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Standards for Excellence Institute® Newsletter
July/August 2008

Table of Contents


Spotlight on a Certified Group - Georgia Urban Forest Council is Awarded the Seal of Excellence
The Georgia Urban Forest Council, located in Decatur, Georgia was recently awarded The Standards for Excellence Institute's Seal of Excellence for successfully completing the Standards for Excellence voluntary certification program. After submitting to a rigorous review of all aspects of their operations, they are proud to display the Seal of Excellence -- a symbol the public and donors alike can trust.

Georgia Urban Forest Council's mission is to sustain Georgia's green legacy by helping communities grow healthy trees. As a leader among environmental nonprofits in Georgia, they promote the importance of trees throughout the state by leveraging user-friendly technology, influencing the policy-making process and providing cutting-edge programming. The Georgia Urban Forest Council is the first organization in Georgia to be awarded the Seal of Excellence.

"Undergoing the application and review process for Standards for Excellence certification was extremely beneficial to us because it helped us examine every policy, procedure, and system within our organization," says Mary Lynne Beckley, Executive Director. We learned what we were doing right and what we needed to improve upon. We now know that we are striving to be the very best nonprofit that we can be and are proud as an organization to have made this outstanding accomplishment.

The Standards for Excellence® Program is designed to promote excellence and integrity in nonprofit organizations. The Standards for Excellence Institute® offers a voluntary, peer-review, certification program for nonprofit organizations that demonstrate that they adhere to The Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector®. For more information and to request an application package to earn the Seal of Excellence, please click here. For more information about the Georgia Urban Forest Council visit their website.



 Feature: Keep Your Nonprofit on Course - First Grab the Wheel, Then Press the Gas

Think back to the last time you locked yourself away with your board or staff and dedicated few hours (or in some cases, a few days), to do strategic planning. Did everyone walk away energized and ready to tackle the newfound goals? Or was the plan stuck on a shelf never again to be discussed? When it comes to strategic planning, you either love it or you hate it. Even if you view planning a necessary evil, the board is legally responsible for setting direction, assuring the organization has needed resources, and overseeing operations of the nonprofit organization it governs.

The Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector® states that "The board should engage in long–term and short–term planning activities as necessary to determine the mission of the organization, to define specific goals and objectives related to the mission, and to evaluate the success of the organization's programs toward achieving the mission."

Failing to plan is like pressing your foot on the gas without grabbing the wheel. There's only so long you can go straight before you crash. Avoiding these common pitfalls should put you on the right track.

Common pitfalls of planning

Cynicism about strategic planning is widespread. However, instead of abandoning planning, each organization needs to develop an approach to planning that fits its needs. Planning then needs to be integrated at all levels of the organizations with quarterly, annual, and multi-year cycles. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid as you develop your own strategic plan:

  • Short attention span: A board may expect to create a plan during a one-day retreat with no systematic follow-up. Be realistic about the time it takes to develop a plan. This will be different for each organization, but most 3-5 year plans take several months to develop and get approved.

  • Failure to balance board and staff roles: The board needs to take the lead on the big picture (mission, vision, values and major goals); the staff (paid or unpaid) has the hands-on experience with programs and administration to develop realistic objectives and action plans; the board needs to approve the completed plan; communication and collaboration between board and staff needs to be fluid and respectful.

  • Adding new programs without resources: Inexperienced planners include programs without accounting for the necessary funding and human resources, including increased overhead costs. Planners need to gather data on new program costs and also be aware of the costs and workload required to maintain current programs.

  • Lack of strategy: What makes a plan "strategic" is the intelligent way it connects what a community needs with what an organization can deliver. Many planners automatically think in terms of growth: Let's do more of what we already do. But growth is not the only strategy. A program may need to be smaller, be eliminated, or done in partnership; a publication may be delivered online each week instead of in print each month; three sites may be consolidated into one; and so on. Planners periodically need to challenge assumptions.

  • Putting the plan on the shelf: A plan needs to be used and updated. It should inspire and guide decisions. The 3-5 year strategic plan should be directly linked to the annual operational plans. The board should refer to strategic and operational plans as they review progress reports throughout the year.

