Nonprofit Literature Blog

Social Enterprise Advice For Nonprofits

How can your nonprofit use social enterprise methods to tackle society's intractable problems?  Two recently published titles available at Foundation Center libraries will help you get started: The Nonprofit Guide to Social Enterprise: Show Me the (Unrestricted) Money! (CharityChannel Press, 2014) and The Social Entrepreneur's Playbook: Pressure Test, Launch and Scale Your Enterprise (Wharton, 2013).

Let's start with The Nonprofit Guide. This "In The Trenches" handbook starts with a general overview of social enterprise, but its real focus is helping you figure out how to launch an earned income venture. Authors Jean Block and Niki Nicastro McCuistion offer detailed instructions, worksheets, and other tips that you can use as a blueprint for such a venture. In particular,  Chapters 7, 8, and 9 can help you develop your sales plan, figure out pricing and costs, and write your business plan.

A sales plan identifies a target market (say, single mothers) establishes a market position (this can vary, from a high end program, to a low cost-low budget program that needs high sales volume), and the price of the venture. One warning: you can't assume that customer will pay for your services just because you are a nonprofit. The service or product you offer MUST but as good or better than what is offered by a for-profit.

The business plan, on the other hand, is the final step to the social enterprise process that will keep you on track, and give you benchmarks to achieve. The Nonprofit Guide provides a blank template as well as a sample plan, but you can also use the resources listed in the GrantSpace Knowledge Base article "How do I write a business plan for a nonprofit organization?"

Ian MacMillan and James D. Thompson's Social Entrepreneur's Playbook takes a similar approach, covering all phases of creating a social enterprise (both for- and nonprofit) from start-up to launching. I should note that the advice offered is largely the result of crowdsourced feedback to a free ebook the authors published on the first phase of testing a social enterprise start-up idea.

One section that goes beyond what is offered in The Nonprofit Guide is a discussion on how to scale up your operations once successful. There are two options: the first is the "cookie-cutter approach," where you replicate your operation in another geographic region. The second option is expanding your core operations to support the growing demand for your services.

The discussion on scaling also examines the challenges of success and hazards of visibility, such as aggressive competition or increased attention from authorities. Some responses to these threats are illuminated through the work of Zambia Feeds, a social enterprise working to combat malnutrition in Africa. When the founder of Zambia Feeds discovered she had attracted the attention of larger competitors, she immediately engaged with partners and consultants to identify cost-reduction possibilities should a pricing war develop. Her fast action was successful, and ended up creating a  lower cost structure so her venture could continue to operate and thrive.

So, if your plan is to expand the revenue base for your existing nonprofit organization or start a new social enterprise, it's well worth your while to check out this two titles. They are both shelved in section 733 in the library. Even more resources can be found in the GrantSpace Knowledge Base article "What is social enterprise?"

--Rob Bruno
Foundation Center--New York

Smart Chart 3.0: Nonprofit Strategic Communications Guide

(Reposted from the GrantCraft blog)

A new resource has been added to the GrantCraft knowledge center! Smart Chart 3.0^® is a planning tool, designed by Spitfire Strategies, to aid nonprofits in developing strategic communications plans. The tool is also useful for funders in developing their own communications strategies and in their collaboration with grantees. Smart Chart is particularly useful for project managers without a formal communications background, and in completing its step-by-step approach, users will come away with a focused communications strategy for their organization, initiative, or campaign.

Smart Chart takes users through six major strategic decision sections. The process challenges participants to think critically and concretely about their organization’s decision-making process, the context the program is operating in, and the intended target audience. Once those aspects are defined, the communications strategy begins to come together as participants develop a timeline and budget and define measures of success before testing the strategy in the final step. This resource is the organizational workbook to fill out, and the interactive format is available at www.smartchart.org.

Smart Chart was originally featured by GrantCraft in its Communicating for Impact  guide. Communicating for Impact provides further resources for funders interested in leveraging their communications strategy towards effective grantmaking.

The GrantCraft knowledge center is powered by IssueLab, a service of the Foundation Center. IssueLab serves as an online repository for knowledge on the social sector, providing thousands of case studies, evaluations, white papers, and issue briefs addressing some of the world’s most pressing social problems. And, like GrantCraft, it’s free.

Editors Note: This post was written by Davis Winslow, a new intern with GrantCraft at the Foundation Center.

