Pro Bono Junkie's Blog

From the left: Aaron Hurst, Sylvia Reynolds, Caroline Barlerin, Bill Draper, Reid Hoffman

Last month, Taproot celebrated the 10th Anniversary of its flagship San Francisco office. It was an emotional night, with special guests including one of our seed funders, Bill Draper, Co-Chairman of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn and Partner, Greylock Partners. 

Reid shared why LinkedIn has partnered with Taproot, stating, "We are working with Taproot because we completely believe in bringing talent together to make projects scale and work effectively; the questions of expertise, knowledge of a particular problem domain, knowledge of management, and so on, are all necessary for achieving scale in the social sector."

Also in attendance were 150 of Taproot's supporters, nonprofit clients, and pro bono consultants. The highlight of the evening may have been the proclamation from the Mayor's Office, declaring it Taproot Foundation Day on April 19, 2012 in San Francisco, though it's hard to decide.

Joel Bashevkin, Taproot Executive Director, Bay Area

In the words of Taproot Board Chair Sylvia Reynolds, former Chief Marketing Officer, Wells Fargo:

"It all started with a small and crazy idea, but we really nurtured that seed; that seen became our turnip and that turnip became Taproot. It could not have happened without all of you, critical to making ten years of accomplishments and more important, the ten years of difference in our communities."

Some of the highlights from the last 10 years include:

• Over 2,000 Service Grants completed, providing services valued at over $100 million to hundreds of nonprofits nationwide.
• Nearly 12,000 pro bono consultants engaged through our Service Grant Program to date, with an active pool of over 4,000.
• $1.6 billion in skilled volunteering pledged to the Billion + Change Campaign

Upon toasting to a decade of pro bono service in the Bay Area, Bill Draper stated, "Among all of the wonderful organizations we have enthusiastically supported, I can think of none more effective, more impactful, or more important than the organization that we are here to celebrate tonight.... Ten years old and the best is yet to come!"

By the end of this week, you will be half way to having the basics of pro bono management under your belt.  This is the third week in Taproot University's "Six Weeks to Become a Pro Bono Manager" course. Over these six weeks we are going to walk you through the keys to the success of a pro bono manager. This guide is based on Taproot's experience managing over 1,500 pro bono projects and developing many of the leading pro bono programs for our corporate partners from the Gap Inc. to Deloitte to Capital One.  By the end you will have the basics down and will be able to proactively manage projects to get the right results.

In the first two lessons you learned how to get a project done and to ensure that the nonprofit client can implement and sustain the deliverables.  This week we take a close look at the art of setting and meeting client expectations.  This is one of the trickiest parts of any consulting project - paid or pro bono.  Pay close attention!

MEETING AND EXCEEDING CLIENT EXPECTATIONS

As with other consulting engagements, a key component in defining a project's success is meeting the client's expectations. With pro bono service, this takes on a new level of complexity. In addition to keeping client  expectations in check so they are not unrealistically grand, truly valuable pro bono projects start by overcoming inappropriately low expectations held by both the client and pro bono team members. As a result, quality controls must be put in place to ensure high-quality expectations are clear, appropriate and obtainable.

Your job is to make sure the adage "you get what you pay for" is never used to describe your work.

COMMON OBSTACLES

There are three main obstacles you will encounter as a pro bono manager working to get meet or exceed client expectations:

1. Unarticulated, unaligned expectations - While the client and the pro bono teams may refer to a  project's desired output by the same name (e.g. "new website"), specific definitions and expectations can often differ if they are not mutually articulated and agreed upon. This is particularly true if the level of technical understanding differs between the client and the pro bono teams. Additionally, expectations regarding working interactions between teams throughout the engagement are more important than on traditional paid consulting engagements, since satisfaction is part of the implicit "payment" pro bono team members receive for their service.
2. Expectations of low-quality - It can be easy to set low expectations on a pro bono project, however, this approach sells both the client and the pro bono team members short. Both sides should expect the same level of quality as on a paid engagement, unfortunately, both tend to enter a pro bono project with lowered standards. Clients assume since they are getting the project for 'free' they do not have the right to expect the same level of quality. As a result, client organizations do not stand up for the quality of work they are entitled and accept sub-par work. Similarly, the pro bono team may expect a lower-quality project is adequate because it is better than nothing.  This too will negatively affect a project by inviting a lower level of commitment to the project and producing a less valuable deliverable.
3. Pro bono team skill suitability - Since pro bono and paid engagements must be of the same quality level, the relevant expertise and experience of the team must also be comparable. The quality will suffer if the necessary skill level is not present.

