NonprofitEye

Measuring Success: It’s Okay to Be Art

2019-05-29T07:44:00.003-07:00

An Interview with Isis Ferguson, Associate Director of City + Community Strategy

Part II of the series on the challenges and methods on making arts organizations and museums more accessible, diverse and inclusive

I had the privilege of talking with Isis Ferguson, Associate Director of City + Community Strategy at Chicago's Place Lab. She shared with me her unique take on the role of traditional measurement in successful outreach.

From the moment our conversation began, her commitment to social change was clear. Ferguson has her feet on the ground on Chicago’s South Side, where she both lives and works.

In her role at the Place Lab (a partnership between University of Chicago's Arts + Public Life initiative and the Harris School of Public Policy), Ferguson is part of a collaborative team of seven professionals devoted to Place Lab being "a catalyst for mindful urban transformation and creative redevelopment for equitable and livable cities."

Together the team conducts translation work, from "discipline to discipline, from institution to institution and community to community.”

Q: How does Place Lab’s vision of an “arts and culture-led neighborhood transformation” work?

A: We are “driven by what we are good at, which is a focus on design and cultural projection and art. It is embedded in our work.”

The programs are offered at no cost, but Ferguson challenges the assumption that offering a service for free is a magic bullet for reaching a local community:

Outreach happens -- it is NOT outreach just because it is no-cost

It happens “with strategic partnerships with other institutions; outreach happens in more formal ways but not necessarily traditional ways.”

Q: Can you tell me an example of a recent Place Lab project and what you learned from that project?

A: “We outreached last summer to the four-block radius of the closed St. Laurence School (which had been sitting vacant for over ten years) by “flyering,” holding meetings – letting people know that there was activity happening here."

“We asked what are the problems of the building and how can those problems be addressed.”

“The building has three stories and had an incredible amount of broken windows. Construction typically involves boarding up windows, but instead, we connected artists with the community. A workshop, called Board Up: Patterns in Place, was led by artist Ruben Aguirre and drew from the history of the community and Ebony collection at the Stony Island Arts Bank.”

From the Place Lab website:

Place Lab held a grand unveiling of a geometric window design by local youth at the St. Laurence Elementary building, a former Catholic school that has sat vacant for the last 12 years. Several middle school students in the community helped design and paint window boards that will be used to winterize the building,

When the panels were unveiled, Place Lab had a party with a musicians procession and free school supplies. It was "really a ‘school party’ where neighbors came outside and stepped up, offering time and skills."

“It was a way of having a very early "advisory committee." What the focus might be was left very open within arts and culture.”

Q: What do you see as the limiting factor to effectiveness in reaching the community through art?

A: It is "interesting how we put pressure on our public spaces,” to do everything from transforming the community, increasing retail, and improving education.

This is what Ferguson calls the “magical building” effect, and maintains that “it is okay to be art,” as opposed to being able to measure and report stats.

To make and to do, that in itself is OKAY

Q: How can the success of a building like the Stony Island Art Bank be measured?

A: We are “trying to create spaces where people don’t have the expectation of ‘magical building,’ where it is perfectly valid and useful for a space to have a point of view and things that it does.”

“People think that because we are called a “lab,” that what we do is about data. We don’t do data analysis, we are the implementers and the observers (narrative, ethos and purpose).”

Q: Other than money what would you do with art on the South Side in the next ten years?

“There is such a legacy and history here. It has always been a creative place.” Ferguson envisions a “cultural renaissance” on the South Side, a “modern version of Bronzeville.”

“Our dream is to replicate exactly that, that people visiting, or from Chicago, know that you don’t need to leave the South Side to be challenged to find places that feel free to use the space, where we can experiment and iterate and create.”

Q: Do you do outreach to the “community”? Who is the community? When did the efforts start?

A: "From what I understand, the first year before the arts incubator began was a year of listening and visits to document of the history of the neighborhood – to hear what people’s perception of the neighborhood are."

Listening is the first step in what is strategically part of the “Activation” of a neighborhood.

The concept of “Activation” evokes what Heddie Judah in an article for the Independent calls a place where "if all the inanimate objects in the world lay temporarily dormant, like a handful of seeds, waiting only for the benediction of creative rain to spring into life."

Ferguson continues, "through Place lab we have succeeded in ‘re-imagining the civic commons,’ working to bring on four more sleepy properties on the south and west side."

Q: Tell me more about the folks are who doing urban-based work?

A: The Rebuild Foundation is a “platform” for art, cultural development, and neighborhood transformation.

From the Rebuild Foundation website:

Founded and led by artist Theaster Gates, the projects of Rebuild Foundation support artists and strengthen communities by providing free arts programming, creating new cultural amenities, and developing affordable housing, studio, and live-work space.

The mission of Rebuild Foundation is to make art matter more by demonstrating the impact of innovative, ambitious and entrepreneurial arts and cultural initiatives. The Foundation work is informed by three core values: black people matter, black spaces matter, and black things matter.

Read more about Rebuild Foundation:

Q: What would that transformation look like?

A: Ferguson doesn’t have to think about that question, she answers, it looks like:

Stony Island Arts Bank
Black Cinema House
Dorchester Art & Housing Collaborative
St. Laurence Project
Black Artists Retreat
Archive House

The conversation with Isis Ferguson was enlightening and hopeful, reminding us that community outreach is not all about numbers, measurement and data – but rather the effect is better assessed in terms of tangible projects, people, and places.

IF MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING, CAN IT CHANGE THE WORLD?

2017-04-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

Today: How to measure success?

Funding has creating an almost unbridgeable gap between numbers and the lives they represent.

A nonprofit is driven by its vision, for example “changing the world, one child at a time”.

But how exactly?

The nonprofit will build accessible playgrounds for young children between the ages of one and five. The playgrounds will be built in low-income neighborhoods with very limited green space.

Not only is it a beautiful vision, it’s a practical vision. Children who had nowhere to play outdoors now have a place. Children who play outside are healthy children. Children who play outside are happy children.

