power Steering: The Puzzling World of Nonprofits
April 2008
- LIFE in Austin: Important Demographic Trends
- Chutes & Ladders: The Ups and Downs of Nonprofit Life
- Greenlights Top 10
- A Little Charitable Competition Never Hurt Anyone
- Nonprofit of the Month: Goodwill Industries of Central Texas
LIFE in Austin: Important Demographic Trends
By Kim Wilson, Director of Development & Marketing, Greenlights
The Game of LIFE has been around for nearly 50 years, and although it gets a facelift every once in a while, the object remains the same: retire in Millionaire Estates and collect the most Life tiles to win. Along the way, you must get a job, get married, have kids, buy a house, and try to avoid paying taxes. (Hmm, sounds realistic so far). However; even with updates such as rewarding players for recycling or helping the homeless, The Game of LIFE doesn’t really translate to the real world. For one thing, there is virtually no diversity and the maximum number of cars (players) at any one time is six. Six! Imagine Mopac with only six cars on the road during your daily commute. Is this were reality, I think we’d all have lower stress levels! You would have to be living in a cave (or playing LIFE all the time) not to notice the rapid growth we are experiencing in Austin. Try driving through a 78702 or 78704 neighborhood that you haven’t been to in a few months, and I would be surprised if you didn’t see several new multi-family housing units that weren’t there before. The population of Austin doubles roughly every 20 years. But it is the shifts in ethnicity, affluence, and household size that are happening within this overall growth that really define how we as nonprofits should think about community needs and how we should be serving them in the future.
Here are 10 leading demographic trends to be aware of:
1. Majority-Minority city. Since 2005, when the Anglo share of the total population dropped below 50%, no ethnic or demographic group exists as the majority of the city’s population.
2. Decreasing families-with-children share of urban core. Our urban core, with the exception of a few neighborhoods, is becoming almost devoid of married-with-children households. Less than 14% of households in the urban core include children.
3. African American share of population is on the wane. Even as the absolute number of African Americans increases within the city of Austin, its share has been sliding gradually from 15% to 5% in a few decades.
4. Hispanic about 35% of population. Within 25 years it is anticipated that Anglos and Hispanics will represent equal shares of the population, and the impacts of this shift should not be underestimated. The Hispanic populations that are migrating to the Austin area currently are socially-economically diverse, coming as they do for a wide variety of reasons including jobs in the high tech, trade, construction and service sectors. What this population does have in common are larger than average household sizes and a greater number of children per household.
5. The Asian share of the Austin population is skyrocketing. While the general population of Austin doubles every 20 years, the Asian population doubles every 10 years. And the “Asian” share is increasingly diverse with individuals of Indian, Chinese and Vietnamese descent now calling Austin home. This growth is accompanied by emerging clusters in several northeast Austin neighborhoods. It is anticipated that the Asian population will surpass African American population by 2015.
6. Dispersion and flight of African Americans to the suburbs. Historically, African American population has concentrated in east Austin, creating a strong community network of churches, with their valuable community outreach programs. Currently, many people still attend church in east Austin, but there is some concern about what will happen to community services in East Austin if they start building churches closer to where they live.
7. Geography of Hispanics, intensifying urban barrios. Lower east Austin, Dove Springs and St. Johns have all seen a huge population shift over a short 10-year period. Dove Springs has gone from 45% to 80% Hispanic between 1990 and 2000; St. Johns 35% to 70%. Moreover, these concentrations are increasingly defined as being lower-income (and one would assume, in need of greater social services).
8. Austin is becoming increasingly divided politically, culturally, linguistically and economically. Mopac, running as it does from south to north, roughly denotes much of this division.
9. Regional indigent health care burden will continue to grow, and the city’s disproportionate shouldering of the cost will increase as well.
10. Are experiencing intense urban sprawl. Again, this is not surprising, even as we see so many high-rise residential units being built in and around downtown Austin. But these facilities are just a drop in the bucket to what is happening regionally.
This article made possible in large part by City of Austin Demographer Ryan Robinson, and more detailed information is available on his web site. Attend the 2008 Crossroads Conference to hear his ever-popular presentation!
