Concern for Leaders of Small and Mid-size NPOs in This Economy

How are leaders of small and mid-size nonprofits handling themselves, their people and fiscal problems? What are you facing as a small to mid-size nonprofit leader in this economy? Many executive directors and other leaders of small and mid-size nonprofit organizations are not finding much personal support for their work and needs resulting from America’s economic problems. I read many articles and see training events about how to increase funding in a bad economy. I read material about how to lay off staff and handle the human resources of the organization. There is material about finding new leaders for the future of nonprofits and baby boomers transferring into the third sector. But what do we see about how you are handling yourself? The life of a leader or executive director is a lonely job in the best of times. It does not improve in times of trouble. Here you will find a list and brief discussion of concerns you may be facing and some hints on handling them.

I am certainly not an expert or the last word in these matters, but the dialogue should be on the front page for you – and it is not there. This is my offering to you. Many of us care about what you are facing. Many of us, including me, have faced this one or more times in our NPO lives.

I believe the bottom line mission for most nonprofits is to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable. This is about comforting you, if you are among the disturbed.

There are three parts:

• Issues
• Hints to cope with the issues
• Resources

See if any of these issues are real for you. See if the hints give you a start to handle the issues of leadership in bad times. Please feel free to add your thoughts on both the problems and the hints to confront them.

ISSUES

As the pressure of work increases for leadership and staff at small to mid-size nonprofit organizations it can exacerbate the personal problems we have always had. It can seem like an expanding downward spiral of unresolved, unsolvable issues, both old and new which can occur.

We carry our own life-baggage wherever we go. That baggage will surface more deeply when things go wrong. We have a tendency to repeat our errors. Now can be time to work on one of those pieces of luggage.

Stress at the workplace is something we all face from time to time. This is a deeper level of stress. What can be done to minimize it and its effects?

You may be finding it difficult to develop priorities in programming, funding, management, administration, filling in for former employees and personal time. There may be too much in your work plan. Cut it down to a size based on importance. Take a sheet of paper. Have one column for the most important and why and another column on least important and why.

Concentrate on the doable and the needed, not the hoped for.

So where did you find leadership training for these bad times: there is lack of training and skill development for problem-solving and reduction in funding and loss of employees. Few of us have experienced a downward spiral of funding, and loss of employees, closing of offices and reducing the numbers of customers who can be served. There has been no training offered to prepare you for this. That should not stop you. You will have to make hard decisions about money and people. You did not start the fire and you cannot put it out. You can bring your flames under control – in fact you have to.

Are staff members tense and not acting civilly with each other, with you and with customers?

Are you facing growing morale problems from staff about layoffs, salary and benefits, their fears and not enough office supplies and equipment? Expect that to happen. The employees who remain will feel guilty about having a job and others were let go. They will miss many of those who have left. They will hate picking up others’ files and working with the new customers. They will have difficulty prioritizing and decision making. Open communication wide. Look for a process that will give staff the opportunity to talk and to be heard. Your job may be simply to LISTEN. You may not be able to fix this one. In one instance they may find a breath of relief because at least someone weak has left.

Do you find you are not sleeping well, not eating well and have been losing weight?

Do you find you are not sleeping well, are eating too much junk food and gaining weight?

Have you increased the consumption of alcohol to calm you down? Or doubled the number of cigarettes you smoke?

Do you find yourself periodically avoiding staff by working at night and on the weekend? Is there a fear of facing them and complaints or guilt? You have to face your own sense of guilt. You did not cause the funding to decline. The hardest problem for a leader is not the act of making a bad decision in rough times. It is the failure to make a decision, even if it is difficult or bad. None of the decisions will be good but they will be necessary. Get back to the office on the regular clock.

The more you avoid staff the more you will lose touch. Share the facts and the implications of what is occurring to the organization and seek help to find answers.

Are you trying to figure out how to overcome the reduction in grants/fundraising? Are you spinning your wheels just looking for money and getting nowhere? Are you looking at Federal Recovery funding that may not really fit your mission? You may not be able to find new grants.

It may be that you are so used to fixing problems that here is one you cannot fix. You may simply have to make the organization functional. Seeking grants is the most difficult part of a resource development plan. The board and you may have to face factors that cannot be easily solved. You may have to consider merger, shared services, co-locating, new associations or bankruptcy.

Do you believe that out there is a foundation that will fund your program? Let me be direct. There is not. The only exceptions are if someone close to your organization has a deep relationship with that foundation and can be persuasive or through a local or community foundation. Other than that, right, now none will fund you. But do not stop applying to the very few foundations that have a direct fit with your mission, goals, objectives and grant requirements. You can try to build relationships now for the future.

