Social Good Instigators Podcast

Latest Episodes:

NLN15: Reflections on a Nonprofit Succession Planning Process with Richard Johnson Jan 18, 2016

Show notes

We have as our guest this episode of the Nonprofit Leaders Network Podcast, the Reverend Richard Johnson. Richard, who's better known as Richard "Stonefingers" Johnson to fans of his gospel/folk/blues style of music, is the President and CEO of Christian Formation Ministries (CFM for short) based in New Albany, Indiana, and a volunteer chaplain at Henryville Correctional Facility.

The focus of our discussion is the area of succession planning; the impact of a change in leadership on a nonprofit and how leaders themselves can transition out of that leadership role.

Having been involved in prison ministry for over twenty years, the principal focus of Christian Formation Ministries actives is in two key programs - supporting and mentoring those transitioning from prison to free society and a mentoring program for the children of inmates.

Here are some of the main topics from our wide-ranging discussion:

* Recognizing When It's Time to Turn over the Reins * Determining What to Look for in a Successor * Creating a Transition Plan Recognizing that a Long-Term Commitment will Result in Increased Outcomes

Find more information on the podcast at www.SocialGoodInstigators.com.

NLN14: Nonprofit Collaboration, Success and Marketing with Lori Manns Jan 04, 2016

Show notes

Lori Manns is our guest in this episode of our Nonprofit Leaders Network Podcast. Lori is the founder and President of the nonprofit youth foundation 'Live Healthy and Thrive' and CEO of Quality Media Consultant Group.

Our main topics for discussion are on the subjects of marketing and nonprofit collaboration, and how these can help nonprofits go further, faster.

Live Healthy and Thrive Youth Foundation, is an organization focused on fostering and promoting children's health in and around Atlanta, Georgia. They educate children on healthy lifestyle habits so they avoid obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. Their goal is to help them get healthy for life.

Here are some of the key points from our varied discussion:

* The Importance of Visibility and Sharing About the Need * Collaborating Can Help Nonprofits Move Further, Faster * Focusing on Impact, Not on Programs * Be Fun and Engaging and Kids Will Gravitate Towards It

Find more information on the podcast at www.SocialGoodInstigators.com.

NLN13: Managing Complex Nonprofits with Dr Tuck Tinsley Dec 14, 2015

Show notes

In this episode of the Nonprofit Leaders Network Podcast series our guest is Dr Tuck Tinsley, President since 1989 of The American Printing House for the Blind (APHB) which is based in Louisville, Kentucky. The world's largest non-profit organization creating educational, workplace, independent living products and services for people who are visually impaired, it was founded back in 1858.

Funded by an annual budget allocation of $25 million a year from Congress they provide services to almost 62,000 register students, have 144 ex officio trustees covering those students in the fifty States and outlying areas, and an eleven strong Corporate Board. They also provide services to the Library of Congress and the IRS. In the interview we explore a number of the issues that managing such a very busy and complex nonprofit can present. Here are some of the highlights.

Being Open to Suggestions and Scaling Impact

As an historic and long established organization largely run by educators, but working in a fast paced and changing field, we were very fortunate in 1997 to have been introduced to Toyota to see if they could help us with the production side of the business. They 'adopted' us as an organization and and for six years we had their process engineers here. That helped us see that whilst for many years we had been doing good work we were not that efficient, or innovative. So we examined, listened, learned and applied that. Our product offering went from ten in 1996, to twenty-one new products in 1997 and we have averaged eight-five new products in the last five years, to better serve our customers.

Dividing Responsibilities to Manage Fast-Paced Change

Last year we did a study which showed that the biggest change in education is technology, so it was essential that we developed and keep up to date an efficient technology strategic plan across all our thirteen specialist project areas including early childhood, tactile graphics, braille, low vision etc. We now have a team that works to develop android and iOS programs, and integrate other growing areas such as You Tube etc. into our offering. We have also added into that a seed technology endowment to see if we can get donors to match some of it, and use that to underwrite some of the products and the research. That will be very beneficial.

Don't Create Everything Inside & The Importance of Listening

We also learnt from Toyota to really engage with and listen to our customers needs and ideas, just because we didn't have the idea doesn't mean to say we can develop and produce it. So we now go from a teacher saying "Hey it would be great if you could produce something that would do this" to identifying that need, developing a prototype to address that, pilot testing, field test and produce it. We schedule a review for five years to see if it's still needed, or if it's obsolete. These processes made a huge difference to how we operate.

It's okay for nonprofits to use corporate methods and experience to help them be better nonprofits. The greatest feeling in the world is to hear the successes of those you've served through the things you're providing for them.

