Posted on April 29, 2014
By Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE, president and CEO of The Third Sector Company, Inc., a Global Washington member
It’s too bad that whenever the word, “succession,” finds its way into conversations at most nonprofit organizations, most view its utterance as code for someone needs to go.
When an inevitable transition does occur, these same organizations soon discover that having kept succession in the closet ultimately costs their worthy causes significant amounts of time, money and angst.
The nonprofit sector is no different than the other sectors when it comes to human resource matters and leadership. Most transitions in key positions aren’t planned. Messy exits can be a public relations challenge. And, transitions that should have happened earlier, but for personal or political reasons were avoided, creates a domino-effect of other’s choosing to vacate their positions instead.
While nonprofits face other common workforce realities such as a Baby Boomer generation retiring en masse and the difficulty of attracting and keeping up-and-comers, the nonprofit sector has a couple of quirks that make leadership continuity slightly more complicated: The first is that each of these realities can be applied not only to paid employees, but also to volunteers. The second is that without term limits and a commitment to succession, great causes can easily evolve into family-run businesses disguised as nonprofits.
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Posted on April 22, 2014
By Gena Lux
Photo Credit: Grameen Foundation
“I have no idea how I’d manage without it” is a sentiment often heard when speaking of our connection to handheld devices. Our smartphones tell us when to get out of bed in the morning, keep us connected with friends and family, help us navigate directions, and now have the ability to provide us with round-the-clock health advice from medical professionals.
One Global Washington member, Grameen Foundation, along with several other mobile health (mHealth) implementers, and core sponsor Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, another valued member of Global Washington, are tackling a project to help people living in the developing world have similar access to healthcare information.
The Mobile Technology for Community Health (MOTECH) Suite is a software project that allows mHealth solution-based partnerships to develop and manage health resources in a cost-effective and user-friendly manner resulting in better health outcomes.
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Posted on April 16, 2014
By Kelly Gibbs
Running an effective awareness campaign was the topic at last week’s Global Washington Executive Director Roundtable. Jennifer Norling, Director of Development and Communications for Seattle-based Water 1st, was the presenter. She was speaking to the group in the aftermath of the organization’s successful World Water Day campaign that took place in March.
Water 1st chose to use Facebook to launch its World Water Day campaign. It asked its followers on the social media site to post self-portraits or “selfies” of themselves holding a piece of paper with the message “Because I don’t have to carry water 5 hours a day, I can” and asked them to fill in the blank. In the end, 200 people posted pictures and re-shared their messages in less than 24 hours. If you were using social media on March 22, I’m almost certain that you saw someone you know holding up their sign!
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