Monthly Archives: March 2011

Could your organization be deceived by GOTCHA media?

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Not everyone loves your nonprofit organization. Not everyone loves your non-governmental organization (NGO), civil society organization, or government agency. In fact, there is at least one individual, and maybe even a group, that would like nothing better than to hurt your organization in a very public way.

You may think no one would launch a negative campaign against your beloved organization that protects wildlife or works to educate children from low-income communities or helps women fleeing abusive relationships or encourages people to spay and neuter their pets or helps people grow their own food or brings the joy of live theater to your town. You may think:

Our organization is completely non-threatening to anyone. We’re a-political. We’re politically benign. No one would want to see our organization go away. We benefit everyone!

The truth is that every cause can become politicized, and every organization can become a political target.

I learned this while working in public relations and marketing for nonprofit professional theaters in New England back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when arts groups became the target of a very vocal, well-funded political force who felt all local, state and national government funding for theater companies, dance companies, museums and other arts organizations should be cut off. They declared such funding not only a waste of money, but also as promoting pornography and un-American values. And they had snippets of plays and photos from various exhibits that, out-of-context, seemed to prove their case to the public and the press. I felt completely unprepared as I helped book a very famous actor to debate a very famous televangelist on the subject, on a new network called CNN, and wrote talking points – I’d never been trained for such a response. I never expected to have to do anything like that for an arts organization.

Since then, in various jobs, I’ve interacted with people I later found out weren’t really representatives of the press, weren’t really independent documentary film makers, and weren’t volunteering to help with a mailing because they believed so passionately in this or that cause. Luckily, the discovery of who they really were was always made early enough such that no damage was done – usually before a first face-to-face meeting even took place. I learned to always confirm someone really did represent whatever organization they claimed to, no matter how nice they sounded on the phone, and to always vet every potential volunteer, no matter how enthusiastic and well-qualified they seemed initially – and that was before I had the Internet to help me research people. Subterfuge has been attempted at almost every organization I’ve ever been a part of, no matter what the mission.

Over the last 20 years, I have seen seemingly-benign causes come under voracious attack again and again, the latest being National Public Radio. Your organization may not be big enough to become the target of gotcha right-wing film-maker James O’Keefe, who also brought down the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), a collection of community-based organizations in the USA that advocated for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, and affordable housing. But there could be just one person in your community with a video camera and a dream of humiliating your organization right out of existence – and given the opportunity, that person could upload a YouTube video that gets picked up by the media and sends you scrambling to explain yourself.

Whether its an animal shelter, or a volunteer association that supports a state park, or a community radio station, or a homeless shelter – no matter what kind of organization it is – you need to talk with staff regularly about handling various scenarios, including:

  • how fund raisers and chief executives should respond to solicitation calls and initial meetings with potential donors, especially those who seem to represent potentially large gifts
  • an email or phone call from anyone claiming to be from the press
  • vetting volunteers and job applicants
  • what staff and volunteers should not share on their blogs and social networking sites, no matter how private they may think such is
  • what conversations should never take place via email or text-based chat
  • what to do when faced with suspicious activity by a volunteer, a donor, a new staff member, someone claiming to be a film maker, etc.
  • pointed questions from someone at an open house, a public event, etc.
  • any questions that hint at the organization helping someone in an illegal way

Don’t assume senior staff, including your Executive Director, is prepared for these kinds of situations because they are in a leadership position. It doesn’t mean that person has to give up individual opinions, but they need to remember when they are “on the clock”, representing the organization to others, and they need to clarify when they are speaking as an individual and when their views do not represent the organization.

Also, don’t become a fortress. You aren’t looking to shut down staff blogs or prevent volunteers from taking photos during their service. You want to exude transparency and openness; but you also want all staff and volunteers to remember the powers of their words and actions.

We hear a lot about how great social media is; but remember that it can be used to spread misinformation and bad press as quickly as it spreads the good stuff the press likes to be breathless about.

