Greetings! make no doubt about it - the current economic crisis presents a golden opportunity to position your organization for growth and sustainability. Crazy? Just think about it -- millions of public and private dollars are being pumped into nonprofits to help bolster the economic security of low to moderate income families. BusinessWeek says "microloans may become a mainstream financing option for very small businesses." Are you in for a piece of the action? Are potential stakeholders, the media and funders knocking on your door? Are you prepared for the challenge?
If the answer to these question is anything less than a resounding "YES!" then read on as we outline your game plan for the next year. |
| Tough Talk for Tough Times |
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As the year winds down and your thoughts lead to 2009, ask yourself the following questions:
Got Vision? It is time for a strategic plan to take optimal advantage of this opportunity. You need a three year plan that announces your vision for your community with clear, detailed, and accountable goals and objectives to get you there. You need to involve your clients, key partners, collaborators and funders. How do they want you to address this crisis and how they can help make your vision a reality? Here's a good resource to learn more.
Grant Writing or Fund Development? You will be left in the dust if you continue to think of fund development as just writing grants. Sustainable organizations excel at cultivating, developing and sustaining relationships - build a community of believers and the money will follow. The trick is to leverage your existing relationships, talents and skills, and combine them with staff and Board training to create a culture of philanthropy and a plan and system for fund development. Ready to get started? Here is a good tool to assess your capacity in fund development.
"Can You Hear Me Now?" And don't bother if the plan doesn't include a communications strategy and tools that establish you as the leader in creating economic opportunity in unconventional markets.
Got Mission Impact? Mission impact is your tangible progress toward fulfilling your mission. What will your community look like five years from now as you fulfill your mission? The number of classes, clients, graduates, loans and business starts alone won't cut it. What is your three year business survival rate? Have clients moved out of poverty, experienced sizeable increases in assets, income and other relevant indicators? MDOs that can demonstrate these results get a seat at the table, increased funding and support.
In the meantime, there are some tangible things you can do while you hunker down and invest in building capacity:
Work the Media: Weigh in with an op-ed or letter to the editor and discuss the importance of microenterprise to the local economy. AEO, the national trade association, has great resources and tools to help you craft an article, op-ed or letter. Better yet, call your local newspaper business editor/reporter and invite them to interview your clients or sit down with your local editorial board. Click here for a great article on one our clients, ECDI, in Columbus, OH. Or here for one on Project Enterprise in NYC. And take advantage of Global Entrepreneurship Week (see sidebar).
Talk to the Banks: Are your referrals from banks increasing? If not, that may mean you are not keeping in close contact with area banks. Pull them together for a breakfast or go one-on-one and review your underwriting criteria and provide examples of typical borrowers.
Advertise a "Loan Sale": Some microlenders offer an end-of-the-year "loan sale" and reduce the loan application fee or interest rate on approved loans.
Start Working on Your Case Statement: Your case statement or case for support is your communications document, targeted to a particular audience, in order to raise money. Here is a good tool to walk you through developing one. |
| A Tip to Increase Your Outcomes Overnight! |
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 A strategic imperative for many MDOs and CDFIs today is to clarify and define their client outcome indicators and measures - and then develop a system to monitor them. While there are some indicators that all microenterprise programs should measure, there will be key differences based on mission, market, and programs.
There is one client *intermediate* outcome measurement that you need to institute NOW - "Business Strengthening and Stabilization." You document business starts and probably business expansions, right? But what about the borrower who needs to have her loan restructured to reduce the loan payment, free up some working capital, and head-off default? That's a level of effort that deserves recognition! In that case, you helped stabilize the business. And what about the client who is undercharging for their product? If you help him to adjust his pricing structure, that will lead to an increase in revenue. Or help a client develop a simple bookkeeping system? Did you help strengthen that business? You bet!
The bottom-line: You are investing significant resources in your clients and may be grossly under-reporting your impact.
Next steps: (1) Develop solid definitions for strengthening and stabilization and then record these events on a simple "Business Outcome" form after the intervention; (2) Explain to your funders that you are refining how you define success and negotiate "BS/S" outcomes into your performance requirements; and (3) Go through a facilitated process to define your performance and client outcome measures then develop a system to record them and track client outcomes. Start by developing a logic model, which is a simple way to depict the resources and processes necessary to produce the results desired by your program.
Note: Intermediate outcomes are changes that have occurred in the lives of your client, but don't yet show lasting change. For example, business starts, expansions, obtaining a loan, etc. This is different than long-term (or mission related) outcomes like business survivability, jobs, increases in income, sales, assets, etc. |
| Websites and Sustainability |
If you are considering creating a fund development strategy, we also recommend you take a hard look at your current communications strategies and tools. For example, websites are an obvious tool to communicate your accomplishments and impact. In a scan of over 75 websites of MDOs, WBCs and CDFIs, we found the following:
- A majority of organizations do not post their annual reports or, if they do, they are several years behind.
