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Create Cultural Values, Create Value for Your Nonprofit

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Lots of nonprofit organizations tend to “skip” the creation of cultural values for their organization.  Are you one of them?  If so, you may be missing a valuable opportunity to establish a tool that will help you more effectively identify and recruit board members, staff and volunteers who can best move your mission forward.

Most business management mantras will dictate that having the “right” team members is critical to the success of any organization.  But, how do you know if your team members are the “right” ones?  How do you evaluate or identify if a prospective team member understands and embodies the key values needed to realize your mission if you haven’t yet defined those values for the organization as a whole?

The value of your values may start with building your nonprofit’s leadership, staff and volunteer teams, but that value grows as it permeates every layer of your organization.

Take strategic planning, for instance.  After confirming your vision and mission, it’s important to clarify your organization’s values – the “rules of engagement” for how your team (board members, staff, and volunteers) will treat each other, your donors and, most importantly, the men, women and children you serve.  If your organization is fortunate to have a broad team with individuals independently working towards common strategic goals, its important that they share and abide by a core set of values to ensure that they can a) identify and recruit more of the “right” folks, as needed; b) meet minimal expectations for individual performance and c) create consistency in the interactions they each have with your organization’s various external stakeholders.Remember, too, that the work of a nonprofit (perhaps life, in general) rarely progresses in a linear fashion.  Unforeseen and unexpected events pop up all the time.  Having great policies in place will help you weather the worst case scenarios that may arise from most unforeseen events.  But, what about that exceptional event that falls outside all of your policies?  What then?  Think of your organization’s values as an umbrella insurance policy for the work of your organization.  When all other policies fail to provide adequate direction for a specific circumstance, your organizational values serve as an ultimate guide for each of your team members to help them make the very best decision possible.

Values are most valuable when they are regularly reviewed, modified as needed and disseminated throughout every level of your organization.  If it’s been a while since your organization has reviewed its corporate values – or if your organization doesn’t have any written values – consider allocating 15 minutes of your next board meeting to have a thoughtful review or discussion about them.  Use Spokes’ Core Values Worksheet to help identify what values are most critical for your organization at this point in your history.  Starting from scratch?  Identify at least three core values as a start.  Know that the board is always able to add new values as they may be identified – or rewrite previous ones.

To help you start the conversation about values within your organization, consider sharing this video: http://bigthink.com/videos/culture-at-30000-feet-above-ground from Dr. Frances Frei, Professor, Harvard Business School, and Anne Morriss, Chief Knowledge Officer of Concire Leadership Institute.  (The video is directed to for-profit companies in the service industries; please remind your colleagues that every nonprofit is a service organization.)

Remember: Embezzlers Don’t Want You To Know What They Are Doing

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Click to download this 5-page Accounting Controls Checklist

Far too often, nonprofit board members assume that their organization’s finances are safe because large sums of money haven’t gone missing.  What they don’t know is that embezzlers rarely steal large sums of money.  They don’t want anyone to know that they are stealing money so they do their best to stay “under the radar” in their illegal behavior.  In fact, most embezzlement occurs in increments of $100 – $300 and are recorded as payments to fake vendors.  Sometimes, the embezzlers even create fake invoices to justify the fake payments, further deluding board members who try to track funds carefully.

And, did you know that there is actually a group of criminals who prey on athletic clubs and programs?  Many of these entirely volunteer-run organizations have minimal accounting controls making it easy to manipulate financial data and steal funds.  In fact, just last month, another athletic program fell victim to an individual who stole up to $700,000 from their organization and a local business, both located in Paso Robles, CA. Read the story below.

Protect your organization – and your own liability as a board member – by ensuring that your organization is using proper accounting controls.  Following is a list of several recommended controls any organization can implement to help prevent financial misappropriation.  Employ as many as you can, check references and backgrounds on bookkeepers (volunteer, contracted and salaried) and remain diligent in monitoring your organization’s financial reports and accounts. If you need more assistance in protecting your organization, know that Spokes is always here to help!

Bookkeeper suspected of embezzling from Paso Robles business

By Matt Fountain

[email protected]

March 23, 2015

A Paso Robles bookkeeper was arrested last week on suspicion of embezzling at least $700,000 from a local manufacturing business over a period of six years and possibly embezzling money from the North County youth sports nonprofit where she was treasurer for about seven years.

Police say they are still investigating whether the nonprofit suffered any losses.

