Struggle for the Soul of the Nonprofit Sector

If we become more business-like, which companies should we model: Enron, sub-prime mortgage brokers, Big Pharma? The appeal of being more business-like is due to its superior image, which consists of words and phrases like: lean and mean, efficient, entrepreneurial and innovative. In contrast, the word "nonprofit" conjures images like: ill-equipped, struggling, stressed and ineffective. While Light finds appealing the pursuit of business-like methods, he believes it changes the soul of the nonprofit organization.

But, the pursuit of being more nonprofit-like is a fool's errand too because there is no acceptable definition of nonprofit-like. The term itself defines the industry by what it is not. Using the term is like telling you "I have something in my hand and it is not a horse." It's a true statement, but not at all helpful. As a way out of the conundrum, Light insists we redefine "nonprofit" instead:

Properly defined, the term should refer to the best in the sector ... and it should be aspirational in tone. At a minimum, it should refer to high performance in the service of the public good, and not being mediocre or hanging on for survival's sake. This meaning emphasizes dedication not only to excellence but also to the public, not private, good.

In Managing the Nonprofit Organization, Peter Drucker writes a chapter entitled, "What Is the Bottom Line When There Is No Bottom Line?" To reverse the trend to disregard performance because the bottom line is hard to define, Drucker suggests mission as the starting point when considering performance goals:

In every move, in every decision, in every policy, the non-profit institution needs to start out by asking, "Will this advance our capacity to carry out our mission?" 

 From mission, we are to ask ourselves what fundamental difference are we to make in society and the lives of particular individuals. Performance goals are then carved out to determine what success will look like when we make those fundamental changes through the work of our organizations. It is then that we will be able to answer our investors' "bottom line" question. It is then that we can say we have done everything possible, prudent and legal to increase stakeholder wealth.

Next: Are We Conscious Yet?

What Society Really Thinks About the Nonprofit Sector

Paul Light in Pathways to Nonprofit Excellence paints a grim portrait of the nonprofit industry when he presents evidence that the public does not have confidence in the sector, and what confidence it holds is waning. In the latter days of the last century, the public read about  United Way, Red Cross and Nature Conservancy scandals. This century began with press scrutiny of Habitat for Humanity and Congressional investigations into excessive nonprofit executive salaries.

Light did a follow-up study in 2008. Americans remain skeptical of nonprofit organizations. Only 64% had either a great deal (16%) or fair amount (48%) of confidence in charitable organizations. Not only did respondents believe that the charitable sector wastes resources, the survey also indicated a sharp decline in the effectiveness rating. In 2003, 34% of the sample thought nonprofit agencies were doing a very good job of helping people. The "very good" rating dropped to 25% in 2008.

Light suggests two general methods of regaining public confidence and giving cogent answers to the bottom-line questions: become more business-like or become more nonprofit--like. There are problems with each alternative.

Next: Struggle for the Soul of the Nonprofit Sector

How's Your Bottom Line?

Everyone makes plans, whether for vacations, parties or selling iPods. In each situation, the same steps are taken. Decide exactly where you want to go; detail what it will take to get there; and decide what success should look like, so you know it when you arrive. When stripped to its essentials, the planning process is about the bottom line.

If you ask a commercial business manager the bottom line question, you might like get answers like:

• Sales are up the last three quarters
• All cost centers are meeting projections, or
• Margins are thickening

All are different ways of expressing the same thing. The bottom line relates to shareholder quality of life. Has the company's management team done everything possible, prudent and legal to increase the price of a share of stock, thereby increasing shareholder wealth?  All else is supportive but secondary.

Can there be a similar bottom line mindset in the nonprofit business world? To test, ask yourself these questions for your latest fiscal year:

• Who are my shareholders
• Was shareholder quality of life increased
• What was the impact of my nonprofit business

Typically, nonprofit business managers would say there is nothing comparable to a shareholder in the nonprofit world, in that there is not one category of beneficiary. There are several and all must be satisfied. That is why the term stakeholder is prevalently used instead. In addition to the client, stakeholders include volunteers, board members, donors and even staff.

