Archive for October, 2010

Writing a Grant Proposal can be Daunting

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Robin Noah

Author: Robin Noah

Executive Coaches of Orange County

www.ECofOC.org

Whether you do it yourself or hire a grant writer you will find that there are some common aspects to all grant proposals. Even if you are expert at writing grants it is a good idea to keep some of the basics as a check list that you can refer to as you develop the documents.  There is a variety of approaches for this type of writing and a basic framework.  

First and most critical is that the writer understands the funder’s guidelines and specific instructions regarding the presentation of certain facts; especially if it is a conditional grant.  With a conditional grant it usually means that your organization needs to raise a specific amount of money before the grant is paid.  Many grant writers rely on their check list to ensure that the proposal includes all steps necessary to give the document the edge for success.  You need to achieve flawless quality

A good way to start is to develop a map /outline for the proposal and match it against the funders guidelines – then begin the writing of the proposal.  Use language appropriate to the grant.  Not every person reading the proposal will know the “jargon” you may have used to express a thought – including acronyms.  Jargon is irritating to readers and often seems pretentious.

Be concise and concentrate on your organization’s ability to meet the need stated in your mission statement. Give a brief history of your nonprofit and give a capsule of your programs. Make sure to directly connect what you currently do and what you want to accomplish with the funding that is requested.

Often your proposal is one of many competing for the same grant so present your ideas as clearly as possible. Stick to the main points, eliminate wordiness. A short and succinct proposal will be appreciated by the reader. Give it life!

Lastly, let someone else read your proposal – have them read it out loud so you can hear and appreciate the contents. Make last minute adjustments as necessary then send it off with good wishes.

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Posted in -By Author, Fundraising, Robin Noah | Comments Off

Guidestar’s Library of Articles

Monday, October 25th, 2010
Bob Cryer

Bob Cryer

Author: Bob Cryer

Executive Coaches of Orange County

www.ECofOC.org

Guidestar’s September 2010 newsletter had two articles that caught my attention. One was “15 Tips to Help You Raise More Money by Mail”. It was of interest to me because one of my coaching clients had just gotten disappointing results from her first attempt at direct mail fundraising campaign.

The second was “The Day We First Met”, an article on finding, attracting, deploying and retaining volunteers. The Executive Coaches of Orange County depends on volunteers to do all the executive coaching that we offer clients free of charge. Our volunteers also plan and implement all our marketing efforts to recruit coaches and clients. They also plan our monthly meetings to keep our coaches informed, motivated and growing in their knowledge of nonprofits and coaching methods. This article’s perspective on volunteers was very interesting to me.  

When I went to Guidestar’s website (www.guidestar.org) and clicked on “news” and “articles”, I discovered that they had a library of all the articles that they had published in the last ten years, literally hundreds of articles about managing a nonprofit. Check it out! I’ll bet there are at least a few articles in their library that are addressing management issues that you are currently dealing with.

While you are there, you might want to sign up for their monthly newsletter. It will keep you informed of the additional articles that they add to their library each month.

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Posted in -By Author, Bob Cryer, Fundraising, Managing Volunteers | 2 Comments »

Leadership Lessons from Father Guido Sarducci

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

Larry Tucker

Author: Larry Tucker

Executive Coaches of Orange County

www.ECofOC.org

If you are old enough to have watched “Saturday Night Live” in the early 80s, you may have laughed with Father Guido Sarducci, played by comedian Don Novello. One of his bits was about starting a school named Five Minute University where he would teach everything that the average college graduate would remember five years after graduating. So, for example, his whole economics course was “supply and demand”. That’s it. (Keep in mind…he is a comedian.)

Father Sarducci really didn’t offer a course on leadership, but if he wanted to start one, I have the perfect three thoughts for him. And, more seriously, I suggest that after all the books and articles written about leadership, keeping in mind three simple concepts might help focus your thoughts and actions as you lead your nonprofit.

Excellent leaders are grounded to three primary concepts:

Vision: Great leaders have researched and developed a strong vision about what direction the organization must take. All their decisions reflect this vision. As they prioritize their day, they make sure that their activities build toward that vision.  

Values: Creating, refining and understanding an organization’s values are key leadership traits. An excellent values statement takes into account not only the values stated, but recognizes the implications of which values are not mentioned. For example, a values statement without some form of “teamwork” or “collaboration” implies an organization of individual contributors where success is defined by each person’s achievements.

