Author Topic: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts  (Read 34108 times)

Travis

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But one serious problem we have is this - due to budget cuts in the school budget, fully 50% of the money we raised last year ($42,000) is going to pay the fucking salary of the IT guy at the school, because the district doesn't cover it.

You'd think there would be a by-law or some state regulation that a charity shouldn't be the source of income for a school employee.  Is he a contractor and not covered by the same rules that govern teachers salaries?  How far in advance are you fundraising to pay him? 

TheGrimSqueaker

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Act II

So you mentioned the volunteer capital for a homemaker and a retiree, do you have a value for a full time employee?  I'm just wondering, because many of our board members have full time jobs.

We are exhausted.  We have too many fundraisers, with the same people doing all of that. 

Now, in general, I think the *right* thing that we do is that we fundraise this year for next year, so we know what we can do going in.

But one serious problem we have is this - due to budget cuts in the school budget, fully 50% of the money we raised last year ($42,000) is going to pay the fucking salary of the IT guy at the school, because the district doesn't cover it.  Why the fuck am I raising money to pay some guy's salary?  (Yes, he is a hard working, useful individual.  No, the school would not be able to do ANY of the electronic-based testing, etc., without him.  But I shouldn't be raising money for this!!)

Also, what we need to be honest about (with the teachers and the Principal), is that we don't have enough volunteers to do the fundraising AND 75% of the students are on free lunch, so we just don't have a pool of money.


Snipped your posting for brevity.  I feel your pain.

The value for a full-time employee?  Just estimate that person's hourly take-home pay as their per-hour effectiveness; that will give you the approximate per-hour fundraising impact for that individual.  If you're talking about a full-time employee *of* the charity, you do NOT count his or her paid hours as volunteer hours under any circumstances.  Work he or she does for your charity off the clock (such as fundraising, or work related to a different domain from the one she or he is paid for) can be counted as volunteer labor.

You're exhausted because you've pushed your volunteers past their limits for two long.  I agree with your philosophy of fundraising this year to create the budget for next year, IF your charity can be made to stick to the budget and not over-spend.

Here are my recommendations for your particular case.  I recommend you call an emergency meeting of the PTA and do the following:

1) Boost volunteer morale by canceling the next two fundraisers immediately.  This will give them a much needed break because right now they're at the point of diminishing returns.  You simply cannot draw any more water from this well.  The school has taken all that there is.  It wasn't due to malice on their part (they're there to educate, not to think), but simple ignorance and inflated expectations.  If the school administration pitches a fit (and they will), tell them it's not open for discussion.  You're scaling back to a sustainable level of fundraising based on your income calculations, before you literally give someone a heart attack.  If they have a problem with that (and they will), tell them they can find another set of parents to milk.  (Hint: if it's a Title I school where 75% of the kids are on the school lunch program, there aren't any more parents to milk, because the ones who give a rat's ass are already doing all they can).

2) Run those income calculations like I set up in Act II to give them an idea of what a group your size "should" be able to do under normal circumstances, using only one network-based fundraiser per year (I recommend a thing-a-thon sponsored by local businesses, instead of a sales based event where your margin is usually less than 50%).  Also put in the constraints on the labor-based fundraising as I illustrated.  Take the number of hours people have been putting into fundraising, and-- this is a seat of my pants estimate-- cut it in half.  That's going to be a lot fewer person-hours than they've been getting.  Set up a spreadsheet, or a graph, or some kind of visual representation.  These folks are going to need to have their noses rubbed into how out of line their expectations have been.

3) You (PTA) got into this situation because you allowed yourself to give more of a fuck about the school's IT problem than the school did.  You adopted the monkeys from someone else's circus.  Naturally the monkeys are out of control: they don't answer to you and they know it.  So, take a shot of vodka, and cut the monkeys loose.  (Done properly, this will NOT result in unemployment for the IT person, but talk to her/him first and let him know about the budget disaster.  This is a professional courtesy, because you're about to use that individual as a pawn in your negotiations with the school... actually it's not going to be a negotiation but you don't need to reveal that fact just yet).  Around this time the school should be getting wind of what you're up to, but it doesn't matter, because Step 4.

4) After you've done 1, 2, and 3, tell the principal that you can't afford to pay school employees anymore.   As much as you want to carry the load for them, the camel's back is severely sprained, and they'll have to walk for a bit.  If they break the camel's back, their income will go to zero (and they know it).

The shit will hit the fan for a few minutes, there will be a lot of hand-wringing, but in reality the school board (and/or the state) will HAVE to step in the minute someone realizes they can't do all their mandatory No Student Left Behind computer based testing without an IT guy.  Believe me, the money will be found somewhere.  You might not even have to wait that long: the second the principal finds himself unable to download his favorite porn (one firewall tweak from the "outbound" IT guy should do it), they'll find the funding.

5) Work up a budget that fits the numbers you crunched back in step 2.  This is the pool of available money and person hours you have.  There's no more rodent rectum in the pile at present.  Someone's going to suggest calling the Pied Piper.  See to it that they don't.

6) Call the local newspaper and give a heartfelt interview about how everyone is So Exhausted And Disappointed.  Have them take pictures of a sad child or a mother with aching feet.  The press loves that shit.

7) Give the story a couple days to percolate and then start hitting up the local businesses that rely on the school or its students as consumers.

8) In the meantime, hit up the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation (they're hot for computer related education) and see if they can't cut you some cash, one charity to another.  Also, make some postings on donorschoose.org or some similar school based Web site to cover any equipment costs you might have.  This will expand your reach substantially beyond your admittedly stressed community, because you'll be reaching prospective donors on a national basis.

This is how you're going to save your sanity, the rest of the PTA, the IT guy, and your school.  In that order (because you tried doing it with the priorities ordered the other way around, and it didn't work).

TheGrimSqueaker

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But one serious problem we have is this - due to budget cuts in the school budget, fully 50% of the money we raised last year ($42,000) is going to pay the fucking salary of the IT guy at the school, because the district doesn't cover it.