One more thing: a lot of people are chastising the head of NPR for not saying anything when the fake donors were making disparaging, insulting remarks about Israel. Yet these critics are the same people who, when chastised for making disparaging, insulting remarks themselves about other various countries and cultures and people, will cry, “Stop telling me to be politically correct!” How many times has a politician, a community leader, a well-known person, said something in a private conversation to you, when you were meeting in relation to your work, that was sexist, racist, and otherwise inappropriate or inflammatory? Did you grin uncomfortably and try to move on, or did you say that the language made you uncomfortable? It’s happened to me too many times to count. Most of the time, indeed, I say something (surprise!), but a few times, I’ve changed the subject or found an excuse to walk away because I was too flabbergasted to say anything else. Before you reprimand a staff person for telling a beloved volunteer, “The language you are using right now about my co-worker is inappropriate and I cannot continue this conversation if you are going to continue using those terms to describe women,” or you reprimand a staff person for staying silent in a hidden camera video while a fake customer made racist comments, consider how well you’ve trained staff to handle these situations, and what YOU do in similar circumstances!

Also see how to handle online criticism, a resource for nonprofits, NGOs, government agencies and other mission-based organizations.

train now for disasters later

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For almost 100 minutes, dozens of people took turns performing CPR and administering other first aid on a man crumpled on a freezing sidewalk in Goodhue, Minnesota, USA – population about 900, a town without a traffic light. It took almost 100 minutes for the May Clinic’s emergency helicopter to get to the fallen man. The first responders were volunteer fire fighters, police, and rescue squads, made up of both volunteers and paid staff, from neighboring towns. Their teamwork kept blood flowing to the man’s brain, making each rescuer a surrogate for his failing heart. And it worked: the man survived, resulting in what may be one of the longest, most successful out-of-hospital resuscitations ever.

The key to responding to a crisis successfully, whether its one person collapsing in front of you or an entire city collapsing around you, is training now for what might happen later. Getting training now in CPR and first aid, as well as disaster response (all available in the USA from your local chapter of the American Red Cross), can help later. What happened in Goodhue, Minnesota or in any disaster zone shows that: the people who are able to help immediately, the people who are able to make a real difference, are the people who made the time to register to volunteer, to get the necessary training, etc.

Whenever a disaster strikes, hundreds — even thousands — of people start contacting various organizations in an effort to try to volunteer onsite at the disaster site. The images and stories motivate these people to help immediately, in-person. But what most of these people don’t realize is that spontaneous volunteers with no training and no affiliation can actually cause more problems than they alleviate in a crisis or disaster situation. The priority in these situations is helping the people affected by the crisis or disaster, NOT giving spontaneous, unaffiliated volunteers an outlet for their desire to help.

During and after disasters, what’s desperately needed is equipment, supplies and expertise in disaster situations — that’s the priority. Disasters are incredibly complicated situations that require people with a very high degree of qualifications and long-term commitment, not just good will, a sense of urgency and short-term availability. Unless you have a formal affiliation with a recognized disaster relief organization, and training with that organization, you are probably going to be turned away if you want to help onsite.

If you have been moved by a disaster to help in some way immediately, please consider donating financially. Money is desperately needed in these situations to purchase food, up-to-date medicine, shelter, transportation for trained staff, and supplies. Disaster relief organizations cannot rely only on donations of these materials, and don’t have the resources in a crisis situation to go through them and make sure they are appropriate, clean, not expired, etc.; having finances means they can buy what they need, often in-country, and move much more quickly — and time is of the essence in these situations.

In addition to giving funds yourself, you can help by making sure friends and associates know how to give (you might be surprised how many people don’t know where or how to). A simple link on your own site or blog, a link at the end of your emails, an update on your status on FaceBook or MySpace or whatever, telling people how to donate financially, can be a huge help.

If you REALLY want to make a difference for developing countries suffering from a disaster, please make a financial donation to MercyCorps or the American Red Cross. For developed countries, like New Zealand or Japan, check the news and the internet for what agencies in those countries are saying they want – and don’t want. Please, no clothing drives or food drives, unless the American Red Cross says that’s what’s needed — it’s CASH that will pay for the things people need right now. Update your online profiles/status pages to encourage your friends to do the same.