With the goal set, the nonprofit does just as promised, designs and builds the accessible playground. The community response is positive; the families bring their children. The kids playing are happier and healthier. Were there challenges? Yes. Were they insurmountable? No. In other words, the project worked.

Can we prove it?

Did we change the world one child at a time?

If we could measure success, that providing playgrounds had a positive impact on society, we would.

Stories help. Photos help. Success stories help. Sometimes a rigorous long-term research project may measure, over time, that grades improved for children who lived in an area with a playground vs children who did not have a playground.

Now, let money enter the equation. To change the world, one child at a time, we need money, which we request from private donations or government grants. With the funding comes requirements.

The most popular requirement? Measurable Outcomes. Achieve the outcomes, get the money.

So now, instead of changing the world (which is not easily measurable), we measure what we can: How many people walked in our doors, what was their age, ethnicity, income level etc.

When funding was involved the counting became more specific and perhaps at the cost of meaningful results (one child inspired) it became measurable results (1,000 one to five year old kids visited at least once this summer).

No one stopped to say we are creating an almost unbridgeable gap, between those numbers and the lives they represent.

So, where did it all go wrong?

Stay tuned for our next post, an interview with Isis Ferguson from Chicago’s Place Lab. Isis has a unique view on the role of measuring success in the arts.

OR ELSE WHAT? ART IN THE CITY

2017-04-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I pondered my mission in life, I'll still never get past addressing homelessness, mental illness and the effects of poverty on children.

That said, I find that community is at the center of it all. And, taking a step to the side here, art is at the center of community. Art programs for inner city children, art for the sake of art, art to remind us who we are.

I grew up on the South Side of Chicago and my parents still reside there. The area is called "Terror Town" by the sensationalist local news. People I grew up with are still there (Zealous, across the street, and Theresa Moore around the way), but most are long moved away. My parents love Mrs. Glinzy on the corner. Neighbor's Chuck and Jen dug us out of a storm with his snow blower this winter.

The next neighborhood over, is the University of Chicago in Hyde Park, academics and affluence and also the stomping grounds of Saul Alinsky and the Obama's. Hyde Park put social activism on the map. Was it the "Ivy League" making a laboratory of the South side? In looking back, I have to say yes..sort of... The economic and racial divide was inescapable. The High School I attended encompassed both, a microcosm; the two groups sat on opposite sides of the lunch room and attended separate classes "honors" and "regulars".

I came close to exploring this territory way back at Sonoma State University, signed up for a masters program is Community Psychology, etc. etc. When I came closer to the subject, in my earlier 20's, I couldn't get a grasp on it. I struggled with the way language enforces culture; I thought about knowledge and how we acquire it, I thought about oppression and government and women's rights.

But I never connected the dots. In the end, I spent four years reading Jung and Teilhard de Chardin and John Dewey. I found happiness there, in an almost ethereal abstract place. I'm sure I would have gotten on well with Plato back in the day; I really liked to think about thinking. I still do.

Today, returning to the my old "hood", I felt a pull, down from the abstraction of epistemology, straight down to the physical and the practical. "Will I be safe if I go for a walk?" "How many abandoned houses are on this block"? "Does that one young boy, riding along up and down the block on his bicycle, have any friends?"

There was a lot of heartache, growing up and attending Myra Bradwell Elementary. 3,000 children, 87% African American children and then me, part of the 13% "White"statistic. I studied side-by-side with kids who had no hope, no means, no pathway out. And when I was 12, I found a pathway out, or it found me, bused to a prestigious "Magnet School"; we were a rainbow school, where whites, blacks, asians, jews, catholics etc. were all on equal ground.

After surviving two years at Kenwood High in Hyde Park (lunchtime race riots, death threats) but after the rites of passage, a practical peace was built. Then I ran away again, to another Magnet school, Whitney Young. There it was again, that perfect rainbow world. Two years later, Michelle Obama (not famous at all then) attended Whitney Young. As did the, sometimes infamous, Jesse Jackson's daughter. The talented Wachovsky brothers who later wrote and directed "The Matrix" were there sometimes as well. And me. and my two sisters.

Last month I found myself driving the streets of the South Side again; a lot of flashbacks. That is where I first heard about Theaster Gates, his neighborhood activism, and the birth of the "Arts Incubator" at the University of Chicago. Looking around for his art center, I passed a Mosque with red scrolling letters. The message? JusticeorElse.com

I couldn't help wondering, or else what?

MUSEUM VISIONS - AUDIENCE - PART I

2017-03-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

Who loves museums? Who currently comes to museums? Should we broaden this audience? And if so, how? What pitfalls are there along the way? I love museums. Who doesn’t? Turns out that is a complex question. Michelle Obama shed light on the question in her opening remarks at the Whitney Museum. She pointed out that not all people feel museums are a welcoming place:

"…there are so many kids in this country who look at places like museums and concert halls and other cultural centers and … think to themselves…that’s not a place for me, for someone who looks like me, for someone who comes from my neighborhood. In fact, I guarantee you that right now, there are kids living less than a mile from here who would never in a million years dream that they would be welcome in this museum. And growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I was one of those kids myself. So I know that feeling of not belonging in a place like this. And today, as First Lady, I know how that feeling limits the horizons of far too many of our young people."

Read the full text of the First Lady’s remarks here.

As many museums embark on a journey to become more inclusive, diverse and accessible I feel a general sense of unrest. So many issues are involved and it is hard to dissect them and then to focus on just one at a time.

For help I turned to the amazing blog “Incluseum”. There I was introduced to the Blogger Porchia Moore, a self-described Poet, Museum Nerd, Beauty seeker and Knowledge Keeper.

Her post: The Danger of the “D” Word: Museums and Diversity helped by giving words to those feelings.

Moore argues that “diversity” is a racially coded term which masks hidden agendas and argues that museums

“… should be cultivating lasting relationships with communities of color; and be certain that we are not just targeting them when we deem their participation to be culturally congruent.”