You'd think there would be a by-law or some state regulation that a charity shouldn't be the source of income for a school employee.  Is he a contractor and not covered by the same rules that govern teachers salaries?  How far in advance are you fundraising to pay him?

There doesn't have to be a law to keep people from making organizationally codependent decisions, and a charity's bylaws can't be expected to cover everything that comes up.  The PTA is a separate organizational entity from the school; they can't be forced to cover the school's spending.  Overall, the situation resulted from some bad decision making on the part of the PTA. It's fixable, as soon as the PTA realizes it's the dog and the school is the tail.  The money they raise is the money the school has available to spend.  If they want to spend it all on an IT guy, that's OK and more power to them.

gimp

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Holy shit, grim, you know how to run things.

Also, on the topic of fundraising money by soliciting gifts vs soliciting sales - I don't know if others share my opinion, but it's this: I may be happy to donate $x, but I would never want to spend $x to buy the useless shit being peddled as a fundraiser. This has very, very few exceptions. Donations are donations, donations via purchases are purchases and I evaluate them on a do-I-buy-this basis (no, I don't want your useless crap.)

TheGrimSqueaker

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Holy shit, grim, you know how to run things.

Also, on the topic of fundraising money by soliciting gifts vs soliciting sales - I don't know if others share my opinion, but it's this: I may be happy to donate $x, but I would never want to spend $x to buy the useless shit being peddled as a fundraiser. This has very, very few exceptions. Donations are donations, donations via purchases are purchases and I evaluate them on a do-I-buy-this basis (no, I don't want your useless crap.)

More people believe the way you do, than otherwise.  Thing-a-thons gross far more than sales on a per hour basis, and you get to keep nearly all of what you earn instead of the up-to-50% you get from charity chocolate and similar crap.

mm1970

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But one serious problem we have is this - due to budget cuts in the school budget, fully 50% of the money we raised last year ($42,000) is going to pay the fucking salary of the IT guy at the school, because the district doesn't cover it.

You'd think there would be a by-law or some state regulation that a charity shouldn't be the source of income for a school employee.  Is he a contractor and not covered by the same rules that govern teachers salaries?  How far in advance are you fundraising to pay him?
We fundraise a year in advance.  So the money we allocate this year was raised last year.  We had originally set aside that $42k for four specialists (PE, art, music, computers).  The computer guy is a part time employee, and a small amount would go to give him more hours (so that he doesn't quit).  The specialists work at several different schools.  So the kids get 90 mins, approximately of PE, art, music every 2 weeks.

This year, the district gave a grant for art and music.  I think they found the budget for PE.  That meant the principal decided to allocate more of the specialist money to the computer guy for getting the school ready for the new testing this year, that is all computer based and is in each classroom instead of the computer lab.

Our budget meeting is next week.  We have only raised $59k this year (our budget this past year was $90k).  I expect we'll be at $70k or $75k by the end of the year (one more fundraiser).

mm1970

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Holy shit, grim, you know how to run things.

Also, on the topic of fundraising money by soliciting gifts vs soliciting sales - I don't know if others share my opinion, but it's this: I may be happy to donate $x, but I would never want to spend $x to buy the useless shit being peddled as a fundraiser. This has very, very few exceptions. Donations are donations, donations via purchases are purchases and I evaluate them on a do-I-buy-this basis (no, I don't want your useless crap.)

More people believe the way you do, than otherwise.  Thing-a-thons gross far more than sales on a per hour basis, and you get to keep nearly all of what you earn instead of the up-to-50% you get from charity chocolate and similar crap.
This is why I am so misplaced as the CO-VP of fundraising.  The restaurant nights where the school gets 15%?  Eff that, why don't just give you $10? 

mm1970

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1) Boost volunteer morale by canceling the next two fundraisers immediately.  This will give them a much needed break because right now they're at the point of diminishing returns.  You simply cannot draw any more water from this well.  The school has taken all that there is.  It wasn't due to malice on their part (they're there to educate, not to think), but simple ignorance and inflated expectations.  If the school administration pitches a fit (and they will), tell them it's not open for discussion.  You're scaling back to a sustainable level of fundraising based on your income calculations, before you literally give someone a heart attack.  If they have a problem with that (and they will), tell them they can find another set of parents to milk.  (Hint: if it's a Title I school where 75% of the kids are on the school lunch program, there aren't any more parents to milk, because the ones who give a rat's ass are already doing all they can).

2) Run those income calculations like I set up in Act II to give them an idea of what a group your size "should" be able to do under normal circumstances, using only one network-based fundraiser per year (I recommend a thing-a-thon sponsored by local businesses, instead of a sales based event where your margin is usually less than 50%).  Also put in the constraints on the labor-based fundraising as I illustrated.  Take the number of hours people have been putting into fundraising, and-- this is a seat of my pants estimate-- cut it in half.  That's going to be a lot fewer person-hours than they've been getting.  Set up a spreadsheet, or a graph, or some kind of visual representation.  These folks are going to need to have their noses rubbed into how out of line their expectations have been.
Also edited for brevity. I  am going to bring this up at our budget meeting next week.

Our next fundraiser is in 3 weeks, and we've already solicited and received about $15,000 of donations to auction, so I can't exactly cancel it.  However, we have discussed (briefly) NOT doing an auction next year (which means by the next time we have one, I'll not be in this position anymore, yay!)

As a board, we have tried to move away from the sales of candy and such because it's so labor intensive for the amount of work.  You are right about the "thing-a-thon".  We should try to focus more on that next year, because a lot of local businesses are willing to donate there.

On the grants and such, we have a few parents (my neighbor specifically) who are harping on getting them - we have people interested in writing proposals but...we really don't know where to start.  So thank you for those links.  Even my husband (who has a PhD in engineering and writes a lot of proposals) has offered to write grants.

I think we need to consider what works for the least amount of work. We've found that local banks and businesses will often donate $200-$500.  We haven't fully tapped that market.  We need to look at grants.

