What, exactly, is good stewardship?

What is that thing called stewardship?

Many people would have trouble defining it, even if they have a pretty good idea of what it is.

Speaking during the 2013 Bridge to Integrated Marketing Conference, Phyllis Freedman of SmartGiving and Charlotte Meyer of Ocean Conservancy offered these two observations about stewardship:

1. It is the most neglected function of fundraising, and it is not the end of the relationship but the beginning. Freedman and Meyer said good stewardship distinguishes an organization from its competitors, prevents gift revocation and is the right thing to do.

2. Surprising at it might sound, they said it is possible and even desirable to measure stewardship.

They offered the following as items that can be measured: 

1. Legacy donors increasing outright giving; 
2. Repeat annuities; 
3. Multiple planned gifts from legacy society donors; 
4. The number of surveys returned; and, 
5. The number of calls or visits. 

Freedman and Meyer also suggested performing a data accuracy audit, looking at the following areas:

1. Typos; 
2. The salutation field; 
3. Same sex couples; and, 
4. Couples in which the woman keeps her name. 

They also said that stewardship rests on these pillars: 

1. Thanks with relevance; 
2. Provides opportunities for engagement; and, 
3. Illustrates impact.
   

by The NonProfit Times

Infographic: How to Achieve the Perfect Work Life Balance

Via, In Power Women.

20 ways to network that don’t feel like networking.

Say the word “networking” and many people think of attending awkward events, anxiously clutching business cards, likely looking for the nearest exit. With a reputation for being disingenuous, one-way, and simply uncomfortable, it’s understandable that many people prefer not to network at all.

However, what if we shifted that view? What if we thought of networking as a way to meet people with whom we share mutual interests and aspirations? That it wasn't about racking up tons of names and business cards, but rather about cultivating a strong and supportive community? And instead of being one-way or one-time, it’s about creating long-term relationships to nurture and grow?

Too often we leave out the “mutual” “supportive” and “long-term” components of networking.

For me, it’s just wanting to meet new people wherever I am and be helpful to others whenever possible. Below are a few ways you can build your network and nurture your network.

Building your network: Pain-free ways to meet people

The trick: Go to an event where the subject matter is something you’re truly interested in and there are activities to bond over. Not a fan of group events? It never hurts to connect with people one-on-one.

• Go on an informational interview: Is there someone whose career you admire? Reach out to them to see if they are willing chat about their career journey and offer advice. Keep in touch by sharing your progress and resources related to their interests (see below).

• Ask for an introduction: Let friends and family know you’re looking to meet interesting people in your field.

• Attend a workshop: Workshops often allow you have conversations with other participants, inadvertently introducing you to new people. Don’t let the opportunity slip!

• Attend a conference: Although conferences might be full of people, it’s not always easy to introduce yourself: You get busy with the various speakers or just stick with your team. So, if you can, figure out who will be at the conference ahead of time and  try schedule a time to meet.

• Join a club: One word: Meetup. Don’t see a Meetup near you that you like? Create one.

• Join the board of a nonprofit: This is obviously a bit more complicated than other suggestions, but board membership is a fantastic way to meet new people. You often don’t just meet fellow board members; you can also connect with their network as board members are often responsible for bringing new supporters to an organization.

• Volunteer: Volunteering allows you to help others, meet people who share your passion, and learn more about your community.

• Connect with a coworker: Sometimes we ignore the people right next to us. If there is a coworker you’d like to get to know more, meet up after work (or for lunch) and stay in touch if either or you leave the organization.

• Reach out to your alumni group: Alumni doesn’t just apply to colleges, either. Have you completed or participated in any fun programs? Connect with your cohort.

• Harness social media: We could write an entire article about this but think about how you can turn online relationships into face-to-face (or Skype!) meetings.

Nurture: How to help the people in your network

• Make introductions: It’s an easy and meaningful way to help others grow their networks.

