Moving the Needle

The launch of the new Facebook Timeline for nonprofits will make sharing information, highlighting important events and connecting with supporters easier and more effective than ever. While posting may be easy, the hard part is creating exciting content for your new page. Here are some of our favorite resources for making the most of your Facebook timeline and creating content for social media.

Facebook Timeline  

Both of the articles below give great insight into how you can use and add value to your timeline. One helpful tip we like is using the new ‘milestones’ feature to highlight important events in your organization’s history.

Facebook Timeline for Nonprofit Organizations    

Message It: Making the Most of Your New Facebook Page  

Content Creation  

These resources provide insight on how to create compelling content for all of your communications.

DIY Social Media Management

This post by Amy Sample Ward gives examples and templates of several tools, including  editorial calendars and content maps, that can be used to manage your social media.

Are You Content Creation Impaired? Some Tips & Resources

We love this post on content creation from Beth Kanter, especially this great infographic and the ‘Crawl, Walk, Run and Fly’ model.

Playbook Guide: YouTube For Good

The second fastest growing category on Youtube is Nonprofits and Activism! Youtube’s ‘playbook for good’ is a great guide to creating well-branded videos that tell the story of your organization.

My wife has now proven to me and my friends that even a pretty old cat can learn new tricks.  Mudpuddle (this is my cat’s name…don’t ask) has recently learned “Stay!”, “Jump!” and other assorted tricks.  I’m sure with this experience of success, my wife now has some “training” plans in store for me.

Actually, more than 20 years ago, as a newly appointed Executive Director of a local community development corporation, I came to the realization that, if I truly wanted to succeed, I needed a place to sharpen my skills and gather with others striving to serve their communities.  That was when I was first introduced to the Support Center.

According to Stephen Covey, in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “Sharpen the Saw” means “preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have–you.  It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.”

Now, more than 20 years later, I have the privilege to invite you to “sharpen the saw” here at the Support Center.  As a hub for nonprofit leaders and managers, the Support Center offers the opportunity connect with like-minded people, refresh your confidence and motivation, and build your expertise through the more than 100 hands-on workshops and events each year designed with you in mind.  There is no other place like the Support Center where you can get away from the day-to-day grind to get some perspective on the important work you are doing and learn ways to succeed more effectively and efficiently.  The Support Center provides a unique opportunity to find and build a peer network that can help you create the energy you need to meet the challenges of the volatile environment within which we work.  Thousands gather here each year to network and learn with us and with each other.

Whether you are looking for in-depth instruction in a subject area such as fundraising, board governance, or nonprofit accounting – or you are hoping to hear about strategic changes from foundation or corporate grantmakers – we have the right experience for you. Choose from half or full day courses, certificate programs, customized training, or attend our forums and panels.  Each facilitator at the Support Center is chosen based on their experience in their field, commitment to creating an open learning environment, and dedication to sharing and passing along their knowledge.  Each forum or panel is created based on the suggestions and requests we receive from you!

Please take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to explore our course and service offerings, and please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about what might be right for you or your staff:

• Board Development
• Financial Management – coming in April 
• Fundraising
• Marketing & Communications
• Staff Development
• Certificate Programs in Fundraising, Management & Supervision, and Executive Leadership
• Meet the Grantmakers – New Strategies in Grantmaking  Series in New York and New Jersey
• Personalized services – development of leadership skills through personalized services such as one-on-one executive coaching, or the short- or longer-term use of a consultant to develop a specific professional capacity
• Custom Training  – designed to meet your organization’s individual needs taught at your site or ours

We look forward to working with you and your organization in 2012.  Please think of us as your hub, your resource for sharpening the saw.

Don Crocker

CEO

dcrocker@supportcenteronline.org

P.S. Beyond our workshops and forums, we offer a full spectrum of nonprofit change-oriented consulting and executive search and transition services.  Visit us now to learn more!

