By Patrick M. Rooney, associate dean, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
With the myriad demands nonprofit professionals face for their time and attention, it can be tough to make professional growth and career advancement a priority. Here are some steps you can weave into your schedule that will help you in your current position and prepare you for your next opportunity where you are now or elsewhere.
Become an issue expert and share what you know. Research and educate yourself on a key topic, and then develop original podcasts, blog posts, and opinion articles. ““Blogging makes you a go-to person,” Joe Waters, a cause marketing speaker and coach, wrote in an article for HubSpot, noting that becoming an expert lets you become “the person in your organization that people seek out to understand an issue.” Waters says that the experience “prepares you for your next big thing,” whether that’s being noticed by recruiters, writing a book, starting your own nonprofit or becoming a consultant.
Volunteer at your organization and beyond. “Volunteering to help with an event or a special project at your nonprofit — particularly those that cut across functional boundaries — can help provide the sort of well-rounded experience that leadership roles require,” according to an article by Bridgespan Group. Volunteering elsewhere lets you observe which roles are of interest or a good fit for your next career step, and serving on a nonprofit board helps you gain skills including decision-making, fundraising and program direction.
Step up for a stretch opportunity. Accepting assignments that stretch your limits helps you grow and enables managers to identify whether you are likely to succeed with more responsibility, The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Job shadow and do informational interviews. Not just for first-time job seekers, observing and talking with people who hold the type of position to which you aspire can help you determine what that type of role entails and whether it is really for you. It can also show you what additional knowledge, training, and skills you’ll need if you pursue it.
Select an effective mentor. People with mentorsearn higher salaries, are promoted more frequently, and report higher job satisfaction than those without mentors, according to research by Audrey J. Murrell, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh.
Form or join a peer-to-peer leadership group. Also called leadership circles, these small groups are made up of nonprofit professionals that meet periodically to listen to and coach each other. As the Center for Nonprofit Excellence says, “These circles provide a confidential setting in which peers can discuss and solve real-time problems with real-world experience.” For more information, see the March 14 issue of Indianapolis Not-for-Profit News.
Stay on top of developments in the field and in your issue area. Not sure which podcasts or newsletters are most helpful? Ask your peers, mentor, or other, more experienced professionals what they read, listen to, and follow.
Join a professional association and take advantage of the member benefits. Membership in professional associations offers numerous career-boosting advantages, including access to the latest information and best practices, professional development and training, conferences and networking.
Make time to participate regularly in professional development. Be intentional about blocking out and adhering to time on your schedule for professional development. Stick to the commitment as you would any other appointment. It’s easy to let the challenges of the day-to-day workload and over-the-transom projects derail your plans.
Earn a graduate degree. Increasingly, most of the people that Bridgespan Group spoke with agreed, formal degrees provide a distinct advantage for those aspiring to leadership roles. Article on developing oneself as a nonprofit leader. “I can think of several great nonprofit leaders who don’t have advanced degrees, but it’s an increasingly indispensable attribute,” said Stephen Pratt, CEO of MY TURN, Inc., a Brockton, MA-based youth development agency.
That thought was echoed by Sandra Gutierrez, COO at Latin American Youth Center, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that serves youth and their families. She said, “the rigor and discipline required to complete a master’s degree program give nonprofit professionals a big edge. . . . You see a really big difference in people who come into a program manager role with a master’s degree compared to an undergraduate degree,” said Gutierrez, who also noted that most of the people she hires complete their master’s while working.”
Patrick M. Rooney, Ph.D., is associate dean for academic affairs and research at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
[content_box box_type=”normal”]The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy recently announced that its master’s degree program can now be completed entirely online, offering working professionals more flexibility and convenience. Learn more.[/content_box]
Six years ago Joyce Johnson was hired by Rock Steady Boxing’s board and charged with the task of figuring out a way to expand its program.
“We were getting calls from all over the world where people would hear about it, and they would call and say, ‘Where’s Rock Steady Boxing in Colorado Springs?’ And I would have to say, ‘I’m sorry, there’s only one Rock Steady Boxing, and it’s here in Indianapolis,’” said Johnson.
