The Friday Four: Links to End the Week

Welcome to the Columbia Business School edition of the Friday Four. As I mentioned last week, I'll be headed up to New York on Monday for the first day of their Middle Management Program. I'll be doing my assigned homework this weekend, including reading these two articles:

Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve

Seven Surprises for New CEOS

And speaking of management and business, the November Giving Carnival hosted by Maya Norton, asks "What best practices in business should nonprofits adopt to maximize their resources?"

I found out about Columbia's program from the continuing education guide in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Check it out for some great advanced professional development opportunities in the sector.


Photo by Flickr user libraryman

Why Excessive Nonprofit CEO Salaries Are Unethical and Just Plain Wrong

Dan Prives of Where Most Needed recently blogged about Independent Sector's Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice, lamenting the fact that the IS Principles do not adequately address issues of excessive executive compensation in the nonprofit sector. Contrary to popular belief, there are many nonprofits that are large enough to allow for CEOs to make a six-figure salary. Take Mark Everson for instance, whose $500,000 gig at the Red Cross couldn't even motivate him to keep it in his pants. But I digress. The problem that Dan points out is that in many organizations, the CEO generally makes a hell of a lot more dough than the other senior staff. Well, you say, that's only fair, right? The big boss should be making the most moola. Okay, but let's talk ratio. Consider that in many nonprofits, the next highest paid staff can make as little as less than half the salary of the CEO, even though most senior staff share responsibility and an undoubtedly large workload very similar in comparison to the CEO. I'm talking about the finance directors who keep the organization from going into the red, the program heads that keep the kids coming and the parents involved, the fundraising staff that plan for sustainability and run the galas and campaigns while the CEO just comes to smile for the camera and pick up the check. I'm exaggerating a little bit here, but my point is that without these key skilled workers (who usually possess advanced education), nonprofits could not survive. Yet somehow these kinds of senior staff still get the short stick when it comes time for payday. I know from working at several nonprofits how frustrated overworked staff feel when their boss is enjoying the fruits of the American dream, even just the basics: a house and a car, while they can barely pay the rent and have to take public transportation. So honestly, I think it's unethical and just plain wrong to have such disparities in compensation in a sector that fights for things like justice and fairness and I commend Dan for bringing this issue to light. Dan's post was featured on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's Give and Take, prompting "Bif" to make this comment that had me steaming:

It’s not exactly agreed by everyone (or perhaps even agreed by most) that earning significantly more than the next highest paid person on staff is some sort of ethical violation. In fact, I would say that it’s absurd to suggest that this is unethical. Just because we work for nonprofits and want to do some good in the world doesn’t mean that we need to sign on to the levellers’ agenda.

Really, Bif? That's how you feel? Why don't you go ask the next highest paid person (who is likely being grossly underpaid) how they feel about your ethics. Now please don't go getting your panties in a bunch thinking I'm saying that nonprofit CEOs should be paid less, because I'm surely not on THAT bandwagon. I want one of those gigs when I grow up. But. What I am saying is that if you're gonna pay the CEO well, pay everyone else well, too. Senior staff should be getting paid much fairer salaries in relation to what the CEO makes. Let me make it simple:

UNFAIR: CEO makes $150,000/year while Deputy Director makes $50,000.
FAIRER: CEO makes $150,000/year while Deputy Director makes $100,000.

What's the problem, right? Can't we behave with common sense in the nonprofit sector and value our senior staff enough to pay them fairly? I'm not too good at math, so you tell me.

Of course this issue is very close to my heart as a young nonprofit professional looking for job satisfaction and a decent quality of life working for a cause I love. I could hop on over to the government side of things and make way more than what I'm getting now, but unfortunately it is not in my personal mission to do that. However when the bills start piling up faster than you can pay them, the nonprofit field can seem like a really nasty place to be, and life as a government worker starts to look pretty sweet. In fact, for most young people working in the nonprofit sector, their main issue is the ridiculously low salaries they earn for the positions they hold in their organizations, no matter how senior their responsibility. Even though many younger nonprofit workers are coming out of universities with advanced education in social work, arts, public administration, management, finance, business, and other applicable fields, nonprofits are paying way less than the market rate for their talent. What other sector (true story, I've seen it happen) would recruit a candidate with two Master's degrees and offer them $40,000 a year to live off of?

Perspectives reader John Wasinski asks a practical question about the lack of competitive nonprofit salaries:

I wonder if the current state of affairs due to lack of awareness, ignoring a problem they know exists, or just due to funding woes and an inability to solve them?