Do you have a creative, viable idea for a partnership between non-formal environmental education providers and K-5 pre-service or practicing teachers? Will your partnership result in authentic learning (“learning by doing”) for students, and increase the sustainability of New Jersey communities?

For the second year in a row, the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education (ANJEE), in partnership with the PSEG Foundation, will be providing competitive grants of $5,000-$15,000 to achieve this goal, through the PSEG-ANJEE Learners in Sustainability (PALS) program.

Deadline for online applications is March 15, 2012, and grantees will be announced on or about May 4th. Learn more here.

Don Crocker, CEO of the Support Center, talks about mergers, turnarounds and strategic alliances in the nonprofit sector—when it is right and when it is not; what’s involved in getting the process started and what makes a success. This timely and informative recorded interview on Not for Profit eXchange radio – http://bit.ly/vvEEYG – targets a subject that is gaining momentum in this tight economy, but not often talked about.

The economy remains volatile and government cuts are upon us.  The needs in our communities are growing and even the strongest nonprofit organizations are struggling to “steady the ship.”  Executive Director and CEO transitions, too, are disrupting the ability of nonprofit organizations to remain effective.

As nonprofit funding changes, community need increases, and executive directors transition, it makes sense that the most caring and connected foundations and corporations are looking for ways to ensure the health and stability of their own “mission-critical” grantees.  Karen Brown (Support Center Board Member and Fairfield County Community Foundation VP of Programs), in a recent interview in Philanthropy News Digest’s Philantopic said, “We’ve been urging grantees to continue to invest in staff and professional development and not to look at those kinds of investments as frills…funders need to consider supporting these programs in order to help organizations hold the line on their budgets without sacrificing effectiveness.”

Many private and corporate funders are investing in efforts to ensure the health and well-being of the nonprofit groups and communities they care about.  JPMorgan Chase Foundation, the Altman Foundation, and the Prudential Foundation are just three of the many foundations that are demonstrating a real commitment to nonprofit effectiveness and impact, and are partnering in the Support Center’s efforts to guide nonprofit change and transition.

While we know that some of our readers have worked directly with us and have experience with all of these services, we realize that many of you may not be as familiar with our full scope of offerings.  Here is a brief overview:

Executive Search and Transition Management (ESTM)

A change in leadership, whether from a founder, long-time executive director, or a mismatched hire, can be a pivotal time in the life of a nonprofit—presenting an opportunity to examine organizational challenges and make decisions for future directions. Here at the Support Center, we use the proven techniques of Executive Search and Transition Management  to address organizational needs and work to strengthen the whole organization, while also successfully managing the hiring of a new leader. Our three-phase process addresses a nonprofit’s needs through an organizational assessment, facilitates the hiring of the new executive, and guarantees a successful outcome with “on-boarding” consulting for the new leader. Throughout the process, our consultants work hand-in-hand with board members, staff, funders and other stakeholders in the community.

Change Consulting and Turnaround Services

In addition to facing leadership changes, NYC nonprofits—like many others nationwide—have been hit by significant declines in funding in the wake of government shortfalls and the volatile economy. Nonprofits—from arts and culture groups to human service organizations—are undergoing painful reassessments and restructuring, including mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, cutbacks and closings. Adjusting to this new economy means increasing effectiveness and sustainability for many small to mid-sized neighborhood based nonprofit organizations. Increased funding from foundations this year allows us to reach out to more nonprofits and provide critical Change Consulting  services that can help them assess current programs, improve financial management, increase board engagement and fundraising effectiveness, while keeping our fees affordable to NYC-area small and mid-sized nonprofits.

Professional Development and Cohort Learning

Each year we strive to develop the best course offerings, listening to your requests and needs for professional development. As we plan for 2012, increased funding will allow us to expand the range of workshops, tailor them to your time-frames (half-day, full-day and evening offerings), and add more custom programming at affordable rates. In addition, we also will be developing new opportunities for cohort learning. The Trajectory Leadership Group we formed this year has confirmed our belief that cohort learning is an effective means for executive directors and other senior nonprofit professionals to learn new skills and learn from one another in a supportive atmosphere outside of their offices and daily activities.