Many managers would say nonprofit business is just too intangible to be quantified. While performance cannot be demonstrated with numbers, surely client qualify of life  improves, given the amount of service provided. Here, the causal link between performance and effectiveness is usually just assumed. Other managers might indicate that impact is quantifiable, having increased services from 1,000 meals a day (patient visits, hours of care, average daily census, or any process variable) to 1,800, a whopping 80 percent increase.

While both of these statements may be true, neither answers the question, "How is your bottom line?" No management team can say it has done everything possible, prudent and legal to increase stakeholder wealth.

When nonprofit agencies discuss results, as in these two imaginary conversations, no one is able to answer the question, "So what?" The marketplace does not offer an answer because it does not reward nonprofit performance to the degree necessary to sustain operations. Instead, nonprofit managers depend on independent investors. These investors deserve a decent answer to that question. Process variables such as the number of service units do not answer the "so what" question. Nonprofit managers know they offer value, but are unable to express it to others. Until the industry can communicate its true value to society, is it any wonder why the sector is under attack?

Next: What Society Really Thinks About the Nonprofit Sector

Faith in the Workplace

Now let's return to our Google search. While not a new idea, spirituality in business is taking a new direction. The workplace is becoming a venue in which employees could and should practice their faith.

Notre Dame University established the Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business to "strengthen the Judeo-Christian ethical foundations in business and public policy decisions." Os Hillman's newsletter, TGIF Today God is First Marketplace Meditations, encourages women and men to express their faith in the workplace. Parker Palmer has been writing about spirit and vocation for the last 15 years. His works include Now I Become Myself, The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity and Caring and Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation.

What about the nonprofit business world? Not much is said about our industry in the business literature except for that part of our sector identified as faith-based organizations, where some sort of spirituality is expected. But, Scripture leads me to believe all nonprofit businesses are faith-based organizations and should therefore be unafraid to acknowledge roots and practice spiritual disciplines.

Jesus the Christ was open and comfortable with everyone He met, but He especially loved to be with those who were in distress or considered to be outcasts: prostitutes (Luke 7:36-47), those with physical impairments (John 5:1-9), the diseased and consequently ostracized (Matthew 8:1-4), those unfaithful in marriage (John 4:9-26), and occupying military officers (Luke 7:1-10). In fact, He had a life-changing impact on anyone who had the courage to be who they are instead of presenting a mask of who they thought they should be. These honest and courageous people admitted they were not self-sufficient and instead were in need of help.

Christ's commitment to "such as these" continues today through the office of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when we serve the poor, homeless, abused, imprisoned, orphaned or otherwise disadvantaged person, Christ is indeed there too, as promised, and perhaps more powerfully than anywhere else we might meet Him, including a church sanctuary. It would therefore seem most appropriate to conference with the Holy Spirit from time to time as we consider our customers, strategic plans and marketing environment.

Next: Techniques for Conferencing With the Holy Spirit

The Spiritual Side of Marketing Strategy

I believe that the most powerful marketing strategy today has a spiritual element to it. Brand management brings all marketing tools to bear to build up equity in a particular brand. Proctor and Gamble was the first company to organize its marketing efforts around a brand. In branding, managers work to imbue a product with a set of values. Hopefully, these values are attributes of a product that will be perceived as desirable by the buying public. 

Branding goes far beyond demonstrations of a product's consistent good quality, an important value but usually not sufficient to drive sales. Brand management links other product values that will separate it from competing products in the marketplace. A car does not just get you from point A to point B cheaply and effectively. It also expresses the buyer's lifestyle better than any other car. In advertising, these other value statements usually speak the loudest  (see the video for Toyota's Swagger Wagon). In Nike's case, its logo, know as the "shoosh" even unadorned by copy conveys a potent marketing message (product endorsement by celebrities is another story altogether).

