This Month's topic: Accountability
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| This Month's Topic: Accountability |
Each month, this area provides with a
number of my favorite and most helpful sites regarding the topic of the month.
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Management
Tip of the Month
Each issue, I start with a discussion
of my management perspective on the month's topic, and give you a few hands-on
ideas to consider.
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Recommended Publications
Here, I provide you with my
recommendations on the materials available that can help you
become more mission-capable in the area of accountability.
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Technology
I provide you with some good ideas for
uses of tech to better your organization in the area of accountability.
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Marketing
Tip
So much to say, so little space to say
it.....
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Next
Issue
In March, we'll examine an issue that is very timely: Ethics and Management. How can you be deal with this dicey issue? We'll take a look
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Websites of the
Month
Here are my recommendations for websites of interest
on this month's topic, Nonprofit Accountability...
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Top
Management Tip of the Month
Accountability
I'm not quite sure how to have a short discussion of
accountability....and that concern was on my mind when I scheduled this
topic. Ten years ago, accountability basically meant reporting to your
board, getting an audit, and getting started on developing outcome
measures. Now? A whole lot more is included in the topic, and a whole
lot more is riding on your response to the issue. Without taking up
your entire day, let's go through the key things you need to do.
Focus on transparency.
More information to more people, more openly, more regularly, in more
detail. This should be internal (sharing more information with your
staff and volunteers) and external (see the set of things to post on
your website in the Tech Tip
below). But overall, the idea means to be open to review, questions,
inquiry, and show people that not only do you have nothing to hide, but
that you have lots of positive stuff to show them. TIP: Go to your
listing on Guidestar and, if the data is outdated, or makes you look
bad, post a rebuttal, as well as a link to your website.
Accountability means setting goals, and posting results.
Budgets, strategic plans, benchmarks, all of these are goals that you
need to hold yourself and your staff accountable for. Just setting the
goal and then ignoring it doesn't move you forward. Worse, it causes
people to lose faith in your commitment to what you say. Imagine what
would happen if my teenagers were told "work hard, and we'll pay for
college", and then I didn't get around to saving for it--and didn't
tell them until they were ready to head off to school....that's pretty
close to what some nonprofits do with their board, staff and funders....
Accountability means being compared to other organizations.
Many CEO's hate this, and I agree that comparing nonprofit A with
nonprofit B is fraught with danger, but it is a reality of how funders,
donors, and corporate partners look at you. So work on being aware of
what other organizations are doing. Spend time to stay aware. NOTE:
For the record, I personally think that the near mania for looking at
admin costs as a evaluation tool is, to be kind, counterproductive. I
know it's quick for the reviewer, but it really doesn't measure much,
and the constant hammering on admin has left us under-administered
sector wide.)
Short accountability checklist:
-Get an audit--every year, and include a management
letter. Change your auditor, or at
least the key
partner, every five years.
-Have an audit committee that does only that: works on the audit.
-Post your audit, your 990, and other information
(see the Tech Tip) on your website, and
keep it up to date.
-Post minutes of your board and management team
meetings in paper and online for your
staff to see.
-Develop an "Annual Report To The Community" that
gets ahead of inquiry by putting your
best foot forward. Have this
available online and in print.
-Stay aware of what the community is asking for....it's a moving target.
Finally, talk with staff and board about how to be more accountable to
the community and to each other. Again, this is both an inside and
outside issue to be working on.
If
you found this hint helpful, there are lots more management, marketing, and
technology ideas for you in the "Ideas" section at
www.missionbased.com. Check them
out--they're free.
And, remember to take a look at the
Mission-Based Management
Blog.
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Top
Print Resources
My recommendations for texts on accountability are shown below.
Managing the Nonprofit Organization, by Peter Drucker--a classic, with lots of good stuff about accountability and openness.
Balanced Scorecard: Step By Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies, by Paul Niven. Go, accountability!
Sarbanes-Oxley for Nonprofits, a Guide to Building Competitive Advantage, by Jackson and Fogarty.---transparency and accountability wins!
