Quote of the Day

"With the economy under severe strain, our country needs a strong nonprofit sector more than ever.”
- Lester Salamon, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies

Four Nonprofit Conferences Worth Paying For

Cash may be getting tight for us nonprofit folks right now, but now is not the time to shortchange your own professional development. Time to start budgeting and applying for scholarships to attend at least one of these upcoming conferences. Trust me, if you love learning like I love learning, you'll be glad you did. Another way to cut costs is to offer yourself as a volunteer to the conference staff. Often you can get a comp ticket or reduced attendee rate just by staffing one of the sessions. It never hurts to ask, but be sure you ask early!

Independent Sector, November 9-11, 2008 Philadelphia
Conference Theme: Our Hopes, Our Voice, Our Future
My first year going to this conference and I will be liveblogging the whole shebang! Each year, the IS Conference bring together about 1,000 philanthropic leaders who have significant influence in the nonprofit sector and the field of philanthropy. For the first time this year, they are hosting a Next Gen program for emerging leaders under 40! Other highlights: the opening plenary will analyze the results of the 2008 election, including what it reveals about the hopes and concerns of the American people. The “Conversation with a Sector Leader” will feature Ford Foundation President Luis Ubiñas; and the closing plenary will use the historic 2008 campaign as a starting point for an examination of the state of race and gender in America.

AFP International Conference, in conjunction with the National Conference on Black Philanthropy, March 29 - April 1, 2009 New Orleans
AFP generally has great conferences in my experience and last year's Black Philanthropy conference was very well worth the time. This year's conference features lectures by Christopher Gardner (subject of the film Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith), actor and philanthropist Michael Douglas. The National Conference on Black Philanthropy will present a panel of sessions on the theme,"Strengthening Black Communities through Time, Talent and Treasure."

NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference, April 26 - 28, 2009 San Francisco
This year's schedule isn't up yet, but last year they talked about what works, what doesn't work, and what is in the works for those using nonprofit technology to further a cause. At the NTC, they paid special attention to the tools and strategies that are reshaping how we go about doing our work, by empowering our clients and stakeholders. Last year there were more than 90 breakout sessions on the most important technology issues today.

Nonprofit Congress, May 14-16 New Orleans
This will be my third year attending the Congress, and I always get a lot out of it. The goal is for national thought leaders to meet on the sector's top priorities: Organizational Effectiveness, Advocacy and Grassroots Activities, and Public Awareness and Support of the Sector. The Congress offers practical and informative breakout sessions featuring fellow nonprofit leaders sharing their most successful stories and programs that you can take home to replicate.

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Offers Fundraising Fellowship for Person of Color

The Carol H. Pitchersky Development Fellowship was established by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF) to develop and broaden the capacity of social justice organizations to raise funds necessary to serve their respective missions and further the civil rights community’s goals of equality, equal opportunity and mutual respect. The Fellowship program will identify and support persons of color who are aspiring development professionals, who have demonstrated a commitment to civil rights and social justice, and who wish to advance their careers in nonprofit fundraising. The 2009-2011 Fellow will be placed at the national office of the ACLU in New York City. To apply, download and complete the application form from http://www.civilrights.org/about/lccref/fellowship.html The application deadline is January 15, 2009.

The Fellowship includes:

· A health and benefits package consistent with the benefits provided to regular staff members of the host organization;
· Mentoring from one member of a committee of fundraising professionals dedicated to the institutional advancement of social justice and civil rights organizations. These individuals include colleagues of Carol H. Pitchersky who now serve as members of the CHP Development Fellowship Review and Mentoring Committee;
· Association with a network of development professionals committed to and experienced in fund development, strategic planning and leadership in the civil rights and human rights community;
· Training in development strategies and operations as they are applied to nonprofit organizations in the social justice sector.
· The salary range is from $40,000 to $65,000

Applicant Requirements: The Fellowship program will identify and support persons of color who are aspiring development /fundraising professionals, who are U.S. citizens and have demonstrated a commitment to civil rights and social justice, and wish to advance their careers in nonprofit fundraising. Fellows serve two-year terms of employment at organization in the social justice community.