Moore cautions that minority visitors are not “merely niche or annual visitors” but instead “are long-term invested stakeholders with a unique set of values”. Reaching people of color won’t happen unless their “narratives are celebrated as equally as important … to the system of values which permeate the traditional white mainstream museum”

Are words as seemingly innocuous as “Diversity” coded words revealing a bias? There is a growing body of work unpacking terms which are used in the strategic plans and missions of Museums across the country. Terms which, on the surface, appear harmless, such as “Community” and "Diversity" are explored and revealed to have troubling connotations.

Museums are asking important questions such as:

How can we ensure that all audiences can access our programs, collections, and resources?
How do we actively deconstruct systemic bias in our field—and how will we measure our progress?

These and many more questions will be topics of discussion at the upcoming American Alliance of Museums 2017 conference. The theme this year is: Gateways for Understanding: Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion in Museums

Bonus Reading: Incluseum also has an excellent set of tools and articles to use as conversation guides and catalysts as well as group activities here.

Coming Soon:

In Part II of this series we will explore the methods currently being employed to make museums more inclusive, diverse and accessible. How do we attract and retain diverse audiences across borders and categories of sex, race, ethnicity, age, class, ability, language, sexual orientation, and gender roles and identity?

In Part III we will explore whether these methods are effective and how we can measure this effectiveness. Is what we measure capturing our effectiveness? How can we study the results?

In Part IV we will explore the tendency to cater to only our built in audiences; people with similar interests, science geeks, the museum nerds, the patrons of the arts.

To wrap up the series, in Part V will we will identify opportunities for future research. We’ll also offer a “what to do next” list of essential reading on the topics we’ve discussed.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING & JOB TRAINING PROGRAMS: COUNTERINTUITIVE RESULTS

2017-02-22T15:50:00.000-08:00

"Actions believed to alleviate the difficulties of a city can actually make matters worse."

Jay W. Forrester

Jay Forrester penned his revolutionary article "The Counterintuitive Nature of Social Systems" (link to pdf full article) back in 1971.

His article is as relevant today as the day it was published. Since 40 year old academic articles aren't likely to reach the public, I think it's a good time to revisit this masterpiece.

His article examines "four common programs for improving the depressed nature of central cities:

...creation of jobs by busing the unemployed to suburban jobs or through governmental jobs as employer of last resort;
a training program to increase skills of the lowest-income group;
financial aid to depressed cities from federal subsidies; and
construction of low-cost housing.

All of these were shown to lie between neutral and highly detrimental.

Forrester's investigation shows "how depressed areas in cities arise from excess low-income housing rather than from a commonly presumed housing shortage."
Forrester describes the counterintuitive downward spiral as efforts to help the poor miss their mark:

"...legal and tax structures...combine to give incentives for keeping old buildings in place. As (the) ... buildings age, employment opportunities decline. As (the) buildings age, they are used by lower-income groups who are forced to use them at higher population densities. (Thus) ...aging buildings cause jobs to decline and population to rise. Housing, at the higher population densities, accommodate more low-income urban population than can find jobs. A social trap is created where excess low-cost housing beckons low-income people inward because of the available housing. Unemployed people continue coming to a city until their numbers sufficiently exceed the available jobs that the standard of living declines far enough to stop further inflow. Income to the area is then too low to maintain all of the housing. Excess housing falls into disrepair and is abandoned. Extreme crowding can exist in those buildings that are occupied, while other buildings become excess and are abandoned because the economy of the area cannot support all of the residential structures. Excess residential buildings threaten an area in two ways—they occupy land so it cannot be used for job-creating buildings, and they attract a population that needs jobs. Any change, which would otherwise raise the standard of living, only takes off the economic pressure momentarily and causes population to rise enough that the standard of living again falls to the barely tolerable level.

Want to read more? Check out blogger Andrew Taylor aka "The Artful Manager" as he takes on the same topic from a different perspective in a 2004 post called Finding Forrester.

Technorati Tags: Affordable Housing, Counterintuitive Nature of Social Systems, Financial Aid, Housing Shortage, Jay W. Forrester, Job Training, Low Income Housing

NONPROFIT IDENTITY CRISIS?

2016-12-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

I attended a conference on non-profit policy. It was a conference, like a dozen others I’ve attended over the years. At the breakfast talk I was half asleep, but the keynote was so electrifying that I woke right up. After the talk, as I stood in line to talk to the keynote speaker, I said hello to Flo Green the Executive Director of the organization sponsoring the conference. We started talking about how ironic it is that nonprofits have come under attack for being too much “like a business”. We've all been working so hard for the past twenty years to have the work done by non-profits taken seriously. The approach being to emphasize that we were no different than any other business: professional, hard working, corporate, etc. And now we find the entire non-profit sector under attack, because if you can’t tell the difference between us and a business then maybe we don’t qualify for the much sought after IRS tax-exemption. How ironic to achieve SO much success that we could lose it all.

So Flo says to me "you know charity means love”. And I paused, taking that in. How had an act of love turned into a business? How had we arrived at this moment? Was the attack valid? Did we, in fact, no longer warrant our tax-exempt status? The hot button issue (raised by Senator Grassley) right now is “what exactly is the difference between a nonprofit hospital and a private hospital” and if the public can’t tell the difference, and the IRS can’t tell the difference, maybe the emperor is not wearing any clothes after all.

The scary part is that if they win that one, which type of non-profit will be next? The question casts a chill over the whole non-profit sector (I don't dare say non-profit industry do I?). It turns out that now (having done every other aspect of business) we must turn to marketing and branding, because without a clearly discernable identity, we may not exist at all in the long run.

Back in the '80's, I worked for a young idealist administrator. He captivated me with stories of the origins of nonprofits, and how they had all sprung into existence in the '60's out of political action and social change movements, out of revolutionary spirit. He and I both used to pine for those days. We didn’t want to sit in an office filling out forms, we wanted to get out there and HELP people.

