Ideas for Nonprofit Leadership | Page 2

March 13, 2017 by Betsy Garside

“Why are we doing strategic planning?”

Bernuth & Williamson strategic planning for nonprofits We kicked off a strategic planning effort with a new client recently. A staff member, curious about why he was in the room and on the strategic planning team, asked a familiar question: “Why are we doing strategic planning?” Behind the question was the tension of an overcommitted worker wondering what this big new chunk of extra work would actually do for his organization.

Nonprofit organizations undertake strategic plans for many reasons, positive and negative. We see new leaders come through our door eager to change their organizations for the better…and leaders who have lost funding and need to retrench strategically. Calls come from board chairs who want faster results, or top staff who feel their effort is becoming less relevant in the changing world around them. The genesis for every strategic planning effort has some level of both pain and opportunity wrapped into it.

No matter what the genesis for the process, there is a universal answer to that “why?”: If you don’t drive, someone or something else will do so. If you don’t set a course — imperfect though it may be — you will not get to where you want to be. As all-consuming as an organization’s day-to-day activities may be, leadership must make the effort to periodically look over the horizon. I won’t get too sailorly, but that look over the horizon helps an organization see what change is happening in their operating environment (the good and the bad), where they are in reaching their organizational goals, and how they might want to adjust course to get there more efficiently or effectively.

As to the “how” of approaching strategic planning? At the end of that meeting, the same person pointed out an excellent approach to any strategic planning process: “We should have courage, you know, courage to say yes and to say no. And we should take some risks.”

Point taken.

July 21, 2016 by Betsy Garside

Nobody is Joining: The Membership-Model Challenge

empty seats We are working with several organizations that have some sort of membership model. One is a private school, another an association with several tiers of membership, a third is an advocacy group reliant on a subscription model. For all of these organizations, a challenge looms: Paid annual “memberships” are dropping steadily. Part of this is generational: Millennials are not habitually joiners. The spirit of annual membership in a nonprofit is stronger in Boomers and GenXers. Whatever the bundle of causes, the mindset of those willing to “join” to cover high fixed costs of institutions like private schools, museums or theaters is a waning phenomenon. And those willing to “join” to support advocacy efforts or public goods like NPR? No better.

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville traveled from France to study American prisons. In reality, he absorbed the American socio-political ethos, turning what he experienced into two volumes entitled “Democracy in America.” His view of Americans? A nation of joiners:

“Americans of all ages, all conditions, all minds constantly unite. Not only do they have commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but they also have a thousand other kinds: religious, moral, grave, futile, very general and very particular, immense and very small; Americans use associations to give fêtes, to found seminaries, to build inns, to raise churches, to distribute books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they create hospitals, prisons, schools. Finally, if it is a question of bringing to light a truth or developing a sentiment with the support of a great example, they associate. Everywhere that, at the head of a new undertaking, you see the government in France and a great lord in England, count on it that you will perceive an association in the United States.”

It is clear that this joiner mentality is undergoing some fundamental shifts. We could quote de Tocqueville at our clients and they would not thank us for it. Instead, we’ve been working with clients to develop clearer understandings of what value those former joiners — be they members, private-school parents, museum goers, annual seat-buyers or subscriber advocates — are seeking from their association with a given organization. Once we have that clear picture of what supporters or stakeholders want and value, we help clients restructure their offerings — or their entire business model — to favor where the marketplace is headed.

The distinguishing factor we’ve found is between nonprofit organizations that are preparing for this slow steady change and organizations that are not. The former — the preparers — are willing to shift their model, brand, structures and efforts to recognize a fundamentally new marketplace for affiliation. The latter are sticking to their current models, willing to go down with the membership graph line.

What we see is simple: If you rely on a membership or joining model, you better be able to deliver a very clear and distinct value to your members, not information that they believe should be available on the internet for free, but something tangible and differentiating. Membership organizations with that kind of value proposition will be able to keep their heads above water even when other joiner groups are in steep decline.

April 2, 2016 by Thomas Brendler

Telling the Rest of the Story

Stories about nonprofit organizations—particularly the ones they tell themselves—tend to focus on their scrappy beginnings, near-death experiences, big wins, and marquee moments that lace annual reports with the glow of valor.

