We’re honored and humbled to have so many recognized and celebrated community leaders in our “family,” each of whom is working in some way alongside Greenlights to strengthen nonprofits and the greater Austin community.

On the evening of March 3, the Austin Under 40 Awards gathered to celebrate some of the community’s most influential movers and shakers including 60 finalists. Our own President and ED Matt Kouri was awarded winner in the Nonprofit and Community Service category. In addition, six nominees and two other award winners are heavily involved with Greenlights, demonstrating that a strong commitment to community service and leadership, for many, starts with the strengthening of our nonprofit sector.

“The caliber of leadership associated with Greenlights and celebrated at the Austin Under 40 Awards is a perfect example of how surrounding yourself with great people leads to great things! Thanks to Matt and everyone at Greenlights for making me (and Explore Austin) better!” said Todd Hanna, award winner in the Youth and Education category and President/CEO of Explore Austin.

Wow! Ain’t it true! We’re so blessed to have such an amazing and accomplished extended family, including you, Todd.

Austin Under 40 Award Winners and Strategic Partners of Greenlights

Matt Kouri, President and Executive Director of Greenlights
Kouri leads Greenlights in strengthening nonprofits and has guided the organization through significant recent growth, including a 133 percent increase in nonprofit consulting business and a 75 percent increase in contributions since 2007. He has led several nonprofit mergers, including Austin Museum of Art with Arthouse, and strategic transformations for Habitat for Humanity, the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber, Komen Austin, Dallas CASA, Texas CASA, and several others. Kouri also leads an organization serving Ethiopian orphans and promoting local adoption. He’s a gubernatorial appointee to the Texas Adoption Review Committee and has volunteered with his church youth group and on several nonprofit boards.

Kristen Wicke, Partner – Maxwell, Locke & Ritter
Wicke has served as a member of Greenlights’ Board of Directors for four years and continues to serve on the board today. She was Greenlights 2011 Board Chair and was influential in leading the development of the Greenlights three-year strategic plan and in guiding the organization through its most successful year ever. Wicke is also a Partner at Maxwell Locke & Ritter where she leads their nonprofit niche by providing high quality services and acting as a trusted business advisor to clients.

Todd Hanna, President/CEO of Explore Austin
Hanna is a longtime Greenlights member and collaborator currently serving on Greenlights’ 501 Council. He’s also the President and CEO of Explore Austin where he works to ensure that all children have the opportunity to experience all that the outdoors has to offer. In addition, Hanna serves on the Board of Directors of Good Shepherd Episcopal School, the Seton Forum, and the LBJ Future Forum.

Austin Under 40 Award Finalists and Strategic Partners of Greenlights

Rob Bridges, Managing Partner at Wortham Insurance
Bridges served on Greenlights’ Board of Directors for six years, was the Board Chair in 2008, and is a current Business Partner and member of Greenlights’ Community Leadership Council. Bridges is a partner with Wortham Insurance and is active in the community as a board member of PLUS (Professional Liability Underwriting Society), a member of the Seton Forum, and a past member of the TCU National Alumni Board.

Sandra Jensen, Co-Founder and Principal at KELL Partners
Jensen is a longtime Greenlights funding partner, technology resource, presenter at the Texas Nonprofit Summit, and is a current Business Partner. A veteran of Cloud-based technology in Austin, Jensen has spent the last 15 years of her career helping early- to mid-stage start-up companies build and grow their service organizations. For the last eight years, she has focused these efforts toward nonprofit, public sector and higher education clients.

Ryan Leahy, Partner at Leahy and Associates Branch of Cornerstone Mortgage
Leahy is a member of Greenlights’ 501 Council. At Leahy and Associates, Leahy has formed a panel of trusted advisors composed of realtors, builders, attorneys, financial planners, CPA’s, and others, providing in-depth knowledge of the economics of the mortgage bond market and core financial planning principals for clients.

David J. Neff, Senior Consultant at Ant’s Eye View
Neff is a Greenlights member, frequent Greenlights workshop instructor and presenter at the Texas Nonprofit Summit, which is jointly produced by Greenlights and OneStar Foundation. Before joining Ant’s Eye View, he was the president of the Social Media Club Austin and a senior digital consultant for a variety of startups and nonprofits. He co-authored “The Future of Nonprofits,” was named “Nonprofit Social Media Marketer” of the year in 2009 by the American Marketing Association, and the Austin American-Statesman named him one of the top 20 social media people in Texas.

Heather Summers Parsons, Development Director for Texas CASA
Parsons is a longtime Greenlights member and collaborator. A fundraiser with 15 years of experience, Parsons currently serves as Development Director for Texas CASA, where she is responsible for raising money for the organization and providing fundraising education and training to the statewide CASA network of 69 programs. She’s President of the Greater Austin Association of Fundraising Professionals chapter, serves as a volunteer with CASA of Travis County, and is a member of the Junior League of Austin and Past President of the Young Women’s Alliance.

