Volunteering to be in the spotlight? Or in it for the haul?

What inspires you to volunteer for a cause or org you love?

You want to make an impact, right? You want to make a difference, right?

But when we seek out those opportunities do we look for what would help the org the most or do we look for the opportunities where it makes us feel like we helped? And do we just want to go in, do some quick volunteering and feel good? Or are willing to dig in, invest some time and get messy for a longer impact?

Tutoring, serving food and coaching for youth sports are awesome ways to volunteer. This type of help is needed and appreciated. Many organizations have their whole service delivery built around volunteers. And  it works well! But this need will never go away, they will always need that next volunteer, so while the impact and need is obvious, the impact is short.

The reality of many nonprofits today though centers on a struggle with their operations, tech and finance:

• Overhead myth - pressure from Funders and donors to keep overhead low, pushing nonprofits to neglect their operations and infrastructure
• Nonprofit Scarcity Cycle - Unrealistic Funder Expectations leads to Pressure On Nonprofits to Conform leading to Misleading Reporting And Overhead “Phobia” which confirms Funder expectations.
• Rapid Tech Changes - digital content, cloud technologies, security/privacy, mobile apps, online fundraising, social media and so many more technologies creating opportunities for nonprofits, But many nonprofits lack the time, skills, resources, planning and strategy to leverage these tools and opportunities
• Compliance - it seems like every time we turn around there is a new regulation or policy nonprofits have to comply with, whether it is financial reporting in the 990, HIPPA for Case Management, HR rules for staff, FASB changes in financial statements, PCI Compliance for credit cards and so on.
• Data Transparency - Donors want to see what their donations do. Funders want impact reports. The public wants to know salaries, fundraising expenses and everything else. 

But before I go too far with my rant on these topics, lets get back to why any of this even matters to volunteering.

Are you willing to use your professional skills or expertise to have a lasting and deep impact on a nonprofit? 

Are you willing to step out of the spotlight and into the Back Office to help nonprofit staff strengthen their operations and infrastructure?

Yeah, helping in the Back Office is not as glorious and is not as directly tied to the mission or the cause, but help a nonprofit strengthen their infrastructure or operations can have a much more lasting impact.

By volunteering with your skills and expertise to assist a nonprofit with their financial management, technology, HR, project management, data needs, marketing or other operations you can really help. Often nonprofit staff just need some coaching, someone to talk to or just ask a few questions.

I currently volunteer for an org called The Cara Program in Chicago on their Tech Advisory Board and help in this way. (I have a post all about Advisory Boards) Serving on a board or a committee is a great way to provide your expertise.

Nonprofits often need help with:

• Project Management
• Financial, Legal, HR Management
• Data Analysis
• Managing RFP processes
• Process Improvement
• Strategic and Operations Management
• And more....

If you don't have a current connection to a nonprofit, but still want to help, there are lots of great websites to help you find an org:

• Idealist
• Volunteer Match
• Taproot
• Points of Light (Hands of Network)
• Catchafire

This type of volunteering does require a different approach and commitment though.  If you start working with an org, you should be willing to take the time to follow through and get involved. Another key will be to make sure that whatever you do can be sustained by the org.

And just a quick plug for how NetSuite.org and NetSuite goes out of their way to encourage all NetSuite staff to do pro bono work for nonprofits using NetSuite and giving 2 paid days off to volunteer for whatever nonprofit they want (doesn't have to use NetSuite).

Now get out there and volunteer in the Back Office!

Looking forward to more of you helping nonprofits scale, grow and make a difference.

Oh, and I forgot to include a presentation I helped work on which talks about how to leverage skilled or technical volunteers.

Leveraging Technical or Expert Volunteers (Pro Bono) from Steve Heye

Technology Committees - Meetings can have Value

I have long been a fan of Technology Committees, but I don't hear a lot of others talking about it. In my role at The Cara Program, we have a fantastic Technology Steering Committee. I can't begin to state all of the benefit this group has brought. They have provided assistance, advice and insight, but have also helped us make connections, find resources and accomplish things we couldn't do alone. But before I go into a little information about our Technology Advisory Board, a few thoughts about committees.

