Category: Organization Development

Since 2006, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch has been sponsoring surveys of High Net Worth Individuals to gain insight about their philantropy. I have reported on their findings in the past. This year the study, released in December 2011 and conducted by the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University, is focused on women’s philanthropy. At my blog, MarionConway.com I’ve posted a companion piece, Role of Community Engagement, Volunteering and Giving by High Net Worth Women versus Men which discusses the particular findings of these issues and women’s philanthropy. In this article I report on the overall findings as they pertain to both men and women.

There are some differences in what is important to men and women when it comes to philanthropy but there is also a great deal of similarity. Although this report focuses on women, it provides excellent insight into what is important to both of them. Here are some highlights. First the motivators with a statistically significant difference between men and women:

Women (%) Men (%)
Moved at How Gift Can Make a Difference 81.7 70.9
Giving to an organization that is efficient 80.5 69.2
Give Back to Community 78.2 63.3
Volunteer for the Organization 65.7 49.8
Support Same Orgs./Causes Annually 59.5 67.9
Set Example for Young People 43.6 25.1
Further Legacy of Others 33.1 16.4

The top two motivators for men and women are the same but there is a statistically significant difference in the importance between them. What comes next seems very important to me. Men are much more likely to continue to give to the same organization from year to year than women are. Women are more likely to continually be considering which organizations to support and are more likely to give to the organizations that they are engaged with. The data is clear about the need to keep women philanthropists actively involved in order to maintain their support. This should not be a surprise to us. Men are more likely to want to buy the same shirt in the same color from the same store year after year. A woman would never consider doing such a thing. Guess what – this same behavioral pattern holds true for philanthropy. I must admit I’ve never thought about that.

Here’s the list in descending order of importance of motivating factors that do not have a statistical difference between men and women:
Feel Financially Secure
Political/Philosophical Beliefs
Remedy Issues Affecting Me Personally
Give Spontaneously to Support a Need
Religious Beliefs
Being Asked
Business Interests

No surprises here.

Here are some other key findings that I found particularly noteworthy:

87% of high net worth women volunteered.

60% of gifts go to general operating funds (almost the same as for men)

Men are more likely to make a capital gift and women are more likely to support a particular program.

2/3 of both men and women report a family tradition of giving

So when it is a couple living together – married or not – who makes the decision about giving anyway? Here are the answers:

Percent Responding

Women (%) Men (%)

I decide 38.8 43.4
Joint Decisions 48.4 40.9
Separate decisions 10.6 14.6

So even if this data made you smile about how men and women view decision making, in the case of both men and women well over 80% of the people think they are involved in philanthropic giving decisions when there are couples involved. That’s important to keep in mind – and not to focus solely on the interests of either party.

I recommend that you read the whole report. Click here for the link to the full report.

Click here for the link to my companion piece.

Here’s the links to earlier articles that I have writter on related subjects:

2010 High Net Worth Philanthropy Study and What It Means for Small Nonprofits

The Wired Wealthy and Online Giving – A New Study Provides a Fresh Analysis

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

Protect your business, be prepared for social media crisis management

Let’s face it, social media isn’t going away. People love to talk about what’s going on in their lives, and now that they can do it with millions of others right from the smart phone in their pocket, it’s practically irresistable.

What this means to your organization is that your employees will use social media during your next crisis.

How then, do you turn this seeming vulnerability into a crisis management tool? That’s exactly the question that social media crisis specialist Melissa Agnes answers in her blog post, “How To Empower Your Employees For a Social Media Crisis.”

Here’s a quote:

Fact #1: Each one of your employees has an active social media presence.

Fact #2: Each one of your employees has their own social graph (social connections).

Fact #3: At any point throughout a crisis, your employees may:

Choose to mention or discuss the situation online
Be approached with inquiries about the events unfolding
Be sought out by reporters or bloggers covering the crisis

Fact #4: Their answers may innocently result in further damage and/or complications for your brand.

Fact #5: This is not what most people would call advantageous in a troubling matter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fact #6: There are precautionary measure that any and all companies and organizations can take to help eliminate this threat.

Make no mistake, these are FACTS, evidenced in many, many crisis situations. As with any other crisis, the best way to prevent serious social media damage is by being prepared, so what’s holding you back?

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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 Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

When it comes to crisis management, choose your words wisely

One of the most common requests from clients of ours are for ways to “say no comment without saying no comment.” Yes, communication and transparency are crucial in today’s business environment, but sometimes it’s just not in your best interest to discuss a particular topic. That’s why Stephen Rafe’s take on the situation caught our eye, and drove us to ask if we could bring his tactics to our readers.

