My winning horse! Photo by Dan Dry, from http://www.kentuckyderby.com/news/photos/kentucky-derby-137-winners-circle

I’m not a betting gal, but I am good at picking a winner.

In 2001, we were invited to a Kentucky Derby + Cinco de Mayo party, where mint juleps and margaritas were promised. It was the first time I’d ever watched the Derby–and possibly my first mint julep as well. However, more than the mint juleps and margaritas, I remember being struck by the interesting names of the horses in the race. I found it beyond funny that there was a horse for a then-trendy, now-forgotten cell phone called Startac. I decided to root, however, a horse named Monarchos, whose name struck me as a sign of the times with lots of noveau-high-falutingness. I picked a winner.

Since then, I’ve looked at the names of the Derby horses each year–well, most years, sometimes I forget–and I pick a winner based on the name. And every time I do it, I’m right. I remember picking Giacomo (2005) and Barbaro (2006), for no other reason than the fact that I’m a total italophile, and they had Italian names. I picked War Emblem during jingoistic 2002. I picked Super Saver (2010) when our economy was in trouble and coupons were de rigueur.

But I never placed a bet until this weekend’s Derby. Through a work event, I had (lucky) family members going to the actual Kentucky Derby. I looked at the list of horses and told them to put $10 on “I’ll have another” for me. I won. But this isn’t all about my savant abilities for picking winners base on semantics. (Although I do think it’s quite awesome and am a bit scared that stating it so publicly will ruin my streak.)

Since my evaluation of the horses is based almost solely on my feelings about the horses’ names, I spend time thinking about what each one means and playing with the words in my head. (In addition to being an italophile, I’m also a logophile.) This year’s race line-up included Optimizer, Creative Cause, Alpha, Prospective, Done Talking, and Liaison.

Six horses with decision-making or business-based names. Seven if you count the mafioso El Padrino. But that’s a different kind of business, and I digress.

What does that say about our world? Or what does it say about our world 3 years ago, when these horses were born and named, and have things played out in the way that their breeders might have hoped? Clearly that was a time of economic struggle, powerful political tides, and challenge in many ways. In the nonprofit community, our shirtsleeves were rolled up and our boots had straps (so we could pull ourselves up when we needed to). People were ready for decisions, action, and success.

We’ve heard and seen that the tide is changing in the nonprofit community though, and we’ve been part of it as cheerleaders, consultants, participants, and facilitators. Back in 2011 (when theses horses were 1), Matt wrote about his cautious optimism. And I think 2011 and 2012 have been good years, for the most part.

If I were naming a nonprofit horse this year, I’d want to capture the ideas behind the best practices and trends that I think will carry us forward through the next three years. If you know a horse breeder, perhaps you could put in a good word for one of these name suggestions:

• Strategy: Thinking things through and coming up with a well-informed plan will never go out of style.
• Prepare Pivot Thrive: With almost half of the Executive Directors in our community planning to stay in their current role for 4 years or less, organizations will need to embrace the Prepare Pivot Thrive mantra for transitions.
• Succession Success: In our recent career trends survey we also learned that about half of the organizations in Central Texas do not have succession plans. The lack of clarity when it’s time for transition has me biting my nails, and I’m hoping that in the next few years, we’ll whittle this number down.
• Merge and Conquer: We’re seeing more and more opportunities for strategic collaboration, and I think that the organizations who are taking it to the merger level have found new leverage for success.
• In the Clouds: Whether it’s through e-learning or some kind of virtual hosting, things are moving up for nonprofits who are embracing cloud strategies for sustainability, efficiency, and affordability.

I’m not sure that I’ll ever be bold enough to bet more than $10 on a race, but I am confident enough to state that continuing strategic work, preparing for leadership successions, collaborating–and even merging, and embracing new technology are winning bets for nonprofits.

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 bestclipartblog.com

Applications for Greenlights internships for the fall semester are due on April 30^th. We asked one of our interns from this school year shared how she leveraged her summer experience working at a summer camp into an awesome internship experience. As other students head off to exciting summer plans, I hope they’ll be thinking ahead about how to apply their experiences to the nonprofit community when school’s back in session.

And if you know a talented, articulate young person who is doing amazing things this summer, please consider sending them our way for an internship when they get back!

How working at a summer camp prepared me for my nonprofit internship.

by Meg Green, Greenlights’ Fall Semester Intern

“Are you going to work at camp again this summer,” my mother asked me last April.  I know I won’t be working with children or recreation in my future, but there is something about camp that has made me go back while my fellow classmates have opted for prestigious internships, studying abroad, or summer classes. Many of my friends and family fear that my “obsession” with camp will be a set- back for jobs and graduate school. But they’re wrong. My experiences at camp are setting me apart in the “real world.”