Purpose. I suggest starting with defining a purpose for the committee. You have to come up with something meaningful for the group to work on. This needs to be bigger than just whatever comes up and you need help on immediately. There should be a tie to a real need in the organization and if possible, a long term set of goals.

Structure. What type of committee will you have?

• Policy - similar to the Board of Directors where they will set policy and make decisions. This could be called a review or approval committee also. But the key is you make the recommendations, they make the decision.
• Budget - this group is really meant just to help guide what is feasible and what is the best use of your funds.
• Steering - this type typically drives the process and comes up with the recommended solution, but brings it to another group or person to make the final decision.
• Advisory - this role is more about opinions, advice and collaboration. The group comes in knowing they are there to help, support and be involved in a meaningful way, not drive and decide. There is still great value and involvement for everyone, but the decision stays inside the org.

I prefer the later of these (Advisory) for my technology committees. There are many times when I don't have all the answers or where technology decisions are just too complex for internal staff. I Plus with outside input, real innovation is even more likely.

Regularity. This group needs clear expectations and a regular schedule, but you can set the schedule. Our committee meets each quarter for our full meeting, but is in regular contact between those. And sharing updates with the group, without a request for help, can go a long way.

Commitment. Before you begin, make sure you are ready to do it for the long haul. You will need to put in the work to keep the group alive and active, but the payoff for them and your org is worth it.

Return on Investment. No, I don't mean for the org. I mean, make sure there is return on the investment of the time of your volunteers in the committee.

Further Reading!

• Read my next post I will share some thoughts on who to include and what to do at the meetings.
• See the overview for The Cara Program Technology Advisory Board on Slideshare.

Challenges & Trends of a Networked Nonprofit (Part 2 of 11 NetNon series)

Free Agents. When you dont know who else can you turn too? Your team is almost complete, but you need to bring in that one player from the outside who will push you over the top. You need a Free Agent. They know they are good, they know they are in demand, they want to help.  Free agents is a great term and I love how it plays out in Chapter Two of the Networked Nonprofit.

Paraphrased from chapter:

We are facing a leadership crisis arises from:

1. Rise of professional staff, replacing volunteers
2. Funders focused on professionally staff org, not volunteer staffed
3. Orgs looked to budget and staff growth as indicators of success

Things rings so true to me. Resources were abundant, growth was everywhere. Training and leveraging volunteers was not as effective as just hiring the staff.  I have actually said those words so many times. But in the midst of this, you lose involvement of your supporters, you lose connection to the community and so much more.  We built structures, policies and big budgets: we were building empires to serve a cause.

Revolutions are often started by a single person with a simple idea and they use their influence to build a movement, they are Free Agents. (I hope that doesn't go too far from the books definition).

Free agents are those that take it upon themselves to make a difference, take action or start a movement because they care. They have some sort of connection, passion or personal reason driving them, so they act. But they don't always want to join forces with some org that will just slow them down.

Free agents today have a secret weapon in social media. A single person can spark the hearts and imaginations of hundreds, thousands or millions of people. However, our organizations are not always ready to work with that Free Agent, we just want to hire them. But many of these Free Agents will come and go, a cause will attract their attention only until they are satisfied and then they move on.

Many orgs are scared of this type of relationship.  How can I trust, work with and equip a Free Agent when I cant control them and I have no idea how long they will stay involved? How can this one person or group of people do anything better than our org that has the best staff and years of experience? We are so busy how can we possibly focus our time on Free Agents?

I think I need to go back to the point from Chapter 1 where we talked about that we have already lost control. We don't want to control the Free Agent. They have something we need, influence within the community.

Maybe the next time we have a need, require fresh energy or look to hire more staff we will turn to a Free Agent to save the day.

I am going to share my thoughts about the book "The Networked Nonprofit" by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine over 11 posts, this was part 2 (one for each chapter).  But rather than just tell you what the chapter is about, I am going to share what I learned from it, any reactions and extra thoughts that I would add.  However the big caution I have with this, is that I am just not as smart and experienced as Beth and Allison, so you should probably just buy the book.