Thanks to Anna DeBattiste, I read an article with an interesting proposition the other day: "If You Don't Like Your Future, Rewrite Your Past," by Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Harvard Business Review's blog. Her premise was simple, "Sometimes strategic change just means taking something from the periphery — an anomaly, a demonstration, a small…
Author: Richard L. P. Solosky
Richard has over 25 years of business development and marketing expertise. He is the founder of two software development companies and has over 10 years of nonprofit experience serving at various levels bridging both staff and board functions. He consults nonprofits in the areas of marketing and organizational development, earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Western Michigan University, and a Master of Nonprofit Management from Regis University. With a natural love of the outdoors and outdoor activities, Richard is an experienced skier, climber, and mountain guide; a twelve-year field-active team leader with Alpine Rescue Team, serving as President, Training Director, and as Chairman of the Rocky Mountain Region of the Mountain Rescue Association, he has resided in Evergreen, Colorado since 1990.
Cultivating Strategy through Crowdsourcing
I've long been a proponent of adopting best practices and successful strategies from other businesses and organizations. It's a great way to stimulate your organizational thinking and leverage growth without re-inventing the wheel. So when, my good friend and sometime collaborator and co-conspirator Rachel Emmer sent me an article recently from the McKinsey Quarterly, "The…
Holistic Marketing – Your Gateway to Sustainability
Hold the presses, because here's a revelation; are you ready? …marketing is at the heart of all your nonprofit activities. Yes, you heard correctly; marketing is an integral component of achieving your mission. It's critical to your successful fundraising and to your on-going sustainability; it should not be an afterthought. If the community doesn't fully…
Leadership – Check Your Ego at the Door
I've had the opportunity to collaborate with, work for, and advise many nonprofits. There's a big cultural difference in the dynamics of a nonprofit vs. a for profit business. It's part of what I really like and it's part of what I really dislike. There's just something dynamic about a group of diverse minds turning…
Framing the Argument
There has been plenty of chatter of late in the nonprofit community regarding the Susan G Komen and Planned Parenthood organizations. The mistakes of SGK and the success of PP contain greater lessons in understanding the importance of strategy in all your decision-making activities. Let's first take a look at the loser… Any way you…
Finding Your Niche
Positioning is one of those marketing terms that describes how you stack up to the competition. While the notion of competition is often a bit foreign in the nonprofit world, I’d like to assert that competition is good for the community. Competition in the for-profit world has always driven companies to create better and better…
No Stories Without Numbers
In reviewing the guidelines for the Denver Foundation's grant process, I came across the following on evaluation: … "you need to demonstrate not only how you measure your work, but also share your actual results." The landscape for funding has changed dramatically. No longer do we have the luxury of simply telling a compelling story…
Pulling Weeds
Nonprofit organizations can take a tip from successful realtors. Well-groomed houses, those with curb appeal, sell! Home buyers can easily see that sellers have taken care of the property and that creates demand. In the nonprofit community, where donors want to be investors in well-managed organizations, we can learn from this well-known real estate paradigm. …
Cornerstones
Thanks to my good friend and mentor Dick Zellner; he clued me in on a simple premise and fundamental principle in fundraising… "Donors want to be investors in a well-managed organization that has an exciting plan for the future that benefits the community." 2 things to place high on your list: 1) Detail your program…
Expanding Your Comfort Zone
For most people and especially in these uncertain times, it is understandable that moving outside one's comfort zone is just downright scary. Most individuals tend to stick to the conventional wisdom that since it has worked before, it will continue to work in the future… Bad Idea! I know it is part of human nature;…