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Technology Tip
Can tech help your accountability efforts?
You bet. As you saw in the management tip,
one of the keys to accountability is transparency, and tech can really
help with this, mostly through using your website to the max.
Regular readers will recognize some of these suggestions from prior
issues on different subjects, but there is a new spin here. In the
fall, my Kellogg graduate students were assigned in their final
paper to evaluate two international nonprofits who provided help
to the tsunami victims and advise me which they found more worthy. They
evaluated the organizations on all of the key issues we had discussed
during the course. In reading the paper, I made a list of the items
that the students expected to find on the organization websites---and
that they were unhappy/surprised/appalled weren't there. Remember as
you read the list, these are whip-smart very successful 24-30 year olds
who are committed to the nonprofit sector--and who will be looking at
your website when they consider giving time, talent, or treasure to
your organization. Here is what these students felt were the minimum
information that should be available freely on your website:
- 990's for the past three years.
- Full audited financial statements for three years.
- Accreditation notification
- List of board members --with their accomplishments
- The organization's governance structure--specifically the audit committee
- Biographical information on key staff leaders
- The current strategic plan (all of it)
- And, last but not least, the current mission statement
How many of these items are on your website? Not any, not many, most?
And, remember this information is just the most important that the
students were looking for, not all of it, and of the 20 or so agencies
that would up being reviewed, more than half had all of these things
posted on their website: thus this is not an unprecedented, or
unreasonable list.
Some organizations are thinking about opening board meetings up to the
world through streaming video, allowing people to watch their
proceedings in real time. Some are making the audit committee and board
meetings available in podcasts that people can download onto their mp3
players and listen to.
They key? Look at opening up and being more transparent, but do it step
by step, and think through the implications of what you are planning. TIP: Make sure that whatever information you put on your website that it is EASY to find, EASY to download, and EASY to understand.
If you found this hint helpful, there are lots more
management, marketing, and technology ideas for you in the "Ideas" section at
www.missionbased.com. Check them
out--they're free.
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Top
Training Schedule for Peter Brinckerhoff
Below you'll see the date, location, and topics
of public training I'm scheduled to do in the next few months. For more
information on a particular speaking engagement, get in touch with the contact
person listed in the right hand column, or
email me.
For more information on my availability throughout
the next 12-18 months, available topics, sample agendas, and fees go to
www.missionbased.com/training.htm
Marketing Tip
Marketing and Accountability
If you are a manager, you may be uncomfortable sharing your internal
information, outcomes, benchmarks, plans, and financials with the
public, or even with your staff. Your question may well be, why should
I share this? It's more work, people will ask dumb questions, and we'll
get all kinds of flack....
OK, but if you are a marketer at heart, sharing and being accountable
is a slam dunk. Why? Because the community (donors, staff, volunteers,
funders, end-users) want to see what you are doing, want
to know that you are being a good steward, demand (and in my mind
deserve) openness. Remember, you are the steward of the community's
resources. They aren't yours.
Unlike prior columns where I have advised you to ask ask ask, here the work is done.
Look at the Guidestar article linked above....people want to know more, and if you don't provide it, you and your organization look suspicious.
I know it's one more thing to manage, but it is an increasingly important one in these cynical times.
If you want to see more about this in detail, take
a look at more about my book
Mission-Based Marketing; Second
Edition
If you found this hint helpful, there are lots more
management, marketing, and technology ideas for you in the "Ideas" section at
www.missionbased.com. Check them
out--they're free.
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Top
Future Topics for the Mission-Based Management Newsletter....
| March |
Ethics and Management |
| April |
Staff Satisfaction |
| May |
Boards who cross the
Policy/Management line |
| June |
Employee Rewards |
| July |
Saying "No" to Community Needs |
| August |
Board and non-CEO Relations |
| September |
Executive Transition |
| Send me
your topic suggestions at peter@missionbased.com |
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You asked, so here they are:
Past Single-Topic Issues of the Mission-Based Management Newsletter...
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