What do you all think? Why do nonprofits continue to pay pennies for the important work of social change? Do you see excessive CEO salaries as an issue?

I don't know, maybe it's a combination of reasons, but what I do know is that as the war for talent gets tougher, nonprofits will definitely have to step it up as young people start pushing the envelope on this issue.

Quote of the Day

"It looks a lot different a thousand feet in the air than it does down on the ground. And one of the things I'm here to talk to you about is what I see on the ground."

- Rev. Calvin Butts, Pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City and President of the State University of New York College at Old Westbury at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival

Blogging Leadership at the Nonprofit Congress

Starting this week, you can catch me blogging about leadership over at the Nonprofit Congress' new blog. Check out my first post, "Reframing the So-Called Leadership Crisis" and be sure to read posts from the Nonprofit Congress staff, especially those of Elisa Ortiz, who is one helluva young nonprofit leader. I attended the Nonprofit Congress last year, which was a powerful gathering in DC of over 500 nonprofit leaders sharing ideas from around the country. So I'm excited to spread the word that early bird registration for next year's event is now open! The 2008 Nonprofit Congress promises to:

• Follow-up on progress made in addressing the top priorities, including celebrating our successes and recognizing innovative and effective projects


• Inspire and further solidify a sense of unity and collective purpose among nonprofits across mission-area, geography, and size


• Develop the capacity of attendees to address the top priorities, including cross-fertilization of ideas and skill-building educational sessions


• Allow attendees to grow and strengthen their networks


• Build relationships with and inform Congressional offices through Lobby Day

Another young nonprofit blogger to watch is Amanda Wang, who has the Courage to Lead. Her debut post encorages us all to start where we are and just go for it - start doing, start leading, start something that will change the world. And if it's only that you keep reading and supporting me, Elisa, and Amanda in our individual and collective journeys, well I can't be mad at that, either.

The Friday Four: Links to End the Week

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is spending some quality time with family and friends. Today the Friday Four is back with links to blogs that are new to me, but have linked to or mentioned this blog in the past few weeks. So, here is a huge THANK YOU to the following bloggers - I'm glad you stopped by!

• Cube Rules
• Ray Chung's Online Journal
• NicoleCabrini
• 501cfiles.com
  

Photo credit: Flickr user Fanboy30

Reader Question: How Do I Develop My Qualifications to Advance My Nonprofit Career?

Thank you to all the Perspectives readers for engaging with me on this blog in the short time I've been writing! It's been rewarding and inspiring to exchange ideas with you all about the nonprofit sector and social change. Now I receive about a dozen emails a day from readers about various nonprofit issues with questions or comments that I think are important to share using this public space for dialogue. Besides, I'm sure many folks are grappling with the same issues and questions and would benefit from seeing that exchange happen on this blog. So here's the deal - every week or so I will try to post something directly from my inbox or in response to a reader question and I encourage you all to come out from the woodwork to join the discussion. Cool?

So here are some great comments and a question about nonprofit career empowerment from Allison K. Dolcy, Program Coordinator at the Drug Free America Foundation in St. Petersburg, FL:

Hi Rosetta,

I just came across your blog Perspectives From the Pipeline and absolutely love it! I found a wealth of valuable information that I can’t wait to share a few people I know. I am a 25 year old African American female working in the non-profit sector that is looking to further advance her career. I have experience in fundraising, program development, marketing, event planning, volunteer coordination, communications, and research. I am looking to move into a management position, but feel that my work experience needs to be developed further. My current position has quickly evolved into much more than I was hired to do, and is giving me lots of opportunity for growth. In the near future I do plan on entering a Master’s Program for Non-Profit Management, or if possible an MBA program with a non-profit concentration. Do you have any suggestions on resources for networking or training/development? I would like do all that I can now to develop my qualifications to make myself more attractive for a Master’s Program as well as future employers. Thanks!

Allison,

You've definitely got the right mindset of an emerging nonprofit leader and I'm sure you would be attractive to future employers with the skills you have developed so far! What's still the most important thing in the sector is work experience, and it sounds like you have quite a bit of that. So I'd say you're doing fine on that front, since the only way to develop "on-the-job" experience is on the job! And I'd say you'd look fine in terms of applying to a Master's program - as long as you have your undergraduate degree, a decent GPA, and a big fat check to pay the university. I certainly reaped the benefits of getting a Master's degree, but for me it was more about getting credibility versus skill-building, though I got that, too. I definitely endorse higher education for young nonprofit professionals, but you just have to weigh the cost against what you think you might make in your particular specialization - for instance I haven't seen a Master's degree in social work help anyone make a higher salary, since program positions are usually paid less. If you're going the Master's route, I'd encourage you to pursue a position in fundraising, human resources, finance, communications, or a combination of those. It sucks to incur all that debt if you're not going to move forward that much on the pay scale, though you may in fact be in a "management" position.