Is the organization having a difficult cash flow problem because the state or other funders are late sending payment for services?

Are you trying to keep the board involved? Are you attempting to prevent board members from leaving because of the problems facing the organization?

You find yourself uncertain of the future of funding and new transparency and accountability requirements. How can you change the administration of the organization to meet those new factors?

You have thought of seeking personal professional help but you fear using the organization’s employee assistance program or seeking that help. Are you concerned about showing personal weakness?

Do you have a fear of seeking counseling at the local level where you are known and you have no contacts elsewhere?

Are you experiencing an increased sense of dread, fault, depression, anxiety, anger and personal failure? How are they affecting you and those around you?

Do you find yourself working harder and long hours with little accomplished?

Do you have a growing poor sense of self-worth and self-esteem and an increased personal uncertainty about your abilities?

Do you find or have a sense that staff is having or showing less confidence in you and your leadership?

Are you finding it very difficult getting up in the morning and looking forward to going to work?

You love your job, but this new world is eroding that love. You feel this is not what you signed up for.

Are you finding it very difficult talking to family and friends about what is going on at work and your reactions to it?

HINTS TO COPING, OVERCOMING

Face the fact it is normal to be abnormal in a crisis. The times are insane but that does not mean you have to be. There is so much you cannot control or change. So spend some valuable time deciding on what you can control and change.

Go back to your core being. What brought you to this nonprofit world and this job? What were the attractive parts? What did you anticipate you would work on to improve the organization, its service and product and yourself? What did you want to work on to improve the organization and yourself? How did you want to grow on the job? Can you still do these things? How can you make them happen? It is a time for some self-reflection about why you are here. It is difficult but it is still the job you want. Let your core being – your soul - help you face today’s realities. Check in with you and look for what you are failing to see.

Exercise. Find a routine that fits you. (This is easy for me to say since I am the founder, owner and sole resident of the PSLS, the Principality of the Sedentary Life Style. However, in the past century when I did work exercise was an irregular part of my life.)

Look at your sense of trust in yourself and others. Have you allowed doubt in your abilities and the abilities of others creep in? Why? What happened? Begin working on your self-trust. You do have the abilities and the sense of mission, vision, values and passion to keep the organization performing. Trust that sense.

Make one small change in your schedule, your life. Always shower in the morning (or evening) at the same time. Take a lunch break away from the office at least three days a week. Make a commitment to have dinner with your family every night. Develop one new routine that allows you to think about that change and commitment.

What could you have controlled that would have changed or prevented things? Is there anything you really could have done? If not, then do not take on that guilt and sense of fault. It is not yours. Let it go. You do have to handle the results and adjust but not with guilt and fault. Guilt and fault finding will not solve a darn thing.

Go back to organizational basics. What are the mission, vision and values of the organization? Are you still on mission? How are you with your personal mission? Are you still on pace? Go back to the mission and see if there has been a drift and see what you can do about it. Are the board and staff still focused on the same mission? Plan the future on that mission.

Learning to cope with stress – we have all faced stress before and we handle it in different ways and rather well mostly. You can do that here also. Is it developing a routine you can depend on that relieves the stress? Is there someone you can talk to about the stressors? Perhaps only to listen to you, not to solve or fix them for you

Listen. Listen more intently, eye to eye, not eye to Twitter. Listen without interrupting. Listen at home and at the office. Take a tickle lock. Listen to others.

Review how decisions are made in the organization. Review the strategies being used. Can they be tweaked to be better under the current problems?

Maintain civility within staff and within the board. Show your leadership in the way you all talk to each other.

I am not a fan of the statement “Do more with less”. The current crisis is about doing more with even more less. That is unrealistic. You, the board and staff have to look at what you have been doing and determine what the best process is to reduce the work to a meaningful and reasonable level. With less resources and more demand for services, you cannot meet it. The fact of the matter is you have never had enough resources to serve everyone in need. So you made choices about who received service. That decision has to be made again in keeping with grant requirements and talent and availability of staff.

What are you doing to adapt to change? We have constant change in our lives. There is a corporate culture of change in every nonprofit that we do not face and do not encourage as a status for staff. Now is an opportunity to look at change and how it can be positive, not always negative, and can be part of the culture. People do not like to be changed but they can accept reasonable changes.

This is not the time for leadership-is-correct thinking. It may take improvisation through a group development plan and activities.