- A majority of organizations do not have a section on "impact" or "results" to illustrate their accomplishments and educate stakeholders on how they define success. This doesn't answer a donor's key question, "Why you?" Of those that do include statistics, most use "output" data - the number of clients trained, counseled, number of loans, etc - and not outcomes - business survival rates, changes in personal, household and business income, numbers that left poverty, etc. A good example of an MDO that uses performance data on their website is MicroCredit NH. Another one is CEO Women.
- Research indicates that people who plan to donate find the charity/organization's Web site most helpful in deciding which charity to support. You need to use your website as part of your fund development strategy and ask for donations. A good example is WESST or Justine Petersen.
- Many organizations have a section on "success stories," profiling successful business owners.
What to do in the meantime?
- Start tooting your horn! MicroTest members like Washington CASH share the results of their most recent longitudinal survey in their annual report. Get your stats on the web, in your collateral materials, etc. Create a "cheat sheet" for staff and board to carry around in their wallets to use when in the presence of stakeholders and potential donors. Take a look at the Opportunity Fund's Interactive Annual Report 2008 to see how a visionary organization values its stakeholders.
- Create a new link called "Impact" or "Results": Include historical and the last year's accomplishments. If you have a section called "About Us," add a link on performance and impact data and your annual report.
- Cultivate local media: Get to know your local TV, radio and newspaper business reporters and editors.
- Create a Newsroom section on your website. Take a look at Women's Initiative in San Francisco.
- Need better data? It's time to develop an outcome monitoring and evaluation survey instrument and system.
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Thanks for stopping by.
Sincerely,
Jason Friedman, Friedman Associates | |
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| How MDOs and CDFIs Can Take Advantage of Global Entrepreneurship Week |
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From November 17 - 23, 2008, Global Entrepreneurship Week will connect young people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. Students, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees, non-profit leaders, government officials and many others will participate in a range of activities - online and face-to-face - to harness the energy of social networking, to connect people taking action in their local and global communities and to celebrate entrepreneurship across the globe.
In the U.S. , one of our clients, Rising Tide Capital, in Jersey City, NJ, is hosting a variety of events in partnership with local government and the private sector. RTC will be hosting events like film screenings, ribbon cuttings, and panel discussions-all aimed at highlighting the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in the fight against the current economic crisis.
"One of the keys to getting out of this economic crisis is supporting our small businesses," said Alfa Demmellash, CEO of Rising Tide Capital. "They're the backbone of our economy and our community. They're so important, but often we don't realize that behind each storefront and advertisement is an entrepreneur that is putting everything they have into their business."
For a list of suggested activities, click here. |
| Grants! |
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Allstate Foundation
The Allstate Foundation provides support to national programs as well as local programs in company communities throughout the United States. Proposals must address needs within one of the following three focus areas: Tolerance, Inclusion, and Diversity, including teaching tolerance and ending discrimination and hate crimes; Safe and Vital Communities, including youth anti-violence, neighborhood revitalization, and teen driving safety; and Economic Empowerment, including financial education and empowerment for domestic violence victims. Applications are accepted throughout the year. Visit the website to review the funding guidelines and access local contact information.
The J. Jill Compassion Fund is committed to providing support to local nonprofit organizations serving women in need located in communities with J. Jill stores. For the 2009 funding cycle, priority funding will be given to organizations in Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Wisconsin. The Fund supports existing programs that provide job training, education, and transitional or affordable housing to poor and homeless women. An additional focus area is programs that break down barriers for women in crisis to achieve and sustain self-sufficiency. Grants generally range from $5,000 to $15,000. Online applications must be submitted by November 30, 2008, through the website. |
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Stuff You Need to Check Out! |
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Anew report by Women's Initiative for Self Employment provides empirical data showing that microenterprise is a highly successful strategy for increasing household wealth. Closing the Wealth Gap found that two years after participating in business management training, women more than triple their overall household wealth.
For the full report click here.
EITCplatform.org is great new tool developed by the Aspen Institute. This shared platform provides group discounts, products and resources for programs that do EITC outreach, free tax preparation and asset-building. While the site is geared to programs that provide free tax preparation, others can still benefit from the Staples discounts, volunteer scheduling software and other resources. The platform is a partnership with the National Community Tax Coalition with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. |
| Meet the Team! |
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We'd like to introduce you to the rest of our team. Everyday, they are making a difference in building the success and sustainability of our clients. |
Melanie Friedman specializes in the development and execution of fundraising programs for non-profits and community and political campaigns. Melanie is working with our clients to develop staff capacity and systems for broad-based fund development. Melanie has experience in managing fundraising campaigns for non-profit organizations and elected officials at the local, state and national levels. After founding and serving as Executive Director of the Iowa Children's Museum and serving on several Boards herself, Melanie has worked and consulted with non-profits across the country, developing expertise in non-profit executive management, governance and Board development.
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Holly Armstrong has built a national reputation in building successful communications operations and addressing internal challenges and hurdles that may hinder the ability to get positive messages to targeted audiences. She has been hired by governors, members of Congress, candidates for political office and business to create pro-active communications plans and processes. Past clients include the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Governor Chris Gregoire (D-WA), Congressman David Wu (D-OR), Senator John Kerry, and the Oregon State Accident Insurance Fund (SAIF). For more information on our team and capacity, check us out on the web at Friedman Associates.
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