Nancy Lublin was right on the mark in a Fast Company article when she observed:

The biz model [for nonprofits] destines us for burnout. We take people with big hearts and crush their souls; you sign on to help cure cancer and then leave because you’re just shilling rubber bracelets. You want universal literacy, but the only way to move toward it is a big chicken dinner at a fancy hotel.

She is speaking about the problem created by how nonprofit volunteers and staff are managed and how nonprofit volunteers and staff should approach their work.

This problem affects both volunteers and staff. It is indicates poor placement, supervision and management.

I think the nonprofits with few or no staff are especially vulnerable to this problem. It starts with poor volunteer screening and placement system. It continues with poor or no supervision. And is aggravated by poor planning and coordination by the board and leadership.

BUT all of these issues have relatively simple ways they can be solved.

When you screen for connection to mission, for governance vs results and for personal interests, the volunteer can be placed in the position that will maximize results and minimize burnout.

When committee chairs are placed effectively and given training in supervision, the volunteer will see results and have a sense of fulfilling the mission to which they are connected.

When the Board is focused on governance and creates a management team, the volunteer will function in an effective and rewarding environment.

None of these steps are expensive. They do require an experienced person to help create the operating system.

We do can help do that.

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photo credit: DieselDemon

Many nonprofits treat volunteers like fingers for a leaking dike. They stick them into whatever role seems to have the most need at the moment. This is a mistake.

Poor decisions about volunteer assignment, I believe, increases burnout and, more importantly, underperformance.

A board member or committee member, who underperforms, accepts a responsibility but doesn’t complete it or completes it late. The lateness and neglect undermine the effectiveness of the board, the committee and ultimately the organization.

Underperformance  is more damaging than someone leaving because they are burnout. I know that a person who leaves won’t be doing anything. I don’t know a person is underperforming because he/she is in the wrong position will not carryout a responsibility until after the deadline.

All nonprofits should have an effective volunteer coordinator. This should be one of the first positions created after the initial board has been created.

I believe, strongly, that anyone helping a volunteer find their place in an organization should:
a. understand from where the volunteer’s passion for the organization and its mission comes;
b. identify, as much as possible, what are the volunteer’s unique abilities and interests; and,
c. offer to the volunteer as many options as possible from which to choose to increase the probability they will feel fulfilled and energized by their volunteer work.

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photo credit: maplegirlie

Inver Hills Community College Inver Grove Heights, MN beginning September 28, 2010

Minneapolis Community and Technical College Minneapolis, MN beginning September 29, 2010

Nonprofit Organization and Operation: A Hands-on, How-to Approach is designed for nonprofit entrepreneurs and volunteer leaders from organizations somewhere between the “start up” and the “staff up” phases. By taking an approach that is tailored to the needs of class participants, the course will help you to develop an organization with the means and resources to be successful. Topics of the course will include but not be limited to:
Beginning a nonprofit
Recruiting and organizing board members
Building committees and leaders
Building and leading a management team
Recruiting and placing volunteers
Creating plans and measuring results
Operating a results oriented organization
Creating resources
Communications

The course will use lecture, small group discussion, peer-to-peer discussion of issues brought in by participants, and case studies. There will be assignments to be completed outside of class, with the opportunity for feedback each week. You’ll have the opportunity to discover resources here that will help you focus your efforts as you move through the various steps of launching a functioning nonprofit organization.

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.

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

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

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.

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. ]]> http://yayteamblog.com/2009/04/nonprofit-start-one-lead-one/feed/ 0 http://yayteamblog.com/2009/03/using-social-media/ http://yayteamblog.com/2009/03/using-social-media/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:17:16 +0000 J. Michael Cavitt http://yayteamblog.com/?p=185

Wow! Yesterday, I watched Chris Brogan’s video seminar “Using Social Media to Find a Job“.

The other neat thing was to have Chris refer me to his free ebook Using the Social Web to Find Work.

I am a discoverer. A person who wants to know what’s around next corner. These were a couple of great resources to help me see ‘what’s around the next corner’ in social media. The opportunities to ‘discover’ are endless. I am especially interested in areas like social networking and nonprofits, organizing nonprofits, recruiting and training volunteers, solving organizational and operational problems for nonprofit, finding resources for nonprofits, etc.

So, the more I can learn from people like Chris Brogan and others the better I will be at helping volunteer leaders get the best results for their nonprofits.

photo credit: p373

Yesterday, I was at the launch of a new workbook for nonprofit boards: Ten Dimensions That Shape Your Board (October, 2008) by Kim Sundet Vanderwall and Ellen Benavides [benav003@umn.edu]. It is a companion to: Coloring Outside the Box, One Size Does Not Fit All in Nonprofit Governance (September, 2006) also by Kim Sundet Vanderwall and Ellen Benavides.

Coloring is a report of conversations the authors had with 117 leaders in 40 nonprofits throughout Minnesota. Ten Dimensions is a tool based on those conversations to help “organizations intentionally shape their governance to fit their values, resources and community strengths.”

Both Coloring and Ten Dimensions are available as free downloads from MAP for Nonprofits. Use the links with each book.

You will find both of these books interesting and productive reading whether you are serving on a board, serving as a volunteer, working in a nonprofit or just interested in nonprofits.

I think they should be required reading for current and potential board members because volunteers tend to come from a narrow perspective. Both of these books will help volunteers have a broader perspective.

Take time to look at both publications.