As a Greenlights consulting intern during this school-year, I’ve been able to apply my camp skills in contributing to the great work that Greenlights does for this sector. I think my camp experiences have enabled me to transform an internship into a leadership experience. Being a good leader requires so much more than natural talent, intelligence, and experience. And that’s where camp comes in.

1. Adaptability: Nothing teaches you to be flexible like a summer camp. When you only have three weeks to make a difference in a child’s life, every second counts. You had an amazing dance planned outside, and then out of nowhere in the middle of a Texas drought, a thunderstorm takes over. With no time to panic, the dance becomes a mud fight. Or you move it into the mess hall. It’s moments like these that teach you it’s not about the dance itself. It’s about having fun with people you love. In the end, just as in a nonprofit, it’s about fulfilling your organizational mission, not necessarily your original expectations.
2. Collaboration: Teamwork is the heart and soul of camp. Planning events, discipline, communicating with parents, and running activities all require an extensive network of communication. The camp world brings together young people of all different backgrounds to work in close quarters for three months. But camp is able to bring these people together with a common purpose and create incredibly powerful bonds. Because most nonprofits are not operating with unlimited resources, they must also operate with this “all-hands-on-deck” philosophy. Everyone must value the importance of the team in order to get the job done. As a Greenlights intern, I was often given the responsibility of handling a project and my work and opinions were always valued by the team.
3. Growth: Many parents send their children to camp so they will have the opportunity to develop valuable life skills like independence and respect. The personal growth of campers is of the utmost importance to any camp. But a great camp goes one step further; a great camp focuses just as much on the development of counselors as it does on campers. At my camp we believe that if you challenge a young adult with responsibility, that person will succeed beyond their own expectations. I’ve been challenged during my internship to take initiative with projects and be confident in my own skills. As much as I’ve learned from the Greenlights staff, I have always felt they were also eager to learn from me.
4. Fun!: Camp is all about infusing business with fun. Children love camp because it is a magic show that the camp staff creates for three months of the year. Camp teaches you to find the joy in everyday moments. Greenlights is definitely a place that values fun and I will always remember how even during the most stressful times, the Greenlights office is filled with joy and laughter.

Sadly, most internships do not live up to their purpose. Instead of providing job-training, most students are unfulfilled with the tasks they are assigned. Students crave challenges and have few opportunities to find them in the real world. Nonprofits are among the rare organizations that continue to offer internships to foster the growth of students into future leaders.

Greenlights’ internship program sets it apart. Interns at Greenlights enjoy hands-on experience in the nonprofit sector. Interns assist with projects, create a project of their own, and become a functional part of the organization. What Greenlights and summer camps have in common is that they are actively challenging young people to be successful leaders in their communities. I believe my experiences at camp have encouraged me to seek out internships that are collaborative by nature and expect hard work from their interns. Because I was valued and challenged at camp, I expect to be valued and challenged in the real world, and that is what sets me apart. I’m not looking for an easy resume builder. I’m looking to have a meaningful experience that will contribute to my professional development.

If an organization is going to offer an internship program, it should follow the Greenlights model. It should be engaging and challenging. Students should leave with confidence and filled with pride in their work. And more than anything, internships should foster leadership.

Even when it comes to fun, the Greenlights staff has a bit of a competitive streak. Whether it’s the chance at a $5 Torchy’s gift card or merely bragging rights, we give it our all when it comes to a good challenge.

So, it was no surprise to me that our “Tech Tip Showdown” during our staff meeting yesterday came down to a three-way tie. Everyone was tasked with showing the group a tech tip (in Outlook, Windows, etc.) that they use and thought the rest of the staff might not know. After each tip was presented, points were given according to the number of people who didn’t know the tip.

Here’s some of the top contenders. Many of them were new to me, what about you?

