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curtispbrown — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:54:10 CDT

New Nonprofit Website Now Up The new Mission Movers nonprofit capacity building website is up. Pages of reports, case studies and applications for nonprofits. Check it out at www.missionmovers.com New Capacity Building Report Now Available Are you tired of the same capacity building reports being published that ignore the elephants in the sector? We are currently creating a capacity building report that is grassroots in nature and is a compilation of sector visionaries who see a new and different direction coming. The initial report is available now. Contact us if you would like to provide feedback for this capacity building report. You can get the report byclicking here or go to our corporate site: www.missionmovers.com. Our corporate site is filled with free resources for nonprofit agencies. This report will spell out many of the common myths of capacity building. You will learn why board development produces little and why traditional strategic planning fails in execution. You will also learn what type of mindsets will destroy your efforts to increase your reach. In addition, you will learn what type of leadership you need to develop to create lasting infrastructure change. Be prepared to be challenged. Create Your Own Strategy Map Nonprofits that use a Strategy Map are more likely to create stronger strategic plans. They are also more likely to execute the action plan required to achieve success. Find out how organizations are becoming high performing nonprofits by using strategy mapping. Click here to learn more. Learning how to create a Strategy Map puts the whole organization on the same page. The process of creating a visual helps clarify what the organization's strategy is compared to other organizations in the same field. The Strategy Map is especially helpful for foundations because it helps them find duplication in the system, therefore allowing them to more strategically focus their funding dollars to achieve success.	New Nonprofit Evaluation Tool The Strategy Evaluator diagnostic tool evaluates the present and potential impact of an organization. It looks at an organizational mindset and asks specific questions that allow the organization's impact to be evaluated. These diagnostic questions reveal how an organization is focusing its energy and strategy, and the future potential of the organization. The Strategy Evaluator is an excellent tool to help foundations perform an analysis on the Strategy Map of an organization. Each of the 9 sections in the Strategy Evaluator asks specific questions that are disproportionate in their influence. Based on how an organization answers the questions, one can typically predict what they are accomplishing in other areas, or at least predict their capability to achieve. The Strategy Evaluator also evaluates the long-term versus short-term impact of an organization. The Strategy Evaluator tool is in a very rough Alpha format. We are seeking nonprofit experts from universities, foundations, organizations and nonprofits to provide input to take this tool to the Beta stage for testing. Click here to learn more about, and test, the Strategy Evaluator tool. Join the Team! Do you have cutting-edge capacity building concepts? Share them with us, and others who are partnering on this site. This is a joint effort of organizations that are creating world-class, high-performing capacity building efforts for the nonprofit community. Please contact us if your organization would like to upload information and take part in building this community. Contact Curtis Brown at 206-760-1774 or email him at curtis at missionmovers.com. Board Development Survey Please take a moment to fill out our six question board development survey. We are trying to find out if there is a correlation or causation between board development and funding increases. Please click here to go to Survey Monkey for a short survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=799483616840
New Nonprofit Rules Conference Learn a set of NEW nonprofit rules that make capacity building an adventure of excellence. Learn concepts that go against what you have been told in the past. Gain access to the newest organizational capacity building concepts being used by top nonprofit and for-profit organizations around the world. Get an extensive guide of the top resources available to your organization and an overview of what top management experts are saying. Learn why some organizations improve capacity while others don't. Learn the barriers to your own capacity building. Get a bird's eye view of how to do market research and market journaling. See how you can access the global world and why nonprofits should or should not outsource to global cities like Bangalore. Get access to a secure Internet page that includes PowerPoints, PDF's, bibliographies, podcasts and links. And be the first group to access new tools to wow foundations and improve planning.	Great Capacity Building Interviews We are organizing capacity builders to put their cutting-edge trainings online. Our partners are putting together a "Best of the Best" series of interviews to empower nonprofits. Listen to top experts like Jim Collins (below), Howard Schultz, and Jack and Suzy Welch to name just a few. Click here to review the current list of interviews. Contact us if you would like to upload your training.
High Impact Nonprofits Workshop This session will look at case examples of high performing nonprofits like Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Byrraju Foundation in India, Kiva based out of San Francisco, Donors Choose from NY and a few others. These cases studies will give you a glimpse of *the three fundamental rules* of capacity building. The day will compare these organizations to top companies like Starbucks, Costco and GE to see that the laws of capacity building are very similar to those in the for-profit sector. In addition to reviewing top organizations, you will be introduced to an overview of critical books, resources and reports to follow-up on with. To ensure that this introduction to nonprofit excellence is for you, go to www.misionmovers.com and download the reports on the front page to read an indepth overview of what will be presented. This session will help you kick-start your nonprofit to the next level.	Join the Team! Do you have cutting-edge capacity building concepts? Share them with us, and others who are partnering on this site. This is a joint effort of organizations that are creating world-class, high-performing capacity building efforts for the nonprofit community. Please contact us if your organization would like to upload information and take part in building this community. Contact Curtis Brown at 206-760-1774 or email him at curtis at missionmovers.com Event Sponsors:
Soon we will be offering Six Sigma training for nonprofits. Don't miss out on this intense training.

