The Importance of Board Meeting Attendance

How often have I seen this? Organizations unable to properly function because Board Members don't attend meetings. Gene Takagi provides some terrific insight into the responsibility of Board Members to attend meetings and what can (and should) be done to ensure attendance. Bunnie

The Importance of Board Attendance

by Gene Takagi, The Law Office of Gene Takagi

A board of directors is charged with providing ultimate oversight over the activities and affairs of its organization. Each director must discharge such duties in good faith, in a manner the director believes to be in the best interests of the organization, and with due care. Failure to regularly attend board meetings likely signals a director's inability or unwillingness to meet the director's fiduciary duties to the organization and its mission.

The most important factor in encouraging board attendance is to ensure that meetings are productive and valuable to the organization. Directors are more likely to attend meetings at which they believe their participation will be constructive. While I save a more comprehensive discussion of holding effective meetings for another post, here are some keys:

• Have a capable chair who can effectively preside over the meeting and elicit the participation of the directors.
• Have basic rules in place that are consistent with the organization's core values (but be careful of adopting formalized procedures like Robert's Rules without a full understanding of all of the procedures).
• Predetermine the goals of the meeting (and be mission-focused).
• Develop and distribute at least several days in advance a detailed agenda for the meeting, including the actions required to be taken, and supporting materials.
• Provide opportunities for each director to contribute relevant information to the organization and the board with respect to major issues, opportunities and threats (this may be collected and distributed in advance of the meeting -- the chair may then choose to focus on important and/or recurring issues at the meeting).
• Manage time appropriately and respectfully.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of meetings.

A nonprofit's bylaws may contain provisions to encourage board attendance. Quorum requirements may be established to ensure that board meetings can only take place with the participation of a majority or supermajority of directors. If the quorum requirements are set too low, a small percentage of directors may be able to take important actions without the input and vote of a majority of the directors. For example, in the case of a board with 12 directors and a quorum requirement of 40%, five directors may hold a meeting, and an affirmative vote of three may constitute a board action. By increasing the quorum requirement to a simple majority (i.e., >50%), seven directors would be required to hold a meeting, and four votes for an action. If a quorum is defined as 60%, eight directors would be required for a meeting, and five votes for an action. The higher quorum requirements would (1) send a signal to directors, prospective directors, and others that regular board attendance is expected; and (2) ensure that a very small percentage of the board could not pass actions that impact the organization. However, boards must be careful not to set its quorum requirements so high as to jeopardize the board's ability to take important actions in a timely manner.

The bylaws may also provide for the automatic removal (or deemed resignation) of directors who either miss a specified number of meetings or fail to attend a specified number of meetings. A board may have the right to remove a director with or without cause under state law and the organization's bylaws, but such actions may be highly sensitive, politically charged, and not seen as a viable option except in extreme circumstances of director misconduct. An automatic removal provision linked to attendance may allow for the pruning of absentee directors without an affirmative board action for removal and loss of face of the removed director. However, as nonprofit attorney Don Kramer points out in Nonprofit Issues, such provisions may not be enforceable, particularly if poorly drafted. One key to a valid automatic removal provision is not to tie the removal to a number of "unexcused" absences because without written evidence to the contrary, it may be argued that the board excuses every absence. Instead, the removal provision can provide for board discretion to waive the automatic removal provision under certain defined circumstances.

A nonprofit may also adopt a board attendance policy outside of its bylaws which explicitly defines the organization's expectations of its directors. Such policy may be included in the director's job description and given to each director and prospective director. Carter McNamara provides a sample board attendance policy in the Free Management Library.

Board attendance is directly correlated to board participation and thereby to the success of the organization in furthering its mission. Creating and maintaining a board culture that expects the participation of its directors in productive meetings will increase the engagement of the board. And an engaged board is one of a nonprofit's most valuable assets.

Contact Gene at http://www.attorneyfornonprofits.com/

Best Practices for Working with a Board

I love this article! My favorite part is Debra BenAvram's advice on staying focused. How many times have you sat in a board meeting and felt you were going over the same terrain again and again? Board Members give their time to the organization and nothing is worse than feeling like your time is being wasted. Don't read this one once...read it over again, print it out, give it to your staff and board chair! Bunnie

Best Practices for Working with a Board

by Debra BenAvram, CEO, American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition

Even in the best of times, nonprofit boards can’t afford to lose momentum. With the current economic climate, it is more important than ever to ensure your board stays on track to meet strategic goals.

