Helping Organizations Thrive

Helping Organizations Thrive
July 2010 Edition

Welcome to the sixth edition of my email newsletter. The mission of Jonathan Poisner Strategic Consulting is to help progressive organizations thrive, with a focus on strategic planning, coalition building, fundraising, and communications.

To keep people informed about my work, I set up this monthly e-newsletter. If you want to unsubscribe, just look for the link at the bottom. My June edition can be read in my archive.

For a complete lists of the consulting services I offer, check out my website.

What Works

Each edition of this newsletter contains a section I call "What Works."

I'm in the process of writing a long article entitled: Why Organizations Thrive. The article details fifteen lessons I learned while growing the Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV), buttressed by my observations of dozens of other groups both in Oregon and across the country. (I served as OLCV's Executive Director from 1997-2009).

No one of these lessons is all that interesting by itself. Collectively, I believe they are a very useful set of principles that any Executive Director can use to improve their organization's capacity to fulfill its mission.

Last month I offered up Lesson 1. You can read it online if you missed it last month.

Lesson 2 is to relentlessly focus on relationships.

What do I mean by that?

I mean that successful organizations are constantly expanding their pool of relationships and strengthening existing relationships. The organization's programs (the reason the organization exists) must first and foremost meet organizational goals. But organizations that thrive have programs that are also designed and run with relationships in mind.

To understand why, it's helpful to take a giant step back and . . .

(read the rest on my website as a PDF)

Recent Success Stories and New Clients

I'm working with Fences for Fido on strategic planning. In June, we focused on gathering information from board members and stakeholders. Now it's on to the planning retreat.

In mid-June, I trained members of the Sauvie Island Center's board of directors and staff on basic fundraising strategies. Over the next several months, I will be providing ongoing assistance with the organization. For starters, I'm helping them turn out people to a great Barndance and Summer celebration on July 24th.

In June, I began working with Conservation Voters of South Carolina to help them overhaul their fiscal management systems. I will be assisting them over the next two months on a database transition.

Later this month, I'll begin work with the Florida Conservation Alliance on their fiscal management system and fundraising planning.

New Service: Executive Transitions

In response to an inquiry, I have developed three Executive Director transition services I am offering to outgoing Executive Directors and to Boards.

In short, I can work with Executive Directors who are pondering a transition to identify the short-list of most important tasks they should get done before publicly announcing the transition. I can work with an outgoing Executive Director to write a transition plan that will smooth the transition administratively and financially. And I can work with a Board to create a confidential report identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the organization so as to identify the skill-set the organization should most seek in hiring a new Executive Director.

More details on my Executive Transitions Services.

Contact Information
Jonathan Poisner Strategic Consulting
jonathan@poisner.com
phone: 503-490-1234
http://www.poisner.com