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Getting to Blah: Tips for Productive Information Interviews

Filed Under: By Neel Hajra by nhajra — 2 Comments
June 21, 2010

By Neel Hajra, President & CEO

One of the best tools for job seekers and general networkers is the information interview. It’s one time where the ‘blah blah’ actually matters. These interviews give you a chance to create a safe environment for learning more about a person, a profession, an organization, or the nonprofit sector in general. It’s also an excellent method for building your networks – when done well, it quickly broadens your circle of colleagues and resources. Along the way, you also get the opportunity to impress someone with your skills and expertise.

I set aside time every week to meet with folks who want to do some or all of the above. I just realized that, over the years, I’ve developed an unconscious list of the do’s and don’ts. Instead of keeping this to myself, I figured should pass on these ideas in hopes of helping others make the most of their info interviews:

BEFORE YOUR INTERVIEW:

  1. Have (and share) a purpose: When you request an information interview, explain WHY you desire one. Networking for a job? Have some specific questions? I do like to chat with folks, but only when I understand why we’re gabbing :)
  2. Provide a bit of advance info: In addition to explaining purpose, email your C.V. as a point of background. I’ve also seen people make very good use of a single press article that mentions them. Just don’t send the kitchen sink, and also don’t expect that the recipient will read any of it in advance – bring hard copies too!
  3. Do your homework: One of my pet peeves is an individual who clearly has no idea who NEW is or what we do. It’s not that I really care about their knowledge of my organization, I simply use it as a gauge of how seriously someone is taking the interview. If someone can’t scan our website for five minutes before we meet, then there seems to be little reason for me to invest my own time or effort into the process.

AT THE INTERVIEW:

  1. Tell your story (the Cliff’s Notes version, that is!): Someone’s backstory is very important – it helps me understand what an interviewee is looking for and how I might be able of assistance. Just remember to keep it fairly succinct so that the whole conversation doesn’t turn into an A&E Biography…
  2. Be positive: I live in Michigan. The job market stinks. Some jobs stink too. People are frustrated. I get it. But if your frustration or negativity comes through too strongly in an info interview, you better believe that you’ll be pegged as a whiner. It’s okay to express frustrations relating to your job search or current position, but remember to frame the broader conversation around a positive theme. You don’t hate your current job, you’re looking to expand your horizons. You’re not totally sick and tired of the job hunt, you just can’t wait to devote your time and talents to a cause you believe in. And so on…
  3. Understand the view from the other side of the desk: The person you’re visiting is judging you from the moment you start chatting. “Is this someone I’m willing to introduce to my colleagues?”, “Is this someone I would hire?”, “Is this person notable in any way?”, “Do I like this individual?”, “Is this worth my time?”, and so on. If you understand this, you’ll be better prepared to make the most of your time.
  4. Remember that you’re receiving a favor: You might feel like these tips are one-sided and self-serving. Well, there’s a reason: none of my metrics as CEO include info interviews. Like everyone else, I have limited time to accomplish a lot for my organization. Info interviews aren’t “productive” in the sense of achieving my company’s primary mission. I, and many others, do info interviews  out of a sense of courtesy and duty to support the sector. If your gratitude for this “gift” comes through, you’ll enhance your shot at making a positive impression. You DON’T need to kiss butt, and you DO deserve mutual respect, but treating the transaction like a gift will pay dividends!

AFTER THE INTERVIEW:

  1. Short Term Follow up: A simple thank you, whether by email or print, is a nice touch that demonstrates your professionalism. Also follow up promptly with any introductions that were made as a result of the conversation – otherwise the person who made the introductions for you might look bad!
  2. Reminders are Fine: Sometimes it’s easy for the person you interviewed with to lose track of promises made during the conversation. It’s okay (and smart!) to follow up with gentle reminders in the form of inquiries. Be sure to use a deft touch in terms of your tone and timing.
  3. Networks and advice are your two forms of capital: If someone agrees to meet you for an info interview, chances are that they WANT to help! They rarely can do so by offering you a job. Instead, people can offer you advice and connections. It’s more than talk – it’s information and introductions that can lead you to your future! So embrace these two forms of capital as the take-away value from your info interview.
  4. The Long View: Good information interviews don’t end after the meetings, or even after some follow-up advice or introductions. Instead, they create impressions that stick with your interviewers, and that can only lead to good things! Make the most of them and you WILL be rewarded eventually!

