Non-Profit Chas

Is it truly altruism if you’re getting intangible benefits such as resume-building experience, connections and friendships, or even personal fulfillment?

Very few of my friends are involved in non-profits in a volunteer leadership capacity. They may have volunteered in the past, but they’re concerned with their jobs, their families, or they’re just being protective of their personal time. They already feel too busy and don’t see how volunteering could possibly benefit them. Sure, it’s a noble cause, but once you graduate college and get into the real world noble causes go right out the window. Right?

A few months ago, I was interviewed for a magazine article on Generation Y non-profit leaders. One of the questions was “how do you convince Generation Y to get involved in a leadership role?”

The answer falls somewhere between engagement in the cause and selfish, personal interest.

Selfishness is the opposite of altruism. Giving is supposed to be pure, for the benefit of the cause alone. Or so you might be told.

Organizations send donor receipts clearly stating that the donor has not received any material benefit for their donation. If there’s a thank you gift, the value of the gift has to be taken out of the tax-deductible amount.

But what about intangible benefits? How about the satisfaction of making a difference? It’s entirely possible get hooked on the high of helping someone else. Is that wrong?

Still, there are even more selfish benefits of volunteering, and those are often the reasons people get involved with non-profits.

For millennials early in their careers, the opportunity to stretch their skill sets, work on big projects, and network with more connected and powerful professionals can be a very attractive proposition. Sure, it’s hard work but it can pay off – especially when you don’t get a chance to do these at your regular job.

Personally, my volunteer service has helped me get promotions and new opportunities. I’ve been asked to work on projects in finance, human relations, fundraising, strategic planning, public relations, marketing, and a number of other professional skills. Because the non-profit organizations had a need and I volunteered, I got to add these to my repertoire long before my day job ever gave me the opportunity.

Volunteering also puts the rest of my work in perspective. The daily dramas of a cranky client or colleague are nothing compared to the highs and lows of a cause you care about. Defusing an angry parent in a custody dispute or watching a camper make a personal breakthrough are far more memorable and important in the grand scheme of my life.

So back to the title topic: Is it truly altruism if you’re getting intangible benefits such as resume-building experience, connections and friendships, or even personal fulfillment?

From my vantage point, who cares?

“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Desiderius Erasmus

The Land of the Blind

Let’s make a generalization: If you work for a non-profit organization, you are living in the past. You’re doing something outdated, for reasons you can’t quite articulate, and at an unknown cost – especially consider the opportunity cost of doing something less efficient.

Fortunately for you, the eager non-profiteer, so is everyone else. Here are three stories (no names, to save face) of non-profits that might sound familiar:

Tools: the Legacy Computer

In 2006, one organization I knew had a very old computer sitting in the corner of the office. It served one purpose: to host a very old piece of donor management software on a very old operating system. Only one person knew how to use this software, and it wasn’t very helpful anyway. Not only that, but it was increasingly difficult to support the failing hardware. There were dozens of opportunities to upgrade or find a new system over the course of about a decade. The cost to the organization was measured in lots of time and the occasional hardware replacement.

Professional Development: It’s Getting Worse Every Day

“If you aren’t getting better, you’re getting worse.” Executives, employees, and board members need to invest some portion of their time in professional development to get better at what they do, or they’ll soon find themselves incompetent. Worse yet, they won’t even know they’re incompetent.

A large non-profit had very low turnover, which meant that hundreds of its employees had been in essentially the same job for 15+ years. These employees were more likely to be unhappy, but wouldn’t quit their jobs. They weren’t let go because they were technically doing their work, but they weren’t providing the value of their more engaged, productive counterparts. This meant that the more engaged employees were more likely to get assignments, sometimes overworking them. The cost to the organization is in lost opportunities, some unnecessary overtime, and higher turnover of the best employees.

Process: File, Print, Repeat

A few years ago, another organization needed to print about 900 letters to fold, stuff, and mail to constituents. One of the staff members dedicated an entire day to hitting File > Print and then printing a single copy. Once it was printed, she did this again. Two down. After a whole day of the most inefficient software use I’ve ever heard of, someone found out and pointed out that she could just hit File > Print and enter the quantity to print out. The cost to the organization was 7+ hours of this employee’s time, and the cost of her pay.

Be the King

Nearly every non-profit is under-resourced and over-burdened, leaving no time or money to invest in new tools, professional development, re-evaluating their processes, and so on.

What these non-profits rarely realize is that they could save money and time by investing in those resources. There’s an ROI on many of these things, and it’s worth investigating.

It doesn’t take much to gain a tremendous advantage over other organizations while freeing up your own resources. There are tons of ways to do it: books, seminars, networking, and lots of online options:

• Delicious.com general non-profit links
• Delicious.com non-profit technology links
• Idealware: Reports and Articles
• TechSoup – Technology Donations and Discounts
• TechSoup Learning Center
• NTEN Learning/Resources

• Non-Profit Blogs at AllTop.com

  Tip: If you’re new to reading blogs or you can’t find time to keep up with them check out my Feed Reader 101 post on how to keep tabs on thousands of articles each month in as little time as possible.

A lot of our time is spent trying not to offend people. Marketers worry about giving the wrong message. Fundraisers don’t want to lose donors. And everyone is afraid that our support will dry up.

Along the way, the message gets watered down. Instead of saying something important, we aren’t saying much at all. And we sound like everyone else.

Making a difference means making a choice. It’s ok to take a stand and be proud of the mission of your organization.

People who don’t agree with you won’t support you either way. But the people who really care will stretch themselves all the more to get you the support you need.

I hinted at this in my posts about Blog Action Day and What All Those Fundraising Books Don’t Tell You.

The difference between success and failure isn’t smarts or money. It’s not your logo or your office or your website.

You’re not more successful because you’re not doing more.

All the fine tuning, testing, strategic planning, and seminars won’t do you any good in a vacuum. Those can take you from 80% up.

But going from 0 to 80% is easy – it’s just a matter of taking action and doing something.

As 37 Signals often says, If it works, do more. If it doesn’t work, do less.

We stopped our strategic planning because it was a distraction from doing the work. We weren’t at a stage where extensive planning sessions were helping us. We didn’t have our house in order. We weren’t actively fundraising and marketing our programs. We weren’t collecting the right information. We couldn’t even speak intelligently about our financial picture.

So we hit “pause.” Six months later, we feel much more secure about all facets of the organization. This winter, we’re starting our strategic planning again.

GOYA

My designer friend Oak taught me this acronym: GOYA. It means “Get Off Your Ass.” Sometimes I set it as my desktop background just so I have a constant reminder (download the wallpaper) to myself that I need to put up or shut up.

So your challenge each day is to accomplish something that helps advance your mission. Call or visit a donor. Write a thank you note. Make a quick decision and execute.

Don’t have a feed reader? Well, I’ll share some of these gems from mine.

Links!

Philantopic has a great roundup of links from USA Today’s insert devoted to charitable giving.

Donor Power Blog points us an interesting tool: create a giving portfolio tailored to your interests and available funds using the Donation Dashboard.

A public service campaign from a bunch of celebrities telling you not to vote. You may not have the budget and the friends to pull this off, but you have everything you need to be as effective: a message.

Just in time for my upcoming email campaign, Katya provides some tips for email marketing.

Also just in time for an upcoming speaking gig, Seth Godin throws out some golden tips for Powerpoint magic.