Because nonprofits had existed for my entire lifetime, I couldn't grasp that they had such a short history and had not even existed before that. I never thought to ask but wait…what did exist before that? And the answer was charity. Charity came from the rich giving to the poor, and a whole heck of a lot of that charity came through the Church. Twenty years later we have become "partners" with every government agency and/or private enterprise that we can manage and so have changed in character from our charitable roots. But if our "Look and Feel" is no longer the same, are we not still devoted to helping the poor (whether it be nutrition, early childhood education, feeding the hungry, training the unemployed, etc. )? See follow-up article: Solving the Nonprofit Crisis

FROM THE TRENCHES - THE IMPACT OF FASB 116 & 117 ON NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

2016-08-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: this is a "from the trenches" opinion piece written by a nonprofit finance director who lived through the transition from pre to post FASB Statements 116 & 117. Please click the "summary" and "status" links to read the full text of the statements and consult your independent auditor for final interpretation.

Both Statements were effective December 15, 1994 for nonprofits with over $1 million in annual expenses and over $5 million in total assets.

Statement No. 116
Accounting for Contributions Received and Contributions Made (Issue Date 6/93) [Summary] [Status]

This Statement radically changed (and standardized) the way nonprofits reflect income. Generally, Statement 116 requires that contributions are recognized in the period received. Why was the change radical? Pre-116, nonprofits received multi-year funding and reflected only the portion for the current fiscal year. The remainder was held in a balance sheet account known as "deferred revenue". This prevented the appearance of a large bubble of "profit" in the first year. Statement 116 had one unfortunate effect, it made financial statements very hard for boards and the public to understand, creating artificial profits and losses which, without notation, could be misleading. Did the advantage (standardization) outweighs the disadvantages (hard to interpret financials)? We don't have to choose, Statement 116 is required to be in conformance with GAAP.

Statement No. 117Financial Statements of Not-for-Profit Organizations (Issue Date 6/93)
[Summary] [Status]

Not as controversial as 116, Statement 117 requires nonprofits to provide a statement of financial position, a statement of activities, and a statement of cash flows. The statement also requires that the amounts for each of three classes of net assets: permanently restricted, temporarily restricted, and unrestricted be displayed in a statement of financial position and that the amounts of change in each of those classes of net assets be displayed in a statement of activities.

When Statement 117 published all nonprofit accounting software had to be re-written to allow for a three column presentation. It also forced out some critical information. An organization that had previously showed high net assets, now might now call attention to a true loss in current unrestricted activity offset by permanently restricted funds. This statement made financials significantly more transparent and easy to understand by boards and the public.

Technorati Tags: FASB 116, FASB 117, FASB, Nonprofit, Revenue Recognition

JOB HUNTERS UNITE

2015-10-04T13:53:00.003-07:00

Nonprofit Jobs Center, a site run by The Bridgespan Group which now has about 350 positions. That includes paid part-time and full-time jobs, plus unpaid board of directors openings.

Bridgespan also has excellent publications and tools for those interested in nonprofit leadership positions.

Commongood Careers is a search firm that places managers into nonprofit organizations.

The Foundation Center’s Philanthropy News Digest Jobs Board, which features openings at foundations and nonprofits.

The Hunt - Tracking Down a Job in the Nonprofit Jungle

2015-10-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

NONPROFIT JOB HUNTING

Following the old adage "write about what you know", today's focus is job hunting.

When you hit the job market you might link first of Monster or Indeed. A better approach? Narrow your focus - check out job sites that hone in on the nonprofit sector!

One great part of working in the nonprofit sector is how many industry specific job rags there are to choose from:

Nonprofit Jobs & Executive Search

Nonprofit executive, senior management and fundraising jobs and executive searches conducted by recruiters, headhunters, and employers in the nonprofit, government, health, higher education, human rights, social services, advocacy and public sectors.

Idealist.org A project of Action Without Borders, global clearinghouse of nonprofit resources, including jobs, internships, mailing lists, and nonprofit resources by state and country.

Opportunity NOCS
A resource for nonprofit jobs and employment opportunities.

Nonprofit Oyster
Offers job postings for meaningful career opportunities, and the ability for job seekers to post their profiles online for employers to access. They donate 5% of their profits to support nonprofits whose missions are particularly close to their hearts.

Social Work and Social Services Jobs Online
jobs in social work, counseling, psychology, sociology, mental health, case management, employee assistance, volunteer management, substance abuse treatment, domestic violence, community development, mentoring, youth development, child welfare, developmental disabilities and all other areas of social services

Deep Sweep
a large selection of nonprofit jobs listed in one place for free. Resource linking nonprofit professionals to outstanding career opportunities.

Foundation Center/Philanthropy News Digest Job Corner
30-50 new jobs added weekly, mostly development positions, but other nonprofit jobs are posted as well. EJob Alert available.

Nonprofit Career Network
Provides job and volunteer listings, resume posting, and nonprofit directory.

Nonprofit Jobs Cooperative
A collaboration of nonprofit management centers from across the United States. One-stop source for nonprofit jobs from coast to coast. CA jobs tend to be mainly in Southern CA.

Young Nonprofit Professionals Network
Posts jobs with Bay Area nonprofit organizations, searchables by job title, position type, organization type, and/or Bay Area region.

DotOrgJobs.com

An employment resource for the non-profit world, featuring job openings at foundations and non-profit organizations.

Access: Networking In The Public Interest

Employment opportunities in Nonprofit Organizations around the US. Updated daily. Includes Full time, Volunteer and Internship Opportunities. Nonprofit Career Fairs and Expos.

Human S ervices Career Network - United States-focused service matching professionals and employers in the social service sector. Databases of resumes and positions are available.

Nonprofit Career Network - Resource center for individuals seeking jobs in the nonprofit sector. Post your resume on-line and search a database of job listings and job fairs.

Professionals for Nonprofits

A staffing company that specializes in providing permanent and temporary staff to nonprofits. Extensive job listings.

Craigslist, Nonprofit Jobs
Bay Area based community bulletin board, that posts nonprofit job openings by city and/or country from all over the world now.