Thanks to Andresblah for the picture!

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How to Use Your Brain for the Greater Good

Filed Under: By Neel Hajra, Events, governance, leadership, volunteerism by nhajra — Leave a comment
May 3, 2010

by Neel Hajra, President & CEO

Scientific proof that your brain was built to serve on a board!

I often get questions from folks about how they can do more to help their community via nonprofits. Donate money? Sure. Do project-based volunteering? Yup. However, an often-overlooked way of making a HUGE impact is through board leadership. There are many reasons why a nonprofit needs a strong board, but let’s focus on why board membership would be good for you:

  • UseYour Brain: Serving on a board is like loaning your brain to a nonprofit. Whatever your professional expertise and experience, there’s a nonprofit board that needs it! It’s a deeper, more meaningful way to serve your community.
  • Rejuvenate Yourself: Better yet, you not only get to use your brain, you use it in an a totally different context than work or your other activities. You’ll be surprised just how fun it is to apply your experience outside of your normal routine. You know more than you think… :)
  • Network: There is no better way to establish yourself within your community than through board service. Think about it: you get to work closely with a range of individuals who represent a wide variety of business and community interests. Over time, it’s a way to develop great new friends and professional contacts.
  • Give More Than Money: We all benefit from the tireless efforts of nonprofits to make our world a better place. Donating just a few hours a month as a board member is a wonderful way to support nonprofits regardless of your ability to donate money.
  • Develop Your Leadership Skills: Sometimes it can be tough to find leadership development opportunities in your work environment. The solution? Join a board! Board membership = leadership, plain and simple. You can develop your skills as a manager and decision-maker, which ultimately could help you in your professional career.
  • Find Mentors or Mentoring Others: Are you early in your professional career and looking for some mentors? Find a board with the kind of folks whose experiences you value! Are you a grizzled vet? Join a board and leverage your experience to help out other trustees AND the staff of a nonprofit.
  • Build Credibility: Think you might work at a nonprofit one day? Board membership is a great way to develop a real understanding of the sector, and build credibility in the eyes of nonprofit leaders. Hoping for a senior management position at your for-profit company? Well, many expect to see community leadership out of their potential leaders.

So HOW do you link up with a nonprofit board? I was hoping you would ask :) For those in the Ann Arbor area, NEW’s BoardConnect program will be hosting Spring into Service, a “speed networking” event where nonprofits seeking board members get to meet smart folks like you. Sign up and serve!!

PS – Detroiters, we’ve got you covered: we’ll do our second annual “Fall into Service” event this fall in Detroit!

Thanks to Zillafag for the brain picture!

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Nonprofit Team Spirit in Detroit

Filed Under: By Linh Song, Uncategorized by lsong — Leave a comment
April 6, 2010

Toasting Detroit with Faygo Red Pop at the Grand Trunk Pub.

Working in the nonprofit sector can be challenging especially when many of us are working with fewer resources while meeting a higher demand for our services.  Here at NEW our staff members are in constant motion; meeting with Board members, presenting workshops, to replacing dying servers.  And, with offices in Ann Arbor and Detroit, we’re often like ships passing in the night….or rather, on I-96.

Since the organization is in the midst of creating a new five year strategy plan, we thought that it was time to celebrate our achievements and well, have fun and reconnect.  What to do when your staff is composed of geeks, development folks, trainers, and folks with social service backgrounds?  Could the masses be appeased with a buffet lunch at Greektown Casino? Could we avoid pitfalls a la “The Office?” Could we convince our CEO to tackle the local ropes course?

You, too would outrun your colleagues for t-shirts like these.

Thankfully the organizers of Inside Detroit stepped in to help us organize a daylong retreat in Detroit.  Not only was our group inspired by Inside Detroit‘s work, and of their peers such as the owner of Grand Trunk Pub, we were able to unleash our competitive spirit as we literally ran around the city on a scavenger hunt.  Detroit t-shirts were at stake here!

