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Nonprofit Jedi Training

October 18, 2010 by Ted Fickes Leave a Comment

I recently came across a post by Robert Richman called My Zappos Jedi Training. Robert works with ZapposInsights and does a lot of thinking and work around organizational culture.

But we’re not just talking about “organizational culture” in the standard, canned human resources department orientation way but rather organizational culture that is broad and deep: a culture in which everyone involved lives a shared mission inside and outside the organization.

When I mention Zappos you probably get a sense of where this is headed. As you may know, Zappos is regarded as a leader in changing the way organizational culture works from the ground up. Zappos is a company built around great customer service in which customers and employees are all treated well. Zappos’ CEO, Tony Hsieh, has gone so far as to write a book called Delivering Happiness. We’ll get back to just what Zappos does later, perhaps, or you can read Richman’s post.

So Richman writes a post about Zappos’ organizational culture and the training involved. Zappos is a for-profit company known for mission-driven culture. Yes. For-profit and mission-driven.

While I think we hear a lot about nonprofit organizations being mission-driven I don’t have experience being in/around or hearing about nonprofits that come anywhere close to a mission-driven culture of kindness that seems to be what Zappos believes is at the core of its success at (of all things) selling shoes (and lots of other clothing these days).

It can be hard to get a job anywhere today but it has always been exceptionally tough to get one at Zappos. And once you do they will offer you a bonus to quit (not to stay but to quit). They want people that not just want to be there but love it.

Every new Zappos employee goes through the same training process. It is a process that isn’t about corporate HR policies and benefits but is more akin to a leadership retreat. The goal is to instill a shared and honest confidence around the way in which staff treat one another and their clients or customers.

Have you seen something similar in a nonprofit? What if everyone that came into an organization was immersed in the same week-long high-touch immersion that focused on creating a common language for interacting with people, members, donors, subscribers as well as the ‘core priniciples’ of the organization.

What if we focused on the passion of the mission and conveying the depth and quality of that passion in every interaction our staff has with people inside, outside, online, in person, during work and after hours?

If an organization’s mission statement talks about inspiration then inspiration shouldn’t be just a word in a mission statement. It needs to be a way of living that is reflected in the way people talk, think, write, interact. No matter your work or mission, the people in and around the organization are its ambassadors. Word of mouth starts there. Staff need to be clear, focused and wildly passionate if they hope to see others carrying the message to friends, family and others.

We have some ideas about creating and fostering meaningful organizational culture in nonprofits to share later. I’d love to hear your comments and examples of ways in which organizations are creating deep, strong culture.

Filed Under: Kick Ass Blog, Kicking Ass, Mission

Kicking Ass

October 17, 2010 by brightplus3 Leave a Comment

If you are the executive director of a noprofit organization, in our view your job is really pretty simple: empower and enable your employees and volunteers to kick ass.  Your job is to deliver to your team the resources they need and to eliminate the friction that gets in their way.  You are part coach (push and inspire), part quartermaster (make sure they have what they need), and part supervisor (hold them accountable).  And we believe that many executive directors, and the nonprofits they serve, while many do amazing and amazingly important work, can do more and better than they do now.

We take our inspiration partly from Jim Collins’ research on what makes organizations – regardless of the sector – great. We are motivated by bloggers and authors like Beth Kanter and Allison Fine, who are helping to light a path for nonprofits through the muddle and excitement that is social networking.  We get very jazzed about the enthusiasm and insight that technology evangelists and curators like Robert Scoble are bringing to mission of finding the coolest people in the world of emerging technology doing the coolest things.  And – having racked up a few decades of nonprofit work between us – we are fueled by the nonprofit organizations themselves and the characteristically impassioned commitment to solving problems and making good things happen.

Filed Under: Kick Ass Blog, Kicking Ass

Online Fundrasing Report: Sorting the Tea Leaves

March 24, 2009 by Ted Fickes 1 Comment

Chances are, if you have an email account (and if you don’t it’s hard to imagine you’re reading this) then you have received, oh, at least a couple messages from non-profits today that involve a donation request. Maybe you opened one. Perhaps, if it is a group or cause that touches your heart or just happens to have a crazy interesting pitch, you gave.

A recent New York Times article discussed a report from Target Analytics (a division of Blackbaud) that looks at online fundraising results over time in several large non-profit organizations. The report is worth a look for non-profit leaders and fundraisers.

The highlight of the report seems to be advertised as this: online donors might give more the first time around but aren’t so loyal (and seem to give via direct mail later on).

For folks that have thought about the generational differences between online and offline donors – or knows that organizations are busy sending mail to online donors but don’t know how to move mail donors online – the report might not be surprising.

But what is there that sheds light on some of the important strategic decisions that need to be made?

[Read more…] about Online Fundrasing Report: Sorting the Tea Leaves

Filed Under: Online Fundraising Tagged With: Fundraising

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