Tag Archive for 'management'

The Power of Why

Joe Brown ▪ November 10, 2010 ▪ 0 Comments

“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.
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Mission Connected: Employee Handbooks

Joe Brown ▪ May 12, 2010 ▪ 0 Comments

My new post on the Mission Connected Blog, “What’s in Your Manual? Nonprofit Employee Handbooks“, summarizes general considerations for employee handbooks, details essential content and resources for creating a handbook, and highlights one important area your organization’s handbook might be missing.

Mission Connected: Employee Turnover

Joe Brown ▪ May 5, 2010 ▪ 0 Comments

My new post on the Mission Connected Blog, “Paying Attention to Turnover in the Nonprofit Sector“, takes a look at the prevalence of, causes of, and potential responses to the costly issue of employee turnover among nonprofit organizations.

The Buck Stops Where?

Joe Brown ▪ April 29, 2010 ▪ 2 Comments

“Managers are commonly ill-equipped to understand the dynamics of their compensation costs, never mind monitor and control them.”

I was struck by this statement by Chuck Csizmar in a recent post on the Compensation Cafe blog. Chuck was making a case for companies to focus on the return on investment (ROI) for employee compensation, and he went on to discuss the reasons for and consequences of managers making poor compensation decisions.

I have to agree with Chuck about managers’ abilities in this area, as this phenomenon is at the heart of a challenge I have repeatedly faced when working with nonprofit organizations to overhaul and improve their compensation practices. But, rather than ruing the fact that managers lack these skills and looking for ways improve them, I suggest that there is no real need for the vast majority of managers to develop them in the first place.
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Mission Connected: Nonprofit IT Staffing

Joe Brown ▪ April 27, 2010 ▪ 0 Comments

My new post on the Mission Connected Blog, “A Look at Nonprofit IT Staffing“, considers current factors and trends in hiring information technology professionals, and offers advice for nonprofit employers as they address their IT staffing needs.

Great News for Harlem School of the Arts!

Joe Brown ▪ April 21, 2010 ▪ 0 Comments

Last week, I offered an extensive look at the financial situation that led to the closing on April 1 of the Harlem School of the Arts, an institution that has served thousands of members of its community for nearly 50 years.

This morning, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the closing would only be temporary. The Mayor, other city officials, and many donors have stepped in to save the school, which will reopen this Saturday.

“With the help of dedicated New Yorkers, private funders and arts education advocates working together with the city and local officials, the Harlem School of the Arts is now on a path to a new and sustainable future, and that’s great news for everyone.”
–Mayor Michael Bloomberg

The New York Times also reported that five new members of the board of directors have been selected (it is not immediately clear if these new directors will replace or join the six current directors, or if one of them will assume the board chairmanship). Charles Hamilton, managing director for strategy and development for La Cité Development will assume the role of board chairperson. The new directors include Ephraim Emmanual, president of the Harlem School of the Arts Parent Association. Adding the voice of the students’ parents to the school’s leadership is a positive step toward improving communication with this constituency, which was clearly missing during the school’s decline over the past few years. Mary Schmidt Campbell, Dean of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, is also among the new directors.

This morning’s announcement is great news for the school, the community, the city, and the arts. I hope that the new leadership will quickly turn its attention to righting the financial woes that I described in my earlier post, that the new donations that have and will flow into the school receive the highest levels of stewardship, and that the school continues to serve the city’s children for the next 50 years and beyond.

Photo credit: bfick

Mission Connected: Development in Demand

Joe Brown ▪ April 20, 2010 ▪ 0 Comments

My new post on the Mission Connected Blog, “Development in Demand“, takes a look at the current challenges facing fundraising professionals and their employers, including the economic landscape, the profession’s changing skill requirements, and the need for organizations to make the most of their investment in development staff.

HR Carnival: The Power of Why

Joe Brown ▪ April 15, 2010 ▪ 0 Comments

I’m thrilled that my recent post “The Power of Why” on the Mission Connected Blog was included in the 4/14 Carnival of HR, which “features recent posts from the best of the HR and management blogging community”!

By the Numbers: Harlem School of the Arts

Joe Brown ▪ April 14, 2010 ▪ 3 Comments

For an update to this story, please see
Great News for Harlem School of the Arts!

New York City’s Harlem School of the Arts, a nonprofit institution which for nearly half a century has offered children and young adults training in dance, music, theater, and the visual arts, locked its doors on April 1st. A decision on whether or not the closing will be permanent is expected next week. The story has attracted considerable attention from the media, including multiple stories in the New York Times and the New York Daily News and on WPIX. It has also triggered emotional reactions from the community, including former and current students and parents. A Facebook group started by supporters of the school has grown to over 1,300 members in two weeks.

Nonprofit effectiveness is not necessarily measurable in financial terms. Much of the media coverage and public reaction has highlighted strong feelings and opinions on the part of the community as well as current and former administrators and board members. There does seem to be a general consensus among the media, public, some employees, and even some former board members that the school’s downfall resulted from an extended period of fiscal mismanagement. Parents in particular have been very vocal about their lack of confidence in the abilities of the current board, and while the board is seeking at least $500,000 to reopen for the remainder of the academic year, parents and other members of the Facebook group are suggesting that donations not be made to the school until such time as the board is replaced.

While one New York Times story highlighted a number of specific financial issues, including questions about the school’s failure to meet the benchmarks of a $1.5 million grant to strengthen its financial, marketing, and fundraising efforts, the use of a $1 million mortgage taken on the school’s building in 2007, and nearly $500,000 in payroll tax arrears, it failed to provide what I could perceive as a complete and objective look at the problems that had befallen the institution. To satisfy my own curiosity, I decided to take a look at the most recent form 990s as well as the media reports and other publicly available information. In this post, I want to share some of what I found to be some of the most notable data and patterns from those findings, as well as some questions that my findings raised for me and that might also be on the minds of those interested in the school, including students, parents, donors, and funders.
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Mission Connected: The Power of Why

Joe Brown ▪ March 30, 2010 ▪ 0 Comments

My new post on the Mission Connected Blog,“The Power of Why”, stresses the importance of communicating to employees the context, importance, and relevance of their work in order to maximize the effectiveness of training and coaching and to increase employee motivation and productivity.