“Time management isn’t just a personal-productivity issue; it has increasingly become an organizational challenge whose root causes are deeply embedded in corporate structures and cultures.” (Mckinsey & Company, On Point Oct. 22, 2021)
This statement embodies a truth that is seldom discussed. Many of the challenges we define as individual ones instead need to be squarely placed within the organization’s practices and culture.
Time management is one of those challenges. An individual cannot change how they manage their time if they are thwarted by the expectations and practices of their organization. It is not merely a function of setting boundaries.
McKinsey goes on to say that if time management were viewed as an institutional imperative rather than an individual one, leaders would value time as a precious commodity and focus on reducing the barriers for the team and supporting practices to help manage time well.
Now You: Are you conveying to your colleagues that you value their time?
#Leadership #nonprofits #nonprofitleadership #timemangement #Mckinsey&Company #success #culture #team #teamsuccess #agile #agilefundraisng
#fundraising #strategy
Can Optimism and Failure Co-Exist?
When leading teams, can optimism and failure co-exist? You bet. Here is why…
We have heard that learning from failure is critical. But it is hard to establish a safe environment for teams to experiment, fail, and talk about what happened.
The tone that the team leader sets about viewing failure as a learning opportunity is critical.
According to the Harvard Business Review, astute leaders know that every problem presents an opportunity.
By taking an optimistic stance and calling attention to these opportunities, they empower teams to recognize the problem and explore new solutions.
An optimistic stance is not the same thing as denying the reality of a situation or sugarcoating bad news. This breeds cynicism and distrust.
When leaders and teams acknowledge setbacks and disappointments in a straightforward manner without blame, it creates a sense of safety and a drive toward continuing the effort.
Now You: How have you stayed optimistic in the face of a failure?
#leaders #team #opportunity
#nonprofits #nonprofitleadership #leadership #agile #agileteams #learningfromfailure #designthinking #success #agilefundraising
Intelitek CoderZ and Massachusetts STEM Week
Intelitek is providing a fantastic platform to engage young minds in STEM. Coder Z Virtual Robotics program provides an entry point for students who may otherwise miss the wonderful world of robotics, coding, mathematics, and collaboration.
Ido Yerushalmi• 1stPresident & CEO at Intelitek2w • 2 weeks ago
Lt. Governor Polito visited 5th grade #CoderZ in Lawrence W. Pingree Elementary School (#Weymouth) today - as part of the MA 4th annual STEM Week.
The students were busy taking the Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge. It was remarkable to see these future engineers at work.
The most exciting thing for anyone who works in the Ed Tech industry is to see their product used in the class room and be able to speak with students and teachers. That is what drives and motivates us to continuously improve.
Thank you Lt. Governor Polito for your initiatives that promote #STEM and #computerscience in education. Thank you also to Christine Marcella, the amazing teacher of these highly engaged students..
#professionaldevelopment #teachers #computationalthinking #stemeducation #massachusetts
Credit to Joshua Qualls/Governor’s Press Office for the photos
…see more
Minding the Gap
Team Leaders, are you minding the gap?
Mindset proceeds action. When you mind the gap you are setting expectations for your team to focus on their progress from where they started – the gain, vs. the distance to the goal – the gap.
Goals are important. Goals create clear paths toward action.
But measuring a professional’s progress toward the goal alone can overwhelm, create a sense of inadequacy, and that the goal line is always on the horizon.
Combine your evaluation toward the goal, with recognizing the progress your team is making.
Think about the language you use, the practices you have, the incentives you have created. Are they creating a gap? Here are some ways to shift your mindset toward the gain.
1. Create a daily team practice – such as “New and Good” where each team member shares one thing that is new that they have done, and one thing that is good. There are a million variations of this type of gratitude ritual.
2. When you provide feedback, first recognize how far your team has come from where it started. Be concrete and specific. Ask the team to pull out an action or a strategy that really worked they could continue to build upon.
3. In the moment, focus on what is working rather than what is not.
4. Model gain mindset yourself. Quit saying, I did this, but I still need to do that….
Now You: How have you created a gain mindset in your life?