• Host a party: You can have a small get together in your home or a restaurant. Websites like Grubwithus make it easy to set up a dinner or happy hour. I did one a sometime ago and it was great to connect people who might not have met each other otherwise.

• Send a thank you note: Whether by email or snail-mail, a short note thanking someone for helping you out lets them know you appreciate their support…and who doesn’t like to be appreciated?

• Share a resource: Keep an eye out for interesting articles that speak to what people in your network are passionate about or problems they are having trouble solving.

• Share a skill: We’re all good at something — what are you good at and would enjoy being the go-to person for in your network?

• Make a recommendation on LinkedIn: You can craft a great recommendation in just a few minutes.

• Share praise! I have a friend I brag about to everyone I meet; she’s sharp, generous, and a joy to be around. Once someone asked me, “Do you tell her how much you adore her?” Good point! Let the people in your life know you admire who they are and what they do.

• Stay in touch online: One of the easiest ways to keep your network lively is to be in constant contact and social media makes this easy. You can do many of the aforementioned actions online (like sharing praise, a recommendation, or a resource). Try to hop offline occasionally, too, if possible.

• Ask them what they need: Seriously! Just ask.

Via IdealistCareers.org 

Investing in talent: How and why foundations are supporting professional development

Anyone who knows anything about the nonprofit sector knows that nonprofits attract passionate, committed, caring people – but that those people must operate on a shoestring budget, where needs perpetually exceed resources. This “nonprofit starvation cycle” is described by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, as quoted in a sector white paper:

[Not-for-profits are] so hungry for decent infrastructure that they can barely function as organizations — let alone serve their beneficiaries. The cycle starts with funders’ unrealistic expectations about how much running a nonprofit costs, and results in nonprofits misrepresenting their costs while skimping on vital systems — acts that feed funders’ skewed beliefs.

To break this cycle, the article suggests that funders must take the lead. Traditionally, grant-making organizations have funded nonprofit projects and programs, but in recent years, some innovative donors have begun to see that investing in talent and leadership development is a key piece to capacity building in the nonprofit sector.

James Temple, director of corporate responsibility with Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Leader for PwC Canada Foundation, has this to say: “Programs and priorities are the easiest to measure and foundations want to see results. But if we don’t invest in smart, strategic people, how would our money be used effectively anyhow? There is a critical need for foundations to fund human resources and for grantmakers to say funds can be used for salaries because this will create stronger more vibrant charities.”

While the majority of funds will continue to support overhead and the work of organizations, Nadien Godkewitsch, manager of programs at the Toronto Community Foundation (TCF), says, “It is important to set aside funds for strategic professional development to help nonprofits move beyond day to day activities.”

Challenges in the sector

The TCF was one of the first foundations to take this approach. In 2004, the foundation began to see a looming leadership crisis in the nonprofit sector. “A lot of charitable organizations in Toronto were being run by founders. We were concerned that as those founders retired, there wouldn’t necessarily be people behind them to handle succession,” says Godkewitsch.

Charitable organizations were also “increasingly squeezing their limited funds into programs and were not able to do what private sector does - helping employees become stronger leaders, ensuring professional development.” In response, the TCF launched the Vital People grant in 2004 to provide opportunities for professional development for talented people within the nonprofit sector. In the nine years since, the TCF has provided 83 Vital People grants with total investment of close to $400,000.

Katherine van Kooy, president & CEO, Calgary Chamber for Voluntary Organizations (CCVO), says “Most nonprofit organizations are pretty sophisticated in their approach to professional development but the budget set aside for staff development runs out pretty quickly if travel or significant conference fees are involved.” She adds, “We know from work we’ve done that funding for professional development in our sector does not come close to demand. For organizations that would like to make an investment in their staff, it’s a real challenge to put together funding.”

