September 2008 Archives

Feeding Hungry Nonprofits

By Aaron Hurst on September 19, 2008 6:52 AM | Permalink

Thursday, September 18th

Today (and all tonight) is the 11^th annual CreateAthon. CreateAthon was founded by Riggs Advertising in Columbia, South Carolina. It's a round-the-clock creative blitz hosted by ad agencies across the US and Canada in support of their local non-profits. The marathon session is a great way to leverage the agency skills and structure while also taking advantage of the uncanny ability of advertising folks to stay up all night. So far, Riggs and their many agency partners have helped over 2,000 nonprofits in the US.

I'm Carol Guttery, Taproot Foundation's Director of Program Operations. I'm staying up all night with Riggs in order to observe the event, learn from them and partner with them to grow the program. I'll be helping out with today's work AND eating my way through the kitchen sink of caffeine, sugar and protein that they are supplying me with in the hope that I'll be able to keep pace. My ad agency days were a long time ago so we'll see how well I can hang with the pros.

8:30am

Introductions and review of the schedule for the day. Riggs has chosen to do:

- Marketing campaigns for Souper Bowl of Caring and Appleseed Legal Justice

- A marketing plan and brochure for Palmetto Place

- A TV spot for the Girl Scouts

- Logos for Lexington Interfaith Community Services and keep Midlands Beautiful

- And an extensive integrated marketing campaign centered around family giving for

the Central Carolinas Community Foundation (CCCF)

Feeding Hungry Carol: Coffee & a Krispy Kreme

12:00pm

I've been working on helping the Palmetto team figure out how to piece together a marketing audit and key messages for the children's emergency shelter. The organization really needs a solid collateral piece to help them solicit new donors. Peyton Rowe has her own blog going and has begun to document our progress. http://createathon08riggs.blogspot.com/

Feeding Hungry Carol: Yum. Amanda brought in food from the local Greek Festival- lamb meatballs, buttery orzo salad, spanikopita washed down with a water and two Motrin. Deelish.

3:30pm

Worked on Palmetto some more. Then moved onto a marketing strategy and PR campaign for Souper Bowl of Caring. This organization has done a great job of engaging kids in fundraising campaigns around the Super Bowl---but they would like to build more awareness. I'm starting to see people whizzing around the office in scooters. Time to take a break.

Feeding Hungry Carol: Nibbles of cheddar and pepper jack cheese and a Rice Krispie square. More water. More Motrin.

6:15pm

Did some Taproot Foundation work. Then back to the pro bono. Spent more time on Souper Bowl of Caring. I'm suggesting that, since teens are a key audience, they spend some effort bulking up their presence on social networking sites. As the proud 45 year old owner of my own Facebook page, I'm almost cool enough to know what I'm talking about. Hmmm, seeing a delivery guy come in the front door....gotta go.

Feeding Hungry Carol: Salad bar fixins', hummus and pita. More caffeine. Did I mention the double layer chocolate cake that the CCCF client brought in for us? There's hardly room for it on the counter next to the gorp, brownies, nuts and leftover Krispy Kremes. But we'll do our best to make room.

11:30pm

This CCCF campaign is an important effort on their part to engage families in philanthropic giving...it's a big campaign so we need to get it right. After a few rounds of strategy, then back to the original strategy, then re-thinking the re-thought strategy, we have arrived at a strong direction. Now we are all off to work on the individual pieces. I'm working on developing questions for a family dinner-table game designed to stimulate family conversation. But, you know, make it fun for kids. Better get a snack first.

Feeding Hungry Carol: Motrin, more cheese, bbq Lays

12:50am

Service, service - everywhere

By Aaron Hurst on September 18, 2008 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last week, New York Governor Paterson promoted service to a cabinet level post following the lead of California. Other leading univerities are also creating very senior roles for civic engagement. The Univeristy of Chicago, for example, just hired the editor of the Tribune as their Vice President of Civic Engagement.

With these new senior roles, it will be interesting to see if the field becomes more strategic and integrated.

Early in the web boom, there was the emergence of "internet companies" and a new category of business. What emerged, however, over the next few years was an understanding that the Internet is a tool or way of doing business, not an entirely new industry. Businesses were using the web to sell products, provide services and advertise.

