By visualphotos.com

In the nonprofit world, collaboration is more than just a kumbayah, let’s all hold hands and get along concept. It is critical to business success, a logical way to fill gaps in organizational capability, and sometimes even a long-term survival strategy. As such, we believe in a robust, well-defined, and analytical approach to collaboration, and even a differentiation between regular-old collaboration and “strategic collaboration.”

The Greenlights Team recently had the privilege of leading a group of 48 Applied Materials Foundation grantee nonprofits in a full-day “Advancement Academy” focused on collaborative learning and problem-solving, and centered around the concept of strategic collaboration and nonprofit mergers. As a foundation that is on the cutting edge of engaging their grantees in more than just a grantor-grantee relationship, Applied Materials now regularly convenes their Austin-based nonprofit partners to encourage learning, collaboration, and networking, even though their grantees work in fields as broad as education, basic needs, and the arts.

To begin the day, Greenlights laid out a central definition of “strategic collaboration” to distinguish the concept from a more common view of the term. We defined a collaboration to be truly strategic when it involves…

• Two or more organizations…
• working together in a meaningful, well-defined, and deliberate manner…
• by investing time, energy, and resources…
• to accomplish a set of shared objectives…
• that are mutually beneficial to advancing the missions of the organizations involved, and…
• that are more likely to be achieved together than alone.

We further laid out the Greenlights Collaboration Continuum, a construct that allows nonprofits to plot existing or potential collaborations on a scale ranging from less intensive collaborations to the most intensive form of collaboration, outright merger.

We have found at Greenlights, having been contracted by nonprofits to lead many nonprofit merger and strategic collaboration initiatives, that meaningful collaboration takes not just a more analytical approach than is typically afforded but also a different form of organizational leadership. Nonprofit executive leaders and boards who are leading their organizations in long-term sustainable ways are often able to embrace strategic collaboration as a core business practice, to promote it on the organization’s regular discussion and evaluation agenda, and to see it not as a distraction or something that signals weakness, but rather as a source of strength for the organization.

Greenlights was thrilled to be able to partner with Applied Materials in this way and, even more so, we were very encouraged by the high level of engagement by and very positive feedback from the many nonprofit leaders who attended this year’s Advancement Academy and who are now even better equipped to lead their organizations in a more strategic, more collaborative manner.

Greenlights Advancement Academy for Applied Materials Foundation Grantees

Each year, Greenlights shines a bright spotlight on model nonprofits and programs at the Nonprofit Excellence Awards, but this year we’ll also give a shout out to the amazing people who work tirelessly behind the scenes of nonprofit success!  We’re shaking things up with new organizational categories and a chance to nominate a rock star nonprofit staffer!  Check out the nomination guidelines and nominate today or by May 29, 2012 at 5PM!

Nonprofit Excellence Award honorees receive a $1,000 grant award and will be recognized the evening of September 20, 2012 at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in Austin, Texas at the Texas Nonprofit Awards alongside OneStar Foundation’s Governor’s Volunteer Awards.  The event takes place on the evening of the first day of the Texas Nonprofit Summit, the premier nonprofit management conference for the state of Texas.

Nonprofit Excellence Awards celebrate Central Texas nonprofit organizations and individuals driving social change through exemplary achievements in the categories of:

Collaboration
The Collaboration Award highlights a successful partnership that a nonprofit has made with another nonprofit, business, foundation, or other entity that has resulted in improved impact and has achieved greater outcomes for both organizations because of their unique association. 

NEW!  Impact
The Impact Award honors a nonprofit organization, or one of its programs, whose notable performance and delivery to the community sets a high standard of quality and impact.  This organization can demonstrate ways in which it continually seeks to measure and improve impact.

NEW!  Innovation & Learning
The Innovation & Learning Award honors a nonprofit organization whose creation and application of new approaches or learning (from a workshop, conference, consulting engagement, book, etc.) to its work has advanced the organization and serves as a model for other nonprofits.  This new practice or approach is being, or has been, incorporated into the fabric of the organization and makes an affirmative enhancement to the operation or core activities of its mission.

NEW!  Board Excellence
The Board Excellence Award recognizes an organization for its success in fostering an engaged and effective board.  This organization can demonstrate the board’s direct linkage to the overall success of the organization, or in areas such as fundraising, advocacy, strategic planning, successful leadership transitions, etc.

NEW!  Nonprofit Leader of the Year
The Nonprofit Leader of the Year Award celebrates a nonprofit staff member whose masterful achievements in their role have directly benefited the organization’s operating capacity and impact in the community.  Individuals from all levels of employment are considered.

2011 Winners:

(pictured left to right)

Collaboration
CLEAN Air Force of Central Texas

Innovation
Capital Area Food Bank of Texas

Learning in Action
Austin Disaster Relief Network

Service Excellence
People’s Community Clinic

Special Recognition
Austin Classical Guitar Society

Check out the nomination guidelines and nominate today or by May 29, 2012 at 5PM!  Questions?  Contact Kate Smallwood at kates@greenlights.org.

April, where did you go?

Was it really nearly a month ago that I was flying to Vancouver with my colleagues for the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Annual Conference? The cool temperatures of Vancouver have been long forgotten now as the reality of the pending Texas summer is upon us. I’d really like to go back, so today I am going to close my eyes, turn up the A/C, and pretend I’m back in Vancouver. Rather than go on about the beauty and charm of the city or where to find THE best Ukrainian food in Vancouver, I thought I’d reminisce about my favorite session of the conference.