Yet in hewing to an assumed logic of success, these stories often overlook the most critical element of the NGO life cycle: Periods of transition—a change in leadership, a shift in strategic focus, the loss of a longtime funder. These times are marked by great uncertainty—even fear—because they diverge from a predictable arc of growth and a reliable, heroic narrative. As a colleague once advised me when I was an executive director, “The true test of organizations is not how they grow, but how they shrink.” Indeed, transitions are an acute test of an organization’s vision and capacity. This is exactly why they have so much to teach.

One reason nonprofits downplay transitions is that they see them as evidence of weakness. Some fear they risk revealing fissures and points of friction that board members and senior leadership would rather keep in house, and tamped down at that. But uncertainty does not necessarily portend failure. Unquestioned assumptions about what transitions mean (and about what constitutes failure) can blind organizations to their value. Understanding and documenting difficult times—not just to satisfy a story, but to mine them for critical insights and lessons—can strengthen institutions over the long term.

Nonprofit storytelling matters One of the most important parts of telling these untold stories is finding people who can tell them, and providing them with the resources to do so. Organizations naturally build institutional memory over the years, through the collective experience of the individuals engaged in them. It is already there, we only need ask. Yet, documenting this knowledge is widely considered a luxury, a box to be checked off in an exit interview. Institutional memory is particularly vulnerable during periods of transition, with restructuring and changes in staff. The clock is always ticking.

How does your organization think about its institutional memory? Have you found a way to capture it? What are some of the questions and challenges that come up for you? Let us know. Email Thomas at tbrendler@bernuthconsulting.com or tweet him at @thomasbrendler.

September 25, 2015 by Betsy Garside

Organizational Change Done Right

“Turn and face the strange…” is how David Bowie put it in the classic “Changes.” Wish it were so easy to do.

For many of our clients, the most challenging part of strategic planning is the change it generates. Sometimes a plan results in transformational, upheaving shifts. Sometimes there are tweaks to an already-good general direction. Sometimes the organization “changes” its way into a merger or a dissolution.

We’ve found that the scale of change — particularly for nonprofits — does not really matter. Be they big or small, any changes feel momentous in mission-driven organizations. This is partly the nature of a shared thread of culture at all NGOs, where the vesting of individuals in the organization is much greater than it may be at a corporation. It is also, however, because nonprofits can be really bad at directing, planning for, and communicating change.

A recent piece from McKinsey captures well what goes into a good change-management process. “The Science of Organizational Transformations” is based on a field survey of executives. It’s a quick read; pay particular attention to the Influence Model on page 3. That idea of creating a powerful “change story” is even more important in mission-driven organizations, with those devoted and heavily invested staff members.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes…

May 5, 2015 by Betsy Garside

Congratulations, Michel Nischan!

Screen Shot 2015-05-05 at 10.54.22 AM In 2014 we started working with Wholesome Wave, an organization dedicated to getting more fresh, local fruits and vegetables to the people who need them. Being the organizational-development nerds we are, Wholesome Wave stands out among our clients for its extra-heavy dose of something that NGOs value highly: Passion.

No one in the organization embodies that passion better than Wholesome Wave’s CEO, Michel Nischan. Not all of our clients start meetings with hugs. Michel does. He believes that when you are on the team — in our case, helping the organization develop its first strategic plan — you are both part of the solution, and family.

We are not suggesting that all our clients start hugging. Not at all. A passion-check, however, would not be a bad idea. Are you as excited about what you are doing as you were when you started? If not, what can you do to inject passion into yourself and your organization?

Last night, the James Beard Foundation awarded Michel the Humanitarian of the Year Award. Curious about what Wholesome Wave is doing to fix America’s food imbalance, and why Michel won the award? This short video will answer both your questions. For more detail, you can go straight to the Wholesome Wave website.

And Michel, congratulations. We are sending you a hug.

“Why are we doing strategic planning?”

Nobody is Joining: The Membership-Model Challenge

Telling the Rest of the Story

Organizational Change Done Right

Congratulations, Michel Nischan!

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