With this trend many companies went from creating Internet divisions to having the web play a role in every department. There are plenty of exceptions, but this trend has been the norm.

Service is hot right now due to a lot of factors including some amazing work by the folks behind Service Nation. Responding to this trend and the realization of the power of service, universities and states are creating high level posts to show that they get it.

Ultimately, however, I wonder if service is like the Internet. Is it effective as a vertical or should it be horizontal and run across all efforts?

When asked if he would create a cabinet level position for service in his administration, McCain said that the cabinet was too big to be effective as it stands and that having a seat on the cabinet is not necessarily the best way to get the President's ear. I tend to agree.

This will sort itself out. For now, we should just celebrate with due attention to the backbone of our society - service.

Lehman's legacy

By Aaron Hurst on September 15, 2008 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Time, Inc. generously donates the Taproot Foundation office space that looks out on the Lehman Brothers HQ building in mid-town Manhattan. Last week, several members of our team displayed messages on our windows stating their support and sympathy for their colleagues at Lehman Brothers - 'Stay Strong.'

Our desks directly face the windows where last week we could see our brothers at Lehman abuzz in stress and worry. For once, it was the employees of a nonprofit sitting secure in their jobs, watching the investment bankers worry about their job security and mortgage payments.

The reality, however, is that our New York office is able to be confident in our future in part due to the philanthropic generosity of our neighbor, Lehman Brothers.

The investment bank was one of our early supporters in New York and continued their support in the years that have followed. They hosted our board meetings and provided countless hours of counsel.

We were not alone in benefiting from their pocket book or brain trust. Lehman Brothers was a friend to several high-impact nonprofits in the area like the Harlem Children's Zone and the New York Women's Foundation.

They brought a strategic eye to philanthropy. Unlike the majority of corporations that hand out small grants ($5k-$10k) to hundreds of nonprofits, Lehman had the courage to pick winners and make much more significant grants that can make a meaningful impact for the grantee and therefore the community.

Lehman Brothers is now bankrupt and will be selling off its assets. The one asset that is perhaps most valuable (at least to society) is their grant making philosophy - and it is free. We encourage companies across the country to acquire this asset and ensure the philanthropic legacy of the once proud bank.

New Strategy Management Practice

By Aaron Hurst on September 10, 2008 6:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taproot Foundation Announces Strategy Management Practice and Capacity Builder Partnerships
With Wells Fargo as Presenting Sponsor, Foundation Will Deliver $50M in Pro Bono Strategic Management Consulting in the Next Five Years

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, September 10, 2008 - The Taproot Foundation today announced a new suite of services designed to bolster nonprofit capacity in strategic planning and decision-making. The Foundation's Strategy Management practice, presented by Wells Fargo, will give nonprofit organizations the opportunity to receive 500 hours of expert research and analysis--more than $70,000 worth of services in each project--at no cost to them. In addition to Wells Fargo, funding for the new initiative was provided by Capitol One, the Surdna Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Said James Shepard, Jr., COO and VP of Programs at the Taproot Foundation, "Strategy Management helps nonprofits address some critical management issues that are often skipped over in the day-to-day pressures of operating in the social sector."

As presenting sponsor of the Strategy Management practice, Wells Fargo is helping to address the nonprofit sector's strategic management challenges by serving as an early leader of the rapidly-growing pro bono community service movement among American corporations. A key driver for the company's support was the growing demand for strategy management skills in the sector.

"We see these needs growing and are always searching for ways to address them," said Tim Hanlon, President of the Wells Fargo Foundation. "We know how much the sector can benefit from data-driven analysis. Executive Directors want more information. They want to make confident decisions--and follow through."

Strategic partnerships support nonprofits
The Foundation is also announcing a series of co-marketing partnerships with local capacity builders, designed to bring a greater continuum of services to nonprofit clients. By aligning with select consultants in Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, the Foundation can connect nonprofits to additional services and help to disseminate best practices throughout the sector.

The partnerships, with providers such as San Francisco's CompassPoint and Chicago's Millenia Consulting, support the new practice and point to new possibilities for collaboration. "We can't do everything with a client," said Paul Connolly of TCC Group, a 30-year old management consulting firm with offices in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. "The Taproot Foundation's work can help our clients when they can't afford our whole range of services, or when they need additional perspectives on a problem."

