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Aug 1, 02:53 am: Hamburger Helper, well, helps

I received an email from Jess Pieciul at Hamburger Helper. She writes:

“My Hometown Helper” helps local groups make a difference in their own community. Imagine seeding a community garden, putting a new scoreboard up at the local high school baseball field, re-stocking a small town library with new/additional books. You can apply online at www.myhometownhelper.com for a one-time grant from $500 to $15,000 to help fund a project.

My goal is to tell as many people as possible about this opportunity to help their community. I thought you might be interested, or willing to help. This time, submissions can be entered from August 1st to September 30th.

Follow the link and see if it can help you.

tagged: hamburgerhelper, npo, grants, hometownhelper, nptech

Sep 13, 02:10 pm: Hamburger Helper cooks up grants

I’m passing this along without checking into it (it’ll just sit in my inbox for the rest of the week if I wait) and without comment.

I received an email from Melanie Seasons of HASS MS&L with the following:

Every month through May 2007, Hamburger Helper will choose one 501©(4) organization for a monetary grant of up to $15,000. All the group has to do is to register online with www.myhometownhelper.com and complete an essay of two hundred and fifty words or less describing how they the need help.

All of the application information can be found here.

tagged: hamburgerhelper, hometownhelper, nonprofit, grants, funds

Aug 28, 03:37 pm: Philanthropy is an industrial model

You know, where we know the outcome. That’s how nonprofits are asked to write grants, yes? We’re asked to explain what we’re going to do. And explain what the outputs and outcomes are going to be.

Dead model, people.

Based on assembly lines and needing know exactly what the car or tractor coming off the other side is going to look like.

We need to move philanthropy to a strong and confident positon of “I don’t know.”

I don’t know what the outcomes are going to be but these are the ones I want.

I want to measure and change and measure and change.

I want to talk to the people I’m serving — our constituents and funders the whole way through. So that we can make and change and make and change to meet the real needs we’re seeing.

We aren’t going to get to any kind of social network philanthropy until we can start talking about the things we don’t know.

tagged: philanthropy, change, model, industrial

Jan 26, 05:21 am: Just in case you're looking for a job

“Commongood Careers (formerly NewSource) is a nonprofit search firm that connects highly skilled, passionate individuals to organizations that are dedicated to creating positive social change. Founded by nonprofit professionals, Commongood Careers offers personalized, engaged support to jobseekers and organizations throughout the hiring process, as well as access to a wealth of knowledge about nonprofit careers.”

Or, you know, if you looking to hire.

technorati tags: jobs, nptech , nonprofit, recruit

Sep 27, 04:15 pm: Creating Passionate Users: "Dignity is deadly." - Paul Graham

Terrific post on Creating Passionate Users today (Actually, terrific posts most days. Read it if you aren’t). This particular terrific post recounts a talk by “Paul Graham::http://www.paulgraham.com/index.html and what companies lose as they grow up and put on a suit and tie. Here’s a sample:

Why do we go from the business equivalent of the unruly-but-creative teenager to a stuffy parent? Can’t we be something in-between? Why not the motivated, fun, creative 30-year old? (I’m not being ageist here—this is a metaphor). If we’re forced into becoming the “parent”, why can’t we at least be the cool parent from down the street? And by “cool”, I mean the truly cool, not cool simply because they supplied the beer. (The 37 Signals folks always have a lot to say on this “stay small and act like a start-up” approach as well)

The same applies to nonprofits? How do we encourage an attitude that takes risky because we’re hungry?

Sep 16, 06:16 pm: Know an events manager?

We’re looking for one.

tagged: job, eventmanager, sanfrancisco

Jul 16, 09:03 pm: [Alliance]Understanding and Building Technology Capacity for Nonprofits

Presenters:

• Kay Sohl
  Executive Director
  TACS
• Patrick McWhorter
  Executive Director
  NPower Arizona

  Notes:

• As people introduced themselves, I noticed, what seemed, like a fair number (5 or so) of small local foundations who were interested in developing reasonable technology capacity programs.
• Also, people wanted to understand how non-technology saavy people can manage tech staff and know that what that tech staff is doing is the right thing.

Kay

• described “typical” nonprofit tech scenario
  • struggle to find funds to meet technology planning goals
  • people who did not have insight into the organization put in charge of technology
• TACS trying to bring what they know about OD into their technology consulting work
• changing tech in an organization creates chaos
  • must have a way to try and manage that chaos
  • as such, must work with someone who has a comprehensive view of the organization and the ability and authority to make decisions at a high level
• “technology isn’t a miracle…[change]happens when people change their behaviors and begin to systematically examine their work.”
• understood that service small to mid-sized nonprofits would value the most is scheduled support
  • helps organization to maintain their systems
  • person becomes “the place where people in the organization can go and say ‘Isn’t there a better way to do this?’”
• call to help influence governmental funders around new resources that are coming available
  • HMIS requirement (federal manadate) for states to put in a electronic client management system
  • opportunity because of ASP that meet their needs
  • engage in own state’s effort around 211
    • 211s are going to go to web-based access
    • potential for social service organizations to free up resources because they will simply be more accessible
    • will be a reason that social service organizations need technology—can’t afford not to have working technology.
    • orgs will need the help of service providers to get there

Patrick:

