The Art of Community Engagement for Non-Profit Leaders

Welcome to the practice of non-profit leadership, a podcast specifically designed for executive directors of non-profit organizations. With a touch of humor, your co-hosts, tim and Nathan, work to provide encouragement, insights and practical strategies to help you be a more effective leader. And now here's Tim and Nathan.

Welcome to episode 115 of the practice of non-profit leadership. I am Nathan Ruby. Well, in just about every executive director's job description I've ever seen, has had at least one bullet point about representing the organization in the community, along with the other 25 bullet points wanting an expert in every single element of running a nonprofit. They also want someone who is out in the community, going to all the events, going to all the breakfasts and representing the organization. So today we are going to talk about how visible should you be. Now, I'm going to say this right at the beginning and I'm also going to say this at the end, so you're going to hear it twice, because it's important. You do not need to be actively visible in your community to be a successful leader of your organization. Is it helpful? Sure, and for some people with the right personality, can it even be fun? Absolutely. Do you have to do this? No, so, just to be clear, this is not something that you have to do Now. That said, there are some real benefits for an executive director to be more visible in the community. So there's four of them that we're going to list here. One is building relationships. There is no question that building relationships in the community is the job of the executive director. Number two raising awareness. Telling the story of the great things that your organization is doing to as many people as possible Yep, that's on the executive director's list. Yep, that's something you need to be doing. Community support there are potential donors at every single gathering you've ever gone to or ever will go to. You just have to find them. So, yep, community sports there too. Networking opportunities oh yeah, every executive director needs to develop and hone their networking skill. So it is valuable as a leader and a valuable to the organization to be out and about. But what does that mean specifically for you in your situation? So here are four things that you can think about to help you process through this and whether it's good for you and for your organization to be out in the community a little bit more. So here we go, all right. Number one how big is your town? Now, one of the primary reasons to be out in the community is to help build relationships, to raise awareness about the organization and foster community support. This is a little easier to do in a smaller or medium-sized communities than in larger communities. So, for example, let's say that your community is 50,000 people. Well, there's probably only one chamber organization, and so you can go to one chamber event and meet a good portion of the business community. Now, on the other side of that is, if you are in a community of, let's say, 500,000 people, then you're probably going to have multiple different chamber organizations over several different days. There's not just one chamber. So you're going to have to go. If you really want to impact the business community by going to chamber events, you're going to have to go to multiple chamber events over several different days. So if our goal is to build by being more visible in the community, if our goal is to build relationships, raise awareness and network, well, those are all relationship-based things. This means repetition. You can't just go once, shake a few hands, meet a few people and then go on to the next, never to return. Now you'll be very busy doing that and you will meet a lot of new people and you'll be able to report back to the board. Look at all of this work I'm doing. Look at all of these people I'm meeting, but you really won't be helping, or those people really won't be helping you achieve the organizational impact you are looking for. So if you are in a larger community, you're going to have to make some strategic decisions as to where am I going to be more visible? Where am I going to get the biggest bang for my time spent Now? It doesn't mean that you can't do it. It just means that you think through a little more where you want to engage. If you're in a smaller town, it's just a little bit easier to make that determination. There's only one chamber for you to worry about. Now. I'm not saying that the chamber is the right place for you to be more visible. I'm just using it as an example and that most communities, large or small, have some type of chamber that is in that community. So it's just a little bit easier to use as an example. Now, tim and I have been working on some really cool stuff and I'd like to just share it with you, if you will, for just a minute. Tim and I have been thinking up some additional ways that we can connect and build a community with you and ultimately bring more value for all of us. We are working on some additional content discounts on our coaching services and even some Zoom calls where we can all be together at one time. We want to build a community where we can share and learn together. If you're open to that and being part of that, just send us an email at info at practicenplleadercom. Now, that'll be in the show notes info at practicenplleadercom. And, again, that'll be in the show notes, and we are close to kicking this off and would love for you to be part of it. All right, we're back and, hey, I am really excited about this, this thing that Tim and I are building. It is we really. You know, when we started this podcast, it was really about trying to build a community for small to medium sized nonprofit executive directors to come together and learn together. And you know, the first two years, you know we've really got our footing and got our systems and got our processes, and now our next big jump is to really start working on building that community, and that's what we're hoping to do here and and in this community to give you a chance to, to bring your knowledge and your understanding and the and the things that you're good at and the things that that give you joy and happiness, and and so that we can learn from you as well. And I you know I don't always speak for Tim, but I know I can speak for Tim on this one that, hey, we don't know everything and we make as many mistakes as you do, and we would love to be able to to, to share and learn from you as well, and so that's what we're building, and we'd