Nonprofit Spark - Renee McGivern

This week, I focus on planned giving and endowments. While the area of planned giving can get complicated fairly quickly, we hone in on the types of planned gifts that just about every nonprofit should encourage, especially once you have a stable annual giving program. My first guest is Phil Schumacher of Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation (http://www.gundluth.org/foundation) who has more than 25 years of fundraising experience. In addition to discussing planned gifts, we look at endowments, too, to help you think through whether encouraging such tightly restricted gifts is a good idea. Finally, I discovered Benchmark Email (http://www.benchmarkemail.com)which provides free e-newsletter services to PTAs and nonprofits that serve children and teens. I speak with Denise Keller, COO, about the We Care About Kids program and also, why e-newsletters are a great way to build relationships with your donors.

Want to create a powerful team? Or are you experiencing breakdowns with your team or board? Look to trust or the lack of it as the primary predictor of your team's outcomes. On this week's show, I speak with Dan Collins (http://www.freshtracks.co.uk), an expert on team building and co-author of the book, Trust Unwrapped (http://www.trustunwrapped.com). You'll gain a newfound appreciation of what it means to trust and be trusted. It's quite a profound conversation about a precious commodity required for successful teams and indeed, all relationships. I also speak with Lara Kilpatrick, director for advancement for Mount Madonna School (http://www.mountmadonnaschool.org)in northern California, who describes her experience working with a master coach, free of charge, through The Coach Initiative.

On this week's show, I speak with nonprofit sector innovator and author Dan Pallotta (http://www.danpallotta.com)who is challenging Americans' long-held beliefs about charities that he says constrain nonprofits from solving the problems of the world. Pallotta invented the multi-day AIDSRides and Breast Cancer 3-Days Walks, fundraisers that have gone on for so long now that we forget there was a time they didn’t exist. In the nine years his for-profit company ran these events, $581 million was raised, netting $305 million for those causes. Then critics began yelling about his company’s 40% administrative costs and participating charities reacted; they stopped working with his company and he had to close it down. The negative reaction to the administrative expenses despite the wild success of the fundraising events shocked Pallotta: What is it that would make nonprofit leaders, their boards and the public attack the success of raising $305 million over nine years to fight AIDS and breast cancer? His search for an answer formed the basis of his paradigm-busting book, Uncharitable: How Restraints On Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential (http://www.uncharitable.net/). Pallotta is now Founder and Chief Humanity Officer of Advertising for Humanity (http://advertisingforhumanity.com/), and he's the founder and president of the Charity Defense Council. He also blogs for the Harvard Business Review. Don't miss this candid, thought-provoking interview.

What's happening when everything feels like a struggle? Consider your organization could be naturally progressing from one stage of development to another. On this week's show, I speak to Judy Sharken Simon of MAP for Nonprofits (http://www.mapfornonprofits.org/)about her book, The Five Life Stages of Nonprofit Organizations: Where You Are, Where You're Going, and What to Expect When You Get There (http://www.amazon.com/Five-Life-Stages-Nonprofit-Organizations/dp/0940069229). She wrote this oldie but goodie to help staff and boards understand how they fit into the natural cycle of nonprofit life and also, to help them prepare for the next stage. My second guest is Dr. Robert Manzer, the chief operating office of the Texas Association of Nonprofit Organizations (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kwN_XjbeN8)(TANO). He describes a major capacity-building initiative focused on win-win internships for his members. He also describes what you need to do to ensure that interns do, indeed, build capacity in your organization.

What should an executive director or her board do when she's highly stressed, can't delegate, is burned out or lacks confidence? Hire a coach to help her devise solutions and put new behaviors into action. An executive who isn't happy can't be creative, supportive or fully productive and this impacts the nonprofit's overall performance. On this week's show, I talk to two highly skilled coaches who have helped leaders solve practical problems often in a very short time. Jill Sheldon of Open Road Coaching & Consulting (http://www.openroadcoaching.com), gives examples of how a coaching relationship works. Sandy Vilas, the volunteer board president of The Coach Initiative (http://www.coachinitiative.org), talks about the free 90-day coaching services for nonprofit leaders and teams that's available through The Coach Initiative. Vilas also is president of Coach University (http://www.coachinc.com), the world's largest training organization for personal and business coaches. Jill and Sandy make a convincing case for executive director coaching.

This show is designed to inspire you and it will involve both your ears and eyes as my second guest and I review an phenomenal photographic story about an orphanage in Transylvania (http://photophilanthropy.org/gallery-posts/orphanage-in-transylvania/). My two guests work for PhotoPhilanthropy (http://www.photophilanthropy.org), a two-year old nonprofit that brings together professional photographers and nonprofits with the intention of causing social change through photographic storytelling. The organization believes in people's interest in knowing more, in understanding better, in seeing the story, which can lead to action and involvement. My first guest is Nancy Cole, the executive director. She provides great information about this nonprofit start-up. Then I speak with Kathleen Hennessy, the director of the Activist Awards for PhotoPhilanthropy. We discuss the orphanage photos and what makes them so powerful. You'll be moved and inspired to create something similar for your nonprofit.