Illustration by Jocelyn Ruiz

Relating well and as often as possible to donors is far and away the best foundation any nonprofit can build; better than the best website or the wittiest tweets. How you make your supporters feel about their social investment in your organization is paramount.

One of the necessary parts of this relationship building process involves thinking of yourself as a detective solving a puzzle: How can you make people feel that their acts of support for your organization are magical - and needed and special.

If you are at arms' length from them (constantly sending them electronic or snail mail communication) you can't possibly begin to know them. Can you become best buddies with every person who donates time and money to your organization? Not likely.

But what you can do is to reach out to people immediately upon their involvement.  Make a quick phone call to thank them - yes, I said it.  Sometimes you actually should pick up the phone instead of emailing, e-blasting or tweeting! And there's always the wonderful hand-written note.  Nothing says that you are thinking about someone quite like…

"There is one thing all radically successful people have in common: their ferocious drive and hunger for success makes them never give up."
- Bernard Marr, business author

In a recent blog post, Bernard Marr gave several examples of business leaders who have persevered to become wildly successful. On his list he included such people as Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates. He pointed out that all had experienced multiple failures before hitting the jackpot.

This got me thinking about those who work in the social sector. I wondered who might qualify as a "radically successful" person in that world. Marr's list didn't include anyone from this group. And, as I thought about possible candidates, I considered how best to decide who qualified. All of the individuals touted by Marr had generated vast wealth as a result of their perseverance. That measure just wouldn’t cut it for those working in the social sector. 

So, I decided to base my selections on those who had never given up, and ultimately had a huge positive impact on the world. Impact is not so easy to measure, but I think we can all agree that we know it when we see it. So here is my initial stab at a list of “radically successful” people from the social sector:

Enhance your leadership…

After 22 years in the fields of volunteer program management and nonprofit administration, I’m often asked by colleagues in the sector for advice on how they can improve the volunteer program in their organization. Before responding, I ask them questions about the roles they have for volunteers, how they recruit volunteers, how volunteers are “on-boarded” to the organization, who supervises them and how, and how successful they are at retaining volunteers.

The feedback that I then give almost always follows a consistent theme – “Your program has the potential to be dramatically improved if you stop needing and using volunteers.” This usually elicits some looks of shock and surprise until I elaborate further and explain that I’m not proposing that they cease to engage the community in their work through volunteerism but, rather, that they modify how they think about volunteers in their organization. The simple, but profound, key is to change the semantics – to talk in terms of “wanting” and “engaging” volunteers rather than “needing” and “using” them.

During the introductions in my workshops, I always ask participants to share with me two or three adjectives that describe how they felt as the result of a particularly rewarding experience that they have had as a volunteer. A small sample of the positive words they have shared include: empowered, humbled, motivated, grateful, awed, helpful, effective, connected, valuable, and inspired. Not once…

“We have so many board members, we’re having trouble reaching decisions.”

The time it takes to reach consensus on a board of directors is often directly proportional to the size of the board. It’s simply more efficient to present, review, discuss and decide as a group when the number of members is manageable.

Ironically, a nonprofit that succeeds in recruiting a large number of board members with a passion for its mission can reach a point of diminishing returns, notwithstanding the valuable input each board member brings, because the time needed to give each member a say on every major decision lengthens (sometimes in an agonizing way) the time needed to reach those decisions. One way organizations can improve this process, without reducing the size of the board and the participation of its constituents, is by forming an executive committee.

An executive committee can be given the authority to act on behalf of the board only between meetings of the full board, or might be tasked with considering important matters prior to their presentation at the regular board meeting. Another option is to give the executive committee authority to act with the full power of the board in emergencies.

Whatever the structure and purpose, a clear statement in the bylaws or a resolution by the full board is needed to provide definition and guidance. Here is an example:

Creation of executive committee:…

Board members sometimes stand in the way of what their nonprofit needs most. I’ve written before about the meaningless at best and destructive at worst distinction between “overhead” and “program” dollars. Unfortunately, both board members and donors can sometimes overlook the actual costs of a nonprofit's work and its critical need for investment money in the organization.

Fortunately, board members can break this pattern by helping their nonprofit uncover, plan for and fund the staffing, technology, expertise and systems required to make the organization more effective. Board members need to put their weight behind organization building. And they can start by giving their nonprofit these five priceless gifts:

1. Permission to talk about real costs. Don't wear your staff thin by asking them to work with less. Rather than insisting your executive director cut budget on salary, technology, or expert support, consider discussing the true costs of your organization's work and how best to achieve your ambitious goals. Taking a proactive approach on long-term sustainability, will help your organization thrive and make a greater impact.
2. …