Charities and Special Funds for Tragedies

Because I’m no longer employed in a leadership capacity with a charity organization, I can say things that I would in the past refrain from saying.  But for the sake of my friends and colleagues still in charity work and for the public at large, here I go…  Many charity organizations are simply not designed to effectively handle large influxes of money for unexpected tragedies, nor should we expect them to be unless we pay them for that service.

What brings this to mind for me now is the news in northeast Ohio regarding families of the victims of the Chardon School shooting who are suing the United Way of Greater Cleveland and its Geauga County Chapter for allegedly misdirecting donated “Chardon Healing” funds.  The goal of this article is not to promote an opinion on this specific incident but to speak in general about the dynamic of crisis fundraising and response.  There are many cases in which charity organizations have come under criticism for not directing donated funds as expected by the masses of contributors.

Let me premise this article by saying that my thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims of the Chardon School shooting.  I remember that day well and how affected I was by it, paralyzed for days at the tragedy of it all.  I do indeed hope that those families receive all the assistance they need.

Often when a crisis occurs, people will respond by donating money to help the victims involved.  I continue to be moved by the gracious generosity of many to help others in need.  It is a special thing to witness and it gives me reason to stay optimistic about the human experience. 

Handling such financial outpouring, however, to help in the most effective manner is a big hairy challenge for the charity organization that accepts the responsibility.  Truth be told, charity organizations are simply expected to do so even though they know it will be impossible to satisfy everyone’s expectations.  They do so because their stakeholders expect them to and because it would be a public relations debacle if they said no thanks, not this time.  I give charities credit for making the attempt.  It is after-all their purpose in the community to help.

Now, from a manager’s standpoint, I want to stress to readers the intracasies and considerations involved.  A terrible tragedy has happened in the community and people are hurting.  Emotions are running high and money is pouring in from many individuals, each of whom has a slightly different notion of how the money should be used.  The charity is expected to distribute all of the money to the right people very quickly even though some affects of most tragedies are long lasting.  And here’s the clincher, no one wants to pay for the managerial expertise necessary to facilitate the giving – every dollar must go directly to the victims!

The charity must still assign personnel to facilitate the distribution in an orderly manner.  This involves fielding hundreds, if not thousands, of phone calls and emails, creating an application process, interviewing many affected individuals and families, coordinating services, accounting for who gets how much and why and so much more.  This type of work is more involved than just cutting a few checks and calling it a day.

In the case of the Chardon School shooting, if memory serves, almost a million dollars was collected in a very short time (a lot of money to be sure, but not so much compared to other tragedies and fundraising efforts such as a hurricane relief fund that might affect tens of thousands of people).  Imagine being responsible for the charitable help to tens of thousands of people.  Will the charity hire additional employees to do this very involved work?  Probably not.  In fact, nonprofit organizations are notorious for giving already overworked employees more responsibility, especially if they don’t have additional funds to pay for more help.  I beg the question, should we expect the charity to hire additional employees to do a thorough job if we don’t allow for even a small amount of our charity dollar to be used in this manner?  Well, you might say, I’ve donated to this charity in the past and they should use that money to do this work.  That sounds quite rational except for the fact that every dollar given in the past is immediately budgeted towards already existing needs in the community.  Most charities don’t have additional resources set aside to facilitate unexpected tragedies and if they do, those dollars are minimal.

Generally speaking, it is common for charities to receive financial contributions year ‘round that are earmarked by well meaning contributors to be used 100% for the direct needs of clients (no overhead expenses).  This is an understandable desire, as people don’t want their contribution to be used for such boring stuff as staff salary, snow removal for the agency parking lot or office expenses but it is an expectation that is frankly unrealistic.  Charities have expenses like any other organization and unless we acknowledge this fact we’ll be doomed to position even the best managed charities to fail when we need them to do their best work on our behalf – responding to a crisis.

The public rightfully does not want charity organizations to “profit” from tragedies.  Trust me, they don’t.  In fact, they are put at great risk when we expect them to deliver quickly and in a big way with absolutely no additional funding.  Not only might they unintentionally mismanage the crises but their other ongoing programs may suffer as well because resources are surely being pulled from them to do the urgent unfunded work at hand.

Would it be so unpalatable to the public for a small percentage of the donated funds to be used for oversight expenses, say 3% or 5%?  I, for one, would not mind if the charity used a small amount of my donated funds to get the job done well.  There are other considerations that need to be addressed too, such as how to set up special funds with clearer parameters in order to minimize contributor confusion and angst but that is content for another article.

For now, I would simply ask readers to give their charity organizations the benefit of the doubt.  They are doing the best they can with limited resources.  It is an especially difficult task to administer a special fund after a tragedy without the necessary dollars to manage it effectively.  And to my colleagues in charity organizations I would recommend, it’s time to communicate in a better, more straightforward way what you can and cannot do for the community – and how much it will reasonably cost!

7 Tips for Finding Opportunity

When it comes to opportunity, everyone knows the saying, “it’s not what you know but who you know that really matters”.  It’s a sarcastic way of suggesting that life isn’t fair.  My response to that is, so what?  Get good at knowing people.

We are social beings and we do not live our lives in a vacuum.  Opportunity happens when two or more people engage each other to get something done. It would make sense then that having a large network of friends and other acquaintances that care about you is a good thing, right?  People who are serious about opportunity nurture relationships with others not for the sake of manipulating people but for a genuine desire to help.  Givers gain.  If you know many people and help them when you can, typically they’ll return your generosity by offering you opportunity as well.

Tip #1: Get serious about nurturing positive relationships, networking to meet new people and giving of yourself rather than receiving.

