Open Source and nonprofits

Great article in the most recent issue of TechSoup's By the Cup on "How Open Source can Open Doors for Nonprofits", written by two staff from the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative. Read the article, and start thinking about open source software as you upgrade

I've long been a supporter of open source software. It is SO amenable to our sector. Think Linux is for hackers only? Why do most servers now come with Linux? Why does IBM avidly promote it? Because, hmm, it works better, is more secure, is fixed regularly and has great worldwide support.

Another great example: The Firefox browser. Incredibly fast, 99.9% more secure than Internet Explorer (nothing is totally secure) with great features that are updated regularly. I've used Firefox since Christmas on my laptop and work computers and for the past three weeks on our family computer. I've run tests on speed, on adware and spyware blocking and popup blocking, and firefox wins, hands down. Like all open source, it's free. The installation takes about 2 minutes, and you can import all the important stuff (Favorites, cookies, settings) from IE.

Open source works--because its about community and about trust. That's really what nonprofits are about: community and trust. Pay attention to this great alternative. Use it as you can.

Read and comment...it's your future.

After the Senate Finance Committee developed a wide-ranging set of recommendations on changes in nonprofit law, the Independent Sector put together a broad-based panel to make recommendations to the Senate Committee on ways to improve the sector.

The Committee has made its initial report, which is available online for review and comment. Take the time to take a look, and speak out. These are really important, and will affect all of our futures.

Take the time to read, think, discuss in your organization, and comment.

Freedom of the press....

Got yet another call from a reporter.

I get these about once a month, sometimes more. Apparently they either find me online, or the Kellogg people sic them on me. MOST of the time, the reporters are looking into some either current or potential scandal in their community and want to know where the smoke and fire may be hiding. I listen, and usually look up the organization on line while we're talking, both on the org's website and Guidestar and, if the call is long enough, look up the paper and the reporter's articles on the subject (it's fun to investigate the investigator)

Nearly all of the time, the reporters are smart, pretty well informed about the issues, and seem pretty unbiased going in. What's depressing is what they are finding, and thinking about what the community is going to feel about nonprofits once the story is published. Abuses of power, sticky fingers in the till, conflict of interest, abuses of staff and clients; all of these glide over the phone line and into my ears.

The saddest questions are always these (in some form or other):

Are nonprofits generally more corrupt than for-profits?
What's the acceptable level of overhead for a nonprofit?
Shouldn't these organizations have conflict of interest policies?

Ouch. So much for the perception that charities are overwhelmingly acting in the public interest.

Aside: Each fall in my class at Kellogg, we have at least 3-4 students from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. I always ask these students why they are in the class: "To learn more about nonprofits (good) and how to cover them intelligently (great) when they wind up having some public scandal (ouch, again)."

SROI - step by step

Got an email a couple of days ago asking for some help in calculating Social Return On Investment (SROI). I noted that a single SROI formula in nonprofits is kind of like the Unifying Theory in physics. It is everyone's wish to have one formula, and lots of people have ideas, but a single formula hasn't yet emerged.

That having been said, I knew that I really hadn't looked at the issue in about six months, so I set out to take a look at the current work. Found some good stuff, some bad stuff, some things that were too broad, some that were too narrow.

But I really liked the work done by the Center for Technology in Government in Albany. They have put together a step by step case for Return on Investment in Technology that includes a really excellent look at SROI as one of its appendices. It's simple, yet pretty complete.

Remember that SROI in some form or other is becoming more and more prevalent in funder thinking. They are asking (and now attempting to calculate) "Where can I get the most Good (G) for my investment (I) ?"

It's a question we need to be ready to both calculate and answer. This means we not only need to know the formula that is most realistic for our service(s), but also be able collect the data on a regular, reliable basis so that we have a statistical foundation to stand on.

I know that some still find it offensive (or overwhelmingly difficult) to try to measure good in dollars and sense or pounds and pence, but we live in the world we live in. Get ready.