As a Title I school (you nailed that one), we really cannot get blood out of a stone.  Our fundraising abilities are severely limited.  We would rather spend our time on educational and fun things (science nights, festivals, field trips, etc.)

There's a reason why we don't have much help anymore.  There are a lot of parents in the upper grades (5th and 6th) who are so burned out from being on the PTA board that they don't want to do anything anymore.  I totally understand that now.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Also edited for brevity. I  am going to bring this up at our budget meeting next week.

Our next fundraiser is in 3 weeks, and we've already solicited and received about $15,000 of donations to auction, so I can't exactly cancel it.  However, we have discussed (briefly) NOT doing an auction next year (which means by the next time we have one, I'll not be in this position anymore, yay!)

On the grants and such, we have a few parents (my neighbor specifically) who are harping on getting them - we have people interested in writing proposals but...we really don't know where to start.  So thank you for those links.  Even my husband (who has a PhD in engineering and writes a lot of proposals) has offered to write grants.

I think we need to consider what works for the least amount of work. We've found that local banks and businesses will often donate $200-$500.  We haven't fully tapped that market.  We need to look at grants.

As a Title I school (you nailed that one), we really cannot get blood out of a stone.  Our fundraising abilities are severely limited.  We would rather spend our time on educational and fun things (science nights, festivals, field trips, etc.)

There's a reason why we don't have much help anymore.  There are a lot of parents in the upper grades (5th and 6th) who are so burned out from being on the PTA board that they don't want to do anything anymore.  I totally understand that now.

The thing about the Title I school wasn't meant as an insult, it's just that the behavior pattern is so similar.  I live in a very poor state, and I see the pattern all over.

Heads up on the grants.  They are generally for one-shot special projects, and generally can't be used for operating budgets or salaries.  It's relatively easy to get people to buy (or give) you capital equipment, but raising money for salaries is like pulling teeth. However, if you can get a bunch of equipment given to the school, it may free up money elsewhere in the budget to afford the specialist teachers.  Also, read each company's standards carefully because you might be able to just ask for money.

I should probably teach you how to write grants.  Cut and paste the following into a word processor file; it's the entire grant writer body of knowledge for planet Earth.

To get grants requires at least one adult willing to sit on their butt for 2 hours a night, every night, for a month, and type intelligibly in English.

Collect the following information and call it the Super Duper Grant Writer Kit:

* the school's address
* the PTA's address (if it differs from the school's)
* your federal tax ID number that can be used to prove you're a non-profit
* a digital copy of your tax exempt letter from the IRS
* some pictures of your kids
* some statistics about your school and neighborhood: grades served, kids enrolled, etc
* some evidence your school is Title I (use your imagination)
* key dates for football tournaments, art museum tours you'd like to have funded, graduation, band performances, etc
* a copy of last year's budget
* a copy of the last annual report

Make a big deal about giving The Kit and the instructions in this posting to carefully selected volunteers who can communicate well in English. You're going to teach them how to write grants.

Each adult takes on an assignment.  Give "computer lab" to your husband, obviously.  The remaining assignments are
"athletics department"
"music equipment"
"field trips"
"art supplies"
... and any other you'd care to name.  Each adult gets one assignment.  This is so that they don't duplicate effort.

The assignment is to sit on your duff for two hours a day, five days a week, doing the following:

1) Type words and phrases into your search engine, featuring the word "grant".  For example your husband might use the words "computer grants for schools" (Finding the grant is about 50% of the work)

2) Or, brainstorm companies that are already operating in your community, that sell products or services related to what you're looking for... or that USE that kind of product.  Lots of larger corporations have gift programs, you just need to hit up their Web site.  After the first month pickings will get slim if you want to avoid companies the other grant writers have already hit up.

3) So, find the Web site of a company that has a grant you can qualify for (some do, some don't).  Many companies focus exclusively on academic giving, or athletics, or fine arts.  So a grant you don't qualify for MIGHT be useful to the person doing a different assignment: E-mail them the URL so they can follow up.  When you've got a grant or donation you qualify for, go through the online application.  You will use information or files in your toolkit to answer the questions you are given.

4) Plead creatively about how your poor, at-risk students need what you're asking for.  (Use a word processing program with copy and paste, modifying the text as needed to suit the company you're soliciting).  Note that if you're hitting up a retail company it's far easier to get products than it is to get money.  If you have a couple skilled E-Bayers there may be ways to turn excess product *into* money, but save that for further down the road.

5) Say nice things about the company.

6) WRITE DOWN any names, URLs, E-mail addresses, etc. you visit.  If your school doesn't qualify, write that down too so somebody else doesn't waste time barking up that particular tree.

7) Repeat steps 1-6 for a minimum of five (5) solicitations per day.  If you expect to take a day off, get more solicitations done the day before.  After finishing, E-mail all the other grant writing volunteers about who you hit up.  This ensures you won't duplicate your effort.

8) Have someone-- YOU-- set up a Facebook site for your PTA if there isn't one already, and collect E-mail from all the volunteers who are writing grants.  The second there's a "yes", blab about it all over social media and give the company a nice e-gasm for their wonderful corporate citizenship.  Keep a record of what companies came through for you and write them a thank-you note that's also a receipt for their donation.  The PTA Treasurer should sign it.

You now know as much as the $100k per year grant writers.  Seriously: this is *all* they do.  They keep it a big secret and act like it's voodoo because they know they can bill the living crap out of some poor charity for their "expertise", when in reality they're filling out online forms.  Any high school dropout can do it, if they have The Kit and the ability to communicate fluently in writing.

People don't jump into it themselves because of all this fake hype surrounding the idea that it's a specialized skill.  It's not.  You just have to know enough about what you're raising money for to make an intelligent case about it in writing.  Most of the corporate grants are freaking drop-down menus.