Find out more about our work and partnerships by visiting us at www.supportcenteronline.org.

In this new book, authors John Brothers, Senior Fellow here at the Support Center, and Anne Sherman,  of TCC Group seek to help nonprofit leaders figure out how to effectively navigate change within their organization, no matter how large or small the nonprofit might be.  They use the theory of nonprofit  “lifecycle advancement’  as a type of change management that can help organizations build capacities that are appropriate to each stage of a nonprofit.

“A central question for leadership is to identify where, and when, to focus organizational energy, and that is where Brothers and Sherman’s book comes in. Changing organizations is never easy, which is why managers need the right set of maps and tools—like this one.” Jon Pratt, Executive Director, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.

What’s Included?

Chapter One:  Change as a defining force in the nonprofit sector

Chapter Two – Chapter Six: Examines the five life cycle phases of organizations, including a discussion of how an organization in decline can navigate a turnaround

Throughout the text the authors:

• Make the case for a deliberate change process, yet also acknowledge the very real challenges
• Provide a context for the struggles that nonprofits face
• Offer success stories
• Offer frameworks and tools that leaders can apply in their own organizations.

Building Nonprofit Capacity is a highly useful guide for nonprofit professionals who want to focus on capacity building efforts that will yield the greatest impact. Books can be ordered at Amazon.

John Brothers, is a Senior Fellow at the Support Center for Nonprofit Management  and the owner of Cuidiu Consulting in New York City.

Anne Sherman is an Associate Director and Co-director of the Strategy Practice at TCC Group in New York City.

Social media, management and capacity building were hot topics on our twitter feed this month! Here are a few of our favorites that focus on how to build the capacity of your organization as well as building your capacity to excel at your work.

• Funding for Capacity Building: 5 Questions for Karen Brown, Fairfield County Community Foundation
• Four Ways Women Stunt their Careers
• Jim Collins on 3 Ways to Avoid Demotivating People at Work
• How the Top 50 Nonprofits Do Social Media: An Infogrpahic by Craig Newmark
• How to Create a Social Media Marketing Schedule

Please leave a comment about what you think about these articles, or let us know what you have been reading about this month!

Transitions of nonprofit chief executive officers – whether the position is called Executive Director, President, or CEO – continue to cause nonprofit boards worry and anxiety.  A CEO transition can lead to one of the most vexing periods for a nonprofit.  Funder and staff concerns and community confusion often take the organization off-course and can stall out the success of even the best organizations.  Recent research on nonprofit CEO transition indicated that in 2011 7% of current CEOs have given notice and 67% anticipate leaving within five years. But within that 67% there is also a large cohort (10%) who have not given notice but say they are actively considering leaving.

However, when professionally managed, a chief executive transition can be one of the most valuable periods of time in a nonprofit’s life cycle.  Important new approaches can be explored, alliances and merger opportunities can be investigated, and the board can reconnect with critical stakeholders through the transition process.  Increasingly, nonprofit board leaders are choosing Executive Search and Transition Management (ESTM) services and the placement of a professional Interim Executive Director to guide the organization through its transition period.  A stronger alternative to traditional search services, ESTM consultants and an Interim Executive Director can work with the organization and its board to seek a harmonious ending for the departing CEO and a healthy, focused beginning for the new one.

An interim not only stabilizes the organization through the transition, but also provides the board with the time needed to carefully examine the aspirations and direction of the organization so that the new leader can effectively move the organization forward. With the help of local and national foundations, the Support Center has helped to prepare a large pool of interims that stand ready to step up and help organizations navigate the potentially rough waters of executive transition.

What have your experiences with transition been like?  Let me know your thoughts below.