is to run a stealth CFC campaign. If a nonprofit has done all the work to become admitted to the CFC, and then they keep it a secret, it shouldn’t be a “surprise” when the results are not as good as they hoped.
With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, You Might Be Running A Stealth Campaign If:
1. The CFC logo and 5 digit code are not on your nonprofit’s home-page.
2. Your email “signatures” do not include the fact that the nonprofit participates in the CFC, and they omit the CFC code.
3. There is no section on the website describing what workplace giving is, and the benefits to the nonprofit for donations made through workplace giving.
4. You don’t have a communications plan for reaching anonymous donors.
5. You don’t have a communications plan for reaching current supporters that have a Federal “connection,” meaning that in addition to current Federal employees, your current supporters may have children, parents, friends, spouses, etc. who are Federal employees and thus able to give via the CFC.
6. Your nonprofit’s buildings, windows and/or real estate that are visible from the street, don’t have signage with the CFC logo and your CFC 5 digit code.
7. There is no mention of the CFC in any of your nonprofit’s materials: newsletters, annual reports, special reports, etc.
8. At your recognition events, the CFC donors and volunteers are not recognized or thanked.
9. Your nonprofit’s fundraising database has no code for CFC donors.
10. You don’t ask current supporters who are Federal employees to give via the CFC through payroll deduction. (Payroll deduction often dramatically increases the size of a gift, even from the same person).
There are five stages in a CFC campaign, and the solicitation period is just one of the stages. It’s important to have a communication plan in place that allows you to develop relationships with your current CFC donor pool, as well as with potential donors.
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In the next post in the series, we’ll take a look at the unique aspects of the CFC and some specific ways to increase your nonprofit’s visibility.
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During his 25-year career in the Federal sector, Bill Huddleston, The CFC Coach, served in many CFC roles. If you want to get involved in the Combined Federal Campaign, maximize your nonprofit’s CFC revenues, or just ask a few questions, this is the guy to contact … Bill Huddleston1@gmail.com .
Can we train every employee to be CEO one day? Of course, it would be a rare employee that ends in that lofty position, but shouldn’t it be possible?
The idea isn’t to convince workers that is their career path, but to let them feel a part of the entire operation in a way that makes them see value in the whole. Bit by bit they learn everything there is to know about the business. Certainly not in detail but in enough for workers to realize the importance of everyone who works there.
An extremely fantastic idea, I admit, but I think there are companies out there who do that do more than say their employees are sales associates and sales managers–a euphemism for sales person in most cases. There are companies that believe their people are the most important resource they have–as important as the product they produce–an idea that appeals to the romantic young.
It may be a solution to young passionate workers losing that passion. We find the older set takes over the company and keeps things exactly as they are. The younger set becomes disillusioned and leaves. Those young workers who are leaving are most likely more qualified and better educated than ever because jobs are hard to find. So, why drive them away?
It’s the economy, plain and simple. One colleague says, “…in 2007 we tried hiring a Community Development Planner entry level. We received 15 applications and had to hire a fresh out of school candidate. This year same job 200+ applications many well established in the field. Same with Civil Engineers and if we have a job that pays $40,000/year we get dozens of Juris Doctorate candidates who just can’t find work in their chose field. The few lucky college grads who get their dream job right off probably do stay… We have MBA grads doing entry level clerical work…and let’s face it filing sucks.”
It’s not re-training we need. It seems the economy is driving people to take jobs for which they are more than qualified. You can’t change the job to suit, but you can maintain the positive attitude of that the person by not making the job the dreary substitute they fear, but rather the dream job they could have some day. How do you do that?
There is a honeymoon phase, then reality of the workplace; over time the worker becomes disillusioned.
A study reported in the Federal Times in an article titled quite simply enough, “Study: Younger Feds Happier at Work Than Older Feds.” There seems to be much truth to that, but why would it be just the Feds? I thinks that’s true with most companies–at least those we’d envision a career.
Let’s go way out and say, in general, most younger workers are happy at the start of employment. There is a honeymoon phase, then reality of the workplace; over time the worker becomes disillusioned. Most would agree that can happen anywhere and not just the Federal government. I’ve heard there are a few places where workers are happy for life, but maybe that’s an exaggeration.
