- Jeanne Bell, CEO of CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, explored how to achieve nonprofit sustainability.
Becoming sustainable: Don't
delay those tough decisions
CompassPoint Nonprofit Services CEO Jeanne Bell drew from personal experience in her discussion of nonprofit sustainability, which wrapped up the two days of breakout sessions on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 30. As her first fiscal year as CEO closed, Bell discovered the San Francisco Bay Area nonprofit had lost $200,000.
Delaying making hard decisions can be very costly, she said. Sobered by that reality, she got to work making decisions that had been deferred too long -- such as ending a computer training program that was costing lots of money and was no longer needed. "We were writing manuals to teach people how to use Word," she said.
She came up with this prescription:
- Before you begin, be sure to allocate all the time, money, administrative overhead, rent and other costs to your programs to identify what is profitable and what is not.
- Do more of what your organization is really good at that also is profitable
- Don't be afraid to do things that have little mission impact, such as fundraisers or gift shops, but that support your high-mission-impact activites that lose money.
- Stop doing things that neither make money nor advance your mission.
Bell recommended including your organization's finance person in conversations about program and mission using the four recommendations described above. This can lead to an open, balanced approach where mission impact is weighed against revenues and costs and sustainability can be achieved and maintained.
- Rosetta Thurman, top left, kicked off the Wednesday program with a presentation on career building for the next generation of nonprofit leaders. Donna Ching of the University of Hawaii talked about creating and implementing successful strategic plans. Lisa Maruyama, HANO president and CEO, welcomed participants to the second day of the conference, which offered some 60 sessions over two days.
- Dale Bonar of the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust and Stephan Jost and Lynne Johnson of the Honolulu Academy of Art discuss their recent mergers. This year, the Kauai Public, Oahu, Maui Coastal and Hawaii Island land trusts merged to create the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust and the Academy of Art merged with the Contemporary Museum bringing together and strengthening organizations with similar missions.
- Steve Petranik, editor of Hawaii Business, helped present a discussion of Hawaii's changing news media with John Temple, editor of Honolulu Civil Beat, and Mark Platte, news director for Hawaii News Now. Petranik made the point that a monthly magazine like his requires long lead times. "The January edition is already on my desk," he said.
- Kim Payton and Oren Schlieman put chef's hats on those who attended their write-on-the-wall session exploring why innovation is important, why nonprofits stay stuck in the box and strategies to break out of those boxes.
- Selena Ching, executive director of the Hawaii Youth Symphony Association and HANO board member, listens to Alan Tang make a point about the need for nonprofits to brand themselves. Tang, president and CEO of Olomana Marketing, is also president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals-Aloha Chapter, conference partners.
- Jeff Mikulina of the Blue Planet Foundation, a veteran lobbyist at the Hawaii Legislature, provided tips for effectively advocating, including this one: If you find yourself having to explain your position to a decision maker, you've already lost.
- Earl Hisatomi of Hawaii Insurance Consultants, HANO's member-benefit partner for D&O insurance, passes out information to an attendee at the conference expo.