NONPROFIT TOUGH LOVE

2015-07-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

the great lie is that it is "Civilization", it's not civilized. It's been the most blood thirsty...brutalizing system ever imposed upon this planet...that is not civilization, that's the great lie...or if it does represent civilization, and if that's truly what civilization is, then the great lie is that civilization is good for us" John Trudell, on Western Civilization (in "Trudell" documentary by Heather Rae, 2006)

John Trudell was making an important point about the effectiveness of a bias when it is built right into the language. Bias embedded in language is that much harder to overcome because you need language to be able to describe the problem.

My favorite illustration? A riddle: A father and daughter are in a car accident. The father is killed and the daughter taken to the hospital. The surgeon looks at the girl and says "I can not operate on her, she is my daughter"! How can this be? (answer at bottom of post)

Why was I thinking about the intersection of linguistics and belief today? And how, oh how, am I going to segue to nonprofit financial management? Simple. I came across an online quiz: the CFO Fitness Quiz: Are You Tough Enough for the Caring Sector? on the Bridgestar website (you have to sign up, but it's free and really worth it).

Until that moment I had not thought about the juxtaposition and contradictions inherent in personality type and industry. The questions hidden in the question are these: is the nonprofit sector an easy to manage industry? does working for a caring profession imply you are a kind person? are kind people necessarily competent?

Our industry has long had to be defensive on that last point. The underbelly of the nonprofit world. If we're here because we are caring, are we also here because no one else wanted us? Have we perpetuated the problem by hiring for heart and not skill?

This issue is, of course, tied to our fears about the coming "leadership crisis" (and I don't really believe there will be one). The truth is, our industry has done a lot of growing up. Our pay scales don't always look low to me anymore; our talent is (sometimes) formidable; we mission and vision with the best of 'em; we invest in training and marketing; and we account for our dollars as good (or even far better) than our for profit equivalents.
Answer: The solution, of course, is that the surgeon is a woman.

Technorati Tags: Leadership Challenge, , Leadership Crisis, Nonprofit, CFO Quiz, John Trudell, language, belief

Dream Jobs in the Nonprofit, Government and Private Sectors

2012-06-27T17:21:00.003-07:00

What do you want to be when you grow up? Every college graduate has got the message "there are no jobs out there, you are going to be living in your parents basement until you're 30". But what IF you could get a job, what would it be? Not to be too "new-age" but maybe the possibilities are only limited by our imagination. Here are a few real job possibilities:

Chief People Officer - this is what they're calling a Human Resources Manager today. I remember when I thought calling People "Human" resources (as opposed to natural resources like petroleum I suppose) was egregious. What exactly was wrong with "Personnel Manager" again?
This is almost as good as (yes it is real!): Dream Coordinator - I've always wanted to coordinate dreams but I keep getting sleepy..
Dream Coordinator: the Dream Foundation is searching for a highly motivated and committed individual to coordinate dream granting in their Los Angeles office.

Think these are too improbable, perhaps you may want to explore a traditional government job.

The National Journal published the following list: The Four Most Overpaid White House Staffers. They are:

Deborah Nirmala Misir	Ethics Advisor	$114,688
Erica M. Dornburg	Ethics Advisor	$100,547
Stuart Baker	Director for Lessons Learned	$106,641
Melissa M. Carson	Director of Fact Checking	$46,500

Yes, there is a White House Director for Lessons Learned. I can't make this stuff up, I'm not that creative!

Okay, so maybe non-profit or government aren't your style, try the public sector:

Do you have "Poker" and "Table Tennis" on your Resume? This is a real job posting for an Engineer position!

REQUIRED SKILLS:

Ruby on Rails Experience
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) knowledge
CSS based HTML presentation

NICE TO HAVE SKILLS:

Table Tennis
Poker

Must stick with my policy, always leave 'em laughing, here's the winner:

The company "Underwear Affair" is searching for a Participant Coach - found this one on Craigslist. I almost want to do the job just to put it on my resume.

Love Evictions, Couch Surfing and SuperNofa's

2010-09-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

“SHP-CPD-LOCCS-HMIS-APR-SRO-HUD-LAHSA” the man in the front of the room intoned. "_#*@!#$ _” I muttered. This is going to be a very long day.

We are sitting in a room on the second floor of a building at 453 S. Spring Street. Here in yet another government building for yet another government workshop. This time it is the Los Angeles Housing Services Agency or LAHSA. Yes, THE LAHSA of LA Times headlines notoriety. Smack in the middle of City politics, this organization performed so poorly that the Feds have been summoned. And if there’s anyone who can improve a process, it’s the Federal government.

LAHSA was formed like our land masses, by something akin to continental drift. The plates of local government, the city plate and the county plate, clashing together, sliding across the lava of city politics. Once set in motion so definitively that even the terrifying Laura Chick, former City Controller could not put them together again.

More and more the workshops are led by outside consultants; identifiably by the fact that they still have a small spark of life. (side note for later exploration: What sucks the life out of the employees of these government agencies? Do they select for this dullness in the screening process? Or do they become this way over time? )

The goal of the workshop as defined by our consultants? To take less Pepto-Bismol. Our trainer herself was once a government employee, in charge of information technology. Her job? to manage the removal of typewriters!

The Feds sent their representative too. We were introduced to Rufus, the head of the homeless team. So if you want to solve the problems of homelessness and you go to the Feds for help, Rufus is your man.

The first pearl of wisdom delivered to us? “HUD Homeless Eligible” is NOT synonymous with “Homeless”. When asked “Why?” the consultant (obviously practiced at fielding this nonsense) replied “that’s above my pay grade”.

Workshops like this make me embarrassed to be a financial manager because they remind me exactly what my job requires me to manage. Maybe “typewriter removal” isn’t such a preposterous job goal after all.

Our hosts introduced us to the definitions of permanent, transitional and permanent with supportive services housing. There was a fourth type, it interested me the most. The category was called “Innovative Supportive Housing”. When our speaker reached this category, she said the following “I’m going to skip over this part.” She continued “because innovation is VERY rare”. Sigh.

Our training material was divided into cutesy mnemonic bytes. The six hours of our workshop could all be elucidated by memorizing the “3-6-8-8 “. The three program objectives, the six types of projects, the eight categories of homelessness and the eight legitimate ways to spend HUD money. Hmmm, I guess it works.

