A Nonprofit Manager’s Resolve: Pledges for Doing Better in 2002

By Peter Frumkin

The New Year brings with it the promise of change, reform, and renewal. For the harried and often unappreciated nonprofit manager, the list of possible resolutions is long. Though often muttered quietly and grudgingly, here are some resolutions I have heard nonprofit people whispering in the hallways in recent weeks.

I resolve to:

• Figure out a way to use volunteers sensibly. This year, I won’t bend to the pressure of my yuppie volunteers to have that big blowout clambake at the end of a half-day of work that nearly bankrupted me last time around.
• Get my board to behave decently. I won’t allow my staff members to spend all this time preparing documents for the board meeting that I know no one is going to read. My next board book is going to be a one-pager.
• Create a mission statement that is well-crafted, that covers only the most essential activities of the organization, that honors the people we serve, that speaks to the core truths we all hold so dear, and that constitutes the critical shared ground on which all nonprofit organizations must operate: a mission statement that speaks to the issues of social justice, the information-technology revolution, and the challenges that globalization pose for all of us, a vision of the future of my organization that is derived through a democratic process that empowers our staff members, volunteers, and trustees, a statement that, more than anything else, is concise and that is not a long and garbled laundry list that will only confuse our supporters — in short, a mission statement that is clear.
• Laugh at one grant maker who offers me a loan from his foundation’s new program-related investment effort, when what I really need is a large general operating support grant. And this year, I won’t invent new pilot programs just to capture those project grants that are out there. I must be honest with myself and recognize that I can and will repackage existing programs two or three times, but that the fourth or fifth time is simply out of the question.
• Take the time to read some of those management books that academic types are churning out for nonprofit people like me. I may actually be able to learn something from someone outside the little world I know and love — though I reserve the right to buy the book and display it prominently in my office should time prove short.
• Stop whining about government-support levels. Maybe government has other priorities now and I just need to accept that my particular issue may not be paramount in the eyes of others, though I’m convinced I’m right.
• Be more aggressive in my advocacy. I still don’t understand the rule regarding lobbying (10 percent of what, again?), but then again, no one else really does either. So I’m just going to get more active this year and let the charity cops catch me if they can.
• Stand up to at least one foundation executive this year and tell her that she’s not the cleverest, best looking, and funniest person I’ve ever met.
• Reject at least one cause-related marketing deal that is offered to me with terms that benefit the corporation far more than me. Then again, if I really don’t have to do anything to get at least some money, I may permit myself to do one or two small deals.
• Bring in at least one high-priced consultant — assuming that the two of us can come to an agreement at the outset about what our organization’s problem really is and that more money from the donor who paid for the consultant in the first place could solve the problem.
• Give my workers decent benefits. Or at least benefits that are good enough so that I can retain them for one more year. And if there is not enough money to do it, I promise to change everyone’s title to reflect the high regard in which I hold all the good people I work with day in and day out. So what if every one of the members of my support staff is called a program coordinator?
• Reject as in-kind donations cars that don’t run, 286 computers, and World War II–era office furniture — with the possible exception of battered lateral files, which I really need right now.

These resolutions, if carried out broadly, would change the nonprofit world in 2002. Then again, as I heard them uttered in the cluttered corridors of charities, I had to wonder: Do nonprofit groups really need to reform and reinvent themselves this year? I’m not so sure I’d like the nonprofit world if it were perfect. In fact, I kind of like nonprofit groups just the way they are.

Peter Frumkin is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, in Washington.