Without further ado, here is a quote from Stephen Rafe’s forthcoming book on news-media interviewing:

Saying the same thing in different words doesn’t help. Following President Clinton’s news conference in May, Susan Page (USA Today, Friday, May 1, 1998) described his “no-comment” efforts as “a convoluted game of TV’s ‘Jeopardy’ in which the questions and answers somehow had been drawn from completely different categories.” Arianna Huffington, (The New York Post, May 5, 1998,) wrote: “…my personal advice is that he (President Clinton) advise his lawyers to advise him not to hold any more press conferences until all his legal entanglements are disentangled….”

Indeed, the President did come up with some creative ways to avoid saying “no-comment.” Here are some of the 15 he used — to the total of 29 questions he was asked:

• “I don’t have anything to say about that.”
• “I can not comment on these matters because they are under seal.”
• “I … have nothing to add to my former answer.”
• “I have been advised, and I think it’s good advice under the circumstances — but I just — I just don’t have anything else to add about that.”

The lesson learned for spokespersons? Elegant variations can not replace good technique.

Techniques that Work

So how should one respond to questions when tempted to give a “no-comment” answer? Here’s the approach I’ve refined to help my clients address such situations.

First, always express a desire to cooperate, and follow with a reason why you can’t respond directly to the question. You might open by saying: “I wish I could comment on that (or “help you,” or “share that information with you,” or something similar and relevant), (use reporter’s name).”

Next, if timing is your concern, continue by saying something such as: “However, once (name the event that controls timing) is no longer at issue (or “has been resolved”) I would be pleased to discuss this in detail with you.”

If the issue is your concern, substitute words such as these instead: “However, doing so would give proprietary information to our competitors.”

Follow with a point or fact that is relevant and “safe,” such as: “What I can tell you is that the (name of trade association) has said (and complete your response with related, but generic information from that source).”

Structure your response this way and you decrease the chances that you will “loop” back to the question you were trying to dismiss. Looping frequently occurs when spokespersons try to ad lib. When you use this technique, you also increase the likelihood that the reporter will move on to the next question.

For more information, contact Stephen Rafe at Stephen@rapportcommunications.net.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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A four star apology

Early last month, the United States Marine Corps issued one of the most concise and effective apologies we’ve ever seen. No, you didn’t read wrong, I said the USMC! Standing the years-long tradition of stodgy communication full of niche terminology on its head, the Marines, much like fellow government agency FEMA, have embraced communication for crisis and reputation management.

On February 9, a photograph of a U.S. Marine recon group posing in front of a flag bearing an “SS” symbol surfaced and drew national attention.

Within 24 hours of the crisis breaking, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James F. Amos, issued an ideal response. Here’s the full text, straight from Marines.mil:

WASHINGTON — On February 9, I was made aware of an internet photo depicting Marines posing with a flag containing a Nazi symbol. I want to be clear that the Marine Corps unequivocally does not condone the use of any such symbols to represent our units or Marines.

The local command to which the Marines in the photo were assigned investigated this issue last November. They determined that the Marines in the photo were ignorant of the connection of this symbol to the Holocaust and monumental atrocities associated with Nazi Germany. To ensure the Marines involved fully understood the historical use of the SS symbology, a formal instructional class was prepared and delivered by unit leadership.

In order to ensure that all Marines are aware of the Marine Corps’ position on this issue, I have directed that:

• My commanders investigate the prevalence of the use of SS or other unauthorized symbols within the reconnaissance and sniper communities.
  
• The Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps immediately detach from his current duties in Washington, DC and personally meet with every senior Staff Non-commissioned Officer and Marine from our sniper and reconnaissance communities to reinforce my message and expectations.
  
• The commanding general of our training and education command review the current sniper school curriculum to ensure it contains prohibitions on the use of the SS symbol and other inappropriate symbols.

 

 

 

 

On behalf of the Marine Corps and all Marines, I apologize to all offended by this regrettable incident.

The best way to come across as decent and human is to act like you’re decent and human. It really is that simple. Apologize, say in specific terms how you’re going to prevent the same situation from happening again, and stakeholders will forgive your mistakes.

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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 Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Crisis simulations save lives

Sure, you know that you need to be ready for crises, but do you know what it’s actually like to be in a crisis?

The goal of the Red Cross UK Disaster Response Challenge is to give you this experience, and more. Constructing a hypothetical disaster that unfolds in real time over a two-day period, participants are placed in an “emergency response unit,” and presented with problems that will push the boundaries of their crisis management and emergency response skills. Genuine Red Cross first responders will also be on hand to share their years of experience in navigating the simulated crisis and answering your questions.