If there are these “dream” jobs, then there is a solution to the problem.
If you look an organization where anyone you talk to seems to have been so happy the entire time they worked there, you’ll find it most likely had to do with the company’s exemplary training programs. They kept training these employees, starting with the young people from Day One for newer and better things. As long as they did, these employees were extremely happy with the company. They were even more pleased when the company established a “listening post” and took their needs seriously. Granted this can happen easier in people driven companies–those that derive their income from how their people interact with others as opposed to a specific product. Identifying with the company itself becomes a positive, even to outsiders.
To say you worked for Ben and Jerry’s, Disney, Pixar (owned by Disney now), or another company with positive name recognition is rewarding enough; it doesn’t matter what job you had. Everyone will think you’re so lucky to have been working in a place that cares about people. They are a business like anything else and they regard the bottom line as seriously as the next guy. To outsiders, it is just a public relations ploy, but from I have heard from talking to actual employees, these are dream jobs for precisely the reasons I have named. The difference is that these companies seem to revere the enthusiasm of youth and transfer it to their product. In fact, the company standards are quite exacting and demanding–so it’s not easy to work for them, quote the old timers. “But it’s worth it,” they add.
The more complicated question is how do we make it last longer? We need to look at what affirms and rewards passion and fresh ideas. Providing the training necessary for an employee to develop is an important part of that. Young workers in these dream companies are trained early and continually trained to provide a consistent product or service. It’s not a money thing either. These workers are not extremely well-paid, but they are treated like family. The level of training they have had is even adorning the clothes they wear. Buttons, badges and patches proudly proclaiming their level of expertise. So, training is important.
Young people as a rule are a more positive lot. They aren’t as cynical and dispassionate as their older peers, but that is something we face with the innocence of the young. Children, regardless of their lot in life, try to be happy regardless of circumstances–even the most dire. Ready with smiles for anyone who affirms that they have done something right, or even exist. Should it be any different with young workers. For those of us who have been around awhile, reality makes us more careful and thoughtful, which can be thought of as unresponsive to change and new ideas. We should smile at them more and let them know their passion is appreciated and their ideas important–and mean it. We worry about losing our jobs to our youth, but that is exactly what we want. We train when we need to train, sometimes when we need to motivate, but most often when we want productivity to go up.
Let them know their passion is appreciated and their ideas important–and mean it.
Our minds seem to narrow in response to age unless we keep exercising our willingness to see the positive attributes of the new. I remember being passionate about my job, my work and it was exciting. I was doing something worthwhile. I had taken the job originally as a “roof” job–something to keep a roof over my head while I wrote the Great American novel, but I fell in love with my work. In the end before retirement, I felt the same way about my work, but I had tired of my passionate responses falling on deaf ears because someone didn’t want to bother or the system made it impossible.
This is why constant training to look at the new is important–like training every employee it be CEO is not ridiculous; it’s already being done. It’s more a matter of attitude with amazing results than intensive training. And, mentoring, a form of training, and leadership, an example of training well done is so important. Mentoring to give them the courage to continue on the path. Leadership all along the way to learn how to direct that passion and push the new ideas to a positive conclusion–and the realization being theirs (the young) if something doesn’t work.
This commentary started as a look at why young people are happier in their jobs, but somehow we have to look at keeping that passion and enthusiasm alive. It is my opinion that it is possible and that it is happening because some company is training every person who works for them as if that person could be CEO. I know I’d like to be treated like that. It’s only fair. Again, these are my ideas and you are free to disagree via comment here, on my website (the seminar detail page includes some new ballpark pricing for those who are interested), and e-mail.
This post will fulfill your desire for completely FREE images that are not under copyright protection! Now you can fill your marketing with great images and save hundreds or thousands of dollars.
You’re sure to find what you need somewhere within this list. Be careful to read the details, because some of these sites may include copyright protected works, too, as designated. Sites that collect free public domain images include:
Picdrome – Public Domain growing picture collection, no copyright, licensed under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication. All items free to download and use, without restriction.