For more information, contact the LCCREF Development Office at (202) 466-1887 or email CHPFellowship@civilrights.org or go to http://www.civilrights.org/about/lccref/fellowship.html

Quote of the Day

"The future started yesterday, and we're already late."
- John Legend, "If You're Out There"

Because Things in the Game Done Changed: Nonprofits Need Generation Y Leadership in an Uncertain Economy

Photo by smig44_uk

Pick up any newspaper on your way to work in the morning, and chances are, you'll see another financial giant brought low in the current unstable economy. Everyone in nonprofits and philanthropy is wondering what the financial sector meltdown means for us. Not only are the for-profit folks worried about their profits and their jobs, us nonprofit workers are worried about our donations and our jobs, too. Of course, no one can know for sure what the outcome of all this will be. The landscape changes day by day, and we could be in a very different place three months from now than we are today. But one thing IS clear. Things in the game done changed.

What the economic crisis is showing the nonprofit sector is that we can no longer rely on corporate social responsibility, ongoing government funding, or stable donations from even our most loyal donors. In two recent discussion groups of fundraisers in Washington, DC about 20 of us shared very timely information about declining revenues, hard to sell event tickets, and foundation rejection letters. Although the nonprofit community has gone through challenging times before - think post 9/11, the dot-com bust, various recessions, etc. most of us are saying that we've never seen this before. It's as if all of our supports are crumbling before our eyes all at once. It's a fundraiser's nightmare, I can tell you from my own current experience.

So what kind of leadership is needed for these challenging times? Everyone's trying to find the fix that fits. And it's clear that the old top-down hierarchy isn't the best model for what needs to happen in organizations today. When we just don't have time to come up with another 5-year strategic plan to survive in this economy, how do we generate new ideas to address issues head on? Yet, in all this uncertainty, the nonprofit sector does have a silver bullet: the energy and talents of the next generation of leaders in our organizations. Allison Jones recently wrote a great post about how nonprofits and Generation Y can benefit from a bad economy, and I do think it is this kind of optimism that will get us through the tough times nonprofits will undoubtedly face in our fundraising, program planning, and staffing. Samuel Richard, another awesome Generation Y blogger, writes a fantastic open letter to nonprofit leaders, urging us to flip the script and use this time to showcase the incredible impact we have in our communities.

Because right now is an opportunity for young nonprofit professionals to bring fresh, innovative ideas for how we do the work of social change. As a sector faced with a myriad of uncertainty, our old solutions will absolutely not work. But don't take my word for it; Albert Einstein tells it like it is (and always will be):

"We cannot solve problems using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

In my mind, there's a very clear match here: a nonprofit sector in need of solutions in an uncertain economy and a cadre of young professionals eager to contribute in a meaningful way. Nonprofit CEOs are thinking: How do we fundraise differently? How do we engage volunteers more effectively? How can we cut organizational costs? How do we maintain the quality of our programming? These questions fill the whiteboards of so many nonprofit conference rooms even as I write this. And Generation Y is asking, how can I use my talent to help, to make a real difference in this organization, in this community? Current leaders have the perfect resource sitting right next to them and this is the perfect time to tap into the minds of young employees. This is indeed the perfect time to mine the knowledge from the next generation that can be much more useful and effective than ideas generated in a closed board meeting involving only senior management. But let's get a little more specific here. Generation Y brings the very skills we need in these uncertain times:

• Advanced education: More Generation Y nonprofit workers are completed Master's degrees and MBAs, learning the latest information available about the management needs of nonprofits. We really should be tapping into that more. Why put "Masters preferred" in our job descriptions if we aren't really gonna use their knowledge?
  
  
• A spirit of collaboration: More and more, young professionals realize that the huge social issues our nonprofits are trying to solve cannot be addressed by a single organization. Younger staff at nonprofits tend to be more willing to collaborate on projects, and naturally see the value of sharing information as part of the way we do the work. As big funding dries up, the more nonprofits will need to partner to get the work done.
  
  
• Mastery of social media and new technology: Current leaders need not fear that they must learn all about Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. Let your younger employees take off with it and get the glory for your organization. We're always thinking of ways to use social media to get more donations, more volunteers, more press attracted to our nonprofits. Why not let those ideas flourish?
  