If you’re looking to create or update disaster management plans for your organization, there’s no better place to get started than the Disaster Response Challenge.

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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 Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Funny isn’t it? It’s also part of song–but probably wasn’t the real place when the song was written, although it could have been. It’s real now.

For Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) matters many drivers I know do their best to avoid this particular branch. I remember a song now, “A Must to Avoid.”

Ever know people or businesses like that? Just another variation of what you get with bad customer service. No praise when the customer gets what they need, but more negatives than ten times over by those who didn’t get the treatment they felt they deserved. With numbers like that I still find it hard to believe, a little valuable training on such an important subject doesn’t get the attention it deserves. So here’s another true customer service story.

Cherry Hill is a real township in South Jersey. Nothing real cheery about this place, but I have had great cheese steaks there.

In my mind I see it one other way: it owns the title of “cherry” in the way we refer to novices–in this case. Customer service, especially the DMV, here that handles things like registration, plates, and handicapped tags when needed. In my nine years of living here, I have never found it the best or even okay customer service.

I challenge anyone to fix this place up for humans to use and receive good information with high customer service standards and I will write your story here, naming you obviously one of the best trainers I have ever seen. Word does get around, doesn’t it? On both counts. But we know that. So what to do about it.

In this case, there was a request for a temporary handicapped hang tag; I have cancer and the constant radiation and chemo makes me extremely tired so it is necessary to cut back until the strength comes. But you never know when because, it comes on so suddenly. There is more to life than treatment (day-after-day) of radiation and weekly chemo is encouraged, but the doctors want you engaged in a small way, and doing the occasional errands. Hence, the request for a handicapped placard.

All a person has to do is fill out the form and have the doctor sign it. In my case, my wife brought it in, which made perfect sense. But that’s not enough. My wife went on her own so I wouldn’t be exhausted; no where on the documentation or the website does it explain the person must be present when issued. In fact, you can actually do this by mail.

My wife argued the point, got absolutely nowhere and came back to get me. Fortunately I had some rest. Although exhausted and in bed, I had to get up and my wife had to come back to get me, further proof, I was what the doctors’ certified I was. A mere phone call to me or even the doctors office might have been enough. I doubt anyone in the DMV office would have been fired over that and we’d have a happier ending all around.

Training seems to consist of only one person at a time knowing what is going on with one person no matter how important an issue it seems. No multitasking inside the building. Inefficient call centers and customer service use inexperienced people and scripts so they quote policy and next steps correctly, but as most support managers know that is only a small part of the job; apparently the other part of his job is leaving early without telling someone else the problem he or she couldn’t solve. Really tired complainers don’t come back–just the persistent ones.

One customer service member offered help as long as we could tell the same story without getting emotional or any attention since now all she had to do was rubber stamp.

The problem solved, and handicapped individual was brought into office. How they know for sure–I don’t know. Since she seemed to know, we were going along, and as we did raise our voice to make sure she knew we were here all day, she bravely called “Security” and handed it off to someone else with the courage enough to handle a cancer–ridden individual and his teary-eyed wife.

Good Customer Service

• Any professional will tell you chewing gum approaching a customer is not professional.
• The customer gets more than one chance to get the words out before being embarrassed by customer serve.
• Point for customer or customer service, I’m not sure. But I bet the object of customer service is not happy.
• I’m sure customer service looks tough in the eyes of her colleagues–for now. I would have fired her for the gum–especially because she would be well aware that my policy includes that and that people come first, policy we know by heart (but we know why it may have come about–agree with it, like or not, it doesn’t matter).
• If you refer me to the Governor or anyone else, give a contact address or number and assure me I have the right to contact him, but also tell me it is the State House that creates and passes laws like this, and you have people in Department of Transportation who recommend these changes. I think you get my meaning.

I’m just a customer who writes about training and customer service, and it seems from my being a customer as often as I can these days I was motivated to write this particular blog.

In complaining about customer service, Americans often refer to the DMV, the Post Office (no complaint there yet), or Airport Security (wrote a two-parter there a while back). Thought it was time to bring it back up. Customer service is an often neglected place, and it’s where the newbies go in the lesser programs. The smartest programs rotate exceptionally experienced or well-trained people.

The Federal government has a big training department and I managed a training guide on customer service, but we didn’t get much in the way of requests. I suspect the topic wasn’t considered very important, but especially today we should be working harder than ever to help each of us.

