Help - We Need Values
We are in the midst of evaluating the articulation of our organizational values. While our values hopefully never change, as we mature we hope that we are increasingly self-aware and able to better articulate who we are at the core.It is really hard, despite the fact that we do this work for dozens of nonprofits every year.
As part of this process we had a veteran volunteer interview our team and solicit their input on our values. We wanted to see how the team was experiencing our values and culture.
The volunteer reported back some concepts that were very aligned with our earlier articulation as well as some that resurrected some of the debates we had the first time around.
There is one issue in particular that remains a riddle to me. What is a value of the Taproot Foundation vs. a value of the nonprofit sector?
For example, several members of team suggested values like 'compassion'. Coming from corporate environments the Taproot Foundation feels like a very compassionate organization. It probably stands out. If, however, you join our team after working at a homeless shelter it would likely not even make the top 25 list.
For a nonprofit, is listing 'compassion' as a value the same as a company listing 'creating shareholder value' or 'profitability' as a value?
Are there a set of values that should be made off limits to nonprofits for failing to be descriptive - for being redundant with their tax status? Or, is it the very obviousness of these values that makes them core and important?
Here is where my head is today. The nonprofit sector itself has a set of values that nearly all nonprofits share at some level - like 'compassion'. The core values of a specific organization emphasize a different subset of those common nonprofit values. The organizations need to demonstrate their 'compassion' beyond their mission and programs. It needs to be core to how it treats staff, volunteers and all their stakeholders. Using this test, far fewer nonprofits are 'compassionate' at their core.
The Taproot Foundation is compassionate, but not enough to pass that test.
So what are the other common nonprofit values? Help me brainstorm other common social benefit values to find the one that can pass the test.
Share the values of your nonprofit or pro bono client. Perhaps we can recycle one.
First, I would be very careful about such value statements and mission statements - they have a way of coming across as generic and insincere, as parodied by the "Dilbert" web site 'Mission Staement Generator'. My brother, as a joke, strung a bunch of these Dilbertian 'mission statements' together and sent it as a single mission statement to a friend. The friend's boss, a high level executive, saw it on the bulletin board, thought it was serious, and this ridiculous thing almost ended up on the materials of a well-known, worldwide investment banking firm!
Anyway, There are non-profits and there are non-profits.
For example, my rugby team and Doctors Without Borders are both non-profit organizations, but I think most would agree, have vastly different status in terms of values.
I think institutiional values are not something that can be generalized across a category.
As for describing Taproot's values, first, what differentiates Taproot? Taproot is an aggregator of pro bono business services, as opposed to a direct provider of charity.
Taproot exists to recruit and provide business experts who want to help the work of doing good go well.
As a 'value/brand statement': 'Taproot. Helping the work of doing good go well.'
TAPROOT VALUES VS. NONPROFIT SECTOR VALUES
Ragnar wrote in his email, "Taproot Foundation is working to articulate our core values, but we’re stuck on the question: What is a value of the Taproot Foundation vs. a value of the nonprofit sector?"
Mr Hurst continues,
"For example, several members of team suggested values like 'compassion'. Coming from corporate environments the Taproot Foundation feels like a very compassionate organization. It probably stands out. If, however, you join our team after working at a homeless shelter it would likely not even make the top 25 list.
For a nonprofit, is listing 'compassion' as a value the same as a company listing 'creating shareholder value' or 'profitability' as a value?"
This is starting to sound like asking how many angels (or values) can dance on the head of a pin.
Any company can articulate core values, but why would these values differ from what another similar company or nonprofit would list as their core values? And how can you quantify these values and say whether the values I adhere to while donating to Taproot are different or better (more worthy) then the time I spend working for my company?
In an article about trends in core values - "The Value of Core Values" -
http://www.strategy-business.com/article/05206?gko=7869b-1876-9176155
- it is suggested that companies are becoming more serious about articulating core values and holding employees to these values.
But what is the underlying reason for doing this? Has everybody become more moral and compassionate? Or, to look at this in a more cynical way, is it just another way of trying to keep a company out of trouble?
Sadly, instituting values for most companies is following a trend - just like adapting the latest changes in the tax code.
It doesn't mean a company is necessarily better or has better people and practices. We hope it does, but just stating the values doesn't prove that.
I think that a company's stated values should be a reflection of each employee's or volunteer's personal values. Just because a company proudly displays their values on a gold plaque for all to see beside the receptionist's desk does not mean that "we have stronger values and are therefore a better company."
Likewise, I think stated core values like "compassion" become cliches.
At the end of his post Mr. Hurst says, "So what are the other common nonprofit values? Help me brainstorm other common social benefit values to find the one that can pass the test."
We could probably write dozens of "common nonprofit values." (Starting with compassion.)
I think though, for an organization like Taproot Foundation and its volunteers, recognizing that you are doing good and helping others is enough. That's the reason Taproot exists.
Hi there,
This can be a difficult and sometimes overwhelming task, but defining a company's core values is so important in guiding the culture of an organization, from which all direction springs.
I haven't been a part of Taproot for long, but what attracted me to it was the sense of self-sufficiency the organization promotes. I think it's great that Taproot helps non-profits to better themselves through the focused, but temporary attention of professionals. I would imagine that same value is present in your internal culture as well.
At my last job, our company core values were TAO--Trust, Action & Ownership. It made for a highly entrepreneurial environment where people felt that they really had a chance to make a difference in the business.
Hope this helps a bit.
I'm fairly new to Taproot (on my first service grant team right now), but what I see as very differentiating about Taproot is that there seems to be a real value placed on expertise gained outside of the non-profit sector -- the notion that corporate expertise applied to non-profit problems can yield significant and tangible results. The value of that transferred knowledge, and the value that Taproot places on it, is very powerful.
Unfortunately, the sexy, one-word description of this eludes me at the moment!
Taproot is the "Multiplier Factor" for non-profits.
When I directly volunteer for, say, Seattle Alliance for Education, I participate like an employee of the Alliance.
When I volunteer for Taproot, I work as if I'm an employee of a consulting organziation helping many other non-profits, as many as I can sign up for with Taproot. And bringing that cross-experience and benefiting other non-profits with that experience as well.
Not sure if my rapid typing came through as articulation. Happy to chat live.