The truth about opportunity is that you also need to “know stuff” too.  So the saying above is true in both respects.  It’s also important to be able to bring knowledge or experience to a situation where knowledge or experience is lacking.  So, toward this end, people who want to find opportunity believe that learning new things is a life-long endeavor.  You don’t necessarily need a college education, although I’m an advocate of college.  Learning can happen in many ways; books, videos, workshops, discussions with others, industry groups, etc.

Tip #2: Make a habit of learning something new each week.  Never stop!  You’ll be amazed at how just a little new information can set you apart from others and position you for better opportunity.

Connect yourself with people who are already successful.  Find a mentor who will let you tag along while they go about their business.  A good mentor will share all that they’ve learned with you, introduce you to others who can help and then they’ll celebrate your success with you.  Help your mentor, if you can, in their pursuit of their hopes, dreams and goals.  Don’t be surprised if your mentor gives you work to do.  This is a good thing.  They know that you’ll learn a lot by doing as well as by observing.  When your mentor finds even greater success, chances are they’ll share a little of that opportunity with you as well.  Climb the ladder!

Tip #3 Connect yourself with people you know who have already found some measure of success.  Tell them that you are interested in pursuing the same type of opportunity that they are pursuing.  Ask them if you can help them in some way.

Here’s the glue that holds it altogether – positive attitude.  Successful people don’t wait for opportunity to come to them.  They know it doesn’t work that way.  They are proactive, always on the alert for something that will help them get to a better situation in life.  They are the ones who cheerily volunteer for jobs that no one else wants.  Their positive energy draws others to them along with possible opportunity.  No one can maintain a positive attitude 24/7.  Surely we all have bad days every now and then but successful people seem to bounce back faster than most.

Tip #4:  Continually strive for a positive attitude of action, not idleness.  Others will find your positive attitude irresistible and believe that you are charismatic person. Read motivational books, listen to motivational audio, and hang with others who are positive.  Stay away from negative people as much as you can.  Negative people are never a source of opportunity.

Once you have an idea about the type of opportunity you want, learn to ask for it.  This sounds too simple to work but you’ll be amazed at how effective communicating your desire can be.  Remember that large group of friends and acquaintances we talked about earlier?  Make sure they ALL know what your hopes, dreams and goals are.  You may be surprised to find that someone you know is in a position to connect you with opportunity, if only they know about your goal.

Tip #5: Share your hopes, dreams and goals with others you trust.  Ask them straight out if they can help you or if they know someone who can.

Embrace failure.  What?  That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?  The truth is that successful people see failure as a natural step toward success.  They don’t let failing at something stop them for long.  They have developed ability over time to get going again after life slaps them in the face.  Certainly, no one enjoys failing but too many people stop and give up their hopes, dreams and goals after their first experience with failure.

Tip #6: Try to see mistakes and failure as a natural step toward success.  Learn from each incident of failure to adapt, change and not repeat the same mistakes over and over.

Last, but perhaps most importantly, give opportunity to others when you can.  This goes back to the idea that givers gain.  But it’s really simply about being a good human being.  Finding success and opportunity is more fun when you bring others along for the ride.  If you find any measure of opportunity and success in life, be sure to share it with others.

Tip #7:  Try to find ways to share your opportunity with others in ways large and small.

Innovation, Not Just For NASA Engineers!

The recent landing of the robotic Mars rover Curiosity by NASA has me thinking about the magic of innovation.  Thousands of things had to go just right in order for those involved to achieve such a task.  Of course, years of planning, testing, learning by both mistake and success led to this outcome but the end result is certainly magnificent!

It's easy to believe that such innovation belongs only in the fields of science, engineering, computer technology, etc.  But as one who has a long history and a continuing connectedness in non-profit charity work, I firmly believe that we must appreciate and pursue innovation in the delivery of human services, health care and the like.  For example, I would ask, how have we been innovative in our approach to feeding the hungry, serving people who are homeless, educating kids with disabilities?  It would sadden me to believe that we can land a machine on Mars with almost pinpoint accuracy yet we still operate a homeless shelter the way it was managed 70 years ago.

Innovation does not need to manifest itself in the form of a gadget, although sometimes it does.  It can come in the form of a new process or a series of questions that lead to more useful information.  Sometimes innovation involves the merging of two seemingly different disciplines to produce a refreshing new and valuable byproduct.

A program in Lorain County, Ohio comes to mind where persons who are experiencing extreme poverty and even homelessness are introduced to the concept of entrepreneurship, starting their own micro-businesses in an effort to produce income and a degree of financial stability instead of waiting months or even years for someone else to hire them.  Contact me for more detailed information about this program if you are curious - excuse the pun.

Many such stories of innovation in the "caring industries" do exist but I would encourage even more innovation.  I ask my colleagues in non-profit, are you a change agent in your organization?  In your community?  Do you feel free to offer innovative ideas within your organization or is the environment in which you work stifling to new ideas?  If so, how can you tactfully change such an organizational culture?

Some folks scoff at the notion that we (humankind) spend too much time, energy and resources exploring the universe while many still suffer here on Earth.  And while I do "get that", I also suggest that many still suffer here on earth because we (humankind) have neglected to be innovative in our care for others.  Do practitioners in the charities wake up each morning with a spirit of innovation and the craving to do better as do our friends in the sciences?  Some do, for sure, yet regrettably many do not and they are still running their shelter as if it were 1942.

I don't believe in change just for the sake of change itself, that philosophy can be harmful.  But I do believe that purposeful innovation can and should happen throughout the vast spectrum of human endeavor, including the work of so many non-profit charity organizations.  I offer my congratulations to the innovation offered by those who work at NASA to make the Mars landing possible and equally to those in the non-profits in Lorain, Ohio who are teaching the homeless to start their own micro-businesses!  Inspirational Video & Space Exploration