We are each other’s customers. The question we also asked that left us frustrated was “why do you not mention this on your website and form, but require it as part of the process,” and explain that.

I remember being asked by a U. S. Senator’s office what I thought the thinking was of the of a committee who wrote the question it did when it was submitted as a Bill.

You’d think the writers would know, but apparently the Senator didn’t know where to begin and was trying to find out. Since it really wasn’t my place to talk with the Senator directly I asked the Senator if I could call her staff and if we could solve that problem together. She agreed. The Senator was still my customer. And, I hers. And yours.

So many people want to ask why, when it doesn’t seem right or fair. Take my wife who works in Policy, she asks that question a lot, because she knows others will. This answer might have helped or someone might have asked the “what if” that made another policy that made good sense to all. Rubber stamp.

Is this a good case for training, or what? Don’t call me; call them. This is a freebie referral.

Happy training.

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For more resources about training, see the Training library.

This is part 2 of a previous post on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) evaluation model. The goal of these posts is not to give an exhaustive description of this model but to whet your appetite for further study, to refer you to other sources and to share with you some related topics that have been percolating in my head.

In the last post, we covered steps 1-3 of the CDC’s evaluation depicted below:

A Framework for Evaluation.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Office of the Associate Director for Program (OADPG)

Step 4: Gather Credible Evidence

What is credible evidence? Let us back up and consider credibility from various perspectives–those of funders, agency staff and program participants. Involving most important stakeholder groups throughout the evaluation process and being open to learn from their experiences will increase the credibility of the evidence. Some program participants may not believe sources like government agencies and doctors who are traditionally viewed as credible sources in professional circles.

Your evidence is only as good as the tools you use to collect it. Use high quality tools, i.e., questionnaires, interview guides, etc. Pay attention to validity issues–for e.g. do the questions really measure what you think they are measuring? At the very least, choose indicators based on a review of the literature. Indicators are items being measured such as knowledge levels, numbers of low birth weights, etc. that shed light on the health or social condition that your program is trying to change.

Ask experts to review your evaluation tools and then pilot test them among program participants. In some cases, it may be particularly important to use an evaluation tool that has been tested for reliability, i.e., does the questionnaire yield consistent results each time it is used? In these cases I recommend, if possible, using a tool that has been published in the peer-reviewed literature. University libraries often allow visitors to use their databases and to access peer-reviewed journals online. Other tips from the CDC–the CDC recommends:

• choosing indicators wisely
• training staff in data collection,
• paying attention to data quality issues and
• protecting confidentiality of participants’ information

Step 5: Justify Conclusions

All conclusions need to be based on evidence. Take care also to base all your conclusions on sound statistical reasoning. For e.g., one common mistake is to conclude that there is a cause and effect relationship on the basis of correlational data. A statistical correlation only shows that two variables are associated with one another. Take for example the following piece of evidence: depression is correlated with lower levels of perceived social support. All we can conclude is that there is a correlation between depression and social support. Lower levels of perceived social support could have contributed to the depression, or the depression itself could have led to social withdrawal, which then resulted in lower levels of perceived social support. If you’re interested in a light and amusing read to familiarize yourself with such principles, I second evaluator John Gargani’s recommendation of Darrell Huff’s classic book “How to Lie with Statistics.”

This is another step where it is important to continue engaging stakeholders. Encourage stakeholders to participate in the process of drawing conclusions from evidence. This will increase their trust in the findings and will increase the chances that they will actually use the evaluation.

Step 6: Ensure Use and Share Lessons Learned

So how do we ensure that evaluation findings are actually used? Like cooking, presentation is everything! People process visual information much more intuitively and naturally than verbal information. Consider, for example, how well very young children respond to colors and pictures. This principle translates into effectively communicating your findings to adult audiences as well. A hot topic in the field of evaluation is data visualization or how to display information using sound design principles. While it is true that graphs can be confusing, effectively applying data visualization principles can produce graphs that are elegantly intuitive to a lay evaluation consumer. For further study, read Edward Tufte’s classic book “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.”

A tool that helps visually depict a variety of graphs and charts in one place is a data dashboard. Think of it as a short cut to communicating information visually. A dashboard is a display of multiple graphs all in the same location. A resource for further reference is Stephen Few’s Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data.

To increase use of the evaluation findings, the CDC recommends:

• aligning evaluation design with how stakeholders plan to use the evaluation,
• translating findings into practical recommendations for the program and
• using reporting strategies that are customized to stakeholders’ specific needs.

