Forget about the funders – convince yourself first you’re worth investing in.
There’s a lot of conversation in our sector about changing the current funding paradigm that is seen as short-term, project-related, and restrictive. Important blog posts like The Ethical Argument for General Operating Funds take a stab at changing the narrative within the funding community. Here at Vantage Point, we took up the conversation through our podcast on the topic The overhead myth: Let's end it once and for all!
I can understand the focus of getting buy-in from funders. We are incensed that most funding approaches don’t reflect the reality that to develop and execute amazing programs, we also have to develop the organizational capacity to support those services.
To understand “capacity”, think of the table legs underneath the table top of programs, as in the capacity framework that we use here at Vantage Point, from the Non-Profit Lifecycles Institute:
What I’ve come to realize in my years of consulting with organizations to strengthen these table legs, however, is that not-for-profit leaders themselves must first believe in the power of capacity. It’s beyond a “funding paradigm” that requires shifting - it’s the more deeply held belief system many not-for-profit leaders hold that another $ received has greater mission impact if it is directed to programs. Founders who can’t say no to another “client” (e.g., a child they feed, a family they uphold, an animal they shelter, a senior they care for), establish a culture that rewards short-term accomplishment rather than encouraging innovation and investment for the long-term. The fact is, solid management, governance, financial resources and administrative systems are essential for mission-critical programming to thrive.
If, instead, we each believed in the power of investing in our organizational table legs, we risk equipping ourselves with the resilience and capability to serve our evolving communities for decades – instead of years – to come. That’s a risk I’d like to take!
How will you prioritize strengthening your organizational table legs?
What would it take for your organization to be ready to spend resources on a project that is focused internally on organizational learning – on capacity?
If your organization is ready to invest in long-term mission impact, join us for Vantage Point’s very first Capacity Lab, a seven-month program designed for your board and staff leadership team to build a capacity enhancement plan for your organization.
Maria Turnbull
Maria Turnbull brings over 20 years of leadership experience in staff and director roles within the not-for-profit sector, both here in Canada and in the UK. With a BA in International Relations and MBA, Maria is a skilled facilitator and consultant in board governance, organizational development,...
Vantage Point was featured in the Vancouver Guardian.
The Vancouver Guardian asked us about how we’re supporting non-profits across BC and our mission to strengthen BC’s non-profit sector through leadership, development, governance, organizational capacity building and more.
Join Vantage Point on September 17 in Terrace for the BC Non-Profit Network: Northwest BC Leaders Gathering. Deepen relationships, learn about what is happening in BC’s non-profit sector, participate in practical learning, and contribute to the next stages of growth for the BC Non-Profit Network (BCNN).
The new and updated Societies Act came into effect November 28, 2016 and governs how societies (not-for-profit organizations) are created and run in B.C. The new Act provides clarity, additional flexibility, and some new obligations for societies in areas such as record keeping, director requirements, and membership rules for different types of societies (ordinary societies and member-funded societies).
As part of the transition to the new Act, every not-for-profit society in BC was required to file a Transition Application by November 28, 2018.
We were curious about what could happen to societies who have not yet completed a transition application now that the deadline has passed.
Here is the response we received:
In summary:
Remember, the new Societies Act provides some different options for governing your organization. Filing a transition application is also a great opportunity to review your bylaws and make adjustments to how your organization makes decisions. For some frequently asked questions related to the new Act, download the Societies Act FAQ resource we’ve put together.
Vantage Point was featured in the Vancouver Guardian.
The Vancouver Guardian asked us about how we’re supporting non-profits across BC and our mission to strengthen BC’s non-profit sector through leadership, development, governance, organizational capacity building and more.
Join Vantage Point on September 17 in Terrace for the BC Non-Profit Network: Northwest BC Leaders Gathering. Deepen relationships, learn about what is happening in BC’s non-profit sector, participate in practical learning, and contribute to the next stages of growth for the BC Non-Profit Network (BCNN).
One of our most popular blogs to date describes governance vs. operational boards. So we decided to revisit this topic.
Close to half of all not-for-profit organizations in BC consist of teams that are not compensated financially; all activities are carried out by board members and/or volunteers. When this is the case, board members will have a direct role to play in supporting the work of the organization. Since a large number of community groups are structured this way, statistically speaking, if you’re on the board of a not-for-profit in BC, chances are it’s a working board.
And if you are, in fact, part of a working board, you may be perpetually daunted and overwhelmed by the number of responsibilities expected of you.
