Year: 2010

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How to Use The Gift Table

a-businessman-analyzing-NPOs-gift-table

Gift Tables (also known as Gift Pyramids) are great fundraising tools for capital campaigns, major gifts fundraising, “fiscal year fundraising,” and even for major events.

Starting with the basics: Prior to the beginning of every fiscal year, an NPO goes through its budgeting process and comes up with a (realistic, attainable) figure for how much money will be needed for operations, and how much of that will be needed to be raised via charitable giving.

The latter figure must be based on prior experience and analysis of the likely giving of those currently in the organization’s database. Assuming that the figure obtained by that analysis is realistic, one is able to construct a comprehensive Gift Table that (pretty much) reflects reality.

That Pyramid then becomes a tool by which an organization can stay focused on their fundraising goals, and appropriately allocate their resources (time, effort, personnel and finances).

Keeping in mind that your potential major donors are the top part of the fiscal year pyramid, you now should create a separate pyramid just for that constituency. Again, this new pyramid is a great tool to help keep an organization focused on priorities.

Also, since Special Events are part of the budgeting process (expenses and income), creation of a pyramid for each event should be part of the planning. The pyramid will help keep you focused on what needs to be done to ensure meeting an event’s financial goal.

In the context of a capital campaign, the Gift Pyramid is constructed based on the information obtained during the Campaign Planning Study, usually by the person/firm that conducted the Study; and, as above, the pyramid is a great way to stay focused….

In addition, the pyramid is a great tool for solicitors who are uncomfortable in asking for a specific dollar figure – for example (referring to the “idealized” Gift Table, rather than asking for a gift of $50,000 the solicitor might ask the prospect to consider a gift in the “C” category — (see Constructing The Gift Table).

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Appendix to “6 Important Items to Include in Board Orientation Packages”

Someone writing down a list of items to include in a board orientation

Yesterday, I wrote an article about what was important to include in a board orientation package http://envisioningthefutureintl.ca/2010/09/07/6-important-items-to-include-in-board-orientation-packages/ . While some people felt that it would be overwhelming to give new board members all that information. I continue to reiterate that it is important that your board be well informed in order for them to make good decisions.

In one of the LinkedIn groups that I belong to, two people offered up some great additional ideas on what should be included. They are:

Angineeki Jones suggested the following also be included:

  • A copy of the Executive Director’s job description because the board does oversee the ED.
  • Goals that have been set for the previous and present years.
  • A copy of the organization’s bylaws, as this is the basis of all their decisions and how the organization will function.
  • A copy of the articles of incorporation.
  • A list of other board members with term end dates.

Sally Witte suggested you also include a copy of the most recent audited financial statement.

These suggestions sparked one more idea on my part. That is to include your most recent and previous year’s Annual General Meeting Reports.

Question of the Day: Can you think of anything else that should be included in your board orientation package?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Nonprofit Capacity Building.

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Motivation-Do your programs support it?

In a previous post, I discussed motivation from the perspective of who owns the responsibility. In a recent article in Chief Learning Officer magazine, Graham Jones discusses the motivation of leaders. Jones describes two types of motivation and the effect each type has on a leader. The article purports that leaders who are positively motivated toward realistic goals achieve greater success than those who are negatively motivated by avoiding a set of circumstances. The suggestion made in the article is that those who are motivated by fear of failure or fear of making mistakes often behave in such a way as to avoid situations where failure and mistake making is possible. This behavior can often limit their own success and increase levels of stress and anxiety further making success more difficult to achieve.

Consider how the culture of your organization and the HR programs in your organization drive motivation. Do the HR programs focus on the stance that it is a manager’s job to motivate their staff? If this is the case, do your managers use negative consequences as a method of motivation. If so, then the very program or culture might be driving underperformance. If the only response to a performance gap is some kind of warning being given to an employee, how does that impact their motivation? What if the employee was internally motivated already? Could this actually change their motivation from positive to negative (avoidance) resulting in more of a performance gap?

What do you think? Your thoughts are always encouraged!

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For more resources, See the Human Resources library.

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Sheri Mazurek is a training and human resource professional with over 16 years of management experience, and is skilled in all areas of employee management and human resource functions, with a specialty in learning and development. She is available to help you with your Human Resources and Training needs on a contract basis. For more information send an email to smazurek0615@gmail.com or visit www.sherimazurek.com.

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Carrying the Stone – Part 1

Zen Garden Decoration with Stacked Stones

I’m going to write a 3 part series on carrying the weight of problems at work. In this first part I’m going to address how to be a “witness” of someone’s problem and be aware of how often you carry someone else’s stone.