Avoiding these pitfalls should put you in a position to easily tackle all types of planning – the annual operating plan, the three to five year strategic plan, and even the 10-20 year plan. If you implement your plans rather than relegating them to that dusty shelf, it is possible to reap unexpected benefits. Not only does planning allow you to prioritize your goals and management decisions, it stimulates teamwork, creates a common language and vision which help align efforts of the board, staff, volunteers, and other stakeholders. The ultimate reward of is better service delivery to our communities. To achieve this end, ongoing planning is worth the time.

More information about the role of the board in ongoing planning can be found in the Standards for Excellence Institute's Educational Resource Packets, "Mission Development and Revision" and "Ongoing Planning," which are available online to all Standards for Excellence Institute members free of charge. The Standards for Excellence Institute has developed 22 educational resource packets that are intended to assist individual organizations to implement specific standards. State-specific versions of these packets are also available through Standards for Excellence replication partners to organizations they serve.

Feature: Is Our Sector "Drowning in Paperwork"?

New report offers findings and ideas for streamlining application and reporting requirements

"Drowning in Paperwork, Distracted from Purpose," is a new report from Project Streamline, a collaborative effort of organizations from both sides of the grantmaker/grantseeker divide who are studying grant application and reporting practices, their impact on grantseekers and grantmakers, and the implications for the field. Standards for Excellence Institute CEO Peter V. Berns has been a member of this taskforce representing the National Council of Nonprofit Associations since its inception. With Peter's departure, Amy Coates Madsen, Program Director of the Standards for Excellence Institute®, has been asked to join the Project Streamline collaborative.

The report highlights the fact that almost every funder has a unique application and reporting process that seems both reasonable and necessary. But in funder's zeal to be thorough, strategic, and effective, they often fail to consider the cumulative impact that thousands of separate requirements have on grantseekers. This study found that the current system of grant application and reporting creates significant burdens on the time, energy and ultimate effectiveness of nonprofit practitioners.

  1. Enormous Variability: Nonprofits encounter a dizzying range of practice when it comes to the types of information they are required to gather.
  2. Requirements Aren't "Right-Sized": Most foundations don't vary their requirements depending on the size of the grant given, the type of grant given, or their relationship with the grantee.
  3. Insufficient "Net Grants": Nonprofits must weigh the possibility of funding against the cost of seeking it. At times, the "net grant" isn't worth the effort.
  4. Outsourced Burdens: Grantmakers commonly "outsource" administrative and evaluative work to grantseekers—without compensating them for their time and effort.
  5. Trust Undermined: Many nonprofits believe that foundations do not trust them and interpret application and reporting burdens as evidence of that distrust.
  6. Reports on a Shelf: Few foundations use grants reports strategically, either to influence future grantmaking or to share with the field. In fact some aren't even read.
  7. Fundraising Gymnastics: Application and reporting requirements can cause nonprofits to reinvent themselves and develop strategies that are the opposite of what foundations intend.
  8. Due Diligence Redundancy: Grantmakers tend to play it safe at the recommendation of their legal and financial advisors, requiring redundant and often unnecessary documentation from grantseekers.
  9. Double-Edged Swords: Some streamlining strategies, notably online applications and common grant applications, have created new issues for grantmakers and grantseekers alike.
  10. Time Drain for Grantmakers too: Funders struggle with inefficiencies too, including time spent tracking down paperwork. Indeed, 13 percent of foundation dollars are spent on grants administration.

What can foundations do to continue reducing the burden on nonprofits and free more time and money for mission-based activities? Here are four core principles for foundations to consider:

  1. Begin from zero: Begin with a rigorous assessment of what kind of information you really need to make decisions. Ask: Are we really going to use this? Is there another way we can get it? Have we sufficiently explained to our grantees why we need it?
  2. Right-size grant expectations: Ensure that the effort that grantseekers expend to get a grant is proportionate to the size of the grant, appropriate to the type of grant, and takes into consideration any existing relationship with the grantee.
  3. Relieve the grantee burden: Minimize the amount of time, effort, and money that grantseekers spend getting and administering grants, creating more time for mission.
  4. Make communications and grantmaking processes clear and straightforward: Seek feedback from grantees and applicants, conduct a review of your process, and make sure you communicate clearly and regularly.