There was no long-range plan in place in 2006 when Scott Newman — at the time Marion County’s prosecutor and public safety director – started boxing. Newman had been diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s disease, and his friend, Vince Perez, an attorney and former boxer, wanted to help. His intention was just to keep Newman active.
And so they started boxing in Newman’s basement. Newman started getting better. His tremors lessened, his balance improved, and he got stronger. He had lost his ability to type on his computer, and he got that back, and had a lot more confidence when he was in court.
“I often describe it as being serendipitous. He had no idea it was going to work when he started boxing. He and his bud were just trying to keep him active,” said Johnson.
By the time Johnson entered the picture, Newman and Perez had moved from the basement to a friend’s gym, and then opened the first-of-its-kind Rock Steady facility. Originally, Rock Steady’s board thought that Kristy Follmar, a former world champion boxer and one of the founders of the program, was going to be the Jane Fonda of home DVDs.
The board envisioned growth to be simple — sell DVDs to people with Parkinson’s who could then exercise in their living rooms. But it wasn’t too long before they realized that it wasn’t just the exercise.
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Rock Steady Boxing training camp
“At our training camp, we teach people about Parkinson’s and the symptoms, we give them some boxing information and then we teach them why boxing is the most effective way to combat Parkinson’s,” said Johnson.
Training Camp (the boxing term for “seminar”) provides an overview of Parkinson’s disease, beginning boxing techniques and adaptations of our fitness program designed to combat 23 common symptoms of PD. The course includes classroom instruction, hands-on training and a workout in the gym with Rock Steady boxers.
Coaches should be at least 18 years of age and must attend the entire two-day seminar to be eligible for coaching certification, with an optional Saturday morning. This year’s camps are sold out until August.
Training fee: $699 first attendee; $500 each additional attendee from same location.
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“I think we all realized that the camaraderie in the gym, people all with Parkinson’s working together fighting back, there was just something to that. Plus it isn’t really safe to be in your living room doing a lot of strenuous exercises,” said Johnson.
When Johnson was hired in 2011, she read lots of articles about scaling nonprofits. She quickly realized it wasn’t a franchise operation they were hoping to establish. Rather it was a nonprofit helping people fight back against Parkinson’s, and they needed a diverse approach.
Subsequently, she and her team tackled a new design for expansion, beginning with writing a manual to replicate the program. Follmer had learned about Parkinson’s, had been a boxer and had developed a system, so sharing that experience was critical, and potential coaches needed to see the program in action. Soon the idea for a two-day training camp in Indianapolis was born.
Johnson emailed people who made those early phone calls looking for the Rock Steady program in their communities, and told them Rock Steady was launching a training program. That was in 2012, and it resulted in three affiliates.
“The biggest question the board has had, and probably all of us have had from the beginning is ‘Can you really replicate this?’” Johnson said.
“In the first six years, everybody thought that this whole program was Kristy and her enthusiasm and her boxing knowledge. She’s really special, and she’s got this big wonderful heart, and it just really embraces everybody. Everybody loved her and that’s why we kept growing (locally), and I think people thought that you couldn’t bottle that, that you couldn’t take her personality and replicate it.
“But it turns out that that you can,” said Johnson, who says the proof is in the videos posted by affiliates.
People who come, they have discovered, want to do this.
“They are fighting Parkinson’s, and that’s real different. This isn’t a random thing where somebody graduates with an exercise science degree and just decides to come take our training. That isn’t the way that it happens. They have some connection to Parkinson’s,” said Johnson.
In the first couple of years growth was steady. By 2015, there were 83 affiliates in 23 states and three international programs.
One of those affiliates was in New York City, and one of the participants was Aaron Latham, husband of CBS’ Lesley Stahl. Stahl pitched the story idea, and that November, a 10-minute piece aired on “Sunday Morning.” The rest is history. The phones started ringing and the website crashed, according to Johnson.
“It turns out that Lesley Stahl and CBS can do more for you in 10 minutes than you can do in 10 years. Sometimes, we just walk down that path already laid out. And so Rock Steady has been growing since then and will continue to grow,” she said.
And grow it has. Today there are 356 affiliates in 46 states, and 20 affiliates in seven countries.