Many people get into the jobs they do because they like to solve problems, fix things, and help people. Certainly our workplaces run smoothly when we support one another. Yet many people believe that the way to support a co-worker or ‘help’ them is to solve their problem. Sometimes the best way to support a co-worker is to simply listen attentively and witness their struggle. In the Buddhist tradition this is referred to as practicing compassionate understanding. In the co-dependent movement this is called paying attention to what’s yours to do vs. not yours to do.

So what do you do when a co-worker comes to you with a problem? The first and central question to ask is – who’s problem is it? Is this mine to do or not? That can sometimes be the hardest issue to discern. One reason I like a coaching and empowerment approach, whether you are a supervisor or not, is that it focuses the problems on those whose responsibility it is to resolve. In other words- whose stone is it to carry?

Think back on a time when you’ve taken someone’s problem from them and you carried it instead? Do that with several colleagues and you’re now carrying a bagful of stones. Do you want to carry around that much weight?

So the first part of examining when you carry stones is to be aware of when you take on other people’s problems and fix it for them. This week notice how often someone comes to you to fix their problem. Simply notice the situations and practice discerning whether you need to take on their problem. No need to criticize yourself when you pick up another’s stone that they could handle, simply be aware when that happens. Guilt or shame are only more stones to carry that you don’t need to add to your bag.

If you find yourself in a situation to hear another’s struggle, and you can see that it’s not your problem to solve, practice being a witness to their struggle. Notice how you feel being witness to another’s pain. Do you feel uncomfortable when someone else is in pain or struggling? Sometimes the temptation is to fix another’s problem because we feel uncomfortable with their pain or turmoil. In other situations, we can get a big ego boost when we save the day for another. I invite you to pay attention to how you feel as a problem solver and helper. This week be aware of how it feels to witness another’s struggle that is not yours to fix. Practice letting the stone sit where it is without carrying it for others.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon.

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6 Important Items to Include in Board Orientation Packages

Someone writing down a list of items to include in a board orientation

It’s important that a lot of thought and consideration go into the development of your organization’s board package. A board package is an organization’s first opportunity to orient their new board members to their organization. Therefore, your board will be as well informed about your organization as you make them.

Board packages are not just information; they are an opportunity to brand your organization with your new board members. It gives them insight into the type of organization you have how it operates and what it focuses on.

A good board package should include the following:

  • Introduction – An introduction to your organization that includes its mission, vision and values and information on what approach it takes in achieving its goals.
  • Backgrounder – Educating your board about how your organization began and any changes to its structure and goals during its life span. This should also include information about what and who stimulated the creation of the organization, as well as the process followed to create the organization.
  • Board meeting minutes – It should include minutes from the past year’s board meetings, financial reports and any attachments that go with those minutes.
  • Organizational Chart – It’s hard for an individual to make good policy decisions for an organization if they don’t have a good handle on what the structure of the organization. That is why supplying an up-to-date organizational chart is important.
  • List of funders – Board members should be provided with a list of who the funders of the organizations are, what their investments are in the organization and whether the funding is annual, multi-year or one time.
  • Organizational Policy Manual – Board members should be given a copy of the organizational policy manual in either hard copy or electronically. A board member should be able to become familiar with existing policies to be able to make good decisions about adjustment to policies or the creation of new policies.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Nonprofit Capacity Building.

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Headlines that Grab Attention

Young lady looking down at her phone smiling

Four Easy Tips to Capture Your Readers

If your headline doesn’t grab your readers’ attention in a few short seconds, you’ve lost them.

We live in a universe of scanners. No one has time to actually read everything that comes across our computer screens. So you MUST write effective headlines that pull them in. And you have one shot at it – exactly 3 seconds.

Here are some tips to get the edge on your competition:

1. Make the headline easy to read

When we scan, our eyes look quickly for certain words. If it looks complex – with big words that take focus and brain strain, our minds (perhaps subconsciously) tend to avoid it. So keep it simple. Make it easy to scan.

Instead of:

“Choose either pre-configured or custom-configured spaces for your equipment”

Simplify it:

“Standard or custom storage”

2. Lose the advertising hype

The internet has changed the way consumers want to hear messages. It’s no longer a one-way “push” campaign. Consumers want to be educated, engaged, and respected. We tend to tune out the old style “push” message. It doesn’t serve us!

Instead of:

“100% Opt-in Audience that has the Highest Response Rates, Guaranteed!”

Make it more believable:

“Need a reliable traffic magnet that delivers long-term clients?”

3. Include your top keyword

Ideally, it would be the first word in the headline. Both for the reader and for search engines, this gives weight to the topic of your text. If not the first word, place your top keyword as close to the beginning as possible. This gives the reader assurance that they’ve landed on the topic they’re looking for.

