Hello New Year! Have I got plans for you. Of

Start the new year with a flourish

course, I say that every year. Occasionally to good purpose, but so often my resolutions seem of the type destined to failure. I'll be more organized; exercise more, eat less; learn a new language.

  What's that saying? Hope is not a viable plan. That resembles most of my resolutions. Learning a new language, for example, is a wonderful idea. But on the first of every year, I act as if I just have to will it and presto! I will be fluent in Spanish, French...Swahili.

  Truth is, of course, if I want to learn a new language-be more organized, get a better job, raise more money, do whatever-there are concrete, real steps I have to take. And if I am not willing to do the hard work that is necessary for success, my resolution will be just another failure.

  Mostly, I work with nonprofit organizations. Mainly the work I do with them is focused on increasing their fundraising capacity. That can involve a number of things-from training Boards on their roles and responsibilities to developing and helping them to implement a comprehensive fundraising plan-and all the steps in between and after. And when, as inevitably we all do, they look for the magic bullet, I tell them what it is: Consistency.

  Do something, I tell them. Do anything that moves you toward the direction you want to go. Keep doing it, tweaking what you are doing so that you are constantly doing it-or some part of it-better.

When you are doing it relatively well, add something else to the mix. Note that I wrote "add" not "replace."

  These don't have to be big steps; baby steps are good and will, over time, get you where you want to go.

  Something else I learned not too long ago (I am a slow learner): Missteps, heading in the wrong direction, stopping to move at all for a while, do not have to be fatal. They can simply be a misstep, one to the side or even backward, and standing still can sometimes help you to see what is out there and what barriers or obstructions might be in your way.

  Don't beat yourself up if things aren't going precisely to plan. But don't let a glitch turn into an insurmountable gulch, either. Remember that you can turn around; take another step; and that sometimes it is okay to decide (as long as it is a conscious decision) to head off in an entirely different direction.

  As Yogi Berra famously said (and wasn't everything he said celebrated?) "You give 100 percent in the first half of the game, and if that isn't enough in the second half you give what's left."

  This month we are really lucky to have an article by Annika Hylmo and Robert McKim about their recent Nonprofit Leadership Survey. Read "Four Canaries in a Coalmine" to see if your agency is in danger.  

  Boards, of course, are critical to our organization's health.  Mitch Dorger  asks if Board Committees are everything we hope they can be. Effective committees, says Mitch, are great. How to make sure yours are? Read and Learn.

  Finally, one of the findings from the Nonprofit Leadership Survey that came as no surprise at all was the fact that fundraising is the principle concern of nonprofit executives. Many of my clients have come to the realization that not only do they need to have a broad base of fundraising sources and to raise funds in a variety of ways, they also need to look at the type of fundraising they do.         Often, smaller organizations in particular, focus 

on annual giving. That is, they raise money today to be used the day after. Current funding for current funding needs. But as the economy has gone south, and up isn't looking very high, many have realized that they also need to raise funds for sustainability-and that means endowment.

  Unlike annual funds, endowment funds are forever. But just as the results of endowment fundraising last for a very long time, so can the cultivation process leading to getting endowment gifts. For many organizations, it is a sea change in the way they have to think about the fundraising process.

 As always, let me know what you think--and what plans you have for this new year.  

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  Need help in making Board members comfortable with fundraising?    

BOARD COMMITTEES:

 Boon or Bane?

Mitch Dorger is the principal of Dorger Consulting

You can reach him at mitch@dorger.com

   Although there are a lot of derogatory jokes about committees, the truth is they can be extremely  important to the success of your board.
Why? Basically, there are two reasons. First, by transferring "roll up the shirt sleeves" work to committees, the full board can keep its meetings shorter, more focused, and aimed principally at the strategic and policy-related matters it needs to be working on. Second, important issues are often complex. They require research, consideration of alternatives, extensive discussion, and even brainstorming. These activities are not routinely the type of things you want to have your full board engage in. I am a big fan of effective committees and have seen them accomplish truly excellent work on behalf of the full board.

  If they are so good, why not have a whole bunch of committees - maybe one to address every aspect of the organization's operations? That's a really bad idea for several reasons. First, committees create work, which means some board members are going to have increased workload. Remember most of those folks are volunteers who are trying to earn a living while at the time helping your organization meet its goals. Organizational leaders need to be very sensitive to the time demands on their board members.   Second, if not properly chartered and managed, committees can get involved in micro-managing operational affairs. This is not something the board should be involved in. This micro-management can lead to (1) dissatisfaction on the part of operational managers, (2) bad or less than optimal decisions if the committee members are not experts in matters being examined, and (3) undermining the CEO or executive directors by creating confusion as to who is issuing instructions to the staff.

  So what do organizational leaders need to know about the proper use of committees on their boards?

  First, it is important to understand that there are often a variety of committees within an organization. I often wish that there were more terms used to describe the workings of various groups of people in an organization because a lot of confusion is created when very different organizational entities share the same name - "committee".