Spiritual values can also be potent marketing messages. Consider Texas Interfaith Power and Light. This nonprofit business makes a connection between the theology of creation stewardship and reducing carbon emissions. It has formal ties to the Islamic, Jewish and Christian faith traditions. 

Next: Faith in the Workplace

Doing Well By Doing Good

If you searched Google right now for "spirituality in business" you might think it has become the hot topic. However, the now popular mantra, doing well by doing good, is at least 200 years old. Capitalist business theorists and practitioners have been thinking about spirit for at least that long.

Its antecedents go back to the 18th century and Adam Smith, a moral philosopher who wrote about the ethics of economics (The Wealth of Nations published in 1776, but more importantly, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, published in 1759). Smith's Invisible Hand is a close cousin of the conscience in that enlightened self-interest drives the marketplace as we seek to maximize individual return but only while being mindful of the interconnectedness of others in that market.

We see business ethics in the news again in the 1970s when the Corporate Social Responsibility movement was in full flower. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development defined corporate social responsibility as:

the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.

Here, advocates were not interested in doing right for its intrinsic value to the soul. Doing good leads to doing well. (For more on the movement, see Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative web page http://bit.ly/Zf77).

As companies pursued the concept of corporate social responsibility, it became obvious to some that a corporation is like an individual in that it is a citizen and therefore woven into the fabric of community life at both neighborhood and national levels. Implementing the notion of corporate citizenship has become increasingly sophisticated in the last 30 years to the point of moving out of the executive suite and into the workhorse of any business, its marketing department.

Cause-related marketing is defined as promoting a link between commercial and nonprofit businesses to the benefit of both. Historians point to American Express in the early 1980s as the strategy's progenitor. The Company nearly doubled its number of cardholders and increased overall card usage by almost a third by promising to donate a penny to the Statue of Liberty restoration project every time a cardholder made a purchase. This is a direct causal connection from doing good (restoring Lady Liberty) to doing well (100% market share increase at the cost of a cent per transaction).

Next: the spiritual element of marketing strategy

When Everything Qualifies as a Miracle

Everything qualifies as a miracle. I hear people say babies, sunsets and mountains are all miracles, or at least the healthy, happy, good ones. I also hear people say it will take a miracle for some relatively mundane event to happen in their lives like, "it will be a miracle if there is no line at the post office". A jaded person would think the power of the miracle is lessened when everything is one.

We say these things because, as a species, we are constantly seeking approval. We are like whales swimming around with our mouths open and feeding on plankton trying to sustain ourselves on a high volume of bits of approval. We look for approval from parents, spouses, bosses, colleagues, friends, neighbors, even fellow worshipers. This behavior takes on all forms. "Am I doing OK?" "Are you mad at me?" "Will it ever be alright?"

And so it is with our relationship with God. We constantly seek God's approval and reassurance of worth through the show of miracles which we see as approval granting attention from the Almighty. Of course we see miracles everywhere.

What about the shoes for Lucian? Was it a miracle like a sunset or a traffic-free commute to work? Notwithstanding the jaded position, I believe it is on the same order as the feeding of the 5,000.

The feeding miracle shares a distinction with the resurrection in that it is the only other miracle reported by the four canonical gospel authors. Something about this miracle struck the disciples as being memorable, even more memorable than raising Lazarus from the dead.

Late in the evening, near dinnertime, a crowd of seekers assembled to hear the teacher. The disciples were worried about feeding such a large crowd and they asked Jesus what they should do about it. Three of the authors reported an unexpected divine answer: feed them yourself.

From the disciples' vantage point, they saw a magical moment. Jesus asked for God's blessing and somehow, a woefully inadequate amount of food became enough to feed thousands of hungry people. And the miracle did not end there. There was more than enough for the disciples to eat. In fact, after everyone ate, there was more food left over then the initial collection of a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish.