Instead of:

“New gel guaranteed to cure athlete’s foot”

Try:

“Athlete’s foot cure – guaranteed”

4. Use subheads

This tip is perhaps the single most important thing to KEEP the reader engaged.

If you grab their attention in the headline, you want to immediately draw them in on the subhead! Like a one-two punch, deliver the subhead with intrigue, and promise value in the text below.

Using the previous headline, try a subhead like this, which gives the benefits of the promise:

HEADING: “Athlete’s foot cure – guaranteed”

SUBHEAD: “Quick results, no mess, and low cost! Learn more here.”

(Thanks to Ginger Makela at Google for the inspiration.)

Do you have any MAGIC BULLETS for effective headline writing?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

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Welcome to the Career Management Blog!

Hand writing a welcome sign on brown papers

I’m Marcia Zidle and I’m the host of this blog. You can read more about me next to my picture in the sidebar. This blog will be about various aspects of career management, will focus especially on practical tips and tools, and will include posts from guest writers. You can learn more about this blog by clicking on the About link just under the header.

  • Before using the blog, please take a few minutes now to read about the policies. Go to Policies under the header.
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  • You can get a lot of visibility to your work by being a guest writer. Many of the Library’s topics consistently rank in the top 10 of Google search results. Go to Guest Writer Submissions under the header.
  • See the many Related Library Topics listed on the sidebar. They contain 100s of free online, articles related to the topic of this blog.
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  • Search for any topics you’re interested in. Use the Search boxes at the top of the header.
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If you have any questions, just use the Contact Us form at the bottom of each page.

Welcome!

For more resources, see the Library topic Career Management.

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Marcia Zidle, a certified career strategist and business coach, works with high potential, high impact executives, managers and professionals to advance their careers and grow their leadership capabilities. As founder of Leaders at All Levels, Marcia helps clients revitalize, reposition or retool their careers for the constantly changing marketplace by ensuring they have the right priorities, right performance and the right plan. That’s the recipe for success.
Email Marcia@MarciaZidle.com .

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Women, Power, and Leadership (by Kathy Curran)

A woman CEO in her office

Introduction

As the last forty years have demonstrated, women have successfully become players at many tables in the business and professional worlds. Increasingly, more women are moving to the head of the table as well. But this can still be a bumpy road for many otherwise capable, talented female leaders: the glass ceiling still seems to be there, only now we can see women on the other side and wonder why we can’t make it ourselves.

The main premise of this blog entry is that among all the leadership skills taught to prospective female managers and leaders, education in the successful use of personal and organizational power is still sorely lacking. It is well accepted that the skills that enable a person to excel in their chosen field are very different than the ones necessary to lead and manage others. However, for women, the challenge is different than for men, not necessarily only because of possible discrimination, but because our socialization still does not prepare us to handle organizational power and influence well.

Organization Politics and Power

The type of power I am referring to is organizational political power. Although organizational politics is often cast in a negative light, I maintain that politics is a neutral term, that its skills are useful if not mandatory for organizational success. The negative cast enters depending on how one plays politics, not whether. The term politics refers to a system of reconciling divergent interests through the use of consultation and negotiation. This political negotiation happens at the intersection of stakeholder relationships among interests, conflicts and power. To work out a successful acquisition for an organization, to lead an organizational change, or to manage the many disparate abilities of direct reports and/or departments require the ability to successfully navigate and master the currents of stakeholder interests, conflict and power.

For women, though, the foundational abilities on which organizational political prowess is developed are still not ones most of us are socialized to acquire, because much of the tacit understanding of these skills is based on participation in masculine subcultures. Negotiating, depersonalizing, reframing, risk taking, strategizing, competing and mastering the unwritten rules of the organization come harder to us than for many of our male counterparts.

Stages of Power

Hagberg (2003) posits that this occurs because of difficulties in transitions between one stage of power and the next. According to her, there are discernible levels of organizational power that one must master to be successful in one’s career. Stage One she defines as Powerlessness. For the purposes of this blog, we will not delve into this stage. Stage Two, Power by Association, is where we learn the skills and abilities of our chosen profession – to become competent as a marketeer, a teacher, an engineer, etc. It is characterized by apprentice-like behavior: as we try to understand and make individual contributions to the organization or profession to which we belong, we look for a powerful other(s) to emulate.

After mastering this stage, we transition to Stage Three, Power by Achievement, as we begin to move up the ranks of the organization. This heralds the beginning of our management career. This stage calls for independence in thought, action, and decision making, taking risks, understanding the unwritten rules of the organization, ability to negotiate, strategize, compete, build effective coalitions, play as a part of a team, and maintain a healthy balance between self interest and the good of the organization.

