Category: Nonprofit

Mentoring as a form of activism

The 60’s and 70’s were all about the protests and activism. It’s hard not to think of hippies and  sit-ins at UC Berkeley’s campus when you think of that era.

Our generation has been faced with redefining our own form of activism, and I think we have found it largely by giving back to our communities. It’s a key theme on Michelle Obama’s platform as she makes her case to be the next First Lady of the US. Check out this excerpt from her speech at the Democratic National Convention:

I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history — knowing that my piece of the American dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me. All of them driven by the same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each day to painstakingly dress himself for work. The same conviction that drives the men and women I’ve met all across this country:

…The young people across America serving our communities — teaching children, cleaning up neighborhoods, caring for the least among us each and every day.

…All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won’t do — that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.

…And in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us — no matter what our age or background or walk of life — each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.

More and more people in this day and age are giving back to their communities much like the Obamas did and have been doing. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Michelle Obama was a Public Ally, which is an Americorps program that trains young up and coming leaders to lead and serve in the public sector with a year of service at a nonprofit organization along with professional development. BUILD has been working with Public Allies for years, and I’ve had the immense privilege to be working alongside amazing allies like Elizabeth, Quynh, Alison and Naomi.

But I think a trend that continues to rise among young professionals is that they want to do well and do good, and mentoring programs continue to be a popular option for people to give back without giving up their corporate jobs. This is the very reason why BUILD’s mentor program is such a success. Not only do our students get exposure to talented professionals, but our volunteers, in turn, also get their horizons expanded by working with our enthusiastic students. I’m not going to lie and say it isn’t a challenge, but seeing mentors really connect with their students is worth that challenge. It changes everyone’s lives; students benefit, and the mentors personally develop as well.

If you don’t already mentor youth, I encourage you to get out there and start affecting the lives of youth. If you’re interested in mentoring our youth at BUILD, check out our website. The BUILD mentor program is a school-year-long commitment from October-May, and our mentors work with our Oakland and Peninsula students in a variety of capacities: helping them write a business plan, guiding them through the business start-up process, and supporting them as they apply to colleges. Apply to be a mentor today as spots fill up fast!

Like Michelle said, “Each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.” By raising up and educating our youth, we take one small step to advance our country.

Honoring our Tribal “Elders”

I’ve been thinking about culture incessantly as I have been getting situated in my new role as the site director at the BUILD Peninsula site.

The timing could not have been more appropriate. Over the last three years I’ve spent my summers designing and executing summer business boot camps for our sophomores and juniors with the goal of inculcating them to what I called the “Incubator culture.” Now as the site director, I have the distinct opportunity to extend that inculcation to my staff, so that our entire site–students, paid staff, volunteer mentors, and visitors–can tangibly feel our culture when they walk through our front door.

On a very basic level, the culture of our site mirrors that of a tribe. Yes, I’m talking about “tribe” as in a group of people who share a common ancestry, or a clan forming a close-knit community under a defined leader, chief, or ruling council. When you hear “tribe,” visions of Native Americans traveling together in a banded group under a chief leader probably come to mind. Well, if you think about it, this is where humanity stems from. Humans (homo sapiens) have been around for 250,000 years, and our species only really began to flourish when early humans learned to band together in tribes for survival. Embedded deep in our ancestral roots, we all come from tribes, and, in contrast, the notion of the “modern civilization” has only been around for the last couple of millenia.

As humans entered the era of modernity after the industrial revolution, and more and more people populated large urban areas, tribal elements became an antiquated idea of the past. But did they disappear? I think they were just translated into modern versions of what we call organizational culture. The four basic elements of this culture are simply rules, rewards, routines, and rituals. These four R’s can be found scattered all over the place in our homes, at our schools, our corporations, places of worship, and even our media.

At today’s E2 Boot Camp, we practiced a ritual, which we had never done before, and it all started with a hunch. Tribes honor their wise elders and ancestors–think back to Native Americans and their beliefs in ancestral spirits and the leadership of their chieftans. In modern translation, corporations do the same exact thing. Instead of invoking ancestral spirits, founders and corporate leaders (presidents, CEO’s) act as the organization’s wise elders and ancestors. Have you wondered why you can usually find a picture of their revered founder smack dab in the middle of a corporate lobby?