What I’ve found in my role as CEO of the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.) - is that working with a board is unique to any other relationship you’re likely to have. For one thing, you have a limited amount of time to get up to speed before it’s already time to onboard new members. And, it’s entirely likely – depending on the terms and bylaws of your organization – that you may have a new boss every year. With each new board president comes a new work style, different expectations and diverse agendas to which you’ll need to adapt.

So, what are the steps required to successfully manage a nonprofit board in today’s tough economic climate? Here are a few things I’ve found particularly helpful:

A Strong Mission and Direction

A.S.P.E.N. is an interdisciplinary organization whose members are involved in all aspects of clinical nutrition therapies, from nutrition support and clinical practice to research and education. The organization’s strategic mission is to be the recognized leader in the field of nutrition support therapy. When grooming future board members, we look to individuals who will further that mission. As the CEO, I work with the board to help identify and cultivate leaders within our organization who I believe can do that.

Orientation and Coaching

When we have a new member joining the A.S.P.E.N. board, I provide comprehensive overview materials and schedule a one-on-one orientation meeting. As a complement to the individual orientation, I also ask that incoming board members participate in one or two conference calls before they begin their new roles. This allows them to hit the ground running as soon as they become active members.

I’ve found it’s also helpful to provide some ongoing coaching on the more important aspects of their role. For instance: the power of dissent; or what constitutes a good decision versus a bad one. These are all gray areas that can be tricky to navigate. Over the years, I’ve been able to glean some best practices form presidents and other board members which can be helpful as new folks transition into their roles.

Understand the Board’s Culture

Like any group of people, boards each have a unique personality. For instance, some boards really like kitschy ice breakers. Others are far more formal. As a CEO or ED of a nonprofit, one of the easiest ways to lose the respect of incoming board members is to inaccurately assess a its culture. Understanding who you’re working with, communicating appropriately and setting the right tone can make all the difference.

Stay Focused

Nothing kills momentum and enthusiasm more than thinking every meeting is “ground hog’s day.” To avoid this, I try to keep my board focused on strategy rather than operations. It’s human nature for people to get bogged down in minutia. When that happens, I gently remind board members that staying focused on the big picture - are we on track to meet our strategic goals or not? - is where their time is best spent.

Be Prepared

When hosting a meeting or a call, every piece of information that will be referenced – even if it’s just in passing – should be provided to board members in advance. These are incredibly busy people. In many cases, they are volunteering their very valuable time. It’s imperative that it not be wasted with a litany of questions that could be mitigated with some advance work on the part of the CEO or ED.

Demonstrate Progress

A.S.P.E.N.’s board conducts three face-to-face meetings per year. At each meeting, I present a “report card” of metrics tracked across all areas of our organization. The data includes a narrative as well as quantitative information. This clearly demonstrates where we are hitting on all cylinders and where we still need to do some work.

At each meeting – and many times in between - we also refer back to our “strategic management” document. Rather than have a strategic plan that goes on a shelf and gathers dust, we view this as a fluid document that can and should be adjusted for the current environment. Viewing strategy in this way – as something we actually work with constantly – keeps the board excited and engaged.

These five steps all seem pretty logical, but they can easily get lost in crunch time. By staying focused on them, though, helps ensure that organizations continue to move forward with their respective missions - today and well into the future.

Debra BenAvram serves as the chief executive officer of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. She is a certified association executive with areas of expertise including strategy, organizational culture, and volunteer management. She enjoys the balance of working with internal staff, the Board and others to shape the organization. Working with these partners, she works to facilitate the articulation of and movement toward the organization’s vision of its future.

Recruiting and Retaining Board Members

It can be tough to recruit new board members. Everyone is very busy and finding the right match can be challenging. Wayne Pinnell, Chair of the Board of Directors for Laura's House offers some practical and good advice. It's a good quick read that should be shared with your Board! Bunnie

Recruiting and Retaining Board Members

By Wayne R. Pinnell, CPA
Managing Partner
Haskell & White LLP
Irvine, Calif.

Chairman, Board of Directors
Laura’s House
Ladera Ranch, Calif.

Membership on a nonprofit board of directors can be a rewarding experience for individuals who have the both the desire to serve, and a passion for the work that the nonprofit organization is doing within the community. Yet, with nonprofit board membership comes great responsibility, which most often requires the board member to commit not only their time, but also their financial resources, to benefit the nonprofit organization.

