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Finding Success with a Succession Plan!

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There is change afoot in the nonprofit sector; in San Luis Obispo County and across the country, boards are seeking new presidents, and nonprofit executives are transitioning to new jobs. Even in our Spokes microcosm, the search for new leadership is on. CEO Lesley Santos Dierks is moving to a volunteer role as a board of director and consultant. Using Spokes’ carefully crafted succession plan, Spokes board and staff are reorganizing, facilitating great potential in this next phase of Spokes evolution.

Why does your organization need a succession plan? Succession planning is a discipline that enables organizations to reduce reliance on any one person or small group for critical functions, thereby building sustainability. Infusing an organization with new individuals is a healthy opportunity to expand viewpoints, diversify, and clarify the organizational vision. Considering that only 27% of organizations surveyed by the 2017 National Index of Nonprofit Board Practices reported that they had a written succession plan in place, it’s clearly something that needs to be added to the agenda.

Organizations experience leadership transition for a variety of reasons. At a minimum, best practices require regular turnover at the board level with term limits. Sometimes there is an unanticipated opening on the board or staff or a natural transition of a long-time leader. And, maybe your volunteer-run organization is hiring its first executive staff person. In each case, a succession plan is key to keeping stakeholders confident and preventing service recipients from experiencing delays. Here are tips to ensure your organization’s future transitions are as smooth as possible.

  • Create clear job descriptions and roles for all volunteer, board of director, and staff roles; monitor and evaluate successes (and failures).
  • Put policies and procedures on paper so any new volunteer and/or staff can get up and running quickly and efficiently. Start with a simple checklist, and imagine walking someone else through each step. Developing an operations manual for your processes will ensure consistency and uniformity. For details on creating these policies for your organization, click here.
  • Continually train and cross-train all volunteers and/or current staff to minimize disruption from unexpected changes. Job shadow or utilize Lynda.com to help staff and volunteers learn the new skills and technologies they need to succeed one another. Spokes consulting services can also be a huge assist!
  • Spread the wealth: make sure donors have relationships with more than one person in the organization. At your next event, make it a priority to introduce your donors to more members of your leadership team.
  • Spokes offers classes and resources to help your board and staff learn the best practices of nonprofit management. Allow us to train them on the basics while you focus on teaching them the more nuanced functions of your operations.
  • Take advantage of member benefits like Executive Director Roundtables and Board President Roundtables. At your next board or staff meeting, play Spokes Best Practices in Nonprofit Management video series.
  • And, when an unexpected transition occurs despite great succession planning efforts, remember that Spokes offers Executive Search services through its consulting program. Learn more here.

Competitive Nonprofit Wages Are Important

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Legislation just passed that prohibits employers from asking job candidates for their salary history. This is great news. In the nonprofit sector, employers can no longer base their salary offers on how much the candidate previously made; in contrast to other sectors, these numbers are notoriously low.
But, how is an employer supposed to know fair compensation rates?

The answer lies in the Center for Nonprofit Management’s Compensation and Benefits Report. Every year, approximately 400 nonprofit organizations in Southern California participate in the survey to define comparable compensation data for various staff positions respective to an organization’s budget, responsibilities assigned, and geographic location.

Unfortunately, recent survey results have not provided a clear picture of benefits and compensation in San Luis Obispo or Kern Counties due to low participation among nonprofits in those regions. CNPM states, “The strength of the C+B Report survey is the diversity and volume of participants.” Toward that end, CNPM is urging Central Coast and Central California nonprofits to complete the survey prior to February 16, 2018. So, Spokes Members, let’s contribute our data to the C+B report for the survey’s benefit – and ours!

Completing the survey requires one individual from your organization to complete two questionnaires – one specific to compensation and bonuses paid to your organization’s employees, and another specific to employee benefits. The questionnaires are online and no more than 20 minutes is required to complete both of them. The most appropriate person to answer the survey is typically the Executive Director or CEO as s/he will need to know your organization’s operating budget, the salary and related job responsibilities for each staff position, and your organization’s personnel policies specific to health/retirement benefits, time off, paid leave and telecommuting practices.

The deadline to participate in the survey is February 16, 2018.

Once it’s published Spokes will have a copy of the 2018 C&B Report in our resource library to share with all of you. Thank you, in advance, for contributing your data to ensure that this resource is as valuable and relevant as it can be to our local nonprofit sector!

Giving Great Gratitude: Tips for Donor Appreciation

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Did you know that nonprofits receive nearly 31% of annual gifts during the month of December each year? In fact, 12% of all giving occurs in the last three days of the calendar year. And, were you aware that donors are more likely to give to your nonprofit again after they have received an average of three “thank you” responses?”

With all that is happening during this busy season, it is easy to choose to wait a few weeks to thank a donor for a gift. Doing so, however, could be costly. In many ways, how you respond to the donation you receive tomorrow will determine if you receive another donation this time next year.

Fortunately, giving thanks can be fun and creative; it doesn’t have to feel like a chore. To help inspire you to give great gratitude, we have compiled a few helpful tips:

The Balance, a financial management resource website, outlines the fundamentals of donor stewardship including quick, personalized thank you responses. One great idea explains how to use a postscript to catch your donor’s eye and better convey your key message. Read all the details here.