Denna Carol Serda, 56, was arrested following an investigation that included a Feb. 5 search of her Paso Robles home and a subsequent review of her personal bank accounts, according to Paso Robles police Sgt. Tod Rehner.

As a result of their investigation, detectives secured an arrest warrant for Serda, who turned herself in to the Paso Robles Police Department on Friday.

She was booked into San Luis Obispo County Jail on Friday on suspicion of felony grand theft exceeding $950 as well as forgery, and the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office is considering filing additional criminal enhancements for taking property exceeding $50,000, aggravated white-collar crime exceeding $100,000 and the denial of probation for a crime exceeding $100,000.

Rehner would not identify the nonprofit or the private company Monday, but The Tribune has learned they are Make-It Manufacturing of Paso Robles and the Paso Robles Youth Sports Council. Serda is no longer with either entity.

The Police Department said in a news release that Serda is suspected of embezzling more than $700,000 from her for-profit employer between 2008 and 2014. Officers believe Serda also forged more than 450 financial documents in order to embezzle those funds.

Detectives are compiling additional financial documents from the Paso Robles Youth Sports Council; that investigation remained ongoing Monday afternoon.

Greg Powell, president of Make-It Manufacturing, confirmed Monday that Serda was hired as his company’s bookkeeper in 2008.

Powell said he was served with a summons by the Internal Revenue Service, which stated that Serda and her husband, Steven Serda, were being audited for suspicious income. When he met with auditors, Powell said, he was presented with a document on his company’s letterhead approving an employee loan to Denna Serda with his signature at the bottom, which he said was forged.

Before hiring her, Powell said, he knew Serda for years through family and friends, as well as through local youth sports.

He said that he brought the matter to his insurance agent, who is also involved in the Paso Robles Youth Sports Council, for which Serda was treasurer.

“He literally went white,” Powell said. They then contacted police, he said.

Marc Dart, current president of the sports council, said Monday that Serda was one of the founding organizers of the 501(3)(c) and served as its treasurer from 2007 until January 2015.

The nonprofit consists of representatives from local sports organizations, elected board members and liaisons from the city and the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District to advise and petition the city and school district on matters related to youth sports.

Serda’s husband previously served as the sports council’s president beginning in 2006.

Dart confirmed that the organization’s board became aware of concerns about Serda from her employer and asked to discuss it with her. She came in accompanied by her husband, Dart said, and both promptly resigned in January.

Dart added that the organization has gathered financial records and is cooperating with detectives and the District Attorney’s Office.

According to court records, Denna Serda was convicted in 2003 in San Luis Obispo Superior Court for grand theft of more than $400 in property. She served 30 days in County Jail and three years of formal probation and was ordered to pay about $720 in restitution and $700 in other fines.

She remained in County Jail on Monday evening in lieu of $1.2 million bail.

All public phone numbers listed for Steven Serda in Paso Robles were disconnected as of Monday afternoon.

Assistant District Attorney Lee Cunningham said Monday that prosecutors had not yet filed charges against Denna Serda; Cunningham was not able to comment on the possibility of criminal charges against her husband.

Does Your Board Deserve A Raise?

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Time for annual reviews. For many nonprofit organizations, this is the time to review staff performance over the last fiscal year and reward good performance or address poor performance. And, the same is true for your board members. Like your employees, your board members are critical human resources to your organizations and, like employees, they, too, require a performance review.In order to conduct an effective and equitable review, however, you must be very clear in your organization’s definition of “good performance” –  starting at the board level. Board member service isn’t easy.

The men and women who choose to serve as board members for your organization are making a tremendous personal gift toward the welfare of your organization. Their intent is to do good and to strengthen your organization. Honor that intent by ensuring that they understand what your organization needs from them, providing them with the information and education required to meet those needs, holding them each equally accountable to their responsibilities, celebrating those who serve the organization well and “thanking and releasing” those who do not serve your organization well.

Not sure how to start this discussion and review process?
Read Nonprofit Quarterly’s article “Enhance Attrition or Thank and Release? Firing Lousy Board Members” for great tips on how to improve the functionality and health of your board today.

Crowdfunding: The Right Strategy for Your Nonprofit

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Here you are, a harried development professional or an executive director who has been struggling to get the board more involved in fundraising, and your newest board member comes to you, excited about the Ice Bucket Challenge or other online fundraising craze, with a “new” idea: “Let’s crowdfund!”