#teams #leadership #mindthegap #thegapandthegain #nonprofits #nonprofitleadership #goalsetting #success #gratitude
It's Not the End
“Everything will work out in the end. If it is not working, it’s not the end”
I heard this quote recently in the movie “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”.
For me, it captured the essence of optimism. It holds contradictions ...
A recognition that things may not be ok right now,
while at the same time reminding us that the past is not the future.
Just keep going foreward.
Now you: What does this quote mean to you?
#work #optimism #mindset #abundance #nonprofit #leadership #nonprofitleadership #fundraising #agilefundraising
Individual Vs. Team Incentives in Fundraising
Fundraising Leaders: How do you create individual goals and incentives while also encouraging team collaboration?
Most organizations set financial targets for their fundraising. This big goal then translates to financial goals by sector and then professional goals around funding targets, asks, and moves.
While all of this is standard practice, I have observed that it also can create disincentives for collaborative work and out-of-the-box thinking.
The most direct way to get to a destination is a straight line. Or is it?
If we challenge our team members to amplify each other’s work and to collaborate, we are able to achieve something larger than what is possible alone.
Although this may not be a straight line, the messiness and unknown path, helps us to aim higher and achieve beyond our expectations.
As leaders, we need to think about our goals and incentives. Are we encouraging competitive or cooperative behavior? Are we encouraging win-win relationships?
What if we created more agile teams that bring multidisciplinary skills together rather than structures by funding sector?
An agile team is created around a shared aspirational goal and objectives established by the group. There is both individual and team accountability.
Roles are created for individuals and tasks established for each “sprint” of activity. During “standup” meetings, team members talk about what they have accomplished, barriers they are encountering and what they need of their teammates.
The team only succeeds if the individual contributions are powerful and consistent.
Let’s innovate and be more agile in our fundraising structures, goals and incentives to position our field to match the innovations of our nonprofits.
Now You: Are your individual goals supporting shared goals as well?
#fundraising #team #work
#agilefundraising #fundraisngstrategy #fundraisingleaders #leadership #nonprofits #nonprofitleadershp #agile #entrepreneurship #collaboration #10Xgoals #gogiversmovment
Keeping Your Fundraising in Motion
An object at rest stays at rest. An object in motion stays in motion.
Nonprofit fundraising, like many things, must stay in motion.
We constantly fight against inertia to keep our cultivation efforts going, particularly in the face of little or no response on the other side.
This is the law of motion.
We are opportunity generators, engines, that continually generate more energy from our resources.
It is our job to create energy that continues to advance our nonprofit’s efforts. We also replenish our energy from the commitment to our beneficiaries, colleagues, and donors.
A mission in motion creates energy capable of moving mountains.
Now You: How do you overcome inertia?
#nonprofitleadership #nonprofits #nonprofitfundraisign #fundraising #success #fundraisers #Newtonslawofmotion #agilefundraising #opportunitygeneration
The Creative Economy Revitalization Act (CERA) 2021
The arts and artists were economically devastated by the pandemic, losing an estimated 15 billion dollars and nearly two-thirds of its workers since the start of the pandemic.
Fortunately, there is a new bipartisan effort to put artists back to work. The Creative Economy Revitalization Act (CERA) was modeled after the Work Progress Administration which helped create work after the depression by funding public art efforts.
CERA would put $300 million back into the economy through arts grants for art and cultural organizations to create public projects.
The legislation was introduced to the House by Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico and Jay Obernolte of California Senator and brought to the Senate by Ben Ray Luján, also of New Mexico in late August. CERA has the support of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and it is endorsed by more than 175 arts organizations.
There are regional efforts as well. Chicago launched its own $60 million arts recovery program and this spring New York Mayor de Blasio funded a $25 million economic recovery initiative that would see the city commission 1,500 artists to create public artworks.
Long Live the Arts!
#arts #artists #culturalorganizations #nonprofits #fundraising #artsfunding #economicstimulus #artjobs #CreativeEconomyRevitalizationAct
Planning for a Funder's Exit
Nonprofit Leaders: Every grant commitment eventually comes to an end. What do you need to do to prepare for a funder’s exit from your project?
How do we assure funders that we are on a strong footing once they exit?
We may have developed a plan for continuing the work or scaling it. But there are times when that may not be a realistic path.
