As the pandemic restricts where we can go and what we can do, there will undoubtedly be time for some extracurricular reading/listening this summer. Below are 15 books, blogs, and podcasts that I would characterize as essential reading/listening for any nonprofit professional.
A SUMMER LEARNING LIST: THE BOOKS
1. Donor CARE: How to Keep Donors Coming Back After the First Gift (John Haydon, 2020)
Nationally, nonprofits retained, on average, just 45% of donors from one year to the next in 2019. Given how hard it can be to get a gift in the first place, the idea that you lose 55% of those hard-won successes annually is exasperating when you think about it. Donor CARE, was written to address this challenge, concluding that if you CARE for donors, i.e., Connect with, Appreciate, Reply, and Encourage them after the first gift, you will retain them.
The principles John Haydon espouses in this book are not unlike the tactics that the Savannah Bananas Baseball team employs to lure sell-out crowds to a dilapidated old stadium in Savannah, Georgia to watch minor league baseball. Their players are not bad, but their players are definitely NOT the focus of the game. The focus is on the fans – they get a crazy video link when they buy a ticket telling them that their tickets are being individually printed and will be delivered on a silk pillow. Next, they get an email with a wacky music playlist to listen to on the way to the game. At the park, they are greeted by parking penguins who give everyone a free “freezie pop,” and the list of attention to fans throughout the game goes on, and on, and on. I wrote about it here. In short, the Savannah Bananas’ fans keep coming back to support the team because the team makes them feel that the whole shebang, from buying the ticket, to attending the game, to shaking hands with team members as they leave the stadium, is ALL ABOUT THEM and that THEY ARE REALLY, REALLY SPECIAL.
Sadly, Haydon wrote the book as he was dying of cancer. His advice on donor communications is timeless, however. It’s pithy and practical, just what those of us in small shops need. It’s available on Amazon for $9.99 (Kindle) and $24.95 (Paperback). Not to be missed.
2. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (David Allen, Revised Edition, 2015)
I once had a staff person who scoffed at the idea of adopting a digital task/project manager, claiming that “if I don’t physically write it down, I’ll forget it.” I explained that “forgetting it” reliably was the only way he was going to have the peace of mind to get anything else done. That’s the point of adopting some system for managing all of the planes you can see in the air outside of your nonprofit control tower. You need to be an air traffic controller – not everyone can take off or land at once – you have to manage that to prevent a cataclysmic disaster, which is a metaphor for talking about managing workflow, as shown in the diagram below:
I’ve written previously about a lot of tools for doing that, including Nozbe for managing personal as well as group projects and tasks, Evernote for archiving and easily retrieving important email and web clips, Start.me and Netvibes for easily staying on top of the blogs and social media pages that you follow, TripLog for easy, inexpensive, and automatic tracking of your work-related mileage, and Zapier in conjunction with Google Sheets and Evernote for automating the process of tracking job-related expenses. Getting Things Done takes all of this a step further by providing the rationale and context for using these tools effectively. In this completely revised edition, author David Allen, recognized as a top expert on personal and organizational productivity worldwide, offers this synopsis of the book:
What follows is a compilation of more than three decades’ worth of discoveries about personal and organizational productivity – a guide to maximizing output and minimizing input, and to doing so in a world in which work is increasingly voluminous, ever shifting, and ambiguous. I (and many colleagues) have spent hundreds of thousands of hours coaching some of the brightest and busiest people you can imagine, “in the trenches” at their desks, in their homes with their doors closed, helping them capture, clarify, and organize their work and commitments at hand. The methods I have uncovered have proved to be highly effective in all types of organizations, at every job level, across cultures, and even at home and school. After years of coaching and training some of the most sophisticated and productive professionals … I know the world is hungry for these methods.
At just 12.88 (paperback) or 12.99 (Kindle) on Amazon, the book is a steal and should be required reading for anyone who wants to exercise better control over his or her life.
3. Making Meetings Work: Achieving High Quality Decisions (John E. Tropman, Second Edition, 2003)
If you’re juggling a lot of balls, the last thing you need is to waste time in unproductive meetings, especially meetings that you call. Many people think that bad meetings are just an inevitable fact of life, or, as Tropman puts it:
[f]or many people, meetings are a lot like the weather – everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it. Poor meetings, like bad weather, are accepted. Many have come to accept the ‘fact’ that they will be largely boring, unproductive, and generally a pain in the neck …. Like back pain, people think bad meetings just have to be endured.
As I wrote here, however, there are many things that we can easily learn and do to make the meetings we run productive for everyone. Tropman’s book elaborates on these principles and provides additional value, speaking to challenges we all face in meetings, like managing emotional elements and conflicting values. He does so in a way that is straightforward and, at times, very funny:
A ‘terminal fantasy’ was voiced by a corporate executive I interviewed some time ago, who was told by everyone he would go to heaven immediately because of his good deeds. As we were chatting about this, he said:
You know when I get to heaven, I have one wish …. I hope the Lord will grant me a meeting room of my own construction. It will float gently on a piranha-filled river. Each seat will be perched upon a trap door, operated by buttons concealed under my table. The next time someone says, ‘Well, Sam, I don’t mean to object, but …’ I’ll say ‘You sure don’t, Ted’ and push the button, dropping him into the drink. We’ll let the little nippers have at him.