Michele Walker-Moak, Project Manager of Applied Material’s Central Texas Community Affairs
Walker-Moak is a longtime Greenlights funding partner and workshop instructor. At Applied Materials, she has led project teams for Global Community Affairs overseeing the company’s education grant funding for Central Texas. Walker-Moak also worked in Applied Materials’ North America Corporate Affairs where her responsibilities included employee communication, media relations, governmental affairs, Internet communications, employee events and large-scale community projects.

Okay, that sounds a bit melodramatic… but I believe it.

Whether or not you choose to embrace it, we are surrounded by a highly-connected, always-evolving social ecosystem that has found its voice online. Our up-and-coming leaders are willing to turn down a car or higher salary for flexibility and connectedness. And, let’s face it, many of us are unprepared for an era where the most important skill is the ability to acquire new skills.

How “Social” Is Your Culture?

The organizations who do not work hard to develop and embrace a social culture will struggle to survive in the coming years and many will fail. So, how social is your culture?

Developing a social organization, or a networked nonprofit, requires a certain type of organizational culture, let’s call it a social culture, that supports the organization in developing and cultivating valuable, long-term relationships, online and off.

You have a Facebook account, right? And maybe you’re using Twitter, or maybe you’ve gotten creative and are using social media in innovative ways. But don’t let the shiny tech toys distract you. The organizations that attempt to be social, but do not evolve their culture, will likely find themselves called out by the social masses. Organizations need to adopt a philosophical commitment to being social, rather than focusing on the tools.

Developing a Values-Driven Social Culture

Where to start? There are certain steps to develop and sustain a winning organizational culture, but how do you ensure that your culture supports your work as a social organization? While there is no single answer that is right for everyone, I’ll share what has worked for us at Greenlights.

At Greenlights, we recently evaluated and modified our core values to ensure that they’re still relevant to our staff and our goals as an organization, many of which are hinged on our ability to develop and sustain valuable relationships between Greenlights and our constituents. Many of our core values, if not all, support our work in developing strong relationships. Particularly, our values of integrity, collaboration, learning and service excellence are integral to our work and our ability to create a social culture at Greenlights.

To incorporate our values at Greenlights, we evaluate each other on them annually and ask value-related questions of all new hires, including our interns. On occasion, we revisit our values and update them to make sure they remain relevant. We post them on our website, in our office and in our individual offices so that our core values are always accessible and top-of-mind.

Developing a “Social Staff”

Another important element to creating a social culture at Greenlights has been to encourage social behaviors among all staff, like monitoring and participating in the conversation online, reading blogs authored by our colleagues in the nonprofit sector, and recommending new ways to enhance our work through social media. We share our listening dashboard with all new hires and encourage everyone to help us engage in social media, with training from me, the Communications Manager.

Leadership and culture go hand-in-hand. To ensure our values and social behaviors are demonstrated by leadership, President and Executive Director Matt Kouri is evaluated by all staff on his demonstration of our values, and he’s active in social media!

You can find Matt on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. He writes for Greenlights’ blog and does great when needed to, ohhhh I dunno, play a Micheal Scott-like character for the video we premiered at our 10^th Anniversary, The Greenlights Office.

And we have room for improvement. We’re currently updating our social media policy and will be sharing it with all Greenlights’ staff, interns and anyone how communicates online on Greenlights’ behalf. I also hope to improve our work in tracking social media data, especially engagement, in our CRM so that we have a better picture of a stakeholder’s full engagement with Greenlights, online and off.

It takes a lot of work, but it seems clear that such efforts are going to be increasingly necessary if Greenlights – and other nonprofits – are to be vital and relevant in years to come.

Do you see the need for such a social culture at your organization?  What tips or ideas do you have about creating social culture in the workplace?

Here are the top blog posts and documents from our resource library in 2011, determined by the pageviews reported by Google Analytics.

Top 10 blog posts:

1. Free Nonprofit Technology Tools!

2. 5 Characteristics of great nonprofit Executive Directors

3. Thank you for an exceptional year at Greenlights!

4. The Parable of the Rich Nonprofiteer: How High is Too High for Nonprofit Salaries?

5. The Board Giving Fallacy – Stop Asking the Wrong Questions

6. Free nonprofit resources: templates, how-to’s, research and tips on best practices

7. Start the Year with a Professional Development Plan

8. The 2 biggest opportunities boards are missing in Executive Director transitions

9. The Young and the Restless? Emerging Leaders Talk Nonprofits.

10. Bloom Where You are Planted

Top 10 resources:

1. The Boards Role in Financial Oversight

2. Nonprofit Financial Policies

3. Board Member Matrix

4. Nonprofit Bylaws

5. Board Job Descriptions

6. Starting a Nonprofit in Central Texas

7. Discussion Questions for Board Self-Assessment

8. Sample Internal Controls

9. Sample Board Member Manual

10. Sample Project Budget

Originally published on afpaustin on October 26, 2011.

