Category Archives: Organization

Impact, Innovation, Organization, Responsibility, Social Sector

Don’t Kill the Golden Goose: Rethinking Accountability Standards in the Nonprofit Sector

December 14, 2017 kiaharris Leave a comment

Disclaimer: This is not a goose. This is a golden Mandarin Duck; this photo is meant to be visualaid only and not a true representation of a Golden Goose.

Golden·Goose

Noun

The golden goose of TSOs, in many situations, comes to be seen as the state’s only orbest hope in tackling ‘wicked problems’ such as reducing health inequalities (Tenbensel,, Dwyer,J., & Lavoie,J.,2014).

Large-scale migration into the Britain in the 1960s and 70s prompted the development of third-sector organizations to tackle unmet needs of the new populations and communities. Government funders turned to third-sector organizations (TSOs) to provide cheap and effective services to fill gaps.

With government funders providing the capital for TSO work, another issue came to the forefront. “Accountability measures imposed by governments can be debilitating or ‘killing ofthe golden goose” (Tenbenseletal. ,2014). While trying to expand services TSOs are burdened bystringent accountability measures. A conflict arises between government funder’s needs fortransparency and accountability and being mindful that accountability measures can stifle a TSOs impact.

Tenbenseletal. (2014) describes the different “pulls” that TSOs encounter.

Downward Pull-community (members, clients, communityleaders, and other organizations).

Lateral Pull- one another and themselves (staff, volunteers, community board members, andcommunity agencies). with whom they work’

Upward-funders.

Tenbensel et al. (2014) developed a comprehensive framework to address overburdened TSOs.

Donoharm- donotin advertently increase overall accountability measures for TSOs.
‘Best fit’ generation-public managers should play an active role in facilitating environments in which TSO accountability requirements between the points of the triskele are better aligned.
Consideration of collateral impact of accountability measures.
Use triskele as a foundation for conversation between TSOs and all stakeholdersabout accountability.
Triskele framework can be used to assess new or prospective developments that are likely to impact the organization’s accountability environment.

The Triskele framework and knowledge of how accountability measures can impact TSOs is beneficial for nonprofit scholars to have awareness and become advocates for organizations we work with now and in the future.

Ethics, Global, Impact, Innovation, Leadership, Organization, Social Sector, Uncategorized

Using Neutrality to Protect Humanity

December 8, 2017 kiaharris Leave a comment

By Hayley Walker and Valdeir Faria Filho

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are functioning in our global society, some better than others. Some are well-known (CARE, Amnesty International, Red Cross) and use effective marketing techniques, lobbying efforts, and provide programs internationally. Others are small, local organizations that work to make life better for specific groups of people. Regardless, these diverse and varying NGOs have multiple commonalities, though they may not be fully visible on the surface. All, however, embark on missions to protect humanity.

The World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO) is an international organization that aims to unite NGOs and promote peace and wellbeing across the globe. WANGO offers resources and support to create connections among organizations striving to create a more just, sustainable world for all. As a proponent of networks and collaborations, WANGO sheds light on the synergy that results from global organizations working towards a common goal. With widespread government support, exceptional visionaries, and dedicated donors, WANGO has worked for the past 17 years to encourage NGOs to connect across borders and without boundaries, and to hold steadfast to the following guiding principles (WANGO Code of Ethics):

Responsibility, service, and public mindedness
Cooperation beyond boundaries
Human rights and dignity
Religious freedom
Transparency and accountability
Truthfulness and legality

NGOs, in the broadest sense, cannot be for profit organizations, must be independent of government, must not interfere in domestic state affairs, and must not advocate violence (Kaloudis, 2017). However, there comes a time when disaster relief and humanitarian organizations must interfere—or rather, intervene—in domestic affairs in an effort to protect humanity. Non-governmental organizations are frequently caught in the cross-fire of waring territories, failed states, and desperate civilians, with one goal in mind: to provide relief for those in need.

During times of crisis, NGOs rely deeply on their neutrality to aid them in reaching the most people possible. In accordance with WANGO’s principle of working towards cooperation beyond boundaries, neutrality refers to refraining from taking sides on issues regarding political, cultural, religious affiliation, or other sensitive issues that may result in conflict. That does not mean that NGOs disappear or go into hiding during such conflicts, but rather work harder to serve all affected—regardless of their stance on the issues. Impactful NGOs uphold the policy of not “taking sides,” and this is crucial to the safety of workers, volunteers, donors, and civilians. However, in recent years NGOs have faced difficulty in mitigating suffering as impartial entities, in part due to assumed association with national governments or international organizations (Brechenmacher, 2015). Aid and relief of organizations urge conflicting parties to respect their neutral stance as they provide desperately needed services to civilians, but reality does not always allow provide for this ideal situation. State militaries may claim alliances with NGOs, and rebel forces may see this alliance as a threat to their progress. NGOs, however, frequently default to the emphasizing the value of impartiality in conflict zones and assert their neutral stance to relieve human suffering—a practice that is often debated. In order to reach civilians who may be trapped or displaced deep within war zones and conflict arenas, NGOs must carefully negotiate with opposing parties. They must ensure they remain under enough security to serve, but enough neutrality to relieve the suffering civilians from all sides.

