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Nonprofit Leadership During Crisis

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A crisis can tell you a lot about your organization. If your nonprofit is functioning at healthy levels, you are able to build upon these strong foundations to weather storms and continue to further the mission. On the other hand, a crisis can often bring up fundamental issues within an organization that need to be dealt with. Here are some areas to take a closer look into to ensure that your organization is set up to withstand and come out of a crisis situation thriving.

It is a Team Effort 

When determining the health of an organization, one needs to look no further than the leadership of the Executive Director or CEO and the Board of Directors. These individuals should be cultivating a productive culture centered around the nonprofit’s core values and mission. Each individual must have a clear understanding of the mission and display commitment through making unique contributions to its success. 

When crises emerge, these individuals must remember why they are here. Their actions always need to take into account the good of the whole. It is vital to be able to do the right thing even when it is hard. When there is this kind of leadership at the top of the organization, the rest of the staff and volunteers will organically follow their example.

Focused and organized

As a board member or Executive Director/CEO, if you are committed to this type of leadership, you will be able to carry out your mission in a focused and organized way. This will allow you to be able to move through any potential fear surrounding a crisis, see challenges as opportunities, be creative and collaborative and continue serving your mission.

Executive Director/CEO relationship with the Board of Directors:

It is essential as an Executive Director to be able to facilitate discussions that are organized and clear to ensure that a nonprofit is always moving toward mission based action. Everyone must be rowing in the same direction. Miscommunications and disagreements must be handled swiftly and moved past in a safe space where the leaders can work collaboratively. Here are some key focuses for an Executive Director when fostering this relationship with the board of directors. 

  1. Accountability. As the Executive Director, you must be clear about your own commitments and accomplishments and how they further the mission. This will give you the ability to follow up on board commitments and accountability. 
  2. Communication. You are the one who is in the day to day operations and will be able to have a clear insight into what is happening within the organization. It is important to understand the best way to communicate with each board member to keep them informed and on the same track and avoid miscommunications.
  3. Appreciation. Board members are volunteers who make efforts to support the mission and you. Showing appreciation goes a long way to build these relationships and continue to move productively forward together. 
  4. Outreach Efforts. Effective communication about your organization’s impact needs to reach your community to garner continuous support. Know your board and understand how each person can individually support these efforts. 

The Board President

As a Board President, or Chair, you must be one of the most dedicated individuals to the mission of a nonprofit. You must be able to provide clarity if the leadership team ever veers off mission and hold them accountable to doing what they have committed to doing. Here are some focuses that will lead to effectiveness as a Board President.

  1. Culture. You need to be able to partner with the Executive Director to always guide the leadership team with the core values and mission. Part of your role is to hold each individual on the team accountable to operate with these in mind. 
  2. Responsibility. You have a huge impact on the health of your board. It is important to understand the different capacities and capabilities of the board and how they can best serve the organization. Don’t let board members waste energy on efforts that don’t make sense. When issues arise, ask the right questions in order to be able to deal with the issues and move on. Board members should be able to depend on your consistency, honesty, communication and organization.
  3. Productivity. Make sure that efforts are always moving forward and that the team is being proactive and adjusting efforts when it makes sense. If something seems to be stuck, deal with it as quickly as possible so it won’t get in the way of the nonprofit’s momentum. 
  4. Strategic.  We cannot stress enough how important it is that efforts are always supporting the mission. You need to continually be able to take a step back and see how each effort fits into the big picture of accomplishing and growing the mission.

Three Ways to Increase Productivity During Online Meetings

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Here at Spokes, we know that people are going through challenging times. As we all try to settle into the new, virtual workplace, there are bound to be some missteps and your online meetings may not be as productive as they once were in-person. Being in front of a video camera can feel impersonal and can cause many distractions as well. But the work you do is important so it is also important to make sure that your meetings are as productive as they can be. Three ways to do this include creating a clear agenda, keeping the meetings engaging and fun, and decreasing other distractions as much as possible.

Create a Clear Agenda 

Sometimes it’s difficult to stay on track during online meetings. This can be alleviated with a clear, effecting meeting agenda. The agenda should include participant introductions (if necessary) and welcome greetings as well. However, the most important part of the agenda is the topics that are to be discussed. You can make sure the meeting stays on track by seeking input about what topics you cover from other staff members to ensure they are all relevant. You should also phrase the topics as a clear question to be answered. This will help dissipate any confusion about what the discussion is about and will allow participants to make contributions that are on topic because they must answer the given question. Once you have your agenda, it is important to stick to it. This can be done by adding estimated time intervals to each agenda topic. For example, 

12:30 Introductions 

12:35 How can we redesign the website to encourage more donations through our link? 

It’s not imperative that you stick to the exact minute that is on the agenda, but it creates some accountability and other members will know they can speak up if the group has been discussing the same topic and getting nowhere for thirty minutes. Finally, it can be useful to send out your completed agenda a few hours/the day before the meeting so participants can go over it on their own and start generating ideas. 