The Brand IDEA: Managing Nonprofit Brands

Branding is mostly affiliated with for-profit businesses, and is often inseparable from their operations. What would McDonald's be without the golden arches?  Or Nike without the phrase "Just Do it"?  Of course, branding goes much deeper than a logo or simple catchphrase, but the ability for individuals to quickly understand the core mission of a particular organization through branding is vital to an organization’s success.

With this in mind, Nathalie Laidler-Kylander and Julia Shepard Stenzel  have developed a new framework for nonprofit branding in their book The Brand IDEA: Managing Nonprofit Brands with Integrity, Democracy, and Affinity. In it, they present a strategic, sector-based branding approach that is based on mission, values, and key partnerships, and also plays a role in internal organizational cohesion. In this blog I’ll point out a few highlights and list some additional books on branding available at the five Foundation Center offices.

“Brand has less to do with competitive advantage, and more to do with clarifying positioning, which can help collaboration and partnerships that enable the organization to implement its mission and maximize impact.”

In the introduction, the authors state that their goals are to introduce a new way of thinking about nonprofit brand, called the “nonprofit paradigm shift”; present a clearer understanding of what brand can do for nonprofits, outlined in the Role of Brand Cycle; and provide a framework for brand management through the Brand IDEA (Identity, Democracy, Ethics and Affinity).

In the new brand paradigm, “brand has less to do with competitive advantage, and more to do with clarifying positioning, which can help collaboration and partnerships that enable the organization to implement its mission and maximize impact.” Compare this to the old paradigm, which defines an organization through a logo, or communicates by a one-way projection of a specific image. Branding now has given way to defining an organization as a "strategic asset" and communicating through participative engagement.

Reading this book will give your nonprofit the ammunition it needs to participate in the new paradigm. Chapters five through seven discuss the IDEA framework; I won’t go into detail about the parts, but each aspect is thoroughly explained with numerous examples. One thing I learned is that branding is as much internal as external. In "Brand Democracy" (Chapter Six) Tom Scott, Director of Global Brand & Innovation at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation explains:

You have to get [branding] right internally because you will never get it right externally if you don’t. Your employees are brand ambassadors. The biggest challenge is really embedding the idea of brand internally. We want to help people understand and give employees the right kind of tool kit and information to make better decisions about how to use the foundation's voice and assets that will lead to a more open brand.

The final part of the book is devoted to implementing the Brand IDEA at your nonprofit. This endeavor “is less about creating a cool new logo or costly advertising campaign, and more about developing a shared internal brand identity, [and] building brand integrity through brand democracy.” One interesting suggestion to nonprofits is to “decentralize responsibility for brand communications.” At Save the Redwoods League, a nonprofit in San Francisco concerned with forest conservation, Director of Outreach Jennifer Benito-Kowalski describes how strong branding encourages creativity in communications and marketing. When staff want to try new things, she just tells them that “you know our brand” and to just “Go for it!”

Probably the best takeaway can be found on the next-to-last page, and it sounds like a mantra: "Knowing who you are, what you do, and why this matters can help nonprofits gain the clarity and focus that translates into effective action."

The Brand IDEA has an extensive bibliography as well as a complete list of all the nonprofits that were cited or interviewed. Other related books available at Foundation Center libraries include Uprising: How to Build a Brand--And Change the World--By Sparking Cultural Movements, which focuses more on social movement branding, and Connected Causes: Online Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations, which describes an online approach to brand building and is described in more detail in a previous blog post.  They are both in call number section 680 (marketing) on the shelf. 

-Rob Bruno
Catalog/Reference Librarian
Foundation Center, New York

Philanthropy and the Social Economy: Blueprint 2014

Released last week, Philanthropy and the Social Economy: Blueprint 2014 is the latest annual forecast of the philanthropy industry. Philanthropy wonk Lucy Bernholz (@p2173), writes on a wide range of topics, including European vs. American philanthropy, digital civil society, key buzzwords of 2013, and predictions for next year. 

Europe vs. America

In "Expanding My Horizons" Bernholz examines the social economy of Europe and what distinguishes it from the U.S. One thing she points out is that the European social economy puts more of an "emphasis on values and governance practices, not on sectors." She also tells us that the category of social welfare organizations ("political nonprofits", or 501(c)(4s)) most clearly differentiate the two economies, and she even boldly predicts in her 2014 Wildcards that these will be split out of the 501(c) tax code and be subject solely to Federal Elections Commission regulation.

