Wednesday morning I had  coffee with Sarah Willcox from the N.Center for Nonprofits. I left our meeting feeling refreshed, inspired and encouraged to continue our search for how we can help nonprofits. Here’s 3 things that every nonprofit and business can learn from “the Center”.

1. Be Willing to Change

It’s been two years since I’ve met with anyone from the Center. If there’s one thing that is evident it’s that there has been change. Good, fruitful change that’s making a difference and effecting everything from morale to retention rates (the lifeblood of any subscription based product or service). One change they made was to reengineer their organizational structure. It sounds like team members were given the opportunity to revisit their strengths, passions and desires to serve the Center. Titles were changed, responsibilities were shifted and the result was more defined roles that built paths for staff to set personal goals and achieve success in their position. Surely not every organization has the flexibility or audacity to perform such a challenge, but perhaps whatever wall is preventing you from at least exploring this idea should be removed.

2. Remember Why You Exist

Here’s the bottom line for the N.C. Center for Nonprofits. It lies in their name. It’s not the word “North Carolina”. It’s not “Center” and it’s not even “Nonprofits”. The most important word in their organization’s name is “for”. Perhaps you didn’t notice it in the logo above or each time I’ve written it, but this word is italicized on purpose. It’s important. The Center exists for Nonprofits. They’re really getting back to their roots and recalling that they exist for Nonprofits. So what have they done? They’ve picked up the phone to talk to them. They now call every new member and every single member that renews each year. They talk to them about their needs, their struggles and sometimes just to shoot the breeze. Sure it takes some time, but they’ve seen a 10% increase in member renewals. That’s HUGE. Remember why you exist. It’s probably to help people, right? Well be human about the way you help them.

3. Serve With a Glad Heart

It is evident that Sarah and the rest of the team at The Center have a renewed sense of why and who the serve. She shared with me some fascinating statistics about the nonprofit sector in North Carolina. Would you have guessed that nonprofits provide more than 400,000 jobs in North Carolina? That’s 10% of the workforce. Crazy. Anyway, my point is that I felt a sense of joy coming from Sarah in the work that she does. She serves (nonprofits as it were) with happiness! The most inspiring organizations are often the ones whose team’s sacrificial serving shows through. If someone on your team is not serving with gladness of heart then perhaps they have a different passion that needs to be fueled.

What Else?

Perhaps you’ve learned some things yourself from the Center or have some other reminders for nonprofits. I hope you’ll share in the comments below.

“I can teach you skills, but I can’t teach you desire.” It’s the tried and true call to action, which every coach pulls out of their bag of tricks. It’s often a last attempt to inspire their team, to show them that hustle and inspiration make a victory.

Motivation is a tricky animal to conquer; it can be spawned internally or externally, but the best type of motivation springs from a combination of the two. So how do we combine a competitive internal drive with the external desire to achieve a common goal? How do we get every member of our team to be personally invested in the success of the whole organization? This is most relevant to the challenges of recruiting volunteers.

There has to be a balance in rewards and sacrifices in order to gain any involvement. So we must ask, what do volunteers want? They are giving their time, a very precious commodity, so doing a few simple things for them will go a long way. So the least we can do is:

• Be prepared and organized
• Make them feel welcome
• Give them good training
• Make the work interesting
• Outline time parameters upfront
• Communicate effectively and efficiently
• Appreciate them and show it…

I find one of these points, in particular to be all encompassing. Look no further than “Appreciate Your Volunteers.” If you appreciate your volunteers, you will be prepared, you will respect their time, you will thank them, and most of all, they will want to work with your organization again and again. While you’re thinking about it, check out these 101 suggestions for appreciating your volunteers.

Maybe the key to inspiring motivation isn’t a call to action but a game of give and take. It’s not about the power of your words but the sincerity of your actions, and what you can give in return.

So how loud are your personal actions speaking to your volunteers?

One way you can show that appreciate the efforts of your volunteers is to amaze them with organization and efficiency. Start a 30 Day Free trial for MemberHub and get your nonprofit’s communication back on track.

From July 8-11, over 3,000 staff, volunteers and vendors converged on Salt Lake City, UT for the 4-day General Assembly of the YMCAs. It’s an event that is held every four years and the whole city was infused with the YMCA community. Literally everywhere you went, were signs of endorsement for the event. It was  expected to generate $3 million for Salt Lake County’s economy. By the looks of things I’d be surprised if they didn’t hit that number.

We were there as an exhibitor. At first I was a bit skeptical of the potential return on such an event, but as we looked closer we began to realize that this is the perfect opportunity for our company to share our success stories from working with the YMCA of the Triangle as well as speak with close to 3,000 Y staff and volunteers. I’m confident now that being there was the right thing to do.