The Indianapolis gym, the only stand-alone gym, has over 200 participants with two fulltime and four part-time coaches. The gym is open six days a week, and offers 19 classes for four different levels, which is based on the person’s physical condition and how advanced their symptoms are.
Membership at the Indianapolis gym is $60 a month for unlimited classes, with most people coming between 10 and 12 times a month. In LA where the cost of living is higher, Rock Steady charges $150 a month.
The affiliates’ programs are typically housed at another facility, like YMCAs, rehab hospitals and boxing gyms.
“Boxing gyms have added a Rock steady program during the daytime, when they’re normally empty. Most of the people who do Rock Steady are retired, come in the middle of the day when most of these buildings are empty of adults,” said Johnson.
One lesson the nonprofit has learned is that one Rock Steady program in a metropolitan area is not enough. In Central Indiana, for example, there are programs in Anderson, Bloomington, Brownsburg, Greenwood, two in Hancock County, one at the Westside Garden Plaza and the JCC.
People with Parkinson’s have difficulty driving more than 15 or 20 minutes, and many lose their ability to drive at later stages. The driving time added to a 90-minute class for many is their limit.
“So that’s why we keep saying there needs to be a Rock Steady in every community in the country. That’s the goal,” said Johnson.
Affiliates have to agree to do the Rock Steady method the way it’s prescribed and sign a contract with an agreement that classes will be group class only, adhere to the methods learned in Indianapolis and pay a yearly fee of $800. As an affiliate, sites can access online the coaches’ management system, which includes everything Rock Steady has developed over its 11 years.
“Every document, every waiver, even videos of how to put on gloves. Everything that we’ve developed once they’ve become an affiliate they have access to. We don’t want them to reinvent the wheel. We want them to do it the way that we have taught them to do it,” said Johnson.
The best way to access how affiliates are doing is through social media.
“All of our affiliates post videos of themselves with their classes,” said Johnson.
Johnson said that what happens in the gym hasn’t changed dramatically because over the first six years, the Indianapolis coaches had seen hundreds of people and developed the program at all levels. They were confident that the program works.
What has changed, though, is that Indianapolis is now a home office that manages 356 affiliates. It has the responsibility for making sure instructors are trained properly, executing the program effectively and answering all their questions.
As an organization, it is still learning how important its brand is.
“When we very first started, we had questions like the guy in Australia who wanted to replace the Statue of Liberty in our logo with a kangaroo,” Johnson said.
“We’ve had to learn what it means to worry about branding and to trademark our logo and our bylines. We’ve got a couple – Fighting back against Parkinson’s, In this corner hope — are both trademarked taglines.
“We’ve had to safeguard that, and as we’re moving along, now we have manufacturers that want to put the Rock Steady logo on stuff, and so now we’re learning about royalties.
“We started out as a local nonprofit, hand-to-mouth, having barbecues, to pay the coach. There’s a lot more business end to what we do than there used to be.
What does the organization have planned?
Recently Rock Steady launched a free quarterly 32-page magazine, “In Your Corner.” It is one way to connect the affiliates, and make them aware that they are a part of something bigger – fighting Parkinson’s.
It is also developing an online certification program, which for the next year, it will be available only to affiliates.
But most importantly, it continues to stay focused on its mission.
“We are experts in Parkinson’s, you have to have a Parkinson’s diagnosis to be here, and so we just feel like that’s the strength of the program. We haven’t tried to develop any other programs for other diseases. This is what we do. There are 10 million people in the world with Parkinson’s. There are people everywhere with Parkinson’s that need this,” said Johnson.
Rock Steady Boxing was founded in Indianapolis in 2006.
Forced, intense exercise has been scientifically proven to reduce, delay and even reverse, some of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
At its flagship Indianapolis location, 19 classes are offered each week, serving more than 200 people.
Sixteen “Training Camps” are presented each year to replicate and establish Rock Steady affiliate programs throughout the world.
As of April 2016, there were 356 affiliates in 46 states, and 20 affiliates in seven countries.
The effect of boxing
While participants have reported success, Stephanie Combs-Miller, associate professor and director of research at Krannert School of Physical Therapy at the University of Indianapolis, has been studying Rock Steady for the past nine years. Learn more about the longitudinal study.
Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s disease is neurological disorder that many include symptoms such as muscle rigidity, tremors and changes in speech and gait.
As many as one million Americans live with Parkinson’s disease, which is more than the combined number of people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease each year, and this number does not reflect the thousands of cases that go undetected.
More than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease.
Incidence of Parkinson’s increases with age, but an estimated four percent of people with PD are diagnosed before the age of 50.
Men are one and a half times more likely to have Parkinson’s than women.
Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, National Parkinson’s Foundation
After the Leslie Stahl CBS’s Sunday Morning segment aired in 2015, Rock Steady had an increased demand for its training camps. This spring number of affiliates has grown to 356 from three in 2012.
By Cali Curley, assistant professor, IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI
Every March since 2012, Brackets For Good, an Indianapolis-based 501(c)(3) charitable organization, hosts online “competitive giving” fundraising tournaments. With March Madness as the impetus, there are now nonprofits in 10 additional cities involved, and a national competition.
Participating nonprofits organizations rally enthusiastic donors to out fundraise their opponents in order to advance into the next round of the tournament. By generating stakeholder excitement, promoting the tournament, and soliciting corporate involvement, nonprofits earn increased exposure, raise funds, gain access to free fundraising tools and are introduced to new donors.
Dollars from donors translate to points, giving participants the opportunity to advance in their bracket. Competing nonprofits keep donations received during tournament play, no matter how far they advance. The winning organization in each city receives an additional Championship grant sponsored by corporate sponsors.
This year’s tournament concluded last week with more than $3.5 million raised for nonprofits across the country. That total eclipsed the amount that the organization helped raise in its first five years combined. Indianapolis led all areas with more than 7,000 individual donations.
Capitalizing on the excitement of this bracket-style tournament, Brackets For Good teamed up with myself and SPEA at IUPUI colleagues Drs. Jamie Levine Daniel and Marlene Walk to better understand the impact that competitive giving, as a new fundraising strategy, has on nonprofits, their donors and the community at large (e.g., sponsors, participating cities).
Guided by input from Brackets for Good, this ongoing research reflects community needs and holds academic and practical relevance. For instance, a grant from the IUPUI’s Sports Innovation Institute made it possible for the SPEA research team to incentivize donors with additional dollars to donate in exchange for donors’ participation in a survey. Data from the donor survey provides insight into donation frequency, donation reasoning, expectations and the impact of “competitive giving” on supporters’ decision to give. Additionally, participating nonprofits were surveyed to paint a clearer picture about the sector’s capacity to adapt to the evolving forms that philanthropy is taking.
As millennials become even more central participants in philanthropy, fundraising innovations such as ‘competitive giving’ becomes even more important.
SPEA’s collaborative-competitive-giving research team will begin investigating the results to answer questions central to understanding the implications of using competition in philanthropy.
Keep an eye out for future publication of findings.
Cali Curley joined SPEA IUPUI in 2014 after receiving her doctorate in Public Administration and Policy from the Askew School at Florida State University. Her research focuses on the intersection of policy and local government. Her primary interests revolve around the individual level motivations, incentives, and barriers related to policy participation decisions.
By Ann M. Merkel, Senior Vice President and Chief Market Development Officer, The National Bank of Indianapolis
You are sitting at your computer, working happily away on a project, when you receive an email from a co-worker or friend, encouraging you to open an embedded link or an attachment. Or maybe it’s an urgently worded email from your organization’s executive director, instructing you to immediately wire funds to a new vendor. Or worse, the message instructs you to email to them the W-2 information of all your employees. Curious or eager to help, you click on the link or open the attachment.
Unfortunately, you’ve just exposed your organization to Business Email Compromise and the potential loss of confidential information, as well as funds.
In recent months in Indiana, nonprofits, governmental entities and private corporations have all been targeted by cybercriminals who gained access to information, mostly through emails containing embedded links or attachments. Cybercriminals threaten to steal your data, encrypt or destroy it or make confidential records public. If you’re “lucky,” they may offer to give the data back…for a price.