From a different vantage point, what if Jesus' blessing and prayer was not for some magic of sleight of hand but for the magic of a compassionate and loving heart. What if the first person in line to receive the basket of meager means knew there was not enough food for everyone and thought of others over self. It was after all late in the day and prudent people would have brought a bite or two with them. With hearts now opened by Jesus' prayer, people contributed what they had for the common weal and ate from the community's store only if they were totally unprepared. Such behavior among 5,000 people could have gone virtually unnoticed and the result would have appeared to the disciples as truly miraculous. Indeed it was.

The shoe miracle follows the same pattern. When I agreed to find 200 pairs of shoes for Lucian's children, I asked God just how I was going to do it (having no idea myself). That was my only prayer. From that point forward, God delivered people to me who took care of the rest. From casual conversations with a few people, I got the shoes, labor to clean and package them, and transportation to Romania without spending a cent.

At the time I asked God how this was going to get done, I remember hearing an answer which I quickly dismissed because it was not what I expected to hear: do it yourself.


Next: Doing Well by Doing Good

Shoes for Lucian

Without having lived in a police state, it is difficult to understand how fear can rule a people long after the source of fear has been removed. Under the former regime, informers and the secret police watched everyone everywhere and reported everything. Public life was owned by the state. When ServingHIM briefed us for the trip ahead, they told us that while the secret police had been disbanded, it was still considered rude to draw attention to yourself in public. This cultural norm is a vestige of the days when the collateral damage from prying eyes now focused on your public display could put someone near you in prison.

Given this reticence for the attention of authorities, imagine Lucian's concern when Romanian customs officials informed him that he had to come to the port to claim a few packages. Here is his email:

I was so happy when I received the twenty boxes with shoes. I was also a little nervous at the customs, but everything turned all right. Many children will be happy and so their parents. I pray God will reward all the dedication, kindness and I especially want to send to all the people involved in this operation, our deepest thanks and I ask God to send upon them His blessings. I know you carried them with Mike's car. I believe Kevin was also involved. Please, send them my best wishes and send my regards also to Stephanie and many hugs from Stella.
May God bless you as only He knows how from His riches in Heaven!
In His Service,
Lucian and Stella

As I now reflect on this tale years later, I can see Jesus the Christ in the seams of it. By removing cultural, religious and xenophobic filters, and by looking with eyes wide open, I believe this story describes a miracle on par with the feeding of the 5,000.

Next: how the jaded and skeptical will view this miracle story.

Return to Blogging

This blog started simply as a way to keep in touch with family when we were in Romania. I had no intention of keeping up with it after we returned. Occasionally, I tried to update material as the shoe story unfolded, but without a unifying theme, I lost interest. I'm not a diarist.

I changed the masthead to "Christ beyond church, culture and country" to declare a purpose. Christ has become too constrained, covered up and co-opted by the institutions that define life in America. As a result, Christ is no longer the living manifestation of the Almighty Creator of all we see, taste, touch and otherwise sense through our emotions.

The church has domesticated God into something comfortable and entertaining at week's end. Culture ignores God and instead offers us substitutes in a desperate attempt to prop up the notion that everything we do and say as a people is so damn important. Politics usurps and then repositions God's power for personal gain.

I will try to peek around the edges of culture, church and country for what I feel will be bountiful sightings of Christ Jesus, the gentle King who first came to us as a helpless baby and who promises friendship between lions and lambs upon His return. I'll report what I see.

I was inspired to search for a theme and return to blogging after a conversation with Stacy Caldwell, Executive Director of Dallas Social Venture Partners. Once you have given her web page a good look, you will come to know why I trust her social media counsel.

Next: the conclusion of the shoe story. Was it a miracle? Can it compare with the miracle in Matthew 14:14-21?