As Chairman of the Board for Laura’s House (http://www.laurashouse.org/), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to change the social beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate domestic violence while creating a safe space in which to empower individuals and families affected by abuse, part of my responsibility is to help recruit new board members. I am also there to ensure that current board members remain committed to our organization’s mission and purpose, and continue to support our organization through whatever means they can.

The current economic climate has made the job of recruiting and retaining board members somewhat challenging. Personal finances, as well as the ability for board members to meet the various “give or get” goals set by a nonprofit organization’s board of directors, have been impacted. For example, board members who once relied on their employer or their business to supplement or meet their entire financial commitment to the nonprofit may no longer be able to do so, and may determine that they can no longer individually meet the minimum financial requirements of board membership.

Yet despite this reality, I would encourage the board of directors to avoid downplaying or overlooking that member’s contributions and service in other areas, such as volunteering with the organization or serving as a community advocate. A financial reversal of fortune often can be temporary, and if the board member remains committed and enthusiastic about serving the organization, the board of directors should make every effort to work with that individual to ensure their continued involvement. Likewise, the board member may very well be able to draw other folks to the organization as volunteers, donors and or future board members.

In the event that your board of directors finds it must replace individuals who have left the board for any reason, including financial hardship, or if a board expansion is in the works, there are key factors that should be taken into consideration when it comes to recruiting and retaining board members.

First of all, remember that the recruiting process is an opportunity not only for you to get to know the prospective board member, but for them to get to know you as well. Do not assume that because they show up for the interview, that they want the job. Make sure that they understand the mission of the organization, and that it aligns with their personal values. Determine how they want to serve your organization. Do not assume that a marketing professional will want to help market the organization or that an accountant will want to help with finances. Nobody wants to be pigeon-holed and this is a sure-fire way to burn out what could be a great board member.

Another important element to evaluate when recruiting prospective board members is personal motivation. After the prospect has learned more about your organization, are they still committed, or simply looking for an opportunity to “network” or build their own business? If it is the latter, you are in trouble because the board member will only stick around long enough to get what it is they want, and will not likely contribute to the long-term success of your organization.

Once the board member joins the organization, make sure that they are put in a position where they are allowed to thrive. Do not set them up for failure. If the board member is tasked with a project for which they simply do not have the talent or skillset, find something more appropriate for them to do. In the long run, they will be much happier and successful in their service to your organization. Also, make sure that they are acknowledged for their service in a way that does not embarrass them, or make them feel slighted. Keep in mind that some board members love the huge fanfare and recognition, while others prefer to remain “unsung heroes” through quiet recognition.

Finally, encourage periodic feedback from the members of the board as to their level of participation and ongoing enthusiasm, evaluation of the organization’s goals and the progress toward those goals, and the member’s interests in participation in other areas. A little bit of self-evaluation and reflection may be all that is needed to boost a member’s participation – or have them realize it is time for them to make their seat available for someone else.

For more information on Laura’s House, visit http://www.laurashouse.org/.

Friendraising

Nonprofits can't afford to do business as usual, they have to get creative and try new strategies. When I came across Jenifer Daniel's website and I saw that she calls herself a "friendraiser" I was fascinated. What does that mean? Jenifer explains below that friendraising is all about cultivating relationships not just donations. Bunnie

In the past few years, nonprofits had experienced healthy growth in terms of dollars raised. The industry saw record years for fundraising across America with natural disasters and free flowing credit. However, the current recession is presenting challenges for all organizations.

Organizations must now deal with shrinking donations and reductions in services. Many arts and culture organizations are on the brink of collapse with some even closing their doors.

Now more than ever, nonprofits need friends. Unfortunately, most do not know or understand the strategic ways in which they could obtain them.

I have worked on developing strategies that help organizations transition their fundraising activities to friendraising activities such as: obtaining new friends, educating them on your mission, mobilizing them to act as advocates and acknowledging their efforts for doing so.

Obtaining New Friends

Easier said than done right? Not necessarily so. With the rise of social networks, it is easier than ever to find and cultivate new friends. The problem is that most groups don’t know how to use social networking effectively. Some groups believe that ‘virtual friends’ aren't friends at all. But they are incorrect. Virtual friends function in a world that is unfamiliar to nonprofit organizations. NPs are so used to doing the work of their surrounding community that they miss the virtual community.

Some of these new friends belong to multiple networks, have several email accounts and have lived in several states before the age of 35. These virtual friends are ripe for the picking and they are multi-taskers – the perfect new friend to have for the longevity of your organization.
You want these new friends in your fold. You will benefit from them today by cultivating new avenues of fundraising, developing a service minded volunteer core and as future potential leaders for your board.

