Rather than dwell on the series of year-end reports issued in the last few days (see below) , I’d like to take this moment to share a story.

How to Win at Life

Recently, the work of an individual near and dear to Nonprofits Assistance Fund attracted the attention of the Star Tribune. My colleague’s husband is a substitute teacher who has really connected with his students – so they started a facebook group dedicated to him called Mr. Brackett wins at life.

So what’s the takeaway, other than being two degrees away from a celebrity?

How to Win at Nonprofit Life

Mr. Brackett has found the sweet spot where skills meet community needs.  In nonprofit speak, he’s focused on mission – how he can help educate and positively impact the lives of his students. He knows his core competencies, his assets, and he’s getting results in and out of the classroom.  Every nonprofit convening I have attended, and probably half the blogs and other updates I’ve penned this year, have echoed these same ideas. In a time when we cannot do more with less, the best way for nonprofits to make a meaningful impact is to focus on our mission and core competencies. And deliver those with excellence.

Another takeaway is the value in letting those you serve share their experiences. The success of GiveMN is another example of nonprofits and their constituents being really proactive communicators. As we think about how to deliver services in an era of diminishing resources and high needs, the ability to effectively demonstrate your impact will crucial.

Season’s Greetings

From everyone at Nonprofits Assistance Fund, we wish a safe and happy holiday season to all nonprofiteers and the communities you serve.  See you in the new year!

(In the meantime, here are some pictures from our holiday party and the final nonprofit harvest of 2009.)

Year-End Harvest

In January, we’ll unpack some of the readings below, but if you want to get a jump start over the holidays I bring you year-end readings.

Minnesota’s Nonprofit Sector

• MCN has just released their 2009 Nonprofit Economy report, as well as an updated Current Conditions report.   (You can also hear our own Michael Anderson’s reaction in the video clip.)
• Star Tribune Nonprofit 100
• Trouble Ahead for Minnesota Nonprofits
• Nonprofits still feeling the crunch in Minnesota — bigger needs and smaller revenues

General Nonprofit News

• Nonprofit Policy Trends under President Obama
• Nonprofit Fiscal Rules for the “New Normal”
• Hear Ye, Hear Ye – Overhead is Dead

IRS Updates

• IRS Issues Exempt Organization Agenda for 2009-2010
• 2010 IRS Mileage Rates and Other IRS News
• Form 990 Videos: Understanding the Changes

I think it’s interesting, and timely, that in the last few weeks both my original and adopted hometowns blew me away by their community and collaborative spirit.

Partnerships That Produce Results

First, Buffalo, NY took full advantage of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition coming to town, using the opportunity to transform an entire neighborhood and illustrate the importance of green building practices, such as deconstruction.

Then Minnesotans donated more than $14 million dollars to 3,141 nonprofit organizations in 24 hours, setting a national record. That is certainly above average.

Wow.

Neither effort would have been possible without significant community support – in the form of 5,000 volunteers and 38,778 donors, respectively – as well as the work of countless organizations behind the the scenes and some public-private partnerships.

There is no reaction except to be humbled. But there are lessons that we can learn for projects large and small.

Let’s Collaborate

Right now, everyone who wants to improve the nonprofit sector is emphasizing collaboration.  Certainly in some instances the results are impressive.  But successful partnerships take a lot of work and trust.

There is no one size fits all model. Collaborations range from joining forces on a project to combining backroom operations to a full merger.  Advantages include increasing impact or taking advantage of unique skill sets, such as in these examples, and minimizing costs.  Challenges include letting go of control, managing the needs of diverse stakeholders, and confusion around roles and responsibilities.

GiveMN as an Example

The GiveMN Give to the Max Day effort was incredibly successful in promoting individual giving, engaging new donors, increasing online donations, and getting significant amounts of cash into the hands of nonprofit organizations.

However, there was also confusion around some details, especially the matching funds. Regardless of how the uncertainty happened, it underscores the importance of clear communications among stakeholders – in this case that includes the 3,141 nonprofits, 38,778 donors, and the project partners.  Everyone needs to be on the same page about project goals and outcomes.

Beyond illustrating the widespread community support for Minnesota’s nonprofit sector, GiveMN also shows that nonprofits and their supporters can effectively use social media and other online tools to leverage their networks to take action.  There was an earned media blitz from the partners, but organizations and individuals took advantage of email, facebook, and twitter to get the word out.  The very nature of social media is collaborative.

What are your stories of collaboration? What lessons have you learned from those experiences?

Case Studies

• Nonprofit Collaboration Case Studies
• Where Can I Find Case Studies of Nonprofit Collaborations, Mergers, and Other Strategic Alliances?
• Joining Forces in the Back Office – Lodestar Foundation Resources
• Interview: Collaboration Prize Co-Winners
• What happens when two competitors combine forces
• By sharing expertise, agencies are able to improve operations, save money and help more clients

Tools and Resources

• What do I need to know about collaboration and other kinds of strategic alliances?
• Nonprofit Mergers and Acquisitions: More Than a Tool for Tough Times
• Project ReDesign and Merge Minnesota

Scenario Planning

The McKinsey Quarterly recently wrote an article about the advantages (and some potential pitfalls) of scenario planning.  At Nonprofits Assistance Fund, we love scenario planning for the reasons laid out in McKinsey Quarterly:

Scenarios are a powerful tool in the strategist’s armory. They are particularly useful in developing strategies to navigate the kinds of extreme events we have recently seen in the world economy. Scenarios enable the strategist to steer a course between the false certainty of a single forecast and the confused paralysis that often strike in troubled times.

What’s in your Planning Toolbox?

Here are some resources that can help you craft your own scenarios.

