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Empowering Success: Strategies for Nonprofits to Stay Motivated and Impactful

Empowering Success: Strategies for Nonprofits to Stay Motivated and Impactful

Non-profit organizations often find themselves operating with deficits, constantly concerned about their programs' positive impact on the communities they serve. Even when making a tangible difference within their communities, it can be challenging to focus on these successes amidst financial worries and the anticipation of future funding rounds from grant-makers or supportive donors. However, it's crucial to acknowledge and celebrate these impacts to draw inspiration from the positive changes being brought about in the community.Shifting perspective is key to recognizing and amplifying positivity. Allow the successes and breakthroughs within the community you serve to fuel your organization's work. Celebrate alongside the individuals you serve, acknowledging their resilience in overcoming challenges. This celebration serves as a source of motivation and revitalization as you continue your impactful efforts.Remember, your organization exists to serve the community and address the needs of its people. Capture their stories and experiences to forge deeper connections with the services you provide and the successes and breakthroughs achieved. Each small breakthrough attributed to your services plays a critical role in reinvigorating your organization's sense of purpose and highlighting the impact being made.Counting and celebrating successes doesn't mean neglecting the challenges or hardships faced by the community or your organization. It signifies an acknowledgment of the impact being created. Make sure to tangibly and visibly recognize these achievements within your organization, whether digitally or physically. Every small win is essential in maintaining the momentum needed to propel your organization forward.Here are some bullet points outlining what organizations can do to count their success and stay motivated: Capture Stories: Document and share success stories from the community you serve to showcase the impact of your organization's work.Measure Impact: Use metrics and data to quantify the outcomes and positive changes brought about by your programs and services.Celebrate Milestones: Recognize and celebrate achievements, no matter how small, to acknowledge progress and keep morale high.Engage Stakeholders: Involve stakeholders, including beneficiaries, staff, volunteers, and donors, in discussions about success and impact.Reflect on Goals: Regularly review organizational goals and assess progress towards achieving them to stay focused and motivated.Share Testimonials: Collect testimonials and feedback from beneficiaries and partners to highlight the value of your organization's efforts.Acknowledge Team Efforts: Recognize and appreciate the hard work and dedication of your team members, fostering a positive work environment.Visualize Success: Create visual representations, such as infographics or charts, to illustrate the positive outcomes and successes achieved.Seek Feedback: Solicit feedback from stakeholders to gain insights into areas of improvement and further success.Learn from Challenges: Embrace challenges as learning opportunities and celebrate the resilience and adaptability demonstrated by your organization.Implementing these strategies can help organizations effectively count their successes, stay motivated, and continue making a positive impact on the communities they serve.
Honesty Between Nonprofits and Grantmakers: Bridging the Gap for Better Alliances

Honesty Between Nonprofits and Grantmakers: Bridging the Gap for Better Alliances

In the dynamic between grantmakers and nonprofits, honesty can sometimes be elusive, especially from the nonprofits' perspective. Many feel beholden to grantmakers, striving to present themselves as worthy of funding, which can hinder genuine dialogue. This cautious approach stems from a fear of misalignment with grantmakers' self-perceptions and their envisioned role within the community. Such an imbalance often reflects the grantmakers' preferences rather than the actual impact of the nonprofits' work.Nonprofits tend to tread carefully, aiming to cast themselves in a favorable light to enhance their funding prospects. However, this isn't the ideal foundation for a relationship between grantmakers and nonprofits. Grantmakers should value and seek to understand the work and insights of nonprofits, especially if their efforts are proven impactful. Rather than dictating terms, grantmakers should engage with nonprofits to learn about their work and its community impact.Often, grantmakers employ consultants for feasibility studies or strategic planning, which can significantly influence their decisions and directions. While these consultants provide valuable insights, their role should also involve equitable engagement with both large and small nonprofits, acting as a conduit for a deeper understanding of on-the-ground efforts and fostering stronger, more inclusive relationships.Transparency and honesty from all parties during information gathering are crucial. Nonprofits should feel free to share their experiences and perspectives without fear of repercussion. Conversely, grantmakers should welcome feedback, even if it casts them in a less favorable light, viewing it as an opportunity to bridge gaps and build stronger connections with those making a tangible impact. Only through mutual honesty and receptiveness can grantmakers and nonprofits form alliances that prioritize impactful work and positive community transformation.
Breaking Barriers: Fostering Stronger Bonds Between Community Organizations and Grantmakers

Breaking Barriers: Fostering Stronger Bonds Between Community Organizations and Grantmakers