Should there be an open review of the goals and objectives and activities of the organization with staff and the board? What should or could be changed to relieve stress and become workable? You do not have to fix everything. You do have to make the work functional and reasonable, however.

This is a real opportunity for developing a business plan for the organization for the next 3-5 years. What would you and the board do differently if most of the funding were restored? How will the organization face its future for its customers? Planning can help. This is a real opportunity to consider restructuring the organization. Including customers in that planning is a necessity. Your planning may help you see what the future can look like and it may lead you to make honestly some hard decisions such as bankruptcy, merger, co-location, carry on or other options.

Facing adversity – leaders like to talk about how they like taking on challenges and adversity. You are a leader. Here is a real opportunity to show your leadership in new ways. Go back to your leadership styles, your abilities, and your weaknesses and mend them to this new dynamic in your life and the life of the organization.

Communicate, don’t isolate – do not withhold information from the board and staff. It may need some sense of timing, but board and staff need to know what is really going on. You will also want to work on overcoming the tendencies for rumors.

Be receptive to others’ ideas.

Consider talking with a few other NPO leaders in your community about what they are facing and how they are coping. There may be a way to start a group healing process with a pro bono counselor as facilitator.

Prepare a succession plan with the board. It does not matter if you are thinking about leaving. It does matter that you help provide a positive look at the future for the board in the leadership of the organization.

Perhaps it is time for you to move along. You have done all you can. You will work to leave the organization in the best possible light to find new leadership.

Perhaps it is time for the organization to fold its tent and close down. There are state and IRS legal processes to follow in that event. Work with the board and an attorney to do this properly.

If needed seek out personal professional help. This is not an admission of fault or guilt or neurosis. It is an admission that perhaps you need additional reinforcement to handle your life and the job, to look at alternatives within yourself. Most leaders fear this decision that others will find out. If your organization has an employee assistance plan, you may find that too open. You may be saying to yourself this is a small community and everyone will find out. I say, baloney, They are excuses. Talk to your personal medical provider about options. How long has it been since you had a full physical examination? Seek assistance from a job counselor, psychologist and/or psychiatrist or spiritual advisor. Once you take that first step you will wonder why you feared it. You may find that talking about your issues, adopting breathing exercises and/or medication help you stay focused and clear headed.

There are many of us concerned about how you are doing. It is my hope that you find at least one thing here that will help you. Please be open with me. If I am missing the target for you please add your thoughts.

Thank you for what you are doing.

RESOURCES

STRESS...At Work (May 19, 2009)
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/99-101/

Recession Is Bad for Health - Americans Are Taking Grave Chances With Their Health Because of Recession and Money Fears (May 21, 2009)
http://www.webmd.com/news/20090521/recession-bad-health

Managing Job Stress - What to Do About Job Stress (Last Updated: July 10, 2008)
http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/tc/managing-job-stress-what-to-do-about-job-stress

Work, Stress and Mental Health (June 09, 2008)
http://blogs.webmd.com/anxiety-and-stress-management/2008/06/work-stress-and-mental-health.html

How to Reduce and Manage Job and Workplace Stress - Coping with work stress in today’s uncertain climate (Last modified: November 2008.)
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/work_stress_management.htm

Finding Leaders for America's Nonprofits from Bridgestar (April 20, 2009)
http://resources.bridgestar.org/Documents/FindingLeaders.pdf

How to Cope When Coworkers Lose Their Jobs - Layoff Survivors Experience Feelings of Guilt, Sadness, Loss, and Fear by Susan M. Heathfield, About.com
http://humanresources.about.com/od/layoffsdownsizing/a/survivors_cope.htm

Leadership Guide by Brian Fraser (March 2009)
http://www.transitionguides.com/newsltr/Full%20Articles/LG_March%202009%20Resiliency%20Corner%20-%20Brian%20Fraser.pdf

Six Ways to Manage Leadership Stress by John R. Ryan (January 9, 2009)
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jan2009/ca2009019_489882.htm

Facts about Terminating or Merging Your Exempt Organization (IRS May 2009) http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/p4779.pdf

State Nonprofit Incorporation Forms and Information (Including those for mergers and termination)
http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=167760,00.html

The Mission Statement - The Spiritual Rudder
http://dongriesmannsnonprofitblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/mission-statement-spiritual-rudder.html

In Praise of Small and Mid-size Nonprofits - On the Side Streets of America
http://dongriesmannsnonprofitblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/in-praise-of-small-and-mid-size.html

The voice says, who will go for us, who will speak for us, who will care for us, who will show us?
http://dongriesmannsnonprofitblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/voice-says-who-will-go-for-us-who-will.html

24 Factors In Developing an Exit Strategy for Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organization (A Business Plan in Reverse)
http://dongriesmannsnonprofitblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/24-factors-in-developing-exit-strategy.html

The eighth international conference on occupational stress and health. “Work, Stress, and Health 2009: Global Concerns and Approaches” will be held at the Caribe Hilton Hotel, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on November 5-8, 2009, with Preconference Workshops on November 5. This conference is convened by the American Psychological Association, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology.