Crowdfunding is a fairly new term to describe raising money for a project by getting small gifts from a large number of people, usually through fundraising webpages and such. In this way, it’s no different than what we call “grassroots fundraising”, except that it’s done online. Artists as well as for-profit entrepreneurs, seeking investments from their community for creative projects or start-up businesses, first used the term “crowdfunding”. It has become increasingly popular with non-profits as online strategies become a larger part of groups’ fundraising and communications work.

But what do you need to know to assess whether crowdfunding is the right tool and strategy for your nonprofit organization? First of all, it’s important to note that crowdfunding relies on the same underlying principles of more traditional, offline fundraising. You will have the greatest likelihood of success with crowdfunding if you have:

  • A realistic monetary goal,
  • A compelling reason for people to give,
  • A list of people to solicit, and
  • A team of staff and/or volunteers who will ask people they know for gifts.

So how is crowdfunding different from other individual donor fundraising strategies? It relies on an online platform, such as Indiegogo, which introduces potential donors to your campaign and encourages them to give. Crowdfunding tends to focus on very specific projects and capital needs—not general support—and offers perks or benefits for different gift levels that are related to a nonprofit’s mission (eg, a handmade card from women working in a cooperative in Africa), or give concrete examples of what different gift amounts would “buy”, such as a day’s worth of meals for homeless residents at a local shelter. While traditional fundraising appeals use these tactics as well, they are a more central feature of crowdfunding campaigns.

These crowdfunding platforms ask for specific information about your campaign—what you are raising the money for, how much you need raise—and often require a deadline by which you will raise your funds. They therefore force you to have a systematized approach to your fundraising campaign. In this way, crowdfunding has helped create more savvy and sophisticated donors, so that even if you don’t think crowdfunding is the right strategy for your nonprofit, the more popular crowdfunding becomes, the more your donors are going to expect clear, well-run fundraising campaigns, with compelling stories, regular updates about the progress toward your goals, and timely thank you notes. If your organization’s fundraising drives don’t have these key elements donors may lose confidence in your operation.

So good crowdfunding is based on sound fundraising practices. But does it save time and will it raise the money you need? According to the Crowdfunding Industry Report, crowdfunding platforms raised $2.7 billion and successfully funded over 1 million campaigns in 2012. It is estimated that global crowdfunding volumes have doubled since 2012, totaling nearly $5.1 billion in 2013. And social media expert Beth Kanter reports that 30% of the $5.1 billion crowdfunded went to nonprofits, an increase of 60% from 2012 to 2013.

Sources differ about the average donation size through crowdfunding, with the range offered being between $75 and $88. Individual solicitors raise an average of $534 for nonprofits through their own crowdfunding pages. And nonprofit organizations have raised an average of $7,000 to $9,238 through crowdfunded campaigns. Only about 40 campaigns have raised more than $1 million since crowdfunding was first used.

So how to know whether crowdfunding is something your nonprofit should try? Crowdfunding as a strategy can be used in conjunction with your annual or semi-annual campaigns. Factors that would suggest doing a crowdfunding campaign include having enough people to participate in asking their contacts and/or enough names on your social media or email lists to approach. Crowdfunding is best for getting lots of small gifts, not for the more personalized approach you’d use for major gift solicitation.

Another factor to consider is how much time a crowdfunding campaign will require from staff, board and other volunteers. Many people think that crowdfunding effort will save time, but that is not always the reality. First off, with more than 500 crowdfunding platforms out there now, it takes a little time to research which will be right for you. Additionally, studies show that campaigns using a video raise twice as much money as those without one. Creating a strong video will require a budget and some basic skills as well.

And just like in traditional fundraising, you have to start the campaign with people you already know—current donors, staff, board and volunteers—who can make the first gifts, and only then might you be successful in reaching new folks. According to Razoo, campaigns that receive their first donation during the first 3 days of the campaign are more likely to hit their goal than those who don’t, regardless of the length of the campaign.

Getting the word out about the campaign is key—through email blasts, in your e-newsletters, on the front page of your website, and on all your social media feeds. (You know all those people who have “liked” your group’s page on Facebook? Now is the time to build up those followers!) And you have to get your board, staff, supporters, and volunteers to do the same: email their friends asking them to donate to the campaign, post asks and information on their social media feeds, and create their own individual pages on the crowdfunding site. You won’t get donations from those you don’t know until you have a good amount of traction from your own network.