curtispbrown — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:36:34 CDT

The Strategy Mapping process generates an initial plan in less than two hours and is an ongoing process that is dynamic and metric-centric. It provides an organization-led process that is simple and fun to do, and requires minimal consulting help to learn, test, integrate and adjust. The plan creates a visual graph that makes an organization’s strategy clear to anyone. Finally organizations have a process that makes strategic planning not only worthwhile, but also indispensable. This process creates a strategy based on an integrative process, instead of a simple list of un-integrated goals and objectives based on the number of votes it received in the boardroom.

This process rejects the sacred cow argument, “if we had more money we could do more." It is this mindset that keeps organizations focused on activities instead of strategies.

What is meant by this? Research shows that organizations do activities, and on the surface most activities seem to add value to the mission. For instance, if we believe that the activity of tutoring helps young people, then we believe if we had more money we could do more tutoring -- and more kids would be helped.

There are a number of problems with this line of thinking. First, many, if not most tutoring programs have trouble getting enough youth to participate. If that’s not a problem, there is little indication that the activity of tutoring helped the youth. However, some tutoring programs do show that the tutoring caused marked improvement. On the flip side, there are youth programs without tutoring that show improved academic achievement. Why the difference? We have this discrepancy due to the absence of strategy by some and not others.

The model of focusing on high impact strategy work requires a complete paradigm shift. This shift is the “Asset Allocation” mindset. Research suggests that most great leaders have this mindset. This mindset believes all the resources we need are already in the system. It is a matter of doing a more effective job of allocating these resources in a focused manner that leverages “disproportionate influencing” factors. By focusing internal and external organizational momentum around these factors, organizations create results that exceed comparable organizations.

The asset allocation mindset is the quintessential paradox. By focusing on the most effective use of resources, it creates value for employees, clients, donors and volunteers at such a higher rate that it begins to attract additional capital without even asking for it.

Come to a New Nonprofit Rules conference and learn how to do strategy mapping. Click here to try this tool now in beta. The idea of mapping comes from the book Blue Ocean Strategy.

curtispbrown — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:34:07 CDT

The Alpha diagnostic tool will be available in March 2007. Please click here to view outline of tool concept.

Also, Jim Collins author of Good to Great has a diagnostic tool that you can test for your organization.Click here to try the organizational diagnostic tool. Contact us if you need a replacement for the economic engine. We have come up with a replacement that we call the "Mission Mover" or the "Singularity of Programs."

Knowing about the singularity of programs or Mission Movers will allow you to do a much better job of concentrating energy to high performance activities.

Again, please contact us by email or by phone if you would like to be part of the process of creating a new nonprofit-centric diagnostic tool. We are looking for people from all over the world.

curtispbrown — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:32:00 CDT

Curtis Brown
Head Provocateur
Email: curtis@nonprofitrules.com
Phone: 206-760-1774

Brian Bigelow
Chief Innovation Actualizer
Email: brian@nonprofitrules.com
Phone: 206-760-1774

Harry A. Thomas
Chief Innovation Safari Trainer
Email: harry@marketinghat.biz
Phone: 206-778-2541

curtispbrown — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:29:50 CDT

There is a New Nonprofit Rule: The future has arrived and the old rules of development are on their way out. One such rule is following the donor pyramid. It was once true that to raise a lot of money you needed major donors. This is no longer true.