While I certainly concede that the nonprofit sector is going to see challenging times ahead, I can also see so many ways that we can get through the bad economy even stronger on the other side if we only recognize the enormous opportunity for current leaders to partner with the next generation to come up with innovative solutions. It will take all of us to shift our mindsets, but it can be done. After all, most of us are starting the see the writing on the wall: the nonprofit sector needs to change or die. For now, I'm raising my fist in hopeful solidarity with my fellow Generation Y leaders like Allison Jones and Samuel Richard that we can use the resources we have to make the best of a bad situation.

Essence Leadership Conference for Young Black Women

In November, Essence Magazine is presenting the Essence Young Women's Leadership Conference. It looks like an awesome one-day conference for young Black women - specifically "ambitious college students & recent grads". Register for only $45 in Atlanta on Nov 1 or in DC Nov 8! Speakers are all people of color in nonprofits, marketing, finance, TV/radio, journalism, and business executive positions.

From the website:
The Young Women's Leadership Conference: Jumpstart Your Future! was created to address the needs of young, Black women as they prepare to leave college and begin their careers. Each event will be a day of empowerment, that will provide these young women with the tools and information they will need to unleash their brilliance, fuel their success, and fully realize their potential as they navigates this exciting and challenging period of their lives.

Quote of the Day

"May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership… Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause."
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

What Nonprofit Leaders Can Learn From Neo-Soul Singer Eric Roberson

Last weekend my friend and I attended a concert by my favorite neo-soul artist, Eric Roberson. He is an amazing singer, songwriter who is still largely an underground musician with a large following on the East Coast and in Europe. He writes his own songs about love, friendship, social issues, and has recently become a strong musical voice for getting out the vote for Barack Obama. We were standing right in front as usual, and there was a woman next to us holding her video camera in the air recording his performance. The band eased into a slow jam set, where Eric started to sing, "Softest Lips," one of his most popular ballads. The women went crazy as he walked up and down the stage, making eye contact with those of us lucky enough to be in front. At one point, he stops in front of the woman with the video camera, pries it gently from her fingers, and sings directly into the camera, giving her a close up view of the concert. Don't take my word for it, here it is on YouTube:



What Eric Roberson did at that moment was so true to his personality, and why he has such a huge fan base even without a major record deal. He seeks to connect intimately with fans in so many ways, and meets us where we are. He's authentic in the way that he communicates with us in person and online. I know I was probably the only one standing there in the audience thinking about how much nonprofit leaders could learn from this amazing musician, but I continue to think of ways that we can bring our whole selves to our nonprofit work and become more authentic in how we interact with our staff, boards, funders, members and clients.

Meet Them Where They Are
Eric Roberson communicates with fans online by email, on his blog, on Myspace and Facebook where most of his fans reside. These online spaces allow fans to learn more about him and his music, as well as allows us to interact with each other and gush about our favorite songs and performances of his. Likewise in nonprofits, if your clients are using social media, your organization should be, too. I was surprised to find that the Girl Scouts, for instance, has a very limited presence on Myspace and Facebook, even though the age range of the girls they serve are very much engaged on both sites. Last year, the Girl Scouts ventured into social media with this site on Myspace focused on the cookies. How much more effective could they be at bringing more girls into the fold if they actually reached out to them where they are already hanging out online in a meaningful way?

Write Your Own Songs
Often as nonprofit leaders, we can get caught up in the jargon of our field instead of using real words to describe the work that we do. Or we can find ourselves looking to the corporate sector to borrow their business-speak for our interactions with staff, the media, etc. Not that seeking to engage in professional communication is at all a bad thing. I just think we can be professional and keep it real at the same time. Our unique capability as nonprofit leaders is that we are expected to have heart and passion about our work. So we should not be afraid to show it. I recently heard a male baby boomer foundation President speak at an event, and he got choked up in the middle of his remarks and began to cry. Nothing he could have said in words had the effect that showing his emotions did. You could just see his dedication and optimism show through. If you have to do a lot of public speaking, please don't let anyone else write your complete speeches for you. Use your own words to share your truth. It's always more powerful than trying to sound like a news anchor.