The fundraising platform Classy suggests designing a “welcome package” for first time donors and broadcasting short testimonial videos to offer meaningful thanks to multiple donors. Read Classy’s “Top 15 Creative Ways to Thank Donors” for more details on these ideas and other quick and easy ways to thank donors through websites and cultivation events.

In addition, last week’s issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s article, “Do’s and Don’ts When Writing Donor Thank-You Letters by Timothy Sandoval includes the following suggestions:

1. Don’t send the same thank you letter to every donor. Donors will begin to catch on, ignore your letters, and the thanks you wish to express will begin to feel less sincere.
2. Keep your donor thank you letters short – no more than one paragraph, if possible.
3. Switch up your opening line. Most donor thank you letters start with “Thank you for your generous support…” Make your thank you letter stand out from other nonprofits by using an atypical opening statement that grabs your donor’s attention.
4. Embrace “snail mail.” As we become more and more overwhelmed with electronic communication, actual letters become rare – and appreciated.
5. Make sure someone prominent at your organization personally signs each letter.

We wish for your nonprofit lots and lots of opportunities to say “thank you” in the next few weeks. We hope these resources will offer you new strategies to do so more easily, meaningfully, and memorably!

Getting Board Members to Agree

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Consensus. Harmony. Unity. These are the goals of every nonprofit board. Unfortunately, they are rarely part of their reality. So, how does a board leader honor every individual around the table while encouraging them all to move forward in agreement?

In his recent article for Fast Company, “This Is Why Your Passive-Aggressive Office Note Didn’t Work,” Shane Snow suggests that understanding each individual’s outer and inner expectations is the key to creating group agreement. Snow cites a framework presented in author Gretchen Rubin’s latest book, The Four Tendencies, that identifies different personalities and how best to empathize with and appeal to those personalities–rather than avoid them or fight them.

• Upholders will do anything to meet a work deadline (an outer expectation) and also their New Year’s resolution (an inner expectation). They’re self-starters and highly reliable, but they can be defensive and rigid.
• Questioners tend to be good at meeting their inner expectations, but they need to be convinced why to do something before doing it, this way they can decide for themselves whether it’s worth doing. They’re comfortable bucking the system but can suffer from analysis paralysis and get impatient with people who just accept things as they are.
• Obligers are motivated above all else by helping others and by following rules. They can be counted on as responsible but can have trouble imposing limits or saying “no.”
• Rebels are motivated by freedom of choice and self-expression. They don’t want to be told what to do; they want to decide what to do. They’re great at being independent, spontaneous, and creative but not at being disciplined.

Read his entire article here to learn more about your own personality type, better identify the personalities of your peers, and gain strategies to use this framework to create more true consensus in the board room, with your colleagues, and in your personal relationships, too!

Easier Solutions for Board Fundraising

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Lately, there have been a stream of nonprofit leaders – both board and staff – contacting Spokes and asking for help to engage their board members in their organization’s fundraising efforts. Conversations around the issue are stilted and awkward. Board meetings end with directors nodding in agreement to help raise funds, then leaving the room and continuing to be inactive. Resentments build. Fiscal goals are not met.

Sound familiar? Maybe painfully familiar?

The good news – and bad news – is that you are not alone. For many nonprofit leaders, nothing about fundraising seems easy. It’s a reasonable sentiment. After all, most important work is never easy. However, there are ways to make the work easier and more of a cultural norm.

Start by formally acknowledging that most folks find it hard to ask friends and family to make donations to the organizations they serve – not because they don’t believe passionately in the mission – but because they are uncomfortable requesting a favor. There is an underlying fear that a time will come when they need their friends and family to help them with a more critical issue, and they don’t want to feel that they’ve already asked too much on behalf of their favorite charity.

It’s time to stop asking board members to solicit their friends and colleagues and take a tremendous first step to shift their resistance to fundraising. Instead, ask them to focus on what they can do within their comfort level to contribute to your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts:
“Not comfortable asking for a gift?
o Can you invite potential donors to our next event?
o Can you use your Facebook page to share our client success stories with your friends and neighbors and advocate for our mission?
o Can you wear your board member nametag at your work-related events?
o Can you help us thank our current donors in a way that is personal and meaningful?”

It’s important to clarify to your board members how the friends, associates, and colleagues they introduce to the organization will be treated. Assure and demonstrate that all prospective donors are treated respectfully, with the intention of developing a long-term relationship. Define how donors are cultivated, asked, thanked, recognized, and protected.

Finally, remind board members that the organization will be more successful with fundraising goals if donors are asked to join the board in their giving. It’s far more difficult to encourage a new donor to make a gift if current board members are not willing to do the same. Ask your board members to conduct a modest board giving campaign with 100% participation. Then ask staff, other board members, and volunteer leaders who are comfortable with asking for donations to take the lead.

Read these two helpful articles for more information and inspiration on how to make fundraising easier and more successful for everyone in your organization.

The 5 Step Strategy for Getting Your Board Members Engaged in Fundraising by Joe Garecht

How to Run a Successful Board Giving Campaign by Joe Garecht

NOTE: Spokes member organizations have access to templates for board of director commitment forms and other policies to facilitate board giving campaigns.
Special thanks to Connie O’Henly, Executive Director of the Clark Center Association, for sharing these articles with Spokes!

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