"Clients that have more information are better prepared for the planning process," said Hanlon. "An organization that has worked with a Taproot Foundation team knows more about their particular challenges, and their opportunities, so any following or additional work is that much stronger."

Project development targeted data-driven decision-making
The Strategy Management practice is the result of over 18 months of research and development and $400,000 in investment from key funders. The practice includes four projects, or Service Grants, that support nonprofits in strategic planning and decision-making: a robust, detailed environmental scan; a financial analysis that uncovers the true costs of operations; a competitor and collaborator analysis that uses a comprehensive peer analysis to highlight growing threats or opportunities; and a scorecard that isolates and monitors the select measures that are key to an organization's success.

As part of the practice development, the Taproot Foundation tested projects with more than 20 organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pro bono consultants draw from varied experience in the corporate and nonprofit sectors, including investment banking, management consulting, corporate consulting, venture capital, market research, and product and company management. "How else is a nonprofit going to get 500 hours with a team of management consultants, or investment bankers, or CEOs?" asked Aaron Hurst, Taproot Foundation president. "Board service is critical, but these projects get at a very different aspect of nonprofit management."

The Taproot Foundation's capacity builder partners include:

Boston
Brickman Associates
Mendelsohn, Gittleman & Associates, LLC
Nonprofit Solutions Associates
Strategy Matters, Inc.
Third Sector New England

Chicago
Executive Service Corps of Chicago
Millenia Consulting
TCC Group

New York
Support Center for Nonprofit Management
TCC Group
Community Resource Exchange

San Francisco Bay Area
CompassPoint
CBO Center
TCC Group
La Piana Associates

Seattle
Executive Service Corps Washington
Laura Pierce Consulting
Nonprofit Assistance Center Seattle

Washington, DC
Greater DC Cares

For case studies about Strategy Management projects, including photos and quotes, see http://www.taprootfoundation.org/cs/hearing_speech.php and http://www.taprootfoundation.org/cs/child_advocates.php.

For more information about capacity builder partnerships, see http://www.taprootfoundation.org/npo/catalog/strategy_partners.php.

For more information about applying for a Strategy Management Service Grant, see http://www.taprootfoundation.org/npo/catalog/strategy.php.

Ass Cream

By Aaron Hurst on September 8, 2008 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My two year old daughter calls ice cream - ass cream. Every time she says it, multiple times a day given her love for ass cream, it still cracks me up.

It is one of the joys of being around little kids - the unexpected. They constantly say and do things that catch you by surprise and make your day fun.

The best marketers and entertainers understand our desire to be surprised. They get that seeing the expected makes very little impression on folks.

Sadly, most marketing and media is far from surprising. It is at comfort food at best.

The earnestness of the nonprofit sector makes nonprofit marketing the least surprising and therefore often the least effective and least memorable. No one dares to potentially offend and therefore plays it super safe.

Nonprofit marketing rarely takes risks. It is usually the same formulas over and over again. Look at our home page. We have one of the classic formulas going - the photo of the child in need. Check out the marketing materials for 12 nonprofits and you will see very little variation.

Even our tame tagline, 'do it pro bono,' scared a number of people on our team who predicted that foundations would be offended and would stop funding us. They weren't and they didn't.

How do we give nonprofits permission to take some marketing risks and make an impression?

The Candidates and Service

By Aaron Hurst on September 3, 2008 6:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Next week, Senators McCain and Obama will attend a presidential forum on service as part of the Service Nation Summit in NYC. It will be one of the first public events to include both candidates.

McCain's military service gives him a natural platform for advocating for service. Obama is a trained lawyer, and hopefully he appreciates the importance of pro bono service and the role of the presidency in the rise of the pro bono ethic in the 1960s under JFK.

Service tends to receive bi-partisan support, but there tend to be a few areas where lines can be drawn within the issue.

Here are some questions that I have seen draw out these differences:
- Should we mandate a year of service for all Americans?
- Should the government be involved in funding the capacity of nonprofits and religious groups to recruit and manage volunteers?
- Should the government fund and run programs like AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps?
- Is volunteering a "right" of every American that the government must support to maintain our democracy and stay faithful to our Founding Fathers?

How would you respond to these questions? How do you expect the candidates to respond?

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