Professional development

Like many nonprofits, the CCVO is a relatively small organization engaged in diverse work. Van Kooy says, “When we hire someone, they may have new areas of responsibility that they’ve never dealt with before. Our work also changes depending on issues emerging in sector. To allow staff to deepen or expand their skills enables them to do a better job.”

In the past, funders have sometimes invited nonprofit staff to join their own staff for workshops so the nonprofits can benefit from corporate knowledge and expertise, but new partnerships for professional development are emerging.

Innoweave is an initiative of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation that helps community organizations learn about, assess and implement new tools and approaches that can help them achieve greater impact. Managing Director (SiG@McConnell) Aaron Good says, “Many leaders have been to great workshops but came away without knowing what to do next. It’s important to help people figure out what they will do after a workshop or training session. We also try to connect them with a coach who can help them answer key questions and work through their plan in a way that allows them to fulfill their mission.”

Some support for professional development is more indirect: PwC sponsors one of the aspects of CCVO’s annual conference that brings together multiple stakeholders including nonprofits, government and the corporate community. A number of other organizations, such as the United Way, support this conference by paying for opportunities for nonprofits to participate.

Still, some funding directly supports professional development. In early 2013, Todd Minerson, executive director of the White Ribbon Campaign, the world’s largest effort of men and boys working to end violence against women, applied for a Vital People grant from TCF. After six years as executive director, Minerson wanted to test an idea with peers and received funding to attend the Harvard Business School in July.

Minerson says, “The Vital People Grant enabled me to access a strategic nonprofit leadership opportunity at Harvard Business School that was simply inaccessible to us otherwise. White Ribbon is looking at developing social enterprise innovations that I was able to test with professors and peers at Harvard, along with exploring case studies of real organizations facing similar challenges. This grant enabled us to build a win-win for the future.”

Hiring great people

Sometimes funding means that nonprofits can hire talented staff they would not otherwise be able to afford. The Educational Outreach department of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, ON was able to hire a YouTube science content star and to second a physics teacher as a consultant for a year, thanks to a FedDev grant which included funds to support talent. Greg Dick, director of educational outreach with thePerimeter Institute sees this grant as a significant investment and says, “We are very fortunate that both the private and public sectors recognize the need for, and support the development of talent.”

Advice to nonprofits

“We know we do important work in the nonprofit sector but it’s tough to identify ourselves as leaders,” says Godkewitsch. “But seeing ourselves and staff in our sector as leaders driving change, addressing trends, and building on assets in our community should encourage us to think more about professional development.”

Katherine van Kooy notes that “People feel differently when they have an opportunity to grow and develop their skills, to be exposed to different perspectives. It may not pay back immediately but it shapes thinking and provides a toolkit that can be used at different points along the way, in ways that are sometimes hard to quantify.” Van Kooy’s experience has been that investing in professional development for staff helps with retention, but she also notes that, in a mobile market, some organizations may also be concerned that if they invest in someone’s skills, that individual may be more marketable to other employers.

Temple encourages nonprofits to understand the philanthropy arm of their funders, and their corporate strategy for the next few years. “Be bold and curious,” Temple says. “Build relationships and partnerships and find out what your nonprofit can do to help the funder.

Advice to funders

“We are at a time of great change and enabling people to step back and focus on what they are hoping to achieve and how they will do so is really important,” says Aaron Good of Innoweave. “We can’t just keep doing the same thing as funders.”

To funders who may be hesitant around the idea that supporting talent may be less quantifiable, Good says, “This is all about mission and impact – how will you measure success in the next 3-5 years, how will you get there, what processes will you put in place to make sure you get there.”

Temple suggests that capacity building is “patient work” that “typically requires an investment of three to five years before meaningful improvements can be achieved. The benefit — enhanced outcomes and sustainability — is worth the investment.” He suggests that taking 20% of funds out of operations to invest in talent is “not wasteful. It is strategically in alignment with our goals and helps create a more effective impact.”

Van Kooy says, “Investors should be prudent and mindful of ROI, but funding specifically for development opportunities for leaders is often not a massive investment.”