Such hellish fantasies from a heavenly expert suggest some of the difficulties that most of us must experience on a daily basis.
The book is available on Amazon to rent for $16.44 or to purchase in paperback for $37.71. I have never come across another book on running meetings that is more comprehensive or on-point than this one.
4. Making Money with Donor Newsletters (Tom Ahern, 2013)
Fundraising begins with donor communications and distributing a quality, print newsletter to every donor on a quarterly basis is a best practice that we would all do well to follow. Why? Time and time again, as I noted here experts tell us that quality, print newsletters can be a big boost for fundraising. I can say confidently that I’ve followed the recommendations in this book and seen a significant improvement in both donor retention and giving. As author Tom Ahern notes:
Newsletters aren’t about revenue. They’re not little machines for manufacturing additional gifts. Actually, donor newsletters are about retention. They’re meant to help retain donors longer by reporting on the impact that their gifts have had on the world. Any gifts that arrive as a result are pure gravy and not part of the business plan.
Of course, don’t shun the metric, either. “How do you know your donor newsletter is working beautifully?” It’ll bring in a significant number of additional gifts.”
The book is a large-format paperback with plenty of real-life examples of the principles Ahern espouses. At just 166 pages, and a cost of $24.95 on Amazon, it’s a quick read at a very reasonable cost, particularly when you consider the success that Ahern has had in helping organizations transform their newsletters and improve income by as much as 1,000 percent over the last 20+ years. Tom Ahern also has a great newsletter, one of the ones I recommend, below.
5. Simple Development Systems: Successful Fundraising for the One-Person Shop – Grow Relationships, Fund Your Nonprofit’s Mission, and Lose the Overwhelm! (Pamela Grow, 3rd Edition, 2019)
Okay – if you’re small and you feel overwhelmed by the prospect of growing your nonprofit, start with this book. DON’T read anything else on this list or any other first. START HERE with this short, well-written, very unassuming guide that is worth its weight in gold. The other books and resources I've recommended here will build on everything that Pamela suggests about growing an email list, adopting a database system, pursuing grants, and cultivating donors with newsletters, events and other strategies. The basics of getting any small nonprofit fundraising and communications effort up and running are ALL there in 115 pages, which, after you purchase the book, includes access to a ton of additional online worksheets and other tools. Here is some of Pamela Grow’s sage advice:
Clearly individual funding represents your most sustainable base. What’s more, individual donors fund general operating support. That‘s why you’ll want to focus in on your individual donors with a laser-like intensity. And that means having a plan in place for stewarding new and loyal donors, creating a monthly giving program (and working it), communicating consistently and well throughout the year, through all channels, and developing your mid-level and major donors.
At $9.99 (Kindle) and $33.45 (paperback) on Amazon, this book is affordable for anyone and full of advice you can put into practice fast.
6. Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up, and Make a Difference (Kathleen Kelly Janus, 2017)
For five years, Kathleen Kelly Janus toured the country asking the leaders of what she determined to be ‘breakthrough social startups,’ “What is the key to nonprofit success?” When the dust settled, the results of her research revealed five strategies for breakout growth: (1) Testing Ideas, (2) Measuring Impact, (3) Funding Experimentation, (4) Leading Collaboratively, and (5) Telling Compelling Stories.
She offers this advice about how organizations can enhance their programs with testing and prove impact without funding at the early stage:
The solution is to adopt a powerful set of innovation methods – a cycle of researching, brainstorming, prototyping and implementing often called “human-centered design” – that the Silicon Valley entrepreneurship community developed for creating new products and services ….
In the long run, adopting these practices instills a culture of continuous innovation that helps to assure that organizations keep scaling their impact – always experimenting with ways to improve and expand their offerings, while discontinuing efforts that aren’t working so they can focus on new approaches.
The book is available on Amazon for $3.99 (Kindle) and $12.48 (hardcover).
A SUMMER LEARNING LIST: THE BLOGS/NEWSLETTERS
I want to preface this section by encouraging you NOT to sign up for another email list if you can avoid it, but, rather, to engage with the organizations below, where possible, via RSS feed, as I explained in this post. The last thing you need is more email!
7. Board Source
Board source is dedicated to inspiring and supporting excellence in nonprofit governance and board and staff leadership. If you want to build and recruit a better board, this is the place to go for some really excellent materials. I made extensive use of their resources in a series of posts I wrote on Board Development for the small nonprofit.