When I try to explain the value of social media, I usually describe it as an effective means to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones. Simple. The most common concerns I here are that the tools can be time consuming and that they distract from other relationship-building activities, like in-person meetings and phone conversations. Valid concerns.

Yes, social media is time consuming, as is donor engagement and cultivation. The more communication channels you adopt, the more time consuming it will become, but that’s not an excuse to not utilize the channels that are most effective in engaging your supporters. The time you allocate to each channel or activity depends on your supporters and how they prefer to connect with you and your organization.

Social media is not a replacement for happy hours or house parties, it may not be as meaningful as a personal phone call and handwritten letter from a board member, but (just like with family and friends) it’s a way to keep in touch, share stories and enhance existing relationships and offline relationship-building activities. It’s also a way to meet new, potential supporters.

5 tips for engaging with supporters via social media:

1. If you’re not already using social media, start today. Create a plan, be strategic and start measuring from day one.
2. Start a conversation and focus on building relationships (not asking for money).
3. Thank your donors publicly.
4. Share stories and other content that your supporters are passionate about.
5. Find balance and don’t quit when you begin to feel like you “are walking through a desert, hoping desperately for an oasis.”

More on social media:

Social Media: Taking the First Step

Share Online Engagement – Build a Social Media Dashboard

Google+: Circles, Sparks, and Hangouts, oh my!

Social Media and Contact Relationship Management

The nonprofits Austin Museum of Art and Arthouse at the Jones Center recently announced that both organizations have become one organization via a successful merger. Greenlights was proud to have been heavily involved in the merger from the beginning, providing expert nonprofit merger consulting, our three-phased merger methodology and tools, independent facilitation and mediation, and general guidance and support of both organizations throughout the process.

“I consider Greenlights to be one of the heroes in this deal,” said interim executive director Jack Nokes. “For without their good work, [the merger] might not have happened. We appreciated their professionalism and skill throughout the process. Getting to work with Greenlights was a pleasure, and we learned a lot.”

The merger brings greater fiscal stability to the new organization, which is now looking at an annual operating budget of $3.2 million and zero debt, plus more than $1 million in operational savings due to the merger in the first year alone. The merger even garnered national attention with a feature in the Nonprofit Quarterly.

“What makes this merger so exciting is the combination of things coming together,” said Stephen Jones, who has served for many years on the Arthouse board of directors and is now serving on the new, combined board of trustees. “We have an architecturally significant building downtown at the Jones Center, a beautiful space at Laguna Gloria, no debt, a strong board, and a forward-thinking artistic vision. Taken together, it all adds up to a very bright future for the visual arts in Austin.”

The success of nonprofit mergers such as this one are encouraging as many organizations continue to struggle financially and seek creative solutions to address increased competition for resources. At Greenlights, we continue to experience greater interest in and demand for our merger and collaboration consulting services, with the AMOA/Arthouse merger being our fifth merger facilitation in the last two years, four of which resulted in a successful merger.

Mergers often generate many tangible benefits, including improved client service, better strategic focus, and greater financial stability.  However, mergers can also be complicated to navigate and are not right for every situation and organization.

Once two or more organizations have begun discussing the possibility of a merger, we generally recommend that they engage an independent consultant/facilitator and follow a three-step process (illustrated in the diagram below) that offers a systematic way for both organizations to evaluate a merger opportunity thoroughly and efficiently.  This Greenlights’ model intentionally leverages the time of busy board members and staff leaders.  Above all, it emphasizes the most important part of a successful merger: open, direct and strategic communication.

Phase 1: Due Diligence and Letter of Intent

During the first Phase of a Merger Exploration, Greenlights helps organizations form a joint merger task force, set up communications channels, and gather confidential input from the board and key stakeholders. We help the task force identify and get resolution on any “deal breaker” issues, and document understandings in a Letter of Intent.

Phase 2: Merger Planning and Agreement

The second phase of the merger process builds on the Letter of Intent to begin moving forward based upon the intent to merger. Greenlights helps the merger task force seek resolution on remaining issues, including board structure, new budget, organizational charts and staffing, and system integration. The task force determines the legal structure of the new entity files with regulatory agencies, among other critical tasks.

Phase 3: Due Diligence and Letter of Intent

In this third and final phase, the merger agreement is finalized and Greenlights helps initiate integration of program, finance, development and other support operations. Greenlights advises the task force on the important task of communicating the merger appropriately with all stakeholder groups, and celebrating the new chapter of nonprofit work that is about to begin.

For more information on the AMOA/Arthouse merger, read the full press release or visit their website.

For more information about Greenlights consulting services and how we can help you think through strategic collaborations and mergers, contact director of consulting services Tara Kirkland.