So when does it make sense to go the crowdfunding route? Here are some situations in which crowdfunding could be a good option:

  • If you have a very specific, tangible need that is less than $20,000, such as buying a new van to transport the youth you serve or to pay for members to travel to and attend a conference in another state.
  • If you are a brand new organization and don’t have any donors but do have a lot of people wanting to help.
  • If your organization has tried other, more traditional fundraising activities and nothing has really gotten off the ground, especially if your staff, board and volunteers have networks that they relate to often online and via social media.

But remember, asking for gifts from several major donors or prospects in-person could easily exceed the $7,000 to $9,000 average that is raised from crowdfunding campaigns. Also, one by-product of more personal interactions with your donors is that you will lay the groundwork to make future asks a whole lot easier.

Crowdfunding can be one of the tools in your toolkit, but it will not replace or make traditional fundraising strategies irrelevant—such as more high-touch strategies, like personal solicitations of major gifts, mail and e-mail appeals, as well as house parties or other small-scale events. As with any good tool, knowing when and how to use it is critical to using it well.

Mobile Fundraising: Why aren’t we there yet?

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dickBy Richard McPherson
Fundraising Consultant, McPherson Advisor
Originally published by the Nonprofit Technology Network.

 Your mobile phone is probably within arm’s reach right now. And it’s probably on. Like everyone else on the planet (which reportedly has more mobile devices than toothbrushes), you probably use your phone to go online, make reservations, listen to music, take pictures, refer to maps, access social networks, text and occasionally even make a phone call. Mobile devices are fast becoming our all-purpose, constant companions. I could bore you with adoption and usage rates, but you know the bottom line…everybody uses mobile devices. And every time a function gets easier, people use [pounce on] it. Starbucks had 5 million mobile payments (14% of all transactions nationwide) – just last week.

It seems like money should be pouring into nonprofits through mobile phones.

If mobile is so popular, why is fundraising so hard?

Two key elements of “mobile fundraising” are in the way – the well-intentioned do-it-yourself culture of many nonprofits and a basic misunderstanding of the role of texting and giving.

First, if you want to send text messages to ask for gifts, you need an intermediary to deal with phone carriers. You’re only one charity, but your donor base uses multiple carriers. Mobile Cause, Mobile Giving and mGive are the services to which US charities often turn to arrange delivery of your text messages, manage opt-in and out, manage and track transactions – and not least, to guide strategy and practices in a channel which operates very differently from your other digital activities. Some organizations are used to outsourcing activities like canvassing, direct mail or telemarketing, but many rely on internal resources to manage tech solutions like e-mail, which is not an option for mobile campaigns.

Second, fundamental misunderstandings exist about what mobile giving actually is. Mobile campaign companies tell me that many nonprofits still think of mobile fundraising as the “text-to-give” process by which $5 or $10 is added to your phone bill. Let’s start there.

What mobile giving was – and what it is now.

Tragedies like hurricanes and earthquakes instantly dominate headlines and donors’ concern. Repetition of text-to-give messages delivered on television by US presidents and CNN screen crawls have created the understandable sense that this was mobile giving. In these circumstances, it certainly is.

But nonprofits whose mission is not emergency response, and who cannot command mainstream media attention, are turning to “text-to-pledge,” by which a donor texts any amount via their mobile phone and receives a link to a mobile-optimized online giving form to complete. This avoids using carriers as gift collectors, takes the limits off gift levels and promotes the kind of immediate communication fundraisers (and donors) prefer.

Of course if the nonprofit does not have a plan for mobile communications, and if it’s giving forms are not beautiful and easy on a smartphone, the process is dead before it even starts.

But for nonprofits who have invested in a mobile campaign company and the necessary planning, the numbers for text-to-pledge are intriguing:

  • Reported average gifts are in the $64-107 range
  • Pledge fulfillment ranges from 59-84%.
  • At fundraising events and dinners, attendee response rates have hit 22-37% with averages exceeding $100.

These results are a far cry from $5 or $10, delivered months after the gift was made. Clearly our sector needs more case studies of the cost-benefit of text-to-pledge and other expedited mobile giving solutions.

Caution: You’re already in the mobile game, ready or not.

All your organization’s e-mail with a donate button put you squarely in the fight for mobile giving. The number of Americans reading e-mail on their mobile devices has reach the tipping point – over 51% and climbing fast. So your year-end fundraising e-mail blitz will be read mostly on smartphones (some on tablets), and if your e-mail – and the donation form it links to – are not truly mobile optimized, you’re going to feel the pain.

What’s more, you’re probably also pushing your Facebook and Twitter supporters to go to your donate page – which they increasingly do from smartphones. (If you participate in Giving Tuesday this November, remember that over 30% of all traffic to giving pages on that day comes from Facebook, much of it via mobile.)