We ended with a lunch at Grand Trunk Pub, noshing on sandwiches and Faygo (the menu is based on local and seasonal food) and shared our thoughts on what we had learned about the city and about each other.  There are some amazing gems in the city such as the Guardian Building and a monument commemorating Detroit’s role in the Underground Railroad.  We learned that our CEO is able to reference ICP and Faygo.  Our Detroit native colleagues were very gracious about sharing their experiences on how Detroit has changed.  Thankfully team members were kind enough to allow for stops to snack at the Goodwill Industries’ Ben & Jerry’s and the RenCen (for me, the pregnant lady).  Most of all, we emphasized that we’re all winners at NEW.  (We’re a terribly corny bunch.)

Thanks again to Jeanette and crew from Inside Detroit!  And thanks to our Community Outreach Manager, Yodit Mesfin-Johnson, for making this happen!  We love you Detroit!

Looking for innovative ways to inspire your nonprofit staff?  Check out these articles:

Why Team Building Doesn’t Work & How you CAN Build Your Team – Hildy Gottlieb
“Cabinet will ‘Retreat’ to Blair House to Hand Out Report Cards” – Michael Shear

“Planning a Board Retreat” – Sandra R. Hughes

“How Not to Have A Retreat” – Katya Andresen

“Planning for the Strategic Planning Retreat Checklist” – Sharon L. Mikrut

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Waking a sleeping giant (or least finding one)

Filed Under: By Neel Hajra by nhajra — Leave a comment
February 26, 2010

By Neel Hajra, President/CEO

Lots of people from lots of sectors might look something like this

For the past half year I’ve had the pleasure of joining and getting to know the American Express NGen Fellows, a group of 12 emerging (under-40) nonprofit leaders selected for their impact and potential (side note: 2010 Fellow applications are now being accepted!). Beyond the honor and friendship, though, was something more important: a collective realization that we all yearn for a stronger movement among young professionals to DO SOMETHING about all of the societal challenges we face. Just as striking was our universal recognition that this wasn’t a “nonprofit thing” – talented people from all sectors want to make an impact. I bet this is a striking departure from 20 years ago, when each sector tended to be more inward-looking. These days the continued blurring among the sectors (as described on page 16 of this Irvine Foundation Report) creates the potential for amazing ideas and actions that derive from across the nonprofit, for-profit, and government realms.

That all sounds great, but how do we harness the energy trapped in each of these institutional silos? Well, first, we need to find out: how strong can a cross-sector movement be? That’s exactly the project that the NGen Fellows chose to tackle. We have been trying to “go viral” with a short survey that explores what young professionals think about the role we can all play in solving society’s problems. Amazingly, after just a few weeks, we’ve received 2,500 responses from all over the country. If you’re under 40, PLEASE take 5 minutes to complete the survey – it’s a chance to add your voice to what we hope is a giant, lurking social movement among young leaders across sectors.

I hope many benefits arising from the results:

  • Spark a deeper conversation among young leaders regarding how we can best combine our energy and talent
  • Help all of us understand the potential for a genuine cross-sector effort to solve society’s problems
  • Create a unifying platform for the hundreds of independent “young professional” initiatives out there.
  • Create more two-way sharing of innovative ideas across generations

Stay tuned for more as we start to analyze the feedback – hopefully we’ll find and wake up a sleeping giant!

(thanks to layamaria for the pic!)

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Admit Weakness in Order to Gain Strength

Filed Under: By Neel Hajra, leadership, management, young professionals by nhajra — 1 Comment
February 17, 2010

by Neel Hajra, President/CEO

"I am so full of knowledge and perfection that you will bleed if you touch me"

"I am so full of knowledge and perfection that you will bleed if you touch me" (thanks to www.flickr.com/photos/zenilorac/)

Like many young professionals, my first instinct when meeting new people is to “puff up” my credibility by appearing hyper-capable and not admitting any ignorance (especially with those who might discriminate based on my relative youth). After all, we’ve all heard the amusing codewords for age-based condescension (“I have a child your age!,” or “You were probably in diapers when I started working in this field,” or “Nice idea – I did that 15 years ago”, and so on).

