Non-Profit Chas

When I joined the board of Camp Fire USA River Bend Council, I was warned by a mentor: “If you’re a workaholic, you’re going to be a volunteeraholic. Be careful.”

Eight months later, I agree entirely. Don’t let yourself get burned out.

Three of my favorite bloggers just wrote about a particularly sensitive spot for me: reactive email time.

Yesterday, I tweeted about trying to get down to inbox zero. After two hours, I was down under ten emails, but had run out of time. Some of those emails have been sitting for weeks now, waiting for my response to move them ahead. And the problem I still find is that the emails come in faster than I can respond.

Katya, Beth, and Seth all write about the destructive, depressing, and demoralizing effect of spending your day simply reacting to emails as they come in. Too many days I feel that all I do is play switchboard operator, connecting emails from one person to another. I might only have to answer five-second questions, but those five seconds add up to hours throughout the day. By the end of the day, I can’t figure out what I accomplished and I feel depressed about not getting anything done. Since I track my time, I often end up with deficits…only accounting for five or six hours each day. This is even more frustrating; I know I worked hard all day and am stressed out for some reason, but I can’t even get credit for that because my hours look like I slacked off. If I’m only going to get credit for six hours, I might as well come in late and leave early.

To counteract this effect, I work from home once a week. No phone calls, no walk-ins, no meetings. I use these days to clear my inbox, get my proposals done, and actually do work. In one day, I get a week’s worth of work done. The rest of the week is reacting and meeting.

I need to find a way to flip this on its head: one day for reaction, four days for work.

When you rely on volunteers, donors, and the heroic efforts of a handful of paid staff members, thanking people is an absolute must. In fact, you should be really good at it. If you want to keep people involved, you can’t let this go.

The problem is that thanking people takes time and optimism, two things that are scarce in too many non-profits. Between the tense, stressful meetings and the frustrations of trying to gain program participants and donors, it’s easy to forget the people who work so hard to keep the ship afloat. And with the amount of time you spend with some of these people, chances are you’ve begun to take them for granted as well.

So we came up with an idea: recruit someone whose entire job is to thank people. We haven’t come up with a title yet, but I’m liking “Minister of Gratitude” or “Captain Thank You.” Here’s a sample job description:

Minister of Gratitude

The Minister of Gratitude is responsible for properly recognizing the contributions of our many volunteers, staff members, and supporters. This position requires knowledge of all participants and activities within the council. These efforts may include writing personalized letters, planning events, procuring gifts, or meeting with individuals. The ideal candidate will be a positive, optimistic, creative, and thoughtful person who can remind others of why they joined our organization and let them know that their investments of time, talent, and funding are appreciated. This role is critical to the continued success of our council.

We haven’t actually recruited someone for this role yet, but I have an idea of some candidates. It will be a volunteer position, as are most of our folks, and we won’t have much budget for this person to use—but that’s not what matters when you thank people. Creativity, thoughtfulness, and timing matter a lot more than the price of the thank you.

So what do you think… do you spend enough time thanking your team?

Last year, Camp Fire suffered a meltdown of sorts. We lost one of our computers, including our accounting files. It took months of poring over paper statements and receipts to manually restore our files. Not only did this create a huge strain on some staff and volunteers, but it slowed down the progress of the rest of the organization.

And it could have been easily prevented.

The NonProfit Times comes through with a solid evaluation of your emergency planning for technology. As many small non-profits struggle with adopting technology, understanding the ramifications is critical. And knowing how to keep yourself safe can make the difference between total collapse and sleeping soundly.

Remember, it’s not a matter of if you lose a hard drive, it’s a matter of when.

What an awful title. Kool and the Gang… eesh.

As the hideous parody title indicates, it’s all about delegation. That’s become my defense against small non-profit woes – too much to do with too few people and too little time. Getting others to do the work for you. After all, you can’t possibly do it all yourself.

Small businesses often struggle to find new work. One of the common suggestions is to ask your current customers for referrals.

This extends really well into the non-profit sector, where your current donors are probably some of the best sources of potential donors. Have your current donors provide prospect recommendations or introductions. If your donors are properly invested in the organization, you can even ask them to help make the ask.

This process does wonders for donor engagement.