• market segments

1. Tech Saavy organization:
   • invested in technology,
   • stable,
   • thinking creatively around technology
2. non-profit preferred
   • want to be sure they are working with providers that understand the unique the nonprofit environment
   • wants consutlants to understand what they do as a nonprofit
   • tend to be on the tech saavy side or able to get there quickly
3. tech constrained
   • orgs for which scheduled support is an ideal way to get started
   • not necessarily a small organization
   • have an accidental techie
   • just make this stuff run and take care of the basics
   • challenge—how do you build an understanding of technology to help them make decisions?
4. training only
   • just want to understand how to use what they have
   • not really looking to do much beyond what they have
• levels of technology
5. infrastructure
   • desktop,
   • network,
   • Internet access,
   • email,
   • website,
   • financial management,
   • donor management
6. Integration with service delivery
   • transform the way you can actually deliver your services
   • moving into this level is a key thing when you getting orgs to think about their technology
7. Innovation
   • everybody isn’t ready for this layer
   • isn’t necessarily about nonprofits being at the bleeding edge of technology
   • no one should expect nonprofits to be at the edge; it’s too risky; nonprofits should play catch-up
   • deliver something in a new way that wasn’t possible without information technology
   • a lot of this innovation is the result of collaborative efforts

Q&A section:

q. About the internet service delivery model (ASP), where are nonprofits w/ that?
a. there is some. Servicepoint. Some, like Servicepoint, are showing that this is possible. However, there are still a lot of failure (such as accounting packages). These still don’t give you the person in your organization who can think clearly about data and how to use it.
—talked about putting Internet connections into low income developments. Pointed to One Economy and the beehive(a complete cataloguing of resources of value to low-income people).
—general discussion that technology plans need to be reviewed by an OD consultant—does it look like you have talked to the right people; does it look like you have framed this in a way that will help the organizations understand that they should take this on
—advocated role for MSO in a local area to vet consultants on TechFinder (is this a way to solve that problem? only if we make this database results available to MSOs and then give them an opportunity to deliver feedback to the stream.

Jul 16, 12:19 pm: [Alliance]Building Advocacy Campaigns: Beyond the Usual Strategies

Presenters:

• Erica Greeley
  Director of Strategic Policy Planning
  National Council of Nonprofit Associations
• Mauricio Vivero
  The Vivero Group

  Notes:

  Erica:

• Building a constituency:
  • create an ongoing system for exchanging information
  • broadly share information within your own organization
  • must build relationship before you need them
• “It’s a political game—if you’re playing to win, you have to play that game.”
• Give the opposition opportunities to act proactively
  • Example, corporation have an opportunity to issue a recall and fix devices before a consumer group starts a smear campaign
• Consider administrative advocacy
  • regulations can be an effective way to achieve change
  • can be easier to get change than getting Congress to vote something into law
• Do the home for the representatives you want on your side
• Cell phones, text messaging changed a lot of things
  • allows for real time campaign
  • move individuals to critical sites quickly
  • private communications (unlike a bullhorn)
• Have constituents speak for themselves
  • their voices can be very impactful
• Reference to Social Marketing Model

Mauricio:

• Do your homework on the people/groups that are key decision-makers
• “A member of congress is your best lobbyist.”
  • they can take messages to their peers
• Commission a question on a poll that’s already in the field
  • Gallup and others will add a question to a poll that is already in the field for only a few hundred dollars. This can be a good way to get some public opinion and make news
• Clicking a button to send an email doesn’t work because of the email flooding
  • email must be personal
  • [from the room, a congressional staffer] checked subject lines, if they were all the same, he counted the message but didn’t read them; only read things that looked unique and like they were sent by a real person who made an effort to create the message
• Build phone banks
  • 25 calls on one issue in a single day and the Congress person will have something on their desk by the next morning
• Make yourself available to help their constituents
  • call up a representative (at federal, state or local level) and offer them help
  • tell them to refer constituents to you if they have an issue in your area
  • at the end of a year, send a wrap up letter that says, We were pleased to help 184 of your constituents.

Jul 16, 12:00 pm: [Alliance]Evaluating Advocacy Impact and Building Organizational Capacity

Presenters:

• Sheri Brady
  Director of Policy
  W.K. Kellogg Foundation
• Gita Gulati-Partee
  Senior Consultant
  Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest
• Nancy Kopf
  Evaluation Consultant
  Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest

  Notes:

  Gita:

• Purpose of the session was to get participants thinking about levels of change along the road to policy change and not just the policy change itself.
• Policy change in North Carolina takes an average of three years

Nancy:

• Logic model (many alternate names) describes change over time; a full logic model takes into account resources, activities, and strategies needed to achieve change
• Can only evaluate short term, intermediate term outcomes. Sometimes, especially for intermediaries, long term outcomes can be very difficult to measure or get to.
• referenced Doug Nelson from the Annie E. Casey Foundation
  • influence and leverage are important to measure and stepping stones on the way to policy change
• denigrate non-policy measures/outcomes and so don’t focus on them
• ”...need to change the way we talk about outcomes to honor the things that are close in and contribute to change over time.”

Sheri:

• Funders struggle with this, too.
• Evaluating advocacy requires an understanding of what’s required to do advocacy.
• Typical scenario:
  • identify the long term goal: we want a law on the books.
  • must identify the several steps that get you to change and evaluate those small steps as well.
  • fit the method of evaluation to the type of advocacy you are doing.

[small group work]

Nancy:

• tell the story in a way that highlights change

from room:

• Diverse advocacy groups impacts influence by being able to credibly and relevantly take the message to a wide variety of constituents.

Key resources: Investing in Change: A Funder’s Guide to Supporting Advocacy

Jul 14, 08:49 pm: In Chicago

At the Alliance for Nonprofit management conference. If you’re here, please say hi.