As far as networks, I'd say to for sure get involved with the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network in Orlando or Jacksonville whichever one is closer to you. For networking and specialized training in fundraising, you should join one of the Florida chapters of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Your state association should also have a plethora of training in different areas of nonprofit management that you can take advantage of. Obtain the latest calendar of classes and pick one.

Finally, I would just say to remember that preparing yourself for management is not all about skill building or networking. It's also about getting along with different kinds of people and learning how to motivate a team to achieve a common goal. Once you have all the technical skills, what's really needed is the people skills and negotiation techniques to get the job done. And honey that is not what they teach you in graduate school believe me. All that theory gets thrown out the window when you have conflict on your staff or don't know how to "rally the troops" to complete a project.

That's where I am in my career right now actually. I've mastered many management areas, but I know I'm lacking in the "soft skills" that get you to the finish line. Fortunately, the greatest opportunity came to me this week - I applied and got into Columbia Business School's Middle Management Program. They gave me a partial scholarship and my employer is paying the rest. But what's really awesome about it is that it's not another run-of-the-mill workshop line-up. it goes deeper into what managers actually have to do to get the job done. Columbia's program promises to help me:

• Design and implement strategic program goals.
• Develop your ability to delegate authority and responsibility effectively and to manage upward.
• Use financial data to make strategic decisions.
• Manage conflict and negotiate to achieve win-win solutions.
• Cultivate your constituents to support fund-raising efforts.
• Enhance your agency’s public image and develop crisis-management strategies.

I start the program on Dec.3, so I can't necessarily endorse it fully right now, but I'll be sure to report back. Good luck with your career advancement, and be sure to let us know how your journey progresses!

Anyone have any other advice for Allison? Please share in the comments!

Fighting the War for Talent: Retaining Generation Y in the Nonprofit Sector

Educated. Tech-Savvy. Idealistic. Self-Absorbed. The "Me" Generation. Impatient. Call us what you want, but Generation Y (made up of 70 million people born between 1977 and 2002) is indeed the future of the workplace in America, and undoubtedly comprises the next generation of nonprofit leaders. I've said here many times that the nonprofit leadership crisis is not that we don't have enough young people that want to work in nonprofits. The good news is that we have so many bright and idealistic young people that want to join and work for a meaningful cause, but the sad part is that the downsides of working for nonprofits are often perceived as greater than the rewards. We already have a great pool, but we really need to fix the marketing problem we have in the sector if we want to win the war for talent and convince young people to enter and remain in the nonprofit field. Students are coming out of school with massive debt and can't afford to get by on $30,000 a year, especially in major metropolitan areas like Washington, DC with high costs of living and we're really getting tired of that damn gray ceiling blocking us from promotions. So, what's a nonprofit sector to do?

Fortunately, a recent study from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies gives us a promising picture of the state of the nonprofit workforce. The study found that despite challenges to recruiting nonprofit staff, there's been a significant boom in nonprofit employment, particularly among front-line service workers and administrative staff (who are most likely to come from Generation Y). So the interest in the sector is there, which indicates that we can head off the leadership deficit with just a little problem-solving regarding the three main challenges in retaining nonprofit staff:

• Lack of competitive salaries
• Few opportunities for advancement
• Lack of competitive benefits

Consider a CareerBuilder survey cited by Wikipedia:

In terms of job expectations, 87 percent of all hiring managers and HR professionals say some or most Gen Y workers feel more entitled in terms of compensation, benefits and career advancement than older generations.

• 74 percent of employers say Gen Y workers expect to be paid more
• 61 percent say Gen Y workers expect to have flexible work schedules
• 56 percent say Gen Y workers expect to be promoted within a year
• 50 percent say Gen Y workers expect to have more vacation or personal time
• 37 percent say Gen Y workers expect to have access to state-of-the-art technology

So here are some recommendations that nonprofits can and should seek to implement right now if organizations want to keep the next generation in place to do the important work of social change for the long haul after the baby boomers move on.