Educating Your Friends

What good is it to obtain the friends if you don’t include them in your mission? You should be using this time to educate them. Host them in your location, tell them what you do and explain to them how vital it is in the community. They will see that their participation is needed and required and they will do what they need to make sure that your organization survives. Educating your friends expands your staff exponentially.

Mobilizing Current Friends

Now that you have obtained and educated these new friends, how will you use them? Hopefully for the betterment of your organization. You should use these new friends to help you promote your mission. For instance, if your group operates a museum, you should have a ‘young friends’ group to help introduce your museum to young people. This introduction begins a lifelong relationship and helps you bring others into the fold. Then they tell all of their ‘friends’ through Twitter and Facebook that they are hanging out at the local museum – this sparks interest among a group with whom you had no knowledge of before.

You should also mobilize your friends as advocates. When you know your funding is on the chopping block – use these educated friends to mobilize on your behalf. When your organization asks for continued support from the county or state – letters or emails from hundreds of your friends speaks volumes.

Acknowledging Your Friends

Now that you’ve obtained your friends and they’ve done some work on your organization’s behalf – it’s time to thank them. And I know that your budget is crunched so don’t think that you have to throw a big soiree –but you do have to honor their participation.

Offer your friends lifetime memberships at discounted rates, give them a special bumper sticker acknowledging that there are a ‘friend’ (see the AMIGO campaign from the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte, NC http://www.latinamericancoalition.org) and keep a printed running list of your ‘friends’ in the same way that you acknowledge your new donors. Show your friends that you value their time as much as you do their donation.

Remember, friendraising is a strategic process and much more involved than this blog article, but it is a necessity. And in hard times like this – it’s good to have friends.
----
jenifer daniels – jenifer daniels is the "friendraiser" – a nonprofit management consultant based in Charlotte, NC. She specializes in community relations, grassroots advocacy, trainings and workshops and signature events. To find out more about her – visit her site http://www.jeniferdaniels.com/ or tweet with her at http://www.twitter.com/thefriendraiser

Creative Conference Planning

by Bunnie Riedel, Host of Nonprofit Conversation

I’m hearing it from everybody. Conference attendance is down. Conference sponsorship is down. Conference revenues are suffering. And if your organization relies on conference revenue as an income generator, these are scary times. Are there some things you can do to adjust how you create and budget for your conference so that at the end of the day you won’t be hit so hard?

Think about the barriers to conference attendance. Many organizations, businesses and most government agencies have scaled back travel budgets. What changes can you make in your conference to accommodate these reductions?

Location, location, location

Where do you normally hold your conferences? First tier cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami or Philadelphia? First tier cities pose a challenge because room rates are typically much higher. Could you hold your conference in a second tier city such as Sacramento or Reno or Richmond or Dayton? Will you find less competition in these cities and more cooperation from the convention and visitors bureaus? Is the city willing to “throw in” incentives for your bringing your conference to them? Perhaps free space at their convention center or special accommodations at city owned attractions such as the museum or the zoo or perhaps free bus transportation to special events?

The only caution I will provide in looking at second tier cities is sometimes (not always) airfare is more expensive and direct flights are harder to find. But other than that, I have always found that the smaller cities are very willing to go the extra mile to make sure they win conference contracts for their hotels.

Do you really need to have a national conference?

National conferences are wonderful because they bring your members together in one place. But, if your attendance has been waning, perhaps it’s time to think about smaller regional conferences. Perhaps it’s time to take the conference to the membership with conferences that could draw attendees within driving distance from surrounding regional areas. It’s like breaking up the conference into manageable bits. Let’s say rather than a four or five day conference, you create several two to three day conferences. You lower the actual conference registration rate, provide trade show vendors with the opportunity to show at one or several “regionalized” conferences (package deals) and increase overall attendance because more people can attend these regional events than the one large national conference.

Lower your overhead

Do you really need to serve all those cookies at the break or could you just serve coffee, water and sodas? Will people be offended? Not usually. Especially if they understand that your trimming back is part of the organizational trimming back. Members actually like when the organization is spending their membership dollars wisely. By the way, never-ever buy the “tea,” you will be paying $65-$85 per gallon of hot water with very few people actually using the tea bags. Or if you live in a country where you absolutely have to have tea as a beverage option, negotiate that you will only pay for tea bags that have actually been used.