For DIY (Do It Yourself) evaluators, I highly recommend renowned evaluation theorist Michael Quinn Patton’s book Utilization-Focused Evaluation. You can listen to free recordings of two webinars by Michael Q. Patton here. (You may need to download software first). “But I’m too busy managing my program to sit down and listen to webinars,” you protest.

I understand too well! Well, I listened to both webinars recently while doing housework and received very helpful guidance for a current project.

(To be continued)

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

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Priya Small has extensive experience in collaborative evaluation planning, instrument design, data collection, grant writing and facilitation. Contact her at priyasusansmall@gmail.com. Visit her website at http://www.priyasmall.wordpress.com. See her profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/priyasmall/

When you’re looking for financing, it may seem that anything will do. However, depending on the life cycle stage of your venture, some forms of financing are better than others. You want the right kind of capital for the needs of your business at that point in time.

Continue reading “Life Cycle Financing Options”

No, it’s not a Fairy Tale. It’s more like a rave about bad customer service, why they don’t give good customer service, and naturally, why we should, which gets us to the training part of this. I guess I should feel lucky to not live in a third-world county, but I think I’d get a straight answer there.

Ever notice, aside from Fast Food Joints (except Chik-Fila), the worst customer service folks seem to work for doctors, those very people who should be caring about how we are when we walk in the door, stupidly or not, thinking this is a place to get immediate medical help. Do it by phone, it’s even worse. If it’s an emergency call, 911. Really?

My emergency has a to do with a question that has to do with your “doctor” speciality. Granted some specialists are great. Those that deal with Cancer victims, “we jump for them” but still make them fill out the forms and aren’t terribly concerned (unless they ask) if they are able, so weak and trembling the daily treatment we are giving them, but hey, we do remember their names seeing them every day. Nice touch but not enough.

It seems the lower on the specialty scale the customers can even degrade to rudeness and then when the following Monday someone from the actual office calls you back and chews you out for giving the step-in who did call you for not giving the right number. You were told once before or it might be in multitudes of handouts after the multitudes of legal forms you filled out to make sure you will pay your bill even if insurance won’t. Business chewing client out. If I die because I didn’t, I’m sure there is a paper for that.

Besides banks, it appears doctor’s offices rank right up there with the only business who insurance companies can insist on you working with, depending on how much money you have. You want the best, pay for it. Bet they have good customer service.

Banking customer service start off on the phone with a dirge of automatic services to frustrate you long enough to want to hang up and start all over again, this time with a live person asking the same questions. My wife and I found unwarranted charges.

We spent nothing on the 5th of Whatever; my wife was getting Cancer Treatment all day. We never buy these product lines that showed on our statement. Clearly, not just flag raisers but flag wavers. Some one should have called us before our checking and Debit account was totally wiped out.

Meanwhile it is up to us to use the no-so-friendly tools listed on their so-so friendly website to find help and assurance this won’t happen again. You see if we had been smart and spent a lot of time looking at every inch of their website it wouldn’t have happened in the first place. Of course, we don’t know any banks or financial institutions that needed bailing out. Now I need bailing out.

My other credit cards should hold out long enough to make co-pays, but not the three kids in school, mortgage, gas, etc. Who cares.

Me: 1, Gov 0.

Training should be part of the bail-out program. Insurance should pay for customer service training. After all, they make life and death decisions for all of us. Customer Service Training should be an easy one; and the trainers should have lots of customers.

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For more resources about training, see the Training library.

Why you need social media for crisis management

“Enterprises simply cannot afford to ignore social media as a crisis communications tool,” said Andrew Walls, research vice president at Gartner. “In many cases, social media may represent the only available means of locating and contacting personnel; providing stakeholders with the information and assistance they need; informing citizens, customers and partners of product/service availability; and taking other business-critical actions following a disruptive event.”

This quote, from a Gartner Newsroom release, is a perfect example of exactly why every business needs the capability to use social media for crisis management. Let’s use our home state of California as an example. We could, at any given moment, have an earthquake. Now, if one of these earthquakes takes out telephone lines in the area, how exactly do you think you’re going to get ahold of your employees?

Social media is the answer. There are few people today who sleep with their cell phone more than two feet away, and this presents the perfect avenue for communications in a crunch. These mobile web portals can receive emergency alerts or browse to internal company forums designed to inform, improve employee safety and facilitate coordination. As the quote says, this same capability can be used with business partners.

Another thing to remember – when you’re in the midst of a crisis, the last thing you want to do is leave your customers hanging. Of course, it should be easy to keep them updated through those active Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ pages that you’ve already got going, provided that you’ve actually done the legwork ahead of time!

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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 Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]