Typical fundraising for organizations involves a Donor Pyramid. The very tip of it is comprised of all the major donors you have. Obtaining these major donors has traditionally been the goal of every nonprofit. Current wisdom states that these donors are what make your organization profitable and sustainable, plus lend it credibility. The large base of donors at the bottom of the pyramid, those $100 or less donors, are not considered the life blood of the organization. Minimal resources are spent on keeping them connected to the organization.

That’s all changed now. Offered throughout the year, this 2 ½ hour session will take a look at the new fund development paradigm. You will look at case studies from organizations like Donor Choose and the Democratic Party. You will also get an in-depth case on a new organization that is the talk of the world – KIVA. Kiva turns the Donor Pyramid on its head. No longer are the large base of $100 donors less than, now they are more than. How? Kiva’s website makes the small donor a hero. Donate a mere $25 or $50 and you can get your own loan portfolio, showing which businesses you loan to by gender, by sector and by country. Why not upload your own photo to your own page on their website to talk about yourself, and explain why you are lending to an entrepreneur. Even better yet, list the website for your own business and get a little marketing out of it. Kiva takes the average Jane donor and gives them a place to look – and act – like a mini Gates foundation. This session will review a number of these new organizations and compare them to the status quo. To register online and pay by credit card click here OR to pay by check click here for the registration form to attend this session.

Below are a few quotes about the organizations being presented:

"Americans are a generous people, but the sad truth is that charitable giving is just not keeping pace with income... Why? For many potential donors, the biggest obstacle is lack of faith... They just aren't confident that the money they give will actually end up helping people... DonorsChoose.org, is not just helping — directly helping — New York City kids, it may eventually change the face of philanthropy. I know, because I tried it."—Newsweek

CNNMoney.com got it right when it reported about Kiva on January 17, 2006, “If you've got 25 bucks, a PC and a PayPal account, you've now got the wherewithal to be an international financier.”

Says Premal Shah, Kiva President, "Today, your average person can't actually invest in small businesses in the developing world." By creating Kiva, Shah says, "we're tapping into this new source of capital," which is ordinary people.

Cost: Just $35 for either session

curtispbrown — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:27:24 CDT

Tuesday May 15, 2007
9:30 am – 12:00 pm
or
1:00 pm – 3:30pm
2100 Building
2100 24th Ave. S
Seattle, Washington

What makes a nonprofit high performing and an attractor of resources while others sit in mediocrity?

What will make your nonprofit the talk of the town and the darling of funders?

This session will look at case examples of high performing nonprofits like Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Byrraju Foundation in India, Kiva based out of San Francisco, Donors Choose from NY and a few others. These cases studies will give you a glimpse of the three fundamental rules of capacity building. The day will compare these organizations to top companies like Starbucks, Costco and GE to see that the laws of capacity building are very similar to those in the for-profit sector. In addition to reviewing top organizations, you will be introduced to an overview of critical books, resources and reports that you can follow-up on.

To ensure that this introduction to nonprofit excellence is for you, click on this link, http://nonprofitrules.com/Newrulescapacity1.pdf, to read an indepth overview of what will be presented. This session will help you kick-start your nonprofit to the next level – so take time today to reserve your spot for May 15th by sending in the registration form that you can dowload here. ( http://nonprofitrules.com/highimpact.pdf ).

The cost for this 2-1/2 hour session is only $35 and will be hosted at the 2100 building. You may choose to attend either the morning or afternoon session.

Please contact Curtis Brown by phone at 207-760-1774 or by email curtis@nonprofitrules.com with questions.

curtispbrown — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:26:10 CDT

Welcome to the conference and training calendar. Please let us know if you can't find the training you are looking for. Just click on the event title on the date for more information on that event. To learn more about our conferences please click here

April 2007

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curtispbrown — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:24:03 CDT

CLICK HERE or go to http://nonprofitrules.com/Newrulescapacity1.pdf to get your free copy of this 30-page document. Please call or email with feedback and become part of the team to create the final draft.