Role Modeling: Once a great leader has developed a vision of where to take the organization and adopted the values defining how his/her daily actions will get there, then every one of the leader’s actions must reflect them. It’s not that easy!

My apologies to Father Guido Sarducci.

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Posted in -By Author, Larry Tucker, Leadership | 2 Comments »

Mentoring for Succession Planning

Monday, October 18th, 2010

Adrianne DuMond

Author: Adrianne DuMond

Executive Coaches of Orange County

www.ECofOC.org

My colleague, Larry Tucker, recently talked about leadership lessons on this blog. He talked about the importance of vision, values, and role modeling for the successful leader. These are qualities to think about when the subject of succession planning surfaces in an agency. Who is going to mentor these qualities, and how should it be done?

Succession planning is often difficult for non-profit organizations. They run a lean staff, good people leave for a more challenging opportunity, and Executive Directors may be Founders of the organization, who have such passion for the mission that they can’t let go. So succession planning languishes until a crisis emerges. Then the Board is usually scrambling to replace the person.

The quality of role modeling becomes very critical in planning for successors in a job. Setting the example of how values and vision are expressed becomes one of the standards of modeling the job for a potential successor.  It also takes some planning on the mentors part to make sure the follow through is sufficient.

Here are some steps to consider for mentoring a potential successor:

  1. In a private discussion clarify the mentee’s development goals for growing in the organization. This means being specific about goals in the coming year – hopefully with a timeline for completion.
  2. Meet on a regular basis – maybe once a month or quarter – to follow up on progress and realign the goals.
  3. Keep the relationship professional so that there are no feelings with the rest of the staff that the mentor is playing favorites.
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Posted in -By Author, Adrianne DuMond, Leadership | 1 Comment »

Changing Behavior to Influence Attitudes

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

Robin Noah

 

Author: Robin Noah

Executive Coaches of Orange County

www.ECofOC.org

Spring has sprung, The grass has riz

Wonder where the Business is   

I recently saw this in a web site and smiled.  I thought that even in tough times we can smile and get the endorphin levels to rise.  It brought to mind one  of my favorite subject’s – “Attitudes”.                                                                

In brief attitude is a response, a perspective or viewpoint that promotes how you look at the world and yourself.                   

In my “© Consulting as a Business” workshop I talk about the fact that if you know your position you can change the condition.  It isn’t only looking at the glass of water as half full – it is also seeing that the lemon we often add to the drink is not to make it sour – it is as an enhancement to the drink.  How do you view it?  It is all about attitude and I believe that we can change behavior to influence attitudes.

You influence how others respond to you. If you act grumpy you put up a shield, if you act negative you turn people off; however the greatest effect is that you continue to experience dissatisfaction and the notion that “nothing works out right for me”.  

Thomas Jefferson in his writings wrote that nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal and that nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.  The latter just brings us a lot of grief and disappointment.  I am living proof of that.  In my early career my attitude was on the negative side resulting in some not so nice situations. I quickly learned that it was I that had to change, not the other people I became involved with. As one poet wrote, “There is a choice you have to make, in everything you do… And you must always keep in mind, the choice you make, makes you!”

So if you want to make a change for better outcomes in your life here are a few tips to get started:

  1. Look at setbacks as opportunities
  2. It is not IF – it is When
  3. A “should” is an opportunity to improve 
  4. Practice the 4 D’s – Desire, Discipline, Determination, and Dedication.
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Posted in -By Author, Leadership, Robin Noah | 2 Comments »

Is Your Pay “Just and Reasonable”?

Monday, October 11th, 2010
Bob Cryer

Bob Cryer

Author: Bob Cryer

Executive Coaches of Orange County

www.ECofOC.org

Employees can really get upset, distracted and even dysfunctional if they feel they are not being fairly compensated for the work they do for their nonprofit. Do you have a defensible system for determining salaries for the key positions in your nonprofit? Should your key employees know how that system works and should they agree that it is a reasonable and fair method of setting compensation levels?

 My former employer, Procter and Gamble, used to identify companies that they felt had a culture and employment standards that were similar to P&G’s. These “sister” companies would share data on what they were paying people in a few standard job classifications in each functional area of the business. This data became the basis for setting salary levels in each functional area of P&G.