Trust Your Gut
At last week's concert, Eric Roberson did something that shocked and delighted the entire audience when he grabbed a fan's camera and sang right into it. As a musician, he trusted his impulse that he could act according to his personality and it would be well-received. As nonprofit leaders, we are always asking ourselves and our organizations, "can we really do that?" The answer is yes. Yes, we can innovate. Yes, we can try something new this time around. Yes, we can send flowers to an ill board member or an ailing client. Yes, we can ask our staff how was their weekend. Sure we can plan a fun retreat after that stressful fundraising event. We CAN really do that, and indeed we should. When we trust those ideas that are core to your authentic personality, it can improve our relationships and inspire others to get more engaged with our organizations.


What are some ways that YOU have practiced being authentic in your own leadership?

Quote of the Day

“You very seldom get a chance to be wonderful.”
-Nikki Giovanni

Why Gen Y Should Nominate Our Own

On Wednesday, I will be honored as a New Leader in Philanthropy in the inaugural Class of Change 2008 by Greater DC Cares at a reception along with nine others committed to social change in the DC area. I'm honored and excited to be recognized for the work that I've done in collaboration with others to improve the community & engage young professionals in the nonprofit sector. The best part of the story is how I got on the list with the cool kids. One of my fellow board members for the DC Young Nonprofit Professionals Network nominated me. Another Gen Y nonprofit leader took the time to fill out a form and tell the committee why I should be chosen. I was nominated by my own, and now I have the opportunity to represent the leadership of so many other young nonprofit professionals in our region. If you're in the DC area, come celebrate with us!

This is the power that we have to showcase the work of our colleagues that might otherwise go unnoticed. If you know of an emerging leader that's doing something fantastic, please take the time to spread the word! The more Gen Y leaders are celebrated, the more respect we earn as young professionals. If we are perceived as leaders, it makes it easier for us to lead. Publicity tends to legitimize our contributions, and we can leverage it to impact even more change in our communities.

I do believe that we are the ones we've been waiting for. So let's start supporting each other even more by nominating our own. Here are a couple opportunities, but please know that there are so many more in each particular community:

http://www.thecharlesbronfmanprize.com

The Prize celebrates the vision and talent of an individual or team 50 years of age or under, whose humanitarian work has contributed significantly to the betterment of the world. Its goal is to bring public recognition to young, dynamic individuals whose Jewish values infuse their humanitarian accomplishments and provide inspiration to the next generations.

An internationally recognized panel of Judges selects the Prize recipient(s) and bestows an award of $100,000.

http://www.superstarfoundation.org

Nominate an Outstanding Social Service Professional. The Superstar Foundation is accepting nominations for grants to recognize the highest-performing social service professionals. The grants will be awarded across five categories to high-performing social service professionals who have demonstrated a substantial impact on social change. Each grant will be worth $2,000. The application deadline is Friday, October 31.

Building Capacity for Hawaii's Nonprofits

Lunch with Community Links staff (L to R): Nikki Love, Josh Levinson, Toby Portner, Melissa May White, Tia Blankenfeld

Now you know my vacation last week to Hawaii wouldn't have been complete without hanging out with some awesome nonprofit folks. I even got a chance to meet Nikki Love (far left in the photo above)! No, she is not Courtney's long lost rocker sis, but Director of Operations at Community Links Hawaii. Headed by Josh Levinson, formerly Deputy Director of DC Appleseed, the group is doing some really cool work to engage & support the nonprofit community. Now keep your eyes on Nikki Love - she is really an emerging leader to be reckoned with. Along with her day job she is embarking on a new effort to reactivate Common Cause in Hawaii!

Community Links Hawai`i (CLH) is a nonprofit organization that provides high-quality, cost-effective administrative infrastructure, shared services, and organizational development to nonprofit groups that share a commitment to a just, healthy, and sustainable Hawai`i. Their goal is to leverage shared systems and technical assistance, provided at competitive or below-market rates, to build capacity in Hawaii's nonprofit community, promote social entrepreneurship, and enable work and activities that make Hawai`i a better place.