The Work, Stress, and Health conference series is designed to address the constantly changing nature of work and the implications of these changes for the health, safety, and well-being of workers. This year the conference will highlight work, stress, and health as a subject of global concern affecting developed and developing countries alike. Numerous topics of interest to labor, management, practitioners, and researchers are covered in the series, such as work and family issues, workplace violence, long hours of work, the aging workforce, and best practices for preventing stress and improving the health of workers and their organizations. Expert presentations, panel discussions, and informal get-togethers with leading scientists and practitioners will provide an exciting forum for learning about the latest developments on an impressive range of topics.

http://www.apa.org/pi/work/wsh.html

Please feel free to add to this RESOURCE list.

The Real Clients of the Nonprofit CEO – It’s the Staff – Here Are 29 Reasons Why

We can make an argument that the clients of the CEO are the people served, the community, the board or the supporters and funders. And they are truly clients from time tom time for the CEO. For me, however, the number one client is – staff. Here are my top 29 aspects that the chief operating officer or executive director must exhibit for the nonprofit or nongovernmental organization employing her or him.

1. Listen to staff, board and community. There is a reason this is first. CEOs and other leaders have a tendency to always talk at meetings. Learn to be brief if it is necessary to speak. Learn to actively listen to others. Listening is more and demands more than hearing people. Take it all in – the words, the phrases, the inflections, the facial expressions, body movements or lack thereof, the context, the group in the room, the emphases. The worst line a manager can say to staff is “I have an open door policy.” No you don’t. You are always willing to arrange a suitable timely period to talk. Make yourself available in person when both of you can talk.
2. Provide leadership and encourage others to lead as appropriate and as needed. You are not the only person in the organization who can provide leadership. Use and let knowledgeable staff to develop and provide leadership when appropriate.
3. Maintain and translate an understanding of the organization’s mission, values, vision, ethics and culture. Stimulate the energy and focus of the staff about why the whole thing exists and their roles. Translate the mission, vision and passion to board, employees and volunteers
4. Know what everyone in the organization is doing to further the mission and he vision. You do not need to know how they do it, but you should know what they are doing and why they do it.
5. Guide the organization through though and good times. One of the most difficult times for a CEO is when she/he does not know the answers or a best guess about the future. In these hard economic moments the CEO has to find and look at the facts and make best judgments for the mission and vision of the organization. There is an old saying, make haste slowly. When facing decisions, which decision are you likely to regret the most; it may be the right decision to make?
6. Relate and develop relationships between staff and board. Avoid being the funnel between the board and staff. Make room in terms of paid time for some staff to attend board meetings. If the board and the staff are to be working on the same mission and vision, why should the CEO stand in the way?
7. Play a supportive role in downsizing. That is not a contradiction of terms. It’s your job. I don’t care what it is, freezing or reducing salaries and benefits, laying people off, closing offices, shutting down programs, reducing hours, giving some people lead time to leave their jobs – it is difficult. No one will feel good about any of the decisions. Morale will fall. Gossip will increase. Facts will be twisted. Lies will be created out of whole cloth. Know it in advance. During this entire maelstrom, the support you give is to stay focused on the mission and vision of the organization. Tell the truth. Tell the staff what the current situation is and what the future presents, no matter how bleak. You are dealing with human lives. Spend time with staff and their pain. See #1 above – actively listen and respond with understanding. They may beat you up, but the problem is bigger than you and you can be bigger than the criticism. Take the high moral ground. The attack may be at you, but not about you. It is about the bad decisions that have to be made. It is about the causes that may not be fully understood. But you have to do it. Often times not making a decision is worse than making a bad decision.
8. Develop fair, equitable salaries and benefits comparable to similar employment in the public or private sector. In good time and in bad times this may be my most critical point about our sector. We have bought into the myth that people work for nonprofits for personal satisfaction and they expect lower pay and benefits. As the CEO you should serve your clients much better than this. Salary comparability studies should be made. They are not difficult. I do not mean comparing your staff with nonprofit staff elsewhere. I mean compare staff salaries to comparable public and private wages and benefits at the local, regional or state levels. That comparability may be your staff is being paid currently at fifty% of the other sectors...are you satisfied and proud of that? What about mileage? In many nonprofits staff account for 70% to 85% of the budget. Generally the only salary out of that which is closest to comparable is the CEO’s. Yes, higher salaries will mean fewer staff members. That is the way it will be. Fewer staff members may translate into fewer case numbers. It may increase the quality for those cases handled. We have to do something here. We are cheating the staff, lying to funders about what the mission really costs and ultimately in my view the public. I do wonder if unionized nonprofits are faring well on this point.
9. Create good, clean, safe and appropriate work space, comfortable chairs, desks, file cabinets, desk top equipment, and comfortable and attractive public areas. Have accommodations for disabled employees and guests. I am not talking top of the line and hiring a decorator. I am talking about showing dignity and caring for the work area. Each employee should have her/his stuff. Paint sometimes can do wonders over a couple of weekends – yes, as work time if necessary. Some staff member or board member or volunteer may know somebody who can reupholster the chairs in the common areas for the cost of the material.
10. Provide sufficient and appropriate equipment and technology. Computers, monitors, calculators, printers, copiers, software programs, and other technology should be available, maintained and upgraded for staff to perform their work effectively and efficiently. And staff should be trained on how to use it.