Pixabay – Public domain images without any limitation (private and commercial use)
Public Domain Photos – Free for commercial redistribution and alteration – From January 1, 2011, public-photo.net was moved to a new domain: publicphoto.org. All photos from this site are 100% free for use. The site has more than 1,000 galleries, in over 13 thousand unique photos, and at least three galleries are added daily, that is up to 30-40 photos per day. Each images can be downloaded at least four dimensions: thumbnail, normal, large and very large. Photos are up to 4752 x 3168 maximum resolution. (old domain: moka.t2i.info – Moka Gallery) !
TotallyFreeImages.com – Totally free public-domain images – Largest archive on the Internet with over 494,000 hi-res professional-grade royalty-free images, 100% public-domain and ok to use with Wikipedia
Reusable Art – An ever-growing collection of vintage drawings, illustrations and photographs from books, magazines and other printed materials. Original publication information is included with each image for copyright verification. All images meet or exceed the Berne Convention standard for a creative work to be in the public domain.
GIMP Archive – 32,000+ Royalty-free photos, organized by keyword.
Open Clip Art – This project is an archive of public domain clip art. The clip art is stored in the W3C scalable vector graphics (SVG) format.
Public Domain Clip Art– 25,000+ Public Domain Clip Arts (great for printing). Categorized & searchable.
Whew! Happy Hunting.
Let us know if you have some favorite collections to add to this list.
Ms. Chapman’s new book has a name change! The Net-Powered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide will be available very soon. 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
We’re constantly looking at ways that companies use Twitter for crisis management, but beneath those complex strategies there are some basics that everyone entering the social media arena should know.
Luckily we have power users like Lynn Miller, who shared her “Essential Twitter Tips for Crisis Communications” in a 4GreenPS blog post.
A quote:
Know Your 40404: Learn (or Re-Learn) How to Tweet via Text
When emergencies hit, cell phone and landline networks are often overloaded. WiFi and mobile web can be hard to access, just like voice services. Text messages over Twitter are more reliable. But most people now access Twitter solely via its many web-based interfaces. If you had to send a text Tweet…NOW, could you?
Here’s how to text tweet from the U.S.:
Send a text message with START to 40404.
Twitter will respond with your username.
Send your username in response.
When asked for your password, respond, being mindful of CaSe SensiTiVIty.
When asked to send OK, do so.
To receive tweets, turn on mobile updates for those tweets you wish to see.
If you didn’t know this, you’d better head on over to Lynn’s article.
Twitter is valuable because of its extreme flexibility and reach. Without the proper knowledge, you’re wasting potential, and possibly putting your organization and employees at risk.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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While we often feel spiritual when all is peaceful, joyful and calm, spiritual growth often happens on the edges of our comfort zone. When you feel the tug of your soul or psyche, you are called to shift somehow. It is in these times you have to dig deeper to connect with your Higher Power and Inner Wisdom for creativity, forgiveness, clarity, or strength. Re-connecting to your Source, you find energy to move forward and see a bigger perspective for what is unfolding.
Think of a situation currently in your work where you are feeling that growing edge. Perhaps you are challenged by a co-worker, have a stressful deadline, or you don’t have a job and are looking for work. Emerson describes times of Divine Discontent, when your purpose may not be clear or your soul feels unsettled. Honor this time of unfolding. See what may be brewing below your discomfort.
Is there something that needs tending in your soul?
Where is your growing edge in this situation?
What is the next best version of yourself that needs to be expressed or discovered?
Pema Chodron speaks of the in-between time:
The challenge is to stay in the middle rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid. Becoming intimate with the queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere only makes our hearts more tender. When we are brave enough to stay in the middle, compassion arises spontaneously. By not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like we know what’s happening, we begin to access our inner strength. From The Places That Scare You
As we move from summer to fall, the changing leaves and changing temperatures, note what changes are brewing below the surface for you. Breathe deeply into this time and space. Allow this time to speak to you without moving too fast to fix it or change it. Embrace whatever vulnerability and fear surfaces as a friend. It may show you something within yourself that needs to heal, to awaken, to strengthen, to rejuvenate. It is in the time of Divine Discontent that you recognize a deeper yearning, opening up to a more authentic you waiting to be expressed.
Managers who coach their people become known as good managers to work for, developers of talent, and achievers of business results. They also become better leaders in the process. Jack Welch, Former CEO GE.