TOOLS TO USE

As a pro bono manager, you have four main tools to use to address these challenges proactively:

1. Mutually acknowledge  the  scope  of  work - At the project's start, a  mutually  agreed  upon project scope  must be created  and included in a service agreement.    It should articulate expectations including what the final deliverable entails, how it is intended to be used, as well as the work, information and time requirements necessary to create it.
2. Screen  pro  bono  team  members for fit and experience - The  pro bono team's composition must be comparable to that of a paid project team. This means designing the team  structure with  the  same roles by screening every member of a  pro  bono  team  to ensure all necessary competencies  and  experiences  are  present.  As with most paid consulting engagements, the pro bono  project  team  should  include  a  project  manager  in addition to content specialists.
3. Mutually acknowledge  client  needs - To ensure the deliverable is designed for maximum impact, the pro bono project team and the client should understand the client's direct needs. The pro bono project team  should  create  a requirements brief or memorandum of understanding after conducting an initial discovery phase, then the client should review,  share, revise,  and  sign  off  on it. This way, the scope of work is always based on  an  accurate  and  defensible  understanding  of  client's specific needs. For example, on a website project,  this  could  include  the organization's  target audience/users,  brand  attributes, technical requirements,  and desired short and long-term outcomes.
4. Adhere to consistent standards - Every  aspect  of  a  pro  bono  project's quality  must  be on par with that of a paid project;  from expectation setting, preparation and relationship management, to time management and delivery. This applies both to the pro bono project team and the client  organization, as they must dedicate the same quality  of  work  to  this project as they do to program delivery. By adhering to the same standards of excellence, a pro bono engagement can meet even the highest expectations.

 
REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Questions to consider this week:

• What biases do you have about the nonprofit sector and the nonprofit professionals you are serving?  How does that impact the expectations you set inadvertently?
• What would you like your nonprofit client(s) to expect from your team?  How can you not only express this to them but also demonstrate it?
• How can you create a safe environment for the client(s) to give you direct and constructive feedback?

Even if expectations are met, that doesn't guarantee that the client or pro bono consultants walk away reporting high satisfaction with the project.  Bedside manner matters in medicine and in pro bono consulting.  Next week, the fourth in this course, focuses on how to manage pro bono projects to drive high satisfaction with the group's interactions.

Welcome back to Taproot University for the second week in the "Six Weeks to Become a Pro Bono Manager" course. Over these six weeks we are going to walk you through the keys to the success of a pro bono manager. This guide is based Taproot's experience managing over 1,500 pro bono projects and developing many of the leading pro bono programs for our corporate partners from the Gap Inc. to Deloitte to Capital One.  By the end you will have the basics down and will be able to proactively manage projects to get the right results.

In the last lesson, we reviewed the keys to making sure a project is completed and you reflected on how to put the tools outlined to work for your next project.  While completing a project is the foundation for all effective pro bono work, a significant amount of pro bono work that is completed is never implemented by the nonprofit client.  And even if it is, it isn't sustained (e.g. the web site that quickly falls into disrepair). 

This week we review the keys to delivering a project that is not implemented and sustainable.  How do you make sure the project you create is really going to be used by the nonprofit so it can have its intended impact

IMPLEMENTED AND SUSTAINED DELIVERABLES

The  final  deliverable  will only have a significant impact if  the client can  implement  and  sustain  it. A completed deliverable the client  cannot use  will seriously  compromise  both client  and  pro  bono  team satisfaction and fail to meet the client's original need.

COMMON OBSTACLES

There are three main obstacles you will encounter as a pro bono manager working to get a project done on time:

1)  Nonprofit fit and readiness - For a client to get value from a pro bono project and its deliverables, the benefits of the project have to outweigh its costs. With pro bono service, the cost is the amount of time and resources a client has to invest. Two factors prevent projects from being successful for this reason: fit and readiness.