If you want to truly help with a crisis situation or disaster, beyond financial donations, start thinking NOW about ways to get the training and affiliations you need to do such effectively for future emergency situations. There are many ways you can put yourself into a position for such in the future. Here’s why you need such training, and ways to get it.

And for agencies: People in Aid has a fantastic primer for organizations who want to develop their own emergency resources for sudden on-set disaster response. It’s something to do now. Good info for a funding proposal!

Knowledge transfer – it’s more than a buzz phrase

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Every organization – every nonprofit, charity, non-governmental organization (NGO), civil society organization, government agency, for-profit business – large or small, anywhere in the world, has subject matter experts (SME), each with a deep knowledge and understanding of business-critical information. At nonprofits, some of these SMEs are paid staff, but many are volunteers.

You often find out who these SMEs are when they go on vacation and you suddenly realize you don’t know how to update text on the home page of your web site, or you don’t know how to direct a person who calls who wants to volunteer, or you are going through the list she left of everything to do Monday morning and, at the end of Tuesday, you aren’t even half way through the list.

Most organizations hire paid staff and recruit volunteers specifically because of the paid staff or volunteers’ particular area of expertise, expertise that the staff person has spent years cultivating in university academic studies and/or professional and volunteering experiences. You could never expect such a person to transfer all of his knowledge to a co-worker, a new hire, or a partner organization. However, there are business-critical functions at your organization that various staff members are doing — probably every staff member, including volunteers — that must be documented. Looking at a mission-based organization (a non-profit or an NGO, for instance), these critical functions could include how to:

  • update/change text on the web site
  • use the 5-10 most common functions on your phone system
  • direct phone calls and emails appropriately, for the entire organization or just within one department or program
  • direct inquiries from potential volunteers
  • direct inquiries from the media
  • retrieve data from a computer system backup
  • start a computer system backup, or how to ensure an automated backup took place
  • moderate your online discussion group
  • coordinate the logistics for any kind of meeting your organization has regularly, on site or online

This knowledge often needs to be conveyed to people with a lower level of technical expertise than the person in charge of these tasks – even if the person in charge of a task is an individual contributor with no staff to supervise — like the receptionist — while the person who needs to know is a senior manager.

(I have a firmly-held belief that the receptionist of an organization is often the most knowledgeable about what’s happening at the organization, and he or she is always one of the first persons I talk to if I’m consulting with an organization regarding its communications or volunteer engagement practices – but I digress…)

Content management systems (CMS), like a simple Intranet, that allows staff to upload and read each other’s information, and to share what they are working on, greatly assist in effective knowledge transfer and staff cross-training, but only if everyone has access to such, is encouraged to contribute to such, and is evaluated per their contributions to such. It’s about establishing a culture of internal transparency and rewards for sharing as much as it’s about creating a CMS. By contrast, partitioning information so that only certain people have access to it (knowledge hoarding), limiting it to folders in the file cabinets next to our desks, leads to inefficiency, duplication of effort, confused messages and errors.

This free document by Keith De La Rue details how to build a knowledge transfer toolkit. It’s a highly technical, jargon-filled document, and sometimes you will want to yell “Why don’t you just use plain English?!” Still, you will find it helpful if you want to ensure that business-critical information and practices at your organization are identified and documented. “This toolkit includes a range of individual elements, comprising content management, communications, learning and multimedia elements, coordinated as a managed program. Approaches to maintaining the currency and accuracy of content, dealing with knowledge hoarding and the relevance of social media principles will also be addressed.” Here’s more about Keith De La Rue.

 

The Wrong Way to Celebrate International Women’s Day

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Today is International Women’s Day. 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, which was first celebrated in Europe. In 1975, the United Nations began celebrating 8 March as International Women’s Day, and in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions. Most countries have gone with March 8.

This isn’t a day to give women flowers or take them to lunch. It’s a day to remember that women are denied access to education, health care, income generation and life choices at a staggering rate compared to men. It’s a day to remember that women and girls are undervalued all over the world. Millions of girls are not tracked at all by their governments – there are no systems to record their birth, their citizenship, or even their identity. The 2009 World Economic Forum devoted one of its plenary sessions to the impact of educating girls in developing countries for the first time ever, and noted that only half a cent of every international development dollar currently goes toward girls.