#leaders Here are three considerations as you plan:
1. How effective or successful was the project? It is important to have evaluation data that gives you some measures of the effectiveness of the project. Not every project achieves what it intended. Some projects may need a major overhaul. Some may need to come to an end. Some will be worthy of refining and scaling. It is important not to believe that every project must continue.
2. Could this project be part of something larger rather than an end in itself? It is possible that the project may find a home within another project in your organization. Perhaps elements of the work, will find their way into your core services. There may even be partners outside your organization who might be able to carry your work forward.
3. Have you brought other funders/stakeholders into the work during the project? It is important to find other funders throughout the lifespan of the project who can contribute to its success—through funding, through expertise and even opportunities for scaling with others in the field. Engage your primary funder in bringing others to the table.
Now You: Have you been willing to let a project go?
#nonprofits #nonprofitleadership #fundraising #funding #funders #foundations #donors #evaluation #scaling #success #project #opportunities #nonprofit #data
Strategy Drives
Have you ever felt that you were trying to build your business from the tasks up to the strategy and then the vision, instead of the other way around?
I need a little time to step into the larger vision for my work. I know that what I am doing today is not likely to be the work I intend to do tomorrow.
The tension between doing what is in front of us because we are on a deadline, vs. advancing the larger picture, is one that many of us struggle with.
I don’t know what the key is to letting vision drive, but here are some thoughts:
· Shift from managing work to managing outcomes;
· Make sure your systems don’t reinforce the giant to-do list;
· How do your systems organize your outcomes instead?
· Be willing to let go of things in favor of focusing on a few;
· You can do anything, but you can’t do everything;
· Your daily habits add up and become a practice;
· A practice done regularly leads to outcomes;
· Be willing to make mistakes, go down the wrong path;
· Adjust on the fly, agility is key.
Now You: How do you hold your vision within your work?
#strategy #vision #nonprofit #nonprofitleadership #mindset #success #fundraising #agile #agilefundraising #work #productivity #projectmanagement
The Clear Path to a Lesser Goal
“We are kept from our goal
not by obstacles but
by a clear path to a lesser goal.”
― Robert Brault
This is a brilliant observation.
In the coming weeks, I intend to explore this concept as I set strategic goals both personally and professionally.
Now You: Are you on the clearer path or stiving toward your audacious goal?
#10Xgoals #success #strategy #vision #purpose
Participating in Research
I made a commitment to participate in research and here is why.
Right now I am participating in two medical research studies, a case study, one behavioral health study, and a focus group for the fundraising search field.
Participating in disease research, whether with an intervention or not, is a way of paying it forward.
While I personally might not derive benefit, the coming generations may have improved treatment and drugs, better outcomes, and potentially even cures for diseases.
It’s about
· reinforcing the scientific process that advances our knowledge.
· supporting early-career physicians, researchers, and fellows.
· Being an optimist in the face of challenges.
For my profession in nonprofit leadership, strategy, and fundraising,
participating in focus groups helps to improve our work, create a dialogue between different types of professionals, and improve best practices.
Now You: Do you participate in research studies? What is your why?
#nonprofits #fundraising #nonprofitleadership #research #medicalresearch
13
10 comments
Retaining Fundraising Talent
How can we, as a field, retain fundraising talent and increase their average tenure in our organizations?
According to a recent article published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, fundraising professionals experience tremendous stress and burnout. This year, the market for fundraisers is hot which according to a Chronicle interview with Lori Kipnis, from Nonprofit HR, a talent management firm “There’s a high risk that top talent will be poached or will voluntarily exit.”
In past years the Association of Fundraising Professionals surveys found that 75% of fundraisers express that they want to quit their jobs in any given year. This year, with the pandemic, it has been about 50%, a more conservative figure reflecting uncertainties about the future.
So the big question for our field is to figure out how to retain high-level fundraising professionals and to cultivate a pipeline of young diverse talent.
The reasons for fundraising attrition have consistently included: “ stress of punishing fundraising metrics, poor pay, and toxic workplaces.”
Add to this the challenge of raising money by building donor relationships remotely. With the pandemic and the racial reckoning, many people have re-visited their values, and their desire for their work and life balance.