Expect a hit rate of about 10%.  That's why I'm assigning you five solicitations per day.  The yes or no answers usually follow two to four weeks after you submit the request.  When the first "yes" comes in, it's a fantastic feeling, and then you get the idea that you're unstoppable as long as you put in five requests a day (and that happens to be true; if you were doing it "full-time" you'd write ten or twelve a day).

Now, go out and get that money.

Genevieve

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Awesome thread! I'm bookmarking this to refer to in the future.

As far as finding charities to give to and work in, I really like the book A Path Appears.

(http://www.amazon.com/Path-Appears-Transforming-Creating-Opportunity/dp/0385349912/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429217749&sr=1-1&keywords=a+path+appears)

The book did an overview of different areas giving, levels of effectiveness, weak spots, etc.

For example, schools (particularly colleges) get a lot more $$$ than early childhood intervention.

Also, the book makes the case that having the lowest overhead isn't necessarily best. 99% overhead is bullshit, but too low will mean less marketing, good employees that will eventually move on to better care for themselves and their families, etc.

I thought the book was good. Has any one else read this and have objections?

DeepEllumStache

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustacianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #60 on: April 17, 2015, 07:46:53 PM »

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a somewhat lazy version of evil incarnate. 

I utterly love your writing style. The "behind the curtain" bit of nonprofits can be hair-raising.

My experience doesn't even come close to yours, but definitely hits some impressive points of incompetent management.

Back when I was in college, the national mothership for some college-based volunteer groups had a 2 person staff (a married couple who hadn't been paid in a couple of years so the board leaned towards the rubber stamp side). The directors decided to invite unpaid interns one summer to the mothership in Florida. Instead of their first foray into interns being a manageable 1 or 2, they invited 10 of us from all over the country. Because nothing could ever go wrong making yourself outnumbered by opinionated Millennials who have experience running their own college's programs.

Outside of having housing covered due to the directors owning a couple of rental properties, we quickly found out that the nonprofit was insanely disorganized. Even on the resource side, we had a 3 computers for the interns to get work done. The directors realized about halfway through the summer that, while they loved using the ideas/talents, they hated when the interns challenged any of their ideas.

Instead of just admitting the whole 10 interns for your first shot at interns was a bad idea, the directors came to the double-wide on a Friday night to fire the 5 of us (does it count as firing if it's from an unpaid position?) They decided to justify it by accusing us of drunken driving on the way home from a retreat. Funny thing was that I was the driver for the time period in question and at that point in my life I didn't drink alcohol (something the directors were aware of since we hung out together on the weekends). Before they left, the couple required us to vacate the double-wide by the next afternoon since conveniently they had someone visiting the next day that was interested in renting.

At this point you're looking at an impressively huge failure from an org management side. Even in a normal firing, my grad school management prof pointed out that the most important thing when you fire someone is to always control their access to anything that the company owns. Obviously they're not going to be happy with you. This is why you always walk fired employees out the door. Even worse than a normal firing, you just fired 5 people at their place of residence in an uncontrolled situation for a lie that they take personal offense to. Instead of controlling the situation by escorting said people out of your property, you leave them in control of the residence you rent out and in possession of the keys to the office.

So since we were still in possession of our office key and the 5 of us had personal things at the office, we piled into a car and headed there. They were extremely lucky we were only interested in retrieving what we owned (except that the other 4 took a bit of time to delete every file they worked on that summer). We left the keys on a side table and started the drives back to where we lived the next day.

And that's the story of how DeepEllumStache got canned for something she didn't do from a job she wasn't paid for and also how she decided to avoid a job in the nonprofit world like the plague.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustacianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #61 on: April 17, 2015, 10:26:52 PM »
Instead of their first foray into interns being a manageable 1 or 2, they invited 10 of us from all over the country. Because nothing could ever go wrong making yourself outnumbered by opinionated Millennials who have experience running their own college's programs.

A lovely tale of fail; thank you!

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #62 on: November 12, 2016, 07:08:54 PM »
Sorry to necro a thread, but the book is ready for review. The title is "Sustainable Non-Profit Management". The subtitle is "Build and manage a charity to last a hundred years".

I will E-mail a free Microsoft Word copy to the first ten volunteer reviewers who PM me their E-mail address and agree to provide me feedback on the content. This will be a text only copy: the cover is not yet ready and it's not for redistribution. If you'd like to comment or provide feedback directly into the text, just make sure that change tracking is on. If you wish, I will name you explicitly as a reviewer in the acknowledgments section of the book.

The book is about 102,000 words long, which would be about 400 pages in a standard paperback. It includes figures, graphs, quantitative steps, and detailed descriptions of some of the processes and principles I've outlined in this thread and elsewhere. Snark is present of course, but I keep the language relatively clean since I plan to sell to the business community.

I am still working on two sections: the acknowledgments and the references. My bibliography still needs to be formatted and organized, and I may add a section discussing other authors that use the water tank analogy to discuss cash flow. Also, the book is presently in page format because that's how I think. I'll convert it into reasonable eBook format before publishing, so you don't need to weigh in on fonts or formatting.

Any takers?

Edited to add: current reviewer list
* lhamo, aka Seaweed Slice
* DeepEllumStache
* Spiffsome
* missbee
* Mews
* Playing With Fire UK
* acepedro45
* meghan88
* farmerj
* vortenjou

All reviewers acconted for!
« Last Edit: November 16, 2016, 01:12:29 PM by TheGrimSqueaker »

obstinate

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #63 on: November 12, 2016, 11:15:33 PM »
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Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a somewhat lazy version of evil incarnate.  Yet the body I occupy is biologically female.  So I’ve got a not-so-secret weakness.  There are three little words that really get my panties wet.  These three words, by the way, will magically allow a man to command the attention of any woman he speaks them to, and cause her to listen with an open mind whether she plans to or not, even if she’s in the middle of a sentence.  I therefore accepted his apology and listened to the whole story as though I’d been hypnotized by a grocery-toting Ancient Mariner.

