A recent discussion on the npEnterprise Forum (the global social enterprise listserv) revealed several key points about social franchises owned by nonprofit organizations. First, and foremost, they rarely succeed in meeting the nonprofit’s goals.
Is your nonprofit publishing an annual report? If not, you may be missing a big opportunity. Funders are interested in this report and posting it to your website is becoming a more important part of accountability and transparency standards. Having an annual report is required by Guidestar to have their Guidestar Exchange seal. If you have program accomplishments you’d like to brag about and are fiscally sound, this is a wonderful opportunity to toot your horn.
Writing an annual report does not have to be a “going to the dentist” experience. Here are a few ideas:
Before you start, check out the NonprofitMarketingGuide.com by Kivi LeRoux Miller. On the subject of nonprofit annual reports, Kivi has an e-book, a pre-recorded webinar, a lengthy list of examples with links and free articles at her website. She is the expert in this field. Kivi has a four page annual report model, a postcard model and a video model
On my blog at Marion Conway –Nonprofit Consultant I have just posted an article – From a Foundation Perspective – What Makes An Effective Nonprofit? – that summarizes a report on this subject by the Association of Small Nonprofits. One of the items they recommend foundations review is the annual report. If you’d like to see what else is on the list, visit my blog now.
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For more resources, see our Library topic Nonprofit Capacity Building.
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The impact of social media on crisis management has been the story of the year, with the maturation of services like Facebook and Twitter sparking a massive surge in use that has literally changed the way we communicate. To help illustrate that, the professionals over at MediaBadger have put together what they call a “message map” displaying the most common routes that communications now take:
As you can see, traditional media still has its place and can certainly be effective if used correctly, but the Web, and social media in particular, is clearly dominant in terms of variety of purpose because of its capability for simple, rapid and widespread communication across a myriad of platforms.
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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.]
The way your organization communicates during a crisis is important, but how it fixes the underlying problem will be what determines its reputation in the long run. Those that choose to merely give lip service to an issue are playing with fire. In a quote from a recent blog post, social media consultant Mack Collier explained how to get it done:
Even if you respond quickly and appropriately, you still have to fix the problem. People are upset for a reason, and you still need to address that reason, and correct the problem. It might not be a quick fix, but you need to let people know how you are handling the issue, and what steps will be taken to correct the problem. This is where you can use your social media presences such a blog or Facebook page to communicate to customers and supporters what your plan is for handling the crisis. But you need to have a plan, you need to communicate that plan (not every detail, obviously), then you need to execute it.
This strategy has been proven in countless crises, and social media is making it easier than ever to communicate your message to large volumes of people. By following an honest and apologetic response with a genuine (and publicized) effort to fix whatever caused the crisis in the first place, most businesses should be able to quickly get back on track.
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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.]
As a culture, we started becoming more aware of the power of social media during times of crisis, like when the Iran election in 2009 caused a furor, both on the ground and on Twitter. More recently, the Internet and social media played an important role in spreading news about the earthquake in Haiti and political revolution in Egypt.
But what about other kinds of natural disasters or crime? Can social media be used to good effect then?
In 2009, two girls trapped in a storm water drain used Facebook to ask for help rather than calling emergency services from their mobile phones. At the time, authorities were concerned about the girls’ seemingly counterintuitive action.
However, according to new research from the American Red Cross, the Congressional Management Foundation and other organizations, social media could stand to play a larger and more formal role in emergency response.
In fact, almost half the respondents in a recent survey said they would use social media in the event of a disaster to let relatives and friends know they were safe.
While the girls who chose to use Facebook rather than dial 911 may still be ahead of their time (or attention starved…), social media has been used successfully for crisis management around the globe, especially in areas with minimal infrastructure, for everything from disaster response and disease tracking to coordinating political upheavals, and is now being integrated into emergency response plans for many major U.S. cities.
Already, emergency responders are starting to use text messages as one form of communication in the event of disasters, sending information to local residents about locations to find aid, shelter, or evacuation routes, while the same residents can send their own texts or visit a social media site to request care.
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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.]
We all know by now that prior reputation has a major impact on the reaction of the public to crises. It’s been proven that, given a similar crisis, popular and trusted organizations take less of an initial fall than their counterparts. Why is it like that, though? Steven Behm, associate U.S. director of crisis and issues management at Edelman, explains in this quote from a Media Bistro article:
Reputations are a perception-based measure of the general public’s belief in an entity’s commitment to do the right thing. In a crisis, reputation is the currency by which organizations either borrow or default on in order to afford an ongoing license to operate. In most cases, the public expectation of companies today is that the issue will be addressed head-on and that measures will be taken to ensure the crisis never happens again. That said, the opportunity gap to invest into a reputational bank of goodwill becomes exponentially more costly during and after a crisis if there isn’t a foundation of trust at the start.
There is no way to buy this “reputational bank of goodwill.” It takes effort, and the best way is to build a rapport with your customers through hard work, solid service and honest communication.
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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.]
Some of the most complex and confusing issues around social enterprise involve legal and tax topics. Will we get in trouble if we do it that way? Do we have to pay taxes on that revenue? Which tax forms do we have to fill out?
Those concerns are made more difficult by the tendency of the IRS to obfuscate some of the issues (although they are getting better), and the high price to access quality legal advice from lawyers.
To help address that problem, the 7500 subscriber npEnterprise Forum listserv has included dozens of postings about US tax and legal issues for social enterprises, mostly from lawyers working directly on these issues. As editor, I recently compiled many of those postings into this legal/tax frequently asked questions file.