How Will the Social Economy Evolve to Meet the Needs of the Digital Civil Society?

Bernholz argues that the frame of the social economy more effectively "captures the full set of options for both donors and doers (entrepreneurs and organization execs)" than our traditional lens of nonprofits and philanthropy. A key part of this economy is the adoption of digital practices that "has the potential to change its root structures." 

She points out some independent efforts of digital evolution within the sector, including the Foundation Center's own new Foundation Directory Online Free search tool which provides full-text searching of IRS Form 990-PFs for nearly 90,000 foundations, as well as its partnership with Guidestar.  In the end, though, she tells us that we are all involved: "each time [we] take civil action with digital tools — texting donations, sharing videos, snapping and sharing photos of protests or movements — we invent digital civil society."

"Privacy" is This Year's Top Social Economy Buzzword

Privacy. Bernholz tell us that "Edward Snowden put it on the front pages...and our pervasive reliance on digital communications makes us all vulnerable." Other top buzzwords of 2013 include "Peer-to-Peer Services", another word for the sharing economy, "Makers" or the newfound interest in old-fashioned handmade goods, and "Bitcoin" the virtual currency popular with financial speculators and some nonprofits.

Could a Major Crowdfunding Scandal in 2014 Make Us Rethink Online Fundraising Platforms?

What will next year bring? Here are some of her predictions and wildcards for 2014:

• At least one major nonprofit/foundation infrastructure organization will close up.
• We will experience a major scandal in the crowdfunding marketplace.
• One winner of the Gates Foundation's Data Interoperability Grand Challenge will launch a widely used new product or service for social sector data by December 2014.
• New mobile money tools will make informal networks of people even more visible, viable, and important.
• Github will become a widely used, meaningful sharing platform for nonprofits.
• Americans and Europeans will make greater use of "personal privacy" protection services on the Internet, allowing them to control/own their own data.
• U.S. foundations will launch several new initiatives rooted in concerns about the polarized and paralyzed state of American democracy.

Wildcards (or, "Predictable Unpredictables")

• The American system will split social welfare organizations out of the nonprofit, 501(c) tax code.
• Proposals for moving oversight of American nonprofits out of the IRS and creating a new charities regulatory authority will come to pass.
• Benefit corporations and nonprofits will be on opposite sides of policy battles about tax privileges.
• A major natural disaster will set new fundraising records, begging the question "as these disasters become more predictable, will philanthropic responses change?"

Bernholz also examines her previous forecasts, acknowledging some that were right (the mainstreaming of crowdfunding) and some wrong (that the Affordable Care Act will lead to new community solutions). Finally, in "Glimpses of the Future" she examines the growth of "civic tech" movement where citizen techies are volunteering to improve city functions, and the "emerging ethics of data" that includes hypothetical scenarios which force us to think of the implications of data used for good that could possibly hurt or compromise the privacy of the very individuals it helps.

You may also want to read Bernholz's own highlight reel of Blueprint 2014 that was recently published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

--Rob Bruno
Foundation Center
New York, NY

"In the Trenches" Book Series for Nonprofit Staff

CharityChannel Press, which started publishing books for the nonprofit sector in 2010, specializes in handbooks for staff that are "in the trenches." Titles cover a variety of topics, from fundraising to governance to management, and are all written by nonprofit experts in that particular area. They are also known for their easy-to-read style.  

Here are short summaries of ten titles they published this year that you can find in Foundation Center libraries. Titles link to the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature so you can see library holdings.

Are You Ready for a Capital Campaign? Assessing Your Nonprofit's Ability to Run a Major Fundraising Campaign by Linda Lysakowski.
This workbook explores the difference between an annual and a capital campaign, and provides checklists to help lead staff, board members, and volunteers through the process of preparing for one. Chapters cover planning, donor and community relations, financial considerations, executive leadership, development staff, governance, volunteer roles, and how to proceed if you feel you are not prepared for a capital campaign.

Asking Styles: Harness Your Personal Fundraising Power by Andrea Kihlstedt.
This guidebook presents a system that helps fundraisers ask for gifts in the way that suits them best. The author describes four asking styles and explains how each can select prospects, get ready to ask, set up the meeting, and follow through. Back in July, Kihlstedt wrote a guest piece for us entitled Four Reasons Introverts Can Be Successful Fundraisers that is based on content from the book.