(These words, in case you ever need to make a woman preemptively shut up, are: “You were right”.)
I've had to say these words to my wife so many times that they no longer have said moistening effect. Price of being wrong so much, I guess.

You should put this on Medium or something. This has greatly increased the sum of things I know about the operation of non-profits.

onehair

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #64 on: November 14, 2016, 07:20:20 AM »
I don't know who I pity more the children who didn't get the help they need or the people behind the scenes forced to put up with such foolishness...How did you manage Grim without resorting to substance abuse or catching cases?

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #65 on: November 14, 2016, 10:36:41 AM »
I don't know who I pity more the children who didn't get the help they need or the people behind the scenes forced to put up with such foolishness...How did you manage Grim without resorting to substance abuse or catching cases?

The vodka in question had a very good time and did not consider itself abused in the least. 'Tis an old Slavic standby, I fear.

I've seen other isolated cases of stupidity, but it's generally just one or two people. Most of the groups I've worked with have been reasonably well run although I've seen some mistakes.

mm1970

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #66 on: November 14, 2016, 10:43:42 AM »
That's pretty exciting!  It's interesting to read the necro thread a year later.

- I'm no longer co-VP fundraising, but do volunteer in the role
- We didn't have an auction last year
- We aren't having an auction this year
- Only 1/3 of our budget is "salaries" this year, which is approx. $20k.  (Half what it was two years ago.)

Still kind of sucks...but not my circus, not my monkeys!  Here's a check, spend it wisely!

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #67 on: November 14, 2016, 11:05:38 AM »
That's pretty exciting!  It's interesting to read the necro thread a year later.

- I'm no longer co-VP fundraising, but do volunteer in the role
- We didn't have an auction last year
- We aren't having an auction this year
- Only 1/3 of our budget is "salaries" this year, which is approx. $20k.  (Half what it was two years ago.)

Still kind of sucks...but not my circus, not my monkeys!  Here's a check, spend it wisely!

It sounds as though you were able to make some improvements, but there was still a greater desire to run unsustainably. Booster clubs can get away with it (kind of) because of the constant turnover in volunteers. However one sign of an unhealthy booster club (or any kind of charity) is that the volunteer turnover rate exceeds the turnover rate of the people who benefit from the charity program.

mm1970

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #68 on: November 14, 2016, 03:47:08 PM »
That's pretty exciting!  It's interesting to read the necro thread a year later.

- I'm no longer co-VP fundraising, but do volunteer in the role
- We didn't have an auction last year
- We aren't having an auction this year
- Only 1/3 of our budget is "salaries" this year, which is approx. $20k.  (Half what it was two years ago.)

Still kind of sucks...but not my circus, not my monkeys!  Here's a check, spend it wisely!

It sounds as though you were able to make some improvements, but there was still a greater desire to run unsustainably. Booster clubs can get away with it (kind of) because of the constant turnover in volunteers. However one sign of an unhealthy booster club (or any kind of charity) is that the volunteer turnover rate exceeds the turnover rate of the people who benefit from the charity program.
Yes we have quite the volunteer turnover, but probably because we don't have many volunteers.  (and it's a lot of work)

Most people don't "disappear", they still volunteer in some role, but they aren't as willing to take on leadership positions.  A friend on the board told me she had to defend me at the first board meeting.  "Why is she not coming back?"  (First, I "aged out" of the fundraising role - 2 year term limits, which they offered to change.  Second - and what she told them "she has a four year old, and thus 8 more years as a parent at this school, she needs to pace herself".)

Plus, my husband teaches the math club, which is also a lot of work.  Next year, little guy is in kinder. I plan to volunteer in the classroom for a couple of years instead of doing board stuff.  Seriously, with the exception of two current and former board members, all of these people will be long gone, and I'll still have a kid in this school.

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #69 on: November 15, 2016, 07:09:15 AM »
This is amazing and yes, you should definitely write a book

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #70 on: November 16, 2016, 09:02:14 AM »
This is amazing and yes, you should definitely write a book

?

The book is finished. Launch is scheduled for mid-December, the contract is placed for the cover design, and I'm collecting feedback from advance copy readers to fold into the final version. Overall it looks like I'm going to hit a niche that's previously unserved: philanthropists and small-scale charity administrators who need more than just financial advice.

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #71 on: November 16, 2016, 10:07:58 AM »
Holy shit, grim, you know how to run things.

Also, on the topic of fundraising money by soliciting gifts vs soliciting sales - I don't know if others share my opinion, but it's this: I may be happy to donate $x, but I would never want to spend $x to buy the useless shit being peddled as a fundraiser. This has very, very few exceptions. Donations are donations, donations via purchases are purchases and I evaluate them on a do-I-buy-this basis (no, I don't want your useless crap.)

More people believe the way you do, than otherwise.  Thing-a-thons gross far more than sales on a per hour basis, and you get to keep nearly all of what you earn instead of the up-to-50% you get from charity chocolate and similar crap.

I was willing to buy the wrapping paper, before it became the same crap you can get in the stores. It used to be GOOD. No more. (and sometimes girl scout cookies)

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #72 on: November 16, 2016, 01:13:44 PM »
All ten reviewers have their copies and are busily reading. As offers came in, I sent out the most recent version of the manuscript. So people later in the list have manuscripts that include fixes and improvements caught by earlier readers.

Thanks everyone!

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #73 on: November 16, 2016, 05:02:56 PM »
I am looking forward to reading this book!

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #74 on: November 19, 2016, 04:15:28 AM »
So excited to hear about the book! I'm heavily involved in running a local organisation for arts professionals. We started eighteen months ago and have done a hell of a lot with no money and a lot of everyone's time. We're launching a paid membership scheme right now, and have secured a small grant for a couple of hundred pounds. We've agreed to spend it on a big professional event. Obviously all eight people on the committee have different priorities for the organisation, but I'm really pushing for us to spend a big chunk of the grant on hiring a person to do all the admin associated with the event. Because it's supposed to be a landmark thing for us but if it's all done in our time off from our actual work, it will be shit. And who wants a shit landmark? And we have money now!!! Ugh. Anyway, really looking forward to the book - and I might donate a copy to the organisation if it's suitable and won't seem too passive-aggressive...

