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| Greetings!
It comes too fast. Yesterday, it seems, I was
anticipating my May/June trip to London. Now it is December and the end of the year is in sight. And as always, it is tempting to focus on all the things I've failed to do.
But while I believe that we learn best from our failures, focusing on them can be devastating. It's so easy to get bogged down in the shoulda, coulda, woulda, moments.
Ignoring failures (of action or inaction) is perilous, also, however. It becomes easy to repeat the cycle next year.
All of us have mountains we didn't climb this year, plans that didn't pan out, things that didn't quite turn out the way we wanted them to. Fundraisers often find at this time of year that they didn't hit their targets. Or they did, but can't imagine how they will again next year. Easy to get into that panic spiral.
There are people, however, who genuinely look back at the year with satisfaction. They can, honestly, give themselves a pat on the back. My purely unscientific and random observations point to the simple fact that these people have learned to celebrate successes and look at failures simply as things to fix; problems to solve.
A lot of how you look at things in the rearview mirror depends on the way you look at things through the front windshield. If you look to progress forward safely, enjoying the ride ahead, you'll tend to look backward with satisfaction. If, on the other hand, all you see are the few crazy drivers, the rutted road, visualize car crashes and curse at traffic, well, at best you'll give a sigh of relief that it is over, without any joy or anticipation for the next trip.
For a lot of us-and I count myself in this group-the end of the calendar year is fraught. I don't like holidays (yes, I am a supreme Bah! Humbug! Type), and I am someone who thinks that I have never, ever done enough.
On the other hand, in many ways I am also a cock-eyed optimist, who always thinks that things will get better and if I can only articulate the problem clearly enough, then I will be able to find a solution.
Wherever you stand on the continuum, coach Janet McIntyre has some great advice for reflecting on the year gone by. We first published this last year but think it is so on target we've decided to publish again-changing only the dates to keep it current.
Also on tap-ways to plan for the new year, and great information from Ephraim Gopin on reaching Twitter Domination. And we have more on planning.
Read On!
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YEAR-END REFLECTION FOR LEADERS
5 Simple Questions to Ask Yourself About 2011
Janet McIntyre, M.A., CPCC, is a certified executive coach and non-profit consultant. Learn more about her and how she can help you in 2012 at www.janetmcintyreconsulting.com or janetnami@gmail.com
Reflection is an important part of our journey as leaders. We develop our own personal leadership by taking the time out of our busy schedules to pause, think critically and honestly about what we learned, what we unlearned, and what we want to apply going forward.
The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect on the past twelve months. Take time to be in a quieter, more reflective state of mind and contemplate your answers to the five questions below. Write in a journal and/or share your discoveries with a trusted friend, colleague, or mentor. Be kind to yourself as you look back at 2011 and acknowledge all of your growth, accomplishments, and experiences. Most importantly, celebrate yourself!
- What were your greatest successes and breakthroughs in 2011?
- What risks did you take this year that you are proud of, regardless of the outcome?
- What was your biggest "failure" this year? What did you learn from it?
- Overall, what was this year about for you? What's the title of this chapter in the book of your life?
- What lessons have you learned this past year that you want to carry into 2012?
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PLANNING YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS
Before beginning, plan carefully.
- Marcus Tulius Cicero, Roman statesman and orator (106-43 BC)
Does this sound familiar? A wonderful organization-great mission, good people and programs, fantastic reputation-and yet, despite lots of activity, no serious fundraising is taking place. Indeed, at the end of the year, they are so far from their goal that even an extraordinary gift may not be enough.
The attitude of the CEO is indicative of the problem. When it was suggested that a development plan needed to be created and implemented, he said: "We don't need a plan-we are entrepreneurial."
Which has been the attitude of countless failed business people.
Planning is crucial to success. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, "By failing to plan, you are planning to fail."
I like to compare a plan to a roadmap. The first thing you need is a destination-or a goal. While sometimes it can be fun to drive around aimlessly, in these days of high gas prices, it is a pretty wasteful way to get nowhere.
In grantwriting, a goal is something broad and not measurable. In this context, however, think rather more targeted. In fact, a synonym for goal is target. Without knowing where you are headed it would be like planning a trip to California without knowing which part of the state, and specifically where within that large geographical area.