This hijacking of data and demand for payment has created its own apt name: ransomware. Unfortunately, ransomware can be purchased for less than the cost of a smartphone or a designer handbag. It’s also a faster and less expensive way to steal than credit card identity theft. Nationwide in 2014, there were 783 cyberattacks and breaches, exposing 85.6 million records. In 2015, there were 781 attacks, but the number of records exposed soared to approximately 169 million. Cybercriminals then share the stolen data through social media outlets. Intel Security (McAfee) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimated the likely annual cost to the global economy from cybercrime is between $375 billion and $575 billion.
There is no shame in being hacked; criminals are smart in appealing to your interests and making emails look legitimate. The loss of data, however, is a serious threat. Key is educating your employees when to be suspicious. Following are some questions to ask of your organization, and topics to discuss.
Recognizing fraudulent emails:
Even if you know the sender, verify that the message is legitimate. Pick up the phone and call or walk down the hall and ask the sender about his or her request.
If you receive a request via text message, don’t respond to the text. Instead, call the number you have on record for the sender and verify the request.
Although false emails can look professional, many do not. Notice misspellings or badly formatted content.
Be leery of third-party emails. Hover your cursor on links to see phony addresses. It’s best to search separately for the actual URL.
Never respond to a request for sensitive information through an unsecured email.
If your organization doesn’t already have a policy on internet usage, create one. Let your employees know that they shouldn’t be using their work emails for personal activities. If you use online banking services, consider dedicating a PC for this purpose only.
Suggestions for protecting your information.
Firewalls. Contact your local technology companies and consultants, who often have special rates for nonprofit organizations on firewall technologies, which are designed to prevent unauthorized access, and keep this product current. Heed all security software warnings on links and attachments and do not download if advised not to.
Back up, back up, back up! Viruses aren’t just about your health any more. Computer viruses, ransomware and malware (software that disables computer systems) are less threats if you back up your work daily. If your data is compromised, you can always go back and retrieve updated files with minimal loss of information. Cloud storage is recommended, but regardless, files should be stored in a separate location.
Saving data. Many nonprofit organizations cannot afford nor do they need a high-tech individual server. Consider, instead, free data storage cloud services that Google and Microsoft offer to nonprofit organizations.
As your bank’s fraud prevention software has become increasingly impenetrable, cybercriminals are focusing their attacks on you and your employees, instead. With information gleaned from a nonprofit’s website or from public domains, they use social engineering/phishing to gain access to your organization.
Cybercriminals believe employees are your weakest link. However, with some training, they can become your strongest asset in fraud prevention.
In her role as Senior Vice President and Chief Market Development Officer for The National Bank of Indianapolis, Ms. Merkel is responsible for cultivating and maintaining high profile corporate, individual and community relationships that strengthen the Bank’s brand and reputation.
I just might have a problem that you’ll understand.
We all need somebody to lean on.
— Bill Withers, “Lean on Me”
Betty Cockrum, the retiring president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, has had a lot on her plate during her 15-year tenure. She manages an organization with 19 locations in two states, 170 employees, and a $16 million budget.
She manages to keep a handle on everything, but every now and then it’s nice to get a little extra help. As the old song goes, it’s nice to have somebody to lean on when you need a hand.
It was just more than three years ago that Cockrum found her “somebody.” She was invited to join a small leadership group, not specific to her nonprofit sector, but a group that has provided invaluable guidance.
“I’m just really grateful that I got invited, and I place great value on it. I feel like everyone of them has become a person in my life that I can call on in the middle of the night,” said Cockrum.
This nonprofit leadership group, which has no official name, was launched by Cassie Stockamp, president of the Athenaeum Foundation, Jim Morris, CEO at Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity, and Kyle Lanham, vice president of community engagement and chief advancement officer at Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana.
The three had been members of similar for-profit groups. When Morris moved back to Indianapolis from Orlando, Fla., in 2008 and got re-involved in the community, he discovered there wasn’t a group for the nonprofit sector.
“I just started asking around, ‘would anybody want to do something like this?” said Morris.
Both Lanham and Stockamp had had longtime involvement with the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), which was founded in 1950 in Rochester, N.Y., and designed for young for-profit leaders. Both had small for-profit companies, before serving as nonprofit leaders, and Stockamp said for the first seven years, she was the only woman in her group.
