Succession Planning on Your Radar? Participate in this Month's NFP Pulse and Get Free Report

Given the already stretched resources faced by nonprofits in addition to impending shortages due to the exodus of baby boomers from the labour market, we thought that succession planning would be an appropriate topic for this month's Not-for-Profit Pulse.

Specifically, this edition of the Pulse looks at the extent to which nonprofits are investing in succession planning activities and how important they feel succession planning is to the long-term success and viability of their organization.

Please take 5 minutes right now to participate in this valuable initiative. Your input will be analyzed along with the results of other not-for-profit professionals with the subsequent analysis shared back with the not-for-profit community on the ARC blog. Access your link to the survey below and please complete no later than Tuesday September 13:

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE

Your responses will be kept strictly confidential and, as thanks for your input, you will receive a complimentary PDF copy of the highlight report following our analysis of the results.

So that you can see for yourself how valuable an initiative this is, please accept with our compliments access to the following recent editions of the NFP Pulse highlight reports by clicking here.

Like any research, the depth and accuracy of the findings depend on the number of responses we receive. We want to improve the robustness of the results for NFP Pulse readers like yourself by growing participation...but we need your help.

PASS IT ON...AND WIN DINNER ON US!

At the end of your survey, you will be given the option to forward a link via email or social media to the NFP Pulse to members of your nonprofit network. As thanks for spreading the word, we will enter your name in a draw for a $100 Gift Card to The Keg Steakhouse for every one of your contacts that completes a survey!

Tick Tock! One More Day to Participate in the NFP Pulse on Revenue Generation

Hi folks!

Just a reminder that there is just ONE DAY left to participate in our November NFP Pulse survey on revenue generation.

Please remember that this is a community-driven initiative.  Without your input, we can't provide back the research you need to help your NFP achieve its full potential.

The survey will take just 5-7 minutes and you will be provided with a free highlight report as a thanks for your participation.

This edition of the not-for-profit pulse looks at current trends in not-for-profit revenue stream generation. Specifically, we will examine some of the ways different NFP's are generating the funding necessary to run their organizations, as well as what is working and what is not. 

Please click here to participate

Don't delay, the survey closes at the end of the day, today (Tuesday, November 30)!


So that you can see for yourself how valuable an initiative this is, please accept with our compliments access to previous editions of the NFP Pulse highlight reports by clicking here.

photo by TonyVC via Flickr

What Keeps You Awake At Night Part 4: Engagement Equity Erosion - What the Heck is it and How Can Nonprofits Avoid it Through Volunteerism?

According to our recent NFP Pulse on volunteerism, volunteer levels are steady or are on the rise for many NPO's across Canada. Speaking with ED’s from across Canada on the trends and issues that are affecting their associations confirmed this trend.

So what’s the problem, you might well ask?

Well, a few of the ED’s I spoke to have admitted to having developed the opposite challenge:  As one individual aptly put it, “we have volunteers coming out the yin yang.” 

Why?  Volunteers benefit from experience, networking and the ability to actively roll up their sleeves and help their NFP achieve its’ goals.  It let's them be "part of the group" and helps them to feel engaged with the organization and what it is doing. 

In many professional and trade associations in particular, the networking benefits are an even greater draw.  The fact that many employers pay membership dues and allow employees to belong to and be active through volunteering in professional or trade associations doesn’t hurt, either.

So the issue in this context is, in fact, too many volunteers and not enough opportunities.

In some ways, this is a great problem to have, but there are inherent challenges as well. Specifically, the individuals I spoke with are having a hard time finding the best possible people to fill the roles that need to be filled without alienating the other would-be volunteers and potentially eroding their desire to engage with the association. 

In other words, they are risking having would-be volunteers feel "left out" and/or unimportant...a big no-no in the nonprofit world.

If you wanted to be fancy about it, one might call this phenomenon Engagement Equity Erosion...Yes, I thought of it myself ;).  What I mean by this is that engagement is a asset that can be built up or diminished over time depending on the choices and actions made by an organization.

One of the ED’s I spoke with is addressing this challenge by asking would-be volunteers to undergo an application process which allows for individuals to be matched to the opportunities best suited to their experience and goals. Another individual emphasized the importance of putting extremely specific terms of reference when advertising a given opportunity to encourage a would-be applicants to weed themselves out...

But I'm not convinced that taking these steps will prevent engagement equity erosion from occuring. 