I also met Lisa Maruyama, the new President/CEO of the Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations (HANO). Lisa is a very impressive woman of color leading a statewide and sector-wide association of 280 charitable organizations in Hawaii. HANO unites and strengthens the nonprofit sector as a collective force to improve the quality of life in Hawai‘i . She had been on the job only a week and already hitting the ground running by meeting with the local Chamber of Commerce to speak to them about the nonprofit sector!

Off to Honolulu! Recommended Reading & Awesome October Conferences

This week I'm taking off for a vacation to sunny Honolulu! I'm staying somewhere in Waikiki near the beach. As you read this, I'm probably on my third mai tai watching the waves crash on the North Shore. While I'm here, I have the pleasure of hanging out with Josh Levinson, Nikki Love, and Tia Blankenfeld, nonprofit leaders at Community Links Hawaii and some folks from the Hawaii Fashion Incubator. I also get to talk about building socially conscious careers with students in the Hogan Entrepreneurs Program at Chaminade University in Honolulu.

Until I resume blogging next week, here are a few things to check out.

BlogHer Reach Out Tour 2008 in Boston & DC
If you don't know already BlogHer is an amazing community for women who blog. The BlogHer community hub (http://www.blogher.com) is the Web's number-one guide to blogs by women. Every blogger is invited to list her blog and share her latest words, pictures, video and opinions. More than 26,000 members have listed over 15,000 blogs by women. BlogHer's conferences are the world's largest for bloggers, regardless of gender -- and men are indeed invited to attend! In 2008, BlogHer will host a Reach Out Tour that will hit Boston Oct. 11 & DC Oct 13. Whether you're a seasoned or aspiring blogger, this is the place to be! I'm excited to be moderating a panel and learning from all the sessions at BlogHer DC!

Recommended Reading
On the loooong plane ride, I'll be reading The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom. I think it's a great framework to think about shared leadership in nonprofits. I bought it a while ago, but I'm just picking it back up now in anticipation of Ori Brafman's keynote at the OD Network Conference I'll be attending Oct. 19-22...

IT'S A STARFISH WORLD AND MOST PEOPLE DON'T EVEN REALIZE IT

One thing that business, institutions, governments and key individuals will have to realize is spiders and starfish may look alike, but starfish have a miraculous quality to them. Cut off the leg of a spider, and you have a seven-legged creature on your hands; cut off its head and you have a dead spider. But cut off the arm of a starfish and it will grow a new one. Not only that, but the severed arm can grow an entirely new body. Starfish can achieve this feat because, unlike spiders, they are decentralized; every major organ is replicated across each arm.

But starfish don't just exist in the animal kingdom. Starfish organizations are taking society and the business world by storm, and are changing the rules of strategy and competition. Like starfish in the sea, starfish organizations are organized on very different principles than we are used to seeing in traditional organizations. Spider organizations are centralized and have clear organs and structure. You know who is in charge. You see them coming.

Starfish organizations, on the other hand, are based on completely different principles. They tend to organize around a shared ideology or a simple platform for communication- around ideologies like al Qaeda or Alcoholics Anonymous. They arise rapidly around the simplest ideas or platforms. Ideas or platforms that can be easily duplicated. Once they arrive they can be massively disruptive and are here to stay, for good or bad. And the Internet can help them flourish.

So in today's world starfish are starting to gain the upper hand.

How can Toyota leverage starfish principles to crush their spider-like rivals, GM and Ford? How did tiny Napster cripple the global music industry? Why is free, community based Wikipedia crushing Encyclopedia Britannica overnight? Why is tiny Craigslist crippling the global newspaper industry? Why is Al Quaeda flourishing and even growing stronger? In today's world to answer this it is essential to understand the potential strength of a starfish organization.

OD Network Conference Oct. 19-22 in Austin, Texas
The Organization Development Network is an international professional association of organization development practitioners. Some are external consultants; others work within their organizations to promote healthy change. They may specialize in such areas as human resources, training, leadership or talent development, change management, strategic planning, and a broad range of initiatives designed to make organizations more effective.

Aloha!