Offer Competitive Salaries and Flexible Schedules
We know that our main issue in the nonprofit sector is low pay, with many professionals making well below private and government sector salaries yet doing the same kinds of work. Even though we're not in it for the Benjamins, young people need to pay bills, too and that is often the deciding factor pushing talent to the corporate sector. So we really need to be offering more competitive salaries to attract talented workers and if that means we can only hire one really good person at a fair salary rather than two people and pay them both pennies, so be it. Recent college grads should not have to eat PB&J for dinner because they work at a nonprofit! Organizations should also be implementing deferred compensation or opportunities for employees to save for retirement through 403(b) plans. Offering generous paid time off policies and flexible work schedules including working from home are all low-cost ways of keeping Gen Y employees satisfied as well.

Create Pleasant Working Environments
Since our salaries aren't up to par, we need to at least be making the workplace a great place to be. Nonprofits need to think about allowing casual dress days (my organization has "Casual Fridays" when employees can wear jeans) and fun working environments that encourage celebrating birthdays and important employee milestones. Give employees the freedom to express themselves through music, art, etc. in their cubicles/offices. Frequent and public recognition of individual and team successes would also contribute to high employee morale. Nonprofits should also not shy away from offering small bonuses (cash or otherwise) for exceptional performance as incentives for Gen Y workers to work towards.

Be Generous With Praise As Well As Criticism
Gen Y likes to be praised and recognized as much as anyone, but we also value constructive criticism and feedback to help us do our jobs better and prepare us for leadership positions in the future. Ryan Healy advises at Employee Evolution, "Managers, please check the empty praise at the door. Instead, bring your young employees some honest guidance and feedback, and bring lots of it." A good nonprofit boss should realize that taking the time to tell (and show!) younger workers what they're doing wrong can be valuable enough to keep them at your nonprofit because you are helping them learn. Not many organizations do this at all, let alone well, so giving constant feedback to Gen Y can be a key factor in retention.

Provide Ongoing Professional Development
Gen Y is often coming straight from the university, and used to learning how to do a thing before they actually have to do it. So organizations need to temper new employees' "trial by fire" with some real technical or job-based professional development classes or conferences related to their work. Not only does it make employees feel valued, but it helps younger workers have more confidence in their ability to serve the organization. Ryan Estis suggests that organizations also provide a mentoring component for new employees: "As an extension of onboarding, offer a mentoring program. New employees should be paired with someone who has an express interest in their success."

Give Promotions and Create Leadership Opportunities
No one comes into a nonprofit to be an Administrative Assistant forever, so we need to be helping them to grow into positions or projects with more responsibility or Gen Y employees will surely leave. Even if there are no real advancement options due to small organizational structure, nonprofits can still create promotion opportunities , even if that means simply changing job titles - I guarantee your Executive Assistant would much rather be an Office Manager or Administrative Director. Make sure that promotion comes with a pay raise, too, no matter how small it has to be. Let Gen Y professionals sit in on board meetings or give us challenging stretch assignments that can strengthen our management skills. Often it is not necessarily about the specific job title, but the opportunities for growth and leadership development available within the organization.

Want more insight into understanding and keeping valuable Gen Y workers? Check out these additional resources:

Employee Evolution
Modite
Little Red Suit
Brazen Careerist

Quote of the Day

"You can't keep doing the same thing that everyone else has done that hasn't worked."
- Geoffrey Canada, President/CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone

Life as a New Board Member

This week I was voted onto the board of directors for the D.C. Creative Writing Workshop, a nonprofit that blends my love of poetry and the arts in an afterschool program for African American youth living in the poorest sections of Washington, DC. The mission of the D.C. Creative Writing Workshop, based at Charles Hart Middle School in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Southeast D.C., is to unite parents, teachers and professional writers-in-residence to transform the lives of youth through self-expression and the power of the written word. As a new board member, I've already chosen a committee to work on: fundraising, which is what I do in my day job. But the great thing about serving on the Workshop's board is that I will get a chance to try my hand at individual fundraising, which I have not yet done very much of in my nonprofit career so far. So you know I wouldn't be doing my board duty if I didn't encourage readers to support the DC Creative Writing Workshop by donating online or sending a big fat check to: D.C. Creative Writing Workshop, Inc. 601 Mississippi Ave SE, Washington, DC 20032. Bonus if you donate before the end of the year to get a nice tax break from Uncle Sam!