A few days ago, word leaked that USAID is removing or watering down specific women’s rights requirements in funding proposals from organizations in Afghanistan. A senior U.S. official said in the Washington Post article, “Gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities… There’s no way we can be successful if we maintain every special interest and pet project. All those pet rocks in our rucksack were taking us down.”

Women are not pet projects. Women are not pet rocks. 50% of the Afghan population are not a “special interest.”

Let’s be clear: peace and prosperity in Afghanistan is NOT possible, in the short term nor in the long term, without ambitious targets to improve the lives women, and strict requirements by those organizations receiving USAID funding to meet those targets.

USAID’s watering down of women’s rights requirements in funding programs in Afghanistan further entrenches the practice of leaving 50 percent of the population living in deplorable conditions, depriving them of education and participation in even micro enterprises like raising a GOAT. I have worked with many Afghan women, and more than a few gender specialists based in Afghanistan. To a person, they all say the same thing: reforms for women will NOT happen in Afghanistan without sustained, clearly-stated pressure from donors.

    • When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.
      (United Nations Population Fund, State of World Population 1990.)
    • An extra year of primary school boosts girl’s eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent.
      (George Psacharopoulos and Harry Anthony Patrinos, Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Update, Policy Research Working Paper 2881 [Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2002].)
    • Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers.
      (George T. Bicego and J. Ties Boerma, Maternal Education and Child Survival: A Comparative Study of Survey Data from 17 Countries, Social Science and Medicine 36 (9) [May 1993].)
  • When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.
    (Phil Borges, with foreword by Madeleine Albright, Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World [New York: Rizzoli, 2007], 13.)

Give a man to fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. Teach a WOMAN to fish, you feed her FAMILY for a lifetime. Teach a woman to fish, and everyone eats.

Empowering Women Everywhere – My Favorite Resources, a list of my favorite resources for information about the empowerment of women and girls. If you are looking to educate yourself on this issue, this is where to start.

Special added bonus: A video by Daniel Craig (007), narrated by Dame Judi Dench (who I met once!). The quotes are about women and men in the UK – but apply most anywhere. Something to think about, not just on today, International Women’s Day. You’ll smile at the image – but will you also think about the statistics you are hearing?

Me in Mexico City April 2 – 9

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I will be in Mexico City April 2 – 9. If your organization in Mexico City or Puebla asks for such, I could possibly squeeze in a consultation or short workshop while there. However, my Spanish is not as good as it was a few years ago, so I would need a translator if the group did not speak English. Contact me ASAP for more info. See more information on my web site about my workshops and consultations.

Estaré en México D.F.  2 – 9 de abrill. Si su organización en México o Puebla me solicita, podría presentar un taller o la consulta cortos durante mi visita. Sin embargo, mi español no es bueno ahora. ¡Perdóneme! Necesitaré a un traductor si el grupo no habla inglés. Contácteme inmediatamente para más información. Mas información sobre mis talleres y consultas.

 

International Fellowship in USA For People from Select Developing Countries-Deadline June 30

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The 2012 Ford Motor Company International Fellowship of the 92nd Street Y is currently accepting applications from community leaders who are citizens and residents of Albania, Bolivia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Haiti, India, Israel, Mongolia, Peru, Tunisia and Zambia. 20-24 emerging leaders from these regions will be selected.

Applicants must be 21 years of age or older, though younger applicants should note that candidates should have several years of leadership experience. Candidates are sought from a variety of backgrounds with the aim of creating a group of Fellows who will work well together and offer a diversity of views and experiences. Candidates should be emerging leaders addressing issues whose resolution can have a significant positive impact on their communities, on their countries, and—collectively—on the world.

Fellowship Application Deadline: June 30, 2011. For more information or to apply.