Credibility is an important element of social capital, and too often young professionals are short-changed by others. However, my attitude toward admitting my shortcomings has evolved, even for initial encounters. Here’s why:

  • It’s impossible to learn when you’re trying to be super(wo)man: For every ageist that condescends, there are many more who are really happy to share their wisdom and experience in a positive way. If you strive to better yourself, admitting a lack of knowledge can sometimes be a path to immediate growth.
  • Humility is appealing: Believe it or not, most people don’t want to deal with perfect people :) Taking a humble approach to what you do and don’t know can result in a closer personal connection.
  • Exposing vulnerability provides strategic insight: This is my favorite realization. It’s SO interesting to watch how people react when I admit I don’t know something. Do they try to “partner” with me to get me up to speed? Do they hop on their high horse and lecture me? Do they make a snide comment? Do they admit their own shortcomings and ask my perspective? Do they have enough awareness to gauge MY reaction to their response? A single interaction like this helps me understand whether I’m seen as peer or a pauper, and also helps me estimate the potential for working with this person going forward.

“But Neel,” you say, “it’s hard enough being a young professional. If I show my vulnerability too soon, the sharks will chew me up!” (okay, no one’s actually said that to me, but you get the idea). Here’s how you manage the risk of exposing your imperfections:

  • Establish credibility by showing what you DO know: I’m not saying you just tell someone you’re an idiot :) Start from a position of strength by focusing on issues where you’re knowledgeable. This gives you leeway to transition to a more honest discussion of what you don’t know.
  • Test the Waters: There are, of course, degrees to admitting a lack of knowledge/ability. Start with a hint and shape the rest of your conversation based on the initial reaction.
  • Be situational: Is this your ONE chance to impress a luminary or funder? Is this a short and focused interaction with a lot riding on it? Well, in those cases, maybe it doesn’t make sense to appear less-than-perfect.
  • Show that you’re a learner: If you admit lack of knowledge and someone fills in the gap for you, show that person that you’re able to apply the knowledge during the rest of the conversation. That’s way more impressive than being a know-it-all :)

We all know how to leverage our strengths to achieve desired results. I think it’s more fun to leverage our weaknesses for positive outcomes :)

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The Education of a Young CEO (part 1 of an infinite series)

Filed Under: By Neel Hajra, management by nhajra — 2 Comments
February 5, 2010

by Neel Hajra, President/CEO

You are now CEO. Congrats, and good luck with that mountain. (thanks to

You are now CEO. Congrats, and good luck with that mountain. (thanks to Inaz)

It’s time to pass on a few lessons learned in hopes of empowering other up-and-coming leaders out there. I assumed the CEO role in the summer of 2008 after seven years of program and management work at NEW. The bulk of my experience was as Chief Operating Officer, so in some sense the conditions for a smooth CEO transition were ideal. However, in practice the learning curve (and decline of the economy!) has been steeper than I anticipated . So, without further dramatizing, here are just a few lessons learned, with more to come:

  • The chief executive role is DIFFERENT: I know what you’re thinking: “yeah, yeah, every role is different.” Actually, not really. I’ve done program work, development work, executive management, and served as a board member. I’ve worked in nonprofit and for-profit environments. NOTHING approximates the experience of being at the head of an organization: The pressures, challenges, and rewards combine in a way that can’t be replicated through other roles. So when you assume the top leadership position, you will experience a shock to your system.
  • No one cares as much as you do: This may sound like a knock on  everyone else, but actually it’s not at all. I am lucky to have an outstanding staff and strong board, plus a huge range of external resources that help NEW succeed. What I mean is that there’s only one person who can truly push forward an organization’s total agenda: you. You can (and should!) empower and entrust folks within and outside and organization to further your nonprofit’s mission. However, all the resources and allies in the world still won’t matter if you don’t push constantly to move things forward.  You will realize that all roads lead back to you, even when you don’t want them to.
  • Your good habits become bad ones: I realized very early on that habits I developed as a program manager and COO were actually counterproductive in the CEO role. Deep involvement in operations? Bad. A ‘to do’ list mentality? Bad. Sweating the small stuff? Bad. You will have to “unlearn” practices that helped make you successful in the first place.
  • Governance work is time-consuming: Despite watching my predecessor maintain a strong board of directors, I really didn’t appreciate how much time it takes to evolve, maintain, and engage a strong board. Executive management of the governance function is the “dark matter” of the nonprofit world – it’s there, but no one really appreciates just how much there is (even with an outstanding board chair). You will be surprised at just how much time it takes to maintain strong governance.

