Board-Staff Teamwork: Nonprofits at Their Best

I see a lot of worst practices. Thank heaven for them. It feeds my consulting practice and therefore my shopping and mortgage jones. But every once in a while, I see an elegant dance that exemplifies the best in board staff team work.
Enter the National Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse. I did a board retreat for them years ago. I was asked to lunch afterwards with their board president Judy Brostron, a nurse/attorney. I knew she was going to ask me to be on the board. I was going to say "no." I was simply too busy. I had a list of other names in my purse. All I remember was being back in my car and being on the board. It turned out to be a brilliant move on my part.
One of the reasons I agreed to be on this particular board was the executive director, Ed Tasch. He is just one of the best. I knew that the place was well run. How well run was a surprise even to me.
Enter our poor landlord, another non profit executive, who wanted to raise our rent. It would have been easy for Ed to recommend to the board to accept the increase, suck it up, and move on. But that isn't what Ed did. I asked Ed, a veteran of more than 25 years at this agency, how he felt about a move. We all have ways of expressing stress. I get headaches. Ed gets belly aches. He practically grabbed his gut. He said, "If I can save the agency $17,000 a year, I have to look into it."
To make a long story short, not only did he look at a ton of other buildings, he polled the entire staff as to what was best for them, he brought the board into the search and asked our opinions, and ultimately, he negotiated a DECREASE in rent with our landload and $200,000 worth of improvements!
I am so honored to be on this board and so pleased that this level of professionalism is not everywhere, or I would be out of work!

Marketing for Speakers and Nonprofits: Paper AND Plastic

Last night, I had dinner with a computer genius who consults to software and hardware developers and writes for the New York Times. He wants to get back on the speaking circuit. He has a new photo, thanks to ace photographer Suzy Gorman. When I asked him about working on his one-sheet, he told me he is only going to market on-line. NOT. This is a common mistake my nonprofit clients make. It is not a paper or plastic world, as our grocery stores found out. People want a choice and information has to be available in more than one form. Its about paper AND plastic.
The deal is this: When folks leave a great talk we've given, they frequently remember what we've said, but not our name. If they have a piece of paper in their hand, they can pass it off to a boss or their assistant and say, "We have to have this Carol for our next meeting." Or, as happened to me two weeks ago, they file our one-sheet, and call 6 years later, having schlepped our one-sheet from job to job. (God bless the pack rat!!!)
The same thing is true for nonprofits. Some of our clients want to find out about us on the web, some by word of mouth, some in the paper, some want to come for a visit. Its not about marketing our services and philanthropic investment opportunities in just one way.
All of this is to say, David, you have to print a one-sheet! The good news is that you have lots of great photos thanks to Suzy.