Keep Meetings Engaging and Fun 

Some structure, like a clear agenda, is necessary, but so is thinking outside the box! In 2012, the Harvard Business Review analyzed hundreds of studies and found what we’ve known all along to be true, that happier employees really are more productive. With the toll that COVID-19 has taken on everyone, it is important now more than ever to make sure your team members stay happy. On a surface level, this can look like changing up the “theme” of each meeting and encouraging everyone to participate. Some ideas include tea time, funky hat day, bring your pets to work day, etc. Just remember that you have to participate as well so others will follow suit! No one wants to log in to the meeting on funky hat day and be the only one wearing their bedazzled cowboy hat. However, it is arguably more important to foster happiness by checking in with your team members and fostering a psychologically safe environment during your meetings. You can offer yourself as someone to talk to and empathize with when being in quarantine gets too overwhelming. When team members are worried, they aren’t very focused. Keeping your meetings engaging and fun can eliminate some of that internal distraction, but what about other environmental factors? 

Decrease Distractions as Much as Possible 

Attending a meeting in your home office or your bedroom is a much different experience than attending one in a conference room. Other devices may pull your attention away from the task at hand and make it much more difficult to follow along. Making an effort to decrease the prevalence of other devices as much as possible is something that can really help. This includes silencing your phone (maybe putting it in a different room), deleting the other tabs open on your computer, and turning off any television or music playing. However, it can be impossible to eliminate all distractions when some team members are working from a house that has other people and pets living there as well. The attention-grabbing effects of these other distractions can be minimized by encouraging active listening and note taking. This allows you  to really focus on what the speaker is saying and it gives you something other than the agenda to look back on if you have a question after the meeting ends. 

With these tips, you can take a boring, off-track meeting and turn it into a productive one with happier team members. Sometimes, creating a clear agenda, keeping your meetings engaging and fun, and decreasing other distractions is all it takes to see a boost in productivity. Remember, Spokes is here to support you so please contact us if you’d like any more information about increasing productivity during your online meetings.

Tools to Engage Volunteers While Sheltering-in-place

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The situation due to COVID-19 has led all of us to make a great amount of changes in a very short amount of time. While sheltering-in-place is necessary to keep us all safe, it is proving to make running a nonprofit more challenging than usual. Luckily, there are ways to combat some of the difficulties presented by this new reality and keep your nonprofit functioning while sheltering-in-place.

Because of these difficulties, those working with volunteers may find that they are unable to put in as many hours as they normally do. Not all work can be completed from home and volunteers who deliver direct services are unable to do so due to sheltering and distancing. You might find yourself in need of additional volunteers or new volunteers with different skill sets are needed to navigate the next few months. While in-person training has been suspended until further notice, we’d like to highlight other ways to safely and effectively provide prospective volunteers with necessary information and training. For example, one alternative would be to create a training video to send via email or post on your website. The goal is not to create a professional quality video – just a recording of the presentation you normally make at an in-person training. Another option is using an application like Powtoon to create animated training videos that are fun to both make and watch! 

A second alternative to in-person training is using a video communications platform like Zoom or Google Hangouts to conduct your training virtually. Visit this Business Insider article for a comparison of the two platforms. One of these options will look the most similar to your normal training sessions and will only require that you invite prospective volunteers to the training, providing them with the information they will need to join the meeting. If recruiting new volunteers is too challenging and yet more help in certain areas is needed, consider cross-training current staff and volunteers to perform key duties within your nonprofit. Now is the time to really utilize the diverse skill sets of your wonderful staff and volunteers! This training can be virtual, as discussed above, or can be delivered in-person to employees who are deemed essential workers under the shelter-in-place order.

Though some counties are exploring plans to reopen, there is no set date for lifting the shelter-at-home mandate and no guarantee that life will return to normal anytime soon. Consequently, it’s imperative to innovate and identify new technologies and solutions to sustain meaningful engagement with your organization’s stakeholders, including volunteers, donors, and employees working remotely. This can be done by hosting virtual social gatherings, creating/maintaining an email newsletter, and establishing a strong social media presence for your organization. A small reminder about your organization’s mission, highlighting a shared love for service, and expressing a desire to continue helping your community can go a long way with your organization’s extended community.

Remember, you’re not alone. Spokes is working alongside you to find new ways to safely and virtually provide the management support and resources you need. Please contact us if you would like more specific assistance managing volunteers and sustaining stakeholder relationships remotely.

Self-Care = A Healthy Happy Nonprofit

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Beth Kanter, guest speaker and facilitator of the first Spokes Nonprofit Symposium, engaged participants with her insights and resourceful approaches to organizational health in the workshop based on her book, The Happy Healthy Nonprofit. The Symposium was held on Friday, November 15, 2019.

According to Kanter, self-care is not a luxury but something that should be a part of how you do your work in order to get better results. “Creating a culture of wellbeing has benefits that are measurable, and these include things like fewer absences and sick days, lower health care costs, higher employee work satisfaction, and the ability to attract top talent and retain them.”  Self-care leads to more successful networking, happier staff and volunteers, and more peace of mind for nonprofit leaders and Board members. Symposium attendees agreed that taking time for self-care in the workplace is not only needed, but is a crucial component to the overall morale and productivity in the nonprofit organization.