Fundraising Research Made Easy: a Practical Guide for Fundraisers by Meredith Hancks and Cara Rosson.
Guidebook explains how to make research an integral part of the fundraising process. Its primary focus is prospect research, but also covers foundation fundraising.

The Invisible Yellow Line: Clarifying Nonprofit Board and Staff Roles by Jean Block.
This manual helps clarify the distinct roles of nonprofit staff and board members in several key management functions. It includes an "invisible yellow line" test, as well as board member job descriptions and conflict of interest statements.

Moving Up to Executive Director: Lessons Learned From My First 365 Days by Joanne Oppelt.
Using her personal experience, the author provides advice and guidance on becoming an executive director at a nonprofit. She discusses preparing for the role, working with the board, financial management, fundraising, working with staff and volunteers, community relations, and work/life balance.

The Nonprofit Consulting Playbook: Winning Strategies From 25 Leaders in the Field edited by Susan Schaefer and Linda Lysakowski.
This book includes over 40 articles written by seasoned nonprofit consultants that convey advice on starting and growing a consulting business.

Power Your Organization's Fundraising: How the Partnership Paradigm Will Change Everything by Joanne Oppelt.
Oppelt uses a new partnership paradigm that can be used in designing a development plan for a nonprofit. She discusses how good communication and relationship-building skills can enhance fundraising activities, explains how to determine financial needs, and elaborates on "making the deal" with a focus on maintaining relationships with funders.

Prospect Research is a Verb: Fundraising is the Subject by Meredith Hancks.
This handbook describes how prospect researchers search through various types of information about individual donors and prospects. Sections cover researching foundational, or annual fund, prospects; how to identify major gift prospects; and preparation and research needed for the major gift ask.

Succeed in Your Nonprofit Funding Partnerships: Analyzing Their Costs and Benefits by Joanne Oppelt.
The manual provides assistance with fundraising accounting and financial management. It is intended for development managers or board members who need to budget effectively. Sections examine revenue generation, return on investments and profit margins, cash flow, and fundraising planning.

You and Your Nonprofit Board: Advice and Practical Tips from the Field's Top Practitioners, Researchers, and Provocateurs edited by Terrie Temkin.
A collection of articles by experts in the field of governance. They define governance and the roles deemed as essential, community engagement, nonprofit life cycles, the CEO relationship, board development, bylaws, meetings, and assessment.

--Rob Bruno
Catalog/Reference Librarian
Foundation Center
New York, NY

Global Fundraising and International Activities

Should your organization fundraise internationally?  What are the keys to a successful global operation?  These questions are answered in two recently published books by Wiley: How to be a Global Nonprofit: Legal and Practical Guidance for International Activities by Lisa Norton and Global Fundraising: How the World is Changing the Rules of Philanthropy by Penelope Cagney and Bernard Ross. I'll discuss highlights of each here.

Global Fundraising examines recent developments, trends, and histories of institutional and individual giving around the world. It's designed to "open the eyes of anyone who still thinks that fundraising and philanthropy are the prerogative of North Americans and Europeans alone."

Cagney and Ross start by introducing seven global megatrends in philanthropy. One trend indicates that nonprofit innovations are no longer coming just from the U.S. and Europe. In Argentina, for example, there are very high levels of online giving; and Ethiopia is seeing some of the largest mass participation events in the world. Another trend is that philanthropy seems to thrive best within codifed civil society structures and regulations for nonprofits. For example, the Arab Spring, while it has opened up many civil society structures, has not seen a positive impact on charity and an NGO's ability to operate due to lack of regulations.

Some other interesting sections include a chapter on China, which provides an historic review of the country's philanthropy, as well as descriptions of its nonprofit sector and fundraising practices. It also notes that China's boom in the first decade of the new millennium has created many new high-net-worth-individuals whose net assets exceed $1 million, pointing to a definite upward trend in giving. Unfortunately, barriers do exist for donors and fundraisers, as China's philanthropy infrastructure is still in a developmentmental stage.

Other chapters shed light on philanthropy and giving in Africa, which is not clearly understood in terms of patterns and motivations; and Latin America, where the potential for nonprofits working there is "enormous." You'll find similar analyses of giving in Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East, and India.