Mnomics aside, a lot of thought has gone into the activity of ending homelessness. How do people become homeless? Some are obvious such as succumbing to the mental illness, fleeing domestic violence, being evicted… What about being evicted by a family member? (that does it Johnny, you can’t live in the basement anymore!). These have become known in the industry as “love evictions”.

Where exactly are you when you are homeless? Living in a sub-standard place such a tent or a friends garage? Living in a motel room for 7 days and then sleeping in an alley? There are so many places to be and still fall within the definition of homeless. What about the category of “staying with friends”? This one has a name too: “couch surfing”.

How would you sum up today’s workshop? Perhaps the act of reverse engineering compassion.

Once upon a time, a hundred groups of folks around the country came with 100 innovative ways of bringing services to the homeless. By the hand of god (or an act of congress) whichever is greater, billions of tax payer dollars were allocated to implement these programs. Then the fun began. This time it wasn’t the innovators making up the system…it was the government. The government then regurgitated those techniques and the result was…CFR 24, Part 3, Section 5. Or something similar. The funding was announced, the groups applied for the dough, and the two parties signed a contract. Suddenly the fox was guarding the hen house.

And now I’m taking classes from the fox.

MIND OPENING WEB 2.0

2008-03-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

Technorati Tags: NPTech, Nonprofit, Web 2.0, NPTech Series

NONPROFIT EYE CANDY?

2008-02-22T21:02:00.000-08:00

Nonprofit Audit Toolkit: How sweet it is

When's the last time I wrote about the AICPA's Nonprofit Audit Toolkit? I came across it again this week, and it's awesome! The whole pack can be downloaded as a zip file here. It's really too good for words. You have to check it out. Among some of it's jewels are:

• Audit Committee Charter Matrix	• Tracking Report (Whistleblowers)
• Financial Expertise	• Conducting an Exec. Session
• Sample RFP for CPA Services	• Issues Report from Management
• Independence and Related Issues	• Discussions with Indp. Auditors
• Peer Review of CPA Firms	• Evaluating Indp. Auditors
• Fraud and the Audit Committee	• Evaluating Internal Audit Team
• Hiring the Chief Audit Executive	• Audit Committee Self Evaluation
• Hiring External Experts	• Single Audit Act Issues
• Internal Control	• Resources for Audit Committees
• Evaluation of the Auditors Engagement Letter	• Unique Transactions and Fin. Relationships

NONPROFIT ROLE PLAYING?

2008-02-15T20:52:00.000-08:00

Civil Society, Government, Church - What role do we play?

Ever wonder what the role of nonprofits should be in the mix of government agencies, the business community, churches and other "faith-based" orgs? I have, since April, 2005, ever since I heard Bruce Sievers speak on the topic. It is great grist for the mill.

And so the quest for knowledge continues. Recently, a friend sent me a job opening for an innocuous position for the County of Orange called "Performance Auditor". The job paid well (approx. $90 to $150K) and the job description read like so many others:

This position will report to the Performance Audit Director and be assigned activities such as: management audits, process improvement studies, reorganization studies, cost effectiveness assessments, cost-benefit analysis, best practice analysis, program performance evaluations...

etc. etc. All read normally until...I got to the the requirements section. It read:

The candidate must also understand the role of government in society and how it interrelates with the business community.

Can I have a reality check here folks? Send me your comments. It's essay question time. How many of us can answer that question. What exactly is the role of government in society? But more importantly how is it supposed to interrelate with the business community?

If you get that one correct, try this: compare and contrast the answers posed by a democratic or republican candidate. What would Ronnie say? Should we go with "invisible hand" or do we go Libertarian? Just stay out?

In my day (and that includes the present), job requirements meant "knowledge of a certain software package" or "excellent communication skills".

What about after your first year on the job, at evaluation time? Here's how it might read:

Y.T. has a strong understanding of the role of government in society but needs improvement in the interrelation of government with the business community. We recommend several books on Political Science and perhaps a copy of "Good to Great" on her night stand.

What I'd do to be a fly on the wall for that HR meeting.

File this under: huh?

Technorati Tags: Role of Government, Nonprofit Jobs, Government Jobs, Civil Society, Bruce Sievers

JOB HUNTING II

2008-01-12T17:35:00.000-08:00

Job Hunting II

A good list of job search sites needs regular maintenance, here are three additions since our earlier post. From here on we'll post the whole updated list (with new items first) bi-monthly.

Bridgestar's mission is to support and strengthen nonprofit organizations by enhancing the flow and Effectiveness of passionate and highly skilled leaders into and within the nonprofit sector.

Commongood Careers - a nonprofit search firm that connects highly skilled, passionate individuals to organizations that are dedicated to creating positive social change. Founded by nonprofit professionals. Offers personalized, engaged support to job seekers and organizations throughout the hiring process, as well as access to a wealth of knowledge about nonprofit careers.

California Only:

Nonprofit Directions is a job listing service for the nonprofit sector, available both in print and on the web.

Nonprofit Directions is a service of the Center for Nonprofit Management, the founding partner of the Nonprofit Jobs Cooperative, a collaboration of nonprofit Management Service Organizations across the country who have combined efforts to form a new national jobs listing website.

Technorati Tags: Nonprofit Jobs, Job Search, Nonprofit, Job Resources

THE SAD & THE FUNNY: NONPROFIT JOBS CORNER

2008-01-11T10:59:00.000-08:00

NONPROFIT JOBS CORNER

THE SAD:

A recent job search turned up this position advertisement:

Litigation Attorney
Disability Rights Legal Center
http://www.idealist.org/match/851494920-305
Los Angeles, CA
Salary: $48,510 per year depending on experience plus excellent benefits

Imagine graduating from Law School to find this salary! How will the Disability Rights Center recruit good talent with this offer???

THE FUNNY

Add it to my "new favorite job title":

1) I just had to read the job announcement for this one: Chief People Officer
Seems this is what they're calling a Human Resources Manager today. I remember when I thought calling People "Human" resources (as opposed to natural resources like petroleum I suppose) was egregious. What exactly was wrong with "Personnel Manager" again?