Effectiveness, Ethics, Leadership, Organization, Social Sector

Servant Leadership In Nonprofit Culture

October 6, 2017 kiaharris Leave a comment

A flipped pyramid showing the structure of servant leadership (Haaff, 2015)

By: Greg Finkelstein, Kia Harris, and Jenny Shen, MNA ’18

In nonprofit entities, leadership is the cornerstone of success. Without good leadership, regardless of how impressive the individual components may be, productivity is far from maximized, and employees themselves may become marginalized. There are a plethora of leadership techniques which can be enacted at many levels, but their effectiveness varies depending on the environment in which they are employed. However, given the nature of nonprofits, servant leadership is the universal perfect match.

Servant leadership is a concept that many leaders will never be able to follow. They may feel that being a servant leader means that power is being yielded from them to other employees. This has nothing to do with servant leadership. A good leader can lead from the front, from behind, or from the side. Beyond that, a good servant leader is still clearly in charge. This concept does not mean that final authority shifts away from management and into the hands of the other employees.

To become a servant leader, one must have the mentality that their role is to support and address the needs of those who work under them (Johnson, 2017). Thinking from the employee’s perspective, checking in with them, and being receptive to feedback all give servant leaders insight on how to better facilitate the work being done. There are constantly new models or seminars on how to be a better leader, but what will always make sense is directly asking those who are being led how they want their situations improved.

The concept of servant leadership fits nonprofits perfectly because of both their virtues and shortcomings. Nonprofits usually have employees who truly want to be there and work towards the cause. Often, these employees are initially attracted to the organization because they align with the mission statement and the values emphasized. In this light, engaging in servant leadership is a very logical approach. Truly supporting those who have a high level of motivation to accomplish the organization’s mission and affinity for the cause at hand makes the most sense. If employees already want to work hard and efficiently, pushing and prodding them doesn’t help, but will instead wear people down over time. Supporting them, addressing their specific needs, and making the work environment as easy to maneuver as possible are the best ways to increase productivity when motivation is already high.

In addition to virtues, the shortcomings of nonprofits are another great reason to engage in servant leadership. Nonprofits may address a wide range of social issues, but they share many common challenges: being low on funds, having too few staff, and not having enough resources. Even large, multi-million dollar nonprofits have a limited ability to pay market rate wages. New nonprofits face these challenges and more, as their novelty and presumably small size makes them greatly vulnerable (Bielefeld, 2014). This gives the impression that nonprofits are at a disadvantage. Indeed, being at a disadvantage is far from anything new to nonprofits, but, rather, closer to the norm. Interestingly, there are significant drawbacks to relying on monetary reward as an incentive, as many for-profits do. Most importantly, it breeds fickle employees. Just like there is always a bigger fish, someone elsewhere will always be able to offer a bigger paycheck.

Clearly, nonprofits must rely on something more substantial than monetary reward. If an employee must accept that their work will not garner as many financial gains as compared to a similar position in the for-profit world, the last thing they want is to be led around by a totalitarian who doesn’t seem to respect their input and views them as replaceable commodities. Indeed, that would not be an easy environment to be in regardless of the sector. Additionally, nonprofit workers may be asked to go above and beyond their duties with no increase in tangible incentives. When this happens, knowing there is a leader who will do their best to address their employees’ needs is a great source of security and makes accepting the new obligations less daunting. The vanguard to overcoming these challenges can only be leadership, and servant leadership addresses these issues particularly well.

Servant leadership does not need to be the only management mechanism employed. Other models, ideas, and practices can blend well with servant leadership. For example, the 7 virtues of effective leaders, courage, integrity, humility, reverence, optimism, compassion, and justice, all fit perfectly under the frame of servant leadership (Johnson, 2017). If a leader views putting the needs of her or his staff as primary importance, they are then free to continue instilling motivation in a variety of ways. It is clear that embracing the unique traits and challenges of nonprofits is crucial to implementing good leadership. Servant leadership highlights these features, while empowering individuals to contribute as much as they can to something they believe in. It is no surprise, then, that this technique is rising in popularity.