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #75 on: November 19, 2016, 04:17:22 AM »
Also, GrimSqueaker, if you ever pitch up in the south east of England, I would be delighted to host you as a thank you for your engaging, informative, entertaining posts on this forum! Srsly.

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #76 on: November 19, 2016, 05:26:56 AM »
Good to see this revived. I remember seeing this posted the day I registered for the forum. Great story, I work in the public sector (gov) and I'm amazed by how many "visualize" type folks make it into management. Not many but just enough to make things difficult.

If you have a cheap e version I may buy the book!
« Last Edit: November 19, 2016, 08:10:39 AM by human »

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #77 on: November 19, 2016, 08:04:21 AM »
This was a very interesting thread, but one thing is bothering me.  Even after a google search, I still have not found a satisfactory definition of "torofecundian".  By the way, this thread came up eighth in my google search for this word.

I love your writing style, Grim, and remember looking up some vocabulary words from other posts you've written.

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #78 on: November 19, 2016, 10:05:16 AM »
This was a very interesting thread, but one thing is bothering me.  Even after a google search, I still have not found a satisfactory definition of "torofecundian".  By the way, this thread came up eighth in my google search for this word.

I love your writing style, Grim, and remember looking up some vocabulary words from other posts you've written.

Bullshitty.

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #79 on: November 19, 2016, 09:25:22 PM »
Sorry to necro a thread, but the book is ready for review. The title is "Sustainable Non-Profit Management". The subtitle is "Build and manage a charity to last a hundred years".

I'm thrilled you revived this thread as I missed it the first time.  Mega-wow!  And I love that you got the apology and acknowledgement, in the end.

When your book is released could you please announce it on this thread so everyone who read your Three Acts will get the announcement?  (If I get the news quickly enough I can hopefully get your book under the Christmas tree for me.  :)

Your grant-writer's bible post sparked my imagination.  My volunteer involvement with my chosen charity is confined to core-business hours (this isn't flexible).  I'd love to continue this role but in the next half year or so I'm going to need to seek paid work (and, not being FI, the paid work will get first dibs on my time).  I'm wondering if grant writing for them on some kind of contingency/commission basis could help me continue to volunteer in my current role while also earning income. 

My first instinct would be to see what information I could find online about volunteer and paid grant writing, try to find some experienced people to speak to about it, find out what's out there that's applicable to this charity and what they do so far in this realm, then put together a proposal to pitch if I think I could add value and be successful at this.  Is there a recommended way I should go about looking into this, instead? 

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #80 on: November 20, 2016, 04:43:18 PM »
Sorry to necro a thread, but the book is ready for review. The title is "Sustainable Non-Profit Management". The subtitle is "Build and manage a charity to last a hundred years".

I'm thrilled you revived this thread as I missed it the first time.  Mega-wow!  And I love that you got the apology and acknowledgement, in the end.

When your book is released could you please announce it on this thread so everyone who read your Three Acts will get the announcement?  (If I get the news quickly enough I can hopefully get your book under the Christmas tree for me.  :)

Your grant-writer's bible post sparked my imagination.  My volunteer involvement with my chosen charity is confined to core-business hours (this isn't flexible).  I'd love to continue this role but in the next half year or so I'm going to need to seek paid work (and, not being FI, the paid work will get first dibs on my time).  I'm wondering if grant writing for them on some kind of contingency/commission basis could help me continue to volunteer in my current role while also earning income. 

My first instinct would be to see what information I could find online about volunteer and paid grant writing, try to find some experienced people to speak to about it, find out what's out there that's applicable to this charity and what they do so far in this realm, then put together a proposal to pitch if I think I could add value and be successful at this.  Is there a recommended way I should go about looking into this, instead?


I do a lot of volunteer grant writing if I can help. Similar time constraints now where I used to have a lot more time to give. I can write during work hours though - I work for at public university with a service mission, so, it fits - I just can't get away from campus as much as I used to.

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #81 on: November 20, 2016, 09:19:05 PM »
Sorry to necro a thread, but the book is ready for review. The title is "Sustainable Non-Profit Management". The subtitle is "Build and manage a charity to last a hundred years".

I'm thrilled you revived this thread as I missed it the first time.  Mega-wow!  And I love that you got the apology and acknowledgement, in the end.

When your book is released could you please announce it on this thread so everyone who read your Three Acts will get the announcement?  (If I get the news quickly enough I can hopefully get your book under the Christmas tree for me.  :)

Your grant-writer's bible post sparked my imagination.  My volunteer involvement with my chosen charity is confined to core-business hours (this isn't flexible).  I'd love to continue this role but in the next half year or so I'm going to need to seek paid work (and, not being FI, the paid work will get first dibs on my time).  I'm wondering if grant writing for them on some kind of contingency/commission basis could help me continue to volunteer in my current role while also earning income. 

My first instinct would be to see what information I could find online about volunteer and paid grant writing, try to find some experienced people to speak to about it, find out what's out there that's applicable to this charity and what they do so far in this realm, then put together a proposal to pitch if I think I could add value and be successful at this.  Is there a recommended way I should go about looking into this, instead?

If you accept a commission for writing grants, make sure it's for a charity with which you don't already have a relationship that involves money. They can't be employing you or a family member in any capacity. Also, you and your immediate family can't be on the Board or in any decision making capacity unless there's a well understood way of recusing them from making any decisions about your compensation. Otherwise you're going to walk into a huge conflict of interest. You don't need the drama.

Try writing some grant applications on a volunteer basis first to establish your credibility. Then you can leverage your success by offering your talents to other organizations.

In fairness, I have to tell you that I don't recommend hiring a professional grant writer to any charity that can't afford to pay their commission out of cash flow. Also, most small and mid-sized charities don't understand that grants are generally for program expansion or special activities as opposed to for ongoing business operations.