The program is designed to enhance the efforts of emerging leaders in communities throughout the world. The program includes a three week residency in New York City (May 30-June 20, 2012) and ongoing communication before and after the residency via telephone and email. Fellows are expected to complete reading, writing and group assignments prior to their residency to maximize the value of their fellowship experience and after their residency to evaluate its impact and success. Fellows participate in an intensive immersion experience designed to address the challenges of community building in today’s world. In partnership with the Picker Center for Executive Education at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, fellows participate in classes and participatory workshops in nonprofit management, leadership, and strategic thinking.

The academic curriculum is complemented by visits to model nonprofits throughout New York City and meetings with academic, business, and government leaders. The experience is enhanced by the Fellows’ residency at the 92nd Street Y, an institution founded in 1874 that has grown to serve over 300,000 people annually. At once a school, a lecture hall, a performance space, and a community organization, the 92nd Street Y is a nonprofit organization unique in the world and vital to the cultural life of New York City. The 92nd Street Y is world’s first global Jewish community and cultural center.

Australian volunteers growing preference for online volunteering

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ProBono Australia reports that a new study finds Australian volunteers have a growing preference for online volunteering, more young people want to get involved, and there is an increasing interest in short term or project based volunteering. The study, commissioned as part of the country’s National Volunteering Strategy Consultation, polled more than 800 volunteering groups and found that traditional forms of volunteering remain popular, but new forms of participation are emerging and needed to be accommodated.

Hmmmm…. this sounds like what myself and some other volunteer management consultants have been saying since, oh, 1996?! These trends have been happing for a while now, in several countries. But we can never have enough reports like this, as so many people – and funders – seem to remain unconvinced.

Among the things I was very happy to see from the report:

  • one of the many things needed to help embrace these emerging trends is addressing the various costs associated with volunteering, both for volunteers and volunteer-involving organisations, which can be significant barriers to participation. Yes, that’s right: volunteering is STILL not free!
  • the affirmation that effective volunteer management helps improve the efficiency of organisations and increases their capacity to comply with and implement risk management strategies needed for successful volunteer engagement.
  • the affirmation that information technology, especially the internet, can be better harnessed by volunteer-involving organisations to make participation in volunteering more accessible.

Organizations that involve volunteers need to accommodate and encourage these emerging trends while continuing to cater for traditional forms of volunteer participation. It’s my long-held contention that embracing these trends will vastly improve the experience for traditional volunteers (people who volunteer long-term). They will also, ultimately, help managers of volunteers be better supporters of volunteers. Everybody wins!

I presented on these trends last year during three weeks of intensive workshops with volunteer managers in Australia (thanks again, Martin Cowling of People First – Total Solutions and Andy Cowling of OzVPM and both of Australia, for all you did to make that happen). Given the responses in this report, I suspect some of the workshop attendees, as well as those who were a part of the Australasian Retreat for Advanced Volunteer Management that year, were contributors. That’s not me trying to take credit for what’s in the report; that’s me lauding Australian volunteer managers for being so aware of what’s happening in their sector.

ProBono Australia provides an excellent summary of the report. The report will inform the National Volunteering Strategy, which the Government plans to release later in 2011. The strategy is expected to outline the Government’s vision for volunteering over the next 10 years and will provide a framework which encourages volunteering. You can download the full report as well.

CTK Foundation’s 2011 Heart & Soul Grant Award Program (contest)

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I don’t normally post about funding contests, as I have some issues with them (oh-so-much work on the part of the nonprofit or NGO, for no return at all for most submissions), but by special request, and because of the creative nature of this particular contest that could easily be leveraged within the organization’s staff, volunteers, participants and other supporters, regardless of whether they win the contest or not, I’m making an exception:

The CTK Foundation’s 2011 Heart and Soul Grant Award Program is using a poetry contest to award more than $25,000 in grants to nonprofits, charities and voluntary organizations in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. And the good news is that grants can be used to fund whatever a nonprofit wants: technology (which the foundation specializes in), volunteer management training, or another critical function that many donors are often reluctant to fund.

To enter this contest for funds, a nonprofit, charity or voluntary organization submits an original four-to-eight-line poem that reflects its mission and work. Poems may be written by staff, clients and/or volunteers and must be entirely original. The winning poem, to be selected by an international panel of independent artists and producers, will be the inspiration for a song by Bill Dillon, a recording artist who was exonerated through the work of Innocence Project of Florida.