Entrepreneurship, Organization, Resources

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

June 9, 2016 Marco Tavanti 1 Comment

NPO growth — http://onlinempa.usfca.edu/resources/webinars-infographics/the-rise-of-the-nonprofit-sector/

How many nonprofit organizations are out there?

According to the The National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) there are currently over 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the United States. More than 188,000 organizations are tax-exempt and charity organizations registered in the State of California. It is difficult to quantify the number of nonprofits in the world as they diversify in the classification due to the financial, governance, and legal national specifications. Generally, we estimate there are about 10M nonprofits – social sector organizations in 196 countries. The largest number of registered nonprofit is in India (2M), followed by US (1.5M) and France (1.3M).

How do I form my own nonprofit organization?

The large number of registered non profits around the world demonstrates the significant impact of entrepreneurship and organizational activism in the social sector. It is also a personal expression of how people want to make a difference in the world and in our communities through innovative and new nonprofit organizations. The MNA program often receives requests for assistance in establishing new nonprofits and tax-exempt 501(c)3 organizations. To support these efforts and to promote sustainable and effective social sector organizations, we have created a list of resources to help you establish nonprofit and tax exempt organizations in the United States and the State of California.

Nonprofit Foundation Brainstorming

Begin the process by asking these important questions:

What is the social benefit and charitable purpose of the organization?
What kind of programming or core activities are you planning to do?
Who are the intended beneficiaries?
Are there existing nonprofits with a similar mission, and, if so, have you discussed your ideas with them?
Can your mission be furthered more effectively and efficiently by partnering with an existing nonprofit?
Can you attract sufficient resources to start and operate a new nonprofit?
What is your revenue plan and business plan (including a three-year projected budget)?
Are you familiar with the steps you need to take to start and run a nonprofit in compliance with the state laws and best practices?
Have you considered alternatives to forming a new nonprofit, such as fiscal sponsorship and donor advised funds, or business-social enterprises?
Will you need a an attorney and/or CFO to form the nonprofit and get it running? Read more here.

Establish a Nonprofit in 10 Steps

Step 1: PRELIMINARIES: Do we really need another organization? Preliminary market analysis and need assessment of other organizations and programs. Nonprofit, for-profit or hybrid? Check nonprofit organizations here.

Step 2: BASICS: What do you want to do? Determine the name, mission and anticipated programming and revenue sources of the organization. Check corporate name availability here.

Step 3: INCORPORATION: What state will you incorporate? Prepare the documents and forms necessary for the incorporation. Think about the entity type. Follow the application procedure of your state. Check California tips and resources here.

Step 4: BOARD: Who should be in your board? People should be invited to serve based on their qualifications and contributions in treasure, time or talent. Generally, boards have a minimum of a president (chair), a treasurer and a secretary. Hold your first board meeting appropriately (RONR) and document it with minutes. Check IRS exceptions here.

Step 5: BYLAWS: What are the essential documents of the organizations? A corporation’s bylaws includes the fundamental provisions related to the management of the activities and affairs of the corporation. Bylaws should also provide guidance to the board and reassurance of sound governance. You should also prepare other important documents such as the corporation’s policies and conflict of interest (COIs). The bylaws need to be approved by the board. Check the essential text of bylaws here.

Step 6: EIN: How do you obtain an employer identification number? An officer or authorized third party designee (e.g. attorney) may apply to obtain an EIN number for the organization. Check this to apply for an EIN online.

Step 7: REGISTER: What other registrations are required? In California an annual registration is required for nonprofit public benefit corporations to be filed within 30 days after receipt of assets (Form CT-1). It is also required to file a Statement of Information with the State Department (Form SI-100). Check here for the online forms.

Step 8: TAX-EXEMPTION: How do I obtain a tax-exemption status? Completing the Form 1023 application for exempt status under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501(c)(3) is a challenging process. Once you complete the federal tax exemption (IRS application) you will need to apply for state exemption (California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) and receive an affirmation of exemption letter from the FTB. Check here the IRS tools and instructions.

Step 9: FINANCIALS: Does the nonprofit need a bank account? Open a bank account and establish check signing procedures. To maintain tax-exempt status and establish a good governance practice in your organization is important to establish a prudent system of checks and balances when dealing with the finances of an organization. Check here for best practices and financial tools.

Step 10: COMMUNICATION: How do I make a good web presence? A professional website and active social media presence are a must for a serious nonprofit organization. There are a number of free web management tools such as WordPress.com that can be helpful with templates. Integrated contacts, fundraising and analytics are also becoming essential practices for successful, sustainable and effective nonprofits. Check for integrated solutions here.

Beyond these steps: There are other important elements that will be necessary to make your nonprofit effective with its mission. Please look at the additional competencies and resources in various areas of nonprofit management and leadership listed on the INNOVATION page and emphasized in MNA curricula.