Continuing our member interview series as part of February’s membership drive, I spoke with April Thomas Rose, Executive Director of TreeFolks about the organization and their Greenlights’ membership:

Tara Kirkland, Greenlights: Thanks for talking with me, April!  Can you tell our readers a little about TreeFolks, your mission and what services you provide here in Central Texas?

April Thomas Rose, TreeFolks: TreeFolks grows the urban forest of Central Texas. Through community partnerships, we plant more than 12,000 trees annually to increase the tree canopy. We also provide education to teach the value of the urban forest ecosystem and how to steward this precious resource.

Annually, we distribute 3,600 street trees to 2,000 Austin homeowners through the NeighborWoods program. This is enough trees to line ten miles of street with shade trees that provide not only aesthetic and property value benefits, but tangible benefits for air quality and storm-water management.

Tara: I know TreeFolks has been very active in the wake of the catastrophic fires that hit Central Texas this past fall. Can you tell me more about that?

April: TreeFolks has provided 1,600 free trees to about 530 households in Bastrop County since November 2011. We have two distribution events planned for Oak Hill and Spicewood in March to distribute another 400 trees. We plan to continue this effort in the coming years, since rebuilding a forest requires a sustained planting effort for several years.

Tara: April, in what ways would you say that TreeFolks has benefited from its Greenlights membership?

April: Well, first of all, we have attended many Greenlights events and trainings, such as the Grantsmanship workshop series, and the Bookkeeping series, which both myself and another staffer attended, at the discounted member rate.  Several of our board members have also attended the Board Essentials workshop.

TreeFolks also participated in the Board Summit last year, and recruited a great board member there!  We hope to be able to attend again in 2012 to recruit more new board members.

I am new to nonprofit work, and have had so many things to learn about effectively managing this organization (fundraising, board and staff relationships/development). Greenlights training and information was timely and effective, helping me and our board improve our organization through our executive director transition.

TreeFolks has a successful 23 year legacy of serving the Austin-area but we have much more to do. Development pressure, record heat, drought, insects and disease all threaten our tree canopy. The urban forest needs effective advocacy to remain resilient in the face of so many challenges. Greenlights has given me and our entire organization a better understanding of how to successfully execute our mission and succeed.

Tara: Sounds like you’ve gotten a lot out of your membership!  Would you recommend Greenlights membership to other nonprofits?

April: Yes!  Greenlights builds your professional network. It teaches and exemplifies the best practices of nonprofit management.

Tara: Lastly, do  you have any advice for other nonprofits who might be facing challenges similar to TreeFolks?

April: Identify and promote the strengths and accomplishments of your organization. Look for relationships with government, nonprofits, or businesses where you can work together for mutually beneficial results.

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To learn more about TreeFolks and upcoming volunteer opportunities, visit www.treefolks.org.

Learn more about Greenlights member benefits and join our community today! Join or renew your membership during this month’s membership drive (by February 29) to be entered for a chance to win a free ticket to the Texas Nonprofit Summit (scheduled for September 20-21, 2012)!

Does your nonprofit inspire others to make a difference? Do you have stories to share that could help shape the future? Are you “Fearless”?

DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards

If you answered yes to any or all of the above, then enter your nonprofit in the 6^th Annual DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, generously supported by Cisco, The Case Foundation, and the Nonprofit Technology Network. Video entries are eligible to win up to $14,000 in cash prizes and $6,000 in products divided among the winning nonprofits. Winning videos will be featured on YouTube and the winners will receive free registration to the 2013 Nonprofit Technology Conference. Along with those great prizes, The Case Foundation will also award one $2,500 grant for the most “Fearless” video in each of the four categories: Best Small Organization Video, Best Medium Organization Video, Best Large Organization Video, and Best Storytelling Video.

The DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards were started to promote nonprofits successfully and creatively using video as a catalyst for social change. Over the past six years, Video Award winners have received thousands of dollars in grants and prizes. Just last year, more than 1400 entries were submitted by 821 organizations across the world and prizes were awarded to Post Carbon Institute, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Austin, American Jewish World Service, and Watershed Management Group.

To enter the 6^th Annual DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, you will need a YouTube account and to submit your inspirational, mission-driven, “Fearless” video by February 29, 2012 here. Judges will select and notify the four finalists of each category by March 12, public voting begins through YouTube on March 14, and winners will be announced on April 5.

Don’t forget to submit your film now. February 29 is quickly approaching!