11. Budget for periodic relevant and fair training for staff and yourself. Although not every employee needs to attend a training event annually, there should be budget line items for training and travel for more than the CEO and other top echelon people. There can be room for paying for continued education for licensed staff. But more than that, other training is available in nonprofit accounting, support work, dealing with difficult people, employee relations and more.
12. Assure productivity, goals and objectives are being measured and being met or revised as needed. You should be receiving regular reports showing the key features – not all features – about how the organization and individual staff members are producing, whether they are meeting goals and objectives in a timely fashion and you should assess where there are weaknesses, strengths and where changes may need to be made.
13. Oversee supervision and leave nothing to chance or favoritism. Do not assume the senior employee, the highest degree or licensed person or the most experienced are doing what they are supposed to do and with quality. Verify they and all staff are doing the job correctly, meeting contract or legal compliance and are timely with work and reports.
14. Know where the money is and where it is going. Receive and review fiscal reports including originals such as bank statements and check books. Check frequently that separation of duties for fiscal matters is functioning. Look at cancelled and voided checks for number sequential, payee and amount with billings. Review all payroll material.
15. Know and utilize the lessons from the past and be creative in the long run - your own and the organization. We all learn from the past. And for most of us we will repeat the mistakes from the past. This is a sensitivity you as CEO should exhibit and retrain yourself to avoid them.
16. Spend time planning fiscally along with the goals, objectives and activities of the organization. Look at the books in the context of what the staff and the organization are doing. What are you spending the money on? Do you have knowledge about the cost centers of the organization and why the money is spent that way? Do the priorities match the expenditures?
17. Lead by guiding, modeling, mentoring by following when others know more than you do. You do not know everything and you do not know more than your staff put together. You can model what expectations are with humility and grace and honor and silence for others.
18. Insist on evaluation of all employees on a regular basis including you. This starts with you. Help your board develop a legally defensible annual evaluation system with timely written evaluations for all employees and a written annual evaluation of you
19. Assure responsible hiring. Develop the written policies, procedures, forms and recordkeeping of written on recruiting, hiring, training, and firing, Develop written personnel policies and procedures.
20. Offer staff opportunities for growth, development and promotion. This can look to be next to impossible for a staff of 25 or less but it is not. Employees need to grow in their jobs and their accomplishments. Find creative ways to do this in consultation with staff.
21. Help create and maintain a cultural competent environment. Set the mood, the standards and the actuality for cultural diversity in the organization. Be sensitive and aware of activities that may create barriers to the diversity and those that encourage a natural environment for diversity.
22. Foster mutual respect and problem solving among staff. Set the tone and the skills for respecting differences of opinions and convictions. Provide the atmosphere for staff to resolve their own differences before heading to you or a supervisor - or the rumor mill
23. Encourage a corporate culture that fosters cooperation, initiative, creativity, partnering, honesty, open communication, behavior and change. A silent and an acknowledged corporate culture exists in every organization. Your task is to keep those two cultures carefully aligned for the results listed above.
24. Recognize and celebrate organizational and individual achievement, workable innovation and results. A negative environment may be productive but not without its costs. That is also true for a positive supportive organization – too much time spent on creature comforts of staff will have its costs. The staff is not the reason the organization exists but they are your clients. Salute them for work well done.
25. Consider openness to new forms of work including telecommuting, networking, communicating. These may help the organization function more efficiently and effectively. It does take time thinking and planning in order to save in the future. Consider these along with other ways to be a better program.
26. Partner at the top level with similar organizations working on the same mission in the region, state, country politically. Small and medium sized programs can suffer from being alone, not connected to other organizations that share similar missions, visions and history. CEOs should spend time looking for compatriots for partnering for support and even political support. You can gain muscle for the clients of the organizations and for your organization about public policies and funding nationally, statewide or regionally. You are not alone, why act that way? You can perform advocacy. Learn the rules. See Resources below.
27. Throughout the organization foster an understanding about partnering with other organizations. Lead staff to partner with others and to be aware of services and activities that can be used by the organization’s clients. Duplication is wasteful. Funders are looking for realistic partnering not just simple referrals or nice-nice between CEOs.
28. Find time for reflection, soul searching, contemplation, silence. I have a spiritual sense of our work in the nonprofit world. Our work is above us and guides us. I am not talking about religion or any God. I am talking about spending time with your soul and the soul of the organization. Think about you. Where are you doing well and where must you grow? Find a silent period on the clock or off it, but find it for the organization and for you.
29. Prepare for succession of staff, board and yourself. One of the most important concepts an organization’s people have to understand and live with is change. Staff and board members will reign. The great CEO -, and founding person – will lead for change. Succession planning at levels is important. There needs to be in place a process to develop corporate memory so that what is lost by the person is not also an information lose. It is very important that the board have a plan for your successor. That could be tomorrow. Plan for it. Plan on it.

