10 Great Social Innovation Reads: March 2012

March, perhaps because it included SXSW Interactive, seemed to be largely about the use of new media to tell social change stories. There are an increasing number of ways and examples of how those working to solve social problems can tell their stories and get people motivated to act, from video, to Pinterest, to infographics, to data visualizations and much more.

Below are my ten picks of the best reads in social innovation in March, but as always, please add what I missed in the comments. And if you want to see other things that caught my eye, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Pinterest.

1. By necessity, nonprofits and social entrepreneurs are turning to new mediums to tell their story. The Chronicle of Philanthropy has created a showcase of nonprofit infographics and visualizations, and the MediaShift blog profiles the various ways educators are using Pinterest for curation, and finally while at SXSW Interactive, The Chronicle of Philanthropy got 25 nonprofit leaders to film their elevator speeches–it’s fascinating to see the various ways people tell their story quickly.




2. Speaking of video storytelling, there was much debate about the Kony 2012 video produced by nonprofit organization Invisible Children. But I think Paul Shoemaker from Seattle SVP had the most reasoned and interesting take on it all when he argued that nonprofits should not be evaluated based on “one-size fits all” metrics.




3. A new campaign aimed at solving staggering youth unemployment combines technology, crowdfunding and social entrepreneurship. It will be interesting to watch.




4. From the Atlantic, the results of a new study that demonstrates that because of technology and the social media environment how Millennials think and process is changing dramatically, so how we educate future generations must change dramatically as well.




5. Amy Sample Ward gives a great recap of the social good focused sessions at SXSW Interactive.




6. Writing in the New York Times, David Carr, examines “Hashtag Activism,” and whether someone clicking a “Like” button can really change the world.




7. As the arts continue to struggle to find funding amid shrinking audiences and competing charitable priorities, crowd-funding may be the answer.




8. Beth Kanter hosted a great group of guest bloggers from the GeoFunders National Conference on her blog in March, my favorite of which was Adene Sack’s post describing the 3 myths about scaling nonprofits.




9. Writing on the Harvard Business Review blog Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, Simone Ahuja argue that Millennials take a do-it-yourself approach to solving large social problems, “they rely on a frugal and flexible mindset…and use the tools they have on hand to create a simple but effective solution to a highly complex problem. They are the contemporary MacGyvers.”




10. Rich Tafel takes social entrepreneurs to task for “failing to recognize the complex nature of the problems we face [and] engaging in linear, simplistic solutions, when lasting change requires collaborative efforts.”

Photo Credit: kadorin

Tags: Artspire, Foundations, Kickstarter, Kony 2012, Millennials, nonprofit scale, NPTech, Paul Shoemaker, Philanthropy, Pinterest, Seattle SVP, Social Entrepreneurship, SXSW Interactive

Send Me Your Questions

I’m launching a new series on the blog today. I receive so many great comments and questions from readers on the blog. So I want to start a new regular series that answers  readers’ burning questions.

Once a month (or maybe more often depending on the response) I will pick a reader’s question to answer. It can be about anything related to nonprofits, social innovation, boards, financing, fundraising, social innovation, philanthropy, you name it. Each month I’ll pick the most interesting question and write a blog post response to it.

If you have a burning question that you would like me to write about, send me an email at nell@socialvelocity.net, send me a Tweet at @nedgington, or post it on the Social Velocity Facebook page.

And as an incentive, the person whose question is selected for the first month’s post in the series will receive a free copy of my e-book, “10 Traits of a Groundbreaking Nonprofit Board”

So start sending me your questions. I can’t wait to read them!

Photo Credit: e-magic

Tags: board development, Fundraising, nonprofit board of directors, nonprofit fundraising, nonprofit strategic planning, Philanthropy, Social Entrepreneurship, social innovation

Upcoming Financing not Fundraising Webinar: Creating a Message of Impact

In order for nonprofits to start effectively financing their efforts, they must get prospective donors excited about their impact. Creating a message of impact is the only way to engage and invest people in the work you do. The next webinar in the Financing Not Fundraising webinar series will help your nonprofit create a message of impact.

Our Financing Not Fundraising webinar series has been very popular. Comments from past webinar participants include:

“This webinar was more useful than whole three-day conferences that my nonprofit has sent me to.”

“I loved the reframing of financing for desired results instead of funding for operations…your message to wed money to the mission was a big AHA moment – and am now figuring out how to bring this to life for staff and board.”

“Social Velocity conceptually is way ahead of the curve in nonprofit consulting. Visionary and spot-on!”

The next webinar in the series, Creating a Message of Impact, will help your nonprofit have a more compelling conversation with potential donors. No one likes to beg for money. And donors increasingly aren’t moved to respond to the “tin cup” approach. A far more effective way to communicate with potential donors is to talk about the change your nonprofit is creating in the community.