Well, I could go on and on, but we pay for blog posts by the word. Okay, not really… more to come soon!

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Tools for Smart Giving

Filed Under: Uncategorized by nhajra — Leave a comment
January 11, 2010

By Neel Hajra, President & CEO, Nonprofit Enterprise at Work

(Note – this post is a continuation of a series of posts initially published in AnnArbor.Com. Part 1 was “Why Give?” and Part 2 was “Supercharge Your Donation”)

Thanks to www.photos8.com

Thanks to www.photos8.com

If you’ve decided to donate your hard-earned money to nonprofits, good for you! Your support is needed now more than ever. Sometimes the harder question is where to to invest your charitable dollars. Local or national or international? What kind of cause? With 40,000+ nonprofits in Michigan and a million nationwide, the choices are many.

One way of cutting through the clutter is to think of your charitable giving as a portfolio of investment choices. Perhaps your charity portfolio is based on habit or personal connections, and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, if you want a more strategic portfolio that really reflects your values, a little bit of homework and diligence goes a long way. To get started on your portfolio, I recommend CharityVillage.com’s nice checklist for choosing charities, or U.S. News & World Report’s user-friendly Giving Guide. If you’re looking for something closer to home, check out the Giving Wisely tips published by a coalition of Michigan nonprofit groups and the Michigan Attorney General’s office.

Once you’ve identified portfolio candidates, you have a range of online resources to help decide which investments are the smartest ones. The last thing I want to do is make your giving process more complicated, so I’ve ordered these tools from “simple” to “complex” – you can decide which ones are best for you:

  • Annual Reports (simple): Many nonprofits produce annual reports on their websites that summarize their program and financial activities for the past year. Use these to get a better sense of exactly how an organization would use your funds. If they don’t publish an annual report, sometimes the websites themselves might provide similar information.
  • Solicitation Licenses (simple): Many (but not all) nonprofits in Michigan are required to have a charitable solicitation license to ask for donations. The Michigan Attorney General’s office publishes a spreadsheet of charities that are currently licensed in Michigan – this doesn’t guarantee that a nonprofit is good, but it’s a quick and easy check on a nonprofit’s basic legitimacy
  • Boards of Directors (fairly simple): Every nonprofit is governed by a board of directors that is the ultimate authority for an organization’s activities. These boards are critical – in fact, many foundations that specialize in charitable giving assign very high importance to a board’s membership. A board roster should be available on a nonprofit’s website (and be very suspicious if it’s not!). Do board members appear to come from reputable organizations? Do they represent a cross-section of the communities they serve? Better yet, do you know someone on the board you could talk to?
  • Online Rating Systems (fairly simple): There are several online services that rate larger nonprofits. Keep in mind that these rating systems are highly controversial – each rely on different factors that may or may not tell the whole story.
  • CharityNavigator: The most well-known (and controversial) rating site, this service relies mostly on financial data from nonprofit tax returns.
  • BBB Wise Giving Alliance: Another popular service, this site provides evaluations of charities based on a set of best practice standards.
  • Givewell and American Institute of Philanthropy: Two more services that evaluate charities on a somewhat more holistic set of criteria.
  • Nonprofit Tax Returns (more complex): The Form 990 is an annual tax return that must be filed by all charitable nonprofits with income more than $25,000. If you have the time and desire to do a deep dive, go to Guidestar and look up a nonprofit’s Form 990. The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York publishes an excellent walk-through for interpreting this complex document.
  • Audited Financials (very complex): If you’re REALLY serious about understanding a nonprofit’s financial activities, consider an organization’s audited financial statements. Larger nonprofits conduct independent audits every year in order to verify that their financial activities are accurate and compliant with regulations. These reports are extremely revealing, which is probably why surprisingly few nonprofits publish them online. If you can get your hands on one (online or by request), you can learn a lot about a nonprofit’s overall financial health, as well as how they spend their money.