To learn more about Project Streamline, read the full report, share your story or comments, and learn about upcoming conversations, please visit www.projectstreamline.org.

Project Streamline is a collaborative initiative of grantmaking and grantseeking organizations, including the Grants Managers Network, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Association of Small Foundations, the Council on Foundations, the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers, the Foundation Center, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, and the National Council of Nonprofit Associations.


Institute News
Licensed Consultants - A National Community of Experts to Help
Education and organizational support are key to our mission. From that start, we envisioned the Standards for Excellence Institute to be more than just a certifying agency. We speak to "earning" the Seal of Excellence as opposed to "qualifying for" or simply "getting" it. We recognize that for every organization that has applied for and received the Institute's seal, a tremendous amount of effort has been expended - not just collecting documents, crossing T's, and dotting I's, but in most cases involving substantive changes within an organization. This change fully engages the staff, the board, and volunteers. So we don't use the term "Earn the Seal" lightly. We appreciate the work and effort and feel that we have an obligation to support those efforts.

 

Beyond the direct services that we offer, part of this effort includes creating a nation-wide network of professionals who champion the Standards for Excellence code and understand what it takes for organizations to implement it. Each year, we work with a select group of consultants who are experts in providing nonprofit support. This group is out there to help you in your community. To see who practices in your area visit our Licensed Consultants page.

This year's training will take place September 15-17 in Baltimore, Maryland

For more information about the Licensed Consultant Program, contact Justin Pollock at jpollock@standardsforexcellenceinstitute.org

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Welcome Newest Members of the Standards for Excellence Institute® 
A warm welcome to some of the newest members of the Standards for Excellence Institute®!

Workforce Development Council of Snohomish County,

Everett, Washington

Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society Incas,

New York, New York

Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy PCS 

Washington, DC

Center for Youth and Family Investment 

Washington, DC

Peace Players International

Washington, DC

For a full listing of members of the Standards for Excellence Institute®, click here. 

Membership is open to operating nonprofits, grantmakers, associate members, and students. Joining is easy. You can join online or via mail. For information on how to join the Standards for Excellence Institute, click here.


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Standards for Excellence® Code in the News

The Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector® was the subject of a complimentary "book review" by Brian Fraser in a recent issue of Vantage Point, a regular publication of Volunteer Vancouver. To read the review, please click here.

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On the Road with Standards for Excellence®
7/9/08-7/11/08, Detroit, MI - Standards for Excellence Institute® Program Director Amy Coates Madsen represented the Standards for Excellence Institute® at the Alliance for Nonprofit Management conference in Detroit, Michigan.

6/17/08-6/18/08, Kansas City, MO - Standards for Excellence Institute® Certification Manager, Angineeki Jones and Director of  Development, Marketing and Communications Trudy Jacobson represented the Standards for Excellence Institute® at the Guidestar DonorEdge Community Leadership Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

5/15/08, Cape May, NJ - Standards for Excellence Institute® Program Director Amy Coates Madsen provided an introduction to best practices in nonprofit management and governance through the Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector® to the executive directors of the New Jersey Prevention Network as part of their annual retreat.


If you would like more information on how you can engage the Standards for Excellence® Institute to facilitate Standards for Excellence® educational programming in your area, contact Justin Pollock at jpollock@standardsforexcellenceinstitute.org or 301-565-0505 ext. 30.
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2008 Standards for Excellence® Certification Application Deadlines

Is earning the Seal of Excellence one of your goals for 2008? Mark the 2008 Standards for Excellence® certification application deadlines on your calendar today.

July 25, 2008

October 31, 2008


Learn more about the certification process here>>

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Delaware

Exciting News!  New Replication Partner!

Nonprofits in Delaware can now access the resources of the Standards for Excellence® program through the Delaware Association of Nonprofit Agencies (DANA).

Training programs in Delaware begin in the summer of 2008 with a Standards for Excellence® Introduction presented by Angineeki Jones, Certification Manager on August 12, 2008 in Wilmington.  Click here for more information>>


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