Can you negotiate meals with the hotel? I once booked a cruise on the Potomac as our conference party and was able to afford it because I negotiated a lunch menu rather than a dinner menu. It dropped the cost per attendee from $75 per person to $35 per person. And guess what? Nobody noticed that the chicken entrée wasn’t a dinner entrée but instead the luncheon entrée.

Can you contact members with an online brochure? Do you really need to print the brochure? And if you really do need to print it, can you print it two color rather than four? One of my favorite tricks is to use lighter weight paper, it reduces mail cost.

Is it possible to replace staff with volunteers so you can reduce travel costs and staff hours (and potential overtime)?

Is it time to move from a cloth conference bag to a plastic one, can you use clip on badges rather than lanyards, do you really need to provide a notepad to every attendee?

Did you know that people really do like the “dinner on your own” night? That way they can have time with friends and catch up with one another.

Can you combine special events? Perhaps you can combine an awards ceremony with the keynote luncheon.

I’m not saying be cheap, I am saying be frugal. And right now, as we see all across the globe, “frugality” is in style.

Offer special registration incentives

Make sure your early bird registration is discounted enough from regular registration to make it attractive (and do have an early bird registration, it helps so much in conference planning). Offer a special discount to attendees coming from the same organization or business. Perhaps one at full price and the other 25% off; two at full price and two at 50% off, etc. Have a contest: those organizations or businesses sending the most attendees will receive a certain number of free conference registrations next year (and include hotel expenses). Offer a discount on membership with each registration, combine the package: membership = $100 and conference = $100, combine them for $135.

Make sure your trade show vendors also receive special perks

You can hang on to charging $2,000 for a booth or you can charge $1,200 and have more vendors. And while the cost of drayage will be more overall (more booths), at least you will have a trade show that will be worth attending and your vendors will be more likely to come.

Remember that trade show cotton candy is the attendees’ list. Don’t scrimp on that, these vendors have paid to be at your trade show give them the attendees list, with phone numbers included, and I prefer email addresses but some organizations have policy against that. Combine your trade show charges with advertising charges and provide a discount.

Start early

A previous post discussed negotiating with hotels and recommended you always be looking three or so years in advance. The same with conference publicity, let your members know where your conferences are going to be and when, well in advance. Having advance notice allows attendees to budget for the cost of attendance or make special arrangements with their organization or business.

I hope these tips help you in conference planning. Re-thinking how you “do” conference can save you quite a bit of money and increase attendance.

Contact Bunnie info at riedelcommunications dot com

The Challenges Grantmakers Face in This Economy

While nonprofits worldwide are experiencing declining revenues, very few consider that grantmakers are also facing tough times. Many foundations manage endowments that are often invested in the same stocks, bonds and mutual funds the rest of us are invested in. If you've seen your own personal portfolio take a significant decrease, so too have many grantmakers. Kristen Putnam-Walkerly takes us through the challenges faced by foundations and gives us a glimpse of what grantmakers are looking for and what you need to consider when approaching grantmakers for funds. Bunnie

The Challenges Grantmakers Face in This Economy

by Kris Putnam-Walkerly, President, Putnam Community Investment Consulting

No one is immune to the challenges of doing more with less in this economy. From my vantage point as a philanthropy consultant, I hope this blog post helps nonprofits understand how the economy is impacting foundations, and provides suggestions for what grantmakers are looking for from nonprofits.

Six challenges grantmakers face this economy

1. Significant cuts in foundation assets and grantmaking budgets – Foundations lost approximately 28% of their assets in 2008, a reduction in assets generally means fewer dollars available for grantmaking. Some, such as the Gates and MacArthur foundations, are making efforts to increase funding in 2009. However, 67% of foundations surveyed recently plan to decrease funding in 2009. The Foundation Center is tracking how the top 100 foundations are responding to the economy.

2. Reductions in staffing and spending - Most foundations we work with are carefully examining their budgets and cutting where they can. Travel to conferences and professional development spending has taken a big hit. Fewer are funding anything perceived as “new.” Some have laid off staff, such as the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland.

3. Decisions about how to allocate reduced resources in a changing environment –Resources are fewer and the needs are greater, so many foundations are grappling with whether to shift their grantmaking priorities toward meeting basic needs versus continue funding their priority areas, such as healthcare advocacy or workforce development. On one hand, basic health and human services are desperately needed. One the other hand, now is the time to leverage policy advocacy opportunities and stimulus funds to put people back to work.