Readings on Ethics, Conscience and Leadership

My book clubs are reading two great books this month. The underscore again, the need for good leadership and how it is not just a matter of following a checklist, or mouthing some mantra. Good leadership starts from within, from having the right moral compass, from leading by example, from doing the right thing, day in and day out.

My dad used to say: "99% of the time the easy part is knowing what's right to do. The hard part is actually doing it."

Here are the books:
The Light of Conscience, by Bill Shore
The Servant Leader , by James Autry

And, as an aside, the February issue of the Mission-Based Management Newsletter will be on Leadership. Should be finished and online later today or tomorrow.

Tent? Check. Backpack? Check. Overcount? Check, check, check.

Great. The Boy Scouts are back in the news. The Greater Birmingham Scout Council is being investigated by the FBI for allegedly inflating its recruitment numbers, creating fake units, etc. all apparently to chase more money from funders including the local United Way. Here's a news article.

While I am not happy about this, I suspect that when all is said and done one of the root causes will be arbitrary outcome measures from the funders. I would not be at all surprised if the United Way and other funders were paying for growth, and this pressure led to the temptation to pad numbers. Let's just add 100 or so this year. Next year they want a 10% growth, OK we can do that....and like anyone knows, compounding whether in interest on your mortgage, or lying about past facts and needing to exceed those facts can be a bitch.

No, I'm not blaming the United Way for asking for outcomes. But there may well be a lesson here for funders. Asking for outcomes without giving nonprofits the skills and tools to really count or achieve them is a recipe for cheating. And, as the late pres Reagan famously said: "Trust, but verify."

One more thing: The FBI is investigating the Boy Scouts? The F B I? Don't they have terrorists to catch, or a computer system to fix? I don't get that. I'm pretty sure that this would be the job for the local district attorney, or even the state Attorney General, but the FBI? Huh.

Good reading

I got the latest issue of Comtech Review which is a compendium of all kinds of stuff revolving around tech and nonprofits. Worth a look, and I have a couple of individual article recommendations.

Innovation in Nonprofit Technology: NPower in Arizona

and

The Champaign Urbana Community Wireless Network

both are worth the read....very interesting stuff for you to be thinking about.

Validation for thinking outside the box

The new issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy came with some interesting press clippings...validation, really for the outside the box thinking I've been promoting for years.

First is an article in "The Nation" about using social entrepreneurism to help charitable causes. Old stuff to most readers, I know, but nice to see it acknowledged in the for-profit mainstream press. The article is worth a quick read.

Second clipping is from "Fast Company" the entrepreneur's mag. The current issue has a profile of Ashoka, the wonderful international social entrepreneurship organization. Take a look at this as well.

Again, if we want to do good mission, we have to think of new ways. Check these out.

Too Many Charities?

Last issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy had a great article on the growth of 501(c)(3) charities in the U.S. and posed the question---are there too many? Is the field getting too crowded?

Here's what this translates as to me:
The view from the current nonprofit staff and boards, and funders:
Oh. My. God. Too many nonprofits means that we have more competition for donors, more competition for volunteers and staff, more competition for funders. And, these newbies, what do they know. They just don't do things the traditional way. Let's see if we can restrict them......

From the perspective of a donor, end-user.
Hmmm, lots of choices, sometimes confusing (like trying to figure out what sub-group of yogurt to buy at the grocery store), but it's nice to know if one doesn't work, I can go to another.

From my perspective:
Choice is good, new organizations innovate better than existing ones, markets will rule, competition breeds better services for the end-users, which to me, is what it's all about.

Ultimately, the more organizations, the better. Will some new orgs fail? Sure, and that's OK. Will some existing ones fail? You bet, and it's about time. Is that easy on the staff and board? Nope, and having been downsized myself, I am not unsympathetic here at all.

But the bottom line for all nonprofits should never be the continued employment of the staff or the endless feelgood of the board and volunteers. It should be about putting the best possible mission out the door to the most people. Competition helps that, so bring it on.

Don't bug me.....

Sorry for the long lapse. I looked at the blog last night and was blown away to see it's been 10 days.....and I've been online for most of them. My bad.