 A nonprofit could do something similar, identifying nonprofits, positions and personnel in other nonprofits that were similar to their own. These nonprofits might agree to share data, or a nonprofit could just go to www.guidestar.org and look at those nonprofits’ 990s to find out what they were paying their top five executives and officers. This could be the basis for setting salaries for a nonprofit’s key employees.

 In addition, there are organizations that do annual salary studies. The Center for Nonprofit Management (www.cnmsocal.org/salarysurvey) does an annual survey of Southern California nonprofit salaries for dozens of positions broken out by the size of the nonprofit’s budget, the county they are located in, the nonprofit’s field of service and the number of employees managed by that position. Nonprofits can buy the entire survey for $425 or just get the survey results on one particular position for $20-$40.

 Regardless of the method, every nonprofit should have some sort of system in place to insure that the compensation of their key personnel is “just and reasonable”, as required by California’s Nonprofit Integrity Act of 2004.

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Posted in -By Author, Bob Cryer, Managing Employees | 2 Comments »

The Firing of HPs CEO is a Reminder for Us All

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

Larry Tucker

Author: Larry Tucker

Executive Coaches of Orange County

www.ECofOC.org

Your organization likely has a set of values that employees follow as they do their daily work, interacting with each other, volunteers, board members and clients. (If you don’t have stated values, get working!) How often are they reviewed with employees? Are they prominently displayed? Do your leaders really believe in them and abide by them?

Mark Hurd, the well-respected CEO of Hewlett-Packard, was recently asked to resign because he filed inaccurate expense reports and may have approved expenses for services not performed in a possible scheme to cover up a relationship with an HP contractor.

In “The Sad Fall of Mark Hurd”, a blog in Workforce Week, Stephen Paskoff effectively presents the reasons that a board must take such a difficult action to avoid compromising the values that they expect all their employees to be following.  

As a consultant to a major aerospace company several years ago, I was working with a group of leaders to arrive at a particular decision. When they seemed to be going off the track, I pointed to their four values which were prominently displayed on the security cards they all wear. Their reaction was: “We don’t really follow those.” I was lost. There was no starting point to make the right decisions for the organization.

If you haven’t spent some time reaffirming your values with your leaders and reviewing their implications with your employees, Mark Hurd’s fall is a good prompt for us all to take the time to redefine and communicate how we interact with others.

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Posted in -By Author, Larry Tucker, Leadership | 1 Comment »

The Benefit of Thanking Volunteers

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Adrianne DuMond

Author: Adrianne DuMond

Executive Coaches of Orange County

www.ECofOC.org

My Executive Coach colleague, Robin Noah, wrote a very informative article about designing a volunteer management system for this blog on September 17, 2010. It included the how to’s of selection, training, and recognition of volunteers. I want to talk about how important it is to give praise and recognition to those people who give of their time, talents, and money as a volunteer.

I have a friend who gives $1500 a year to a well known non-profit. He doesn’t serve on the Board, but supports the ideals, anyway, with his money. Each year, he is taken to lunch by the Director of Fund Development as a way to say thank you. He never forgets to tell me how important that gesture is.

Another friend sits on a non-profit Board, and gives $2500 a year – a requirement for Board participation. Requiring a yearly donation from Board members is a good idea. It proves they have “some skin in the game” and are really committed. But this friend only receives the obligatory letter of acceptance (for the IRS) and often comments on the lack of appreciation from the agency.

I think you can guess which friend will continue as long as possible to give and support his/her agency. But it is not only money that should reap recognition. If you have volunteers doing the most menial of tasks, they are there because they believe in your cause. Executive Directors should see this as one of their most important jobs. If they can’t find the time, assign it to someone who can write thank you’s, make calls of appreciation – especially call-backs to those interested in your agency and the good it provides.

How to say thank you

I have another friend, an Executive Director, who faithfully creates little ways to recognize her supporters. She may pass out a flower, a small box of Truffles, an ornament from her travels, a pen or notepad with the agency’s logo or name, or a bookmark. It’s not the value that counts, but the thought. Share with me what kinds of thanking you do.

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Posted in -By Author, Adrianne DuMond, Managing Volunteers | 2 Comments »