At the beginning of each year, community organizations focus on implementing their annual strategies, aiming to create a significant impact in their communities. However, daily priorities such as programming, policies, and procedures can sometimes eclipse this central goal. It's crucial for these organizations to keep their ultimate objectives at the forefront to guide everyday decisions and ensure equitable processes for those they serve.At DMC, our work with various community groups often uncovers a misalignment between their operational processes and the actual needs of the communities they aim to assist. This disconnection is frequently due to constraints imposed by grantmakers. Feeling bound by these restrictions, organizations often reshape their programs to fit grant requirements, which can lead to compromises in their core objectives and the criteria for community eligibility. This scenario not only adds stress and administrative burden but also dilutes the effectiveness of the services provided.The key to successful non-profit management is balancing the acquisition of resources to sustain operations and run programs with navigating the diverse requirements set by grantmakers. It's essential for organizations to reflect on the grants they pursue, especially if they come with constraints that hinder effectiveness. Transparent communication with grantmakers about these restrictions is critical. While it might be challenging, fearing the risk to future funding, not addressing these issues allows the cycle of inefficiency to continue.The pandemic has demonstrated the potential for innovative collaboration between grantmakers and community organizations, leading to reduced restrictions and more effective resource distribution. This should inspire a move towards stronger, more transparent relationships between community organizations and grantmakers, ultimately reducing constraints and enhancing the effectiveness of resource allocation.
Reflective Data Approaches

Reflective Data Approaches

Blog by Richard Feistman, Ph.D.Whether you work in the non-profit sector, the education sector, or private industry there is a shared collective groan, mostly internal - but I can still hear it, when the data person walks into the room. There is a good reason for this. For a long time, teachers lived in fear of their schools being closed down if ‘the data’ did not improve. Non-profit leaders become desperate to show their support methods are ‘evidence-based’ in order to scramble enough funding together to keep the organization alive for another season. All groups want to show they are serving lots of people all of the time - and need that data person to help them do that. Most of these examples, however, are focused on outcome analysis and provide little actual support for organizations that want to improve their positive impact. One of the things I respect at the Deo Mwano Consultancy is we take a holistic approach to our data strategies. This ensures our strategies are tailored for the client's regional needs and focus first on building understanding before trying to improve outcomes. This means focusing on research processes first and bringing everyone to the table to engage in that process. Those in evaluation circles will know this as a Culturally Responsive Equitable Evaluation Approach, however, what this basically means is the following: Recognize the lived experiences of both the evaluation team and the stakeholders who are being evaluated. Engage stakeholders from the beginning. This means shared survey construction and evaluation planning to ensure it fits the needs of the team. Conduct the evaluation so all voices are heard, this often requires mixed method approaches. Check in often with stakeholders to validate results and disseminate broadly. All of those who provided data should have access to the eventual reporting. By engaging in this process, partners focus on a clear goal for the evaluation and ask questions that are the most relevant for their needs. DMC’s previous partners often comment on how this experience is one of the most valuable parts of the partnership. There are lots of groups that provide a standard evaluation plan and metrics, where DMC excels in refining the process for each partner. The tailored suit vs the suit of the rack you could say.  For those that do not have an improvement process in place already, the experience lays the groundwork for an effective continuous improvement process within the organization. That is not to say that it always goes smoothly. In fact, most partnerships will have to overcome resistance and build buy-in for the data process. Using the method above helps to build such buy in, but if your organization if going through a similar process already here are so Do’s and Don’ts to help support an improvement process in your organization:Don’tBe the methods critic. You might have a fairly sophisticated understanding of bias, correlation, and causation, but remember that culture and climate assessments are attempts to build systems and obtain snapshots of what is happening. Process is more important, so focus your critique on what can improve the methods, not what is wrong with them. Also remember that what you have is the best available data, so use it and try to get better data next time. Be the ‘we have tried that already’ person. Help to craft the new solution. If you have seen things fail, use that experience to craft a better process. Did you take a survey, but nobody saw a report?!  Mention that. Did you get a new work rule, but no accountability was attached to it?!  Mention that too. Those are great insights, but attempting to predict effectiveness is not useful. Do    Provide your concerns and thoughts - answer those open ended questions! They provide the context for data and often are where ideas for changes come from.Watch your airtime! You probably have great insights, but after you have provided some thoughts, let others speak. You can always put your thoughts in the survey and speak one on one to the research team later. Recognize your privilege in the room. Are you the boss? Are you the dominant cultural group? If so, when you speak and what you say matters and could quite possibly change what others will say - or even if they will talk at all. I have a mantra I repeat - Don’t speak first, don’t speak last, don’t interrupt. It still happens sometimes, but at least you can recognize it. In sum, community organizations looking to improve their impact need a clear process for understanding their ongoing needs. Establishing this ongoing process is a key element to success and conducting a workplace assessment can be a great starting point - as long as the process brings everyone together.
Thankful for Community - Especially those weak ties that make us stronger

