Nonprofit Burnout
I am always on the lookout for someone who is writing about things that I think are important to volunteer leaders of nonprofits.
Nancy Lublin has once again hit a nail on the head with her new column in Fast Company March 2010.
Read it and learn.
In addition to her suggestions to organizations: 1. Don’t be crazy. 2 Ground people, don’t grind them. 3. Give them a break.
I go back to my big three: 1. Get you committee chairs off the Board. 2. Have a management team. 3. Screen and assign volunteers based on their interests and abilities.
Nonprofit Technical Assistance
Have you decided to start a nonprofit?
Have you just got one started?
Where do you go for technical assistance?
What questions do you need to answer as a nonprofit entrepreneur before you organize a new nonprofit?
You can find a lot of information on boards and board training.
You also need to know about how to find, screen and assign volunteers. How to select and train committee chairs.
Another area that most organizations miss is the management team. You need to be able to create and run a management team in an all volunteer organization.
I will be dealing with all of these questions and other topics.
photo credit: BozDoz
Management by the Many or Management by Email Group
Does the communication and decision making in your organization get hijacked?
A friend recently shared with me and an interesting observation:
In both emails,…, I think we have examples of what I might call Management by the Many, or Management by Email Group. In other words, anyone who has an agenda can simply put an email group together, sent out their communication to the group, and either go ahead with their plan feeling as though they have the whole group’s agreement and that they are acting in the best interests of the organization, or hope to get feedback and then take action – hence, Management by sending an email to the group of your choice.
Organizational process and communication need to be two way at all times. The flow needs to be from the Board to the Director to Committee Chairs to members, guests and email recipients – and back up – equally in both directions.
Corporations have trouble with this. Why should we expect nonprofits to be any better?
Have you had problems with this? How have you solved them?
photo credit: Lars Plougmann
A hiatus?
When is it a hiatus and when is it goofing off? I have been thinking about this ever since I realized I haven’t posted anything new in my blog since September.
At first I thought I was taking a hiatus because I was working on a couple of projects that used a lot of my time; however, looking back I think maybe I have been goofing off.
Of course, technology is the answer. As a result, I have added a new tool to my toolbox: MacSpeech. The idea is that I enjoy speaking more than writing. So, I’ll be speaking the first draft of my posts in the future and hopefully, have the last of a hiatus or goofing off, whichever it was.
So far, the learning curve for MacSpeech is a little flat. With this dictation, it is getting better.
Let’s get back to hiatus versus goofing off. Procrastination is very sneaky. I can be convinced that I’m just taking a little time off, so that I can be more effective in the future; while what is really happening is, I’m goofing off.
This is a problem that we as volunteers, volunteer leaders, and members of nonprofits need to address continually. If it is a hiatus, a break to refresh oneself, those are needed periodically. However, if it is goofing off, it raises a number of questions. Am I in the right organization, an organization to which my heart is connected? Am I in the right position? Am I over committed?
These are a few of the evaluation questions that need to be on the top of our minds continually so we and our organizations are getting best results.
Now on to sharing ideas to help nonprofits get their best results.
photo credit: Elsie esq.
Group Dynamics and the Board
Group dynamics will make or break your Board.
An important part of functional group dynamics is understanding where you are and where the other Board members are on key issues. Without this understanding there can be no compromise or collaboration; no unity on issues.
You and your fellow Board members need to understand each other on at least these key areas:
1. What kind of role does the Board play in its group process?
2. Who in the organization drives our board activity?
3. How do we define our community base?
4. What size is our community base?
5. Where should the leadership for our organization come from?
6. How do we feel about power and authority?
7. How responsible are we to our community?
8. Does our organization and the Board focus more on relationships or tasks?
9. How much structure do we as Board members like?
10. How important is history and tradition vs contemporary models and trends?
[The above points are taken in part or in whole from Ten Dimensions that Shape Your Board by Vanderwall and Benavides.]
You and your Board has the opportunity to work together more effectively when you use an assessment tool to help you communicate about these issues. Then you can use it as a basis for an ongoing discussion in the integration of new Board members.
Contact me. I would be happy to discuss this at more length with you.
Board change and group dynamics
Every time someone new comes on your board, the group dynamics of the board changes. The group has to reform. It has to start over to some degree.
Bruce Tuckman developed and published in 1965 a 4-stage model of group development. He labelled the stages:
1. Forming: The group comes together and gets to initially know one other and form as a group.
2. Storming: A chaotic vying for leadership and trialling of group processes.
3. Norming: Eventually agreement is reached on how the group operate.
4. Performing: The group practices its craft and becomes effective in meeting its objectives.
Later he added:
5. Adjourning: The process of “unforming” the group, that is, letting go of the group structure and moving on.
When a group has a tool for forming with new members, the process is smoothed, especially the storming stage.
I think Ten Dimensions that Shape Your Board is a strong tool you can use each time a new member comes on the board to include them and to help the board reform.
Photo credit:
Stick People Meet. 14″x18″. Acrylic on canvas board. November 2006., originally uploaded by stuzehner.
Boards are for governance, committees are for results
There is a knee jerk reaction when a nonprofit is formed to make those who sign as incorporators members of the board of the new corporation. Then the board, in order to meet the need to get started, make the board members chairpersons of the operating as well as the governance committees that are needed. They also usually put in the bylaws that operating committee chairs have to serve on the board.