Quote of the Day

"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not."
- Unknown

Pro-Bono Design Help From Idealist.org & the Art Directors Club

Sounds like a great opportunity for nonprofits on a shoestring budget from Idealist.org:

Dear friends,

Does your organization need a poster or a new brochure? A website re-design or a promotional video?

Starting today, you can post these needs on Idealist, and we will do our best to match you with designers and other 'creatives' who want to help.

We are doing this in collaboration with the Art Directors Club - http://www.adcglobal.org - the leading organization of its kind in the world.

Our side of this partnership is get your projects online, and they will reach out to designers all over the world to get them involved.

To post a project, login to Idealist as usual, and select Pro-bono Design Project from the list of posting options.

This new initiative will be launched publicly at a big event in New York tomorrow night (October 2nd) and if you need some design help now, it would be great if you could post your project today.

Thanks, and all the best,

Ami Dar
Executive Director
http://www.idealist.org

We ARE Nonprofit Culture, or Diversity is Everyone's Business

I had the opportunity to speak at the National Human Services Assembly Summit last week on the topic, "Responding to the Diversity Gap" along with Carolyn Creager, Director of the Multicultural Executive Development Program of the National YMCA. The theme underlying our discussion was that society is changing all around us, however the nonprofit sector isn't keeping pace with the cultural shift in America, nor making enough of an effort to recruit, retain, and promote people of color to top executive positions in our field. The reality is that the current racial makeup of this country is changing, and as nonprofits we have to think about who we will be serving, and who will be leading? I know you saw this in the New York Times:

In a Generation, Minorities May Be the U.S. Majority

Ethnic and racial minorities will comprise a majority of the nation’s population in a little more than a generation, according to new Census Bureau projections, a transformation that is occurring faster than anticipated just a few years ago. The census calculates that by 2042, Americans who identify themselves as Hispanic, Black, Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander will together outnumber non-Hispanic whites. Four years ago, officials had projected the shift would come in 2050.

I also shared some current stats about the current racial makeup of nonprofit leadership, as well as my disappointment with the lack of people of color who are being recognized for their contributions. I think everyone agreed that we need to promote sweeping changes in nonprofit culture regarding diversity issues. My aim was to remind the audience that all us in that room were agents of nonprofit culture, and there were many things we could each do individually and collectively to raise the issue of multicultural leadership at every opportunity we get. In that room were CEOs, VPs, Directors of mostly national organizations, and I know they each sit on some committee, some board of directors, some taskforce where their voice is influential to others in our sector. The point is that, if in fact we are concerned about increasing the racial diversity of nonprofit leadership, we need to put our money where our mouths are and start taking some risks, personally and institutionally to make that happen. What role can we each play as an agent of nonprofit culture to change the game? A few ideas we discussed:

• Prioritize cultural competency - educate yourself, your staff to be aware of how our different cultural backgrounds affect how we see others
  
• Expand your networks beyond your comfort zone
  
• Make the extra effort to reach out and include people of color on your committee, your board, your taskforce
• Attend trainings to learn more about race, ethnicity, culture, and equity to better understand the issues
• Support affinity groups
• Avoid tokenism - don't just look for one representative of color to fill in a spot, invite several people to participate at once
• Speak out on this issue by writing letters to the editor, opinion pieces in your sphere of influence to motivate others to pay attention to this need
  

We ARE nonprofit culture, and it's up to us to be the change we wish to see. AFP's magazine, Advancing Philanthropy has a great article in the current issue about the importance of having lunch with someone of another culture to get to know people outside your usual networks. I think that's a great idea. But I also think we each can use our voices to motivate others in our organizations and across the field.

You CAN take action today: Write a short email to the Nonprofit Times editor to express your support for an open nominations process in their selection of the annual Power and Influence Top 50 list of nonprofit leaders. Tell them you want to see their publication reflect the racial diversity of leadership within our sector! Send an email to Paul Clolery at: ednchief@nptimes.com or call him at: (973) 401-0202 Ext 211

Together we can change our culture, one step at a time. I share my presentation with you here that might spark some thoughts of your own. What are your ideas about individual and collective action we all can take to make diversity everyone's business?

Responding To The Diversity Gap

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: diversity)