This report will spell out many of the common myths to capacity building. You will learn why board development produces little and why traditional strategic planning fails in execution. You will also learn what type of mindsets will destroy your efforts to increase your reach. In addition you will learn what type of leadership you need to develop to create lasting infrastructure change. Be prepared to be challenged.

curtispbrown — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:22:18 CDT

Interview with Jack and Suzy Welch This Interview is a must read for those that want to know what a board is suppose to do. Scroll to 50:00 to listen to their takes on board responsibility.	Interview With Jim Collins The number one, best selling interview ever on Charlie Rose. A must listen for any nonprofit practitioner.
Interview With Howard Schultz Is community important in building an organization? Listen to Howard Schultz explain why he believes it's the future and the present. The interview begins at 5:15 after a brief interview with President Bush -- push the scroll button on the bottom of the picture to move past the President's interview.	Interview With Michael Porter Michael Porter of Harvard will take you through the concept of competition in this insightful interview.
Interview With Muhammad Yunus This is a great interview with one of the world's best nonprofit practitioners.

curtispbrown — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:37:44 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

curtispbrown — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:03:13 CST

Our Conference Strategy

The New Rules conference is designed to push agencies toward cutting edge aproaches and ideas. Below you find a description and visual of how our conference work. Pleaseclick here for a 10 page detailed description of the New Nonprofit Rules conference.

To show you the stategy for the conferences a strategy map and its description follows:

The value curves (the graphed points that create a line) for our Mission Movers strategy canvas show three types of conferences: high-end, average cost, and Mission Mover. Each group has a different set of priorities for putting on a conference. Why is this? One assumption is that high-end organization executives like to get away to nice locations and have all of their needs met, and they believe that the high price they are paying means they are getting cutting edge information that gives them a competitive advantage.

Another assumption is that smaller nonprofits like to go to hotels too and have a nice lunch served and sit in nice breakout sessions. We also assume that people like breakout sessions, and nice big handout books full of information that they can use when they leave -- even though it will never be opened again. Our goal was to challenge all these assumptions and learn how to put on a conference that participants leave saying “that is the best conference I have been to.”

What did we learn by doing the above strategy canvas? First, we made sure all our conferences had cutting edge material. To our surprise, while we got strong feedback for having some of the best information, people still did not rate our events that high.

Next, we recognized we were spending a lot of time and moneymaking and serving lunch. So at the next event we had people go out to lunch on their own. We had to make sure we chose a venue where that is possible. We were pleasantly to find that no one ever asked why we don’t offer lunch, and they actually like taking a break off site. It also gave people a chance to process some of the cutting edge material.

We then began to question the idea of handouts. How important are they, and how do ours rate to other conferences? Again, our research turned up surprising results. Keep handouts to a minimum, no color and make them simple. We never would have asked the handouts question if the above strategy canvas strategy did not ask us to compare ourselves.

This comparison spurred a set of questions that would not have happened if it were not for the visual of the strategy canvas. Up to this point much of our work had been to differentiate our events from others, but that didn’t seem to make a big difference to attendees.

Next we asked what would make us completely different from other events and create great value for our attendees. We decided that we would provide pre-conference reading material so we could spend more time doing activities and less on presentation. This made a big splash with attendees but we felt it was still not enough. At this time we are testing post-conference follow-up on an assignment we gave all attendees. To our shock, 74% of attendees have done the homework at some level compared to our projection of just 40%.

The follow-up with nonprofits has now become part of our value curve. The next factor we plan to test in the next 60 days is adding follow-up cohorts for motivated people who want to go deeper in a group without paying high price consulting fees. We hope this value curve will set us apart from everyone else. As we went through our canvas did you notice that the focus was not on the activity but how we did it – strategy.

curtispbrown — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 13:58:17 CST

The New Nonpropfit Rules
This is a digital document that is given to conference partipants as pre-conference reading material. Participants are also asked to read a case on Kiva produced by Mission Movers Group.

The New Rules Workbook
The New Rules Workbook will take your organization through thee

curtispbrown — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 11:48:00 CST

Click here or go to http://nonprofitrules.com/secure.htm to get information discussed in the trainings. Below you will find attachements that you may download to help you follow through on exercises from the New Nonprofit Rules conference.

19
Turning The Donor Pyramid Upside Down

curtispbrown — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:30:17 CST