Some of our previous blogs outline tips and tricks for working boards to balance service delivery together with the core functions of organizational governance. However, these tools do not always alleviate the significant time pressures facing volunteers on boards where there are no paid staff. There is simply too much to do. In the face of colossal responsibility lists for board members, many find themselves hyper focused on program delivery, event planning, or setting up a Facebook page. Governance becomes neglected altogether.
But maybe that’s okay. The Nonprofit Lifecycles approach to capacity building articulates distinct stages that every organization will go through. A key distinction that can provide enormous clarity, and shorter task lists, is being clear on whether your organization has a working board because you are a startup, or whether, in fact, your organization is not intended to ever have paid staff members.
In other words, are you building an organization with the hopes of someday having paid staff? (= startup). Or does your operating model comprise 100% volunteers for the foreseeable future? (= volunteer operating model/grassroots organization)
The answer to this question has implications for where a working board can focus, and how to avoid being overwhelmed. Here are some key areas of governance where working boards can be confident focusing their efforts. You’ll note they are very different depending on your answer to the question above:
1) Startup Boards:
Accurate budget/financial forecasting. If you are aspiring to have paid staff at some point, spend time setting up a way to forecast revenues and expenses, and to identify new potential sources of funding. What will be the first paid staff position? When do you hope to have sufficient revenues to pay a salary?
Spread the word. A key challenge for a startup organization is building awareness/interest and community support. Board members of startups can be great champions to draw support, building excitement, and get volunteers and funders interested in your organization.
Set up a tool for quick group decision-making. Startup Boards don’t usually have committees or defined roles and make decisions as a group. However, there are a lot of decisions to make. Figure out how you will make group decisions in a way that is timely, that doesn’t require in-person meetings. Google Drive? Slack channel? Weekly Zoom calls? Or is everyone comfortable making decisions by email?
Support the founder. Startups are typically led by a founder who, frankly, is leading the governance of the organization. That’s fine. Find out what they need from you and support them.
2) Volunteer Operating Model:
Outline board member role descriptions. In this model, it’s likely that each board member may be responsible for leading/running certain programs. Write down these responsibilities, so that board members can maintain their sanity, and also so they can recruit successors to take over when they’re ready to move on.
Set up a Board Calendar. Chart out the entire year and plot out key “governance” functions that need to happen, so they don’t get forgotten. When does the budget need to be created and approved? When is the AGM? When will you meet to set up a team workplan for the year?
Keep track of “governance” decisions. Figure out some way to record decisions at ‘official’ meetings. Yes, all boards should do this. But working Boards are oftentimes making many decisions, and having many conversations, on a weekly basis. Not all of this has to be recorded. However, you should have some kind of official ‘board’ meetings where key decisions are minuted/recorded.
Set up accessible/easy to use financial controls. Working boards can easily fall into the trap of using bank statements for financial decisions and tracking. If it’s unlikely you’re going to have a paid bookkeeper at any point, get some kind of program/software that is easy to use for people without an accounting background, and make sure that every transaction requires at least two people to complete. This protects everyone involved, and supports many board members to be involved in financial oversight without an accounting designation.
Vantage Point was featured in the Vancouver Guardian.
The Vancouver Guardian asked us about how we’re supporting non-profits across BC and our mission to strengthen BC’s non-profit sector through leadership, development, governance, organizational capacity building and more.
Join Vantage Point on September 17 in Terrace for the BC Non-Profit Network: Northwest BC Leaders Gathering. Deepen relationships, learn about what is happening in BC’s non-profit sector, participate in practical learning, and contribute to the next stages of growth for the BC Non-Profit Network (BCNN).
At Vantage Point we are advocates of skilled volunteering – which we call knowledge philanthropy. In the spirit of National Volunteer Week, we wanted to revisit what this concept means to us as an organization.
What is Knowledge Philanthropy?
Knowledge philanthropy is the intentional practice of engaging someone’s experience, skills or talent to create a better world – and it’s an incredible way to expand the capacity of not-for-profit work.
Each of our volunteers – or knowledge philanthropists – lends their skills and talents to our mission and we consider them to be truly transformative change agents. Our volunteer team is made up of highly skilled facilitators, consultants, emerging and senior leaders in the community. When we welcome a new volunteer, they become an integral part of our team.
In 2013 we released the Abundant Not-For-Profit: How talent (not money) will transform your organization, which outlines our philosophy on knowledge philanthropy in great depth. As volunteers began to evolve into the “21st Century Volunteer”, with the rise of the knowledge worker, we recognized not-for-profit organizations had to completely redefine the way they aimed to engage and leverage volunteer contributions.
We started within, by shifting our own volunteer engagement processes to assure volunteers could contribute in all areas of the organization – from front-line operations to management and governance. With a 75-year history of promoting and supporting the engagement of volunteers, this evolution was an important way to continue our legacy as a volunteer centre forward.