While this works as a let’s-get-this-started process, it is not a good long term organizational structure and should not be put in the bylaws.
As soon as there are enough volunteers interested in the mission of the organization, the committee chairpersons should leave the board. This can happen one of two ways, either the chairperson will come off the board when they can be replaced or the chairperson will resign and stay on the board when there is a suitable chairperson available.
Governance
Board are responsible for governance. The Nature Conservancy does a good job of creating a comprehensive list of governance responsibilities. Since this example is extensive it is a good starting point. The list would be shortened considerably in most organizations.
Wikipedia on governance says:
… governance relates to consistent management, cohesive policies, processes and decision-rights for a given area of responsibility.
Results
The board sets the mission, the goals, the resources and the authority for the operating committees. Operating committees are responsible for getting results.
Operating committees serve a staff function in all-volunteer nonprofits and in some staffed nonprofits. Operating committees should be managed as if they were staff while keeping in mind these are volunteers.
Photo credit: Meeting room stencil graffiti, originally uploaded by clagnut.
Why Your Results Stink
Take your pick. The result is the same. The mission to which you are drawn, to which your heart is connected, is not being accomplished.
If you are or are willing to be a volunteer leader or encourage a volunteer leader, you can help your organization get its best results.
I believe there are three core problems which create these situations.
• Committee chairs serve on the Board.
• There is no management team.
• There is little or no volunteer recruitment, placement or training.
When committee chairs serve on the board there are three problems created.
• They are not expected to submit written reports since they are there to be asked.
• They should be results leaders while board members should be governance leaders.
• The board does not communicate in writing with them since they are there to be told.
When there is no management team there are three problems.
• Committee chairs don’t know what other committees are doing.
• There is little or no coordination of committee efforts.
• The board receives little or no feed back until things don’t happen.
When there is no effective volunteer management there are three problems.
• Volunteers are placed in highest need not best fit positions.
• Volunteers burn out when asked to fill positions that don’t fit them.
• Volunteers discourage others from volunteering by speaking of their experience.
You can remove all three of these obstacles. When you do your heart will sing from the results.
Contact me with questions.
Photo Credit:Big Stink, originally uploaded by desben.
Nonprofit: Start One, Lead One
I spoke at the Minnesota Mensa Regional Gathering ‘Last of the Aughts’ Saturday. The topic was:Nonprofits: Start One, Lead One.
I discussed a few key ideas I have.
Start
Don’t start a nonprofit if you can do it with a for-profit. Don’t start a nonprofit if you can do it some other way. The National Council of Nonprofits points out some alternatives.
The second thing to do is ask yourself whether there are easier options to accomplish your goals. For instance, consider partnering with an organization on a special project you develop, volunteering with a group or joining their board of directors or staff. You also can consider starting a chapter of an existing national organization, convening an unincorporated club or association or, if you want to finance scholarships or emergency funds, setting up a fund at a local community foundation. All these are great alternatives to starting your own nonprofit.
Lead
Board
Don’t put committee chairs on the board. There are people who like governance and people who like doing things. Committee chairs tend to be in the second group.
Process
How are decisions communicated? How are results coordinated and supported? The committee chairs and the board president need to work as a management team. They need to meet regularly outside of board meetings.
Like the dragon boat, the president needs to beat the drum to keep the team together. The team in the boat didn’t plan the race.
People
The volunteer recruitment and coordination is the human resources department of the all volunteer nonprofit. It can’t be neglected if the nonprofit is going to get its best results. Chris Jarvis writes about Tara Weiss’ interesting take on volunteering and what is needed in nonprofits.
Remodel
Sometimes, when you volunteer in a nonprofit it has problems that you can help work through. Other times, the organization needs to be remodeled. It is in the wrong place, has the wrong people, has the wrong mission, etc. If you don’t have or can’t get the authority to be part of the remodel, find another place to volunteer.
CYL Dragonboat Team, originally uploaded by HowiePoon.
Remodeling Nonprofits
Chris Fuller, President, Performance Writing & Public Relations, just wrote about a situation in a discussion in a group we share. In his last job, one of his responsibilities was to serve as Executive Director of a foundation. It had outlived its usefulness. He was to either make something of it or shut it down.
He reconstituted it and spun it off as an independent entity.
The following was his learning:
If I had it to do over, I think the first thing I’d do would be to completely dissolve the Board of Directors and start over from scratch. During the transition, I gave Board members the opportunity to “opt-out” of service on the Board of the new organization. We had a lot of deadwood, and while the “opt-out” weeded out some of it, there’s still a bit of it remaining even today.
For any effort like this, a Board which is committed and willing to WORK on building the organization is essential. It seems that some prominent individuals collect Board memberships as though they were charms on a bracelet, enjoying a free lunch once a month, looking fabulous and saying all the right things, but unwilling to actually expend effort on organizational activities. Avoid these people like the plague!
Remodeling a nonprofit is hard. Chris was in the right position to remodel. When the leadership is from the executive director or the president of the board, it is easier to determine what changes need to be made and to guide the changes.
It is when you are a board member or a volunteer who is trying to affect change that the frustration can burn you out.
What do you do to enlist the participation of the leadership?
Photo credit:Remodeling, originally uploaded by Carlos Porto.
