The Rundown - December 30, 2021
The Latest News and Ideas from the Non-Profit and Philanthropic Sector
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I am grateful that you have chosen to end your year by reading up on the latest doings in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector. If you have found value, please do me a small favor and share this with your friends and colleagues
Has Founder’s Syndrome Struck Again?
Talk to anyone in the nonprofit world and “Founder’s Syndrome” is a topic that will eventually come up. For those unaware of the term, “Founder’s Syndrome” is loosely defined as “The difficulty faced by organizations where one or more founders maintain disproportionate power and influence following the effective initial establishment of the organization, often leading to a wide range of problems.”
It appears that this unlucky malady has hit the established non-profit Black Girls Code. Tech Crunch has the best recap of the organizational happenings in this article.
In all transparency, it’s hard to write about these situations and it’s sometimes challenging to track the discussions about this particular situation. We all need to recognize that we have biases and many times a situation that has hit Black Girls Code (BGC) are often seen through filters of race, gender and other socio-economic dynamics that are often difficult to parse through. But as I read this article, a few things come to mind.
First and foremost, non-profits have founders and not owners. There is no doubt that most (if not all) people would have deep empathy for Kimberly Bryant, the founder of BGC. The organization you helped create, put you on paid suspension and you are locked out of all the tools the organization has, that you no doubt built. It’s almost like everything you have worked for is just gone and there are more questions than answers.
But at the end of the day, foundership does not equal ownership in the non-profit world. No one owns a non-profit (which is a mantra I have told many people in many different formats). Non-profits are “owned” by the community and held in trust by a Board of Directors that have a duty of care, loyalty and obedience to the organization (not the founder). If you are a founder, you need to come to the realization that that organization you are creating is not owned by you.
Another important lesson is that boards are empowered to make the ultimate decision in the organization and all board members need to be part of the process. I can look at what happened with BGC and I can see a reasonable explanation for putting someone on paid administrative lead, especially if there is a reasonable suspicion of wrong-doing. Getting someone out of the workplace, doing an investigation and taking the right course of action afterwards is usually a smart decision. However, in this case, this decision seems to be made by at best a committee (at worst, the board chair) and not by the full board.
This leads to another lesson, the board chair has no more inherent power than any other board member. In Westminster parliamentary government systems (think Great Britain or Canada) there is an old adage where the Prime Minister is “First among Equals”. Emphasis on the “equals”. Same with a board of directors. The board chair holds power equally with other board members and is empowered to exercise their power only with the concurrence of the board or within the guidelines of the bylaws. Nothing more.
Non-profit organizations are unique animals where power is shared between the executive director and the board of directors and it is a dance to watch this played out. If you have honest brokers on both sides, the dance can be beautiful. If you have people that have agendas, more often than not, the dance is neither beautiful or graceful.
2021: A Challenging Year for Non-Profits
The Dayton Daily News ran an excellent article on the state of local non-profits here in the Miami Valley region this year. If there is one thing we saw in 2021 from non-profits was an amazing ability to pivot to new realities and new externalities. The better news is that throughout this pivot, the foundations and individuals that help support these organizations answered the call and helped non-profits through some of their most difficult and challenging times.
The ability for non-profits to pivot really can’t be understated. Those in non-profits live in a world that often revolves around discussions about strategic planning and other future thinking topics. These topics are important, but as we have seen over the last twelve months, what happens when these plans are upended by an epidemic? I mean honestly, when our non-profits had our latest SWOT analysis, how many of us put down “world wide pandemic”? Yeah, that’s what I though.
But even as we dealt with this curve ball, most organizations rolled with the punches, pivoted and found new ways to serve those they were committed to serve. Even if these weren’t necessarily in our strategic plan, they were at least consistent with our missions and visions.
Way to go everyone!
A Complicated Relationship: Local United Ways and Community Foundations
The Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University recently published this blog article about an ambitions research project investigating the often the complex and complicated relationship between local United Ways and local Community Foundations. The challenge lies in the fact that often these two groups tend to go after the same pool of donors and serve the same group of nonprofits. In reality, how does this relationship play out?
The researchers found some interesting details.
First, an equal number of respondents described the relationship they had has both “cooperative” and “competitive” and only 27% of the organizations found their respective United Way or Community Foundation as a partner. However, in those relationships, respondents felt that there relationship was strong due to the LEADERSHIP of those groups. The blog article described these leaders this way:
Cooperative leaders “lacked ego” and shared a commitment to making decisions that benefited the community. Positive relationships among leaders were reinforced and supported with staff and board members through actions like joint committees and participation in community activities. Building and caring for relationships reduced the uncertainty of working with others.
The takeaway? We can be so boxed in by what we think are the constraints of our situations and our relationships. One of the hidden beauties of the non-profit world is that we can make relationships work across sectors; it’s not uncommon for the non-profit world to work with the public/government sector and the private/for-profit sector. We straddle those worlds constantly and we know enough to speak the language on both sides of that divide. If we can take that same spirit to the non-profits we know and work with now….well, there is no challenge we can’t handle!
An Excerpt from the “Tools, Tips and Tricks” Newsletter
The Pinnacle Solutions, “Tips, Tools and Tricks” newsletter comes out every Tuesday and is available for a paid subscription for as little as $7/month. Here is an excerpt from our last version:
One of the most undervalued skills you can learn as a nonprofit leader is the ability to write and distribute a good press release. These are amazing tools that reporters and news staffs use to get information out to their media consumers about the work you are doing.
And if you haven’t noticed, the media landscape is changing. Reporters in the traditional and legacy media are as busy as ever and are doing more and more things. It’s not uncommon for a local newspaper reporter to also be their own photographer and shoot video for social media sites. You can take advantage of this time through well crafted press releases; a good press release, more often than not, will be printed verbatim in local newspapers. You have an amazing opportunity to describe your work to a larger audience without paying one thin dime. Amazing!
If you are searching for good information that will help you manage and lead a non-profit agency, please subscribe to the “Tips, Tools and Tricks” newsletter! And of course, as a huge “thank you”, all of our paid subscribers will get a special gift.
Other Ways to Connect
Our coaching practice has openings starting in 2021. If you are interested in working with me to get your nonprofit organization on a track to achieve the big missions you have for your organization, please reach out to me at pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com.
Check us out on our LinkedIn Page
and Check out the Celebrating Leadership Facebook Group for almost daily content and interaction with other leaders!
It’s the Season to Share!
Also, if you found value in this weekly newsletter, would you please take a moment and share it with your friends and colleagues? It would be very helpful to keep the energy behind this newsletter going!