love for you to to be part of that email list so that we can communicate with you and kind of include you in those great things that we're doing. So I'm really looking forward to that. So, all right, let's get back to today's stuff. So number two number number one was how big is your town? You've got to take that into account when you are going to, when you're deciding whether you want to be more visible in the community or not. All right. Number two is what type of organization do you have? Now, some organizations are just more geared towards benefiting from networking and being visible in the community than others. So let's look at a couple of examples. Let's say that our organization is a local pet shelter. Now, you are volunteer heavy and you need at least 20 active volunteers to run your programming. Now, even more volunteers would make your life much easier, but you've got to have a minimum of 20. And you need those volunteers because you've got animals in the house 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Somebody needs to be taking care of those animals and to make matters even more complex, you have a 24 hour animal drop off. So if somebody has a doesn't want their animal anymore, or they find an animal that's been abandoned, they can bring it to your organization, they can bring it to your shelter and somebody will be there to take that animal 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Wow, you need volunteers and now your organization is amazing because you are changing lives by placing pets in loving homes to people who would love to have a pet to take care of. Well, you probably need to be out networking and meeting new people all the time. Getting out in the community is going to be really important to you, as you are looking to make relationships, to share the story and encourage people to become volunteers. So you probably it's probably a little more important for you to be out in the community, and that is a very easy sell. That's a very easy offer to say hey, come be part of what we're doing, take care of these animals and bring joy and happiness to the people who adopt them. That's that'll work. That's a that's a easy thing for you to do, all right. On the other hand, let's say that your organization trains and places service dogs and you also have 20 volunteers. But because your volunteers are training dogs to get them ready to change people's lives as helpers, companions, protectors, it is amazing what service dogs can do. It is if you've ever looked into that. It is amazing what service dogs do. But your 20 volunteers are spread out over a five state region and none of them are in your hometown. So you have different needs. You are not looking for volunteers to come into the organization, to come into your facility and take eight hour shifts. They're different. So in the pet shelter example, you are looking for volunteers. In this example, you probably are not looking to engage in the community, looking for more volunteers. You might want to be looking in the volunteer or engaging in the in the community, looking for more donors. So what does this mean? Well, it probably means, or could mean, that the two executive directors from these two different organizations will engage in different places or in different groups. Now, does it 100% mean that? Probably not. You may end up finding yourselves at the same organization or at the same events, but you would be having very different conversations with the people that you're meeting there. The point here is that when you engage in the community, it's not cookie cutter. You're not. Every executive director is not out looking in the same organizations, the same places for the exact same people having the exact same conversations. It is different to your situation in an organization and you need to. You need to understand what you're looking for, what your goals are, before you go out engage in the community so that you can be productive in that time. So alright, first one is how big is your town? That's going to make a difference in how you engage, so you need to kind of make that decision. Second is what type of organization do you have? What is it specifically that you're going to be looking for? So you have to be clear on that. Third one is do you have a system to follow up with people that you meet? This one is often overlooked, but man, is it important? So let's say in this example that you are going to a community breakfast that's hosted by the mayor. Awesome thing to go, especially in some medium-sized, smaller organizations, when the mayor has an event. When the mayor is hosting an event, you can pretty much sure the movers and shakers of the community are going to be there, so it's a great place for you to go and have a higher profile in the community. So let's say you go, you attend and we're just going to pick a number. Let's say, 200 people are in the room. Awesome, 200 people are in the room and you meet a handful of them. You're not going to meet all 200 people, but let's say you're pretty active and you're going around to some of the tables and there's some people there that you already know and they're introducing you to other people. So let's say you meet I don't know what 20 people, 15 people, I don't know, let's say 15. That might be a little bit more doable. So we've met 15 people. But out of that, there are three specific people that you meet that you think are really strong strategic relationships that you should develop. That's fabulous, that is time well spent, good job. And so now the event is over. You had a great time. You had some quiche or some eggs and bacon or I don't know, maybe it was lunch, maybe you had a BLT, whatever you had and you're now driving back to the office and you're thinking about all the great things that could happen from these relationships and all the things that will happen, and you're feeling good about yourself and you get back to the office and you walk in, you're kind of on the high here of being at that event and the first thing you find when you walk by into your office is a message from your board president Okay, we need to. We're going to have to follow up with that. Oh. And then all of a sudden somebody's knocking on your door. There's a problem in the kitchen because the stove won't light and it's time to start preparing for tonight's meal. And oh, shoot, now your front receptionist for the overnight shift just called off for the night and you don't have anyone to fill in and you don't want to have to do that yourself. All of a sudden, it's a week later and those three realists really promising new