It was a year after graduating from college that I came to Greenlights. I had already worked on the Kelly White Campaign for State Representative and done 5 months of interim work for Leadership Texas, but still felt new to the 9 to 5 scene. I remember a few months into working here, I told a co-worker my birthday was coming up. She asked my age, which I had been careful to keep to myself, and told her I was turning 22. She laughed, I made a face, and then with a look of surprise she said “oh, you’re serious! I wouldn’t tell people that.”

Like in some cheesy movie or young adult novel, I came of age at Greenlights for NonProfit Success. That is the only way to really describe it. I started here over four years ago, excited about the good coffee and the fact that people didn’t wear much makeup there, thinking I would work there for a year while I got myself ready to go to graduate school. Looking back, it’s humbling to think about how little I knew about myself, my strengths, and making a difference.

As I depart for graduate school, I hope you’ll indulge me as I reflect on 10 lessons I’ve learned at Greenlights:

1. You can learn something from everyone—if you aren’t learning something from your coworkers, your clients and your friends, you are wasting an opportunity

2. Mistakes happen, and what matters most is what you learn from them

3. Even if you don’t like your role, you are not better than your job; so do it well or find a new one

4. Never say no to trying a new type of task: whether it is event planning or business process mapping, because learning a new skill can help you zero in on what you’re the best at, and what you love doing

5. After four years of small receptions, meetings and gatherings, I am qualified to go into catering

6. Not everyone is automatically wired to trust or like you, and it is up to you to figure out a way to work with different personalities if you care about being effective in your job

7. There are many “right” ways to do any job, and developing new and innovative ways to do things is a lot of fun

8. You are not your work, and if you are finding it hard to separate your identity from your job, take a vacation

9. Falling asleep in a work training is not the same as falling asleep in a 300-student college class (other people notice)

10. Seriously, Kimberly, stop talking and LISTEN

Most importantly at Greenlights, I learned the value of mentors.People who look out for you, make sure you have opportunities to grow, and who help you build on your strengths are the greatest gift at any job. I have been very lucky at Greenlights to work for Tara Kirkland, who has been a mentor, a letter of reference, and an amazing resource in and out of the workplace. Tara has given me the trust, the space and the guidance to become the employee and leader that I am today. Thank you, Tara.

I am leaving Greenlights a very different person from how I came to it. Through Greenlights I got involved with YNPN Austin, which led to joining the YNPN National Board of Directors and the Leadership Austin Emerge committee, as well as meeting the love of my life. I have worked with clients, peers and leaders in the Austin community that have inspired and informed me, as well as shown me the opportunities and pitfalls of a nonprofit career. I have made life-long friends and done work that I will continue to be proud of throughout my career, wherever it takes me.

I wish all the best to nonprofits in Central Texas and to the people at Greenlights who will continue to make the organization an amazing resource to the community after I am gone. Especially Taylor Overstreet —congrats on emerging from a highly competitive search as the new Greenlights Consulting Fellow. I hope you will find your time at Greenlights as transformational as I have.

I love the Fourth of July. Not because of the parades or the grilling or the beer, although those things are nice. For me, the fourth is all about my weird fascination with Revolutionary Era America. You may not know the words to all the songs in 1776, but sit too close and you may hear me singing them before sharing John Adams fun facts and admitting that Thomas Jefferson isn’t as annoying of a historical figure as I often say he is.

It’s not just that our founding fathers set up the amazing democracy that we live in today that gets me so excited to learn more, it’s how they envisioned something completely new. They said, “Why not be an independent entity from a monarchy? Why not take on a highly sophisticated military? Why not fight for freedom?” I think it is nearly impossible for us to appreciate the audacity of these questions. It took foresight, courage, and commitment to found what we now know as our nation.

Almost all of the glimmers of this kind of bold courage we see today are in the nonprofit sector. It is many of our founders, our funders, our innovators and our mission-driven workers that ask the bold question today, “Why can’t things be better than they are now?”

By now, we have all heard the current recession repositioned as an opportunity to get back to what really matters in our communities. I ask that over the holiday, not only enjoy the bright sparkles of the fireworks overhead, but find the inspiration from our bold founding fathers to return Monday with fresh ideas and a new excitement for asking, “Why not?”

Later today, Greenlights is celebrating our former intern, Meredith. She worked in the Consulting Department 30 hours a week while she completed her Masters of Science in Social Work. I remember the day that she turned to me (we shared an office) and said “So all nonprofits have problems, they’re just different types.”

I believe my immediate response to that was “yes, just like families,” but as we prepare to be nostalgic later this evening, I keep going back to her realization, and how much it seemed to free her.

