This Month's topic: Saying "No" To Community Needs
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| This Month's Topic: Saying "No" To Community Needs |
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 Saying "No"
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Technology
I provide you with some good ideas for
uses of tech to better your organization when you say "No" to a community need.
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Marketing
Tip
So much to say, so little space to say
it.....
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Next
Issue
In July, we'll examine an issue that is very important, and often controversial subject of: Board/Non-CEO relations.
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Websites of the
Month
Here are my recommendations for websites of interest
on this month's topic, Saying No To Community Needs
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Management Tip of the Month
Saying "No" To Community Needs
One of the big problems I see in the nonprofits I work with is their
historical propensity to say "yes" to everyone and everything,
particularly if there is funding attached. It's ironic that we, who
often put ourselves above "commercialism", will just as often chase the
money when a big foundation, government funder or donor comes along. By
chasing the money, I mean doing things that are only partially related
to our core mission, and/or that we know very little about.
Another way we say "yes" is to a legitimate need in the community, one
that is related to our mission but that we know nothing about.
"Mission-creep" is the pertinant term here. Say, for example, you run a
homeless shelter. You realize that the people in your shelter need
food, jobs, transportation, counseling, so over a period of years you
open all those services. Suddenly you're in five or six different
industries, learning as you go. The result of this is that, in many cases, most of your services are being provided adequately, but not well.
Combine this predisposition to say "yes" with the constant squeeze on
"admin" costs by funders, and saying "yes" often gets us into trouble.
This is a hard area, since none of us came into nonprofits to say "no",
and it's a lot more fun to be optimistic and say "yes". But it's often
not good stewardship.
So caution is the theme of the day. I've provided you a tool to help: a link to my Stewardship Decision Tree,
which can help you walk through these kinds of decisions more easily.
Using the decision tree will help you stay focused on your mission and
your core competencies. Successful nonprofits focus, focus, focus, on
their target markets, and on what they do well. Trying to be all things
to all people only leads to doing adequate work, and the people you
serve deserve better than adequate, don't they?
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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Print Resources
My recommendations for texts on saying "NO" are
shown below. Click on the title to be taken to the title's page
on Amazon.com. There you can look at the book in more detail.
Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, by John Bryce
Nonprofit Stewardship, by Peter Brinckerhoff
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Technology Tip
How can tech help if you are saying "NO"
Your tech can help in a number of
ways as you try to decide whether or not a new program or service area
is for you. Here are some ideas.
Obviously, use your spreadsheets and business planning software if you
need to run financial models on the new service. Remember, the Stewardship Decision Tree
includes some key financial analyses, and I urge you to pay particular
attention to the cash impact. Use your tech to run various models.
Once you've made the decision, carefully evaluate who you want to
notify and how. Is it better to send out a wide-ranging email, or to
write snailmail letters to a targeted few? If the issue is out in the
public and getting a lot of attention, you may even want to put a
notice on your website, in a place that is easily found, or send a
broadcast email with the link to the full explanation of the board and
staff's rationale for their decision.
Finally, if you have an organizational blog, or a listerve where people
can make comments on your organization and its services, make sure to
monitor it regularly to gauge reaction. Search blog search sites like Technorati to monitor private blogs. Hopefully, you won't find any negative postings, but you need to be checking anyway.
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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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
| Date |
City |
Topic |
Contact |
| 8/03/06 |
Morgantown, WV |
Business Development and Marketing |
West Virginia Association of Rehab Facilities
Craig Greening
cgreening@wvarf.org |
| 8/8-9/06 |
Buffalo, NY |
Business Development |
NISH
Dave Wessel
dwessel@nish.org |
| 9/06/06 |
Ballston, VA |
Readiness for Business Development |
Workability International
Deborah Atkinson
datkinson@nish.org |
Marketing Tip
What can Marketing do when you decide to say "No"?
How can marketing help you, in your decision, and then in letting people know your decision? A number of ways.
First, before you are faced with a question of whether or not to expand
services, you should have already written a marketing plan that
includes definitions of your target markets and why they are your
targets. Now, is your new service within those targets? Good, move on.
Also in your marketing plan you should have looked at the key wants of
your target markets and matched them up with your organizational core
competencies. Does this new service fit into those wants and
those competencies? Great. If not, think it through again.
Let's assume that after careful deliberation and consultation you've
decided to say no. Now what? Now this turns into a public relations
issue. You need to talk to the key players about why you said no, and
my advice is always to focus on quality. The quality of your existing
services will suffer, the quality of the new services just can't be
what you would like it to be, you have to focus on your exisiting
services and customers, etc. Try not to whine about the money, or whine
about your workload, just deliver a message that your organization is
focused on doing the best possible work for the people it serves.
Pick the people you notify of your decision carefully. It may not be
the best time to broadcast to the world, but key players should
definately be notified.
As I noted in the Management Tip, the Stewardship Decision Tree
will really help you as you work your way through this problem. But
knowing your markets first, knowing their needs and wants is crucial
when you get confronted with a demand/opportunity to expand.
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....
| August |
Board and Non-CEO Relations |
| September |
Executive Transition |
| October |
Advocacy |
| November |
When Boards Fail in their Role |
| December |
Conflict of Interest |
| January |
Business Recovery Plans |
| February |
New Tech Uses for Nonprofits |
| March |
Are Admin Costs Important? |
| 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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