connections that you that you connected with at the event well gosh, you can't even find their business cards and, come to think of it, you can't even remember how you thought they were gonna connect and how they were gonna help you moving forward. It happens all the time. It happens to me. I go to these events. You know I make great connections and if I'm not careful I will totally forget about it two, three, four days later and that time has been wasted. So if you're going to invest the time and energy and increasing your community engagement, you need to have the bandwidth to do the follow-up and you need a system in place to leverage that. Otherwise, you are just wasting your time going to an event and meeting new people. That's good. I'm not saying that it's bad to just go and meet new people. There is, there is some good to that and there's nothing wrong with that. But it's not as good as meeting new people, than having a pathway forward on a mutually beneficial Relationship that helps both of you. All right. Next one is and this, so let's go our three how big is your town? What type of organization do you have? Do you have a system to follow up on the people you meet? All right. Fourth one what does it look like at home? Now, you may think this is kind of an odd point, but it is really critical when you're looking at engaging and expanding your presence in the community. This weekend, my, my wife and I were at a retail store and A family was in front of us in the checkout line. It was six people was mom and dad and four kids under the age of six. And I'm standing there and I'm looking them and it was like Kids, and I didn't know what they were. Six, because you know, we asked them how old their kids were. That's all I knew. We were under six. But I'm thinking to myself four kids under six, oh my goodness. Thankfully that was not me. I Didn't say that out loud, though, but you know, the kids did a pretty good job, considering how long we stood in line, but mom and dad definitely had their hands full, and so, after we checked out and we got in the car, my wife and I were talking about the differences between those parents and us. And you know, my wife and I were empty nesters and our life with our kids and our life at home with family is Totally different than those parents who were in front of us and therefore kids. And you know that's life. We go through life stages or seasons, and in some seasons are they're just more conducive to certain things and less Conducive to others. That's just life. You know, for example, when our oldest son was playing high school golf my own golf game you know it wasn't too bad. I got to play all the time and I wasn't great. I'm not saying like I was, you know, thinking about going on tour or anything, but we'll just say it wasn't horrible and, after my sense, stopped playing high school golf. Well, you know, my golf is not quite as good as it used to be. I'm not sure it's horrible, but I'm probably half a step away from being horrible. So same thing applies with having a higher profile in the community. You may have an event during working hours, which is great. I mean, that is awesome when you have lunch events that you can go to that don't necessarily impact your evening hours. But you may also have events that you'd like to attend that are outside of working hours. Breakfasts and happy hours and dinners all cut into time at home with spouses, family and significant others. Even if most of your events are, in fact, during the working days, that means that you've got less hours in the office. So if you are staying at the office and this even applies if you have a home office if you were working, let's say, an extra hour every day to make up for those three events that you went to during the week, well then that's impacting your home time. So I'm not telling you whether or not it's a good idea for you to be more visible in the community. Only you can make that determination, and only you can make that determination for you yourself and for your organization. Now, in general, I will tell you that increased visibility in the community over a period of time will bring positive benefits to the organization. That is true and in general, that is a general rule. But, like I said at the opening, do you have to do this to be a successful executive director? Absolutely not. I have seen some executive directors that have never been to any type of gathering or social event of any type, and their organizations are thriving. So don't get caught in the trap that this is what an executive director does, and this is something that I have to do. Now, as a reward for listening to all of the way to the end of this episode, I've got one more thing for you to think about. A higher profile in the community is going to be a benefit for the organization over the long haul, but that does not necessarily mean that it has to be you personally doing that work. It doesn't have to be you. It could be a staff person, it could be a board member, it could be another volunteer, somebody who has the personality, the skills, the desire and the time to be visible so they can attend the functions, the events, the dinners, the happy hours. Let them sift through all the conversations, all the new people they meet, all the connections, and then determine which are the most profitable for the organization to connect you with. And then they can connect you on the phone or you can connect over coffee or over lunch, and so they could kind of sift through all the relationships and bring the best ones to you, and I have seen that work very, very, very well. You find somebody who is great at networking, very outgoing, very extroverted, loves to meet new people, and you give them the job of going to these events and connecting with people. They can be very, very effective at that. So just because it's a good thing for the organization doesn't mean that it has to be you Well, thank you for listening today. If you are benefiting from what is being shared in this podcast, we would like to ask you to share a review on the platform that you're listening to. It would help us with the algorithms and we love to know how the podcast is benefiting you. If you would like to get in touch with us. Our contact information can be found in the show notes and, just as a reminder, don't forget if you'd love to be part of the community that we are building and that we are going to be building, go to the info email address that are in the show notes as well, and just let us know you'd be part of what we're doing and we'll add you to the list. That's all for today. Until next time.