Resources

Making Performance Management Work ... Better - http://compforce.typepad.com/compensation_force/2008/11/making-performance-management-work-better.html

Reducing the Fear Factor Workers look for reassurance from their employers as the financial downturn raises economic anxiety to new heights, by Ed Frauenheim and Jessica Marquez - http://www.workforce.com/section/09/feature/25/98/06/index.html

The Numbers behind Workers’ Financial Fears: From unemployment to home foreclosures to declining wages, employees’ economic fears are well founded. - http://www.workforce.com/section/09/feature/25/98/06/259812.html

Looking for the Exit on Wall Street, by Jessica Marquez - http://www.workforce.com/section/09/feature/25/98/06/259810.html

Most Employers Exercising Caution on Slashing Jobs, by Jessica Marquez - http://www.workforce.com/section/09/feature/25/98/06/259809.html

Lobbying and the Law = http://www.mncn.org/lobbylaw.htm

Nonprofit Advocacy and Lobbying - http://www.independentsector.org/programs/gr/advocacy_lobbying.htm

Alliance for Justice Worry Free Lobbying for Nonprofits - http://www.afj.org/for-nonprofits-foundations/resources-and-publications/free-resources/worry-free-lobbying-for-1.html

Lobbying and Advocacy Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations: Shaping Public Policy at the State and Local Level - http://www.fieldstonealliance.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=27

Introductory guide to policy & lobbying for nonprofits - http://www.slideshare.net/SSE/introductory-guide-to-policy-lobbying-for-nonprofits

Why Don’t Nonprofits Fire Poor Performers and Jerks?

24 Factors In Developing an Exit Strategy for Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organization (A Business Plan in Reverse)

According To My Crystal Ball, Your Nonprofit Organization May Be Toast In 2009

A Reflection about Nonprofits – Eliminating Poverty or Trying to Make It Palatable?

A Reflection about Nonprofits – Eliminating Poverty or Trying to Make It Palatable? Blog Action Day - Poverty 2008

Palatable: acceptable or agreeable to the mind or feelings: palatable ideas. Dictionary.com, http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=palatable

A nonprofit, nongovernmental and governmental organization that features the word “Poverty” in its mission or vision statement, its goals and objectives should be reflecting and meditating today on that word: poverty. When I write “poverty” I include all its relatives, low-income community, working poor, low-income senior citizens, low-income disabled people, poverty community, the poor, homeless, medically unserved, people who are too different than us and are not deserving (to eat, to work, to have a home, to live) and so on.

Poverty in the United States and the world is predominately about women, children, disabled people, senior citizens and people who are “different”.