Donors invest in nonprofits that share their values and are creating change to things the donor really cares about. So in order to attract those donors, nonprofits need to understand and articulate the change they are creating in the community. They need to create a Message of Impact.

This webinar will help your nonprofit:

• Move from begging to investing
• Create a compelling case for support
• Target donors who care about your work
• Get your board excited about asking for money
• Differentiate between donations and investments
• Talk about the work your nonprofit does in the community
• Articulate a social return on investment (SROI) for donors

The registration fee will get you:

• Access to the live, interactive webinar
• A link to a recording of the webinar, which you can watch as many times as you like
• The PowerPoint slides from the webinar
• The ability to ask follow-up questions after the webinar

I hope to see you there!

Financing Not Fundraising: Creating a Message of Impact – Live Webinar
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
12 noon – 1:00pm Eastern

Tags: community change, financing not fundraising, impact messaging, nonprofit fundraising, nonprofit impact, social return on investment, theory of change

10 Traits of a Groundbreaking Nonprofit Board

Again and again, I’ve heard people say that innovation will never become part of the nonprofit sector — that nonprofits are too set in their ways. Or that the sector is too broken to emerge anew. And a particular area of dysfunction that people point to is the volunteer group that leads the nonprofit sector: the board of directors. But that attitude is unacceptable. There is great danger in dismissing the nonprofit board. The new Social Velocity e-book released today, “10 Traits of a Groundbreaking Board” sets that attitude on its head.

Sure, boards tend to be inefficient, dysfunctional and broken. Yet there is tremendous potential for innovation. Indeed, without innovation at the board level, the broader movement to solve social problems is doomed.

A groundbreaking board can lead the reinvention of the nonprofit sector. A groundbreaking board demands more from itself, its nonprofit and the sector as a whole. It leads the nonprofit it serves to greater financial sustainability, more effective use of resources, and ultimately more social change. Through its excellence, a groundbreaking board can transform the nonprofit they serve, the community the nonprofit impacts, and ultimately the sector itself.

This 28-page e-book examines the 10 traits that define a groundbreaking board. Each of the 10 chapters of this book describe in detail how a groundbreaking board operates:

1. Defines Itself: The board as a whole decides what it should do and how.




2. Assembles the Right People: A groundbreaking board doesn’t leave recruitment up to chance or circumstance.




3. Drives Strategy: A groundbreaking board leaves the day-to-day operations of their nonprofit to the staff and instead grapples with the big picture, strategic, visionary questions of the organization.




4. Ensures Mission, Money & Competence Alignment: A groundbreaking board ensures that the nonprofit they serve is positioned for greatest success.




5. Craves Impact: A groundbreaking board shows up because they care deeply about the change their nonprofit is making in the world.




6. Raises Money: A groundbreaking board understands that every single board member must be responsible for helping to bring money in the door.




7. Wields the Money Sword: The groundbreaking board continually analyzes the financial model of the organization and monitors the ability of that model to deliver on mission.




8. Pursues Excellence: The groundbreaking board never rests on its laurels, but constantly strives to improve itself and the nonprofit it serves.




9. Builds the Organization: A groundbreaking board never stands in the way of organization building, in fact they are their nonprofit’s biggest advocates for that critical support.




10. Asks Hard Questions: A groundbreaking board understands the harsh realities of the nonprofit sector and is honest and transparent about the state of their nonprofit.

It doesn’t have to be so hard. The nonprofit board can be reinvented and in so doing become a powerhouse for social change.

Download the e-book.

Photo Credit: haydnseek

Tags: board agreement, board dysfunction, board give/get requirement, board roles and responsibilities, Fundraising, nonprofit board, nonprofit capacity capital, nonprofit financial management, reinventing the nonprofit board

Financing Not Fundraising: The Critical Alliance Between Executive & Development Directors

In this month’s post in the on-going Financing Not Fundraising blog series I’m talking about creating a productive partnership between a nonprofit’s leader (the Executive Director or CEO) and a nonprofit’s chief revenue generator (typically the Development Director).  If your nonprofit is going to start financing instead of fundraising, you must work to forge an effective Executive Director and Development Director relationship.  If you are fully integrating money and mission, then your ED and DD should be planning, talking about, debating, and integrating their work on a daily basis. If that’s happening, the organization has a much better chance for long-term financial sustainability.

If you are new to the Financing Not Fundraising blog series, the series is about how nonprofits must break out of the FUNDRAISING (individual donor appeals, events, foundation grants) box and instead create a broader, more strategic approach to securing the overall FINANCING necessary to create social change. You can read the entire series here.