Find more information on the podcast at www.SocialGoodInstigators.com.

NLN12: Transforming a Nonprofit Organization with Ellen Rosenthal Nov 30, 2015

Show notes

In this episode of the Nonprofit Leaders Network Podcast series we welcome Ellen Rosenthal of Conner Prairie, close to Indianapolis, Indiana.

Conner Prairie has transformed from a very traditional outdoor history museum into a vibrant, busy family and educative destination, providing immersive learning about nature, technology, arts and crafts and the natural environment, all in a historical context. They are also the summer home of the Indianapolis Symphony. With visitations last year of just over 360,000 they are now one of the most visited outdoor history museums in the country.

Here are some of the highlights from our talk:

RETHINKING PURPOSE OPENS DOORS TO GREATER IMPACT

We believed at Conner Prairie that we were educating visitors by spewing information at them, but we were turning them off; they really didn't want to take in reams of information when they were trying to have a fun day out. So we had to rethink what we were really trying to do, what was our mission and function in the community.

We used taped recordings of honest visitor experiences to show how they were confused and bored with our current offering, and how, when we changed that to encourage people to explore, be hands-on, and follow their interests, it resulted in much deeper engagement and satisfaction. It enabled us to move from what we thought we were doing into understanding what we really could accomplish, and that became the start point for our transformation.

STOP ASSUMING – AND HAVE A GREATER IMPACT

As hard as we try as organizations to make assumptions about what our clients, customers or visitors think, until we really observe their behavior, stopping talking to ourselves, and honestly look at what is happening we will not get a true picture. We have to go beyond focus groups and traditional feedback forms, and find ways to look at how people are actually behaving, responding to our offerings. It is hard to do, but essential to bring about true transformational change.

BE PATIENT. BIG CHANGES DON'T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT

At Conner Prairie we started this change in 2003. It probably took six or seven years for everyone to be really on board, including managing a significant governance dispute; when you start something like this you are in for the long-haul. Alongside the mission and offering change, there was a lot of other realignment and skills diversification happening at the same time. When you are working at capturing the hearts and minds of the employees and volunteers at a non-profit through periods of major change it can be a long and hard process. Their motive for being with you in the first place relates directly to their own identify and their belief in what you are doing. Being sensitive to that and making significant change to your organization takes time and sustained effort.

Visit www.SocialGoodInstigators.com for the transcript and additional show notes.

ocialGoodInstigators.com for the transcript and additional show notes.

NLN11: Adaptive Approaches to Nonprofit Change with Mark Clark Nov 16, 2015

Show notes

Our guest this episode of the Nonprofit Leaders Network Podcast series is Mark Clark, CEO of Generations for Peace, the leading global non-profit peace building organization, which he joined in 2011. Mark has been a corporate lawyer and served as a British Army Officer, and his diverse experience includes humanitarian and emergency relief work, sustainable development, youth leadership, post conflict transition and democratic governance.

Generations for Peace is dedicated to sustainable conflict transformation at the grassroots level, and empowers volunteer leaders of youth to promote active tolerance and responsible citizenship in communities experiencing different forms of conflict and violence across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.

Here are some of the highlights from our wide ranging discussion –

Permanent Change Requires Long-Term Commitment

Peace building is a long-term process. It needs long-term commitment by us to the volunteers we are supporting and to their communities. Over the last eight years we have trained just under 8,900 volunteers with an average age of between 25 and 35. We want to be working in communities with them for many years, and to really see a deep transformation of the conflict dynamics in any particular case, and be able to seize emergent opportunities for progress as they arise, year-by-year.

The Adaptive Change Process

We focus is on where we can start to build relationships via our youth leaders, knowing that their influence may be small at the beginning. Starting with a focus of just moving from A to B, then B to C and so on, adapting to change as we go. We use the adaptive process of gaining trust, gaining acceptance, and gradually rolling out different forms of activities to allow our volunteers to really gain access to people throughout the chain of influence in their locations.

Finding Funding for Non-Definite Processes Requires Education

Our adaptive, step-by-step approach means that we have to make a big effort to educate our donors. We have to have evidence of the impact our actions are having. Are they sustainable, are they cost effective? With those big questions in mind, we devote a lot of energy into our monitoring and evaluation; of the people running programs, direct participants and also the wider community who are touched or impacted by those directly involved. That depth and breadth of review gives much richer, more compelling data and evidence.

Being Adaptable Means No Mistakes (Just Learning Experiences)

We have an organizational culture where making mistakes is okay. To learn from those mistakes we include in our program cycles space for learning and reflection. If you can build that into your routines and the way your teams work, then you have the opportunity to turn what may seem to be mistakes into, probably, the most valuable learning that will drive your innovation and implementation.