2) This is almost as good as (yes it is real!): Dream Coordinator - I've always wanted to coordinate dreams but I keep getting sleepy...

Dream Coordinator

Dream Foundation is searching for a highly motivated and committed individual to coordinate dream granting in our Los Angeles office.

3. Do you have "Poker" and "Table Tennis" on your Resume? This is a real job posting for an Engineer position!

REQUIRED SKILLS:

Ruby on Rails Experience
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) knowledge
CSS based HTML presentation

NICE TO HAVE SKILLS:

Table Tennis
Poker

4) Underwear Affair Participant Coach Needed - Another one, this one on Craigslist. I almost want to do the job just to put it on my resume.

THREE NONPROFIT BLOG FAVORITES

2008-01-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

The Best of 2007 and one new-comer
Forgive me if I sing the praises (one more time) of my three favorite bloggers, but I simply must. These three blogs have enough material to keep me reading all winter (and real I will!).

But before I begin, let me introduce a new nonprofit blog on the block. I don't know how I missed it, but it looks like it launched with a bang last September. UnCivilized Society is quite the entertaining blog. Admittedly I'm partial to the "Un's", ever since the Un-Cola, I've been into un.

White Courtesy Telephone - Last time I checked this was Albert Ruesga's baby, but on a recent visit (shows how long I am on the uptake), I see a community of bloggers. I am here to sing the praises of them all. If I had to pick one word, I'd say "entranced". I'm still hoping to craft a post title so clever as this: Nonprofits, Virtual Worlds, and the Triumph of Ironic Distance
GiftHub - What kind of being could blend bondage and philanthropy? That would be the self-proclaimed tongue-in-cheek moral tutor, Phil Cubeta. Brace yourself for the journey when you venture forth into Phil's land of satire and parable. There are times when the posts reach pure genius as in this one: Why Laundering Drug Money Through Philanthropy is Good for the Country
The Artful Manager - I try to give props to Andrew Taylor at every opportunity. His blog leaves me with a sense of awe, but doesn't require I lose my sense of humor either: Separate and connected...like a giant fungus

2007 NONPROFIT HALL OF SHAME

2008-01-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

This in from the AP: A Bangor, Maine woman is in jail on a felony theft charge for embezzling $60,000 (maybe more) from a nonprofit that assists families with foster and adopted children.

Police arrested Katherine Ratliff, 39, after workers at Adoptive & Foster Families of Maine discovered discrepancies in the organizations accounts.

From a post on Deal W. Hudson's blog: 85 percent of Roman Catholic dioceses that responded had discovered embezzlement of church money in the last five years, with 11 percent reporting that more than $500,000 had been stolen.

Related Nonprofit Eye post:

2006 Nonprofit Hall of Shame

Technorati Tags: Charity, Fraud, Fraud Detection, Hall of Shame, Nonprofit

WOULD YOU WORK FOR NO MONEY?

2008-01-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

Well would you? No, I'm not talking about volunteering. I mean do what you do every day at your nonprofit, but for free. Yes you have said "I love my job so much that I'd do it even if they didn't pay me". But what if they didn't?

A friend of mine recently said that she didn't know people who worked for nonprofits got paid! It bothered her that any of her donation went to someone doing accounting, she had given it to the kids!

So here we are worrying about excessive compensation, and she's worrying about compensation period.

The fix is in folks. Now that the new 990 is a reality, anyone paid more than $150,000/yr will be highlighted. Yes, this means you. While the average household income in the US still hovers around $36,000, try living in Manhattan or San Francisco (or LA for that matter) on under $100,000.

A recent cost-of-living comparison showed a $116,000 salary in LA to be the equivalent of $212,000 in Manhattan. Given numbers like that, the Executive Directors in Manhattan sure get a raw deal on the 990. They appear to be paid excessively while the LA equiv skates on by under the radar. Is nobody thinking over there at the IRS???

OK, last question (alas I don't have many answers today): Anyone know a for-profit executive responsible for running a multi-million dollar corporation that gets paid LESS than $150,000???

fin.

BEHIND THE SCENES AT NONPROFIT EYE

2008-01-02T19:47:00.000-08:00

Nonprofit Eye - Backstage Pass - New Feature

A Letter from the Editor
It's a new year and in lieu of resolutions, we have turned our "Eye" inward. The result? An examination of focus of the Nonprofit Eye. Looking out to the audience, two posts continue to grab a huge share of our readership (one on (of all the arcane topics: revenue recognition) and the other on Job Hunting). Readership takes a dive when I turn to self-exploration, technical topics, philosophical musings on nonprofit identity. I have to admit that even my own interest was waning as I've swum thru the waters of all things related to the Nonprofit World.

So get ready for a new spin in 2008, and very soon...a new website and domain name. Such a move means a new start, appropriate for the beginning of a new year. And such a start demands a new theme.

Time for audience participation here dear readers. Two themes call strongly to me and I'd love to hear your comments on them (both as to marketability and to your own thoughts on the topics).

The first theme "Crossover Hits" speaks to bridging the gap between the knowledge bases in the for-profit world with those in the non-profit world. Call it an interdisciplinary approach. Seems the same topics are recycled over and over in the nonprofit blogosphere; the same with the for-profit writing world; And never the twain shall meet?

Two areas have great cross-talk - the fundraising and marketing bloggers have done a great job of bringing the branding concept over from "the other side". It can still be a hard sell to some nonprofit staff and boards, but there is progress. The other area is the now the almost-ready- for-prime-time: NPTech. It strikes that most of NPTech is...well...Tech. Still, it is important to keep bringing cutting edge tech applications over to the nonprofit side. Rover, Rover, let Linux come over!

It is possible to re-think the Nonprofit Eye as a place to blend for-profit trends in accounting, compliance (easier to see) as well as concepts from psychology, human interaction (also known as user-interface).

The blog would answer the question "what great stuff is being talked about out there that we aren't talking about in the nonprofit world".