After a year of contemplation, and asking questions about whether the size of nonprofits mattered and how dynamic to make the group, the three got serious. They adapted the YPO model and compiled a list of potential collegial candidates. Each reached out to individuals to gauge interest and commitment. But most importantly, they found solace in forming a group that could help shoulder the weight of a nonprofit leader to provide qualitative direction.
“So we literally just put a list together, and then went out and described what the group would be and asked, ‘Would you be interested?’” said Morris.
Indianapolis Jewish Community Relations Executive Director Lindsey Mintz remembers having coffee with Cockrum, who had signed on to the group and was gauging Mintz’s interest. Before Cockrum had fully explained the concept, Mintz remembers being hooked.
“I wanted in. I had gotten all sorts of stuff that I could talk about and getting access to all of this expertise and support was the selling point,” said Mintz, the group’s youngest member.
Rounding out the group are ACLU’s Executive Director Jane Heneger, Second Presbyterian Church’s senior pastor Lewis Galloway and IU Health’s senior vice president and chief mission and values officer Kevin Armstrong. Lanham said that recently the group decided to remain under 10.
Stockamp stressed that members cannot be vulnerable, but must be willing to cry and laugh. By nature of their positions, executive directors must provide direction for the entire organization, allow it to thrive and adjust to fit the changing needs of the people or issues at the core of its mission. They must motivate a team of people — all of whom rely, in one way or another, on the direction of the executive to maintain the viability of the entire organization.
Not everyone heads a nonprofit, so technically the group is not just for CEOs. With no official name, several members write MBO (mission-based organization) on the calendar. Morris quipped that maybe a name and matching t-shirts are needed.
“I have staff members who say, ‘What is that thing on your calendar every month?’ And I say, ‘That’s top secret, I cannot talk about it,’” said Cockrum.
Regardless of the name, the group plays a significant role for each member, and confidentiality is paramount. There is no signed agreement, but everyone adheres to the policy, and all understand it includes spouses and partners.
“Kyle may know you, but Kyle won’t know your wife. He may be less inclined to share something, if he’s not sure that he can trust her. So that was an important lesson for me 21 years ago, and definitely one I shared,” said Lanham. “This is a place where I can go and have a conversation and I know it will be confidential. Getting the right mix of people is important.”
From its start three years ago, the focus has always been a de facto support group and gives each member a confidential sounding board. While most have someone on their individual staffs to turn to for advice, there is a limit of what can be shared, and sometimes a feeling of loneliness.
“Every industry and job has its source of stress, but there is something unique to organizations where ‘Yes, I have to balance my budget, and I have to go out and find money, but I am trying to improve society in some way.’ There’s an understanding that all of us feel passionate about our missions. Really being there for each other and what each other’s going through is part of the glue,” said Mintz.
Meeting guidelines are simple: keep the group small — between eight to 12 — and attendance is a priority. Monthly meetings start at 8 a.m., with a rotating location and host, and a precise agenda. There is a guaranteed finish of 10:30 a.m.
“I think because this group of eight jelled so well and because our purpose for being has become so meaningful. If I really needed to feel shored up, I have that Monday morning to look forward to with seven individuals, and be sure that when I walk out of there at 10:30 in the morning and start my week for real that I walk a little stronger and straighter than when I walked in the door,” said Cockrum.
Meetings begin with a three-minute check-in to share each person’s highs and lows — professional, personal or a combination – of the last month. After check-ins, the harder work begins. Using a coach-presenter format, an individual poses a topical challenge. Prior to the meeting, the coach helps the individual tease out the issue.
“At the core is a question that they’re bringing to the group. While the group has expertise, it’s not there to necessarily advise or sort of be a wisdom council. It is there primarily to stir up the question, maybe build on the question,” said Morris. “We are really trying to get the presenter to think more broadly about it, to see if there are deeper questions to ask.”
While everyone takes on the presenter role, Mintz admitted that she had to be coached a couple of times before she had the nerve to offer to coach somebody. “There’s a ton of trust that you have to build, too,” she said.