After one board meeting, you can bet my head is still reeling with all of the information presented, but I want to share my observations so far on being a new board member:

• Food is a key ingredient if you want people to show up for evening board meetings - the board member who hosted us at her lovely home treated us to a nice catered dinner that made us feel even better about leaving straight from work for a 2-hour meeting
• It's important that board committee chairs communicate about the agenda well in advance of the meeting so everyone's on the same page and well-prepared during the meeting - everyone has busy schedules so it's best to request information for reports, etc. as early as possible
• Board meetings are a great time to ask questions of the staff that attend, but make sure they have a purpose so time doesn't get taken away from the agenda - time really flies during the meetings once you get into them
• When you agree to do something or send out information to other board members, try to do it right away
• Always try to remember what your role is to the organization - as a volunteer you want to help where you are needed and not create more work for the staff
• No matter what committee you are on within the board, it is still your responsibility to ask your contacts and friends to financially support the organization

I think this is going to be a great experience in so many different ways and I'll keep sharing here, especially on the progress in my leadership journey. Want to join a nonprofit board yourself? Here's how I did it.

The Only Constant is Change: Give Younger Generations the Chance to Create a Better Future for the Nonprofit Sector

"...What will ultimately happen is that new generations will simply create their own institutions to replace the old ways of doing business."
- comment by Michele Martin on this blog post

I have been thinking about Michele’s inspiring words a lot lately. Just think, younger leaders of Generations X and Y absolutely have the opportunity to change the face of the nonprofit sector and find new ways of fulfilling our missions smarter, faster, cheaper, and with more innovation to better our communities. Now I’m all for ditching the old models of working that are not working in our organizations, but for young nonprofit professionals, it’s just not that easy to envision. The question we are all asking ourselves is, how? We know there has to be a better way to serve more kids and battle hunger more effectively and fight poverty, etc. but we just don't know how it will work when our ideas for change aren't always welcomed in our current organizations. We feel the challenges every day concerning long hours and low pay, the lack of infrastructure, inefficient technology, and outdated modes of implementing programs that hinder us from doing our jobs well. So we know there are more effective ways of implementing social change, and we bring the energy and idealism to back it up. But how can things change if younger generations aren't a part of the solution in current organizations? How will our ideas help shape the invisible future of the nonprofit sector?

Frances Kunreuther of the Building Movement Project made a great presentation on generational leadership change in the nonprofit sector this week in DC, calling this the "hard to see ahead problem." Frances pointed out that in order to move forward, we as a nonprofit sector have to face the reality that:

1. There are new generations of leaders but they look and act differently than current leaders - they are younger, more racially diverse, and have differing views on organizational culture and leadership than baby boomers.

2. Organizations in the future will look and act differently than current nonprofits.

These are the hard facts, people, but we know that baby boomers and next generation leaders are having a hard time working together to address these trends toward the future. The two points that Frances mentioned imply that the entire nature of nonprofit leadership will change with the retirement of current executives. Instead of rewarding the status quo, it will be important to identify leaders who can reconceptualize how nonprofit organizations can be structured for maximum impact. In an increasingly crowded nonprofit environment where competition for resources and community support is fierce, the public will be looking at what kinds of leaders and nonprofits can fix the problem the best. Funders and donors especially are already more and more hungry for new approaches to social change since clearly the techniques we've been doing for a million years haven't made enough of a dent on the issues so far.

What does this mean for current baby boomer nonprofit leaders? If you care about your organizations, your mission to improve the world in some way, and your communities, it's critical that you involve and work closely with younger generations to help prepare them for the long road ahead. Instead of being skeptical of new ideas, it's important to realize that new ideas are the only thing that will help nonprofits to survive in the coming years, so it's in nonprofits' best interest to cultivate younger generations quick and in a hurry as the landscape changes. Like James Kouzes and Barry Posner assert in their seminal book, The Leadership Challenge, all you need to do is give potential leaders what they want, which is simply:

• the chance be tested to make it on one's own
• the chance to take part in a social experiment
• the chance to do something well
• the chance to do something good
• the chance to change the way things are

There is the challenge, and then there is the opportunity. The coming leadership deficit will not be a crisis unless we let it get to that point, and I'm saying let's work now to help shape future leaders rather than later. If the only thing constant in life is change, then let's get with the program and work it to our advantage to create a better future for the nonprofit sector. Are you with me?

