Frisbee golf works any where.  You make the course yourself.  You decide how hard to make it.  What par to make it.  Does anyone know if Tigger Woods can play it?  I wish every kid could have a Frisbee like me.  I can play anywhere with it. 

TV does not make anything. Sitting with my family playing my guitar is fun. My brother and I play UNO with our parents. Tonight we all played kickball. Sunday we went to the ZOO. Family time is important to me.

From Papa: “Government and nonprofits promoting and supporting opportunities for family time provide a non sexual and non violence means for children to grow up in a healthy environment. Help families to be informed of programs and have the ability to take advantage of the programs.”

There has been lots of talk during 2008 of a movement towards people being more socially responsible. However, is it more talk then action when view among the whole population. Part of the lack of social responsibility is the ease to which a person can participate. The ways that the media controls what information reaches a person places smaller organizations at a disadvantage.  The media market is about who  pays more.  The same happens with Google searches.  By nature most people want convenience, this includes obtaining information.  Nonprofits should take the initiative to send their message to their community on how people can easily participate. Do not leave it to the Ad Hoc Media to brand your message or get the word out.  Giving back does not have to only be in money. Let people see how they can participate. Let people hear how they can participate. State how a persons participation will create a difference.

Ignoring ones community only creates opportunities for negative results. Remember the media loves to report the bad and rarely the good. Generation Next is reaching out looking for a means to be socially responsiblity but needs motivation. The presidential race has provided many with an outlet. The media has been flirting with whether it is a fad or long term.  It is time for nonprofits to formalize their outreach to youth and young adults. Banks invest in reaching these individuals because the statistics show they are more likely to be with them for life and buy more products later. Colleges constantly reach out to their Alumni and the results show why. A nonprofit needs to invest in building their future donors and keeping those whom have been associated with the nonprofit in the past a part of the organization.

Remember this phrase:  “Out of sight, out of mind”

 My friend and I can be mad at each other but still be friends

I do not have to like everything my friend does and still be their friend.

I can be mad and still love my brother

I can be mad and still love my parents

I can do something wrong and my parents still love me.

 From Papa:

“Learning to balance feelings is an never ending conflict that children and adults both struggle with.  Nonprofits should as part of their employee support initiatives provide diversity  and building trust trainings. ”

My son and I jointly have produced this article.

“A day to recognize a mother and being thankful for her.  You can have more than one.”

Whether through birth or other reasons we come to have special feelings for women in our lives.  While our feelings are not limited to one day, Mothers Day focuses each of us on a day to reflect the persons effect on our life.

Nonprofits whom provide services to women especially in the area of domestic violence or elderly should take advantage of Mothers Day to have donors honor their mother and support your nonprofit programs.  Your nonprofit should be specific on how the donation will honor the donors mother.  Remember to use your fundraising to be a year round communication tool.

During the academic year there are many college students of various qualification whom will work pro bono for nonprofits.  For the summer interns will be looking for a paid internship.  The use of a year round internship program within your nonprofit organization is a great opportunity to find candidates and test them before placing them into permanent positions.  The cost to your nonprofit is low for this type of employee.  It is just $10-$13 an hour and no benefits.

Nonprofits or any organization looking for individuals whom have lots of energy, are willing to learn and willing to receive feedback should use interns.

If your nonprofit organization has staff who know how to multi task and train people, take advantage of the intern workforce.

1. List Your Priorities of Programming Ideas Identified in Moving Forward
2. Elements to Use in Action Steps/Approaches/Strategies (Working Together)

• Strategic Planning (What, where, when and why baseline)
• Maximizing Assets: People, Organization, Effort, Space, Allocation of costs, Labeling, Cost allocation plan, Assignment of job function.
• Referral and Intake Systems
• Cross Pollination: Using resources already available and maximizing capacity.
• Whom do you serve: Geography, community, age and service type. (Who shows up in the Service Plan or the Strategic Plan?)
• Reality Check on ability to serve
• Equal Access Goal (Where are the cases? Where are the resources?) Geo coding for allocating resources. (Transportation weight to consider. How do you manage yourself to complete all of your daily tasks?)
• Low Lying Fruit
• 20-40 Minute Rule
• Day Job Syndrome (Capacity to change, evolve, develop vs. the day to day job) (Capacity to change, evolve, develop vs. the day to day job)
• Investment Risk Scale of Capital (Can what I am committed to doing be used for something else if I am wrong?)
• Management Choices for change vs. Institutional Choices for change
• Defining Outcomes
• Branding: Ownership, reporting, sharing, confidence and leadership
• Communication: web, telecommunicating, Co-location, transparency, team responsibility, and risk
• Continuous Quality Improvement (How do you learn?)
• How do you compete? Niche vs. General and Narrow vs. Broad. What does your mission allow?
• Who are my Funders?

1. 1. Donors
   2. Foundations
   3. State
   4. Federal
   5. City/Town
   6. Community
   7. Individuals
   8. Your Organizations Assets

If you are interested in overcoming barriers check out the previous post:

http://mynonprofitwebsite.com/blog/2008/04/30/nonprofits-evolution/

How does your brand effect your nonprofits’s ability to reach Donors? What level of trust has your organization created for the donor? How well known is your brand in the community you serve? When branding include the logo and motto of your organization.

Bank of America Helping it’s Customer with the Economy.

Bank of America each month starting the first weekend in May is sponsoring nationwide free passes to the museum.  Now that’s a bank trying to help people have fun during this economic melt down. While they lost billions BOA is reaching out to help us all. My sons think its great to have this opportunity to be able to take advantage of these weekends as a family event. Promote in your community this free access to wonderful resources.

Check out their web site for the museum nearest you.

http://promotions.bankofamerica.com/museums/

Do you want to changed the business environment of your organization? Try the outline below.

1. List Your Barriers and Challenges

2. Evolution of the Non-Profit Business Environment (Supporters Working Together) List supporters.
   1. Donors
   2. Foundations
   3. State
   4. Federal
   5. City/Town
   6. Community
   7. Individuals
   8. Your Organizations Assets

3. Successful Approaches and Innovative Strategies

• Strategic Planning (Why do you exist? Whom do you not serve? Why do you not serve them? Why do you do things the way you do? Whom do you consider a competitor? When was the last time you asked a person you served what’s missing?)
• Whom do you serve: Geography, community, age and service type. Who shows up in the Service Plan?
• Day Job Syndrome (What is the organization’s capacity to change, evolve, develop vs. the day to day job)
• Maximizing Assets (Review your people, organization, effort, space, allocation of costs, labeling, cost allocation plan, assignment of job function, etc)
• Systematic Evaluation at Intake (How is it done thorough out the organization?)
• Cross Pollination of Expertise
• Continuous Quality Improvement
• Thinking Out of the Box
• Defining Outcomes
• Branding
• Co-location of Programs