4. Concerns about 2010 and 2011 – Some foundations calculate their 5% payout based upon a rolling average of the past 24 to 60 quarters (two to five years). As a result, these foundations anticipate their grantmaking budgets might actually take greater hits in 2010 and 2011 (as more “bad” economic quarters are averaged into earlier “good” quarters).

5. Lack of information & analysis – The economy is changing quickly and drastically, and it’s difficult to for funders to track the growing impact on the communities and issues they care about. This is especially true for smaller foundations with few or no staff. For example, it’s challenging for any of us – including foundations – to understand what stimulus dollars are coming into our communities and how we can leverage them.

6. Stress – It’s important to acknowledge that everyone is experiencing stress during this economy. As a recent New York Times article pointed out, even those of us who still have our jobs and homes can be feeling tremendous anxiety. Being in a position of “power,” as many grantmakers are, doesn’t make anyone immune to the fear of job loss, loss of savings, inability to pay for a child’s college education or a parent’s health care, and generalized fear about the future.

What Are Grantmakers Looking For?

Focus on results – Nonprofits must be able to demonstrate effectiveness through evaluation. With limited resources, funders want to know their dollars are making an impact. It’s no coincidence that three foundations have contacted my firm in the past week asking for assistance with evaluation.

Take steps to address the downturn – Nonprofits that are making adjustments in this new economic reality will be viewed more favorably by funders. One of our clients recently received several requests from grantees desperate for emergency funding to keep their doors open. While she wanted to help, she was disappointed that none were making any changes within their organization to address their funding shortfalls. They had no plans to reduce budgets or staff, re-organize, streamline services, or partner with others to increase efficiencies.

Communicate with your funders – Now is the time to step up communication with your donors. They can’t help you unless they understand what you need. Educate them about community priorities and how they can help you leverage stimulus dollars. A nonprofit recently requested a foundation grant to purchase solar panels, which would save them $80,000 a year on their electricity bill. It was an unusual request, and this foundation funded it anyway since it was an investment in this nonprofit’s sustainability.

Copyright © 2009 by Kristen Putnam-Walkerly. All rights reserved.

Contact Kristen at http://www.putnamcic.com/press.html

My Life As a Duck

I think passion is one of the most important characteristics anyone can have. It's contagious. When you surround yourself with passionate people, your own passion is fueled. But being passionate about something and doing it are two different things. There's plenty of people who will tell you what can't be done and there's plenty of people who are all thrust and no vector. Mike Lenhart had a vision and actually did something with it. His story and his nonprofit, Getting 2 Tri, are truly inspirational. Bunnie


Mike Lenhart with Jenny Hunt

Formed in 2006, The Getting2Tri Foundation (G2T) provides coaching, mentoring and training in the sports of swimming, cycling and running to physically-challenged individuals. Specifically, G2T addresses the needs of individuals with limb loss, paralysis and muscular or neurological disorders. G2T athletes range from single sport members entering their first race as part of a relay team, to seasoned triathletes competing in Kona at the Ironman World Championships. The backgrounds of physically-challenged athletes are just as varied as their goals, from wounded veterans to people with limb loss due to disease. For each athlete, G2T’s focus is the same: to get him or her onto the playing field, at whatever level is their personal best. In 2008, G2T provided more than 12,000 hours of coaching and training to its field of athletes who competed in more than 100 races during the season.

My Life As a Duck

by Mike Lenhart
Founder and President
The Getting2Tri Foundation, Inc.

I came across Bunnie’s blog site through the result of some social networking efforts. I subscribed to her blog which I found to be a great resource for non profit leaders. She contacted me soon after via email and asked if I’d be willing to share my “story” about creating my non profit organization, The Getting2Tri Foundation. It’s my pleasure to share some thoughts with others today. Let me warn you, if you’re looking for a text book answer on the key points of starting a non profit, then this will not be the read for you. There are tons of great answers on topics like setting up your board, choosing an executive director, how to handle the finances, et al, readily available elsewhere. Rather, my comments today are more off-the-cuff and are the results from many of the decisions I faced in the short three year’s of Getting2Tri’s existence. I’ve listed below the top 5 lessons I learned while starting up my non-profit organization.

Lesson 1: “Just do it”. I’ve never read any polls taken that compared the number of non profit leaders who were school trained in starting anything prior to dipping their toes into the water. My guess is that many are not trained but yet most have the entrepreneurial spirit. Like many, I sat around for a long time anxious about starting my organization. I am somewhat risk adverse and not a gambler. I live my life mostly conservatively. However, eventually I realized that if I felt so strongly about something, then why sit around waiting for the big nudge? It isn’t easy starting a non profit. It’s a huge leap of faith. I believe that regardless of your trust in a higher power, that we are all called to some degree of service. Many ,if not most of us, choose to ignore that calling and that’s okay. It’s not a choice for everyone. But I found that once I made the decision to start, I had more than enough momentum to get me going.

