An Executive Director Shares Leadership and Management Tips

Do you need some guidance on running your nonprofit organization and would like to learn from someone who has “seen it all”? John Bateson, the Executive Director of the Contra Costa Crisis Center in Walnut Creek, California has written a book that provides stories and lessons learned from his 27 years of experience in the nonprofit sector.

Chapters cover several topics including board development, program development, fundraising, volunteers, marketing, strategic planning, major gifts, financial management, and advocacy. Here are some highlights from Building Hope: Leadership in the Nonprofit World (Praeger Publishers):

“Before writing a proposal, I always contact the foundation. I want verbal feedback on our project prior to submitting anything in writing.” (p. 98)

“One of the ironies of nonprofit work is that agencies with government funding depend on it and agencies without it don’t want it.” (p. 102)

“The accepted rule of thumb is that an agency should have, at a minimum, reserves totaling three to six months of its operating budget, and preferably a year’s worth." (p. 168)

Search the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature for more readings on nonprofit management.

Exit Strategies for Foundations

A foundation typically will not fund an organization in perpetuity as it eventually moves on to supporting other charities and priorities. Some grantmakers will do a better job exiting than others. For funders who need some ideas or suggestions in this area, download a copy of The Effective Exit: Managing the End of a Funding Relationship, the new pamphlet from GrantCraft. The publication discusses several topics including:

Clear communication with grantees
Building the organizational capacity of grantees
Assisting grantees with fundraising

You will read about strategies used at four foundations, examine a case study, and explore unusual exit situations. Learn more at the GrantCraft Web site.

Best Practices for Board Members

You have seen capable boards of trustees, often fulfilling their duties and responsibilities to their organizations. Do you also hear about the boards that go beyond their basic obligations and take governance to the next level? If not, pick up a copy of Exceptional Board Practices: The Source in Action published by BoardSource. The booklet is a compilation of Board Member articles and BoardSource white papers that help explain how boards can apply twelve key principles that will maximize their effectiveness. The principles cover several areas such as:

Building partnerships
Focusing on your mission
Strategic planning
Promoting transparency
Developing resources
Measuring outcomes

You will learn in the publication that, “The difference between responsible and exceptional lies in thoughtfulness and intentionality, action and engagement, knowledge and communication. This difference is what we call the source of power. Using it has a multiplier effect on board performance.”

Search the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature for more readings on board members.

Fundraising and Web 2.0

How can your nonprofit use the latest Internet technologies to fundraise and to strengthen support for your cause? The new book People to People Fundraising, published by John Wiley & Sons, discusses tools for social networking, targeting specific populations such as seniors, and integrating online activities with offline campaigns.

Marketing tools mentioned in the volume include photo-sharing sites, personal web pages, fundraising badges, and widgets. Here is a tip from the book:

"Fundraisers should aim to have the first two to three donations to their page be substantial ($50 to $100 versus $10 to $25) because the signaling effect to other donors who visit the page will cause them to donate at a higher level." (p. 123)

Chapters in People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities were written by experts in the field, including Ted Hart, James M. Greenfield, and Sheeraz D. Haji.

Search the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature for more readings on how nonprofits make use of the Internet.

Volunteers: Everything You Wanted to Know About Them

Scholars who are looking for a reference book on research related to volunteering should check out Volunteers: A Social Profile published by Indiana University Press. Professors Marc A. Musick and John Wilson take an in-depth review of various studies on volunteering to provide a comprehensive analysis of the motivations of volunteers and the consequences of their work. Topics covered in the volume include the influence of demographic factors and social relationships. Here are a few observations and theories from the book:

“Given how similar givers and volunteers are, there is little evidence that people substitute charitable donations for volunteer work.” (p. 134)

“For a number of reasons, married couples tend to behave alike: either they both volunteer or neither volunteers.” (p. 240)

“Because volunteer work increases the number, variety, and quality of our social ties, it promises to protect us against illness and even prolong life. Social ties have a positive effect on our physical health not because they prevent illness but because they help us deal with them better and recover more quickly.” (p. 509)

The volume contains a thorough notes section and a detailed index.

Search the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature for more readings on voluntarism.

U.S. Foundations and International Giving

Many of you are aware of the Foundation Center's research studies on the international giving trends of U.S. foundations. These include:

International Grantmaking III (October 2004)
International Grantmaking Update (October 2006)

For those of you who are seeking more background information on the topic, Transaction Publishers has released a new book by Joseph C. Kiger, Philanthropists & Foundation Globalization. The volume presents a biographical-historical account of international giving by twenty-four well-known philanthropists including Andrew Carnegie, George Soros, and Bill Gates.

A chapter of the book discusses foundation investigations and studies since 1912, citing examples where foundations were criticized for funding programs abroad. Kiger concludes, however,

“Overall they are so diverse in all respects that they present an infeasible target for their critics…[and their diversity] is probably one of the most important factors in their emergence today as a most respected institution, both in this country and globally.”

Search the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature for more readings and resources on international philanthropy.

Research on Foundation Expenses

Reader’s interested in Tuesday’s blog entry on foundation operations, will be pleased to learn that final results from the first large-scale, long-term study of foundation expenses and compensation were released yesterday. The report What Drives Foundation Expenses and Compensation? Results of a Three-Year Study examined data from the 10,000 largest grantmaking foundations. Key findings include:

-Foundations differ greatly in their structures, resources, and operating characteristics and these differences significantly affect their expense levels.

-Employment of staff is the single most important factor affecting expense levels, followed by staff size and level of program activities.

-Foundation scale influences cost ratios.

Issued jointly by the Urban Institute, the Foundation Center, and GuideStar, this study expands on the findings from an initial report published in 2006, Foundation Expenses and Compensation: How Operating Characteristics Influence Spending.