The second part of Global Fundraising looks at broader topics such as major donors, the use of social media, and innovation at nonprofits. It closes with case studies of the fundraising activities of international charity giants such as The Red Cross and Red Crescent, World Vision International, and BRAC. One major theme that is apparent throughout the volume is that "changes in the distribution of wealth in the world will continue. If charities want to raise more funds for their missions, they are going to need to invest in fundraising in new countries."

How to be a Global Nonprofit, on the other hand, is intended for U.S.-based nonprofits that operate and/or fund non-U.S.programs. It is replete with case studies that illustrate the ways these organizations (both large and small) have approached entering the international arena, and how they deal with legal and practical issues.

The book is an excellent introduction to the subject of global operations. A “spectrum of international activities” shows how a single charitable purpose (e.g. assisting orphans in foreign countries) can be addressed in multiple ways: by making grants through a foreign intermediary, making grants directly to foreign programs, operating a program in another country, and raising funds outside of the U.S.

Of specific interest to Foundation Center users is grantmaking. Norton devotes chapters to both grantmaking public charities and foundations, where she outlines basic rules, explains how to develop objective grantee selection criteria, and discusses other considerations like American friends of organizations, donor-advised funds, cross-border program-related investments, and anti-terrorism compliance.

Succeeding chapters cover forming/operating through a foreign entity, staffing foreign operations with employees and volunteers, and even raising funds globally—this chapter provides some legal considerations that are not included in the aforementioned Global Fundraising.

Norton ends with a case study of Half the Sky Foundation, which became a global nonprofit within just 13 years, and uses its evolution to highlight major themes of the book. Her advice to organizations launching into a foreign country? “Do your homework. Develop local relationships. Find a good lawyer in the country. Work with legal advisors. Put the right policies and procedures in place.”

For more resources, visit GrantSpace's Resources for Non-U.S. Grantseekers, which also include tips for U.S. based nonprofits operating internationally.

--Rob Bruno
Catalog/Reference Librarian
The Foundation Center--New York

New BoardSource Books: Board Chairs and Dashboards

BoardSource, the "premier voice of nonprofit governance," has recently published new editions of its Board Chair Handbook and Nonprofit Dashboard. I'll discuss highlights here and link to additional print and online resources. Both books are available at Foundation Center libraries.

The third edition of the Board Chair Handbook by Mindy Werthheimer is intended for current or prospective board chairs interested in carrying out their duties more effectively. The first part of the book explains how the chair can build his/her individual capacity by taking inventory of knowledge and skills, applying them to the board chair role, and creating one's own "personal support system." Succeeding chapters discuss how the chair can optimize the board's work, and also delve into future considerations such as succession planning and leaving a legacy.

One interesting new feature is the appendix "Collective Inquiry: Creating a Learning Community." This section outlines a leadership development model for using this handbook to create a peer-to-peer learning community of board chairs, complete with sample agendas and questions.

Here are some more similar, recommended governance publications published by BoardSource and available at the Foundation Center:

• Board Fundamentals: Understanding Roles in Nonprofit Governance
• Govern More, Manage Less: Harnessing the Power of Your Nonprofit Board
• The Nonprofit Board Answer Book: A Practical Guide for Board Members and Chief Executives

In the second edition of The Nonprofit Dashboard: Using Metrics to Drive Mission Success, Lawrence Butler explains how to create and use dashboards to keep tabs on the overall health of a nonprofit.

What are dashboards? Simply put, they are "user friendly tools for displaying performance measures." Butler discusses the dashboard's role in a nonprofit's planning and evaluation, suggests metrics to use in them, and explains how to design one.

As dashboards are largely visual tools, I found it helpful that he included numerous color figures that can aid the reader in creating an effective, easy-to-read dashboard layout. One excellent example is a sample Monthly Status Report for an art museum that clearly displays data trends for budget, income, visitors, and public support.

Butler also shares some web sites that help with dashboard development and program evaluation:

• Excel Dashboards at Chandoo.org: tutorials, templates, and examples.
• Data-to-Dashboard: blogs, visualizations, and software.
• Theory of Change: helps in the design and evaluation of social change initiatives.

For more resources, check out GrantSpace's Knowledge Base Articles on boards and program evaluation.

--Rob Bruno
Catalog/Reference Librarian
Foundation Center--NY