The key to employee coaching is giving effective feedback. Feedback is information about performance that leads to the person changing poor performance or continuing good performance. There are two major types of feedback:
Corrective – which is intended to be problem solving. It lets people know what should be improved and how to make the improvement. Its purpose is to help the person perform better the next time
Positive – which is intended to be encouraging. It lets people know what they’ve done well and recognizes or rewards them for it. Its purpose is to motivate the person to maintain or even increase the performance.
Three Guidelines for Effective Coaching
1. FIT:
Tailor feedback so that it matches the level of skill and experience of the recipient. If the person in new on the job, then spend more time. Ask for her understanding of the task; ask to see how she performs the task; ask for problems she is having. Only then, provide feedback. Perhaps the person needs additional training.
2. FOCUS:
Keep you feedback “on target”. For people to benefit from feedback, it must be clearly focused on the desired improvement or development.
Poor Example: Jack, you need to improve your expense reports.
Better Example: Jack, accounting has returned your expense reports because it was not complete. It needs to include dates, purpose, description of the expenditures as well as the receipts. Once everything is filled out they can make payment quickly.
3. TIMING:
Give development feedback at a time when people can respond to it, and use it. Usually, this means before the person is going to perform a behavior. For example, work with a person as she is developing an important presentation, not wait until after to say what went poorly.
Management Success Tip
In coaching, keep these three rules in mind:
Usefulness: Whenever you feel you have the right to give someone feedback, you have the obligation to make sure it is useful.
Support: Provide the needed resources for the person to do well, including your time.
Confidence: Act as if you expect good things. And when a person does make a change, even if not as great as you’d like, notice it with appreciation.
“I’m a lawyer in a firm but I’m unhappy. I’m not really sure if I want to continue here or even in law. My family tells me I can make good money. Sometimes I feel I am a quitter for wanting to consider doing something else. I feel very confused. What can I do?” – Muriel, a frustrated lawyer.
Muriel, I once coached an anesthesiologist who also was unhappy in her chosen field. She went into medicine because of her father. Here’s what I told her to do before “throwing in the towel” and making a radical career change.
1. Separate the good from the bad in your current career. So Muriel, what elements of law do you enjoy? What don’t you enjoy? Think back to when you were really excited – perhaps it was in law school or your first job or whenever. Now make a list of what you were doing. Was it the research, the client interaction, the courtroom, the writing of briefs, etc?
2. Then narrow down what is making you unhappy or frustrated. Is it the kind of law you’re practicing? Is it work you’re doing – types of clientele or the cases? Is it the culture of the law firm? Is it life / work balance – too many hours spent in the office and not enough for other things important to you?
3. Take a hard look at your profession and perhaps others. Putting aside everyone else’s opinions about the money, the education, the prestige, etc, are you still excited about the profession of law? If yes, what aspects of the profession? If not, what do you feel disenchanted about it? Can you diversify into other professions using your law background?
4. Finally, look at all your options. If you want to stay in the legal profession, what other areas would be a better fit? If you enjoy the law firm, but it’s the work you’re doing, what how can you change you job to make it more amenable? If you find you don’t fit the firm’s culture (too hectic, too cut throat or too bureaucratic), then what other firms could be a better fit? What else do you currently do outside of work that you enjoy? Do you have any interests or hobbies that you could consider pursuing as a new career path?
So what did the anesthesiologist do? Perhaps you can learn from her experience. At the time of the coaching she was taking a course in mediation. She realized that she liked the analysis of conflict situations and then working with the parties to come to an agreement. She did not want to leave the medical profession entirely so she got involved in arbitration within a health insurance company. She’s utilizing her medical background in a new way and is much more satisfied with her career.
Readers, how have you dealt with unhappiness or frustrations in your career?
Career Success Tip
Don’t jump from the frying pan into the fire. Take time to assess your goals, your skills and interests, your options and most important the cultural fit before moving to another job, another company or another profession. Career change is a big decision.
An email asked if I know of any resources for designing an “Ask Package”
The writer explained: “I’ve found lots of general rules such as ‘include your mission statement’ and ‘specifically outline what their donation will cover’ but I can’t find any templates for designing one. Are there any websites you could recommend?
“We’re a very small non-profit organization developed to raise funds to cover costs for a martial arts tournament team, and we’re just in the beginning phases of developing the materials.