Are you? I would love to hear from anyone out there that has run into a similar issue:

Engagement is at the core of the value proposition for most associations – How do you avoid engagement equity erosion through volunteerism in your nonprofit?

Photo thanks to charamelody on Flickr

What Keeps You Awake at Night Part 3: It All Comes Down to FOGs and FYGs in Dealing with the Generation Gap

At our CSAE session last week on NFP trends, I asked for a quick show-of-hands to see what the generational makeup was: The results were interesting:

Between 70-75% of the AE’s in the room were baby boomers.  Gen Xers represented pretty much everyone else. Including myself, there were two (2!) of us representing the lonely ‘Y’ contingent.

The most obvious challenge associated with the generation gap, of course, is the aging population. The NFP executives we spoke to know this is going to become a critical issue in the next ten years that will affect their organizations on all fronts.  Some of the comments we’ve been hearing are along the following lines:

• “We’re going to lose 80% of our top management staff in the next 10 years.”
• “We aren’t able to recruit people who want top management roles.”
• “50% of our members are under 35 but the average age of our board is in the mid-50’s.”

A second serious challenge that came to light as I interviewed and spoke with these sector leaders was a glaring clash of values, priorities and perceptions that exists between the older and younger generations.

The symptoms are everywhere:

On the HR and leadership side of the equation, AE’s are concerned about the increasing demands of younger professionals (YP’s) for that thing many of them have heard of (but have not achieved for themselves) called “work-life balance.”

They get that not all YP’s want or are willing to work 50+ hour work-weeks. At the same time, many of these overworked and under-resourced AE’s struggle daily with the overwhelming amounts of work that need to get done.  Reconciling this is a real challenge.

On the membership side, associations are facing a growing number of members who are retiring. In many cases, the retirees aren’t being replaced at the same rate by new, young members. Typically, the reasons for this are two-fold:

• First, there simply isn’t the same number of people entering the professions, trades and industries many associations represent as are leaving it;
• Second, the current association model isn’t drawing young members by actively targeting and meeting their needs.

The cause at the bottom of all of this, as many of the AE’s we spoke to seem to recognize, is a failure to communicate and the annoying tendency we all have as humans to “paint different groups of people with the same brush.” 

One workshop participant summed it up perfectly:

“Most associations have too many FOGS (Freaking Old Guys) and not enough FYGS (Freaking Young Guys). Both think they know everything...but they don’t talk to each other.”

So...what are AE’s doing about these challenges?  Following are some of the actions the individuals we spoke with are currently taking for each key stakeholder group:

Human Resources

• “We try where we can to cross-pollinate so that everybody knows a bit of everything”
• “ We work on an open input so that everybody has an opportunity to contribute”
• “We’re probably going to reformat expectations and demands on the jobs we recruit for”

Board of Directors

• Actively recruiting young leadership to the board: “10 years ago, the average age of our board was in the 50’s. Now it’s between 30 and 40”
• Making sure there are YP’s on committees

Membership

• “Aggressive recruiting” at post-secondary institutions
• Using communications technology that appeals to the younger generations

A few other big ideas that came out our session last Saturday on tackling this issue were:

• Up and down mentoring in recognition that FOGS and FYGS have a lot to teach one another
• Member needs research to redefine how the value proposition has changed and reset programs and services accordingly
• Create a YP leadership group within the association to ensure they have a voice within the organization
• Revise the governance structure to ensure generationally diverse representation at the board level

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with the steps the AE’s we spoke with are doing/considering? Do you have any big ideas to add?

Want up-to-date research on the generation gap and the Canadian NFP sector? Download a copy of the Not-for-Profit Pulse on the Generation Gap, here.

Photo courtesey of Joi Ito on Flickr

Ready or Not! NFP Trends for 2010 and Beyond

After a long journey that involved planes, trains, busses and automobiles, I am back in Victoria post-CSAE 2010. 

Once I catch my breath, I'll be posting on some of the big ideas that surfaced at our session on NFP Trends - A sincere thanks to all of you who joined us at the session and provided your energetic input througout!

I'd also like to extend my appreciation for the many of you who took a moment to let me know that you are, in fact, reading this blog! Its so nice to know that the time I spend doing this social media stuff isn't in vain...now, if only I could get more of you enter into the conversation once in awhile, I'd be a happy woman!

As promised, here is the slide deck from our session. Stay tuned for more in the coming days...