In translation to our youth-serving organization, there’s a lot of value for our students to have that same tribal sense of leadership and respect for their elders. At BUILD today, our “elder” is our young Founder and CEO Suzanne. She stopped by our Boot Camp to formally welcome our students into our Incubator program and to answer their questions about our organization’s future. What Suzanne didn’t know was that the students had planned to honor her for all of her hard work, and you can watch a snippet of our “ritual” in the youtube video below or at this link.

In fact the entire four-day Business Boot Camp for our sophomores is one big ritual to prepare them for the rigor and routines during the school year. And hopefully the addition of this new ritual of honoring our leaders can become a staple in our culture.

What rituals do your organizations perform, practice, or celebrate?



And as for the rest of the “R’s,” I’ll keep the conversation going on as culture seems to be the hot topic right now. Stay tuned.

Gratitude from College Summit USC Workshop

I’m just now getting a chance to do a recap on my first College Summit workshop, which happened at the end of June. We already know that the CS workshops are phenomenal, and that I highly recommend volunteering at them.

I had a great time co-rap directing with my best friend Karla at our alma mater. It was a perfect recipe for a great workshop,  and I met some great alumni leaders and volunteers. But to top all that off, we had a fantastic group of 50 students from Arleta High School with whom I literally fell in love. It’s hard to describe it when that magic moment happens at a workshop, but it happened with us at USC. Volunteers and workshop staff do workshops for many reasons, but I cannot describe the real draw, which has something to do with the love that encompasses the entire workshop. This is what makes volunteers keep coming back year after year, and this is what makes the workshops succeed.

Below are a couple pics from the USC workshop, and a tribute that one of our students, Jay Jay, made for us via youtube.

50 Peer Leaders at College Summit USCCollege Summit USC Fighting On



This is a video capture that Jay Jay uploaded of Karla and I at the banquet:


Hopefully that gave you a small taste of why I love College Summit workshops.

Great feedback for my workshop

I got a sweet note from Cynthia, who is a Summer Search alum and staff member, about my workshop. Check it out below!

Rey,

I did not have a chance to connect with you after your workshop, but I really wanted to say THANK YOU!

You were amazing. I got SOOOO much out of the workshop, I could not go to sleep all weekend. I called my friends and repeated the workshop word for word and I told them I would pass along your website information. I am excited about setting goals for myself (with dates and times these goals should get accomplished), and more importantly, I am excited to think more about my values. I also look forward to creating my elevator pitch and just living a more full life, doing the things that I am passionate about.

I could feel your passion throughout your presentation and I wish you were offering what you do at BUILD to young professionals like me.  

Again, thank you.

Also, Summer Search received a grant from the GAP Foundation and we are going to have Career Discovery Days next week. Our juniors and seniors will job-shadow at different sites in Silicon Valley. I am wondering if you would be interested in giving the presentation you gave at the Summit to our current students who are interested in business and social entrepreneurship. If you are available and interested, your workshop would take place on Thursday, August 8th from 10am -1:30pm.  I know this is really short notice, and I look forward to talking with you about this possible opportunity.

Take care,

Cynthia

Dont forget, if you want the documents from my workshop, check out my previous post here. Or if you want to follow up on anything you learned at the workshop, email me.

I would also love to spread this knowledge out. I realize that I really enjoyed facilitating this workshop and empowering young nonprofit professionals of color. If you know of any groups of young professionals or college-aged people that would benefit from this training, contact me.

Me, Inc. Workshop at Summer Search Alumni Summit 2008

I had an absolutely fantastic time today with about 50 Summer Search alumni at their annual leadership summit at the Masonic Center in San Francisco. I facilitated a workshop entitled “Me, Inc.: Building Entrepreneurship into your Life,” which led to discussions on entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship.

It was great to be in the presence of so many engaged, eager, and “hungry” leaders. I could tell that they were so ready and willing to absorb lessons so that they could take them back and affect change in their communities. It was so refreshing! Summer Search is definitely an organization to keep on your radar. This year they have a $12 million budget and seven sites across the nation serving almost 800 students. They want to aggressively grow with a capital campaign of $20 million, to serve 2,000 students in the next few years. Judging from the amazing individuals I met today, the program is working, and I look forward to seeing their growth in the next few years.

If you went to my workshop, and have questions, comments, or feedback for me, please do not hesitate to contact me! I know we ran out of time, and I could have spent hours more discussing it, so feel free to connect if you have any questions or ideas for me.

I also promised the Summer Searchers that I would post up my powerpoint presentation and worksheet on my site, so you can get them below. I only ask that if you found my tools useful, share the knowledge and tell someone about it. Maybe you can get together with people in your support networks to discover how each of you are living and being the CEO’s of Me, Inc.