Van Kooy also emphasizes that “a one-thousand dollar grant should not cost a thousand dollars of time to apply.” She notes that some professional opportunities arise quickly and suggests a need for some shorter grant cycles to meet this need.

According to Good, “There is definitely room for other approaches and room for other funders to benefit from this type of program.”

Moving toward partnership

For a long time, Temple says, grantees and grantors have spoken two languages and have sometimes worked at cross purposes. This new approach to funding people allows a change from a sponsorship model to a partnership model, where both nonprofits and funders offer benefit to one another.

“It’s no longer about dollars and cents, but shared values between charities and communities and foundations.”

Susan Fish is a writer/editor at Storywell, a company that helps individuals and organization tell their story well. She has written for the nonprofit sector for almost two decades and loves a good story.

How Sharing Other People's Content Makes You an Irresistible Job Candidate

When it comes to standing out online, your best bet is to offer your own original content. Blog posts or tweets that revolve around your unique ideas will make you a standout candidate.

But the truth is, not everyone has the time, writing ability or even confidence to grow a quality blog or social media account, and plenty of people who don’t have a blog still want to move up the career ladder, into more challenging and better-paying positions.

What if there was a way to show the world just how smart you are, without creating your own content?

Well, there is, and it’s a tactic you should seriously consider: sharing other people’s content.

Whether you curate on Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr or all of the above, here are five things sharing content created by others says about you — and why it can move your career forward.

1. You know your industry inside and out.

When you share an abundance of interesting information, people begin to realize you know your stuff. Not only do you know what’s going on, but you understand what’s valuable to people in your industry and what they want to read, which is just as important.

Even if you don’t consider yourself highly knowledgeable on a certain topic — if, for example, you’re looking to change careers and are using your online presence to pivot — you’ll become knowledgeable on that topic as you sift through blogs and tweets looking for quality information to share. In other words, curating content can help you become an authority in your field and help others see you as an authority.

2. You’re innovative.

Not only do you use the latest social tools to share advice and ideas, the information you share is often about your industry’s latest trends and developments, which suggests you’re forward thinking.

Anyone can say in an interview that they like to follow tech trends, but serving your community as a content curator shows the hiring manager you’re serious about learning, brainstorming and innovating.

3. You enjoy helping others.

So many people talk about themselves on social media. You’ll stand out if you get off the soapbox and instead offer helpful, valuable information, giving props to whoever created it.

This is helpful not only to the minions who read your tweets, but also to the industry leaders who wrote the blog post, tweets or updates to begin with, since you’re helping spread their content and ideas. Those thought leaders will likely appreciate your efforts and might even look to connect further with you, which could lead to more opportunities.

See why being generous online is one of the best things you can do for yourself?

4. You’re familiar with the big (and little) players in your field.

Knowing who the thought-leaders are in your field and where they hang out is just as important — if not more — than being in-the-know about innovative developments. Why? Because those people likely are part of those developing trends, or at least talking about them. In many ways, they are the trends.

In their book The Startup of You, Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha wrote, “If you’re looking for an opportunity, you’re really looking for people.” Knowing who’s doing what in your industry can go a long way toward helping you take the next step in your career. Curating content is a solid way to keep up with what everyone’s doing.

5. In some cases, you have access to those industry players.

Know what every employer wants more than an awesome, skilled employee? An awesome, skilled employee who knows people. Every one of your connections means a connection for your company.

If you don’t know any of the major players in your industry now, look to create those connections through sharing other people’s content. Your generosity could lead to online conversations with those people as they leave comments on your blog posts or reply to you through Twitter. Really want to get on their radar? Try an email introduction after you’ve mentioned that contact on your blog or Twitter, with the hope that they’ll recognize your name.

If you’re keen to give this a go, you’re probably wondering: What’s the best way to find quality information to share with your growing online community?