Lesson 2: “Stick it out”. Eventually, the momentum I suggest above will begin to slow down. Many of my friends began to question me. Some even abandoned me. And there are still many periods of loneliness where I question “why”. However, the rewards are worth the efforts. There’s a great quote by Theodore Roosevelt that says:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

To me, this reaffirms that it’s better to have tried and failed than to always wonder “what if”. One of the biggest lessons I learned early on was how to develop my foundation’s vision statement. Notice, I said “vision” and not “mission” statement. A vision statement says, when you slice it all away, what’s most important to your organization? Vision spells out passion, desire and core values. And it’s in those periods of doubt that I reach back to my organization’s vision statement to keep me focused on “sticking it out”.

Lesson 3: “Be a quitter”. Surround yourself with quality people who understand your passion and can execute on your mission. Slowly “quit” the things that are piled high on your plate. I recently picked up the book “Ten Roads to Riches” by Ken Fisher. In one of the chapters, the author talks about knowing when to delegate. In other words, knowing when to quit. We are so engrained to be successful and never stop anything that we forget about the strength of delegated leadership. It is a difficult process to develop especially if you’re a person used to having his hands into all the decisions. Most non-profit organizations are heavily staffed with volunteers. Getting2Tri would not be nearly as successful without the initiative and leadership of many, many of our volunteers who understand the mission and use their unique skills to execute. I can’t do all aspects of the mission so I’ve had to learn the hard lesson of slowly “quitting” many of the tasks I had piled high on my own plate.

Lesson 4: The Three I’s: Be innovative, imaginative and intriguing. Has the economy dried up? You betcha. This is where leadership is forged. Like many of you, my foundation’s biggest challenge is raising money in a downward economy. My executive director and I share most of the fund-raising responsibilities. She concentrates on many of the traditional corporate “asks”; I focus on some of the more recent trends to make ourselves innovative, imaginative and intriguing. Serving both communities is important. Some recent trends that are working for us include: Creating a Ning community for knowledge sharing by our athletes, use of video as a means to dramatically demonstrate our mission execution, and the creation of viral campaigns and messaging on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter . We try to have a continual steady flow of information to keep our mission in the forefront.

Lesson 5: “Adding that fifth ball to juggle”. There’s a great analogy given by a motivational speaker named Dan Thurmond. Dan tells a story about practicing juggling with four balls. He noticed that his 3-ball juggling got really good when he added a fourth ball even though he never mastered it with four balls. And it wasn’t until he added a fifth ball that his 4-ball juggling got better. Don’t lose my point I’m trying to make here. I’m not suggesting you add more to your plate. Remember, I commented earlier that we must become “quitters”. Rather, I am suggesting that when you think you can’t do something, just challenge yourself a little harder. You’ll be amazed at the progress. Trust me!

Finally, I’d like to close by saying that all these points, and the many I didn’t cover because I haven’t learned them yet, are nothing without a large dose of patience. If you’re considering entering the non profit space, perhaps starting up your own organization, then chances are you’re a dynamic visionary who has lots of great ideas. I think at one point, my vision list had about 30 projects on it. So there I was facing a huge ocean to boil and only a small BIC lighter and a couple pieces of dry kindling wood to make any sort of fire. It is always best to whittle down your projects to what matters most. (Go back to your vision statement.) Wanna know why most non profits take at least five years to get into a nice stride? Because it takes time!

I was extremely privileged to attend West Point for my undergraduate studies. While at West Point, my company of 120 cadets was Delta Company, First Regiment or more commonly called “D-1”. Our mascot was a duck. That’s right…a duck! Long before Aflac championed their branding, we were the D-1 Ducks. Many of us were embarrassed by the non-military appeal of a duck. We’d never seen a duck “charge that hill”. However, that embarrassment changed when our Tactical Officer told a gathering of D-1 leaders what it meant to be a duck. When you think about a duck on the water, he appears very calm and placid on the surface. But beneath it all, he is paddling like hell! I’ve carried that message throughout my professional career now nearly 20 years since graduating from West Point.

Always display the patience that shows you are calm above the surface. Beneath it all, paddle like hell and never loose site of your passion.