Applicants must be registered as a nonprofit, charity, NGO or volunteer organization in the USA, Canada or the UK, have been registered as such for at least one full calendar year, and provide proof of this upon request. Applicant organizations must have an operating board of non-related directors, a list of whom must be available upon request. The board must meet on a regular basis and document the proceedings of each meeting. Applicant organizations must be able to provide, upon request, financial statements for the last year of operations. An applying organization must also agree, if it wins, to allow CTK Foundation Fund to publish their grant submission lyrics, along with information about the organization and its work in any media format elected by CTK Foundation Fund.

Applications will be accepted through March 28th, 2011. Winners will be notified by April 10th and celebrated at the Heart and Soul Grant Award Gala on April 14th in Austin, Texas. More information here.

Why not open this contest up to all of your organization’s staff, volunteers, participants and other supporters? Ask them to create a poem per this Foundation’s guidelines, and pick one to submit for this contest. Even if your organization doesn’t win, post all of the submissions about your organization to your own web site or blog.

Tech Help for Nonprofits/NGOs *anytime*

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I frequently get asked — or see online — these two questions:

From nonprofits/NGOs: where do I get help with our computers and the Internet? I have all these questions about how to choose donor management software, or how to use YouTube, or how to write a proposal for the technology my organization needs. I don’t even know where to begin!

From individuals: I want to help nonprofits with tech issues. I want to answer questions about how to use social media, how to write a technology strategy, how to use Microsoft Access or FileMaker Pro, how to choose Virus Software, etc. I’ll do it online, I’ll do it onsite. Where do I go?

My answer to both these groups: the online community forum at TechSoup Global. It’s a great place for nonprofits to get tech-related questions answered, and it’s a fantastic place for tech savvy folks to answer those questions. The TechSoup online community forum branches include:

  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Networks
  • Viruses & Security
  • Web Building
  • Technology Planning
  • Accessible Technology and Public Computing
  • Volunteers and technology
  • Emerging Technologies
  • Digital Storytelling
  • Virtual Community
  • and more!

Here’s an example of a question on TechSoup that’s waiting for an answer right now

Hello all – my NPO would like to set up a webcam with a live feed inside an owl’s nesting box and have it available on our web site. I am the “accidental techie” in our organization so I’m trying to find out as much as I can, as quickly as I can.

We have a very limited budget with which to work with and will probably rely mostly on donated or borrowed equipment, if possible.  The only equipment we have so far is the nesting box with the mother owl preparing to lay eggs.

Although our location isn’t particularly remote (Grizzly Island, Suisun), cellular signals are practically non-existent. We do have an internet connected computer on site and I’m pretty sure its DSL. The location of the owl box is in a tractor shed which has a locked room available for us to place a laptop.

What kind of equipment are we going to need to set this up? What are our options, considering the little bit of info I’ve given? I realize these are pretty general questions, but it’s just a jumping off point and any feedback I get will help me to begin asking more specific, targeted questions.  

Much love and gratitude in advance to any who choose to tackle this very large question.

Answer it here!

Even if you don’t know where to post your question, don’t worry: if you don’t post in the right forum, the oh-so-helpful volunteer moderators at TechSoup will get your post to the right branch right away.

The TechSoup community forum has been engaged in microvolunteering long before the term was being used!

I’ve been associated with TechSoup since the early 1990s, when it was called CompuMentor and didn’t even have a web site! Back then, it was focused on recruiting and placing volunteers in nonprofit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area to help with tech issues. The TechSoup online forum is an evolution of that service – join in! You don’t have to ask, or answer, right away: just lurk for a while!

And don’t miss TechSoup’s many free online events, to help build the capacities of volunteers and paid staff at nonprofit organizations to use technology to support its work. Subscribe to the TechSoup email newsletter By The Cup to know when those free online events are happening.

Also see:

    • Finding a Computer/Network Consultant
      What mission-based organizations can do to recruit the “right” consultant for tech related issues, one that will not make them feel out-of-the-loop or out-of-control when it comes to tech-related discussions.