It was a miserable experience, bringing back memories of a time I prefer to forget. But there I was, in the witness box, testifying at a trial brought by a former staff member against the institution where we used to both work.

  As the lawyer questioned me, although I could not remember any particulars from that long ago, memories swept over me. I remembered how adversarial management and staff were. Rather than talk with each other when there was a problem or potential problem, the default was to immediately file a claim with HR or the union. And co-workers would oh, so politely throw their colleagues under the bus.

  Knowing what I know today, I would have acted very differently than I did when I was working there. Heck, knowing what I know today, I wouldn't have accepted the job even though it gave me an obscene raise. I didn't like the culture of the organization. I didn't fit. And what I know now that I didn't understand before I worked there is that the culture of an organization is its soul. Not its mission. Not the things it does. Rather, what defines the organization is the way it goes about doing things and the attitudes and actions of those involved.

  That I didn't fit with the culture of that particular institution did not make it a bad place-only a bad place for me.

  Corporate culture, however, can also be a bad thing for the organization. It can work to prevent needed change. It can stop innovation. It can allow things to happen without anyone taking ownership. It can create stagnation or worse.

  On the other hand, corporate culture can get everyone reading off the same page. The trick is to make sure that the page is one that makes you feel proud. If it's not, you must begin to change the story of your culture.

   Knowing what your story is and what you would like it to be is an important first step. For nonprofits, there are three legs to this: Who do you want to be for your staff; for your clients; for your contributors. Once you know who you want to be you can begin to act on those desires, generating story lines that as they become the norm create the culture of an organization that makes you proud. 

 Fundraising capacity not where you want it to be?

  Need help in making Board members comfortable with fundraising?    

KINDRED SPIRITS

Brain Saber is the co-founder of Asking Matters, a very cool website that helps people in that most important part of fundraising--Asking.  At the website,  you can take the Asking Style Assessment to find out what kind of asker you are--and how you can fundraise better.  

  I'm a Kindred Spirit, which is one of the four styles in the system of Asking Styles we've developed at Asking Matters. We're the introverted ones who aren't primarily analytic and data-focused. We're right brain people - creative, relying on emotions and our intuition primarily. And we're definitely not the social, party guys.   Does this sound like you? I think there are lots of fellow Kindred Spirits out there.

  The good news is that we Kindred Spirits are good fundraisers - we just don't go about it in the stereotypical sales fashion. We are more likely to build the personal relationship over a longer period of time. We take a bit more time before asking (maybe an extra meeting?). We might even shoot a bit lower knowing that we can always ask for more in the long run as the relationship builds. Of course asking for less lessens even further the odds of being rejected....which we dread!

  That caution and sensitivity helps ensure that we won't mess things up, and we certainly don't like to mess things up because we take things very personally.

  Recently I was advising a client about an upcoming meeting with a board member. It had been set up weeks back and included two consultants. The client wanted to contact the board member to say that both the board chair and executive director would be joining the consultants. I felt this was a game-changing move that carried some risk and I advised that the board chair and executive director have a follow up visit. That was very typical Kindred Spirit behavior. And in case you are wondering what happened, they did not take my advice....and nothing bad happened! The board member was fine with the revised meeting. (READ MORE)