Guest post by Sara Spivey, Chief Marketing Officer, Convio, Inc.
Originally posted on the Integrated Marketing Advisory Board blog

I live in a two name household. I got married after I had already started down a career track and I decided to keep my maiden name for business purposes. My husband was not bothered by this (although interestingly, it bothers my two daughters for some reason) so I’ve never changed it. You would think in this day and age of divorces, remarriages, single parenting, domestic partner parenting and the like, this would not seem to stump ALMOST EVERY SINGLE ENTITY that sends us hard mail, e-mail, and solicits us by phone. But it does. The question I have is WHY???

The answer would appear simple — they don’t take the time to really know who I or my husband is, or how we are associated. This is mildly irritating to me. We’ve been married with two different names for 20 years. You’d think Vendor A would know this by now. It’s also expensive for them. The amount of hard mail recycled (and before recycled, put into a landfill somewhere), emails deleted, and phone messages not listened to is staggering. But the “soft” cost of irritating me is even more expensive. I haven’t bought anything at Vendor A for 5 years. And I won’t, because I think their marketing department is full of idiots who can’t quite grasp the BASICS of householding.

I share this anecdote because it is but one microcosm of the effect that poorly integrated marketing has. Multiply by millions of organizations and billions of people and think about the indirect and direct profit loss. How much higher could the US GDP be if all these organizations captured 1% more revenue? How much more investment in innovation and expansion could be made with a mere single percentage point of gross margin? The impact could be staggering.

There are organizations that do it well, and I reward them richly as my Visa bill would attest. For example, when I log into Vendor B (where we have a shared account), they ask me if I am Michael or Sara. They know what I purchased last, they suggest new items based on what I bought, and when I check out, they thank me. They do the same for my husband. They get a little confused by my teenagers because they buy under both of our credit cards, but all in all, a fantastic integrated experience. Bravo. Vendor B is one of the most profitable retailers in the world, and it isn’t JUST because they are 100% online.

My point is this:  A commitment to building an integrated marketing experience and really understanding your buyers or donors is the best investment you can make in long-term marketing return and customer loyalty. Make 2012 the year you commit to it.

A published author, with dreams of living in Italy when she retires, Sara Spivey serves as the Chief Marketing Officer for Convio. With 25 (±) years of marketing experience Sara knows that listening to the market and what makes clients and buyers happy is the key to success. As a professional marketer, she enjoys developing programs that reveal something to people that they hadn’t really thought about doing, or only dreamed of doing, and then provide them software and services to do it. She believes humor and intellect are important in being successful and with two soon to be teenage daughters, she’s going to need both just to stay ahead.

As part of February’s big membership drive, I had the pleasure of interviewing Irit Umani, the Executive Director of Trinity Center since January, 2010. The Trinity Center has been a member since 2005.

Tara Levy: Hi Irit! Please tell us a little about your organization and its mission.

Irit Umani, Executive Director:  The Trinity Center was created by a parishioner of the St. David’s Episcopal Church, which is located across the street for the main hub of service providers to the homeless population here in Austin. It was created from the community’s commitment to serve the less fortunate and to “love thy neighbor.” The mission of Trinity Center is to serve the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of the homeless and poor in Austin.

Trinity Center offers a sense of belonging to a community; it accepts folks where they are and is open to all no matter their ability and/or readiness to make progress. Trinity Center is based on a spiritual practice of loving all and on a commitment to compassion in action.

Tara: Thanks. Can you talk a little bit more the services you provide that put this compassion into action?

Irit: We offer a short devotional service and breakfast each morning, case management to those who choose it, and some financial assistance aimed at re-establishing lost documents, co-pay for medication, and bus passes

Two days a week we serve women only, because women are the most vulnerable and least served among the homeless population. We offer homeless and poor women a weekly support group, access to showers and to lightly-used clothes.

Trinity Center also provides access to computers, a free-of-charge phone line, a mailing address to those with no address, and computer classes. Twice a week we host Art From the Street—a unique organization that offers a free-of-charge art studio to homeless people.

You know, I came here following nearly twenty years of work in the women movement to end Domestic Violence, and I have deep respect for the huge accomplishments of this movement which is saving millions of lives. And yet, like many other social movements, it started by many small groups of women, often meeting in their own homes, who got together as sisters to change women’s status in society. With the passing of years it moved from sisters helping sisters to professionals helping clients.