Try using an RSS tool like Feedly, organizing tweeps who share valuable information into Twitter lists, and streamlining the sharing process with apps like Hootsuite, Buffer and Twitterfeed. Before you know it, you’ll be the one who people in your industry turn to for all the best information, which makes you that much more marketable.

By Alexis Grant for Mashable

What to Answer When the Interviewers Ask "Why Should We Hire You?"

We often go into an interview prepared to answer technical questions regarding ourselves and the job that we are applying for. Being prepared is a good thing, but there would always be a question or two that would catch us off guard. One of these questions would be “Why do you want this job?”.

A lot of people would consider this a silly question and give a random answer such as “because I need a job”. To an interviewer though, this is not any silly question. It asks why you want it, and gives you an opportunity to tell them why the job attracted you, and how interested you are in getting the position.

Here are a few tips to consider when coming up with an answer to this crucial question:

1) Consider the company:

It would not hurt to say that you would want to be on a winning team, as this would give the interviewer the fact that you did your research about the company. Something such as this would be able to convey this idea:

I have been following the rising performance of the company, and would want to be part of the team that makes it to the top of the industry

2) You’re prepared for the part:

Another good answer to this would be to talk about your qualifications and how they compliment the needs of the company. This would let the interviewer know that you are not fooling around with your application and the company’s need. An answer showing this would go something like:

The subjects I took up while working for my degree in management accounting have prepared me for this particular post. My two year experience working with company x has given me the experience that I need to deliver what is stated in your job posting. It is as if I was prepared all my life to land this job.

3) It can further your career and you can help the company in return:

One thing that recruiters want to see is hunger. They want to see this because it gives them the impression that you are willing to go the distance, and even further, in order to get the job done, get recognized and move up. You can express this by saying something like:

I want the job because it can give me a chance to prove myself at this level. My plan is to do an awesome job and move up the ranks of this company, helping the company improve and getting me the job experience in the process. It would be a win-win situation for both parties.

4) Passion:

Of course there is always an answer that shows that this is what you want to do.   A simple statement such as below would give a recruiter the idea that you just want to work in this field:

Since college, this has been the line of work that has always fascinated me. I have taken quite a few jobs in this area of expertise and I still keep on learning.

Conclusion:

Depending on the job that you are applying for, you can mix and match. If you are applying for a higher position than what you were previously in, then you would need to go for the stronger approaches. The biggest mistake you can make though is just pass this question off as a joke and say something such as you are just in it for the money. That would signify disinterest on your part, and you may very well lose that job opportunity. Play your cards right, show your interest, and you would not be jobless for long.

3 Steps To A Successful Cover Letter

Cover letters can be a chore to write for job seekers. Whereas the things that need to be in a resume are cut and dry, what to include in your letter is a little more ambiguous.

In article posted on Boxwood Tech’s Career Learning Center Marshall Brown, founder and CEO of Marshall Brown & Associates, explained that cover letters need to be tailored to the specific job for which you are applying. While it’s fine to have a template that you work from, Brown explained that you can’t simply copy and paste that template and call it a day. If you can, take the time to find out what the unique problems, challenges etc. of the organization might be. Show them how you have the qualifications to help them solve their problems.

When it comes to what you should include in your cover letter, Brown wrote that it’s okay to include information that already appears on your resume. Specifically, Brown states that the document should be no more than three paragraphs, containing the following information:

Paragraph 1: The “Hook”

• Introduce your qualifications up front.
• Tell them a story.
• Drop a name.
• Highlight something about their business.
• Jump right into your results.
• Ask a question that makes them think.

Paragraph 2: The “Pitch”

• Highlight your relevant qualifications and results.
• Target what the organization needs or wants.
• Make it clear and easy to read.

Paragraph 3: The “Close”

• Quick summary (one sentence).
• Call to action (request for a phone call or interview).
• Contact information.
• “Thank you.”

The Non-Profit Times is a leading business publication for non-profit management.