This 45-minute portion of the monthly meeting tends to be fairly interactive. The presenter’s situation might be how to manage a project or tackle a staffing issue or board problem, but topics tend not to focus on funding. No matter, it’s eye-opening for the group.
“Every major decision that I’ve made, I went to the group first. The coach helps to make sure that the question you are asking is the right one. I have learned with help from the coach that my original question is not really the question,” said Lanham.
Clearly, everyone has a stake in the game.
“Invariably it’s not just the person learning something and getting feedback from other people, but everybody around the table takes something away from it. It may be one person’s issue, but we all get to grow from it and learn from it,” said Mintz. “I don’t think I’ve ever missed a session. There is very little that I wouldn’t move to make one of these sessions happen.”
“For me, it is getting advice from a bunch of people who know me, know my situation and have good judgment. That’s why the group is important,” said Lanham.
At the end of the session, there is a pregunta degu – literally, “ask me” — a question of the day. One member takes responsibility for leading this. Recently it’s been Lanham, and it’s designed to dig a little deeper.
“I think that’s been a very valuable part. You can gloss over it, think, ‘Aw, it’s just a fun little way to get to know each other,’ but it allows you to listen to the seasonal pulse of somebody and where they are,” said Morris.
While the group doesn’t often talk about an issue again, Mintz said, everything builds on previous conversations and deeper relationships.
“But really the sense of understanding, that sense I can say just a couple of sentences and I know that they’ll all get it, even though we all have very different organizations. For me as a younger professional, to find my legs, and my own voice, that’s also something that I learn a lot from this group. It’s really, really huge to be able to have that conversation with people in totally different industries, and faith traditions,” said Mintz.
But it doesn’t stop with the monthly meeting. There is a constant ebb and flow of information, and someone is emailing an article.
“It is important to just be reminded, that it’s about the journey, but it’s also about the destination. Sometimes you get so caught up in your daily meanders and challenges and you sort of forget what the long game is. And this group helps keep that focus,” said Cockrum.
By Mark Shreve, business development manager, SmallBox
Nonprofit organizations are not immune to the same challenges presented to for-profit businesses. You must survive economic swings, respond to political orders and actions, address shifting demographic needs, compete for attention, and increase impact to those you serve and do all this with shrinking budgets and teams.
Shall I say more?
But most nonprofits also are serving their audiences — members, donors, students, patients — with greater attention, a byproduct of operating in the Experience Economy, where people want to move beyond consumption and focus on participation.
As you battle for their attention, you’re also fighting for their support. Nonprofits often have the added challenge of asking these same audiences to fund the experience delivered to them. In order to adapt to these forces effectively and efficiently, and to generate meaningful experiences that will attract, engage, and retain their audiences, we believe, nonprofit organizations should turn to human-centered design principles.
Human-centered or design thinking provides a framework to understand how audiences — members, donors, students, patients — think, act and feel. This process allows a deeper investigation than just proposing initiatives that may satisfy your audiences. It demands thinking about the entire experience delivered, and do it with contextual data to yield greater results. When every penny counts, this process ensures failing forward and finds lasting impact faster.
Design thinking empowers you to be a more creative and effective problem solver
If you have ever wished to take a timeout and disrupt your approach to work, now is your chance. Human-centered design has been helping healthcare, education and cultural institutions.
SmallBox follows a five-stage and circuitous process that builds on empathy, encourages collaboration, and yields a prototype to test with audiences. The idea here is to be inclusive, thorough, exploratory, and not just innovate for the sake of innovation. Make the investment of time to do this right, and it will benefit those the nonprofit serves and those who lead the work.
Let’s move beyond theory and into practice. The first step in a human-centered process is to empathize with your audiences. It’s their experience you’re developing so understand their point of view is critical to success.
Our approach is to ask, listen (not always obvious!), and involve your audiences. Here are a few examples from recent projects:
Ask your audiences and improve communications: A small college wanted to explore their alumni communications to maximize resources, align their team’s efforts and to increase engagement among their audiences. First step, we surveyed 3,000 people to understand how they wanted to receive communications and what they valued most from different touch points. Insights gathered from this survey directed our work to redevelop the experience of creating and distributing content in the alumni magazine, which resulted in just one touch point with their audiences.