Chutes & Ladders: The Ups and Downs of Nonprofit Life
By Tara Kirkland and Tara Levy, Greenlights
Some of the boardgames we played as kids would turn into boredgames pretty quickly as adults. Chutes & Ladders is an almost never-ending cycle of spinning, moving your game piece forward, up, or down, and spinning again. It did keep us pretty enthralled at the age of four, though.
Then again, sometimes working in a nonprofit doesn’t seem all that different from a game of Chutes & Ladders. Some days can certainly make your head spin. Some days feel like they will never end. And there are quite a lot of ups and downs.
To do well in nonprofits or at Chutes & Ladders, it helps to have stamina, resilience, dogged persistence…and adaptive capacity.
Adaptive capacity is not a new rule we just made up to get an extra spin, but a way to describe the flexibility and determination that are key to moving forward. Adaptive capacity is what helps us monitor, evaluate and respond to our rapidly changing environment, be it on the game board, at work, or in life.
Carl Sussman has identified four features of adaptive capacity, each of which might help you manage the dizzying changes of nonprofit life with more equanimity — and might even improve your Chutes & Ladders game.
How do you spot an adaptive organization? Sussman says to look for:
- External Focus: unwavering attention to the complex and dynamic environment which exists outside the nonprofit’s four walls;
- Network Connectedness: commitment to the strategic alliances and connections that can help organizations more effectively meet mission
- Inquisitiveness: emphasis on acquiring information, and using it strategically to improve performance—being a learning organization; and
- Innovation: the pursuit of new ideas and ways of working so that the organization remains creative, fresh, and relevant.
Adaptive capacity is more of a journey than a destination, something organizations have to keep pursuing over time. It helps to approach the game with a sense of playfulness and humor, since you’re going to be at it for a while. Next time you come up against a major challenge and feel like you’re sliding backwards, laugh. Take another spin. Like as not, the next ladder is just around the corner.
Greenlights Top 10
For this game-themed edition of Power Steering, Greenlights (with some help from the “Fun Team” at College Forward) has put together a list of the Top 10 things you can do to incorporate fun and excitement into your workday. Why not try one of these suggestions the next time you feel yourself falling into a monotonous routine at work?
1. Pack a picnic lunch and ask some co-workers to join you on a picnic in the nearest park, or just a grassy spot outside your building (weather permitting).
2. See how long in one day you can go with out saying the word “nonprofit.”
3. Put together a watch party of The Office during lunch every Friday. It’s a great way for everyone to take a 30 minute break to relax and celebrate the end of the work week.
4. One way to keep fun “top of mind” at work is to keep the instruments of fun “top of desk.” In addition to pictures of family and friends, colorful decorations, and awards, keep a set of crayons on-hand. That way, when a birthday card or a particularly bland looking report ends up on your desk, you can give it the pizzazz it needs!
5. Put a huge jar of jellybeans on your desk for all to share. Nothing tastes as fun as a jellybean.
6. Take regular pauses to look out the window and watch the trees reflect the changing seasons. It’s a great stress reliever!
7. Have "Secret Pal" drawings every other month – staff members choose another staff member's name out of a hat and spend the month leaving inspirational messages and tokens of appreciation for their assigned pal.
8. Have monthly Potluck luncheons in the office – try coming up with a new theme each time, like fiesta, Italian, or breakfast-for-lunch.
9. Facilitate (or bring someone in to facilitate) a fun dance exercise workout during a staff meeting to liven things up and make people get out of their comfort zone and laugh.
10. Fortune Cookie Good-byes (great for if you have interns, AmeriCorps, or temporary staff) – each person who completes their term/employment receives a silver fortune-cookie filled with fortunes written by their colleagues.
A Little Charitable Competition Never Hurt Anyone
By Kimberly Caldwell, Consultant, Greenlights
Admittedly, I am the product of my competitive upbringing. The middle child of three over-achieving girls, I really like to win. And not by a narrow margin – I want to be the undoubted champion of everything.