So the shift to mobile is not some distant trend. By the end of this year analysts say mobile internet access will top laptops and desktops. Whether you are sending text messages or not, your e-mail and online forms are in the mobile arena now.

Digital Wallets, apps and other cool tools. Will they help?

What if your donors never had to enter their credit card or bank information on their smartphones to give? Right now, umpteen millions of dollars are being pumped into creating secure “wallets” to hold this information for consumers so they can simply make a purchase on their phone and tell their wallet to handle the transaction. Financial behemoths like VISA’s V.me wallet, American Express and MasterCard, as well as PayPal, are all working on wallets which can be accessed online. (This is in addition to the current push for point-of-sale mobile payment services which are accessed through phone carriers. The Isis mobile payment service, jointly run by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, is an example. It recently went live, but is being renamed, since it inadvertently shares the name of the world’s now most infamous terrorist group.)

Pioneer if the field, Google Wallet, is already 3 years old and still battles for universal adoption, suggesting it will probably be credit card companies, not tech services, which will tip the scales. After all, credit cards are universally used…and control your credit line.

Another school of thought believes that apps will increase mobile giving. Examples of apps for smartphones and tablets, include Check-in for Good, which is tied to merchant purchases, and Give Mob, which uses the traditional text-to-give function and thus limits gifts to $5 or $10. Neither seems to be used widely by donors and holds little interest for nonprofits seeking a closer relationship with donors – and bigger gifts.

More promising is Give App, the new, free mobile app released just last month by Network for Good and Guidestar. Still in beta, the app allows a donor to search among 1.9 million US nonprofits, give or set up ongoing giving, and store information for future gifts. It also allows donors to set up peer-to-peer fundraisers and share news via social media. Give App will no doubt add features over time, and its value to nonprofits, like any tech tool, will depend on promotion.

There is always the option of creating your own branded app. NPR is releasing such an app this summer, NPR One, aimed at making public radio stories more searchable, accessible and sharable. And right underneath the “Change your Station” button is “How to Donate.” Tests will be underway this fall among public radio stations on the impact and implications of an app which provides content delivery along with an option to give.

It’s easy to imagine large nonprofit brands like the American Red Cross, or major faith groups, deciding to develop their own apps to serve, inform and solicit gifts, though one wonders if consumers’ “app tolerance” is already being tested. Time will tell.

Predictions and Advice

It’s been said that developers always overestimate the speed of technology change and underestimate the impact when it happens. In that spirit, it’s likely that when true mobile transaction convenience arrives, it will change everything about the way we acquire and renew donors. But when? Mobile enthusiasts say 18 months, but developers say that about every tech advance. Mobile skeptics say it will be years. More realistically I believe we can expect major shifts in donor behavior to occur within the next three years, while apps and digital wallets battle for adoption.

Of course, like e-mail and online giving, there will be a learning and testing phase for nonprofits, and the wise get started early. You didn’t wait until everyone else had websites or e-mail programs before starting your own. Playing catch-up with the world’s most universal technology is not where you want to be. So the smart move right now is:

  • Learn the facts and issues. Your schedule should include at least a quarterly webinar on mobile giving from Heather Mansfield, Darian Rodriguez Heyman, or from one of the mobile campaign companies listed here. Sure they want you to buy their services, but they have the best, most current case studies and in my experience genuinely want to help you learn.
  • Learn about the tools. A simple search on “mobile devices” on the NTEN site yields data specific tools for mobile optimizing tools for content and secure giving. Go beyond the nonprofit community to publications like GeekWire and cnet.com. Plus all the credit card sites have clear explanations and current status updates on their wallets. International charities should take note that many mobile payment developments start elsewhere; VISA’s V.me wallet has been live in Europe for several months now.
  • Fix your e-mail and online giving pages. Optimize your e-mail content for mobile devices, and at least your major online giving pages. Check with the NTEN community for services that do this inexpensively.
  • Be a mobile donor and shopper. Sign up for mobile alerts, and join or give to a charity you like. The Heifer Project is everyone’s favorite example of most digital fundraising and mobile is no exception. Join any walk-a-thon or other peer-to-peer event offer mobile engagement and giving. And use a digital wallet at the ball game, coffee shop or department store and compare the experience to giving to your organization.

The key is to admit what you know in your heart…when the convenience part of mobile transactions gets, well, more convenient, everything is going to change. And that may not take much longer.

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