Who are Our Knowledge Philanthropists?
A large majority of our knowledge philanthropists are facilitators and content experts that develop and deliver our programs. In addition to involving knowledge philanthropists in program delivery, staff members actively identify skills-based roles for many other volunteers, including in the areas of human resource management, government relations, marketing, coaching, membership strategy, and many more.
How We Recruit and Engage Skilled Volunteers
One of the most important pieces of bringing on a new knowledge philanthropist is ensuring that we truly understand both their experience and skills as well as their goals and interests, so that we can ensure every volunteer engagement is truly created as a win-win.
We layout a role description and agree on the expectations in the role – both for the volunteer and what they can expect from Vantage Point. The role description reflects their level of experience as well as their goals as a volunteer. And, of course, we ask how they would like to be recognized - because everyone is different!
At Vantage Point all knowledge philanthropy roles have a start and end date, as well as a rough number of hours expected. This way knowledge philanthropists can see how the role fits into their schedule. It’s amazing how often this one piece can make a role much more appealing! And, to assure strong accountability on both sides, we capture all of this in a letter of agreement that both the knowledge philanthropist and Vantage Point sign.
Take Action to Integrate Knowledge Philanthropy
If you are an organizational leader ready to leverage your number one competitive advantage: people, through integrating knowledge philanthropy into your organization, we have a few resources!
We have an August workshop on Engaging Skilled Volunteers, and several resources including:
Maria Turnbull
Maria Turnbull brings over 20 years of leadership experience in staff and director roles within the not-for-profit sector, both here in Canada and in the UK. With a BA in International Relations and MBA, Maria is a skilled facilitator and consultant in board governance, organizational development,...
Vantage Point was featured in the Vancouver Guardian.
The Vancouver Guardian asked us about how we’re supporting non-profits across BC and our mission to strengthen BC’s non-profit sector through leadership, development, governance, organizational capacity building and more.
Join Vantage Point on September 17 in Terrace for the BC Non-Profit Network: Northwest BC Leaders Gathering. Deepen relationships, learn about what is happening in BC’s non-profit sector, participate in practical learning, and contribute to the next stages of growth for the BC Non-Profit Network (BCNN).
Last year Vantage Point turned 75 and such a milestone had us digging through our archives to find out exactly what brought us from 1943 to 2018. As it turns out the answer was women.
1943 marked a turning point for our society as we found ourselves in the middle of World War II and as men went off to war, women were called upon to roll up their sleeves and keep things running. For most women, this would have been their first time entering the workforce and once they entered, you better believe they didn’t leave.
Organizing for the war effort, the Women’s Voluntary Services was formed with the goal of mobilizing women. They first developed care centres for children from England who needed shelter until placed in homes and a place where children of women working in wartime industries could receive day care. Next, they engaged women as volunteers in community agencies throughout the city.
Once the war ended, the Women’s Voluntary Services was renamed the Volunteer Bureau of Greater Vancouver and it’s first funder, the Junior League of Vancouver was charitable women’s organization who helped the Volunteer Bureau further their efforts in the swiftly changing society post-war. Continuing to be led by women, the Volunteer Bureau became the Vancouver Volunteer Centre and then Volunteer Vancouver and finally, Vantage Point.
With each iteration came women champion the efforts of volunteers in the not-for-profit sector of our city. With each decade, the work of those women in 1943 was moved forward into professional development, capacity building, and of course volunteerism always with the lens of supporting those championing environmental issues, social justice, health, arts and culture, seniors’ programs, and much more.
Since becoming Vantage Point, our Executive Directors have always been women. We are a team made up almost entirely of women (with the exception of one fellow who is a powerhouse in his own respect).
When we think of the next 75 years of Vantage Point, we have no doubts that there will be amazing female leadership to come.
Nav Nagra
Nav brings her positive energy and a keen eye for detail to her role as Communications & Inclusion Manager. She enjoys putting the awesomeness of Vantage Point on paper and looks forward to humble bragging all about our upcoming projects. Nav completed an Associate of Arts in Creative Writing...
Vantage Point was featured in the Vancouver Guardian.
The Vancouver Guardian asked us about how we’re supporting non-profits across BC and our mission to strengthen BC’s non-profit sector through leadership, development, governance, organizational capacity building and more.
Join Vantage Point on September 17 in Terrace for the BC Non-Profit Network: Northwest BC Leaders Gathering. Deepen relationships, learn about what is happening in BC’s non-profit sector, participate in practical learning, and contribute to the next stages of growth for the BC Non-Profit Network (BCNN).