Here are some observations from our time at the General Assembly:

1. The YMCA has Some Serious History

Saturday’s general session ended with the introduction of the Y’s new brand and new strategy, (culminating with a very bizarre rendition of U2′s Beautiful Day, I might add) but the morning started with the introduction of the 2010 inductees to the YMCA Hall of Fame. The list included such notable men and women as Ellen Brown, the first female YMCA staff employee and John D. Rockefeller Jr. The surprising thing to me was that each one of the 17 inductees was born in the 1800′s! It was powerful to learn about each inductee as they splashed the antique photos up on the ginormous LCD screen and shared stories about how these people contributed to the organization that has had such an impact on millions of lives in local communities for the past 160 years! It was moving.

2. What about the “C”?

“For the first time in 43 years, the YMCA unveiled a new brand strategy to increase understanding of the impact the nonprofit makes in communities.” The organization is now referred to as “The Y” and the new logo reflects this. It’s interesting that the foundational guiding beliefs and truths upon which the organization was built continue to take a back seat in the organization’s core message. It’s also unfortunate that a search for the YMCA turns up tons of images for the Village People.

3. YMCA is Missing the Boat on Social Media

The Y seems to be missing the potential of social media. They want to re-introduce themselves to America. They’ve already appeared on Good Morning America and they’ve got big plans for an all-out media blitz. That’s great! But in his presentation, Neil Nicoll, President and CEO of YMCA of the USA had no mention of using social media tools like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to help create the powerful networks that can so easily spread your message for you. Perhaps they do have a plan and we’ll be surprised, but I’ve done social media presentations for Y executives and spoke with a LOT of others during the conference. My general observation is that none of the Ys are doing social media right and they’re all looking at each other waiting for one of them to just nail it. It would be a real help if the YMCA of the USA had a strategy in place that all other Y’s could turn too.

4. YMCA Spirit is Hard to Ignore

As a child, did you ever attend a YMCA summer camp?  I did. I spent 5 summers at Camp Kanata, in North Carolina and I also participated in the Y Guides program (at that time it was called Indian Guides…needless to say that had to change). The child-like enthusiasm and magic that happened in those programs can be felt throughout all levels of the organization and it’s people. Whether it’s a seminar at the YMCA General Assembly or a fundraising meeting at a local Y, the staff and volunteers always know how to balance a proper amount of silliness and professionalism in such a way that it’s hard not to want to be part of what they’re doing.

5. The Y is Going to Grow Even Stronger

Regardless of any missing religious affiliation and lack of social media prowess, the YMCA is going to continue to grow. The work that they do in communities is a true blessing to millions around the world and this can no longer go unnoticed. They’ve done 2 years of research to figure out how the general public perceives the organization and compared that to it’s core principles. They’ve done their homework for the new strategy which focuses on Youth Development, Healthy Living and Social Responsibility.

As Neil Nicoll said, “The Y is more than just a place for a gym and a swim.” It always has been and it will continue to be. Now they just need to remind the world who they are. The proof is already there! It is a blessing for us to be able to serve them!

Were you there? What did you take away? What do you think about the Y’s new strategy and logo?

Last week we exhibited at NTEN’s annual technology conference in Atlanta. This was our first year attending the event and we didn’t know what to expect. As a vendor, our expectations were far exceeded. Here are 5 things that we took away from our time with the #nptech folks!

1. Then NTEN folks make things happen.

Holly Ross and her team know how to get things done. That organization offers so many resources and opportunities to get plugged in and learn about technology. If you’re a nonprofit and not paying attention to this organization, you’re really missing out. But what I’m really suggesting here is that the NTEN folks are people of action. In my experience, many nonprofit people are passionate but fail to be people of action. But not the NTEN folks. From their ever expanding website to a 3-day power-packed conference that’s sold out in its second and third year of life, they get things done and people excited! So kudos to her team (special thanks Sarah Janczak for all her hard work on the vendor side of things).

2. Technology is the still the bastard child of the nonprofit budget.

That may sound a bit harsh, but sometimes you have to make outrageous claims when you’re blogging, right? Many nonprofits still seem to lack a sufficient amount of passion for technology excellence. That’s why NTEN rox! We met with several folks that were frustrated with their technology and IT initiatives. But the NTEN community is fueling a new initiative towards technology in the nonprofit world. That’s why people love NTEN! Which brings me to my next point.

3. There is some serious passion brewing around technology in the nonprofit world.

With any industry, there are always the techie’s. The folks that make things work and the ones that are always suggesting new software tools. NTEN is bringing these people together and really generating the buzz and attention that technology deserves. The people that we interacted with at the conference are passionate, exciting people that see the REAL benefits in technology. The nonprofit world is going to be a better place because of these nptech’ers and their goal of making technology a first class citizen in the nonprofit sector.

