austin musicians.  Another was stabilizing the board of directors, which had a high turnover rate.  And of course the third – and in some ways most important – need was to find the right person to permanently fill those critical Executive Director shoes.

 Here’s how we helped. 

1. Interim Leadership.  Greenlights provided a trained Interim Executive Director from our pool, who jumped in and worked with staff to maintain services, while also using our assessment tool to help the board understand SIMS’ true capacity and needs.
2. Stabilizing the board.  With the day-to-day under control, Greenlights was able to help the board look at the big picture, and set a course for the long term – including how to strengthen and expand the board itself, and what actions SIMS needed to take to improve the organization before and after the permanent Director’s hire.
3. Finding the right Executive Director.  Greenlights crafted a search process for the new Executive Director, creating a board-led Transition Committee as the guiding force in the the search.  We created an organizational profile and job posting that reflected where the organization was headed, and described the kind of leader needed to take SIMS boldly into the future.  The in-depth interview process gave the board a chance to get to know the candidates and their styles and abilities, which helped SIMS make the right decision.

SIMS Board Chair Mark Grossman put it this way:  “Everthing feels more organized, more possible.  Instead of crisis to crisis, we can plan things and make it happen.”

Our tagline is,  “Greenlights helps those who do good, do better.” 

As a fan of Austin music, I’m particularly glad to know we were able to help the SIMS Foundation use the transition as an opportunity to do even better work in this community.

Make Your First Impression Count

Hi. I’m Haila Yates, the new Marketing and Outreach Manager for Greenlights. I bring with me a five-year history of professional communications experience from two Austin nonprofits: Helping the Aging, Needy and Disabled, Inc. (formerly Services for the Elderly, Inc.) and Girl Scouts of Central Texas. I’d like to tell you about my introduction to Greenlights through the application and interview process because I think making quality hiring decisions is one of the first steps to doing great work.

The process was clear, intentional and collaborative, and highly focused on ensuring that I would be a good fit in the Greenlights’ culture.

I found the job posting in a tweet from @kerri_qunell (thanks Kerri!), which took me to the TANO job board and eventually led me to Greenlights’ website. The job description was very clear and, beyond position requirements and expectations, it included an application deadline, which informed me of when I could expect to hear back regarding an interview.

After submitting a resume, cover letter and three writing samples, I was contacted to schedule my first interview – a phone interview. A couple days before the interview, I was sent an introductory survey to further identify my strengths related to the position, my preferred work environment, and to ensure I would be comfortable with the salary and benefits being offered. The phone interview took only 30 minutes and focused on how I saw myself as a good candidate and a good fit at Greenlights. I followed up with an informal thank-you email.

Following the third interview, I was contacted to schedule a second interview in which I would meet with the management team. A couple days before the in-person interview I was asked to complete a behavior analysis using the DISC assessment. In case you’re wondering, I’m an S with high levels of C and I; very low D.

In the third interview, I met with Matt Kouri, Tara Kirkland and Kim Wilson to further discuss my approach to specific challenges, my communication and behavior styles, and what I expected to get out of the job. I also shared my portfolio, which put the interview at an hour and a half. I followed up this interview with a more formal thank-you email that elaborated on concerns I picked up on in the interview, and further emphasized my sincere interest in the position and passion for Greenlights’ mission.

Following the second interview, my references were contacted and I was invited back for a third interview with the entire staff. Admittedly, I was thrown off by the prospect of a third interview and intimidated at the thought of being questioned by the entire staff (which I believe was around seven at the time). The team interview also told me that collaboration was truly valued at Greenlights, which was something I was looking for. This final interview didn’t require follow-up, as I was offered the position the same day.

Though the process felt intense at times, it also felt much like a courting. We took time to get to know each other before making an investment that would help further our success mutually.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering why I wanted this job, it was the Greenlights mission, vision, values and beautifully outlined 2008-2010 strategic plan that really hooked me. If you’re looking for a job, I recommend reading tips on improving your application pieces first in “7 Reasons Why Your Application Went to the No Pile.”

Feeling underpaid – you just might be!

Nonprofit folks have long claimed to be underpaid compared to their contemporaries in the for-profit and government sectors. Anecdotal evidence has seemed to support this claim, and some relatively loose salary survey data we’ve seen has been somewhat supportive of this claim but also largely inconclusive on the whole. And we’ve found that the reality certainly depends on the organization, as many nonprofits are able to offer relatively competitive salary and benefit packages.