1.  Tara Levy’s tip: To help you locate an important email in Outlook that may no longer match the subject line (ex: the subject line says “Hi” or “Quick update” but after a few back-and-forths, the content now describes a project plan), click on the subject line in the open email and just type in a new, more meaningful title (ex: “Project Plan for New Site”).
2. Taylor’s tip: If you have lots of windows and documents open at once, you can press Alt+Tab to see screen shots of all your open windows. Keep holding down Alt while you Tab through each of your pages, and stop when you get to what you want to work on.
3. Alanna’s tip: If you send emails that often contain the same content, you can use Quick Parts in Microsoft Outlook to easily save and access this text for future use. After typing email text into a new message, highlight the text you want to save and go to “Insert” and then “Save Selection to Quick Parts Gallery.” You can then give a title to the text and create a subcategory to organize your email “parts” into different groups. To access this text later in a new email, click “Insert” and then “Quick Parts” and you should see your saved text in the drop down. Click on it and you’re ready to personalize and send!
4. My tip: If you use the Outlook calendar and want to check your availability (or even someone who shares their calendar with you) on non-sequential days, go to the first date you want to check and hit the Ctrl button. Keep holding the Ctrl button and click on the other days you want to see. Outlook will then display only those dates side-by-side. As someone who arranges a lot of meetings, this is super helpful!
5. Monica’s tip: And finally, have you ever wondered what your boss would look like as Mick Jagger? Well, wonder no more. If you need to capture an image on your computer but need it in a format you can edit, use the Snipping Tool. The Snipping Tool captures a screen shot of anything on your desktop, like a picture or a section of webpage.  You can snip a window, a section of the screen, or draw a freehand outline with your mouse. Then you can make notes, save, or e-mail the image using buttons in the Snipping Tool window.
   

   Matt Kouri as Mick Jagger

• Open Snipping Tool by clicking the Start button in Windows. In the search box, type Snipping Tool, and then, in the list of results, click Snipping Tool.
• Click the arrow next to the “New” button, select one of the options from the list, and then select the area of your screen that you want to use.
• After you capture a snip, you can share, makes notes or save it to your computer.

Alanna’s tip was the tie-breaking winner based on how useful it would be for the group. She only got a certificate (suitable for framing, of course), but I’m pretty sure she was beaming with pride.

Like a dog with a bone, I keep coming back to the topic of our increasingly caffeinated, hyperlinked culture and what it is doing to our ability to be thoughtful, reflective humans.  I’ve written previously about how this incessant connectivity can diffuse our focus in the nonprofit sector.

So, no surprise that my ears pricked up when someone forwarded me The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time, a recent Harvard Business Review blog post.  Full disclosure (and irony alert): I read the first few paragraphs in my car, on my phone, waiting for a train to pass.

What else are you doing right now, while you read this blog post?  Eating lunch?  Listening in on a conference call? G-chatting with a friend?

Image by ky_olsen on Flickr

As the saying goes, “multi-tasking is doing many things poorly all at once.”  My point here is not to hit you over the head with multitasking research that strongly suggests we are less productive when we juggle many things at a time, however.

Rather, it is to ask whether or not how you feel about your job and life might be, in fact, connected to this inability to set clear boundaries and focus strategically on one thing at a time.

In the article, Tony Schwartz calls out the connection between our feelings of overwhelm and dissatisfaction at work and this seemingly unquenchable thirst for multitasking.  Our inability to effectively use our time isn’t just hurting our work output, he argues, it is directly impacting how engaged and energized we feel in general.

If this sounds familiar, what could you do differently?  Here are 3 simple steps you might take.

1.  Take real breaks.  Do you take breaks during the day to refresh or rejuvenate yourself?  At Greenlights, a team member kicked off the year by inviting us all to join her for a 30-minute lunchtime walk on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
   

   Image by Asela Jayarathne on Flickr

   It doesn’t always happen, but I can vouch for the fact that when I’ve made the time to get out of the office and take a brisk walk with my colleagues, I feel more connected to my teammates and have more energy to devote to my ever-increasing mound of tasks when I get back.

2. Turn off distractions.  No, seriously.  At least set your email and instant message settings so you aren’t interrupted every time a new message comes in.  Focus on the task or conversation at hand – the emails will be there for you when you turn to them again. Same thing with your voice mail(s).  Just because someone calls does not mean it is a strategic use of your time to pick up the phone right then and talk!  This may be time management 101, but it bears repeating in our culture of constant accessibility.
3. Schedule strategic thinking time.  That’s right.  Actually block it off on your calendar, and don’t allow it to be “overtaken by events.”  Peter Drucker famously distinguished between “doing the right things” and “doing things right.”  If you aren’t carving out time to focus on whatever “the right things” are for your work today, this week, this quarter, you are missing out on a critical chance to reconnect to what gives you energy and drew you to your job in the first place (not to mention the opportunity to be effective).

And of course, such strategies also can help you with your nonprofit mission and impact.  As Schwartz points out, “the best way for an organization to fuel higher productivity and more innovative thinking is to strongly encourage finite periods of absorbed focus, as well as shorter periods of real renewal.”

So how do you or your team combat overwhelm at work?  What ways are you creating periods of “absorbed focus” or “real renewal” in 2012?