4. NTEN’ers know how to have a good time!

Just following the twitter hashtag (#10ntc) alone is proof.

5. I’m relatively tall.

It’s always nice meeting people in real life that you connect with online. Isn’t it weird? There were two people that I was looking forward to meeting at the conference. Steve Heye and Peter Campbell (including the idealware team). Well we ended up right beside the idealware booth; which worked to our advantage because they were one of the busiest booths at the conference. I had always envisioned Steve and Peter, these nptech giants :), to be taller than me. I’m always the short guy, but not this time!

All in all, it was a great experience for the MemberHub team to be down there. Our primary market has been faith-based organizations (mainly churches) but after working with the likes of the YMCA of the Triangle, a few other local nonprofits and attending the NTEN Conference, we’re excited about continuing to serve the nonprofit community.

Already looking forward to #11ntc! Thanks again NTEN.

This may seem a little crazy at first, but I wonder, should churches and nonprofits buy Facebook ads? Our business has been running some ads on Facebook and finding some great success. It’s easy, hyper-targeted and based on demographic information in your Facebook profile. So I started to wonder if I should share my experience with creating Facebook Ads..and we will, in another post. But for now, I’m wondering what would it look like for a church to be “advertising” on Facebook? Why would a church ever do that?

I’m sure this topic has been debated somewhere on the Internet before (although a quick search didn’t reveal anything fascinating) but I think it’s brilliant. Why not pay for clicks on Ads in Facebook? Why not target people in specific zip code and draw attention to your organization…to your ministries, events, message…your website. Think about it, I bet for roughly $1/click you could have your specific message being place on Facebook and reaching folks right where they are: Facebook. You could have literally millions of impressions and pay for only 5 clicks a day. Would it be worth it?

• Would it increase the likelihood of that one guy that drives by your church everyday to actually show up one Sunday?
• Would it increase the participation in a local outreach event? Think service project or Good Friday festival!
• Would it bring recognition to your organization on a local level that may ultimately lead to serving the community on a greater level?

I think so. I think it’s worth a try. Have you ever considered this? What churches and nonprofits are doing this and finding success? Leave some links to interesting posts or thoughts below!

(Note: The image above was produced by Church Ad Project. Check them out: http://www.churchad.com)

Beginning at the time of this post until Friday, September 11, 2009 at 12:00 noon you will have the opportunity to receive a free one year subscription to MemberHub for your nonprofit. Simply tweet or retweet the following phrase:

Follow @memberhub and RT this to win a free 1 year subscription for your #nonprofit

Every year, the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits holds an annual conference where folks can share ideas and solutions that strengthen the nonprofit sector. Here’s a quote from their website:

“Now more than ever, nonprofits need to gather to exchange ideas, look at opportunities to collaborate and network with peers.”

Not only do nonprofits need to do this at the conference, the members and the constituents inside your nonprofit need to do this on a daily basis. Perhaps the most important thing you can do to help ensure the resilience of your cause is to ensure that your members, groups and committees are well organized and collaborating. MemberHub can help with this. This is why we want to provide the nonprofit sector an opportunity to use our software for an entire year…free of charge.

In conjunction with the start of the annual conference we’ll be running this Twitter contest to raise awareness of our product in the nonprofit sector. We want to form solid relationships that will help our team build an even more valuable tool for nonprofits.

Rules:

• You must be a 501(c)(3) organization to qualify
• The winner will be announced on Monday, September 14th
• The winner will be sent a DM so be sure to follow @memberhub
• New customers are only eligible
• We will randomly select a winner using http://tweetaways.com
• Winner can choose a Platinum, Gold or Silver package based on their current needs

I was recently speaking with a colleague (who happens to be an avid MemberHub user) that works with many nonprofits and he revealed to me one of the hidden values in collaboration software.

Kevin was telling me that one of the common challenges in nonprofits is bringing on a new board member, or any member for that matter, and bringing that person “up to speed”. There is often a great deal of information to cover including documents to be read, conversations to take place and general history.

Recently, one of the nonprofits that he works with brought on a new board member and instead of spending a day talking or explaining discussions and opinions of various members, Kevin realized that he could just point the new board member to their MemberHub account. Because the nonprofit groups had funneled communications and collaboration through their hubs, the new board member spent a day reading discussions that had taken place through the hub, downloading and reading documents, browsing the calendar and checking out the profiles of various members. Instead of taking a day of someone else’s time the new board member was able to join the hub and the history was all there!

After Kevin finished telling me this, he turned to me and said, “Now that’s real value.”. That’s what I’m talking about.

So what is your nonprofit using for collaborative technology? Do you see the value and need for it?