Masala Tea On the Verge of Burnout

Last week I treated myself to lunch away from the office. Allow me to repeat myself. Lunch. Away. From. The. Office. I abandoned my big stack of file folders and unfinished documents and set out in search of a place to sit down and enjoy the midday meal I usually scarf down at my desk. There is so much going on in my organization right now - new initiatives, onboarding a new hire, implementing new fundraising campaigns - and it's all just a bit much for my little brain to handle. It's times like these that are very exciting in the growth cycle of a nonprofit, but that can be very stressful for the staff that are racing to catch up in terms of capacity and energy. How hard it is to lead from the within the madness. But instead of hunkering down and getting overwhelmed and burned the hell out, I realized that now is the time for me to remember to take in deep breaths of the cool fall air and exhale already. I'm reminded by my grandmother's words: you can't take care of anyone else if you don't take care of yourself first. I have to keep in mind how important it is to take care of myself in the midst of the flurry. The day is still only so long, and I'm just not committing myself to staying at work all night just because my nonprofit is moving a mile a minute. I was seeking some clarity with a side of vision when I ended up at an Indian buffet for lunch a few blocks away.

I was greeted at the door by a pair of immaculately clad waiters, who quickly guided me to a cozy table in the corner of the restaurant. Before me lay an inviting spread of butter chicken, lentil dal, steaming basmati rice, aloo gobhi (spiced potatoes and cauliflower), and warm stacks of naan. But before I could get up to grab my grub, a waiter comes by to ask me what I wanted to drink. "Just water," I begin to reply. "No," he says, smiling, but shaking his head. "I know just what you need. Let me bring you some masala tea." I had never heard of masala tea, but I was feeling adventurous and obliged. He brings me a small kettle and a tea cup, pouring up to the brim. He stands there, still smiling, waiting for me to take a sip. It was warm and sweet and spicy, with a tinge of cinnamon and cream. Like something my grandmother would fix in the middle of the night to comfort me after a bad dream. The waiter is smiling, and now I am smiling, and for the first time in a long time during the workday, I exhale.

Get Yourself a Reputation: Blogging for Personal Branding

You have probably noticed that I do not mention the name of the nonprofit I work for anywhere on this blog. Sure, you can find out where I work through a three-second Google search, but I purposely make it a point not to appear to represent my organization here. And why should I? I am not my nonprofit organization. Michele Martin blogs about personal branding at Beyond the Glass Ceiling, giving us a concise definition (my bold emphasis):

In the world of organizations, a brand is the total perceived value of that organization, relative to competitors, as viewed by a particular audience. In other words, a brand is how people view an organization in comparison to other, similar organizations. Your personal brand, then, is the perception that people have of you, as compared to other people in similar positions. Obviously the goal of personal branding is to create a consistent, positive message about who you are and what you stand for that will make you stand out from the crowd.

In my opinion, personal branding is the only leg up that young professionals have in a working world that is currently dominated by baby boomers. For those of us that aspire to be leaders of organizations, it's important that we are perceived as responsible, knowledgeable, and professional, instead of as "those darn kids" who are spoiled and think they know it all but don't know diddly squat. Since we don't have years of experience, our reputation is all we have, so we better make it a good one! I was in a group discussion yesterday where I was the only non-baby boomer and there were some interesting comments made about my generation:

My 28 year old director thinks she just knows it all and I can't stand it!

I can't figure out Myspace or Facebook! What are you supposed to do when you get on there, anyway?

Young people have to learn how to communicate face to face as well as they do online. You can't just say "gotta go" in person like on IM. You have to notice body language when people are uncomfortable.

If you guys are going to take over our jobs, we have got to find ways to honor the knowledge of the people who came before you.

There are a lot of perceptions and unfortunate generalizations about younger generations by our older colleagues, which makes it all the more important for us to be clear about who we are and what we stand for. Trista Harris at New Voices of Philanthropy even gives us some tangible ways to manage your professional identity and make sure people see you in a positive light. But some things are true of younger workers. Yes, as Generation Y-er, I want the opportunity to be a leader without paying my dues for 20 years, but I'm also willing to work very hard at my job when I am in a position of leadership. And sure, I'd prefer to work from home and utilize technology to get my work done faster and cheaper, but I also recognize the importance of relationship-building and personal contact. I do relish the fact that even though I don't have all the answers, I can find out most everything about a subject by spending a 1/2 hour on Google unlike many of my older colleagues, but I still find ways to honor their wisdom and experience. Even though my generation is different, we are not that naive. We know that we have to balance our new ways of thinking with tradition and the knowledge others have already built up.