2)  Gap in technical knowledge - The pro bono team's technical expertise is critical to complete the  deliverable, but its implementation and sustainability is largely dependent on the existence or  transfer of some technical knowledge to the client. Because of staffing and resource constraints, the client organization may not have the necessary technical expertise. This can greatly undermine the likelihood of a deliverable being implemented and sustained and therefore having impact on the organization.

3)  Limited resources - Many public interest organizations have limited financial resources.  This may impact the organization's available budget for implementing and maintaining the deliverable.

TOOLS TO USE

As a pro bono manager, you have four main tools to use to address these challenges proactively:

1)  Conduct a nonprofit assessment in advance - For pro bono service  to be beneficial,  it must be the right project at the right time. Before deciding to engage in a project, the pro bono  team's point person  and  client  organization  lead should have a conversation  to assess the proposed project's fit with the client's needs and their readiness to work with a pro bono team. Use this time to review the project's scope,  discuss the  client's anticipated time commitment, inquire about organizational decision-making practices, and so on. If any challenges are identified during this conversation, the project work plan should be adjusted to allow the client extra time to address specific impediments.

2) Plan for any deliverable constraints - A deliverable needs to be designed to work within a client's limitations.  For example, if a client receiving a pro bono brochure design has a limited budget to cover printing costs, the design should accommodate  the  budget. If the pro bono team produces a design that uses multiple colors, is intended for glossy paper, involves a lot of pages, etc., it will  be a challenge  for  the  organization  to  implement  the brochure  as  the  cost  would  be  high.  Instead, the  project  scope (that is articulated and agreed to at the beginning of the project)  should  include  a  detailed  definition of  the completed deliverable so maintenance needs are  understood  from  the  outset. In this example, a pre-determined brochure length, style, and budget should be discussed.

3) Provide training and delegate ownership - Training should always be built into the final stages of a pro bono project. 'Owners' of implementation, that is individuals in charge of transferring skills related to the deliverable, should be identified at the  project's  outset.  By identifying a client team  member  as  the  'owner'  of  implementation and maintenance, and incorporating training into  a specific pro bono  team member's responsibilities,  the team will ensure proper  team-client expertise transfer.   When the deliverable is completed, the trainer  should  create a manual or presentation and conduct  a training session with the client 'owner'.

If there are other  critical stakeholders, they should  also  receive training. This should be done by 'training the trainer' -  equipping  the  client  'owner'  to  replicate necessary training for  other  relevant stakeholders.  For example, a pro bono branding project creating key messages for an organization must include training the  client 'owner' in charge of communications  on  how  to  start  incorporating the messaging into the organization's communications.   It should  also  enable  that person to provide similar training to the organization's  board of directors, executive director,  and  other necessary stakeholders  in  order  for  the  messages to be implemented effectively

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Questions to consider this week:

• Think of a project you have done (in any setting) and how the scope of the project was set.  What as the impact of the way you set the scope on the rest of the project?
• For pro bono projects you offer or seek to offer, create a list of the likely hard costs associated with implementing the deliverables.  Create a recommendation for each on how those costs should be covered
• Identify someone in your organization who is an expert in training.  Ask them to partner with you to design the training phase of your project(s).

 In week three we will explore the keys to setting and delivering on expectations.  Success, after all, is relative to the expectations set.  

BE IT RESOLVED that April 19th, 2012 has been hereby proclaimed as Taproot Foundation Day in San Francisco!

During an exciting and emotional Tenth Anniversary event last week, Mayor Lee of San Francisco gave Taproot the tremendous honor of an official proclamation. The proclamation provides some highlights and accomplishments over the last 10 years, including:

"Taproot Foundation has engaged 3,500 Bay Area pro bono consultants to deliver $30 million in pro bono service to 500 Bay Area nonprofit organizations; as a national movement, Taproot and its pro bono consultants have provided $100 million in pro bono service"

"Taproot Foundation bridges sectors, bringing together nonprofit organizations, private foundations, corporations and business professionals to create an innovative, global pro bono movement"

"Taproot is launching its newest program, "Powered by Pro Bono," which shares their best practices from the last 10 years so that organizations can reliably and independently scope, secure and manage pro bono services, which are necessary to solicit, obtain, and make strong use of resources in our communities"

We, at Taproot would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our friends, supporters, and fellow pro bono junkies for all that you have done to make Taproot and the pro bono movement into what it is today. We can't wait to MAKE IT MATTER for another 10 years!