If a nonprofit’s Executive Director can fully embrace, support and promote the work of the Development Director, the organization can become much more financially sustainable. There are several clues that a productive partnership between a nonprofit’s Executive Director and Development Director exists:

• The Executive Director charges the Development Director with leading all revenue activities that the organization pursues (public, private and earned income) instead of limiting the Development Director’s role to just private income streams (individual, foundation, corporate).




• The Executive Director asks the Development Director to create an ambitious, comprehensive annual revenue plan in conjunction with the organization’s overall strategic plan and then to  monitor that plan to successful implementation.




• The Executive Director creates the organization’s revenue budget through an open and honest negotiation with the Development Director and based on the Development Director’s annual revenue plan, as opposed to simply telling the Development Director how much to raise.




• The Executive Director continually works to educate the entire board and staff about how critical money is to the work of the organization and how each member of the board and staff has a role to play, as opposed to leaving all revenue-generating efforts up to the Development Director.




• The Executive Director makes a constant and conscious effort to encourage the Program and Development Directors to work together, understand each other’s viewpoint, support each other’s goals and empathize with each other’s roadblocks. The Executive Director treats both positions, and both departments, as equally critical to the success of the organization.




• The Executive Director works closely with the board chair to make sure every board member is meeting their give/get requirement and doesn’t leave the Development Director to try to strong arm board members to contribute.




• The Executive Director encourages and helps secure funding for the Development Director’s requests for the additional infrastructure (donor database, staffing, materials, technology) required to deliver on the ambitious goals of their revenue plan.




• As with each member of their staff, the Executive Director evaluates the Development Director’s performance on an annual basis and sets performance goals for the Development Director for the coming year based on the overall strategic plan of the organization.

As the leader of a nonprofit organization it is up to the Executive Director to forge an effective partnership with their chief fundraiser. An ED that buries their head in the sand and leaves money up to their Development Director will eventually find their Development Director gone, their funding diminishing and their long-term financial outlook bleak.

If you want to learn more about how to move your nonprofit from fundraising to financing, check out our ongoing Financing Not Fundraising Webinar Series and our Financing Not Fundraising e-book.

Photo Credit: USAJFKSWCS

Tags: development director, development director job description, executive director, financing not fundraising, managing nonprofit staff, nonprofit capacity capital, nonprofit financial sustainability, nonprofit fundraising, nonprofit staff evaluation

How Nonprofits Can Thrive While Awaiting Economic Recovery

After 3+ years of a difficult recession it looks like the economy might be starting to turn around. That’s great news. But for the nonprofit sector, which is always the first hit by and last to rebound from a recession, it might still be awhile until they enjoy the looming economic recovery. But it does no good for nonprofit leaders to throw up their hands and curse the economy. Instead, nonprofits should seize this opportunity to rethink how their organization brings money in the door.

There are some key things nonprofit leaders can do to create a sustainable financial model in the midst of lingering economic uncertainty:

• Take a Step Back. Stop putting your organization in the “fundraising” box and take a big step back. Figure out an overall financial model for your organization that connects with your mission and your organization’s core competencies. Don’t just go through the regular fundraising motions (direct mail, events, grants). Rather, analyze how to create a long-term financial model for your organization.
  




• Harness Your Board. Your board of directors ideally is a group of people who bring connections and expertise that could help your organization. Tap into that. Educate them on what your organization needs and brainstorm how they can help. Now is not the time to be shy. Be strategic about what your board can do and get them to do it.




• Create a Plan. If your organization doesn’t have a strategic plan and a revenue plan, create them. You raise money by being strategic, first about what your organization is and does, and second about how you are going to create sustainable revenue streams. People give to causes that they care about, and they give even more money to organizations that are strategic about what they do and how. A good strategic plan is an invaluable tool around which you can build investment. And a good revenue plan gives you a step-by-step way to generate money.




• Reallocate Resources. As a nonprofit organization you have limited resources (money, staff, technology, time) with which to raise money. You want to make sure that the effort you put in has the highest return on investment. Calculate the direct and indirect costs of every revenue-generating activity and determine the real net income you generated. Are there better, more effective ways to raise more money for less cost and effort?




• Use Technology. Move your communications with donors and prospects online. You’ll save money and have a better chance of getting more and bigger gifts. Send email newsletters, campaigns, event invites. Survey your donors. Create an online community through social media where people can get to know your organization and become involved. People will become more interested in your work and more invested in the organization.




• Learn from the Best. Now is the time to learn from others, get a fresh perspective, find a mentor or coach for your Development Director. Use social media to find interesting and innovative people and ideas. Talk with your fellow social change leaders locally, nationally and internationally. Attend online conferences and webinars. By getting out and hearing what others have done and how they have innovated you will find new ways to grow revenue.




