For those of you thinking of a new career and making a difference there are many nonprofits within five miles of your home.  Check out www.guidestar.org and type in your zip code.

The largest area where there are plenty of paid positions across any field of experience is in the health and human services field. For positions check out  www.idealist.org, www.craigslist.org and www.nonprofitjobs.org.

Be patient, read carefully and look at what the organization offers you to meet the goals you wish to achieve in the next career.  Use the interview to probe and ask the tough questions.  Think of yourself as interviewing the organization to meet your needs.

Organizations whom are willing to be questioned by candidates will find an employee that understands what they have committed to and know the expectations for both parties.

For my spouse, five and nine year old the setting was all set for Sunday to watch the football game with popcorn. We were to watch the New England Patriots against the Superbowl Champs the Colts. Both teams are undefeated for the season.

Wrong: First commercial, I am scrambling to stop the showing of a advertisement of an R rated film of about a killer. The first time was a big surprise, the second and third time just got me me to have to rethink what to have as the family event. It is not my intent to subject my children to watching over and over images of someone creating massive amounts of killing.

So instead of a relaxing family time I had to manage someones lack of judgement and inattentiveness to children for an event I thought was for families. This is not the first time major league football has been broiled in controversy of whether an action is family appropriate. If you take the track record of the commercialization of the football event I would advocate that it be given a rating of PG-13.

Family events are important to instilling values into each other as a family unit. Children learn from their parents. Violence is not a value I wish to instill to my children.

I want to instill the positive aspect of sports, such as working as a team, the use of strength, thinking and outwitting the opponent as positive. The constant message of conveying excitement to seeing “The Killer” was just way inappropriate. Which impression does the football wish to leave on a child? Violent actions are not. Youth violence is up. Who is to blame? What is the Cause? Which image does the football league want children and their families to remember?

I have already decided that the Football games are inappropriate for the five and nine year old due to the uncensored nature of the commercialization. Trust is an important condition a customer should be able to have from a business and the National Football League does not take that seriously enough.

I challenge the National Football League and its teams to make a difference among their fan base as well as their home states to support youth violence and domestic violence prevention programs.

Science has provided an outcome for which no organization is prepared. The chance of survival after a brain injury has become increasingly likely. However, that does not match the resources available for long-term or permanent care being needed. The costs are enormous and living in the community requires resources to be developed in many cases from scratch. Surviving a car accident or a war injury are two of the largest growing areas. Just in the past two years for the US military 30,327 individuals were diagnosed with injuries sufficient to be labeled wounded. Another 20,000 were not considered wounded but have brain injuries. The military, government and nonprofit sector are ill prepared to handle the volume of need. So those in need wait and despair.

Which organizations can provide the will and commitment to build the capacity?

Have allergies become a big problem or are people more aware of them? Have individuals become more prone to allergies because of the environment that has been created by our society? While there are many allergies, there is one area where anyone and make a difference and that is food. Over 12 million people have food allergy. The top two being 6.9 million people with a fish allergy and 3.3 million people with a nut allergy.

A great resource for organizations and individuals is the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology established in 1943 and has over 6,500 members. The resource represents allergists, asthma specialists, clinical immunologists, allied health professionals, and others doing research and treatment of allergic disease.

http://www.aaaai.org/media/about_aaaai/

Check out their report at: http://www.theallergyreport.com/reportindex.html

An interesting outcome from allergies is the creation of a network of businesses that started in many kitchens to help a person’s child to not get sick and be able to enjoy eating. Yes, the kitchens of many homes have become the new laboratory for creating change. The marketplace of many people have responded positively to created products that improve the lives of children and in turn the adults that are still effected by the allergy.
Check out the three companies below that are helping to create a new food source for individuals to address their food allergies.

Cherrybrook Kitchen provides delicious all natural baking mixes for the millions of people that are affected by food allergies.

http://www.cherrybrookkitchen.com/products/index.php

Allergy Grocer: AllergyGrocer are trademarks of Miss Roben’s, Inc. and carries many of the products form businesses that meet people ’s food allergy needs.
http://www.allergygrocer.com/

Amanda’s Own Confections: Makes chocolate that is totally dairy free, tree nut free, peanut free, egg free & gluten free. http://www.amandasown.com/

Listening takes time and commitment. The organization has to decide is it responding to the marketplace to deliver a product or is a service. To successfully meet the expected objectives of the customer, the customer has to have an level of outcomes from the organizations interaction with them.

Recently, I have been having many conversations about individual service plans, individual educational plans, meeting community needs, and interpreting what individuals meant by their statements. The common statement was “the person will not be able to understand the questions being asked?”

So I question each of us to think beyond our organization. What do individuals know and understand of the organization? What do the individuals expect of my organization in interacting with the organization?