Hagberg generalizes that Stage Two power accentuates what could be called a more feminine expression of power, whereas Stage Three calls for a more masculine demonstration. For men, moving from Two to Three is the easiest transition among the stages: they are socialized to expect that they will move from Stage Two to Stage Three, and if they are talented, other male hands reach down to help them up. For women, Hagberg asserts that this transition is the hardest: some of the agentic, individualistic skills that are demanded by Stage Three are more foreign to our upbringing and to how we’re shaped by culture.

Conclusion

Therefore, to excel as managers, we need to pay more conscious attention to learning these skills. Reflection, role playing, peer coaching based on an understanding of the types of skills needed to excel at Stage Three all become useful tools in the acquisition of what have traditionally been thought of as masculine-identified traits.

What does this mean in terms of the feminine strengths we can bring to leadership? Are they not important as well? More about that in a forthcoming post . . .

Reference

Hagberg, J. (2003), Real Power: Stages of Personal Power in Organizations, Sheffield Publishing Company, Salem, WI.

Author

To learn more about Kathy Curran, PhD, and her upcoming workshop, Using Power in Relationships with Women and Men at Work, go to her website at www.powerandleadership.com or contact her at 651-293-9448 or kcurran@powerandleadership.com.

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Constructing The Gift Table

a-business-woman-constructing-a-gift-table-for-a-campaign

“Hank,” the email said, “can you send me a gift pyramid that my organization can use in preparing for a capital campaign.” My response leaned somewhat toward the academic….

Gift Tables and Pyramids are great fundraising tools, but their construction and usage are often very much misunderstood. They are most often associated with capital campaigns, but are also great tools for major gifts fundraising for “fiscal year fundraising,” and even for major events.

There is, however, no such thing as a standard gift table. You may find many examples of gift tables in texts and in articles on fundraising, but they are examples, and not to be assumed appropriate for every circumstance/situation.

An “idealized” Gift Table (as follows) has as it’s top gift an amount that is 10-15% of the overall goal, with the bottom gift being no less than 1% of the goal. For a million dollar goal, therefore, that’s a top gift of $100,000 to $150,000 and a bottom gift of $10,000.

BUT, what if there’s no one on your list of prospective donors who can give at the 10% (or more) level? Clearly, then, for your gift table to be a useful/useable tool, the top gift has to be less than 10%. In fact, the top gift can only be as high as the highest gift you’re likely to get when you’re working toward your fundraising goal; and, all of your fundraising efforts must be able to obtain the number of gifts specified at each level of the pyramid.

All of the levels on a Gift Table must represent reality.

So, how do you construct a realistic Gift Table?

You, or your (fundraising/development/major gifts/events) committee must sit down and take a serious look at all of your potential donors – to be sure they’re really potential donors, see (https://staging.management.org/blogs/fundraising-for-nonprofits/2010/06/15/who-is -a-major-gift-prospect/). Then, based on prior giving and on what other information you have about each prospect, you “attach” a dollar figure to each name on your list – said dollar figures to represent what you and the committee believes is a realistic likely gift from each listed person.

Your Gift Table is constructed from those figures. The top and bottom numbers and the steps you pick for the various levels of your pyramid must be based on the committee’s discussions. You may wind up with a lopsided gift table but it will reflect reality.

One caution, if you can’t construct a Gift Table that will add up to your goal, it is likely that your goal isn’t realistic.

Oh, yes, one other thought: Having constructed your initial Gift Pyramid, you’re not finished; you will need to update/revise it as additional information becomes available. Where the Gift Table should represent the most up-to-date information/circumstances, you don’t have to get compulsive about it !!

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My posting, next Tuesday, will address the use of gift tables in specific circumstances … event planning, major gifts fundraising, capital campaigns, and asking for the gift.
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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions. Contact me at AskHank@Major-Capital-Giving.com
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Have you seen The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
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If you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting.

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Exit Quietly

An exit signage

Good crisis management is rarely about attracting a lot of attention and staying in the news. In fact, many fine examples of crisis management have gone nearly unnoticed except for the parties involved. This quote from a NY Times article explains:

“Companies that typically handle crises well, you never hear about them,” says James Donnelly, senior vice president for crisis management at the public relations colossus Ketchum, who — like many practitioners contacted for this article — required elaborate promises that he would not be portrayed as speaking about any particular company. “There’s not a lot of news when the company takes responsibility and moves on. The good crisis-management examples rarely end waving the flag of victory. They end with a whisper, and it’s over in a day or two.”

While “over in a day or two” may be a slight exaggeration in most cases, it is true that most successful crisis management campaigns do not end with a bang. The media has little interest in continuing to hammer an organization which is committed to honesty and making amends, so the issues of those involved are settled and public interest tapers off. Additionally, in some cases, we crisis managers are able to actually help a crisis-struck organization avoid news coverage altogether.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]