To download the worksheet, right-click and “save as” the following link to get the PDF.

And lastly, if you are interested in learning more about the Level 5 Fellowship that I briefly alluded to or know someone who would be interested, please check out our website at level5.efozzie.com. Help us spread the word!

It was a pleasure and a privilege, Summer Searchers! Thanks!

The Importance of Collaboration to Endure the Economic Downturn

I attended the first in a set of free quarterly workshops/discussions for non-profit organizations called “Power of Partnership,” co-presented by Craigslist Foundation, The Foundation Center, and Northern California Grantmakers. Tonight they had three panelists discussing the importance of collaboration between non-profits in the face of the state and nation’s budget crises.

A few highlights from the panelists:

Jacob Harold, Program Officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation said some very insightful things about the current state of the nation and world in regards to philanthropy: Foundations, from the non-profit’s point of view, look like big entities that wield a lot of power. Jacob argued that they are bit players in the change game. He said that the Hewlett Foundation invests about $20 million per year to improve the California community college system, but the aggregate budget for the whole community college system is over $6 billion per year!

He also said several times that “the world is in flux,” and the basis of power is moving from organizations to networks that have the ability to mobilize quickly, accomplish their goal, and then disperse quickly. And despite the fact that the amount of money/funding is going down, social need is going up. How are these needs being met? With more efficient networks of people, and not clunky, bureaucratic organizations.

Sherry Simmons from the Northern California Community Loan Fund decrees that in order for organizations to successfully collaborate they need: 1) to have a clear goal, 2) to clarify the shared measures of success, and 3) to bring the right people together.

She also shared the story of how a coalition led by the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits worked together to fight proposed budget cuts in Santa Clara County–and they won by banding together, instead of getting picked off one-by-one.

Steve Fields from S.F. Human Services Network facetiously recounted former SF Mayor Willie Brown’s take on collaboration: “The definition of collaboration is what you think the other guy should be doing to further your agenda.” Obviously he disagrees, but it painted a picture of how government views collaboration with the non-profit sector (e.g. it doesn’t really exists).

Biggest Take-aways

  1. Collaboration is difficult because non-profits get really stuck in their own proprietary silos
  2. Multi-organization collaboration is a necessity, not just for funding, sharing resources, or sharing best practices, but more importantly for survival. As we face an economy and world in flux, more often than not, the non-profit sector is the first to lose funding. We must make it a priority to band together, realize that we are not competing with each other, and understanding that we are all providing unique services for the betterment of the entire community.

Who said anything worthwhile was easy? Are you currently collaborating in meaningful ways with other organizations?

12: The Elements of Great Managing

This summer I’m transitioning into the site director role at BUILD after three years of proudly serving as the incubator manager. Yes, I’ve known for a while, and we have been making announcements here and there in the BUILD community (during our after-school incubator sessions and a big announcement during the Business Plan Competition back in May), and I suppose now is as good of a time as any to make a general announcement about it. Indeed it is a promotion, and one that I am extremely excited about because not only will it be a huge opportunity of personal growth and professional development, but I get to do it in an organization I love, with a team a really care about, and with a mission that I value.

After speaking with our management consultant, Linda, I realize that one of my biggest hurdles will be shifting from the role of individual contributor to that of a manager / leader. Coincidentally, tomorrow is my final year-end performance review in my role as the incubator manager, and it is so neat to reflect back on my value-add as an individual contributor. I will never forget the trials and tribulations of creating and implementing my first Business Boot Camp (and only now am I truly seeing it objectively… yes, after two years, thanks to Karla‘s Results-Process-Relationships triangle), the collaboration with Randy and Adriana on “The Bridge” (one of my proudest accomplishments), and the painstaking task of creating an expansion manual for my programs (don’t get me wrong, I love creating processes, but somehow I really just love to keep them in my head, so this was a good project). Through it all, I’ve been stretched, stripped, and developed, but now it’s time to move on. Just like our students move from one phase of our programs to another, so too will I move, and entrust our excellent site program assistant, Amber, to innovate and improve the program in my place as the new incubator manager.

Oh, and I also wanted to add a book to my booklist, and it is somewhat related to my transition into my new management role: 12: The Elements of Great Managing.

by Rodd Wagner & James K. Harter, Ph.D.

