This article ran in the Sunday edition of the Tennessean:

Nonprofits recognize their best, brightest

Last Monday Nick Zeppos hosted a cocktail celebration to fete the finalists for the Center for Nonprofit Management’s Salute to Excellence 2010 awards.

Lots of Vandy folks were in the house — Beth Fortune, Christine Bradley, David Mills, Lydia Howarth Andre Hatter, Alisa Haushalter and so on. Vandy Chef Tom Allen was in the kitchen and showcased his culinary flair.

The sunroom at Braeburn was filled with a group of — shall we say — “optimistic realists,” many of whom work in non-profits and are underpaid and oftentimes under-appreciated.

The fabulous Jacky Akbari — who has one of the best smiles in town — and Megan Barry are chairing the Salute to Excellence event. That benefit will be held Sept. 21 at the Nashville Renaissance Hotel. Nine awards and more than $160,000 in grants will be presented. These awards recognize nonprofits for a job well done and reinforce the importance of effective leadership in the nonprofit sector. The breadth of the awards extends not only to the work of organizations, but includes individual honors for deserving executives and board members.

Let’s just say it’s a veritable Oscar party for local nonprofits.

Spotted out were Vicky Beaver, Lewis Lavine, Cheryl Read, Jaynee Day, Jennifer and John Steele, Raquel Hatter, Janet Jernigan, Mac Pirkle, Sandra Roberts, Lucius Carroll, Deb Varallo, Tom Tohill, Bob Tuke, Bill Coke, Tim Garrett, Lydia Cox, Mimi Bliss, Emad Khalil, Kathleen Monoghan, Tracy Rhode, Hope and Howard Stringer and Lucinda Smith.

Congrats to the nominees.

Special thanks to Vanderbilt University for making the Chancellor’s residence available for this event. Click here to view pictures. And don’t forget to purchase your tickets for Salute to Excellence 2010!

On Friday, June 11, the Nashville Business Journal ran a story about the conclusion of a recent study by Charity Navigator entitled “Nashville nonprofits get low marks for efficiency.”

CNM President Lewis Lavine issued a retort which ran on page 33 of the June 18th edition of the Nashville Business Journal:

Last month, more than 250 nonprofit leaders attended a conference sponsored by the Center for Nonprofit Management. The keynote address was delivered by the author Dan Pallotta, who connected intellectually with his audience by stating that nonprofits should be evaluated by their outcomes rather than by a set of contrived financial indicators.

After hearing his arguments, I was discouraged to read a local headline last week “Nashville Nonprofits Get Low Marks for Efficiency.” The accompanying article was quoting a new study by Charity Navigator, a New Jersey-based evaluator of nonprofits.

Charity Navigator selected only 30 large Nashville nonprofits for its study. From these 30, it concluded that Nashville’s charitable community ranks 26th among the thirty selected cities nationally. A key indicator in the study was that this Nashville group spent 12 cents to raise $1 in contributions, while the national median was 10 cents. Another indicator was the level of the salaries earned by these charities’ CEOs.

Nowhere in the statistics used by Charity Navigator is any measurement of the results or outcomes of the labors of our nonprofits. What these nonprofits accomplished in our community is not relevant to these evaluators.

Pallotta, in his Nashville speech, told a tale of two soup kitchens. The first was dirty, poorly run, served barely edible food, and catered to a small group of needy souls. Its CEO was poorly compensated, and it had very little expense in its fundraising program. The second was a clean, modern facility, efficiently run, with excellent programs and nutritious food, and a large number of clients whose lives were changed through its outreach. The CEO received a fairly high salary and performance compensation. It spent money on its fundraising campaigns, but was successful in its efforts.

According to evaluators like Charity Navigator, the first soup kitchen would receive a higher rating.

We have just witnessed the largest flood in our history. Our nonprofit community has gone above and beyond its means in caring for those in need. An example is the Community Resource Center that was itself destroyed in the flood. It continued to provide goods to those whose homes were destroyed. Another is Hands on Nashville that made 15,000 placements of volunteers within days after the disaster. Neither was included in the Charity Navigator study.

So let’s evaluate the performance of our charitable and nonprofit organizations. But let’s do so using indicators that matter – let’s example what they accomplish every day in our community.

Every month, CNM selects a member organization for a site visit. After each visit we all walk away amazed at the great work of nonprofits in Middle Tennessee, and inspired to continue to work to serve our mission. The visit to the Nashville Zoo was no exception. Take a look at the pictures from our visit below.

Thanks to the staff at the Nashville Zoo for creating such a special experience! If your agency would like the CNM Staff to come over for a visit, email katy@cnm.org.

CNM staff are looking forward to the Happy Hour tomorrow at Cabana! Click here to register. This video from The Chronicle of Philanthropy features a Washington group of Young Nonprofit Professionals discussing their thoughts and concerns about employment in the sector that I thought might be of interest to our members:

On May 18th, 2010, over 250 Middle Tennessee nonprofit leaders came together for a day of learning at Belmont University’s Curb Event Center. Attendees completed the day feeling “rejuvenated,” “refreshed” and ready to go back to work serving the community. Bridge was an opportunity to foster growth and healing in a community of givers.

 One of the huge takeaways of the day came from keynote, Dan Pallotta. Dan brought forth many new ideas for our sector to explore. Anyone in the room could see that there were light bulbs going off in brains throughout the Curb Event Center during his speech. Some of his major points included:

 1. “Feel-Good” Benefits of a Nonprofit Career are Overrated

Pallotta argues that medical researchers, book publishers, and environmentally conscious companies all feel they are giving back to the world and are not asked to sacrifice quality of life. Nonprofit employees are often working in typical office environments and are not the volunteers on the front lines helping the community. Therefore, the majority of nonprofit employees are not getting the feel-good benefits of daily service. In addition, board members and funders have considerable power over nonprofits, while those individuals have for-profit employment. They are also getting to experience service without sacrificing their income.