The article suggests the following retention strategies:
· 📌Managers should have the “Stay” conversation. Much like an exit interview, these conversations are designed to uncover the barriers and challenges in the work and come up with creative solutions to them.
· 📌Embrace remote work, take the friction out of it, and provide frequent feedback.
· 📌 Value time, don’t fill your fundraiser’s schedule with management meetings etc. Instead, block strategic time.
· 📌Take meaningful action in your workplace to embrace diversity and inclusion. Embed it in everything you do not just a program or initiative. Value diversity of thought and voice in your processes.
· 📌Clarify and sharpen your mission and how it is expressed in your work.
Now You: How do you deal with burnout for yourself or your employees?
#fundraising #fundraisingstrategy #fundraisingprofessionals #retention #DEI #agilefundraising
#fundraisingmetrics #fundraiserpay
10X Goals for Your Nonprofit
How can nonprofits apply the 10X goals principle to their work?
As we enter the planning season for 2022, we need to think less about preserving our current projects and organizations, and more about the larger societal challenge we are seeking to impact.
Big goals drive innovation, and massive action. Small goals take a similar amount of work as larger goals. Small goals result in average outcomes.
Competition is fierce for the average.
To find new terrain you need to make your goal ten times bigger, a larger aspiration that really drives innovation in your field. (Grant Cardone, The Ten X Rule).
Take your current organizational goal and multiply it by tenfold. According to Dr. Benjamin Hardy, whatever you go after expands.
Anything you work for is hard, so you might as well go for the big goal. Even if you fail, your failure will be well beyond most organization’s successes.
Don’t place limits on what your organization is capable of, others will do that for you.
Hold the vision of your future organization. Be open to holding your goals firm but your means flexible. Learn along the way, take the path least traveled.
Now you: Are you up for the challenge of 10Xing your goal?
#10XRule #Nonprofits #nonprofitleadership #success #strategicgoals #strategicplanning #aspirations #mindset
Increasing the Success of Your Fundraising Program Long-term
Nonprofit Leaders: How can you increase the success of your fundraising effort for the long term?
If you watch the ocean carefully you can track individual waves as they build, then travel with increased speed and size as they crest on the sand. Right behind every wave, is another, and another, all traveling toward the land, cresting and then receding.
Think of your work as the engine that drives waves of effort… one following another, moving along their path until they come to their inevitable conclusion.
Each wave represents a fundraising project which will have its own speed and magnitude. But right behind it is another fundraising wave that advances your work. Right behind that, an effort that needs a longer period to build with larger funds, partners, and potential impact.
There are many forces that impact the waves, headwinds, storms. It is not any single effort, but many waves of effort put into play through energy, determination, and vision.
Now you: Do you work best sequentially or with waves of effort?
#nonprofitleadership #nonprofits #fundraising #fundraisingstrategy #success #strategy #leadership #goals #vision #agilefundraising.
Value Proposition Design
Nonprofit Leaders: What makes a good value proposition for your organization?
According to Strategyzer.com, there are ten characteristics of good value proposition design, which can be applied to both for-profits and not-for-profit enterprises.
Your value proposition …
1. Is embedded in a great business model.
2. Focuses on the jobs, pains, and gains that matter most to your beneficiaries or customers.
3. Focus on unsatisfied jobs, unresolved pains, and unrealized gains.
4. Target a few things but do so extremely well.
5. Go beyond functional jobs and address emotional and social jobs.
6. Align with how your beneficiaries measure success.
7. Focus on pains that a lot of people have or jobs that some will pay lots of money for.
8. Differentiate from the competition in areas your beneficiaries care about.
9. Outperform competition substantially on at least one dimension.
10. Is difficult to copy.
Now you: Which of these items do you do well at and which one do you need to address next?
#nonprofitleadership #nonprofits #strategy #valueproposition #fundraising #entrepreneurship #innovation
The Equinox
Yesterday was the Equinox, the moment when there was equal parts darkness and light.
As in life, this moment of absolute equality is infrequent.
Can we hold challenges and opportunities at the same time, and in perfect balance?
Is there sadness when there is also joy?
Most of the time, we encounter both darkness and light, but not in equal measure.
The scales tip in one direction or the other.
We often talk about work/life balance.
Selfcare while caring for others.