Take away: As you seek to understand what your audience needs, consider asking them to envision a future state to shed them of their current blinders!
Listen to your audiences and increase the value of membership: A large state university sought to redesign the membership experience for segmented generational groups. The perceived value of membership varied between boomers and millennials. After listening to alumni via participatory ideation sessions, a new “freemium” option was added to mirror the discounted services model this group was accustomed to receiving before they invested more.
Take away: Human-centered design keeps audiences at the center of the problem so if you ask, be prepared to listen!
Involve your audiences and attract donors: A hospital foundation wanted to attract more donors in the Indianapolis community. So, rather than pitch to prospective donors, we asked them to pitch to the foundation. During a participatory focus group, we provided scenarios to foundation volunteers and community leaders and challenged them to create experiences to tie donors to the work of the foundation. What we heard in those sessions will inform messaging and touch points with the community.
Take away: Involve your audiences in the process for more buy-in!
After each of these organizations empathized, they moved to the next phases of the process – framing their insights and takeaways, ideating on new solutions and then prototyping and testing the viability of those solutions.
So, when was the last time you stopped juggling your tasks to really connect with and talk to your audiences?
Take the first step. Like the idea, but not sure where to begin? Convene a group of stakeholders to determine if the experience you’ve created is the one most aligned with those you serve. If not, turn to a human-centered framework to guide you as you redesign the experience.
Mark Shreve has supported nonprofit organizations for over a decade and is currently the business development manager at SmallBox, a brand experience agency that helps with organizational alignment and customer engagement.
SmallBox collaborates with organizations dedicated to creating impact and serving others. Initiate a conversation with Mark at mark@smallbox.com.
The city of Philadelphia announced Friday that it will stop billing parents for the cost of their children’s incarceration, just hours after a front-page Marshall Project story in The Washington Post highlighted the practice in the city and across the nation.
Billing parents for incarcerating their children goes far beyond Philadelphia and is rooted in decades-old social policy based on the belief that families were shedding responsibility for delinquent children and expecting the government to pick up the tab.
Nineteen states and county-level juvenile justice systems in 28 other states now charge parents for jailing juveniles, often using a child-support model to determine the cost and collect debt, the story found. But there are some signs of change: A county-by-county effort to end the collections is also underway in California, where a bill to abolish the practice outright has been introduced in the state legislature.
Google thinks science and data are key in advancing racial justice — and it’s putting up millions of dollars to prove it.
The tech giant’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, is pledging $11.5 million to U.S. organizations dedicated to racial justice and criminal justice reform. The grants will be distributed over the next three years to 10 different nonprofits and initiatives, all working toward racial equality and equity in innovative ways.
The new commitment marks the latest effort in this space from Google.org, which has provided $5 million in grants to racial justice innovators since 2015. Past recipients include Black Lives Matter cofounder Patrisse Cullors and the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative.
Justin Steele, principal at Google.org, announced the news in a blog post Thursday, beginning with his personal attachment to the cause. He said all the black men in his family have worked in some form of law enforcement, including his grandfather, a Port of Seattle police officer, and his father, a detention chief in Snohomish County, Washington. He’s seen firsthand how police can be a force for good in communities.
By Becca Shareff & Erin Murphy-Graham, Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley
When Lucia was working as an assistant in a health clinic in her home community, Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial (SAT) — a program designed to help people from rural areas gain a secondary-level education — recruited her to be a teacher. As soon as she started her new job, however, she realized that she was not prepared to teach the topics she was supposed to be covering. While working through a unit on soil science, for example, she felt confident about the scientific content in the curriculum, but knew that she had to defer to her students when it came to discussing the farming activities that would put that science into practice.
To address this challenge, Lucia shifted her role from being a direct instructor to a guide. Knowledge-building became a shared process within the class, and together, Lucia and her students worked to combine theory and practice. The approach worked, and, as Lucia reports, it also complements the way in which SAT trains its teachers. Once shy and afraid to ask questions, Lucia is now an active and vocal participant in the ongoing training she receives from SAT; as a result, that training has become “indispensable.”