And, many of us who work in nonprofit do it for more than just the money – we get “paid” both in dollars and in the “emotional and spirit-feeding” income we receive from knowing that the fruits of our labor each day are helping people in need, enriching our community, and providing a valuable public service.

Some new data (thank you Jan Masaoka and Blue Avocado!), though, might give you the fodder you need for that next conversation with your board/boss about a bigger salary, and the data might even be useful for your next grant application too. Check it out at: http://www.blueavocado.org/node/460.

Celebrate good times… c’mon!

Greenlights held its annual Crossroads Conference for Nonprofit Excellence about a month ago, and I had the honor of choosing the background music while folks were milling around the exhibition hall. One of the first songs that came to mind was “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang. You know what I’m talking about. But in case you don’t, check out this video to refresh your memory:

I love this video. There must be 12 or 15 people on stage, all celebrating and having a good time together. Why this song? For me, Crossroads was a way of celebrating our success. I met countless current and former clients of Greenlights and heard touching stories of how we’d impacted their organizations. The conference created a venue for the nonprofit community in Central Texas to come together and celebrate its success as a sector, and that was a pretty special thing.

Celebrations don’t have to be big, though. You could… Start your team meetings with highlights of your work. Take time to celebrate the completion of a major project. Take time to celebrate during your projects. Heck, take time to celebrate the beginning of a major project! Resources are scarce for many of us, and as a result, small victories aren’t so small anymore.

How does your organization celebrate its success? Personally, I value the importance of taking time for yourself as a way of celebrating. In that spirit, I’m off to celebrate at Big Bend for a few days.

Happy trails!
Taylor

Hey, horse, here’s some water. Drink!

In order to be a nonprofit consultant, you have to be quick with metaphors and truisms. Whether you’re meeting with a client, facilitating a staff retreat, or presenting to a board, it’s handy to use a metaphor, quote, or familiar saying to make a point or better convey information for easy consumption. I’ve used the ones about the straw and the camel’s back, the trees blocking the view of the forest, and the bird in the bush.

As a nonprofit consultant, you also learn the truth in some of those expressions through experience. The one that hurts sometimes is “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” That’s the one that I console myself with when we’ve made some insightful observations and recommendations to an organization that decides to not use them for one reason or another.

That’s why I sometimes describe my job as a nonprofit consultant as a water filtration system. A much less folksy metaphor, sure. I think of my role as making sure that the water looks as enticing and inviting as possible, make it hard to resist. That means spending extra time on presentation, conversation, and explanation as I work with an organization so that they have all the information they need to not just take a sip but to dive in.

Tough Decisions in Tough Times

Being a nonprofit leader by definition means you will have to make difficult decisions – and even more so in a down economy. We make decisions about who gets served and who doesn’t. Decisions about how much (or how little!) your staff will be paid next year. Decisions about which programs grow and which need to shrink. Even decisions regarding difficult staffing changes.

Despite having a surprisingly strong year so far from a financial and impact perspective here at Greenlights, we have nonetheless had to make our fair share of difficult decisions this year, some related to the economy but most just in an effort to continue to excel and to be good stewards of the community’s resources. As we’ve navigated these waters, we’ve found that having adequate, accurate data to inform those decisions has been one of the keys to our success.

This year more than ever, knowing your numbers (be they financial, program performance, or others) in an intimate way is required for solid decision-making. We recently completed an incredibly enlightening exercise here in which we meticulously allocated all of our costs (salaries, benefits, rent, supplies, etc.) across each of our activity and program areas (consulting services, workshops, conferences, fundraising, marketing, admin, etc.). The exercise gave us a very good idea of what share of organizational resources all of our activities are using. We then allocated all  of our income (grants, fees, donations, etc.) across these same categories, which gave us new insight into what things we do are truly “covered”, and which things we do are “subsidized” by other programs or unrestricted revenue. This exercise is enabling us to make much smarter decisions about how to budget for 2010, where to invest, where to pull back, etc. To learn more about this and similar financial analysis techniques, please sign up to attend a workshop I am leading on October 29^th called Financial Management in Difficult Times.