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Feldmann will be presenting a webinar tomorrow, May 17th, from 2-3pm EST, for the Chronicle of Philanthropy titled “Learn How to Attract the Next Generation of Donors” – there is still time to register! Click here to register.

“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead

National Volunteer Week began in 1974 when President Nixon signed an executive order establishing the week as an annual celebration of volunteering. Since then, every U.S. president has signed a proclamation promoting National Volunteer Week. Today, most organizations celebrate the entire month in honor of volunteerism.

“Tis but my name that is my enemy,” Juliet might have said when asked about a major career challenge to the future of volunteer resource managers. Many professional volunteer program managers seemed to agree when they participated in a “Future of Volunteer Resource Management” research survey conducted by Tracy Connors prior to his keynote address before the Florida Association of Volunteer Resource Management. In fact, following his address the organization changed its name from Florida Association of Volunteer Centers.

Connors, who published the first handbook for nonprofit management in 1980, and seven such handbooks since then, including The Volunteer Management Handbook, 2e by Wiley in 2011, designed the national survey to explore a number of issues bearing on future directions in volunteer management.

“What’s in a name?” Juliet asked, “that which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet…”  And forsooth, we might add (staying in character, of course), why need we consider relabeling our rose of “volunteer administrators?” By any other name, their enormous contributions to the human services delivery missions of our voluntary organizations would be the same—or would they?

One of the most interesting responses was to a question asking the respondents

recommend the title that best reflected the professional status, experience, and contributions to the success of their organization’s mission by a full-time staff member responsible for managing and developing volunteer resources.  Overwhelmingly, the respondents preferred the professional title: “Director/manager of Volunteer Resources.”

Changing the professional title to more accurately reflect the substantial duties and responsibilities fulfilled by incumbents may also help address another challenge reported by volunteer managers. When asked if they saw their position as a manager of volunteer resources as a credential for career progress toward the role of chief executive officer in their organization, the respondents were about equally divided between the position that such experience might be a credential under some circumstances, and others who felt that it was absolutely career enhancing to serve in that capacity.

A major barrier was not being included in top-level planning. Closely related to this issue was the inadequacy of current management training for volunteer resource managers and such executive skills as strategic planning and implementation. Clearly, a change of title from “administrator” to “manager/director” is a step toward a more accurate representation of executive duties for these dedicated individuals. However, simply changing the title, without improving management education resources and opportunities for professional advancement, will show the futility of “in name only.”
What’s in a name?  In this case, perhaps a better future for many volunteer resource managers.

Tracy D. Connors has published eight nonprofit management handbooks—an unsurpassed publication record in the field of not-for-profit management—a field that he helped advance and define beginning with the first NPO handbook in 1980. He is an NPO management consultant, a Leadership Faculty Member for HandsOn University, and a PhD student in Nonprofit Organization Management at Capella University completing a Dissertation focused on achieving and sustaining excellence in human services management. For any additional questions or comments, please contact Tracy Connors at: tdconnors@earthlink.net.

Many of our wonderful, expert authors were at the conference as speakers and session moderators.  It was gratifying to see them in action and hear from attendees who visited our onsite bookstore that these folks are among the leading innovators in the space. People like Holly Ross (Managing Technology to Meet You Mission), Beth Kanter (Measuring the Networked Nonprofit -forthcoming), Melanie Mathos and Chad Norman (101 Social Media Tactics for Nonprofits), Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen (Giving 2.0), Amy Sample Ward (Social Change Anytime Everywhere – forthcoming), Brian Reich (Shift and Reset) and Katya Andresen (Robin Hood Marketing).

Four overarching themes from 12NTEN that I think we will be hearing a lot more about in the coming year:

1.  Greater INTEGRATION of technology and social networking into all facets of an organization’s activities and into their long term strategic plans.  Nonprofits understand that social networking and technology can support fundamental activities such as fundraising, advocacy, engagement, volunteer action and community building in powerful ways. It is no longer relegated to the IT or marketing person but is quickly becoming a holistic responsibility shared across the organization.

2. Increased use of CRM (contact relationship management) technology platforms. It’s not enough to amass a large virtual community anymore. CRM technology platforms can help nonprofits engage more deeply with their communities, manage programs, track fundraising campaigns, organize volunteers and facilitate collaboration.

3. Increased understanding of and appetite for MEASUREMENT – AKA using data to measure impact and adjust in real time. I loved Beth Kanter’s session on visualizing data in which she talked about creating a “data-informed culture.” Also among the panelists was Johanna Morariu from Innovation Network who advised the audience to “Look at data rapidly, and look at trends over time.” She provided some neat tools and techniques for applying design aesthetics to data for greater accessibility and understanding.