I started this blog seven months ago with the hopes that it would help me find my own voice beyond my organization. As a young person who is also not the face of my organization, it was hard to network and flip the perception of me as the youngest person on staff as just "administrative support" versus a future leader who want to develop to her full potential. And, frankly, there are things I care about and want to say as Rosetta Thurman, not as a representative of my nonprofit. To be completely honest, there were many people in my field that I admired that would hardly glance at me at events, preferring to chat with my boss over the rubber chicken dinner, understandably. But since I've been blogging, these same leaders now recognize me and actually approach me at receptions, commenting on a blog post I've written or congratulating me on my exposure. Seven months ago, I was practically a nobody in the nonprofit world. Through blogging, I now have a reputation. What I'm saying is that no matter how brilliant or talented or dedicated you are to your work or your cause, no one will see you if they can't see you. If you don't have an online identity, you could be limiting yourself to the small network of co-workers and other people connected to your organization. And that's fine if you want to wait until you're gray to be the boss or a influential leader in your community. That's how the baby boomers did it, but younger generations are different. If you want to get ahead, you need to first get seen.

Through my blog, I have had many opportunities I would not have had otherwise:

• Being featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s recent issue in the article, “Inching to the Top”
• Speaking opportunity on a panel about African American nonprofit leadership
• Invitation to join the blogging team at the Stanford Social Innovation Review
• Opportunity to be a guest on an upcoming episode of NPR show News and Notes
• An upcoming feature article in Uptown Magazine
• Opportunity to plan and facilitate a career empowerment retreat with my favorite blogger Michele Martin
• Opportunity to be a columnist and webinar presenter for Workfornonprofits.org
• Access to an awesome network of other young professionals, bloggers, supporters, peer learners, colleagues, and social change agents that keeps growing and growing!

I can't wait to see what the next seven months has in store for me in terms of new contacts, learning and embarking on new projects that will strengthen my leadership skills and help me to be a better nonprofit professional. Need one more reason to work on your personal brand? In one of the Beyond the Glass Ceiling Ning community forums, Jen McCabe Gorman shared a powerful piece by Bruce Rector about how the future will require us to create our own personal brands:

It's over. No more vertical. No more ladder. That's not the way careers work anymore. Linearity is out. A career is now a checkerboard. Or even a maze. It's full of moves that go sideways, forward, slide on the diagonal, even go backward when that makes sense. (It often does.) A career is a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain you new expertise, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set, and constantly reinvent you as a brand. As you scope out the path your "career" will take, remember: the last thing you want to do is become a manager. Like "résumé," "manager" is an obsolete term. It's practically synonymous with "dead end job." What you want is a steady diet of more interesting, more challenging, more provocative projects.

Do you have a reputation?

An Inspiring Definition of Leadership

I heard a very inspiring definition of leadership today during a small group discussion on collective leadership and learning. It comes from the book Theory U by Otto Scharmer:

Leadership: The capacity of a system to sense and shape its future. The Indo-European root of the word "leadership," leith, means "to go forth," "to cross a threshold," or "to die." That root meaning, which suggests that the experience of letting go and then going forth into another world that begins to take shape only once we overcome the fear of stepping into the unknown, is at the very heart and essence of leadership.

We've all got skills and talents and ideas. For young nonprofit professionals with incredible idealism and passion to boot, it seems that the only thing standing between the problems and the solutions is having the courage to step forward and take action. In my own leadership journey, I'm trying my best to remember that letting go and stepping out into that space of risk and uncertainty is the only way we can make social change.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was only 26 years old when he led the Montgomery bus boycott that helped to change the future of this country. Contrary to popular belief, he was not superhuman; but he was in fact a dedicated young person with a vision who took action for what he believed in. So it seems there is only one question for us to answer today:

What do you believe in with your heart so deeply that would grant you the courage to step up to lead in helping to change our world?

Stretch Assignment: Join a Nonprofit Board

Last month, I gave you tips on how to jumpstart your nonprofit career in seven days. Then Michele Martin asked me in the comments if I had done all of these professional development tasks myself, and I realized I had done all of them except one: join a nonprofit board of directors. So I followed my own advice and set out to join a board as my goal before the end of the year. I will walk you through the steps I have taken so far to help you in your own process of developing your leadership skills through board membership. Most of you will consider this a stretch assignment, especially if you do not already play a leadership role in your current nonprofit job. But for young nonprofit professionals, this is a win/win/win: 1) you gain valuable skills 2) you get to volunteer for one of your favorite causes, and 3) you can reap the benefits of the respect from your peers and colleagues that comes with being a board member. So here's how you can follow the path of what I have done so far to achieve my professional development goal of joining a nonprofit board. I hope it works for you! Let us know about your experiences in the comments, or drop me an email if you are thinking about taking on this stretch assignment.

