This piece in BoardSource outlined something that isn’t always a comfortable subject in the nonprofit world: board governance. And not only board governance, but how do boards ensure we have the right people around the table to help ensure we are making the right decisions for those individuals we are here to serve?
Nonprofits (like governments and other institutions) can often fall into a dangerous trap of crafting solutions with a very limited base of applicable knowledge. In other words, we might be “book smart”, but are we “street smart”?
We can work hard to create and design programs that we know our training and expertise will make a big impact, but if we can’t communicate the real value to the people we are committed to serve, it probably won’t make a big difference.
And how do we involve those individuals? We need to have enough flexibility to bring them along in the process. Enlist their help to design programs and implement solutions. This is easy to write, but it’s a huge challenge. Many times the people we are serving are tired, burned out, been let down before, apathetic (the list can go on). Regardless of that, we still have a community to serve. We still have people that need our help. We still have untapped capacity in our community we need to find. Let’s get to work!
Local News You Can Use
The Piqua Area Chamber of Commerce is accepting nominations for their Cheryl Stiefel-Francis Award for Non-Profit Excellence. Individuals nominated for this award should be recognized for their leadership; cannot be elected official; must serve the Piqua community and have a positive impact on our citizens; the individual should have a reputation for integrity when dealing with clients, volunteers, staff or other individual/groups. This award is presented to an individual that exemplifies excellence and Innovation and programs, projects and partnerships. You can download a nomination form here.
Four Minutes of Thinking
If you have never heard of “RadiAid”, take a look at this video. Sure, it’s a bit tongue in cheek, but there is a real message here. How many times do we promote a sad story to end up doing fundraising? Probably more than we want to admit. And there is nothing inherently wrong with these sad stories. However, we need to always remember that if we are going to serve those that are less fortunate, we need to hear from them on the solutions that will actually work to serve their needs. Also, we need to always recognize that the people we are serving have worth and dignity; playing up on their downtrodden lives just to raise a buck (especially if they are unaware of it) is not wise fundraising.
An Excerpt from our “Tips, Tools and Tricks”
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:
Let’s say you and your team has come together and after wrestling with a problem you are facing, you were lucky enough to come up with some pretty solid solutions. At first glance, you almost think, “Wow. There may actually be too many solutions here, can we pare this down a bit?”
Well, the answer is of course, yes. And this handy little tool can help you do prioritize what you can do (and maybe, more importantly, what you shouldn’t do). The tool is called an Impact Matrix and is often learned by those in the Lean Six Sigma world to help improve solutions for problems that are faced.
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.
What do you want to know?
One of the things I would like to add in these weekly emails is to take some time to answer YOUR questions about the non-profit world; fundraising, leadership, tools, whatever is on your mind, let me know. I’d love to dig into it! Send me an email to: pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com!
Other Ways to Connect
Did you can also be a paid subscriber to Pinnacle Strategies content on substack? Why would you want to? Through the paid newsletter, each week you will be given a tangible tool or deliverable that YOU can use to help you understand and serve your non-profit better. The first tool is about Giving Ladders. Huh? Well, become a paid subscriber for $7/month and you can learn more!
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