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #82 on: November 21, 2016, 07:54:58 PM »
Sorry to necro a thread, but the book is ready for review. The title is "Sustainable Non-Profit Management". The subtitle is "Build and manage a charity to last a hundred years".

I'm thrilled you revived this thread as I missed it the first time.  Mega-wow!  And I love that you got the apology and acknowledgement, in the end.

When your book is released could you please announce it on this thread so everyone who read your Three Acts will get the announcement?  (If I get the news quickly enough I can hopefully get your book under the Christmas tree for me.  :)

Your grant-writer's bible post sparked my imagination.  My volunteer involvement with my chosen charity is confined to core-business hours (this isn't flexible).  I'd love to continue this role but in the next half year or so I'm going to need to seek paid work (and, not being FI, the paid work will get first dibs on my time).  I'm wondering if grant writing for them on some kind of contingency/commission basis could help me continue to volunteer in my current role while also earning income. 

My first instinct would be to see what information I could find online about volunteer and paid grant writing, try to find some experienced people to speak to about it, find out what's out there that's applicable to this charity and what they do so far in this realm, then put together a proposal to pitch if I think I could add value and be successful at this.  Is there a recommended way I should go about looking into this, instead?

If you accept a commission for writing grants, make sure it's for a charity with which you don't already have a relationship that involves money. They can't be employing you or a family member in any capacity. Also, you and your immediate family can't be on the Board or in any decision making capacity unless there's a well understood way of recusing them from making any decisions about your compensation. Otherwise you're going to walk into a huge conflict of interest. You don't need the drama.

Try writing some grant applications on a volunteer basis first to establish your credibility. Then you can leverage your success by offering your talents to other organizations.

In fairness, I have to tell you that I don't recommend hiring a professional grant writer to any charity that can't afford to pay their commission out of cash flow. Also, most small and mid-sized charities don't understand that grants are generally for program expansion or special activities as opposed to for ongoing business operations.


+1 to all of this, though I'd thought Okits was looking to hire rather than to be hired.

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #83 on: November 22, 2016, 09:37:49 AM »
Sorry to necro a thread, but the book is ready for review. The title is "Sustainable Non-Profit Management". The subtitle is "Build and manage a charity to last a hundred years".

I'm thrilled you revived this thread as I missed it the first time.  Mega-wow!  And I love that you got the apology and acknowledgement, in the end.

When your book is released could you please announce it on this thread so everyone who read your Three Acts will get the announcement?  (If I get the news quickly enough I can hopefully get your book under the Christmas tree for me.  :)

Your grant-writer's bible post sparked my imagination.  My volunteer involvement with my chosen charity is confined to core-business hours (this isn't flexible).  I'd love to continue this role but in the next half year or so I'm going to need to seek paid work (and, not being FI, the paid work will get first dibs on my time).  I'm wondering if grant writing for them on some kind of contingency/commission basis could help me continue to volunteer in my current role while also earning income. 

My first instinct would be to see what information I could find online about volunteer and paid grant writing, try to find some experienced people to speak to about it, find out what's out there that's applicable to this charity and what they do so far in this realm, then put together a proposal to pitch if I think I could add value and be successful at this.  Is there a recommended way I should go about looking into this, instead?

If you accept a commission for writing grants, make sure it's for a charity with which you don't already have a relationship that involves money. They can't be employing you or a family member in any capacity. Also, you and your immediate family can't be on the Board or in any decision making capacity unless there's a well understood way of recusing them from making any decisions about your compensation. Otherwise you're going to walk into a huge conflict of interest. You don't need the drama.

Try writing some grant applications on a volunteer basis first to establish your credibility. Then you can leverage your success by offering your talents to other organizations.

In fairness, I have to tell you that I don't recommend hiring a professional grant writer to any charity that can't afford to pay their commission out of cash flow. Also, most small and mid-sized charities don't understand that grants are generally for program expansion or special activities as opposed to for ongoing business operations.


+1 to all of this, though I'd thought Okits was looking to hire rather than to be hired.

My intention was to show where the ethical paths to that particular type of employment are.

okits

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #84 on: November 22, 2016, 01:33:20 PM »
Thank you Rural and TGS

I have no financial ties to the charity I'm associated with now.  I do a few hours a week of volunteer work for them and a related organization.  My family has been a beneficiary of their programs in the past (not direct financial giving, more like "we'll pay for the coffee and doughnuts at your support group" kind of thing).  I think there are a few similar charities in my city, so establishing some success on a volunteer basis may be a pathway to being hired elsewhere in the future.

My first hurdle is to carve out a few hours of free time and mental focus to devote to this idea (we have a baby and a toddler, so I may suck because I find free time + mental focus to be hard to achieve right now, but, well, I find it hard right now.  :) TGS - I will be sure to emphasize new programming or special activities when I pitch this.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #85 on: December 25, 2016, 06:39:32 PM »
All right, you hardcore trainwreck-watching tightwads. I've got some special holiday cheer for you. You wanted a book, you bitched and complained about not having one, and so now there's a book. IT'S ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT.

I meant that in the nicest possible way. The non-profit sector really does need a wake-up call and a few facepunches. Plus, who doesn't like to point and giggle at stupidity?

Those of you who sent me review comments should have a copy of the entire manuscript in your inbox. Everyone else will have to go here:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/691412

The book is in pre-release and will be available for purchase New Year's Eve. Until then, you can download the first 15% for free and check out all the offensive ways I criticize people for doing stupid things in the non-profit sector. The really juicy bits about social capital, grant proposal writing, and things I think people will actually pay to read are later in the book.

After New Year's Eve the book will be showing up on Barnes and Noble, Indigo, and several other online retailers. Not Amazon, though, because I'm having a bit of a tantrum related to their file upload and conversion process. For those of you who want to buy, I've got a slight preference if you buy it off Smashwords: I get a bigger cut of the sale price.