The reflection and meditation on the word “poverty” should include whether the group is seeking to eliminate poverty, for a person, a family, a neighborhood, a village, a country, the world or simply making it palatable. And the reflection, meditation should include palatable to whom? Is palatability for the person or family or group who are poor or palatable to the organization or palatable to the supporters of the organization or palatable to the rest of the world?

Reflection and meditation: Thinking with your soul and your brain.

Poverty is never palatable, never acceptable, and never agreeable to those who are poor. Never!

The poor may ask, “Are you trying to make me unpoor or to help me accept my poverty a little better today than I did yesterday?” What is the organization’s answer? What is your personal answer?

How does your organization show demonstrably to the poor and the rest of us that it is attempting to its fullest capabilities to eliminate poverty? Or are you satisfied with palatability?

Foundations, corporations, governmental bodies, donors: where do you stand on poverty? If poverty is what you are fighting, how are you demonstrating that through grants not only for services to the poor but also for advocacy by and for poor people? Who is listening to those you serve? Who is attacking the people who attack the poor?

In my view service without advocacy is leaving poverty palatable to someone…not the clients or customers or patients who receive the service. Advocacy is attacking the causes of poverty, the policies and decisions that have impact making or keeping poor people poor.

One interesting take on poverty that lingers with me is an article by Professor Herbert J. Gans of Columbia University written in 1972, The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All. He writes in part:

"… there may be some merit in applying functional analysis to poverty, in asking whether it also has positive functions that explain its persistence.

[Snip]

Associating poverty with positive functions seems at first glance to be unimaginable. Of course, the slumlord and the loan shark are commonly known to profit from the existence of poverty, but they are viewed as evil men, so their activities are classified among the dysfunctions of poverty.

However, what is less often recognized, at least by the conventional wisdom, is that poverty also makes possible the existence or expansion of respectable professions and occupations, for example, penology, criminology, social work, and public health. More recently, the poor have provided jobs for professional and para-professional "poverty warriors," and for journalists and social scientists, this author included, who have supplied the information demanded by the revival of public interest in poverty.

Clearly, then, poverty and the poor may well satisfy a number of positive functions for many nonpoor groups in American society. I shall describe thirteen such functions - economic, social and political - that seem to me most significant."

[Snip]

For the thirteen positive functions that help keep poor people poor see the full article.
http://www.sociology.org.uk/as4p3.pdf

Is your organization in there? Are you in there? And am I in there? How will we change after reflection and meditation about poverty today?

Excellence can be attained if you

-Care more often than others think wise.

-Risk more often than others think is safe.

-Dream more often than others think is practical.

-Expect more than others think is possible.

Janet Cagery, date unknown

http://wku.edu/teaching/db/quotes/byart.php

In Praise of Small and Mid-size Nonprofits - On the Side Streets of America

What will happen to Main street is a discussion the candidates for President and others talk about in the national fiscal crisis. This is my offer of praise for those who work in small to mid-size nonprofit groups, not on Main street but on the side streets of America. They and their clients, customers, patients and constituencies will feel more pain. We have been told for years to do more with less. The near future may be do less with even more less, if you know what I mean.

It appears to me that there are several reasons why we have small ($100,00 annual budget and/or staff of five) and mid-size ($5M annual budget or less): There are community needs that are best served by them. They are "on the ground" meeting priorities, goals and objectives that are not or cannot be met by larger nonprofits such as national groups, universities and others which have a different mission and vision. Many of these larger organizations provide support, training, technical assistance and evaluation to small and mid-size organizations. Much funding from Federal and state government, United Way, the Combined Federal Campaign, trust funds, foundations and corporations is aimed at small to mid-size nonprofits. There are probably many other reasons but I am not a researcher or historian.

I offer my praise and deep appreciation to the founders of small and mid-size organizations who have the passion, the mission, vision, the smarts and understand the pulse of their communities to tackle serious community problems and gaps in services, underpaid and understaffed and yet producing change and support in human lives daily. They are in inner cities, rural and farm towns, in suburbs.