Interesting discussion on the Nten listserv the past week or so about the number 50%. That's the percentage of current online tsunami donors who don't want to get more information about the organization, or further updates, or newsletters, or the like. The discussion has been heavily weighted to people who are shocked, just shocked that the percentage is so high...What's wrong!?!?!

Frankly, I'm amazed it's that low. As one poster noted, we really don't know what a good follow-through amount SHOULD be. It's like the regularly decried 50% of marriages ending in divorce. Awful, awful, awful say the critics. Now, I agree that divorce when there are kids IS awful, but we really don't have any baseline data to say what the divorce rate SHOULD be. After all, all of us do stupid things, and some marriages SHOULD end. So is 50% amazingly good or shockingly low? Hmmm.

Back to the Nten issue, this highlights for me again that we need to give people what they want, not tell them what they need. Many posters were whining about "people NEED to know what we do!" etc. While the cause may be just, the market says people will read/give to/ learn/attend/ buy what they want.

My suggestion to the agencies who are receiving an unprecedented number of email addresses from the donation surge is to covet them, find out what they WANT, and why they checked yes, not to bemoan those who checked no.

Markets rule. Even in charity.

Undercover

Today I go undercover to investigate the American Health Care System!

Not really, I just get reconstructive surgery on my busted ankle. Probably offline for a couple of days with what I am told is a model of modern pharmaceutical magic in my system. Don't trust any posts here the rest of today and tomorrow!

Go, Go, Go......

I'm getting my wish:....as of Friday, private citizens in the US have given $337 million just to American charities for tsunami relief, closing in on the GOVERNMENT's pledge of $350 million. This caused Colin Powell to reiterate his pledge that more will be coming (despite White House silence) Ha! Let's keep at it and , as I said in my post last week, do what the Brits did- embarrass their government through their own generosity to help more. Go, Go GO!

Here's a great list of good charities (not all American) from Google.

About the US charity notation above--if you gave to Doctor's Without Borders, or Ashoka, or some other foreign charity, good for you--but that didn't count in my $337 million number--so we have almost certainly given more than our government.....

Flying Buffalos

I've just finished Flight of the Buffalo, Soaring to Excellence, Learning to Let Employees Lead, By Stayer & Belasco. It's a pretty fast read, broken up a bit by their writing style, but the basic book and ideas are excellent, in no small part because they agree with what I've been teaching for 25 years!

The basic idea is that organizations who value line employees, understand that they do the really important work, that they are closest to the customers, that they will give more if they are empowered, these organizations succeed. I call it Bottom-Up Management, the authors talk about a rake turned upside down...same thing. And still true.

As a manager, or a supervisor, your job is to get the resources that the people you supervise need in their hands and let them do their jobs. With accountability, and with support, of course, but let them do their job. And when the people you supervise come to you with an idea, don't blow it off because "I"m the boss", remember that wonderful line from John Chambers, the CEO at Cisco, who says, "No one of us is as smart as all of us."

Listen to your employees. Let them make decisions and hold them accountable. Use all of the resources of the people you have recruited as staff and volunteers, not just the part below their necks.

For more on this, here are some postings from my website on this idea.

http://www.missionbased.com/ideas/management.htm#stars

http://www.missionbased.com/ideas/management.htm#information

Finding tech help

I get asked a lot about tech questions by clients, and people who write me on AllExperts.com. Where can I get tech help? how do I find it? who can I trust? are all pretty common questions. And, I have two starting places for pretty much everyone....

TechSoup's Tech Finder, which is terrific., and NPower's local consultant group finder

If you need tech help, start with your local United Way, Community Foundation, or Management Services Organization. Talk to your state association of nonprofits, your peer organizations, and see what's out there. Tech help is often a call or two away for a small organization, and you can find competent people who do good work for reasonable costs. And remember, with complex things like tech and HR, you get what you pay for. Don't ask for too much for free......

When you wish upon a list.....

A few weeks back, I blogged about DonorsChoose, the wishlist for teachers set up by the Omidyar.com group. Great stuff, but at the present, only for teachers in certain metropolitan areas.