The description for “Does Your Board Know how to Evaluate Fundraising Effectiveness?” referenced effective management dashboards – that’s all it took to win me over. Each month I prepare a colorful, pie-charted dashboard to report to our board of directors on the current state of our fundraising program and how our board members have been helping us meet our goals. I’ve retooled and revamped it several times, not because I didn’t think it was useful information, but because I always wonder, “Is the best, most useful information for our board?”

Session presenter, Peter Drury, definitely proved that there is indeed more useful (or at the very least- additional) information that should be shared with your board to help them evaluate your organization’s fundraising success. He referenced the “dysfunctional dance” that we can unknowingly create with our board if we only focus on the present fundraising outputs and not regularly envision the future outcomes and impact we want to achieve for our organization.

The coveted take-away Peter left us with was “The ‘Beyond Cash’ Fundraising Management Dashboard.”  For the lucky ones in the room, we received the card stock, color copied, two-sided hand-out of beauty to take home with us. Fortunately for those not in the room he has made the tool available online.

The core of his message is simple– when it comes to fundraising success there is more to measure than just cash in the door.

The ‘Beyond Cash’ indicators he shares are things that most of us already track in some form or fashion (retention rate, median gift size, number of new donors, multi-year pledges), but how many of us are keeping track of our:

• Engagement Index: What percentage of your donors are making that first gift as a result of learning about you through another volunteer or donor?
• Non-Ask Ratio: What’s your organization’s ratio of solicitation contacts to “non-ask” contacts like stewardship visits or communications sharing the impact of their gift.
• Brand Strength Rating: How many of us are biannually asking our board and staff to rate their confidence in our brand?

Put all of these together, and this dashboard certainly is a great goal setting tool, reporting and evaluation document, and conversation starter to share with your board of directors. What do you think? How are you currently communicating your fundraising success to your board?

Image from forbes.com

Gordon Gekko may believe “greed is good,” but in the nonprofit sector we know that “FREE is good!”  When it comes to working or volunteering in the nonprofit sector, we tend to be under-resourced, over-worked and busy as all get out.

That’s where the Greenlights Online Resource Library comes in. Did you know we have almost a hundred different articles and tools available for your FREE viewing and downloading pleasure?

Let’s take a quick tour of what’s “hot” these days.

Image from 123RF.com

By far the most popular category in our Resource Library is Board Development, with 3504 views in the past year.

What’s the most popular board resource? Check out the sample board fundraising commitment form, which has been downloaded more than 1000 times since February 2011, or the Board Member Matrix if you want to look at your current board makeup and think about top priority recruitment needs.

Another oft-visited section of the library is Financial Management, where a compilation of resources on the IRS 990 Form is downloaded quite a bit, and another favorite tool is a sample set of nonprofit financial policies.

But what about managing staff and volunteers, you say?  If you want to learn how to conduct background checks, evaluate your Executive Director, or assess the performance of staff, we’ve got you covered.  Tools for all of the above and more can be found in the Human Resources section of the library.

All this, plus resources for raising more money, communicating your story, planning for growth and more are just a mouse-click away.  And the low price of FREE is hard to beat.

“In this highly connected, always switched-on world, eLearning makes more sense than ever before,” according to Engaging with the new eLearning. The American Society for Training and Development says eLearning makes up an increasing part of the training and education industry. With innovation and learning being two of our core values, we have identified a need to offer web-based training for our Board Essentials course.

Adobe Connect offers white papers on Web Conferencing, eLearning, and Security. Here are a few best practices from Engaging with the new eLearning to consider before transitioning to web-based training:

1.       The eLearning must be perceived as useful by participants. Create a survey and insure web-based training is an immediate need among donors, members, and the local community.
2.       Make it real. Offer different levels of training and match audience’s expertise.
3.       Make it active and thought-provoking. Keep your audience involved by adding videos and games.
4.       Make it human. Have staff members record the modules.
5.       Measure and continuously improve. Ask for completed feedback and update module regularly.
6.       Make it WOW.

Finding the best web-based training for your organization may help secure the WOW factor for participants. Here are a few pros and cons of three options I have researched for our modules:

Adobe Connect: Pricing varies based on number of participants. Average user pays $2,000 – 10,000 annually. Purchase through Clarix.
Pros
- Create interactive tutorials and simulations using already created PowerPoint presentations
- Record virtual classroom session and manage course material
- Input interactive components ranging from a poll to an interactive game
- Track progress of students and data
- 15% discount for nonprofits
Cons
- Adobe Flash required
- External audio provider or teleconferencing platform necessary

GoToMeeting: Discount offered through TechSoup. Varies based on services and monthly or annual plan.
Pros
- Do-it-yourself webinars for up to 15 participants
- Integrate with Outlook calendar
- Includes unlimited audio conferencing at no extra charge
- No required annual fee – can register for one time monthly fee
Cons
- Best for live webinars – recorded sessions saved as window media player files and uploaded to a website for sharing

Slide Rocket: Discount offered through TechSoup – $24 for 1-year pro subscription
Pros
- Access online, mobile, or offline through the Cloud
- Extensive design options: Themes and layouts, shapes, tables, pictures, HD video, and Flash. Integrates with Flickr, YouTube, Yahoo!, and Twitter.
- Publish presentation URL – embed in website (online community) – no downloading software
Cons
- Adobe Flash required

In following the best practice advice above, let’s take a survey. Post a comment letting me know:

1. Have you attended web-based training?
2. If so, what was the WOW factor?
3. What was the biggest challenge for you?