• Scenario Planning tools:
  • Scenario Planning Example
  • Scenario Planning Worksheet: A blank template for you to use
• Cash flow template
• Contingency and Scenario Planning – What’s the Difference and How Do Nonprofits Get Started?
• Focus on the Destination, Not the Route (Budget)!

You can also read Kate’s post on this topic, What H1N1 Taught Me About Contingency Planning.

This is an exciting time at Nonprofits Assistance Fund. This week we unveiled our new webinar trainings, which have been in the works all summer.

Photo Credit: jurvetson on flickr

We’re looking forward to having our trainings available to nonprofit leaders across the state of Minnesota, as well as our friends all over the country.

If you have been hoping your friendly nonprofit finance geeks (that’s us!) would visit your neighborhood, the wait is over.  Participate in our webinars and share any thoughts you have about the experience.  We are very excited about this expansion of our training program and want it to be as helpful as possible.  Your participation and feedback will make it a stronger service.

As online learning and communications tools continue to evolve, we’ll do our best to take advantage of new ways to serve the nonprofit community. We’ll continue to ask how technology can enhance our work and deliver services to nonprofits in and outside of the Twin Cities metro area.  If you have ideas for us, share them here, on our facebook page, or contact @NAFund on twitter.

Additional Online Training Opportunities

There are many other online learning options for nonprofit staff and board members.  Here are some interesting opportunities that you can explore to take your work to the next level:

• Foundation Center’s Events Archive (their podcasts are also available on iTunes)
  
• Chronicle of Philanthropy Live Discussions 
• Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta videos and webinars on nonprofit legal issues
• Arts Enterprise: Art as Business as Art course from UW-Madison and the Artful Manager,  Andrew Taylor (podcasts available through iTunes U)

Reconsidering Your Budget

Last week, Jeanne Bell wrote an excellent article for Blue Avocado, Focus on the Destination, Not the Route (Budget)!   In a nutshell, she is arguing that, especially in an uncertain economic climate, rolling projections and organizational goals are more valuable than an annual budget.

She offers great rationale for why this shift in focus matters, as well as some practical steps to get started, included:

Do a revised projection at the end of the current quarter, and have the management team and the board discuss it. Consider these questions:

• What are the key discrepancies between what’s in the budget and what we now believe is going to happen?
• Given this information, do we need to expect a different financial outcome for the year than what the budget was meant to achieve?
• What changes need to be made in the management of any revenue or expense items?
• What implications are there for the next fiscal year, given the projected financial result of this year?

Nonprofit Harvest: Employee Benefits

This week’s Chronicle of Philanthropy Live Discussion was on Employee Benefits at Nonprofit Groups.  It was a timely discussion, especially given a recent report by the Johns Hopkins Listening Post Project (a summary is available on MCF’s Philanthropy Potluck blog).

The discussion pointed out some useful resources to help nonprofits consider ways to limit costs while still providing benefits and professional development opportunities to their employees:

• Rethinking Benefits for Nonprofit Employees from CommonGood Careers:
• Nonprofit Workforce Action Agenda from Listening Post Project

• Economic Crisis Calls for New “Social Contract,” Charity Head Says from Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Government and Politics Watch

The severity of the nation’s economic crisis has created an opportunity for charities to transform the way they work with the government as a new administration and Congress take shape, Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, said today.

…He said public officials should draw on the expertise of charities to design social programs, exploring “a new way to work together, a more mutual thing, rather than simply government throwing funding out and all of us scrambling for it.”

• Princeton Legal Battle Raises Questions from Give & Take

• The Future of Corporate Philanthropy by Alyson Warhurst for Business Week

• Charity donation decline gives rise to innovation (hat tip: CNM’s post Economic Crisis Spurs Innovation)

• Some charities see good news and bad in the economy from MPR

From the Blogs

• Foundations’ Role in a Tough Economy from Social Velocity

[I]t is not just about foundations.  They are only part (and a very small part) of the resource engine that drives the social sector.  The entire way in which the social sector is capitalized needs to change.  We need to put a financial priority on the solutions that the social sector is coming up with.  Those solutions need to be scaled and made sustainable. And adequate capital (from all sources) is the only way to do that.

• Strategic Philanthropy in Tough Times from Paul Brest

[W]e need to ensure that the best organizations — those that are delivering real outcomes — weather the storm. We’re not going to be able to salvage them from the bottom of the sea after the storm is over. On the other hand, we shouldn’t use precious assets to keep poorly managed organizations afloat either.

• My Social Entrepreneur Identity Crisis… And, Philanthropy is Sustainable from ForImpact’s Daily Nuggets: Blog

• Is Generosity a Luxury Good? from Sasha Dichter

And now for something completely different

I am an avowed social media geek. You, however,  may not be.  So I want to tip you off to something very cool that’s going on. Allison Fine and Marnie Webb have launched GiveList, and trust me, you want in on this:

Times are tight. We know, we know. We’ve all seen the scary headlines. Too many of the scary headlines. And we’re all feeling the pressure in other ways too. But, still, we want to contribute what we can to making the world the better place. The GiveList gives you ideas and inspiration for just that: ways that you contribute without spending or buying. Or maybe giving while buying and spending a little less than usual. There are lots of small things you can do that don’t cost you anything that can make a big impact on communities. And you probably have some thoughts on this. Share it on del.icio.us, via twitter, in your own blog post. Just tag it GiveList and we’ll share help you share your idea with the world.

As nonprofit financial leaders, we offer a unique perspective.  While we’re gathering resources and ideas on how organizations can manage during this challenging time, we can also think about how we all can maximize our impact with the resources we do have.

What are your GiveList ideas?