Thankful for Community - Especially those weak ties that make us stronger

Blog by Richard Feistman, Ph.D.Moving has been constant in my life. I was born in Oregon, raised in California, trained and worked in New York, spent a year in China, trained and worked some more in Missouri, and now my family is putting down roots in New Hampshire. My spouse has a similar zig-zag story that began to align with mine in Missouri. When you make all these moves, there is a good chance you are going to be far away from people you know and love. Yet, what amazes me, looking back, is how at every stop I made connections that stretch across time and location. These were not close relationships, but rather friendly acquaintances. Upon further reflection they have become the bedrock of my support network. In other words, those more casual, informal relationships, my weak ties, matter.In my work life, I think a lot about communities and how to make them stronger. I try to improve systems so they are more likely to build people up and help them achieve their goals. This work often focuses on the people we might never see - providing resources to the guidance counselor who helps my son’s friend or connecting systems so a new worker can train to be a city mechanic that keeps a streetlight working. I also work to support strong family relationships, providing resources to spouses and parents to ensure connection and warmth is maintained. These are the types of communities I think of first, those we keep close and those we don’t really know on a personal level. Yet, when I attended the National Council on Family Relations Conference last week, I remembered how much I have gained from my weak ties - the community of people that I have accumulated over the course of my life as I moved between jobs and cities. At the conference I had a series of small interactions with people from nearly every one of those stops I outlined in my zig-zag. These interactions were brief and simple (e.g., talking about new jobs, boat dreams, caring for family), but they provided general warmth and a sense of connection I would otherwise lack in my day. These types of communities help sustain us personally and professionally, when things are fine and when life gets hard. My mother also had a network of loose connections. My mom was not someone who formed strong bonds with lots of people. The first third of her life was marked by troubled relationships with those who should have cared for her and a few strong relationships with peers to keep her going. The second third of her life was a combination of strong connections with her children, but a troubled spousal relationship that provided limited support. In the final third of her life, she was supported by a sprawling group of weak ties that provided her comfort and a sense of self. As a young adult I talked to my mom often, as did my siblings - but we struggled to provide her with daily support because we were doing our own zig-zagging to establish our lives. Many of us rely on a spouse or close friend for ongoing support, but for those without close community, weak ties become essential. For my mom, those people were her coworkers at the local U.S. Post Office. Anyone who works at a post office would not initially identify it as a wellspring of support. In fact, in general conversation, my mom would frequently tell me how much she hated her job. However, as happens when you spend every day in the same place for 30 years, she knew every. single. thing. that happened there. She chatted with me about it each weekend and I could not understand why she stuck around that job. My siblings and I talked to her about other jobs and opportunities, yet she never left. Now, I understand she stayed because that was her community. That is where she had all of those ties that made her feel connected. My mom passed away in 2019. Pancreatic cancer took her life quickly at age 65 - but we still had enough time to move her closer to us for a couple months and we even got to have one last Thanksgiving together. Pie made her smile, even though she couldn’t eat much. My siblings and I came together to form a strong support network for her during that time, but we also saw her network of weak ties activate in response to her diagnosis. I saw it in a young letter carrier who stopped by to say goodbye before we got on a plane to move her from California to Maryland, an older counter clerk who told me stories about my mom as we cleared her locker, and a longtime coworker who quietly wept while I gave her an address where she could send a card. Those people mattered to my mom and my mom mattered to them, no matter how little they really shared about their lives outside of work.The daily interactions we have with our communities matter. This Thanksgiving I am thankful for the small waves from bus drivers, the smirk of a co-worker talking about raking leaves, and even the random ‘like’ on LinkedIn from a coworker from 15 years ago. Some of my colleagues joke that you can sum up a lot of relationship research into “Be nice to people” - and as I read evaluations of organizational health data I often see comments like, “Isn’t most of this just about being a good person?” Yes - but somehow we don’t always lead with kindness.For this Thanksgiving season, I hope you offer a gesture of connection and good will to some of your loose ties. You might just be adding to the sense of community I am talking about. Oh, and if you can, call your mom.