What about everyone else? Well, the great and wonderful and always intriguing Craigslist is there to help. Way back in 2001, Craigslist started a Wishlist for Schools and Nonprofits. This is for organizations throughout the US, and matches up orgs in need with people who want to help.

A wonderful, helpful service, and one that I knew about...but one that had slipped my aging brain.

While you are at the site, check out the Craigslist Foundation as well. Help for new organizations! Thanks, Craig!

Humbled....

So I'm out for my normal evening walk with my dog, and I did a dumb thing: I slipped and fell. And fell badly. And dislocated, as well as broke, my ankle. Ouch.

Off to the ER, where I had a customer service experience that ranged from hideous (the x-ray tech who continued to jerk around my literally flopping foot, even though I was "expressing my pain" audibly) to exquisite (Jan the nurse, and the ortho resident), and then went home. Home to wait 6-9 days (immobile) for the swelling to go down BEFORE I can have surgery to put plates, pins and any other hardware that's left around in the OR into my ankle.

Today, I'm slowly realizing what it's like to be disabled. Understand that I've worked with people with disabilities all my life; my sister is profoundly retarded and in a wheelchair, I strongly advocated for the ADA, so I KNOW all of this, but now, I get to experience it. Steps that were easy yesterday are nearly insurmountable today. The idea of traveling on a train (just how DO I up those steps?) or an airplane (must jam casted foot under seat in front of me...) give me pause, to say the least.

Hence I've slowed down my entire outlook on the next 8 weeks considerably. And, I realize yet again, how much I really need other people. I HATE depending on other people for physical/personal things. I always have. Now, I have to....Good lesson, I suppose.

Humble pie by the plateload, and it's good for me!

Check back here in a few days and see if my posts drool with boredom or generally seem stir crazy..if they do, send me a comment telling me to shape up!

Hope for Relief Efforts

Like everyone, I am appalled and saddened by the disaster in South Asia. I hope every reader either has made, or is seriously considering making, some kind of contribution to the aid/rebuilding. My personal goal is for the US to be like the Brits--there, the CITIZENS have already given more than the government, thus embarrassing the government into doing more!

My other concern is for how the NGO's respond. Everyone remembers how much the Red Cross botched the post 9-11 aid effort. How will so many NGOs do with this massive effort in 10 countries, many of whom already have good NGO infrastructures. Will there be turf wars? Probably. Will money get siphoned off into the wrong things? With that much money, almost certainly.

But my hope is that the media and the watchdogs will really watch, report and demand transparency. Because the people affected by the disaster need our help now, and they'll need it for a long, long time to come.

Oh, here's a great list of ways to help from the Google website: http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html

Nonprofit Resolutions for 2005

Happy 2005 to everyone! In the hope that this will be the most successful year ever for your not-for-profit/NGO, I have put together eight new year's resolutions for you to consider adopting. If you have other suggestions to add to this list, please post a comment!

1. I will keep my organization focused on enhancing our ability to provide high quality mission.

2. I will keep my organization focused on doing things we're REALLY good at (our core competencies).

3. I will seek funding sources that pay us a fair price for what we do, and don't burden us with unreasonable oversight. Put another way: I will not allow our organization to "chase the money."

4. I will increase the amount of reading/training/practice/review that our staff and board do this year. We will move toward becoming a life-long learning organization.

5. We will take at least one significant organizational risk on behalf of the people we serve this year.

6. We will listen more, and more seriously, to all of our customers, including our payers.

7. We will improve our organizational transparency, and be even more accountable for our organizational decisions.

8. We will try to improve the value we provide to our end users and our customers a little bit every single day.

9. I will personally lead by example, expressing the values of my organization through my actions and words.

Fam is all home

Everyone is home, from Ann Arbor & Seattle. While they are here, I'm offline. See you in the New Year.

A free, online organizational self-assessment

Here's an early holiday gift....the Wilder Organizational Stewardship Self-Assessment, based on my new book Nonprofit Stewardship.

The self-assessment walks you through all the key areas necessary to make sure you are stewarding your organization's resources well, and gives you a score at the end. It's free, so give it a whirl!