Here are the topics that currently appear in that FAQ:
I hope you will find this information useful. To my knowledge, this is the most comprehensive collection of legal and tax information about nonprofit social enterprises available anywhere on the web. While I am not a lawyer, I have found this collection useful as a general guide when exploring options for social enterprises. Good luck!
There’s nothing the media loves to expose more than a cover-up. Any hint of things being less than kosher in the aftermath of a crisis will result in heightened scrutiny, and if there’s anything being hidden then someone out there will dig until it comes out. What should you do with those unsavory details, then? Brad Phillips, of Mr. Media Training, explains:
Get It All Out: It’s human to want to bury the bad parts of a story that haven’t yet gotten out. But trying to bury negative parts of the story often extends the crisis and makes it worse. Information usually gets out anyway, and the lack of forthrightness reinforces suspicions about your integrity. If you think something is likely to get out anyway – and it probably will – it’s better to get it out on your own terms instead
Getting it out on your own terms accomplishes two things. First, it gives you credibility in the eyes of your stakeholders, always important if you want your words to be taken seriously. Second, it helps to eliminate the information gap that is often filled by hurtful rumor and innuendo and instead replaces it with verified facts, meaning your reputation takes less damage and can be repaired more easily.
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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.]
At the heart of every Quality Improvement Initiative lays a solution to a problem. However blatantly obvious this sounds, business improvement practitioners will be the first to admit the process of selecting, applying and measuring the impact of solutions can be a daunting task itself. You don’t always get the luxury of selecting a “no brainer” solution to close improvement gaps.
It’s well accepted that most problem solving methodologies involve 6 generic steps in the Cycle of Improvement.
Step 1. Defining the problem
Step 2. Defining the desired Outcome
Step 3. Generating Ideas as Solutions
Step 4. Implementing a Solution
Step 5. Measuring the Impact of the Solution
Step 6. Reviewing / Adjusting / Optimising the Solution
Step 4 is the real “show stopper” and determines whether all the efforts put into the solution will bear any fruit.
If trial and error is at one end of the solution selection scale, how do you go about choosing the most appropriate solution to implement, test and measure the impact, from a collection of ideas or a brainstorm?
Most selection techniques revolve around a type of priority grid. In its simplest form, The priority grid can be represented by a Pain vs Gain grid, where improvement solutions are placed on a chart with 2 axes, one showing the Pain or Effort scale (Easy to Difficulty to implement) and one showing the Gain or Benefit scale (High benefit to Low benefit). The quadrant of choice, no prizes for guessing, is the Low Pain, High Gain quadrant.
There are however, a lot more considerations that should be taken into account when selecting a solution for implementation.
It goes without saying that some of these questions may not be applicable to every type of solution you’re considering and should be therefore be used as a generic guide.
It’s also good practice to create a kind of scoring system for each of the answers based long the lines of
By tallying up the individual scores for each question to a proposed solution, you start to get a feel of who’s likely to top the “billboard charts”.
Armed with this prioritisation matrix, select your best solution , put it to test and measure, measure, measure.
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For more resources, see our Library topic Quality Management.
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This technique was first supported by immigration solicitors milton keynes
Although we could be seen as going off the training and development reservation on this one, once you read the entire article, you’ll agree we are actually too close to the subject not to bring it up. This blog is probably the most direct way of saying I think training, public speaking and acting are related–at least in terms of movement on stage.
Public speaking is certainly coming into vogue as a performing art. Comedians, motivational speakers and others who inspire their audiences certainly give performances on stage. Some would argue everything that takes place on stage is all theatre. We may disagree with that notion, but that’s for another article. So, who are the critics and coaches if they aren’t other comedians and public speakers? The same people who are involved in the performing arts: actors, dancers, and singers are also coaching non-actors, including public speakers and trainers as I do, in the areas of communicating effectively with an audience.
Acting, singing, and dancing do have at least one thing in common when it comes to performance. They are all performed on a stage to an audience and involve movement. Now, add trainers, speakers and virtually anyone else who moves on a stage in from of an audience.
Many of the people in the business of motivating or providing inspiring speeches or presentations for corporate and business leadership may think more in terms of planning movements and gestures. Not done well, it comes off artificial. We know that actors and dancers must move with purpose on stage; singers move to show emotion, too, even if that movement doesn’t include dancing to the music. It is the same for comedians or professional speakers.
Strategies or plans to move around the stage can lack the fluid motion of natural movement. If you are speaking to an audience, and you don’t have to be a traditionally thought of performer, keep in mind the way you interact with your audience is based on your passion, your audience and subject matter. Look at general areas of the stage as points to reach your audience (all of your audience) on as many levels as you can; that means you may come down to them to get closer, or keep your distance by being upstage to take in the whole room. You may have to move to a side of the stage if you’re on a thrust stage. Imagine doing a speech in the round. It’s possible.
You should be led by those in your audience who seem to beckon for your attention. You’ll see it; you’ll feel it. Be careful not to wander the stage; it is distracting from the audience when your focus should be on them. In fact, if you want to make a strong point three steps forward will alert the audience you are about to say something important. When making an important point, center stage is your strongest area on the stage, but you don’t want to live there.
Just as a theatrical director looks at the stage to see the areas of strongest impact for the room for the audience and sets the stage for the scene, so should you. You may own the stage, but you are there to interact and communicate with an audience. Try not to leave anyone out. Now, Arthur in the musical CAMELOT moves to a specific point on the stage to punctuate a point. That’s a strategy. However, play it for fun or it won’t be effective. Want to make your audiences feel you really know what you’re doing, even without visual aids? Find an appropriate moment to go right to them. You’ll enjoy it and so will they.
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For more resources about training, see the Training library.
