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This Month's topic:
Sustainability
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Make sure you don't miss the upcoming joint
Annual Conference of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management and
the National Council of Nonprofit Associations. This three day
conference, which runs from July 14-17 in Chicago, is a must for anyone
interested in capacity building for nonprofits of all sizes and types. For more
information, including a look at the full conference agenda, click on the logo
above or go to:
www.allianceonline.org/annual_conference/2005_conference.page
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Great training for nonprofits
is available from:
The
Learning Institute for Nonprofit Organizations (LINO):
This
link will take you to a whole array of wonderful online training from LINO.
Programs include Board Governance, Social Entrepreneurship, Resource
Development, Volunteer Management, Strategic Planning, and Marketing.
Peter Brinckerhoff provides the "Mission-Based
Management" training module.
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Blog!
Problem: There is so
much going on in our field that a once-a-month communication doesn't seem
adequate.
Solution: The Mission-Based Management
Blog. I am trying to post nearly every day with something of value
to nonprofit board, staff, volunteers, and funders.
Take a look and see
if you find things that can help you. My postings are in no particular order,
just what's on my mind, or what has crossed my desk or screen that I think you
should be aware of.
And, like any blog, you can comment right on the blog
for others to see. If you agree, disagree, or have other resources to share,
please do!
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| This Month's Topic: Sustainability |
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 best printed materials available that can help you
become more mission-capable in the area of
sustainability.
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Technology
I provide you with some good ideas for
uses of tech to better your organization in the area of
sustainability
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Marketing
Tip
So much to say, so little space to say
it.....
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Next
Issue
In August we'll look at an issue that is
really important: Ethical Employee Benefits.... We all want to do right
by our staff, so check in next month and see some suggestions on how that can
happen.
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Websites of the
Month
Here are my recommendations for websites of interest
on this month's topic, Sustainability..
Back to
Top
Management Tip of the Month
(NOTE: The term Sustainability is a
very trendy one in the nonprofit sector. To get some expert perspective, this
month, I am very pleased to offer some comments on sustainability by Michelle
Johnston, the main author of the Sustainability Toolkit, offered by the Center
for Civic Partnerships in Sacramento.)
Often people tell me that they want to learn
how to make their organization “sustainable.” While I appreciate the
desire to have reliable, long-term sources of funding to pursue an
organization’s mission, I don't believe that a “sustainable
organization” should be the goal. Instead, I encourage organizations to
think about how they can sustain the community improvements they have made,
such as more youth graduating from high school, more individuals eating fruits
and vegetables or fewer people dying from gunshot wounds. Staying focused on
sustaining the improvements makes sure that we're continuing efforts that are
actually working.
This seems like it would be common sense, but often
people are trying to continue programs or services without having any evidence
that they are actually improving people’s lives. This focus also opens up
a number of ways that the improvement can be sustained. Perhaps the capacity of
others can be built so that they continue the effort. Maybe there is a policy
that should be enacted that will ensure the improvements are sustained. Perhaps
there is another organization in the community that is better suited to
continue the program. We at the Center for Civic Partnerships have developed a
10-step process to help organizations and collaboratives plan for
sustainability.
The steps are:
1. Create a shared understanding
of sustainability.
2. Position your effort to increase your
sustainability odds.
3. Create a plan to work through the process.
4. Look at the current picture and pending items.
5.
Develop criteria to help determine what to continue.
6. Decide
what to continue and prioritize.
7. Create options for maintaining
your priority efforts (including funding issues).
8. Develop a
sustainability plan.
9. Implement your sustainability plan.
10. Evaluate your outcomes and revise as needed. By following these
steps, organizations have been able to look at all of their activities, decide
what should be continued and explore numerous options for continuation.
For more information on this 10-step process and/or
how to order the Sustainability Toolkit, visit our website at
http://www.civicpartnerships.org/default.asp?id=227.
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.
Back to
Top
Print Resources
My one recommendations for texts on
Sustainability is shown below. Related areas to search would be
fund-raising, strategic planning, and Organizational Development.
Sustainability Toolkit: 10 Steps
to Maintaining Your Community Improvements.
by the Center for Civic
Partnerships. Get the order form at
Sustainability
Toolkit or call 916-646-8680. |
Again, If you don't find enough choices there, type
"Nonprofit Sustainability" at Amazon.com and you'll have more choices
than you probably want!
Back to
Top
Technology Ideas .
Can tech make you more sustainable?
The short answer is yes, but......
The longer answer is that tech
is, in the words of Jim Collins, author of "Good to Great", an accelerator of
success, not a short road to it. Thus, tech can help you become and stay more
sustainable, but never substitute for the other things like planning, good
business sense, or good marketing.
If you want to be sustainable, you
need a tech plan, because tech can help you do more work, more efficiently, and
with more transparency. The best place to start with your tech plan is
here,
which is a link to TechSoup's Tech Planing area. This is a wonderful resource
for any nonprofit.
Use tech to enhance and insure your sustainability,
and do it with careful planning and good stewardship.
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.
Back to
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
Sustainability
In the management area above, Michelle Johnston
emphasized that to keep the good changes you've made in your community, and to
maintain your organization as well, you need to keep looking at what the
community wants, a key marketing step.
Good marketing is about asking people what they
want, and giving to them to the extent you can. In the nonprofit arena, our job
is to make people want what they really need. If we just throw what they need
out in front of them and they don't want it, we can't have the impact we'd like
to. And, we may not be around to help anyone at all.
To help with your sustainability, I believe you need
a strategic plan, a tech plan (noted earlier) and a good marketing plan. A tool
for that is MarketPlan Pro from PaloAlto
Software. It is the best marketing tool I've seen for organizational
planning, asks all the right questions and, best of all, comes with dozens of
actual plans to review. Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Palo Alto in any
way, nor do I get a commission for sending you there! I just think its great
software.
Don't do your marketing haphazardly. A good
stewardship model requires that you go about any investment of resources in a
planned, thoughtful manner. Get a marketing plan and then get it
done!
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.
Back to
Top
Future Topics in
2005-06 for the Mission-Based Management Newsletter....
| August |
Entrepreneurship |
| September |
Ethical Employee
Benefits |
| October |
Internal
Communications |
| November |
Board
Recruitment |
| December |
Better
Budgeting |
| January,
2006 |
Generation
Change |
| February |
Accountability |
| Send me
your topic suggestions at peter@missionbased.com |
Back to Top
You asked, so here they are:
Past Single-Topic Issues of the Mission-Based Management Newsletter...
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Copyright 2005,
Corporate Alternatives, inc.
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