“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
This exchange, perhaps a staple of parent/child relationships, has no place in management. In fact, communicating to employees the why of their work — the context, value, and relevance of their work — is vital to both training efforts and effective coaching. Further, recent research, including a study conducted in a nonprofit fundraising environment, suggests that employees who know how their work positively impacts others are more productive than those who don’t.
Continue reading ‘The Power of Why’
This week, I had the pleasure of presenting at Rutgers Business School as part of the Institute for Ethical Leadership’s 2010 Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program. In addition to conducting sessions on nonprofit compensation for both the executive and emerging leaders tracks, I welcomed the opportunity to conduct a plenary session on the use of social media and social networking for nonprofit organizations. The session offered the program participants an overview of what social media is, why many nonprofit organizations are choosing to use it, and some tips on how to go about implementing or enhancing their organizations’ social media presence and practices.
Continue reading ‘Social Media & Social Networking for Nonprofit Organizations’
It was my pleasure to present this week at Rutgers Business School as part of the Institute for Ethical Leadership’s 2010 Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program. In addition to leading a plenary session on the use of social media and social networking for nonprofit organizations, I had the chance to address both the executive and emerging leaders tracks on compensation in the nonprofit sector.
The two presentations overlap in conveying information about the past, present, and future of nonprofit pay. The first presentation, for the emerging leaders, also offers a brief overview of executive compensation in the sector, as well as a primer on pay for performance approaches. The second, for established executives, provides recommendations on ways to enhance their organizations’ pay and performance management practices.
Emerging Leaders
Executives
Each of the conversations branched out in several interesting discussions, some of which I’ve touched upon in previous posts, and all of which were worthy of further discussion. You may find the following related posts of interest:
Are Your Executive Compensation Bases Covered?
The Buck Stops Where?
Development in Demand: Challenges for Fundraising Professionals and Employers
Executive Compensation at Boys & Girls Clubs of America: A Closer Look
Human Resources Maturity
A Look at Nonprofit IT Staffing
The Path to Pay for Performance
Paying Attention to Turnover in the Nonprofit Sector
Salary Ranges 101
Please feel free to share the presentations and posts with your colleagues and, as always, share your comments and questions!
I’m honored that my recent post “How to Be A Great Nonprofit Employer” was among the seven selected as the best nonprofit posts of the month in the April Nonprofit Blog Carnival, hosted by Jeff Brooks on his Future Fundraising Now blog.
Much conversation and debate in the nonprofit and philanthropic communities these days revolves around how to determine which organizations are the “best”. Fortunately, there seems to be a consensus away from basing such determinations on measures such as overhead ratio and administrative expenses and towards evaluation of impact — but that’s a topic for another day and post.
Employee opinions offer another perspective on a nonprofit’s quality.
Another perspective on a nonprofit’s quality can be found in the opinions of the organization’s employees. A recent study by the NonProfit Times and Best Companies Group used such opinions as the primary basis for identifying the “50 best nonprofits to work for in 2010″.
In the study, employee’s responses to a written survey accounted for 75% of each organization’s score. The remaining 25% was based on assessment of the organization’s benefit offerings and other practices, using a proprietary methodology.
Continue reading ‘How to Be a Great Nonprofit Employer’
This week, Washington, DC’s Black Philanthropic Alliance is hosting a blog salon on nonprofit racial diversity. One of the questions asked by the Alliance was how can donors and philanthropy help to increase racial diversity in nonprofit leadership?
I’m very pleased that the post I wrote in response, “Donors and Funders Should Help Build the Pipeline“, was selected for inclusion in the salon, and that I was able to contribute to this important conversation.
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