• Strengthen Your Case. Money is raised around a case for support. It can be tempting when times are tough to fall back on a message of need. “We need to raise $50,000.” But the better way is to clearly connect donors with the change you are creating in the community. If you don’t have a case for support write one. If you have one, revisit it and make sure that it is compelling, clear, concise, inspiring. Invest donors in the change you are creating.




• Clone Your Best Donors. When you are struggling to find new donors, go back to the source. Dig into your database to determine the characteristics (demographics and psychographics) of your best (most years of giving, biggest dollar, greatest upgrade) donors. Then survey them (formally or informally) to find out why they give, what messages resonate with them, what they read, where they get their information. You want to understand how they tick so that you can find others like them.




• Diversify Your Funds. When one revenue stream (or several) are down, you want to be able to draw on other streams. Are there other revenue streams you could launch or strengthen? Have you explored earned income? Could you grow your individual donor base? There are many ways to raise money and always potential for new avenues. Explore whether some of these make sense for your organization.

Things may be looking up, but it’s going to be awhile for the nonprofit sector. Instead of waiting around for a better economy, make some significant changes now to how you raise money. In so doing you’ll be turning this challenge into a tremendous opportunity for your organization.

Tags: case for support, cost of fundraising, fundraiser, nonprofit board of directors, nonprofit donors, nonprofit earned income, nonprofit fundraising, nonprofit fundraising events, nonprofit social media, nonprofit strategic plan

A Contest to Help Your Nonprofit Manage to Outcomes

I’m excited to announce something a little different on the Social Velocity blog: a contest! Mario Morino, author of one of my favorite new books, Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity, has generously offered to give away a Leap of Reason board package to three lucky nonprofit readers of the Social Velocity blog. You can read my past review of the book and why I like it so much here and my past interview with Mario here.

The Leap of Reason board package will include a copy of the book for each board member and other supplemental materials to get the board discussing how to manage toward outcomes. If you would like to be entered into the contest, simply respond in the comments with a brief (1-3 sentence) description of why you think your nonprofit is ready to start managing toward outcomes.

In Leap of Reason, Morino, co-founder of Venture Philanthropy Partners, argues that every nonprofit MUST, if it wants to survive in this new environment of “brutal austerity,” create a culture of performance. Many nonprofit organizations simply exist to “do good work.” But that is just not enough anymore. It’s not enough for those that fund the work, and it’s not enough for those who receive the services. Nonprofits must determine what they exist to change and whether they are actually creating those changes. Mario is ever-mindful, however, that large scale evaluation projects are simply unrealistic for the vast majority of nonprofits. They don’t have the money or time to devote to such projects. He and other experts in the book provide key initial steps and case studies to encourage nonprofits to develop their own ways to manage to outcomes.

So, if you think your nonprofit is ready to start managing to outcomes, and you’d like the Leap of Reason board package to help you along, respond in the comments with a short (1-3 sentence) explanation of why you think your nonprofit is ready.

I will then pick three winners. Each nonprofit winner will receive:

• A Leap of Reason book for each board member
• A Leap of Reason User Guide for each board member
• A Leap of Reason Supplemental Reading Packet for each board member
• A Leap of Reason Board Package Overview (a how-to guide for the executive director or board chair leading this process)

Good luck!

Update on February 21, 2012: The response to this contest was so great that Mario Morino graciously agreed to increase the number of winners to 20. Those 20 nonprofit winners have all been notified with the specifics about how to claim their Leap of Reason board packets. Thank you so much to everyone who participated! And I look forward to future Social Velocity blog contests!

Tags: Board of Directors, Leap of Reason, Mario Morino, nonprofit board of directors, nonprofit evaluation, nonprofit outcomes, nonprofit performance measurement

Could Philanthropic Equity Revolutionize the Nonprofit Sector?

Today I guest blogged on the About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs blog, at the request of the blog’s author, Joanne Fritz. The topic is one that is near and dear to my heart, philanthropic equity. “Philanthropic equity” is just a fancy term for the kind of money the nonprofit sector so desperately needs and every nonprofit leader should understand. Below is an excerpt from the post, but you can read the whole post here:

There is a fairly new concept in the nonprofit world that has the power to completely transform the sector. “Philanthropic equity” (or “growth capital”) is just a fancy term for the money many nonprofit organizations desperately need.

Philanthropic equity is a one-time infusion of significant money that can be used to strengthen or grow a nonprofit organization. It can be money that grows a successful program to other clients, other cities, other regions. Or it can be money that strengthens the organization and makes it more sustainable.

But before you can understand philanthropic equity properly, you must understand a critical distinction about money. There are two kinds of money, revenue and capital…

You can read the entire post on the About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs blog here.

Photo Credit: Glyn Lowe Photos

Tags: building nonprofits, Fundraising, nonprofit capacity, nonprofit capacity capital, nonprofit growth capital, philanthropic equity