Find more information on the podcast at www.SocialGoodInstigators.com.

NLN10: Vision and Nonprofit Impact with Dave Irby Nov 02, 2015

Show notes

Davy Irby the founder of Surge International is our guest in this episode of the Nonprofit Leaders Network Podcast series. Dave has travelled the world as a soccer coach, or football coach as it would be called in other parts of the world. He is a missionary using the powerful platform of soccer to share a message of love and hope in over fifty countries. Holder of a USA Soccer A Coaching license and a Masters degree in Teaching, Dave founded Surge International in 1991. Surge currently works in eight countries, including Burundi, where Dave is headed next. To access a transcript and links to resources mentioned in today's interview visit http://nonprofitleadersnetwork.com/nln10/.

We covered a wide range of subjects in our discussion. Here are some of the highlights.

DEVELOPING A VISION Often, vision is a process. The vision for me was God given. I was coaching soccer and I began praying for what God would want me to do, and one of my players said. "Why don't you bring the soccer team down to Mexicali with our outreach group to play some games …a game in the men's prison and the boy's prison in the village?" So we did, and that first step of faith of a five-day trip led on the following year to a twenty-three-day jaunt to five or six countries. I felt called into youth soccer full time without knowing hardly He was doing it. I think the vision shapes over time and it changes and morphs as you stay with it.

MEASURING IMPACT We measure the impact that our work is having both through informal feedback that we receive by staying, for example, in the trenches looking into peoples eyes and seeing the how privileged we have been to bless them, and through some formal processes we have in place. We get written reports from, say, Burundi of things which are happening when we are not there and other forms of feedback. Mostly though we kind of have a feel after years of doing this what's working and what's not, and that combined with the feedback helps us decide whether to continue with a project or not.

KEEP FAMILY FIRST I am what I'd call a random visionary. I am all over the place, and there are no set hours. When you run nonprofits I think you really need to manage your time. You need to ensure that you make time for your family, as well as everyone else you tend to want to help. Set aside time, make formal appointments in your diary, carve them out time; sit down face to face as a family communicating with no other distractions, which in this day and age is hard. These are things that I think have really helped.

Find more information on the podcast at www.SocialGoodInstigators.com.

NLN9: Board Engagement and Sustainability with Pamela Darnall Oct 19, 2015

Show notes

Our guest this episode of the Nonprofit Leaders Network Podcast series is Pamela Darnall, CEO with Family and Children's Place, which she joined in 1994, becoming its CEO in January 2014. Pam helped lead the merger of 2 organizations in 2008 to create Family and Children's Place and has held leadership positions with these organizations for more than 20 years. Family and Children's Place works with children and their family members who have been exposed to, or are vulnerable to child abuse or family violence, serving between 5,000-6,000 people every year.

Here are some of the highlights from our discussion –

Reach Better Decisions by Providing Knowledge to Board Members

We can sometimes become a little challenged with our own board because we expect them to have the level of knowledge of our field that we have. We can forget that these are very busy people who have their own professions and skills but not, necessarily the same in-depth experience in our area. We take the route that it is our job to fully inform the board, not to assume knowledge, to help them understand the issues we are presenting and provide clear supporting information so that the board members can make very informed decisions.

Ways to Stay in Touch with Board Members

There are some very simple ways that can be done, for example, I try to have coffee or lunch with each board member individually at least once a year, as we have just over 30 board members that's a lot, but it is important and makes a real difference.

I also try to keep in contact with them at board meetings, not just around the meeting table.

We have also started to work on getting the board members connected with each other so that they feel like a team, sharing why and how they are personally connected to the mission.

Board Members Calling Donors (Just to Say Thank You)

A really exciting thing happened when, at a recent board meeting, we gave each board member the name and phone number of two donors, and took 10 minutes out of the meeting for them to call those donors and say Thank You. Everyone did it and afterwards felt that it was a really great way for them to be better connected with those who support us. We are going to try and do that at each meeting, it really got them engaged and talking about what we do.

For the full transcript and show notes visit www.SocialGoodInstigators.com.

NLN8: Advocacy and Collaborations with Broc Rosser Oct 05, 2015

Show notes

Our guest today is Broc Rosser, Executive Director of the Florida Nonprofit Alliance to discuss advocacy, lobbying and collaboration.

Broc has held a wide variety of roles in nonprofit and government sectors in Florida. He is passionate about creating an informative, effective organization to support, promote and strengthen the extensive nonprofit sector there. With an exceptional record in public policy, advocacy, government relations and strategy he is excited to use those skills to help this young organization provide a united voice for nonprofits in Florida on legislative policy and advocacy.