The downside of this approach? All hot topics would be excluded, no 990 revisions, no transparency, no social media/web 2.0, no more fun Grassley bashing...

Which brings us to the second candidate theme, we call "The new and the old".

Bloggers like Rosetta Thurman, write about future leaders; new job seekers write about how to find a job; experienced nonprofit executives write about burnout or the leadership crisis. These points in the career cycle form a continuum; but what is in between? What can the newbies learn from their elders? What can us oldbies learn from the newcomers?

The blog could become a forum for bridging the divide. Experienced nonprofiteers would write in and answer future leaders questions; Newer Nonprofiteers would write about how to cure the ills of the old skool.

A quick scan of the newbie blogosphere shows quite a few Youth Leadership sites on the landscape:

A Shout Out to Youth
Linking a Network to Connect and Nurture Young Charity Workers (Chronicle of Philanthropy, 01.18.2002)
Advice by Young People, for Young People (New York Newsday article on YNPN-NYC, 04.04.2004)
A New Professional Network Gives Young Foundation Employees a Voice (profile of YNPN's sister network)
Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy)
Michele Martin's Advice on Starting a Nonprofit Career
The Search for a Meaningful Job
Involving Youth in Nonprofit Arts Organizations

Sound in! We want to here from readers of nonprofit blog readers. What do you want to read about? Do either of the two themes above appeal? Let's start the year with a conversation.

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Nonprofit Trends, NPTech, Charity, Young Charity Workers

GIVE WELL GIVE OFTEN - NONPROFIT TREND OF THE WEEK

2007-12-31T12:05:00.000-08:00

New Feature! Nonprofit Trend of the Week

Nonprofit Innovations

disclaimer: this is NOT a plug - please read to end of article for pro's and con's!

A friend introduced me to a for-profit product that dovetails well with nonprofit values. Produced by GiveWell.com , the product itself is called the "Healthcare Gift Card". There are pros and cons (discussed below), but first, what is it? Givewell bills itself as:

...a new way to help employees cover health and wellness costs. It is designed to encourage healthy living and staying well.

Employees can use it to cover a variety of healthcare costs including co-pays at doctor’s offices and pharmacies or for vision care, dental care, health club memberships and elective procedures at businesses that accept Visa debit cards.

Pros

Giftwell tells us that

Because the Healthcare Gift Card is targeted to work only with health and wellness providers, you can be assured your gift card will be used as a “gift of health.”

Better than giving someone cash and worrying that they'll use it on something less necessary? Hmmm...this may also be a "Con". Is a massage more necessary than gas or groceries? Can individuals not be trusted to use cash (or cash equivalents) for something they need? Is the glass half empty or half full here?

Cons

It's worrisome that a card like this can only exist in a country that doesn't provide adequate health care in the first place. Might it not be like saying "here, I know you're poor and can't afford to go to the dentist, so here's a little reminder of that"?

More worrisome is a hidden charge. After nine months if the card hasn't been used, the purchased starts incurring a monthly charge. That's kind of insane, I wouldn't want to give out a card unless I was darn sure it was going to be fully used!

The real evil here is that the stats show most folks don't use (or fully use) the gift cards they receive, perhaps Givewell's business model is based on this premise (not on the actual sale of the cards)...

But before we throw the baby out with the bathwater...there is some intriguing kernel of information here. Could you sell the card (at a markup) as a fundraiser? Could you set up to accept these cards (fee for service?) and have your donors decide who to give them to?

I think there's something here, but as always, let the buyer beware.

Technorati Tags: Givewell, Nonprofit Innovation, Nonprofit Trends, NPTech, Charity, Giving, Gift Card

THE REVISED 990: IT'S HEEEERE!

2007-12-22T10:42:00.000-08:00

You've been waiting for it (dreading it?) and now it's here. Get ready, the IRS has announced the release of the revised Form 990 (complete with schedules A - R)! How many years have we been hearing the rumblings about excessive compensation? about professional fundraisers? about risk management? about enhanced transparency? Well, the pavement has met the road folks. Read the IRS announcement here.
Effective for the 2008 tax year (returns filed in 2009), the revised form will be phased in over a three year period for smaller organizations.
The revision reflects many changes since the draft was released (the IRS received more than 650 public comments!!!)

For the 2008 tax year (returns filed in 2009), organizations with gross receipts over $1.0 million or total assets over $2.5 million will be required to file the Form 990. For the 2009 tax year (returns filed in 2010), organizations with gross receipts over $500,000 or total assets over $1.25 million will be required to file the Form 990... Also, starting with the 2010 tax year, the IRS will increase the filing threshold for organizations required to file Form 990-N (the e-postcard) from $25,000 to $50,000.

You can find the 2008 Form 990, comments, etc. on the IRS Charities and Nonprofits web site.

Technorati Tags: 990, Revised 990, Form 990, IRS, Charities, Nonprofit Tax Return, Nonprofit

NONPROFIT GOVERNMENT GRANTS - THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

2007-12-21T11:09:00.000-08:00

I came across this item in OMB's comments to the IRS (in response to the revised 990):

Federal agencies provide over $450 billion in government grants annually; a substantial portion of which goes to nonprofit organizations.

No deep thoughts today, just this: That's BILLIONS not millions. That's a lot of change. Let's use it to make a difference!

Technorati Tags: Government Grants, Federal Funding, Nonprofit Funding, Nonprofit

28 DAYS FOR CHARITABLE GIVING (Oh...and Merry Christmas)

2007-12-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

Leave it to a nonprofit accountant to write about tax-time instead of Christmas Cheer and Silver Bells! Seems like only yesterday I was writing about holiday fundraising appeals, but it turns out another year has flown by!

Here's a re-cap on tax-exempt giving:

The Nonprofit Eye on IRS Regs, Tis The Season to Be Giving

sixtyPercent on the great Tax Advantages of Giving Gifts of Stock

Beth Kanter's posts on Fundraising Widgets and on Donor Documentation

and let's not forget the IRS's own roundup of Tax-Exempt Giving

Technorati Tags: Charitable Giving, Donations, Nonprofit, Tax Exempt Donation