“The “ask package” is what we want to give to prospective sponsors to ‘sell them’ our Non-Profit so they will donate to us. It’s more than just a fundraising letter, we want to include our mission statement, biographies of team members, statistics from past tournaments, pictures and then end with the sponsorship opportunities they can choose from.
“Do you have any suggestions on where on the internet I might be able to find free resources for this purpose?”
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So, to start, There’s no such thing as an “ask package” – or there shouldn’t be !!
Packages of materials (even with a cover letter) don’t do the asking. People who have established relationships with prospective donors do the asking. And looking to corporations to fund a nonprofit is to look to the least productive source of funding.
To put money/time/effort into creating a “package” could likely not be the best use of your resources.
Having said that, if you’re committed to raising money from corporations, the key is to focus on what the corporation can/will get from giving you money. They are profit making entities, and they are driven by their bottom line … they must be, they answer to their stockholders/owners.
Sending corporations a lot of unsolicited material often just annoys people. Your best bet is to (first) call the community relations or contributions departments of the corporations that might have an interest in your activities and ASK them what you’d need to do to get the corporation to want to give you money. That’s what those departments do.
So, my answer to your question … create the narratives on your computer, and keep them there. If/when a corporation asks for more information, you can send them (only) what they ask for.
But, if you send them a pile of slick materials, they may well think that you already have more money than you need … since you’re spending it on brochures/photographs/printing.
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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? Contact Hank@Major-Capital-Giving.com With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, he’ll be pleased to answer your questions.
For years, some of us have mused about some kind of national system to drive sales to social enterprises. The basic idea is that there are government agencies and socially-minded companies who might be willing to purchase large quantities of goods and services from social enterprises, provided someone would identify qualified suppliers and make it easy to order from them. Continue reading “New! Sales Strategy for Rhode Island Social Enterprises”
In a recent post we talked about humor. In some organizations, humor and presentations don’t go together. It is seen as too risky. In others, it is practically required. Today let’s talk about when to use humor, so we can make better choices about taking the humor risk, and hopefully enjoy the benefits.
When you are last on the schedule. If you are the last presentation of the day, or the one right before lunch, a lack of humor or energy is deadly. Get people to stand up. Have them introduce one another. Put a cartoon on your slides. Twist your words. Don’t push too hard, but allow humor to happen instead of the same-old-same-old delivery. It won’t take that much to show your audience that you “get it.”
When your content is dry or boring. I don’t think any content really needs to be dry or boring, but some content has a bad rap for being difficult. This is when humor can shine. Can you use a humorous anecdote that illustrates the complexity (or the simplicity) of the content? A little story that demonstrates people’s reactions to it? Laugh at your acronyms? If you can get even a little chuckle, you can demonstrate that you can tackle this topic with grace and humor.
When you need to build rapport, fast. Let’s say you are addressing your new team. Or pitching your service in front of a potential new client. Not a good place for a stand-up routine, but if you can say something funny, you will get a better reaction that spouting facts or lecturing for hours.
When your audience is uptight or unhappy. OK, I didn’t say it would be easy, but if you can pull this one off you’ll look like a genius. I have always found that if I ignore the feelings of the audience, they will dig in deeper. Once I can acknowledge and accept their resistance, much of it dissipates. I have presented to people who have just lost their jobs, once literally during my workshop. We made a little joke about everyone disappearing one by one like an Agatha Christie mystery. Sometimes it is called gallows humor, but it beats crying.
When you make a mistake. When you say the wrong thing, or the computer dies at your hands and you want to run screaming from the room, your first reaction may not be humor. But a flip comment here may be just the ticket to save you. “OK, that worked really well.” Everyone in the audience has felt awkward and uncomfortable at one time or another. If you can handle that with finesse, they will really be cheering for you.
One of the reasons I always prefer to interact with audiences rather than lecture is that someone is bound to say something funny, and we can all relax. And once your audience relaxes, they are far more likely to accept your message.
Of course, there is a wrong way and a right way to be funny. If you try too hard or say the wrong thing, it not only won’t be funny, but you could offend or antagonize your audience. Next time, some humor do’s and don’ts.
In what situations have you tried using humor in a presentation? How did it work? What advice do you have for others wishing to build their skills to successfully use humor in presentations?
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