The book shows the importance of employee engagement through several real-life business accounts (a la any other business-y book out there), and argues that you can manage people successfully if you implement these twelve essential elements:

  1. Knowing what’s expected
  2. Materials and equipment
  3. The opportunity to do what I do best
  4. Recognition and praise
  5. Someone at work cares about me as a person
  6. Someone at work encourages my development
  7. My opinion seems to count
  8. A connection with the mission of the company
  9. Coworkers committed to doing quality work
  10. A best friend at work
  11. Talking about progress
  12. Opportunities to learn and grow

Some of them are kind of, duh, obvious, like “materials and equipment” (who doesn’t need a computer, desk and chair these days?), but I thought some of the more interesting chapters were regarding the “best friend at work.”

Something about a deep sense of affiliation with the people in an employee’s team drives him to do positive things for the business he otherwise would not do. Early research that identified the 12 Elements revealed a very different social bond among employees in top performing teams. Sebsequent large-scale, multi-company analyses confirmed the 10th Element is a scientifically salient ingredient in obtaining a number of business-relevant outcomes, including profitability, safety, inventory, and — most notably — the emotional connection and loyalty of customers to the organization serving them. (page 140)

In short, friends watch each others’ backs. And having that culture is invaluable because not only is it good for individual and team morale, but your constituents (or customers) can feel and see it as well… And with the staff modeling it, they will then start to mimic it — e.g. If you are friends with your coworkers and show it at your youth-serving organization, your students will probably be more friendly with each other. Sounds easy enough, huh?

Maybe my first order of business as the site director with my team will be some forced bonding time. 😉

Read on for more quotes from the book:

Continue reading 12: The Elements of Great Managing

Upcoming: Elaborate tour of the South and East Coast

I’m really looking forward to a crazy, fun, and travel-filled summer filled with multiple trips to the South, a quick visit to NYC, and a full-circle trip to USC to facilitate a workshop with Karla at our alma mater. I signed up for this new Twitter-like social-networking site called Dopplr, which touts itself as an online tool for frequent travelers. Anyway, if you’re on it, add me, and I’ll see about posting my Dopplr badge on my website (I’ve added the application to my Facebook already, but we’ll see how long it stays on there). It’s a good way to keep track of where I am at any given moment, and to see if there are any locational overlaps between you and your friends (Oh, you’re going to New York then, too? Let’s meet up at Hiro on Sunday!).

Till then, you can see what I’ll be doing / going in the next few months in the table below:

What/Where
 Date
 Notes
EOY Beach Party with Incubator students in Santa Cruz, CA
 June 9
 Going to the beach with 50 students… for work! I love this job.
BUILD E2 Orientation
 June 10
 At the office
Karla in SF
 June 11
 Woohoo!
BUILD Mentor Appreciation Night
 June 12
 At the office
BUILD Staff Strategy Retreat at the Headlands Institute in Sausalito
June 23 to 25
College Summit workshop at USC, Los Angeles, CA June 25 to 30 Facilitating a College Summit workshop at USC with Karla.


I’ll have a free night on Sunday, June 29!
College Summit workshop at UNC-Asheville, Asheville, NC July 2 to 6 Facilitating another College Summit workshop at UNC Asheville with Zenia. Never been to North Carolina, but have heard that it’s beautiful.
Quick Vacation in New York, NY  July 6 to 11 Visiting Tony in New York. Finally a vacation!
International GALA Chorus Festival in Miami, FL July 11 to 20 Performing with SFGMC and lounging at the beach, I assume. Bring on the sun!
Back to SF July 20
 Back to the city after 3.5 weeks of jetsetting.




I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank College Summit, and particularly Oudete, for rocking out and allowing me the immense privilege and opportunity to be a Rap Director at USC and UNC Asheville. I can’t wait!

Seth Godin on Marketing Nonprofits

Seth Godin action figure. Photo credit: stefan.erschwendner on FlickrMarketing guru Seth Godin shares his wisdom at a Live Discussion on the Chronicle of Philanthropy‘s website. Nonprofis are just like businesses in that as a sector we have been relying heavily on the same business practice of “interruption marketing” to spread our messages and raise funds. Can you recall how many unsolicited mailings/emails you’ve received in the past 6 months asking you to donate to a cause? It’s not unlike getting bombarded with unsolicited commercials at a movie theater (wait, didn’t I just pay $11.50 NOT to be bombarded with this Nike commercial?) or ads on train/bus rides.

