WALKING FOR DREAMS – SUPPORT BRYAN

Friends/Readers,

I will be participating again this year in an event called "Walking for Dreams," which is a 5K Family and Pet Walk on the canal downtown. The purpose of this walk is to help support dozens of local non-profit organizations by raising funds to provide services to the youth and families of Indianapolis.

This is the one time each year when I ask, personally, for you to support me in assisting a cause that I feel is important. Perhaps you found your current job through the Not-for-Profit News or your work has been enhanced by a connection or training you found through our publication. I would really appreciate a small donation or even invite you to recruit a few supporters and join us – you can quickly do either through the website at https://www.walkingfordreams.org/Donate.aspx.

I am raising money for and am on the board of Southeast Community Services, a Center for Working Families (CWF), who provides services leading to long-term financial stability for the families they serve in the Fountain Square area and beyond. SECS goal is to help individuals from the southeast side of Indianapolis find jobs and careers to increase their income, develop budget plans to help them use their money wisely, help them plan for college or other training, assist them in applying for state benefits, as well as connect them to other organizations and resources. Southeast Community Services also provides programmed activities for senior citizens, a summer youth program, and after-school tutoring.

The Family and Pet Walk is Sunday afternoon, May 22, 2011 on the Canal in downtown Indianapolis.

Click here to learn more about the event.

Click here to register for the walk on the official “Walking for Dreams” website.

Click here to make an online donation.

Thank you for your support!

Bryan

We Value Diversity, But Do We Act on that Value?

Boston, April 12, 2011 – According to a new report released by Commongood Careers and Level Playing Field Institute, nonprofit employees perceive that their employers claim to value building diverse and inclusive organizations, but that they do little to back up that claim. The report is from a nationwide survey of over 1,600 nonprofit professionals.

Key findings include:

Nearly 90% of employees believe that their organization values diversity. However, more than 70% believe that their employer does not do enough to create a diverse and inclusive work environment.

More than half of employees of all races – and 71% of employees of color -- attempt to evaluate a prospective employer’s commitment to diversity during the interview process.

More than 35% of people of color who indicated that they examine diversity during the hiring process report having previously withdrawn candidacy or declined a job offer due to a perceived lack of diversity and inclusiveness.

The report provides five strategies for organizations to shift from just valuing diversity to building and sustaining diversity. They include: (1) open conversations about race that include executive leadership, (2) effective communications about diversity commitments that include measured results, (3) building partnerships and networks that facilitate effective recruiting, (4) a hiring process free from subtle bias, and (5) taking the time to develop, mentor and promote a diverse staff.

“As the economy improves, nonprofits will compete more than ever before for top talent. Organizations that fail to address diversity issues will see a steep drop off in their ability to recruit and retain their talent, not just their employees of color,” said James Weinberg, Founder and CEO of Commongood Careers. “Nonprofits are at a unique moment in time to implement change. If they don’t, they may lose out to other employers who have made intentional efforts to increase and embrace staff diversity.”

To download the full report, please visit: www.cgcareers.org/diversityreport.pdf

We would appreciate your comments.

Unlucky 13 Merger Red Flags from the Nonprofit Times

www.NPTimes.com

The popularity, or maybe necessity, of mergers in the nonprofit sector has been viewed from many angles. Some have worked well, others not so, and any can bring an array of benefits and drawbacks. In his book "Nonprofit Mergers & Alliances," Thomas A. McLaughlin, a management consultant and long-time contributing editor to The NonProfit Times, offers advice about mergers, including financial red flags.

Some of those red flags are:

1. Balloon loan payments coming due. This is not necessarily a deal-breaker. McLaughlin offers two questions - 1. Are you aware that you will owe an unusually large debt payment in the future?; and, 2. Do you have a plan for paying it back? If you can answer yes to both questions, it is possible to move ahead.

2. General records disarray.

3. Indispensible staff. If a partner organization seems to work mostly because of one or two people, remember that those people might be lost in a merger.

4. Lapsed insurances.

5. Loss of (pick one): license, accreditation, large donors, large payer.

6. Maxed-out line of credit.

7. Nonfinancial "liabilities." A disgruntled officer, bad media story, for example.

8. Payroll taxes unpaid.

9. Qualified audit opinion.

10. Unacknowledged and serious CEO-staff conflict.

11. Unexamined accounts receivable.

12. Unreported litigation.

13. Low or negative net assets.

Add your comments or red flags. 

Would You Recognize a Sustainable Nonprofit?

In a recent article, Richard Mittenthal, CEO of the TCC Group, notes that
the recession is not over yet for many nonprofits and that hard decisions
are still being made. He suggests four keys to ensuring your organization's
survival, or for donors who are looking for keys to organizations that will
be around tomorrow:

1) Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate. And act on what you learn.

2) Cut costs.

3) Focus on planning, including contingency plans to prepare your
organization for the range of challenges that lie ahead.

4) Strengthen relationships with key funders, avoid the internally focused
bunker mentality that can happen in crisis. Ask board members to become more
actively involved.

If you serve on a nonprofit board, it is your responsibility to provide
oversight and input on the organization's financial condition. Every step
the nonprofit can take now to stabilize its finances will pay off later, no
matter how long the recovery takes.

Read the full article.