Growing your children, while you also grow your own capabilities.
Harvesting with abundance and then having the plants die and become dormant.
Perhaps the idea of absolute equalness between darkness and light is a transitory state for a reason.
Now You: Do you take note when the forces in your life are in balance?
#abundancemindset #balance #worklifebalance #success #selfcare #creativity #equinox
The 10X Rule for Nonprofits
How can nonprofits apply the 10X goals principle to their work?
As we enter the planning season for 2022, we need to think less about preserving our current projects and organizations, and more about the larger societal challenge we are seeking to impact.
Big goals drive innovation, and massive action. Small goals take a similar amount of work as larger goals. Small goals result in average outcomes.
Competition is fierce for the average.
To find new terrain you need to make your goal ten times bigger, a larger aspiration that really drives innovation in your field. (Grant Cardone, The Ten X Rule).
Take your current organizational goal and multiply it by tenfold. According to Dr. Benjamin Hardy, whatever you go after expands.
Anything you work for is hard, so you might as well go for the big goal. Even if you fail, your failure will be well beyond most organization’s successes.
Don’t place limits on what your organization is capable of, others will do that for you.
Hold the vision of your future organization. Be open to holding your goals firm but your means flexible. Learn along the way, take the path least traveled.
Now you: Are you up for the challenge of 10Xing your goal?
#10XRule #Nonprofits #nonprofitleadership #success #strategicgoals #strategicplanning #aspirations #mindset
Increase the success of your fundraising program for the long-term
Nonprofit Leaders: How can you increase the success of your fundraising effort for the long term?
If you watch the ocean carefully you can track individual waves as they build, then travel with increased speed and size as they crest on the sand. Right behind every wave, is another, and another, all traveling toward the land, cresting and then receding.
Think of your work as the engine that drives waves of effort… one following another, moving along their path until they come to their inevitable conclusion.
Each wave represents a fundraising project which will have its own speed and magnitude. But right behind it is another fundraising wave that advances your work. Right behind that, an effort that needs a longer period to build with larger funds, partners, and potential impact.
There are many forces that impact the waves, headwinds, storms. It is not any single effort, but many waves of effort put into play through energy, determination, and vision.
Now you: Do you work best sequentially or with waves of effort?
#nonprofitleadership #nonprofits #fundraising #fundraisingstrategy #success #strategy #leadership #goals #vision #agilefundraising.
Retaining Fundraising Talent
How can we, as a field, retain fundraising talent and increase their average tenure in our organizations?
According to a recent article published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, fundraising professionals experience tremendous stress and burnout. This year, the market for fundraisers is hot which according to a Chronicle interview with Lori Kipnis, from Nonprofit HR, a talent management firm “There’s a high risk that top talent will be poached or will voluntarily exit.”
In past years the Association of Fundraising Professionals surveys found that 75% of fundraisers express that they want to quit their jobs in any given year. This year, with the pandemic, it has been about 50%, a more conservative figure reflecting uncertainties about the future.
So the big question for our field is to figure out how to retain high-level fundraising professionals and to cultivate a pipeline of young diverse talent.
The reasons for fundraising attrition have consistently included: “ stress of punishing fundraising metrics, poor pay, and toxic workplaces.”
Add to this the challenge of raising money by building donor relationships remotely. With the pandemic and the racial reckoning, many people have re-visited their values, and their desire for their work and life balance.
The article suggests the following retention strategies:
· 📌Managers should have the “Stay” conversation. Much like an exit interview, these conversations are designed to uncover the barriers and challenges in the work and come up with creative solutions to them.
· 📌Embrace remote work, take the friction out of it, and provide frequent feedback.
· 📌 Value time, don’t fill your fundraiser’s schedule with management meetings etc. Instead, block strategic time.
· 📌Take meaningful action in your workplace to embrace diversity and inclusion. Embed it in everything you do not just a program or initiative. Value diversity of thought and voice in your processes.
· 📌Clarify and sharpen your mission and how it is expressed in your work.
Now You: How do you deal with burnout for yourself or your employees?
#fundraising #fundraisingstrategy #fundraisingprofessionals #retention #DEI #agilefundraising
#fundraisingmetrics #fundraiserpay