You also want to make sure that your goal is viable. That means that it is within the realm not just of possibility but probability. If your organization has never raised more than $100,000, a one-year goal of raising $5,000,000 is pie-in-the-sky. That doesn't mean that you can't plan to be raising $5,000,000 a year in the next 10 years. It does mean that it most likely won't happen this year.
Once you have your goal, you must consider the resources you have to hand for reaching that goal. Those resources include:
- Personnel-paid and unpaid. Another way to put that is staff and volunteers. It's not raw numbers we are looking for here, but who is dedicated (both in terms of time and passion) to reaching this goal.
- Money-how much can you spend in order to reach this goal.
- Time-how long do you have to reach your destination
- Prospects-Who is the potential audience, donors, buyers, who will help you to reach your goal? Knowing who you will reach out to will define how to best approach them.
With this information in hand, comes the two most important steps:
- How and
- When
The How is the blueprint. In order to reach my goal (e.g.: raise $1.2 million for current projects-be that operations or specific programs-and an additional $1 million for endowment) what specific things do I have to do? (READ MORE)
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MY PLAN TO TWITTER DOMINATION
Ephraim Gopinworks with nonprofits to help them create websites & web content, design social media strategies, market themselves and come up with creative & innovative fundraising ideas. Contact him at ephraimgopin@gmail.com
Ok, not Lady Gaga type domination but I believe that nonprofits- especially small ones with limited/no budget- need a plan. So here's what I did.
First, I did NOT heed the advice of "social media gurus" to just jump in and take part. Look, you don't just pick up a chainsaw and start chopping down trees! I'm pretty sure you'll read the owner's manual first.
Here's where it gets interesting: there ISN'T an owner's manual for Twitter! But that doesn't mean a little research wouldn't help.
My first Twitter foray was for a small nonprofit in Israel that deals with the digital gap (the divide between those with access to technology and those without). Prior to opening the account, I read tens of articles about Twitter, watched YouTube videos on how to open and manage an account. Then I opened the account and...observed.
Aside: Many nonprofit CEO's want their workers/volunteers to start tweeting right away about their projects, programs and tweet links to the organization's Donate Now page. Ummmm...this doesn't work! There are a million nonprofits on Twitter all tweeting about their programs- too much noise, few people following. See below for a solution.
And now back to our regularly scheduled post...
I have successfully managed both a nonprofit and a personal account. Here are my simple tips to help your nonprofit achieve Twitter success:
- Research: Search and see who's out there in your field. When I tweeted for the nonprofit, I searched for other orgs. who dealt with the digital gap. I ended up following, engaging and sharing info with NPO's in Australia, Canada, UK, Philippines, Africa, Cambodia, the US and more countries. I saw the programs they were running and we shared best practices to help improve our individual orgs.
- Make a list: Before I started tweeting from my personal account, I made a list of 100 people I wanted to follow and engage. My secondary goal was to see who they were following and thus find more people to learn from. Mission accomplished: I followed all 100 people (25 at a time) and now follow over 400 Twitter accounts.
- The sidelines: I followed accounts and then I observed. I learned the Twanguage (RT, DM, word abbreviations and the most important- how to make a smiley face). I watched how the people I followed conversed and interacted with their followers.
- Set some modest goals. When I started tweeting from my personal account, I set two goals--To tweet 120 times per week and to gain 25 new followers each week
No- you don't control how many followers you'll get. But I reasoned that followers would start to come because I was tweeting quality links, ideas and more. And they did.
BIG HUGE NOTE: Numbers do NOT matter. I know that you- and you and you- work for a nonprofit and your boss isn't happy because you don't have 1000+ followers. Guess what? Out of my nearly 600 followers, I have a core of roughly 30 who retweet my tweets and engage me almost daily on Twitter. Those are the ones your org. needs to nurture and strengthen the relationship with because they are spreading your message to their followers. (READ MORE)
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Have Your Say
 Inquiring minds do want to know--what is on your mind?
Send me your article (200-800 words) on any topic of interest to those who work for or with nonprofit organizations.
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Are your fundraising results down? Board members bored? Or are thinking about a campaign? Whatever your capacity building needs, Janet Levine Consulting can help. Email or give me a call at 310-990-9151 to schedule a free 30-minute consultation.
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