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #86 on: December 28, 2016, 08:07:26 PM »
As one of the reviewers, I would like to say that this book is freakin' awesome. Grim's writing style is blunt, simple and no-nonsense, very similar to the posts on this forum. The nuts and bolts of running a successful group are explained in clear steps from the ground up.

This book is a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to run or participate in a community group. You will be required to confront the shortcomings of your group's management in a clear-sighted manner, with chapters covering things like 'yes, you do have to follow the law, even if you're doing good' and 'yes, you are required to keep records'.

As a bonus, it made me feel much better about my slightly moribund community group. We're technology-challenged and change-shy but we're not deluded or criminal, and apparently that's enough to put us above average.

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #87 on: December 29, 2016, 01:43:00 AM »
Sweet!  Heading over to the link to buy!  I had my first adventure with the nonprofit world the last couple of years, and I'm both horrified and thoroughly burned, and yet still fascinated by the potential if it were done right!  TGS, you are brilliant and practical and straight up.  Thank you, and Happy Freaking New Year!

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #88 on: December 30, 2016, 01:18:40 PM »
Looking forward to purchasing two copies: one for myself and one as a gift for a friend.

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #89 on: December 30, 2016, 02:28:17 PM »
I was honoured to be a reviewer and I can attest that the book is a real tour-de-force.

This book should be required reading for anyone involved in non-profits.

gimp

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #90 on: December 30, 2016, 09:40:52 PM »
I'll be getting one for a coworker. Is this an ebook, or physical?

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #91 on: December 31, 2016, 02:40:54 PM »
Thanks, Grim!

My interest in the inner workings jumped up this year, when I was fired last January from a local non-profit organization board, fired for wanting to actually do something to achieve results!  Any results other than endless meetings and raising money.

Your book is fabulous!   A huge dose of flavour to balance the fat and fluff that goes on in the non-profit sector.




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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustacianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #92 on: December 31, 2016, 03:21:14 PM »
Wow. Just wow.

Obviously, no one could make this kind of stuff up. WOW. But definitely write a book, about something, anything, made-up or not - because your writing style ROCKS!!

+1, would love to read anything additional you wish to write.

+1, Act 2 was even better than the first! You rock OP

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #93 on: January 01, 2017, 12:15:36 PM »
Thanks, everyone!

This is an eBook, so it's not available in physical format at this point, and might not ever be: I'm told eBooks outsell paper by at least 3 to 1 especially in nonfiction. Smashwords has a mechanism for giving an eBook as a gift to somebody else. (I haven't tested the gift feature yet; if someone does, will they PM me and let me know how it went?)

15% of it the book is free and available for download as a sample at Smashwords and elsewhere. The pricing at Barnes and Noble and elsewhere is about on par with what Smashwords charges. However, you guys are a bunch of hardcore tightwads and I wouldn't be doing right by you if I didn't point out ways for you to get the whole book more cheaply, or even free, while still making sure I get paid myself.

If you subscribe to Scribd, my book is one of many in their catalogue so you should be able to download and read it with no additional charge beyond what you pay for the Scribd service.

Your public library most likely subscribes to one of three eBook services that does business with Smashwords. If you request the eBook there (the ISBN number is 9781370402847) you may view it for free yourself while your library purches a copy that others may use when you're done with it. There will be some kind of Digital Rights Management to enforce a time limit on borrowing a book but so far as I know libraries permit repeated checkouts.

The advantage of buying the Smashwords version is that there's no DRM and you can use it on whatever platforms you wish. If you have difficulty with the images due to conflicts with your reader, the file type, or whatever, you can download a different format and also have access to any updates.

shelivesthedream

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #94 on: January 03, 2017, 01:04:55 PM »
Oh wow YES. So looking forward to reading this. I'm heavily involved with one non-profit and my husband is with another. Neither are actively mismanaged but both are probably not fulfilling their potential for results/efficiency. Wonder how I can persuade others to read it without offending them...

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #95 on: January 05, 2017, 12:34:30 PM »
If you subscribe to Scribd, my book is one of many in their catalogue so you should be able to download and read it with no additional charge beyond what you pay for the Scribd service.

The first month of Scribd is free. If we sign up, read the book, and de-activate prior to getting charged anything, do you still get paid?

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #96 on: January 05, 2017, 12:36:12 PM »
If you subscribe to Scribd, my book is one of many in their catalogue so you should be able to download and read it with no additional charge beyond what you pay for the Scribd service.

The first month of Scribd is free. If we sign up, read the book, and de-activate prior to getting charged anything, do you still get paid?

Yes. It's reading past a particular threshold (I think it's 35%-ish) that triggers the "buy".

Meanwhile, you win the Internet for figuring out a cool freebie.

Kitsune

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #97 on: January 05, 2017, 06:45:17 PM »
If you subscribe to Scribd, my book is one of many in their catalogue so you should be able to download and read it with no additional charge beyond what you pay for the Scribd service.

The first month of Scribd is free. If we sign up, read the book, and de-activate prior to getting charged anything, do you still get paid?

Yes. It's reading past a particular threshold (I think it's 35%-ish) that triggers the "buy".

Meanwhile, you win the Internet for figuring out a cool freebie.

Ethical tightwad-ery is a skill I'm glad to share. :)

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #98 on: January 17, 2017, 09:01:14 PM »
I finally got the upload utility to work at Amazon's KDP. It turns out the problem was with my browser.

So, Sustainable Non-Profit Management is now available in electronic form on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, iBooks, and a bunch of other online retailers.

OK, I'm done shilling for now.

stylesjl

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Re: Fail-tastic anti-Mustachianism in the non-profit sector, drama in 3 acts
« Reply #99 on: January 18, 2017, 11:46:15 PM »
I finally got the upload utility to work at Amazon's KDP. It turns out the problem was with my browser.

So, Sustainable Non-Profit Management is now available in electronic form on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, iBooks, and a bunch of other online retailers.

OK, I'm done shilling for now.
A shilling that got you a sale, since I'm running out of things to read on my kindle.