When I first started consulting, I thought my job was to solve all of our clients’ problems and make them happy, functional, self-actualized nonprofits. You want them to be a shiny beacon of awesomeness that allows you to check something off a list saying “yes, that nonprofit is perfect now! Let’s move on to the next one.”

Clearly, that is a fantasy. That attitude leads to constant disappointment. It is an experience I’ve had to learn from multiple times, and it even goes back to my days in college when I was given the best hand-out ever by a concerned counselor: How to be a Healthy Striver.

This is in contrast to being a perfectionist, which is a limiting view of how things need to be. Perfectionists can only accept perfection; they have to have every word in the sentence perfect before they can move on to the next one. Everything someone says needs to be completely clear, and if someone is at all incorrect, we perfectionists must tell them and have them fix it. It’s exhausting, and rarely produces helpful results, since perfection is often impossible to achieve.

While it was hard for me at 19 to give up on perfection, I have since learned to love the freedom that comes from letting go of it. Being a healthy striver allows me to accept the world and myself the way we are, and while I aim for greatness, I don’t torture myself over it. I make realistic goals and work at a reasonable pace towards achieving them.  When I don’t have the perfect word to describe the exigency of an issue, I have the awareness to put in a placeholder and come back to it later.

I think this is an important perspective for nonprofits during hard times with limited resources. It’s not about doing everything perfectly, it’s about using your organization’s strengths to do the best you can. Being a healthy striver allows you to know yourself, know your limitations, and work around them instead of being halted by them.

There, I said it on a blog. I’ve been saying it for months: out loud in meetings, in the faces I make when people talk about it, and through emails to coworkers, friends, and fellow volunteers at several organizations. It drives me nuts, even though I am the target age for social media and actively participate in it.

Why? Because I think it is one of the biggest distractions plaguing nonprofits right now. It’s so hip, everyone wants to talk about using social media. You don’t go a week without seeing a training on it or a conversation that someone is having about it on a panel. It’s everywhere in the nonprofit world.

Social media is distracting many nonprofits from engaging in real public and community relations. It’s generally a quick fix to engage some current or potential volunteers, donors, stakeholders, etc. And that is why it is so ineffective.

That said, social media doesn’t have to be bad for a nonprofit, I just think it is being seen as a strategy rather than a tactic. With some exceptions, social media efforts are not part of a larger plan to identify, cultivate and mobilize people in the community. They are seen as the way to do it, rather than tactics to use towards meeting larger goals. You shouldn’t have a social media plan before you have a PR plan, a donor cultivation plan, or a volunteer recruitment plan. That is putting the e-cart before the horse.

So while I’m being controversial, let me put a few more things out there:

• Facebook updates are not media alerts, only share things that are interesting or engaging
• Blogs are not newsletters, so posts shouldn’t read like one
• You probably aren’t going to raise $50,000 through social media, but you can deepen relationships with people who might support you in other ways: make sure your Facebook friends are in your database

Finally, seriously consider work and personal boundaries before using social media. The whole idea of social media is that people are expressing themselves; that they are being genuine versus just representing a company. If people don’t care about your writers, which are generally staff, or if they think that you are just trying to sell something, you won’t get them anymore engaged in the success of your organization or your mission.

That said, enjoy reading your daily blogs!

Last Night, YNPN Austin hosted the third annual Do Gooder Games at Buffalo Billiards. It was a star-studded, suspenseful success! The DGGs, as those in the know call it, brought together ten teams of nonprofit nerds from organizations all over Austin. It is the signature YNPN Austin event. It’s when we get to be really creative, viciously competitive, and drink beer with our peers, all at the same time.

Groups like Easter Seals, Any Baby Can and Citizen Schools came out for the first time to test their skills against their peers in nonprofit trivia, matching celebrities to causes, doing a little work-life balance with a book on their heads, and creating a gala gown with supplies from their office. Last year’s winners represent CASA of Travis County, and they came out to see if they could reclaim their title, but fell short of the final round.

The games came down to GENaustin and Austin Partners in Education (APIE) battling for the $500 prize. They went head to head, each writing a 50-word Public Service Announcement that was read ever-so-skillfully by emcee Quita Culpepper of KVUE fame. The judges, Andrea Ball of Statesman fame, Patsy Woods Martin from I Live Here I Give Here, and Zac Folk, founder of Common Threadz (and judge for the gala gown competition), struggled to pick the winner. In the end, GENaustin emerged the winner with their Girl Power agenda and Rosie the Riveter styling.

This is the most fun event that I go to every year. Mind you, I help make it fun, but still, it’s a blast! Teams showed up in inspiring costumes. The team from Any Baby Can showed up as GIANT CANS. Literally. They also brought cans as noise-makers. Such cleverness! In hindsight, they should have won an award for that, maybe next year… Also, the Girl Scout team dressed like Girl Scouts. It did NOT make me nostalgic for my days as a Brownie. Those years are in the past.