4.  MOBILE beyond fundraising. We’ve seen the stats and we know that there are over 5 billion mobile phones in use globally. In the US, over 300 million people own a mobile device and nearly 50% of US mobile device owners browse the Web, access apps, pay bills (and make donations), use SMS and engage with social media. As nonprofits’ comfort-level with mobile increases we will see increased integration of mobile into multi-channel strategies that encompass fundraising, engagement, advocacy, and community building.

Where you at 12NTEN? What were your takeaways this year? If you weren’t able to attend, you can still download our FREE #12NTC e-Book Sampler.

As the leaders of the World Bank gather this week for their annual spring meetings, the attention of most who pay attention to such things is focused on is the new World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim. As we point out in our new book Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making a Difference, he will need to confront a new operating context that demands new thinking.

The rise of impact investing—for-profit investments that actively seek to address social and environmental challenges—is creating new challenges and opportunities to the basic work of the international development banks.

The growing presence of impact investors in poor countries around the world necessitates a reexamination of how the World Bank claims to be making a difference. In an impact investing world, where the private sector can be harnessed to social good, simply providing loans to governments (the World Bank’s core mission) is not necessarily the best way to address poverty. And simply making investments in poor countries (as its International Finance Corporation arm has been doing since 1956) is not necessarily the best use of subsidized capital either, as private sector investors now generate more investment flows than government agencies in many countries.

Instead, international development bureaucrats and their supporters should ask how they can best use their access to expertise, policy influence, and subsidized capital to help foster an impact investing industry that can complement their resources to address growing social problems that no one side can address alone? As we show in our book, impact investors are already pioneering innovations that have the potential to provide water and sanitation to the 2 billion people without adequate access, decent homes for the world’s 1 billion slum dwellers, and educational opportunities for all children. But we need to transform systems of regulation, leadership development, measurement, philanthropy, and capital markets to realize this potential.

We look forward to welcoming the new World Bank president to this new world of impact investing opportunity and challenge.

 

 

 

The 49th Annual International Conference on Fundraising (AFP) was held in Vancouver BC March 31st through April 3rd. Wiley/Jossey-Bass exhibited again this year and we enjoyed the opportunity to connect with so many of our authors in person, as well as meet potential authors. For the past 16 years, Wiley has enjoyed a publishing partnership with AFP… we currently have more than 35 titles in the AFP Fund Development Series, with new titles coming out each year (for a taste of the most recent offerings, check out our FREE AFP e-book sampler!).

One of our favorite authors, Julia I. Walker, had a new book that debuted at AFP Vancouver. In addition to doing a book signing, Julia also had a great presentation in the Fundraising 101 Theater. We asked Julia to tell us about her conference experience…

Well, I made it to Vancouver and back alive for the big AFP international conference. There were about 3,200 people there, which they tell me is a little less than usual—it was a long way to fly from New Orleans!  I did a session there called 10 Steps for Making Your Board an Effective Partner on Your Fundraising Team, as well as a book signing for my new book, A Fundraising Guide for Nonprofit Board Members.  All went well, and Vancouver was stunning (when the rain and fog rolled out).

My presentation was geared to help fundraisers develop a strategy for how to get their board members to become more active in their fundraising efforts.  The conference planners put my session in the Fundraising 101 slot, so I had a good crowd of “newbies” to fundraising, which is always fun.  In addition, there were several new executive directors there who really needed some guidance on dealing with their boards, so the discussion proved very lively.
The session covered a lot of material from my book, including:
•    The leadership role of the board in giving;
•    How to motivate and lead board involvement in fundraising;
•    Board training for fundraising;
•    Defining roles and responsibilities of board vs. staff;
•    Board involvement in defining organizational needs and goals;
•    Board leadership in annual fund and capital campaigns.

The questions that people asked covered all the basics of nonprofit board management.  For instance, there was a lot of conversation about how much board members should be asked to give (my answer: for most organizations, board members should give every year at the leadership annual fund level, e.g. $1000 or $1500).  And then what to do with board members who don’t give at the level they are supposed to  (my answer: get the board to take responsibility for setting board giving levels, asking their peers for money, and dealing with the holdouts).

I had a good time at the book signing with the other authors—there was a huge bookshop at the conference, with lots of new and interesting titles.  Lots of people were buying books of all kinds.  It appears that reading and learning about development are major activities for our colleagues in fundraising circles.  I personally think that people are worried about the economy and want to make sure they do the very best job they can in getting the resources for their organization.  It’s tough out there, and the more you know the better you can be prepared to compete!

So much for Vancouver.  Next, I am taking the show on the road; on Wednesday, April 18th, I do a similar presentation and book signing for the Central Florida Chapter of AFP, which meets in Winter Park, FL.  They sound like great people, and I’m looking forward to meeting them.  And it’s a lot warmer there than in Vancouver!

Find out more about Julia and what she does at www.walkercapitalcampaigns.com or reach her by e-mail.