 2. “Overhead Costs” are Crucial to Fulfilling Mission

Culturally, we have been trained to ask the question, “What percentage of my donation goes directly to the underserved?” Pallotta argues that this is the wrong question to ask and is perpetuated daily by the media, state attorney generals and organizations like Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau. He states in a blog post, “The next time you’re pressured to keep overhead low when you know it will compromise effectiveness, explain that doing so is a violation of your conscience, your ethics and yourself.”

 3. People Want to Be Asked to Do the Most, Not the Least They Can Do

Why is the person who spends 99% of their time building personal wealth and 1% of their time on a charity board called a philanthropist and individuals that give 100% of their time to building a service organization are called “staff”? Pallotta believes that our definition of philanthropist is too limited to the wealthy class, and therefore, small donors never aspire to be more. We are making giving to charity easier every day, but what we need to do is ask donors to do more than send a text message to give a small amount.

What Are the Next Steps?

CNM would like to explore with the Middle Tennessee community how we further this discussion. What do you think are the next steps in this conversation? Should we even be having this conversation? Tell us what you think in the comments section! We promise to put your ideas into action.

On May 18th, 2010 CNM hosted the Nonprofit Conference, “Bridge to Excellence.” Over 200 nonprofit CEOs, board members, and senior staff came together at the Curb Event Center at Belmont University. Participants gained the following:

• Valuable insight from recognized leaders on what is necessary to maintain excellence in terms of clients, staff, donors, board members and the larger community.
• Networked with peers.
• Achieved a sense of renewal and refreshment.
• Attended a comprehensive training event without travel and at an affordable price.

Nancy VanReece of Cool People Care was kind enough to serve as our social media volunteer, and in addition to tweeting the conference, also put together this fantastic video with her flip camera:

Special thanks to Nancy and to all of our volunteers that helped out last week!

This morning, Congressman Jim Cooper gave a presentation to Middle Tennessee nonprofit CEOs on how health care reform will impact local agencies. The Center is grateful to the Congressman and his staff for coordinating this event! The Congressman and his legislative aide, Elizabeth Falcone referenced documents that will offer additional information on the bill. Click here to view the information referenced during today’s session.

The Nashville Junior Chamber will host a forum on May 10, 2010 for the candidates in the upcoming governor’s race. The event, “Focusing on the Future: 2010 Gubernatorial Forum,” will provide young professionals across Middle Tennessee with an opportunity to hear from their next governor and specifically address issues that concern the state’s future leaders. All six candidates for governor have confirmed their participation, including Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, former House Majority Leader Kim McMillan, Jackson businessman Mike McWherter, Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey, and Congressman Zach Wamp.

The Junior Chamber has teamed up with nearly a dozen other young professional groups, including CNM’s Young Nonprofit Professionals Group, to host the forum, which will take place at Lipscomb University.

Please click here for a flyer with registration information.

This post is part of a weekly series previewing the topics that will be discussed at CNM’s May 18th Nonprofit Conference: Bridge to Excellence. Click here to register for this exciting day long learning event featuring keynote speaker Dan Pallotta, author of Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential, a #1 bestseller.

José Gonzalez and Renata Soto are leading the breakout session “Rumba Roast Fair Trade Coffee: An Exercise in Social Entrepreneurship.” The session will highlight the story behind Rumba Roast Coffee. This fair trade organic brand was launched in 2007 by Conexión Américas, as a mission-related fundrasing endeavor with the support of Belmont University and Bongo Java Roasting company. The impact of this venture is felt both in Latin America and in Middle Tennessee. The fair trade coffee empowers farmers in Latin America, allowing them to get a fair price for their quality coffee; in turn, the sales from the coffee in Middle TN support Conexión Américas programs. Learn from their experience with social entrepreneurship, and walk aways with ideas of how to earn money for your own nonprofit! Click here to read more about Rumba Roast coffee. Continue reading for more information on presenters José Gonzalez & Renata Soto. Continue reading ‘Road to the Conference: Featured Presenters, José Gonzalez & Renata Soto’

This morning, CNM hosted “Meet the Funders,” a workshop that we offer regularly and is free to our members. It’s an opportunity to hear from the grantmakers that we often know only through email. Participants have the opportunity to ask questions, and learn more about how Middle Tennessee foundation’s make their funding decisions. 

The Panel that was kind of enough to give their time today included Margaret Dolan of Ingram Industries, Andrea Smith of Bank of America, Kaki Friskics-Warren of The Dan & Margaret Maddox Charitable Fund and Jennifer Cole of the Metro Nashville Arts Commission. During the session, all funders stressed that  collaboration of some kind is seen as a huge positive. Last year, CNM partnered with Lipscomb University for a conference entitled “Collaborate for a Cause.” Nonprofits coming together with businesses, community partners and each other has been a common theme for awhile on the blog, so I thought I would link to some blog stories in the last year that offer great examples of collaboration. Check out the stories below:

We Can All Answer Call to Enhance, Serve Community

Mayor’s Office Collaborates with Hands On Nashville for Emergency Volunteer Needs

Now That’s What I Call Collaboration…

What We Learned from Listening to You

Nonprofit Collaborative Seeks Partners to Anchor South Nashville Community Center

Monroe Harding Joins Forces with RSI

Local Nonprofit Arts Groups Adapting to New Climate

Safe Haven Demonstrates Collaboration with For-Profit Partnership

Tell us in the comments section about other great collaborations that are happening in Middle Tennessee!