May, 2007 -by Peter C. Brinckerhoff

This Month's topic: Generation Change and The People You Serve

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My New Book on Generation Change Is Available!  My newest title, Generations: The Challenge of a Lifetime  for Your Nonprofit is available for review and purchase at the  Fieldstone Alliance website. I'm really excited about the  reaction to this book, and I know that the issues covered in it  are affecting your nonprofit and will continue to in the coming  years. Check it out.  Here's what people are saying about the book: “Helpful ideas for immediate action! Great insight into the different generations in a practical way that lends itself to clear thinking about how to most effectively engage people. Easy to understand and engaging—a pleasure to read.” —Janet Froetscher, President and Chief Executive Officer, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago: “An invaluable guide—it will be a frequently consulted resource. Brinckerhoff’s ‘Six Big Actions’ provide an excellent operational framework to plan for generational change.” —Joan M. Twiss, M.A., Executive Director, Center for Civic Partnerships, Sacramento, CA Take a moment and check out the book--I think you'll see that it applies to your organization.

Websites of the Month

Here are my recommendations for websites of interest on this month's topic: Generation Change and the People You Serve:

www.fieldstonealliance.org	Fieldstone Alliance's Tools You Can Use April Newsletter: on the things you can do about generation change.
www.census.gov	For a US government website, this is pretty darn good. Start with The American Community Survey, and drill down. You can find information by age, country of origin, income, marital status, even characteristics of people who speak a language other than English in the home. All great information and updated every year (in projection form) in addition to the decennial census.

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Generation Change and the People  You Serve
The entire issue of generation change is so incredibly important, that, as you saw above, I've written an entire book on the subject, titled Generations: The Challenge of a Lifetime for Your Nonprofit. One chapter in that book is dedicated to the People You Serve. .

The first thing you need to do is to figure out what the generational breakdown of your service recipients is and, equally importantly, where it's going. Is the mean age of your service recipients going up? Down? How fast? Do you need to change your focus? Our population is changing, by age, by ethnicity, by family configuration. So, even if you don't think the generation "thing" that I'm so obsessed with is any big deal, you have to pay attention to family, ethnicity, language proficiency, cultural differences, etc.

So start here: Go to the census (see the link above0 and look at the status for your community in 2000. Now look at the American Community Survey---and drill, drill, drill down. If you're like most communities, change is happening right under your feet.

If you have the data, look at the ages of your service population 10 years ago, 5 years ago, and this year....what's happening. And remember, age changes wants. From Generations:

"Ask yourself this. Does a college freshman (at 18) want the same thing as a college freshman at 24, who has just finished her hitch in the Navy? No.

Does an alcoholic at age 25 want the same thing as an alcoholic at age 45. In one sense, yes, they both want to learn how to manage their addiction, but the way they are treated will vary: their life experience (by reason of being 20 years apart in age) is much, much different. A similar set of differences holds for two people seeking spirituality at vastly different ages.

Why does this matter? Because most nonprofits are making a significant push to standardize their mission output (their services) so that it is more measurable, more scalable (you can do more service more efficiently, like a factory) and costs less to provide on a unit basis. The unintended consequence of that with different generations is that you may well please no one generation fully, and you can’t afford to lose a single person you serve in our increasingly competitive world."

Getting a handle on what generation your service population is and will be is crucial to your nonprofit's long term success. Start looking at how the trends are going sooner rather than later.

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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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My recommendations for texts and other readings on Generation Change and The People You Serve;

Sadly, there's not much in this area. There is, of course, a lot on the issue of nonprofit leadership change, but nothing (but Generations)  that includes any look at the people nonprofits serve.

NOTE: IF you are aware of a book or paper on this topic, send me a link and I'll post it here.

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How can Tech help generation Change and the People You Serve

This is directly from Generations:

"Use your generational estimates to examine your technology. If you are weighted with Boomers and older, think about things like your website, your automated answering system, your paper marketing materials. How should they change? Do you need more pictures that are generation-specific? More white space, bigger typeface?

FOR EXAMPLE: My book club discussion groups are comprised of nonprofit execs, and thus mostly made up of boomers. They are done by conference call, and each month, we begin our review of the book we’ve read by giving our overall impression of the book, the writing, the topic, and the benefit of the book. I’ve lost track of the number of times someone has chimed in about a particular book “I really liked the fact that they used big type! I could still read it late in the evening when my eyes are tired!” 

Think about it—their impression of the book was influence by the typeface size. Hmmm….will their impression of your organization be influenced by the typeface size in your written material? Should you stop trying to cram in so much text? Perhaps, if your median service age is 45 or older.

 On the other hand, if your service recipients are younger, what am I going to tell you? That’s right, meet their techspectations by having everything about your organization on your website. Everything.

What else? What about educational materials that they can use on their iPods? What about downloadable podcasts? What about ticket sales, or scheduling online? Talk to your younger service recipients about what they want.

 Meet techspectations, wherever they are. This requires both sensitivity and flexibility. Ask! "

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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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

5/9/07	Cincinnati	Nonprofit Stewardship & Generation Change	Barnes Dennig Michelle Class mclass@barnesdennig.com
5/16/07	Chicago	Generation Change And Nonprofits	North Park University Kris Maldre kmaldre@northpark.edu
5/17/07	Fort Wayne, IN	Nonprofit Stewardship	The Nonprofit Resource Center Marilynn Fauth Mfauth@acpl.lib.in.us
5/18/07	Fort Wayne, IN	Generation Change and Nonprofits	Foellinger Foundation Williams Lecture Cheryl Taylor cheryl@foellinger.org
5/23-24/07	Charlotte	Intro to Marketing	NISH Deborah Atkinson Datkinson@nish.org

And, 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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Future Topics for
The Mission-Based Management Newsletter....

June	Mentoring
July	Better Cash Planning
August	What if you are a (really) small nonprofit?
September	Generation Change and Technology
October	Crisis Management
November	Generation Change and Marketing
December	Signs of Organizational Trouble
January 2008	Reorganizing Your Board of Directors
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...

	2004	2005	2006	2007
January	Business Development	Strategic Planning	Generation Change	Conflict of Interest
February	Fund Raising	Leadership	Accountability	Generation Change and Your Staff
March	Volunteers	Core Competencies	Ethics and Management	Admin Costs
April	Financial Management	Expanding to New Markets	Staff Satisfaction	New  Tech Ideas for Nonprofits
May	On-line Marketing	Endowments	When Boards Cross the Management/Policy Line
June	Transparency	Tech and Mission	Staff Rewards
July	Nonprofit Start-up	Sustainability	Saying No to Community Needs
August	Governance	Ethical Benefits	Board and Non-CEO Relations
September	Political Activities	Entrepreneurship	Executive Transition
October	Attracting and Retaining Younger Staff, Board, and Volunteers	Internal Communications	Advocacy
November	Outcome Measurement	Board Recruitment	When Boards Fail
December	Lifelong Learning	Better Budgeting	Conflict of Interest