Beth asked attendees to take some time to analyze and actualize a new type of self-care for themselves so they can avoid burn-out.  This included a demonstration of exercises featuring “4 Mindful Moment Techniques You Can Practice During Your Workday.”

The “Three Minute Mental Vacation Break” provided an easy and realistic practice to apply to any nonprofit leader’s busy schedule. In this exercise, Beth took attendees on a mini-vacation to Hawaii with a slideshow of sandy beaches and flowing waterfalls, set to the joyful rhythm of Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s song Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

What is your self-care plan, and how can you improve it or build time into your day to begin it?  As Beth suggests, “A written Self-Care Plan does not have to be a long document.  In fact, the shorter, the better to start.  You can always add to it as you progress through your self-care practices.  Make a list of your Practice Goals or the specific actions you plan on taking to attend to your self-care.”

Overall, participants in this morning workshop walked away with a detailed personal plan for their self-care and multiple concepts and tips to share with staff in the workplace.

Relevant Trending Articles:

Taking a Break from Work: It Is Called a Vacation! Beth Kanter /

Self-Care Through Resiliency, Rhythms and Community

https://www.nonprofitpro.com/article/self-care-resiliency-rhythms-community/

Sexual Harassment Training: What Do You Need to Know?

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In recent years, the issue of sexual harassment has received more media attention than any other ethics and compliance issue. New mandatory training requirements on preventing sexual harassment in the workplace have also recently been implemented by the State of California. Nonprofit leaders and staff need to make sure they learn what these updated policies are, and that the organization has adequate safeguards and responsive reporting tools in place so employees can feel protected and supported in the workplace.

What Constitutes Sexual Harassment in the Workplace?

Overall, sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that is persistent or offensive and interferes with an employee’s job performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment. Sexual harassment is defined by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as:

“unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when, for example: (a) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment,

(b) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual, or (c) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.”

The above is a general summary of the more detailed definition; however, the different types and degrees of sexual harassment behaviors need to be understood as well. For instance, sexual harassment can be physical, psychological, or a combination of both. And while any one incident may not be considered harassment on its own, when several incidents occur or the offensive behavior becomes persistent, that can result in sexual harassment. The expanded training requirements for sexual harassment prevention likely will result in a longer list of actions that a nonprofit leader needs to become fully informed about and prepared to execute.

Who Must Understand this Issue?

Everyone in the workplace needs to understand the issue of sexual harassment and other types of discrimination and harassment. The #MeToo Movement has brought much-needed attention to this issue by empowering people suffering from sexual harassment to speak out and report these behaviors. It is crucial that employers recognize their responsibility to protect their employees (as well as the organization’s good standing in the community) by implementing a set of procedures that allows employees to report sexual harassment with confidence and without fear of retribution or recrimination.

Employees should report any concerns about sexual harassment or inappropriate sexual conduct to the Human Resources (HR) director or a supervisor or manager as soon as possible. It is the responsibility of the HR director, manager or supervisor to take immediate and fair action when they have any knowledge of sexual harassment whether or not there has been a written or formal complaint.

After an investigation of a complaint, employees who are found to have violated the sexual harassment policy are subject to appropriate discipline. This can range from the mandatory minimum discipline of a written reprimand to termination of employment. In some cases, the person may also be subject to civil damages or criminal penalties.

Who Needs to Be Trained? 

In prior years, only supervisors in an organization with 50 or more staff were legally required to take sexual harassment training. However, in 2018, California’s legislature passed SB 1343, which expanded the classification of employees who are required to receive training on sexual harassment. By January 1, 2020, employers with at least five employees must provide: (1) at least two hours of sexual harassment prevention training to all supervisory employees, and (2) at least one hour of sexual harassment prevention training to all non-supervisory employees in California within six months of their hire. The training must be provided once every two years.

Employers must provide sexual harassment prevention training to temporary or seasonal employees within 30 calendar days after their hire date or within 100 hours worked if the employee is contracted to work for less than six months. In the case of a temporary employee employed by a temporary services employer (as defined by the California Labor Code) to perform services for clients, the training must be provided by the temporary services employer, not the client.

Employers who provide the required trainings after January 1, 2019, are not required to comply with the January 1, 2020 deadline.

As a nonprofit employer, it’s imperative to understand the significance and scope of this ruling. Now more than ever it’s essential for employers to create a workplace culture where everyone feels safe and respected. Employers need to become aware of contemporary and emerging issues faced by people of all backgrounds, and seek the training necessary for themselves and their staff to prevent, recognize or address any potential sexual harassment issues that may arise.

Spokes Sexual Harassment Training Workshop

Spokes is presenting a Preventing Sexual Harassment and Discrimination workshop on Tuesday, September 17, at the Spokes office in San Luis Obispo. Find out how to prevent abusive conduct, sexual harassment and discrimination with this high-energy and interactive course. Fully compliant with California AB 1825, proof of attendance and a certification of completion will be provided at the end of successful completion of the course. Click here to sign up online.

Additional Resources:

Sexual Harassment in the Nonprofit Workplace

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Facts about Sexual Harassment 

Sexual Orientation Discrimination: Your Rights

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