Fact: No one on any of the teams knew that Michelle Obama had been Executive Director at Public Allies. Did no one else watch the Conventions last year? It was in her vignette, and it clearly stuck with me. So now all the Do Good competitors know it, and so do you, so we can all talk about our First Lady’s nonprofit leadership. That is my gift to you all, knowledge and conversation.

I want to give a big congrats to the YNPN Austin committee that organized the event, to the sponsors (including Greenlights!) that made everything possible, and to the AWESOME competitors and cheerers that made the game so much fun.

And hey, if you want to play along from your office, just grab a book, put it on your head, and start walking around the halls. Or just make a costume from what is on your desk right now. That is what the Do Gooder Games are all about: celebrating the fun of working in our nonprofit sector.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go have some Greenlights fun!

Today I attended the AAHSA City Council and Mayoral Race Candidate Forum at the Mexican American Cultural Center. It was about what I expected; all of the candidates were prepared, rehearsed and civil. I was happy to see Seat 1 opponents Perla Cavazos and Chris Riley smiling and laughing with each other, since I really like them both as candidates.

Everyone answered pre-submitted questions about their thoughts on health and human services and meeting the needs of the least among us. Most spoke with sincerity, but only Carole Keaton Strayhorn spoke in her outside voice—it was a nice break from the almost NPR-level even-toned candidates. Everyone talked about the importance of providing funds to basic needs groups so that we solve our cities problems and realize our potential at as a community. Answers were more similar than they were different, and I can’t think of anything more controversial discussed than a false claim that Council Member Cole voted on a measure to outlaw panhandling.

More importantly, I went to meet up with my friend, mentor and college recommendation writer (and former Crossroads keynote speaker) Robert Egger. He has started the V3 campaign in an effort to get candidates and elected officials more versed in the business of nonprofit and its effect on the economy and quality of life, versus just the nice things we do for people so the city doesn’t have to. We feed people, we clothe people, we take care of them when they are most in need, etc. As a nonprofit sector, we employ more people than the construction industry, but we are too unorganized to have the voting power/influence in lawmaking that our friends in hard hats do. We don’t get the respect fire fighters do, we don’t get the cool picket signs angry teachers do—we sit back and listen to candidates promise to continue to fund us.

Robert and I discussed this possibly being because of the relationship we have with government. Most of us need them more than they need us. We need their grants and permits and attention, and if we rock the boat too much with difficult or unexpected questions, we’ll lose what favor or influence we have with them.

I would love to hear a candidate address working in our community to strategically align some of our nonprofits or even (gasp!) merge a few to help us strengthen our community investment. I would love to hear a candidate talk about the economic impact of nonprofit employees and how to help keep OUR lives affordable so we can keep doing this good work. I would probably cry if a candidate talked about building capacity in nonprofits to better harness the human capital of this community, since we are one of the most volunteering communities in the country.

If anyone is with me, I invite them to send this sweet little blog post to a friend/colleague/candidate of their choice. I love that candidates say they won’t take their dollars away, but I would prefer to hear how they will help us do our jobs better and build our communities stronger.

I had a huge “aha moment” last year at a Leadership Austin training. I was creating goals for my community involvement and it hit me. Being a better board and community member makes me a better employee.

It seemed so obvious, how could I have not been aware of it up to that point? So many of my goals for being better at making an impact through volunteering matched up with the goals I have for being a better employee. And they weren’t goals like “get six new clients” or “write a blog post every two weeks,” they were goals that make me a better overall person, like “be a better listener,” or “try new tasks to diversify your skills.”

I think sometimes it’s easy to silo our own experiences and forget that developing ourselves in specific ways can make an impact us as a whole. With me, the connections between board and employee development are painfully obvious. I am a better consultant to nonprofit boards because I serve on a national-level nonprofit board. I can better help my clients think through and reframe their challenges because I do that as a board member myself.

But other nuggets of learning are less obvious, and probably more universal. Collecting information to make governance decisions helps build muscle memory for making organizational decisions at Greenlights. Managing working relationships with my board members helps me develop more empathy and appreciation for my coworkers. Thinking about the big picture for a national organization helps me better piece together how what I do at Greenlights matters to the mission and vision set by the board.

Basically, being a good board member matters to me personally and professionally. I will have to hold myself back at the Board Summit not to sign up for more board membership (I am at capacity, anything more and my calendar will pop!) because I am so pumped about being on boards! OK, that may have been a slight exaggeration, but I will practice saying “No, Kimberly, NO!” anyway…

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of maintaining a strong network is that when you have an issue and need guidance, you have people that you can reach out to. And, because you have been such a good resource to them, they are happy to be a resource to you.

