Resources
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Owning Your Place in the Community
[The following is an excerpt from a keynote I gave to the Southern Minnesota Nonprofit Summit.] Fifteen years ago this week was when I arrived in Minnesota to become the Executive Director of The Playwrights’ Center. My wife and I were newly married. We drove 900...
Simplicity in Your Message: From MINNESOTA ORGANIZATION ON ADOLESCENT PARENTING, PREVENTION & PARENTING… to Teen Wise Minnesota
MOAPPP (Minnesota Organizational on Adolescent Parenting, Preventing, and Parenting) engaged Creation In Common to help them develop a new name. Though the acronym became known among close stakeholders, few were able to identify the value the organization created (and...
Kick Start Your Story!
Your organization's stories are key to helping you convey the unique value you create for the people you serve. The following 60-Second Strategy video provide five simple questions to help you and your team craft a compelling narrative about your work.
Nonprofit Branding in the Age of Social Media
An article in the December issue of Twin Cities Business Monthly captures a wonderful case study on the branding work Creation In Common did for CaringBridge. CaringBridge is a nonprofit providing free websites that connect people experiencing a significant health...
Rethinking the Volunteer: Three What Ifs
My home town (Minneapolis/Saint Paul) is the top city in United States for volunteering in 2009 according to an article in yesterday's Star Tribune. Over 900,000 area residents volunteered an average of 44 hours for schools, churches, and nonprofit organizations....
A New Kind of Board Development: Unlocking Innovation
Unlocking innovation needs to be the first priority of board development: the ability for volunteers to share their creative ideas with one another in order to elevate strategy and propel the organization’s mission forward. Imagine that seated at your board meeting is...
Three Strategies to Engage Your Board in Fundraising
[This posting appeared as an article in the Fall 2009 edition of Guild Notes, the quarterly newsletter published by The National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts] “We’re not a fundraising board.” If I had a nickel every time board members have said this to me, I...
Commit 72 Minutes for the Future of the Nonprofit Sector
Call to Action Commit 72 minutes per day to innovate and create a new future for your nonprofit organization. 72 minutes away from putting out fires and reacting to the economy; 72 minutes from the daily grind; 72 minutes focused on challenging assumptions and...
Board President to Executive Director: “We’re not a fundraising board.” (Part III)
This post is part three of a three-part series on board/staff collaboration. Go here to read part one and here to read part two. “What we got here is a failure to communicate” said the Board President slightly chuckling at his own joke. “Actually, what we have is a...
Staff Member: “We’ve already tried that” (Part II)
This post is part two of a three-part series on board/staff collaboration. Go here to read part one. “We’ve already tried that, it didn’t work.” The board member smiled back at the organization’s marketing director and thought: “you may have tried it, but did you do...
Board Member: “I don’t understand what we do?” (Part I)
The following is part one of a three-part series on board/staff collaboration. Identities have been concealed to protect the innocent. “I don’t understand what we do?” The question hung in the air. The executive director, just three months on the job, did not know...
Kick-Start Your Organization’s Story
I am heading off to the Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Fundraising Professionals Annual Conference today. On Friday, I will be giving a workshop on Framing the Ask: A Storytelling Approach to Individual Donor Fundraising. Instead of handing out pens with the...