This a membership site by design, so not everything is free, but an awful lot is and the quality of the materials is excellent. At least once a year, they will let subscribers to their blog, Resources + Solutions, know of their book sale, where they knock 50% off the cost of some great stuff – short, pithy, and practical. Here are a few of the titles I’ve picked up over the years, none more than 100 pages in length and all chock full of useful information:
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- Better Bylaws: Creating Effective Rules for Your Nonprofit Board
- Driving Strategic Planning: A Nonprofit Executive’s Guide
- Engaging Your Board in Fundraising: A Staff’s Guide
8. The Grow Report
This weekly newsletter is authored by Pamela Grow, author of Simple Development Systems, highlighted above, and it is specifically focused on the one-person development shop. For all of the reasons that I recommended the book, I stand behind the Grow Report as a first-rate resource, one to which over 30,000 nonprofit professionals currently subscribe.
9. Network for Good
Network for Good is a company that offers a suite of fundraising and software services for nonprofits. They have a blog targeting nonprofit best practices, marketing, fundraising, and news & research. Obviously, one point of the blog is to sell you their software. But the content is well-written, simply-stated, well-presented, and, in my opinion, relevant to what small marketing and fundraising shops need. So I am a subscriber even if that means telling their sales reps from time to time that I am not in the market for their software.
10. The TechSoup Blog
TechSoup equips nonprofits with transformative technology solutions, usually at a deep discount, and provides the skills training they need to improve lives globally and locally. It’s no secret that the right hardware and software can be a game-changer for a small organization, leveling the playing field for competing with larger organizations in many cases. The TechSoup Blog provides great advice on both choosing and using technology to advance a nonprofit’s mission. Here are a few of the recent titles:
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- Comparison Guide: Video Conferencing Tools for Your Nonprofit
- Getting Started with Microsoft Teams
- The Show Must Go On: Producing a Virtual Nonprofit Event
11. The Tom Ahern Newsletter
This newsletter is an absolutely excellent resource for developing better donor communications and quite a satisfying read, as well. Sign up here. Tom is the author of Making Money with Donor Newsletters, highlighted above. He also wrote the forward to John Haydon’s recent book, also highlighted above. He provides great, practical examples on how to write better donor communications, whether they are newsletters, case statements, publications, or direct mail. He knows what to do and how to do it well – witness this campaign for the Connecticut Human Society:
12. Zapier Blog
Zapier is a software tool for automating workflows, a product I mentioned in connection with my review of Getting Things Done, above. The Zapier team writes a blog, which is a great source for daily advice on productivity, workflow automation, organizational development, and how to get more done with less work, advice that is useful to all of us wearing many hats. Here are a few recent titles:
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- Google Meet vs. Hangouts: What’s the difference?
- How to accomplish nothing and still feel exhausted
- Prioritize your work by taking these 5 steps
A SUMMER LEARNING LIST: THE PODCASTS
13. First Day Podcast
First Day is a weekly, 10-minute show from Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy on current news and research that will help you take your fundraising to the next level. Recent titles include:
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- Lessons from History: How Crises Have Expanded Philanthropy
- Digital Fundraising
- Fundraising from the Business Sector
14. Nonprofits are Messy
Nonprofits are Messy is the name of a blog and a podcast by Joan Garry. Joan offers practical advice on effective nonprofit leadership for Executive Directors, CEOs, board members, development directors, and fundraisers. There’s a great archive organized around the following topics: Fundraising, boards of directors; team building; marketing/communications; culture, self-care, and the nonprofit sector; building your army of the engaged; money and finance; founders and innovation; leadership; and strategy. This is, hands down, one of the best podcasts I know of for nonprofit leaders. Joan provides great, practical advice to challenges that we all face. You will not be disappointed by tuning in to these short, but hard-hitting, episodes. Sample titles include:
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- Why People Don’t Donate (and What You Can Do About It)
- True Confessions of a 5-Star Board Chair
- An Artful Approach to Social Media
15. The Tim Ferriss Show
The Tim Ferriss Show is the podcast of author Tim Ferriss, who gained fame after writing The 4-Hour Work Week, providing ideas for escaping the 9-5 and taking a new lease on life. This podcast is definitely not focused on nonprofits. Rather, the format is generally one of interviewing what Tim calls “world-class performers” from “eclectic areas” (e.g., investing, sports, business, art, education) to extract their tactics, tools, and routines that we can apply to our own lives. These include things like books, morning routines, exercise habits, time-management tricks, and more.
Past guests include Ray Dalio, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Malcolm Gladwell, Arianna Huffington, Walter Isaacson, Andrew Weil, and over 300 more. Some of these shows are over an hour long, but do not worry about getting bored. The show is fascinating. Motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said that “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” I’ve always looked at this admonition from the standpoint of ensuring breadth in what you are reading and listening to, in addition to the friends and family in your midst. And that’s why The Tim Ferriss Show is on this list.
What have I left out that you would include on your list of 15 essential books, blogs and podcasts? Reply with a comment to this post or to me directly at barbara@choosetoimprove.org.