I offer my deep appreciation for what they provide our society. They comfort the disturbed - they disturb the comfortable at the local level. They give with their personal values of dedication and hard work. They give with their education and experience. They want to be in those small to mid-sized organizations because of their moral fiber...it isn't right and someone has to address that need now and on into the unforeseeable future. For so many employees and volunteers working with the small to mid-sized organizations, small pay and benefits, significant paper-work, hard issues - they can do no less. They have a spiritual sense of the rightness of being social workers, case managers, community organizers, lawyers, counselors, doctors, nurses, mothers, fathers, retirees, teachers, youth workers, respite support, mentors only in local small and mid-sized nonprofits

I offer praise to those who will spend a significant part of their lives working with broken families, mentally ill, people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, victims of domestic violence and rape, growing artists, actors and musicians, literacy, migrant camps, tenants rights, undocumented aliens, ex-offenders, new born, homeless, women, elderly, job training, single parents, working poor, displaced people, health, community advocacy, civil rights, people suffering from addiction, offer mentoring, save and protect animals, the environment and local or ethnic history and so much more. All are within locally-based small and mid-sized 501(c)(3) tax exempt organizations with executive directors and boards and stake-holders and constituencies and clients, customers and patients. They are not on Wall Street. They are not even on Main street. They are on side streets, low rent areas close to those they serve.

They deserve the interest of donors, volunteers and funders. They deserve training, technical assistance and serious research, not at the expense of their missions but in the support and enhancement of their missions and results.

I can never offer thank you sufficiently for what you have given me and our neighbors and what I have learned at your knees.

The voice says, who will go for us, who will speak for us, who will care for us, who will show us?

There are those of us who see the mission, vision and the passion of a nonprofit organization as a spiritual process seeking and expressing the values of the individuals and the organization. It is an inward event, an inward experience. It is what you feel about an issue, a problem and the incredible desire to do something about it. What you feel is deeper than your head and your heart. You feel it in your soul. If you do not believe in a "soul", it is still deeper than your head and your heart, wherever it may reside.

It is stupid. It is stupid the problem exists in the first place. No one should have to fix this problem – it should not exist in the first place. And here I am. I feel the problem either because I have it, a loved one has it or I have seen it face to face through reading, through pictures or in person. Some stimulation hits me and I have to do something. It seems I have no other choice. I have to do something. But it is so absurd!

It is also an outward spirituality. It is the pursuit of perfection and, if not that, then it is the pursuit of excellence. It is an experience of constant renewal; there is a dimension of the human soul and an orientation of the heart and the action of our body and being. It is a way of making sense of the insensible, the senselessness, the hole that needs to be filled and made whole. A stupid problem that should not even exist does not need a stupid fix. It needs the best of me and the best of people with whom I join.

The spiritual slams the brain and says, what are you going to do about it? What do you have to find out? Is someone already working on it? Where can I link up with them? I have to learn more about the problem, about possible resources, about the best and most sensible approaches so that I am a help and not a hindrance. Are there new and innovative ways the problem can be attacked and minimized or overcome?

And so we begin the spiritual quest with mundane research, learning, taking classes, getting licensed, reading, thinking, writing, incorporating, and talking with people who share the same or similar sense of the stupidity, the absurd.

Beginning a nonprofit organization is a spiritual act, a leap of faith. It is walking to the end of a cliff and taking one more step. I know it is the right thing to do. I may not know the right way to do it. But I believe that next step is for me to take. It is a calling that is difficult to hush and put to sleep.

With this spiritual side of a nonprofit organization, there are the hard facts that are the outward and visible signs of that inward and spiritual belief in the mission, the vision and the passion of the organization:

• Listening
• Observing and working with the stupidity of it all
• Leadership
• Followship
• Developing partnerships
• Paper work
• Teams
• Servant
• Planning
• Beauty
• Facing/causing/accepting change
• Management
• Giving voice
• Study
• Deadlines
• Hiring to firing or leaving
• Record keeping
• Reporting
• Angst
• Standards
• Joy
• Rules
• Meetings
• Solving
• Budgets
• Healing
• Quality
• Reaching agreement
• Conflicts
• Honesty
• Handling the finances
• Giving talks
• Anomie
• The law
• Supervising people
• Feeling hurt
• Giving bad news
• Awe
• Training
• Stuff happens
• Winning
• Feedback
• Loving the job; hating the reasons for it
• Messing up
• Exhaustion
• Evaluating
• Inspiration
• Resource development
• Grant writing
• Anger
• Human resources
• Marketing
• Ethics
• Celebrating
• Fund raising
• Advocacy
• Cleaning the bathroom
• Living to work yourself out of a job by eliminating or reducing the stupidity
• Moving on

It is a spiritual evolution and not a revolution. It is not a quick and unthoughtout repair job...although that may be only what you have the funding to do.

The voice says, who will go for us, who will speak for us, who will care for us, who will show us?

The silence hears, here I am, send me.