Make Sure You Know What You're Getting Into
I reviewed the responsibilities of being a nonprofit board member on the BoardSource website. I was pretty familiar with the duties of board leadership, but I wanted to make sure I was clear that I could sign on to each one of them. Although I know the experience can be rewarding, the truth is that nonprofit boards of directors are not all fun and games. It takes hard work and integrity just like a full-time job. As the leadership body of public stakeholders in a particular community, it is the board's duty to govern the organization in the best way possible. Among the responsibilities I would have:

1. Provide proper financial oversight. The board must assist in developing the annual budget and ensuring that proper financial controls are in place.
2. Ensure adequate resources. One of the board's foremost responsibilities is to provide adequate resources for the organization to fulfill its mission.
3. Ensure legal and ethical integrity and maintain accountability. The board is ultimately responsible for ensuring adherence to legal standards and ethical norms.
4. Ensure effective organizational planning. Boards must actively participate in an overall planning process and assist in implementing and monitoring the plan's goals.
5. Enhance the organization's public standing. The board should clearly articulate the organization's mission, accomplishments, and goals to the public and garner support from the community.
6. Support the chief executive and assess his or her performance. The board should ensure that the chief executive has the moral and professional support he or she needs to further the goals of the organization.

Reflect on Your Passion
Next, I thought about which causes I was passionate about outside of the organization where I work. In the Washington DC area, there are over 4,000 nonprofits I could volunteer with. So I came up with a short list of criteria that I felt fit within the personal vision I am developing to merge my personal mission with my nonprofit work. The three criteria I came up with were that I wanted to serve on a board of a nonprofit that a) worked in populations of high poverty, b) served communities of color, and c) was small or start-up in nature or could benefit from my skills in nonprofit management. In terms of causes, there are so many I would be committed to: homelessness, youth and education or the arts, advocacy, civil rights, women's issues, among others.

Evaluate Your Current Skills
I took a few moments to list the skills I would bring to a nonprofit board. I took a glance at my LinkedIn profile just to remind myself of the various positions I have held and reflect on the strengths I have gained along the way. I decided that I wanted to be able to use my skills in fundraising, human resources, financial management, writing and communications, and education/training to help strengthen a nonprofit's management functions. I would also be willing to fundraise on behalf of the organization and develop a strong case for support to the community.

Then I also starting thinking about what I could gain in my skill set that I wasn't already good at. Where am I weak that I could get stronger? One of the things I came up withwas that I would want to enhance my public presence and communication/speaking skills by acting as a spokesperson for the organization out in the public. I would be willing to testify on behalf of the organization in City Council or give quotes to the media on the nonprofit's issues. I'd also like to write op-eds in the papers to advance our cause and mission.

Put Yourself Out There
The first thing I did was to create an account and profile at boardnetUSA to find listed board opportunities in my area. It only took about 30 minutes to fill-in the requested information, especially since I had already thought about the kind of nonprofit I wanted to work for and the skills I wanted to utilize.

I also completed an application with the African American Nonprofit Network's Board Initiative. They match board candidates of color with nonprofits who need their expertise. I filled out the questionnaire, sent in my resume, and chose an opportunity from their list of board vacancies.

In addition to these formal application processes, I made sure to let my key mentors and peers know verbally that I'm looking for leadership opportunities on nonprofit boards. My hope was that if something came up that fit what I wanted to do, someone might think of me and send me a tip.

Results So Far
Somebody said that when you take action and put your efforts out there, the universe responds. Within a week after posting my profile on boardnetUSA, I found an opportunity with a small nonprofit working with at-risk African American youth in a creative writing afterschool program. I applied, met with their Executive Director and Board Chair, and have just been nominated to the full Board.

A few months before I signed up for boardnetUSA, I had been approached by the President of a well-respected nonprofit that serves the homeless and provides job-training to apply to their board. I had done so, but hadn't heard anything back. I received a call from their CEO to let me know he was sending my information to the nominations committee next month.

From my efforts so far, I'm currently in the process of being nominated to three boards in the DC area that all fit my criteria. I'm hoping at least one will pan out and I can begin a volunteer leadership position outside of the organization I work for that will help prepare me to lead a nonprofit in the future. My experience with the process of joining a nonprofit board has been a definite stretch, but I know it will be a valuable learning experience for me. You can be sure that I'll keep you updated on the process and, when I'm actually serving as a board member, the inside scoop.

Now is anybody stretching with me or thinking about board membership? A little effort goes a long way!