It becomes about how many people you can prove that you moved from point A to point B. Trinity Center helps people move from point A to point B by acceptance, by love, AND with professional services. It became for me the dreamed about opportunity to merge my professional life with my spiritual journey and to live with no separation between these two important components of who I am.

Tara: In what ways would you say that Trinity Center benefited from its Greenlights membership?

Irit: First of all, I benefited from the work with Greenlights personally, as Greenlights was hired by the Trinity Center’s Board of Directors to conduct the search for a new Executive Director in 2009, which resulted with me being offered and accepting the position. This is one of the best jobs I have ever had, and so though this is a very personal answer, I am in personal gratitude to Greenlights.

While the board was searching for a new Executive Director, Greenlights placed Jack Nokes as an Interim Executive Director and the work, the order, and the analysis of the organization that he accomplished in six months has been nothing short of a new Director’s dream. Going forward, my hope and plan is to work with Greenlights on the organization’s strategic planning.

Tara: What advice do you have for other nonprofits who might be facing challenges similar to Trinity Center?

Irit: To stay true to their mission and values, to seek professional assistance, such as Greenlights offers, when needed, to cultivate heart & truth-based relationships among themselves, and to place the people served at the top of their priorities.

Tara: Would you recommend Greenlights membership to other nonprofits? Why?

Irit: With no hesitation. Because Greenlights takes the time to study the organization and to professionally analyze their level of existence and their needs and then offers the tools that enable an organization to move forward and grow.

Learn more about the great work of the Trinity Center or get involved at www.trinitycenteraustin.org.

Learn more about Greenlights member benefits and join our community today!
Join or renew your membership during this month’s membership drive to be entered for a chance to win a free ticket to the Texas Nonprofit Summit (scheduled for September 20-21, 2012)!

Guest post by Sharon Reece, Member of Greenlights’ Interim Executive Director Pool

In these times of funding limitations and budget cutting measures for ALL nonprofits, one of the tempting targets for the “budget cutting ax” is always the staff development line items. After all, they might not be the items that show IMMEDIATE results like buying food for our clients or paying the utility bills. However, if we as Executive Directors or CFOs analyze our budgets, what is usually the biggest chunk of the expense? The staffing, of course.

While we all search diligently for those staff that come to us with really top level skills (and there are lots of those folks out there job hunting today!) those skills can fast become outdated. In addition, our need to “do more with less” has a tendency to place more and more responsibility on ourselves and our top level managers, leaving them in positions of constantly putting aside the important work of calm, reflective time needed to truly strategize, problem solve for the long term, and give adequate time to our direct reports to keep them functioning at a high level.

I recently worked with the finance and accounting group of a good sized nonprofit. During a two-day retreat, they wanted to focus on team building. Applause to them for still finding resources to actually do the retreat when the dreaded dailies were still waiting for them on their return to the office! In working with the CFO in preparation and during the retreat, one of the issues that came out loud and clear was that she, while being a very capable and talented CFO, struggled daily with the issue of managing her very diverse group and all their “quirks” and issues. “Why,” she lamented, “couldn’t they all just do their jobs without the drama and the constant need for her time and attention.” She felt that she could barely keep up with her high level work, much less supervise the staff and help them be more productive.

Sound familiar? Unless you have a Chief of Staff or Chief Operating Officer, a luxury many smaller nonprofits feel they cannot afford or justify, who among us has not felt that the line outside our door often keeps us from focusing on what we really need to be doing—the high level work and thought that we are so capable of and were hired to accomplish?

I would propose that these scenarios are exactly why Executive Coaching is a crucial investment for EVERY Executive Director and probably for every Senior Manager too.

Benefits of Executive Coaching:

• Builds in dedicated time for the busy executive to take a full stop away from the demands and stresses of the everyday office
• Gives the executive personalized “me” time to discuss and focus on very specific management problems that they may not be able to safely discuss with anyone else in the organization
• Provides an experienced, non-judgmental, non-threatening outsider view to help the executive discuss and consider new, customized management tools and possible solutions to everyday complex management issues
• Provides a regular forum (perhaps at monthly or 6 week intervals) to review progress in use of new techniques and to set new priorities for problem solving

Participants in Executive Coaching usually find that the time and money spent in this very personal type of development is much more beneficial and much more likely to have an immediate impact on their own performance and professional growth than equal time and money spent on group seminars, classes, management publications, etc.

Greenlights’ consultants and members of our Interim Executive Director pool are often able to provide coaching and support. If you are interested in learning more about this, please contact Tara Levy.