Nonprofit Bridge

When I first joined the nonprofit sector, I thought having a good working relationship with the Executive Director would insure my success with an organization.  Little did I realize the major role that a nonprofit organization’s board plays in guiding its direction.  At my current job, when the CEO left over a year ago and wasn’t replaced until six months later, the board was heavily involved in managing day to day decisions as well as longer term strategic planning.

BoardnetUSA, a web site sponsored by the Volunteer Consulting Group, provides a way for those interested in serving on a board to find organizations that are searching for new board members.  Other sites focused on nonprofit boards are BoardSource and BoardCafe.

The NonProfit Times also recently highlighted the book, Building Better Boards which described five types of boards:

1. passive – the traditional model where the board’s activity and participation is limited
2. certifying – board certifies to stakeholders that the organization is being managed properly
3. engaged – board partners with the CEO and oversees CEO & organization performance
4. intervening – deeply involved in key decisions – most common during crises
5. operating – deepest level of involvement – board makes key decisions and management implements them

It’s important that potential board members have a good understanding of what their role will involve before accepting the important responsibility of serving on a nonprofit board.

Laura Quinn, Director of Idealware has released a valuable analysis on three approaches to data integration.  Her site provides articles which help nonprofits decide what software to choose.  Integrating data between different systems is always a sticky challenge, as I’ve experienced in my current role at the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation as we’ve attempted to integrate our financial, offline fundraising and online fundraising systems.  Laura’s article is a clear summary of integration options.

There is a nice summary in the Wall Street Journal today on online backup programs.  It’s amazing to me how many organizations don’t get serious about data backup until after they’ve had a major loss or scare.  Online backup is a nice option assuming you have a high speed Internet connection and you’ve properly configured the program to backup your important data files.  I currently use the free version of Mozy which can back up 2 GB;  the paid version only costs $5/month and provides unlimited storage.  Definitely a nice alternative to tape backup.  (11/4/08 I now use Carbonite.)

Whatever backup system you select, make sure you test it.  Don’t wait until a disaster happens to find out that it isn’t working as you thought.

Just finished a fascinating book about other books entitled You’ve Got to Read This Book, edited by Jack Canfield (originator of the Chicken Soup series) and Gay Hendricks.  As you can guess, it’s about stories of books that have changed people’s lives.  A sampling of titles is below:

• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles
• A Guide for the Perplexed by E.F. Schumacher
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel
• The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz
• The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
• Learning to Love Yourself by Gay Hendricks
• The Cluetrain Manifesto by Rick Levine, Chrisopher Locke, Doc Searls & David Weinberger
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

There is also a web site that promotes the book, as well as offering a chance to share your own favorites.

I’ve always felt that many people stop reading when they finish school.  Reading these stories reminded me just how powerful a book can be throughout your life.

GetActive, NetSquared and Squidoo have combined to put together a list of the 59 Smartest Organizations Online, nonprofit organizations that are using the latest technologies to engage their constituents.  There are undoubtedly many NPOs that will be familiar to you, but many that were completely new to me.  Squidoo was created by Seth Godin, who has authored several fascinating books, such as Purple Cow.

Listened to an NTen sponsored call today with Sheeraz Haji and Tom Krackeler of GetActive and Gene Austin and Dave Crooke of Convio.  Both companies seemed very optimistic about their planned merger which will aim to take the best from both companies, e.g. online fundraising from Convio and advocacy / CMS from GetActive.  Time will tell how things will play out as current customers learn more about migration.

Meanwhile, the issue of how to connect data in different systems was squarely addressed in a comprehensive report on Open APIs by Michelle Murrain and Katrin Verclas, available free from NTen.  At my current organization, we’re struggling with two separate integration projects, one which involves two products from the same company.  Open APIs are important because then you don’t necessarily have to get everything from the same vendor.  While Convio & GetActive will make a good try, it’s hard for any one company to offer the best of breed for many different applications.

Ramon Ray, editor of the Small Business Technology Report, is sponsoring the Small Business Summit in NYC on February 13.  It’s a great opportunity to learn from some technical experts as well as catch up on networking.  He has graciously given me a limited number of free tickets for the event.  For more information, please contact me.

Five years after the release of Windows XP, its successor Windows Vista has finally arrived.  Does anyone care?  Of course it will come as default on new machines, but otherwise is there any real reason to upgrade?

The purpose of an operating system is to support applications.  With few programs out yet that require the new OS, will anyone really need to upgrade?  More applications are now browser based, so as long as you have an Internet connection, you can access many of the latest programs.  Of course I’m curious about Vista and plan to get a copy of it to judge for myself, but at home and at work I’m happily staying with Windows XP for now.  What’s the best operating system available?  Based on everything I’ve heard, probably Apple’s Macintosh, and it will only get better with a new release planned for this spring.