Volunteering, corporate giving, philanthropic endeavors and sales is about branding. Provide the brand message in a clear concise manner.  Use it as often as you can and do not use itwith different meanings.

Outsourcing functions and hiring consultants for specific projects is a double edged sword. 

If a consultant always makes you feel good, have they helped your organization to make tough decisions?  A good consultant should not be afraid to identify problems in the organization that prevent a funder, donor or customer from wanting to associate with the organization.  While a report does not have to include every fact, it is important that a report shows areas for improvement and potential problem areas that should be addressed.   There is no perfect organization. 

If your organization has not had a serious discussion among its Board and Management of its direction in the past five years it is being too complacent.

Look out the window, what has changed around you in five years?  When was the last time your organization evaluated the services it provides, reviewed its referral system, reviewed the characteristics of the population being served, reviewed the funding streams,   and made decisions balancing business needs vs. program needs?

If not in the last three years, the organization is out of touch. 

Providing access to services should be first and foremost.  The credentials to provide clinical work, whether it be a Bachelors, Masters or MD takes professional experience as well. 

A clinician’s work guiding a person through their journey to obtain the skills that help them achieve their desired outcome has to be measurable.  When it comes to billing the insurance carrier or government funding entity the case notes are needed.  Since case notes need to be electronic, what prevents the case from going through the electronic format for therapy? 

The use of electronic interaction, especially when distance makes interaction even more difficult to access services, will only improve more folks dealing with the issues or when they may be in need of a stabilizing force.  

Being able to access an interaction with another person is what individuals need when there is not a danger to themselves or others.  The use of the telephone, which can be recorded, and definitely the computer for recording an interaction, provides solid back up and documentation of what occurred in a session. 

Further, assessment tools online quickly find strengths and weaknesses of an individual and can be more easily accessed with no time constraints.  How effective is the in-person face-to-face vs. the electronic face-to-face? What type of interaction is a telephone interaction between a clinician and the individual?  Is the verbal interaction or an email between two individuals a physical interaction?  I would challenge each of us to think yes.  People react emotionally to email and telephone calls every day. 

In the world of insurance what is the definition of a face-to-face?  The requirement of physical space for the person to attend to get therapy is no longer the only means to provide mental health services.   Change is coming, are you ready?  The licensing of clinics needs to be reviewed in light of this new approach and adopted.

I have been amazed to watch the outsourcing of military and security services to for-profit companies at higher prices. The military has lots of qualified men and women who would continue to serve if their compensation were comparable or even a faction of what the government contracts pay. Federal and State legislatures have passed various laws on pay schedules but seem to have missed this one.

However, I see a place for partnerships between corporations and the government.  Corporations that are non profits (501 c 3 ) and the government can work well together to address needs.

Parks and historic sites is one such partnership.

For those involved in housing, how about using some historic sites for housing?  In exchange for free rent why not be stewards of history.  In addition to providing housing, the nonprofit can teach the tenants the skills on historic preservation.

The teaching of the skills can help reduce the maintenance costs and provide a long term benefit for the greater good of all.

Most organizations do not function seasonally but seem to make raising money a seasonal focus.  Thereby creating donor fatigue during the November and December months.  I have received 19 solicitation since I began counting November 1st.  I have kept three to think about and one I sent a donation. 

The one pattern I have begun to use to separate among nonprofits are those that have large endowments and pay large salaries to its management compare to those that have low salaries and little or no endowment. 

Harvard University will get no donations until they stop using loans in the financial aid packages for many students.

Salvation Army has one of the largest endowments and does not report its information via guidestar or as a 501 c 3.  It hides behind the fact that churches arenot required to file a 990. 

Red Cross pays lots of high end salaries and is too general on what services they actually provided in a state.  I got the neighbor solicitation, while I would support my neighbor and community, the Red Cross solicitation does not keep it local.  There are plenty of local groups that will better serve the effort.

So what’s an organization to do?  Be specific about whom your going to serve, the outcome your trying to achieve, and communicate more often then once a year. 

Health costs are making the cost of an employee much harder for an organization to support.

Make sure employees know the total costs of all insurance benefits, taxes, unemployment and workers compensation paid out by your organization in addition to their individual salary. By showing the increased costs that the organization is incurring each year, it provides for a clearer understanding of why raises are harder to obtain.

Organizations that provide staff with a clarity on costs and a compensation bonuses pool Create a pool of funds as a one time expenditure), makes it easier to control costs. Further, staff whom have the knowledge of what it truely costs to employee staff are more engaged with the organization.  An organization where staff have an understanding where the money is being spent are more committed to that organization when spending is viewed as being distributed fairly.