This may seem at-odds with the nonprofit mentality – working together to build community – but I don’t think so. I am not competing against my fellow nonprofit professional for donors or volunteers or general population brain-share. No, I am competing against poverty, injustice, litter-bugs, disease, apathy, abuse, cruelty to animals, lack of resources, fear, and all of society’s short-comings.
It’s a big game. And I’m going to be honest; all of my competitors got a head start. They have had centuries to contemplate their strategies. Me, just a couple of decades. But I’m not particularly concerned, because my teammates rock. My fellow do-gooders are just as passionate about winning as I am. When we get in line for a good tug-of-war against a foe, we heave in unison, cheering each other on to victory. And it may be a small victory, but it counts to someone besides just me (the needy, over-achieving, slightly obsessive competition freak); it counts to someone who just got to spend the night inside or who will get a shot at a better education – or just a shot that could keep them from getting sick.
Every now and again, we do-gooders need to sharpen our skills. That’s where the Do Gooder Games come in. What are the Do Gooder Games? Only the premier competition for everyone who’s anyone in the Austin nonprofit scene. It’s a winner-takes-all competition for teams of nonprofiteers to earn $400 or more for a charity of their choice by out do-gooding the other do-gooders.
The games, DGG, were born last year as a collaboration between the Young Nonprofit Professional Network of Austin (YNPN), The RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service, and the Nonprofit Education and Networking Association (NENA). The games tested competitors’ knowledge of the nonprofit community, their ability to creatively problem solve, and in one instance, to alphabetize.
But even in our fun we still managed to do good. We not only brought together an incredible group of potential collaborators, but we made some delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that all (except for the one I ate) went to the homeless.
This year’s competition is at Mother Egan’s on April 24 at 6:30 pm. We are finalizing our teams, putting the finishing touches on our games, and getting ready to rock the socks off our nonprofit peers! Come out and support your fellow do-gooders, and bring clothes to donate to a charity TBD.
So no matter who wins this year’s Do Gooder Games, we are all winners for fighting the good fight. Especially me. I am extra-winning.
Nonprofit of the Month: Goodwill Industries of Central Texas
Pretty much every kid I knew growing up played the game Monopoly. Whether you stayed until the bitter end or gave up after an hour, you got to know the game board pretty well with all its properties, jail traps, and especially the “Go” space where you got to collect $200. For those of you who were in it for the long haul, you learned the strategies of the game, such as when to build houses and how to manage all your properties without going bankrupt. If Goodwill Industries of Central Texas were personified and played Monopoly, my money would be on them to win big. They already have the most successful strategies down – their administrative office manages many properties and staff at different branches. As a large and important part of the nonprofit community, Greenlights is pleased to name them our April Nonprofit of the Month.
Goodwill lives by their mission every day to provide “job-related services for people with barriers to employment.” They are committed to helping both youth and adults who face disadvantaged conditions that prevent them from finding work. These conditions include not only physical or mental disabilities, but also homelessness, language barriers, criminal history, and any other condition which prevents them from working in competitive employment. Goodwill offers job training and employment programs to help these individuals find, obtain, and retain competitive jobs in the community.
Goodwill Industries of Central Texas supports their mission in the community by offering revenue-generated businesses. They manage 44 different locations throughout 15 counties, made up of 20 retail stores and 24 attended donation centers and bookstores. They provide staffing, environmental business, and contract services. Of particular interest is their environmental business service, which takes in and recycles computer donations. Through this practice, they divert 250 tons of electronic waste from landfills each month.
This month, Goodwill is conducting its annual “Weigh Good Community Donation Drive,” which they have been doing for about the last eight years in Austin. They’ve set a community goal to reach 725,000 pounds of donated goods in one weekend – last year they exceeded their goal and they hope to do so again this year. This donation drive encourages the entire community to become part of the effort and donate gently used goods, computer systems, and anything else you might turn up during your spring cleaning. Every branch of this Monopoly-like organization is getting involved and geared up to take donations this weekend. April 17-20 you can help Goodwill in their effort to reduce, reuse, recycle, and rework!
Learn more by visiting www.austingoodwill.org.