Maybe it is a testament to my ability to be resourceful to others that my network sends me new resources that I’m not even asking for. Mostly, they are about the different generations in the workforce (or young people in general), but my friend Meg Busse at Idealist.org sent me a new resource that I think everyone in our sector will enjoy: IdealistNews.com.

Basically, it’s a landing page to find national and international news that relates to the nonprofit/social good sector. From articles on Obama’s tax plans to tips on nonprofit collaborations, this website can prepare you for any conversation on what’s new and interesting in our collective worlds. And, I see this as a GIANT timesaver—no more checking websites for CNN, MSNBC, NYT, etc. when you want to know what is going on with nonprofits in the world. You can get everything with one easy bookmark!

Finally, this is a great opportunity to stay engaged with your personal network. As I have already started doing, you can send links to interesting stories to your friends and associates that would appreciate them. Genius, right?

Go to www.idealistnews.com and start your edification/relationship management today!

The following post by Kimberly Caldwell appeared last week on the blog for the V3 Campaign. We thought it would be appropriate to re-post on this Election Day.

While watching an episode of Frontline on PBS a few months back, I felt my stomach drop and panic overtake my brain. I was overwhelmed by the lack of accountability that our national executive leadership had to the citizens of our country, and what a poor job the media was doing to make us aware of the abuses of power.

“How do we, as voters, in a country this size, hold our national leaders accountable to our interests?” I thought, “how do we break through the insulation of lobbyists and political contributions to get OUR issues on the table, protect our rights, and ensure that responsible decisions are made for the long-term success of our country.”

I don’t have all the answers. Yet. But as the election cycle played out, the attention to community engagement raised by Service Nation gave me hope that there would be real dialogue, at a national level, about the real needs of our cities and who does the work that keeps them sustainable. The V3 campaign started buzz about the power of the nonprofit sector and how it is up to US who work in it to show that power and hold some feet to the fire to make change in our government.

But it all comes back to accountability. We nonprofit folk know accountability better than anyone else. We are accountable to our funders, to our volunteers, to our clients and stakeholders, to the communities in which we serve—we can’t sneeze without reporting to someone about it. And while that may be more extreme than it needs to be, we know that the purpose of accountability is to make sure that when we invest our funds in doing good, we get good work done.

So where does that accountability come into our republican democracy? How does a local nonprofit consultant, or even a crazy credible, energetic, entrepreneurial nonprofit leader make a politician act in our best interest?

We elect people who get it. And while this is a super-nascent movement, we have to keep it going if we want nonprofit values (which I would argue kick small town values any day of the week) to make it to the White House. We accept our power, which is totally against our consensus-driven mindset, and DO SOMETHING WITH IT.

Imagine a government that understands how community work is done and builds their metrics for grants around the way we do our most effective work, rather than just monitoring every 15 minutes of our time? Imagine a government that understands how it isn’t just about throwing money at a problem, or withholding money from an agency, it’s about understanding who will be most effective at helping people and investing resources there.

We won’t have that government until we work to elect it. Accountability may sound boring, but it’s one of the best values we’ve got.

Kimberly Caldwell recently wrote this piece for Service Nation which they posted on their ChangeWire blog.

Sometimes, I think I know too much to be a good volunteer. I have worked with nonprofits and campaigns for more than four years now, and I’ve seen the inner-workings of volunteer engagement. I’ve seen how hard Volunteer Managers and Coordinators work to synergize the best volunteer experience with accomplishing the organization’s goals.

I also know too much about the need for resources at nonprofits. Not just human energy, but funds to attract and keep the best workers, funds to invest in innovative programming, funds to grow their efforts and reach farther with their mission.

So how does the over-informed volunteer make her impact? By combining these two types of investment in my community. By doing and giving.

I have personally committed to giving $5 for every hour that I volunteer. Think about it – you aren’t at the movies or playing mini-golf, which would cost easily that much when you add in refreshments (which many nonprofits will provide for you for free anyway). So invest your funds where you work with your hands. Show that you support the grassroots, hands-on work of the mission as well as its ability to do more.  People pay all the time to participate in 5Ks and bike races – and even get their friends to give too. Why does the day-to-day work have to be different?

So next time you spend three hours cleaning a creek, preparing meals, reading to kids or folding letters into envelopes, write a check to the nonprofit and hand it to the volunteer manager who has been by your side training you, supplying you with tools and snacks, and answering all your questions. You probably had fun, burned a few calories and felt better about yourself than you did all week – that is totally worth $15. And if that Volunteer Manager is anything like the people I volunteer for, they might even give you a hug!