My sincere best of luck to you all!
Most respectfully,

Mike Lenhart

Contact Mike at mlenhart@getting2tri.org

Creating a Newsletter with Constant Contact – Tips and Tricks

I love how-to's! Practical information that gives me the best way to do something or de-mystifies a process. Jerri Barret, of the Anita Borg Institute, takes us through how to use Constant Contact to create a newsletter, step-by-step, and gives us practical work-arounds to potential glitches. Thanks Jerri! Bunnie

Creating a Newsletter with Constant Contact – Tips and Tricks

by Jerri Barrett, Director of Marketing

Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology

I’m writing this as I am concluding the creation of the first of two newsletters the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) will publish in February 2009. To quickly summarize our process prior to layout, each week we have a staff meeting. In each staff meeting I poll our team on what items should be going into the two newsletters. The first one each month is very program focused, the second is more article and column rich – though we do give shorter relevant plugs for the programs. The staff contributes topics and commit to writing articles, and I usually write a few myself. When the articles are submitted I edit them in Microsoft Word. Lengthy articles are posted on our website (http://www.anitaborg.org/) and the first two paragraphs will appear in the newsletter with a link to the rest of the article.

Constant Contact is very intuitive. To get started each month I copy the previous month’s newsletter. This enables me to have a consistent look and feel to the newsletter. Other templates are available and you can customize them so no two newsletters look exactly the same. Then, I simply go through and delete the previous month’s articles, unless they are program related and need to simply be modified or updated. Once the newsletter is scrubbed, I begin to add the articles.

Adding articles is probably the one area that is the most troublesome in Constant Contact. If you cut and paste articles out of Microsoft Word, the article frequently loses its formatting. It is best to take your word article and cut and paste it into Notepad then copy from there into Constant Contact. It’s an extra step but can save a lot of formatting time. You also need to go in and manually enter each link in an article which can be time consuming. Be sure to frequently save your work as you continue, Constant Contact will log you out automatically if there is no activity and your work will be lost.

Once the articles are laid out and the formatting is set, I go back and review the articles to see if an image would be appropriate. Images have to be small in size and in .jpg format – you upload an image into Constant Contact, determine what size it should be and insert it into the article.

The final stop is the arrangement of the articles on the page. You simply drag and drop the articles on the page until you the flow and order you want. In Constant Contact what you see is what you get. Then you create the table of contents. The table of contents does not automatically populate – you need to click on it and manually type in the title of each article. This is helpful if you have a lot of long titles – you can truncate them as needed. You always have to remember to update the table of contents before distribution – changes in the order of the articles changes the TOC and you want to be sure to double check it each time.

Once I’m satisfied the newsletter is “done”, I preview it and send preview copies to all of my contributing writers. It’s important for them to provide further proofreading and make sure the articles are accurate and the links are pointing where they should.

I make all the changes and once we’re done it’s time to schedule the newsletter distribution. First who does the newsletter go to? We are continuously updating our distribution lists for the newsletter from multiple sources – our newsletter registration site, our event registrations, and emails. Those are uploaded to constant contact from an excel spreadsheet – a quick process that takes about 5 minutes. ABI has a strict no spamming policy so we only add names of people who have agreed to receive our newsletter.

The final step is scheduling – I pick the date and time for the newsletter to go out and schedule it. The newsletter will be sent automatically without further intervention. The email out of office notices all come to my mailbox while bounce backs are recorded by Constant Contact’s reporting function.

Once the newsletter is out I wait 3-4 days then I go online to check the reports on that newsletter. I see how many newsletters were sent, how many were opened and which articles were clicked on. This is part of our monthly tracking and provides insight into what types of articles and programs are of interest to our readers. So what’s our number 1 click through month after month? Our column, Ask Jo, which is written by a professional coach – Jo Miller, the CEO of Women’s Leadership Coaching (http://www.womensleadershipcoaching.com/).

The advantages of Constant Contact overall is it is relatively inexpensive, easy to update and easy to use. A newsletter (excluding article writing) can be created in less than a day (including editing rounds). The primary disadvantages are the occasional glitches in the software – you may find yourself challenged in formatting for no apparent reason. The best work around – save and log out and log back in. And when push comes to shove delete an article and reload it into the software.

One final comment, in my last guest post I mentioned the Communities Manager for the Anita Borg Institute. I wanted to acknowledge the excellent work done by BJ Wishinsky in this role. As I write this BJ is working on new strategies to create new communities for the Anita Borg Institute.

Contact Jerri at jerrib@anitaborg.org