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IS/CMF 2009 Conference: A group conversation with Geoffrey Canada

Filed Under: By Neel Hajra, governance, management by nhajra — 2 Comments
November 6, 2009

by Neel Hajra, President & CEO

This goes toward my ailing 403(b)

This goes toward my ailing 403(b)

First, some fluff:

  • I asked the concierge to check with Lost & Found about my misplaced jacket. They couldn’t find the Lost & Found lady. So, do two losts make a found? (answer: yes – they found the jacket, but not the lady)
  • On the last night of the conference I joined a large contingent at Detroit’s MGM Grand Casino. The picture says 1,000 words.

Alright, on to the good stuff. On Thursday night Geoffrey Canada (of Harlem Children’s Zone fame) received the John W. Gardner Leadership Award. He proceeded to give one of the great acceptance speeches I’ve ever heard. Inspiring. Insightful. Hilarious. Real.

On Friday morning I had the opportunity to attend a follow-up, CEO-only group conversation with Mr. Canada. Amazing again, but in a totally different way. The conversation was much more about Geoffrey as a CEO, instead of Geoffrey as a visionary leader. Here’s a really high level summary of some of the topics that were discussed:

  • Scaling operations: Geoff felt strongly that one “must sacrifice perfection for scale.” He also noted that it’s a constant struggle to maintain culture among a large organization. A lot of his daily duties involve finding out “why someone didn’t do what he said he would do.” Scaling requires constant re-training and constant corrections in order to maintain mission. This NEVER ends.
  • Fundraising: Like most executives, Geoff hates fundraising. Isn’t it nice to know that even the greatest of the great fundraisers don’t necessarily like it??
  • Staff retention: Mr. Canada felt that executive management has to be very constant, with extremely low turnover. HCZ achieves this through many tools, including the use of annual and five year bonus plans. Salaried staff has to be fairly constant – about 15% annual turnover or less. He accepts high turnover among part time employees due to the nature of the work (hard!) and workforce (many first-time jobholders that might not be ready for the high standards of HCZ).
  • Working with Boards: Geoff worked to convert his inherited board into a fundraising board (through planned and natural turnover). The transition continued as HCZ went from a $5 million to $70 million annual operation over a decade – board members that couldn’t secure six or seven figure contributions were given the opportunity to step down (and did). He feels that the Board Chair is critical in showing leadership for a fundraising board.
  • Innovation: He noted briefly that fundraising was critical because “public money would never have allowed for the creation of the Harlem Children’s Zone.” It’s a profoundly important observation that the nonprofit sector generates innovations and impact that other sectors cannot.
  • Corporate Giving (and philanthropy in general): He takes foundations to task for expecting outsized results from “small philanthropy”. He notes that no one expects an undercapitalized for-profit to succeed, and yet that’s exactly what’s expected of most nonprofits. “The philanthropic community needs to step up!”
  • Succession: Great story – when Mr. Canada and his board chair were asked by an important funder what would happen if Geoff were hit by the proverbial bus, his board chair simply replied: “we’re F**ked”). That set into action some very deliberate succession planning, and some very interesting observations. In the for-profit world, companies simply pay a group of potential successors a ton of money to keep them from moving to other opportunities. Can’t do that in the nonprofit world! Instead, Geoff has set a specific timetable for his departure – by the time he turns 60 in a few years, he will have transitioned away from day-to-day operations. Also interesting is that his role will be replaced by several managers, each with certain deep expertise (e.g., finance, psychology, education, etc.). I also loved his characterization of typical succession: Executive Directors stay too long, which causes organizations to wane. So when a new E.D. comes along, every blames that person for the declining fortunes of the nonprofit, even though it started with the prior E.D.!
  • Planning and Implementation: The nonprofit sector has gotten much better at planning, but still is weak on implementation. HCZ relied on a seven year (!) business plan, developed with Bridgespan. A decade later, “90% of it was right”. The plan actually envisioned their stratospheric growth, including the fact that the cost of living adjustment in year 7 represented half of the total budget in year one!!! Geoff wanted to take that “absurd” number out, but was convinced that he had to leave it in if they truly wanted to achieve their vision.
  • Data Infrastructure: Mr. Canada was surprisingly passionate about a fairly boring subject: data collection and interpretation. He feels that it’s a critical part of the success of most nonprofits, yet foundations refuse to invest in this kind of infrastructure. Without it, there’s no true accountability to achieving mission.
  • Collaboration: He stated that most “nonprofits misunderstand deals that work.” On the for-profit side, there’s an immense amount of investment in understanding brand, market share, value, and many other considerations. Nonprofits don’t have the capacity to do this, but CAN improve their collaboration through transparency and clearly defined expected outcomes. He tied this back to accountability – if you can’t mutually define clear and measurable outcomes, the deal’s not worth doing.
  • Replication: The Obama administration plans to replicate HCZ in many other communities. This is the classic model of the nonprofit sector innovating, and the public sector providing capital for replication and sustainability. Geoff’s main concern is that the first 5-6 replications MUST succeed, otherwise everyone will lose faith in the potential for replicability. He said that the “biggest mistake” made by communities wanting to replicate HCZ is that “they don’t read our business plan.” The key is to have a strong business plan, and then “manage to it.”