Interns are a Win/Win

Last week, I shared a few insights and resources that we have gathered over the past nine months as we have been encouraging nonprofits to consider whether they can provide, and benefit from, internship opportunities. Coincidentally, one of our friends, Mike Smith, an attorney who works with nonprofits was on the same track and shared some research he has done around that prickly issue of “Do we have to pay interns?”.  See last week’s article at: http://charitableadvisors.blogspot.com/  Here are Mike’s insights:

Bryan - I saw your blog post on summer interns.  Coincidentally, I’ve been working on a couple of my own blog entries– one for businesses and one for nonprofits – dealing with the question of payment of interns. 

For nonprofits, there are three categories of interns:

·         Employees, who have to be paid minimum wage and overtime compensation.

·         Trainees, a narrow category.  Trainees cannot be paid.

·         Volunteers, a much broader category.  Volunteers can be paid no more than a “nominal” stipend or fee, along with reimbursement of expenses and some benefits.

Only the first two categories are available to for-profit businesses.

These entries have some guidance (useful, I hope!) on the requirements for interns to qualify as either trainees or volunteers.

http://www.indianabusinesslawblog.com/2011/03/business-unpaid-interns.html

http://www.indianabusinesslawblog.com/2011/03/nonprofit-unpaid-interns-1.html

Michael Ray Smith

www.MichaelSmithLaw.com

It's Summer Intern Time!

While nonprofits who regularly use interns may already have their slots filled for the summer, many nonprofits are just beginning to think about the possibilities. Charitable Advisors would love to see more nonprofits use interns so we wanted to share what we learned from a short survey last summer and a seminar we co-hosted last fall with United Way and Indiana INTERnet. Many local colleges and universities will have Spring break in the next few weeks so you want to be ready to reach these students when they return.

Common Questions about Internships

• What's the difference between an Internship and a Summer Job? - An internship is intended as a learning opportunity for the student, in addition to providing a contributing employee for the nonprofit. Positions where the primary responsibility is receptionist, data entry or file clerk, for example, provide little opportunity for learning. Camp and Youth Counselor roles are obviously summer jobs.  
• Do we have to pay interns? - we have been told that 501c3 nonprofits are not obligated to pay interns. Still, most of these students have living or school expenses and an unpaid internship means they must also find a paying job. A third of the respondents to our employer survey thought that paid internships attracted stronger candidates. The Indiana InternNet report showed that $8-10/hr was pretty typical for nonprofits who paid by the hour. Stipends seems to range from a a few hundred dollars a month to a $1000 or more. Most internships seem to be in the 20-30 hour per week range.

Keys to a Successful Internship Opportunity

Last summer I took my first shot, since my big corporation days, at hiring a summer intern and it didn't work out very well - primarily because of me. I have since learned what experts suggest is needed for a good experience on both sides:

• Opportunity to learn - as noted above, data entry is a job not an internship. While every internship will have some elements of routine and clerical tasks, there should still be several on-going opportunities to learn about the sector, the field, or a specific type of work.
• Project-based - the student should be able to point to one or more projects they completed. They take an effort from concept to reality and you don't have to provide direction to them every minute.
• Active and accessible supervision - though you likely won't be your intern's first place of employment, they will need active supervision and encouragement in their work.
• A mentor - a terrific bonus is to have someone besides their immediate supervisor to meet with them several times during their tenure. This could be another department manager or even the CEO.       

Finding an Intern

The mechanics of the process are similar to filling any position - you identify some interested and capable candidates, interview the strongest, and negotiate your terms.

• Do I have to coordinate through the university? - no, but universities can be a terrific resource. You can contact any college or university that your organization has a relationship with. If students will receive college credit, some coordination with a faculty member may be needed. In other cases, the internship is between you and the student directly. When you approach a university internship contact, ask how you would go about finding an intern - don't treat them like a staffing or temp agency who is there to fill your opening.
• What other resources exist for finding an intern? - Two specific resources are:
• Indiana INTERNnet at http://www.indianaintern.net, an on-line clearinghouse where nonprofits, and businesses, can post internship opportunities at no charge and students can post qualifications and apply as well. They added a nonprofit category to their database late last summer. 
• IUPUI Solutions Center - while part of IUPUI, the specific role of the Solution Center is to connect nonprofits and businesses to the university - so they are a great resource for an organization that does not yet have a formal internship effort. They can even help to pay for your intern. Two resources they offer:  
• First steps in hiring an intern from IUPUI. Tips on putting a position description together and more - http://www.iupui.edu/~solctr/internship-assistance/getting-started/
• For some internships, matching financial support through the Community Venture Fund - http://www.iupui.edu/~solctr/internship-assistance/community-venture-fund/ 

8 Rules to Help Nonprofit Leaders Navigate the New Economy

by Rebecca Sive, an advocacy strategist

Again, if you aren't subscribing to the Chronicle of Philanthropy www.Philanthropy.com , you really should be asking your self why. Here is a quick lists to get you thinking (and maybe buying the Feb 10 edition of the Chronicle).

Emerging from the recession and with a generation of social change agents on the verge of retirement, Ms Sive offers some new rules for creating social change, building on the classic community organizing writing of Saul Alinsky:

1) Unless you are willing and able to turn on a dime, find another job

2) Ambiguity creates opportunity

3) Consistency of message is everything

4) Thinking like an entrepreneur is the only fruitful way to proceed - take calculated risks, quickly

5) Get in on the ground floor with young and new types of donors

6) Your board members should be risk takers - By their nature, boards slow things down and try to avoid risk.

7) Staff members should be young and hungry

8) Consensus is not the optimal decision making approach for these times - There isn't always time to get everyone on board and everyone will likely not be in agreement on critical actions.

Tell us what you think, what rules you would add on our blog.