Here are some discussion highlights:

Working together creates a stronger voice – When the state of Florida was passing a major bill relating to Solicitation and Contribution, it was clear this would have great impact on the nonprofit community through increased transparency and accountability. The Alliance, because of our partnerships, was able to be a go-to resource for the state charity regulators to make the bill be the best it could be for all parties and help the nonprofit industry gain trust and respect.

Nonprofits are an essential part of our community – The state of Florida has over 76,000 nonprofits with about 70 billion in revenue, that's huge, and accounted for at least 5.5% of the state workforce. It's essential that legislators understand the importance of this contribution to the economy. Government contracts extensively with nonprofits to deliver services and meet needs that they cannot, and cannot live without the nonprofit world serving clients across our communities.

Nonprofits CAN lobby – Lobbying has become a dirty word in some people's minds but even a nonprofit 501c3 is allowed to lobby. Lobbying is effectively asking someone to take a certain position on a bill, as opposed to advocacy which is about raising awareness and educating on the impact of a bill. It can get a little in the weeds there, when it comes to lobbying there are some great state non-profit associations like mine to help with very specific examples a nonprofit might have with lobbying and understanding the various limitations.

Building Partnerships – Rather than just looking for partnerships focused on funding, also look for ones to help further your mission, perhaps a well-respected product or program could become a model for different working relationships and collaborations beyond the traditional ways. Partnering with a group that works with your target market that could use your services. Think of a new creative way to do that.

Find more information on the podcast at www.SocialGoodInstigators.com.

NLN7: Collaborations with Margo Knight Sep 21, 2015

Show notes

In this episode Margot H. Knight, Executive Director of Djerassi Resident Artists Program, shares about collaboration, sabbaticals, and learning as you go. Margot considers herself to be the luckiest woman in the arts world. After 35 years and six jobs in the arts and humanities, she now lives and works on a mountain south of San Francisco surrounded by artists and redwoods and earth and sky at one of the foremost artist residency programs in the world. Since 2011 she has served as the Executive Director of Djerassi Resident Artists Program.

Here are some highlights:

Focus on What You Have in Common - Let's not look at what divides us, let's look at the things that we share and what we are trying to do with our missions and work to expand those ways in which we can work together.

Collaboration: You Don't Need Permission - If you do not feel like you are powerful enough that people will say yes to your invitation, do a smaller invitation at first and then expand the circle and expand the circle and expand the circle and take that all information as good approach.

Collaboration: Take Time to Build Consensus - I like to have a conversation that does not rush to a decision too quickly. I like to hear from anybody: what is the problem, what do you see as happening with you and your organization? So what, what does that mean? What impact that is having on your organization, good, bad, indifferent? How do you feel about it? Now what can we do? The biggest mistake we make is rushing to the decision part too quickly. Everybody has got to be able to talk. If you go through this process you are getting pushed up the hill backwards rather than trying to drag everyone along with you.

Whispers, If Not Attended To, Can Become Big Problems - Every problem you have is a whisper you ignored.

Find more information on the podcast at www.SocialGoodInstigators.com.

NLN6: Identifying Your Why with Andy Perkins Sep 07, 2015

Show notes

This is the Nonprofit Leaders Network Podcast Episode 6. Today we're talking with Andy Perkins, Executive Director of BestWA. BESTWA works in Liberia, West Africa providing food, medical care and education for children. Here are a few highlights:

WHAT IS YOUR WHY? My why was I would look after these kids, I'd go over there and I would look at these kids and I would think about the old George Bernard Shaw quote, some people look at these children and they would ask why? Why are they this way? And I would look at these children and see their future and say why not?

IDENTIFYING YOUR WHY PROVIDES FOCUS. I think really understanding why keeps me from just seeing the black hole of needs. You can drive yourself crazy trying to start a program to meet this need, a program to meet that need. We had things we were doing for adults and we backed off all of that because our focus is basically birth to early 20's and our focus is providing opportunity for these children because you can't do everything. It would be nice but you can't. It can really take up a lot of energy and funds doing work that's not focused on your goals and on your why.

MOTORBIKES CAN SAVE LIVES. Then we recognized that, on foot, you might be able to carry one and walk with two. But if he had six or seven kids needing the clinic, you'd take the worst ones and leave the rest of them. Well we get motor bikes for all of the feeding site supervisors and all of a sudden they could take all the kids to the clinic. They can make multiple trips, no big deal. Those little motorbikes are saving lives. We've gone 20 months without losing any children. That's really exceptional in a country where the mortality rate from one month to five years is 23.8%, almost one in four.

Find more information on the podcast at www.SocialGoodInstigators.com.

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