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Independent Sector / CMF 2009 – the First 24 hours

Filed Under: Uncategorized by nhajra — 6 Comments
November 5, 2009

by Neel Hajra, President & CEO

24The full conference started about 24 hours ago, and I’ve been immersed in conference activities for about 19 of those hours. Whew. If you want a great, detailed rundown of the conference goings-ons, check out Rosetta Thurman’s wonderful perspective. I thought I would focus more on just a few of MANY emerging themes (with more to come). These are some of the topics that have recurred across many conversations and sessions:

Silo-Busting

Two esteemed leaders from the Obama administration spoke about busting government silos. Many speakers at the plenaries discussed the same need within the nonprofit sector and among nonprofits, for-profits, and government. Representatives from corporations and corporate foundations seemed to feel the same way. Isn’t it funny when everyone wants the same thing, and no one can achieve it?

There’s at least one explanation that came in the form of an awesome quote (gleaned during an under-45 convening of CEOs): “Everyone in this room is smart enough to know that we can’t trust each other.” Believe me, many other CEOs in the room nodded ther heads when this was stated. It wasn’t just a small-minded quote; the greater point was that the nonprofit sector itself incentivizes organizations to address self-interest above all. It’s how we’re recognized, it’s how we establish leverage and influence, and it’s how we’re funded. So the unanswered question arising from the silos issue is: is there enough trust among the nonprofit sector to truly break down the barriers between organizations and separate causes?

The Future Is Cloudy (with chance of rain)

Even the veterans in the room agree that the future for the sector and for society is more unclear than in the past. EVERYONE is discussing an uncertain future, and many are holding up the current period as one of the historic inflection points for U.S. society – what we do now will resonate for the next 50-100 years. Scary. Cool. Scary cool.

The So-Called Leadership Deficit

That Bridgespan work on the impending generational leadership deficit has been cited at least 5 times by panelists and presenters. It’s the notion that a huge population of Boomer leaders will be riding off into the sunset, with not enough leaders to replace them (particularly during the Gen X succession period). The end conclusion, that we have to do more to develop the next generation of nonprofit leaders, is admirable. But what’s interesting is that few young nonprofit professionals I’ve talked to actually agree with the deficit theory. I would sum up the perspectives this way:

  • Boomers see “their” nonprofit sector as the single way to achieving social benefit; later generations view the sector as one of many tools to do so
  • If Boomers built the sector without much guidance, are the rest of us really that ill-equipped to step up and figure it out once they move on?
  • If everyone is so concerned about the bloated nonprofit sector, is it such a bad thing that it will contract based on a shrinking population?

Lack of Mobility for Nonprofit Professionals

On a related note, there’s a lot of frustration among younger nonprofit leaders about the lack of upward mobility within their organizations or even among organizations. So, to summarize: There’s an impending leadership deficit. Rising leaders feel that there’s little or no upward mobility within the nonprofit sector. Epic disconnect!

Social Media is Really Great… Or Really Bad…

Boy, people are either in love with or torn up about new communications technologies such as online social media, mobile technologies, etc. This must be how it feels whenever a disruptive communication technology comes along. I wonder if the advent of the telephone created the same sort of excited angst? Email?

Okay, back to the fun, and more to come!

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