Seth Godin argues that 1) interruption marketing is not effective anymore, and 2) we are coming into the age of permission marketing. Here are some choice excerpts.

Marketing doesn’t equal advertising. Marketing is the act of interacting with people and the creation of products (or in your case services) that people choose to talk about. The biggest mistake non profits make is that they’re so busy not making mistakes they end up being boring. Boring and selfish and self-absorbed, all while they’re working so hard to make the world better. It’s ironic, but true. Kiva.org works primarily because it’s not boring. They make it easy to talk about what they do, and people choose to do so. Thus, the idea spreads.

Interesting thought. What makes your nonprofit interesting/compelling/remarkable? What made it interesting eight years ago might not be interesting now. Hopefully there’s some sort of progression happening so that the audience that was listening eight years ago isn’t listening to the same story now that they were listening to eight years ago. That would be… boring.

Question: The world has just witnessed two natural disasters in Myanmar and in China. Immediately after, my Inbox was full with emails from relief organizations. I didn’t know which one to choose to make a donation (the first email I got? The one with the better narrative?)What is your advice to these orgs on how to best target its supporters while not overwhelming them?

Seth Godin: Targeting is an unfortunate term, because that’s a hunting term, and the real goal needs to be farming and collaboration. People want to be part of a dialogue, not yelled at or even talked at.

The opportunity is to lead a tribe, and to do that you need to engage people and also to connect them with each other. I guess the short version is: talk to people the way you’d like to be talked to.

Sounds common sensical, but people really respond to respectful and honest communciation. And if you engage them in this way, they’ll choose you.

Marketing is about storytelling. And the thing is, different people need to hear different stories. Some people respond to a cold hard number (like the Gates Foundation). Others want to see the happy kid with braces. The challenge is in telling the right story to the right people in the right way at the right time.

The transcript reminded me of Facebook’s Causes application, which at face value looks like a permission marketing tool, but is it really? Yes, people can opt to join a “cause” but people also haphazardly sign up for “SuperPokes,” “Scrabulous,” and “Free Gifts.” We’ll see if the application grows up a little bit, and also see if the “causes” stick with people.

In related news, if you haven’t added me as a friend on Facebook, find and add me!

Read the full transcript here:

[Marketing Nonprofit Causes via Chronicle of Philanthropy]

Mrs. Bill Gates on Philanthropy

The Gateses (Bill and Melinda, e.g. the third wealthiest family on the entire planet) are at a super geeky tech conference down in Carlsbad, CA, called All Things D. One of my favorite blogs, Gizmodo, (don’t judge me) has covered Melinda Gates’ interview by none other than the wise tech sage himself, Walt Mossberg.

In the interview, she talks about how her hubby is stepping down from the top seat at Microsoft to spend more time at the Gates Foundation. I don’t know about you, but I think it is an incredible gesture for this extremely intelligent leader of the tech industry to symbolically say, “I’ve done all I can in the tech industry, and now I want to focus my energy and skills on solving the world’s most pressing matters.” This is coming from the man who makes more money in 5 minutes, than I do for an entire year (yea… he makes an estimated $18,000 per minute). He can pretty much do anything he wants with his boatloads of money. He could sit at home all day and watch TV, he could run for president, or he could be build his own island continent in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with all of his piles and piles of cash.

But no. Instead he and his wife are choosing to fight malaria, HIV, the school drop-out crisis, and poverty to name a few of their key initiatives. If that’s not inspirational, I don’t know what is.

Mossberg: What’s the difference between your Foundation and others like it? More money?
Melinda Gates: We can take risks…

…Melinda says they could tap their entire budget by attempting to fix the problems in the education system alone. Their mission is more to help take on that risk that governments can’t in fixing problems.

One of the Gates Foundations’ key areas of focus is America’s ailing educational system, and the vast number of students who drop out of school every year. I’m looking forward to the risks they take in that arena.

Question from the crowd: How do you deal with violence in schools going from students to teachers?
Melinda says that comes from facelessness in big schools. She’s seen schools with three cop cars in front and two metal detectors. You can see the gangs going through schools and once the teachers recognize the kids, the kids act a lot better. Once the teachers know the kids’ names, these things fall into place. She’s seen schools that have fixed this in NY be able to lose their metal detectors, and graduation rates go up profoundly (up to 78%).

You can read the rest of the transcript below:

[All Things D Live: Melinda Gates, Bride of Bill via Gizmodo]

And you can read her “coming out” article here from Fortune: Melinda Gates goes public.