Children's Shoes: Update

Christian Community Action has come through for us by diverting approximately 200 pairs of children’s shoes from its thrift store operations. The amount is beyond our capacity to pick-up at one time, so we are preparing a few shoes at a time to ship to Lucian. A Sunday school class at Grace Presbyterian Church is making the shoes like new and individual class members are packaging readied shoes to mail to Romania.

Christian Community Action was founded in the 1970s by a small group of Christians studying the Bible in search of the meaning of love. They were compelled by what they had learned and committed to become a visible channel of God’s love. It was this resolve that led to the organization of a continuing community effort focused on living out the mandate of Jesus Christ to care for "the least of these."

It has since grown to a large operation that cares for over 15,000 individuals annually. Last year, CCA distributed over a million dollars of food; provided medical services to more than a 1,000 and served 50,000 free lunches for kids during the summer. To help meet agency expenses, CCA operates three thrift stores where people can make donations of gently used clothing and household appliance. Businesses can also donate excess inventory. Items are prepared for sale at one of the agency’s three Re-Stores and sold to bargain hunters.

The stores now account for 54% of CCA’s organizational income and allows them to provide consistent financial aid to families in more than 46 communities. Their stores have created more than 110 jobs and generate gross sales of $5.5 million per year for the ministry.

Donations of clothes and appliances can be made at 200 South Mill Street, Lewisville, Texas. Monetary donations can be made at:

www.ccahelps.org/GiveStart.html.

Wanted: Furniture

The new clinic may be ready in 2007. We got a tour of it when we were there in September. It is a three story building next to Holy Trinity church. It will be able to house the entire Braila ServingHIM operation. This will be a complete clinic, consisting of medical, dental and allied health care such as physical therapy. ServingHIM is now contacting medical and dental equipment vendors for donations to supply the clinic with dental chairs and other equipment when it opens in late Spring or early Summer.

The top floor will be a residence hall for visiting teams. In addition to bedrooms, the residence hall will have a family room and places to study, reflect and fellowship. Mike Redeker, ServingHIM’s Executive Director, is looking for furniture donations. Please leave comments if you know where we can round up furniture for 12 one-room apartments and common living areas. Each bedroom should have two single beds, two nightstands and a dresser. For the common areas, eight sofas, coffee tables and desks are needed.

Sleeping, eating and working in a brand new building has its appeal and it will certainly be easier on our hosts. Church members volunteer time and automobiles to ferry us between the hotel, church and clinic. They met us at the Hotel Traian each morning to take us to the clinic and returned each evening to take us to various restaurants for dinner. Everyone transporting us was glad to provide the rides but it meant that our hosts had to be on call for ten days, several times each day for this duty. This had to be quite an imposition on their time and lives and it will be better to visit with them under less time pressure.

However, I'm sorry for future teams and the loss this will bring. There was a certain local color that will be lost to those not staying at the Hotel Traian. It is in the center of Braila, and the traffic outside the hotel, both vehicular and pedestrian, is constant. The hotel is across the street from a park and every member of every team has the same photograph from the window of their rooms looking onto the park. A nearby bistro was open most of the day and night, and while the pounding disco beats were not always welcomed by sleepy team members, it is a memory we all share, usually with a smile and a wink. These are special memories that we would not want to give up.

Wanted: Children's Shoes

Lucian is a missionary who works in villages surrounding Braila. He asked for assistance from American churches in his ministry.
As winter begins to set in, Lucian is looking for 100 pairs of children's shoes for distribution in Valcele where his church is located. Valcele is a village on the eastern slope of the Carpathians.

We are exploring a line on used shoes right now as we also look for donors of new shoes. We are also researching the best ways to get material to Lucian's village. Leave comments or email us if you have suggestions.

Back Home

Romania made quite an impression on our souls. Two weeks after we returned home, Stephanie asked me if I still dream about Romania. Indeed, we both think about the friends we had to leave and we are still dreaming about the mission. It was that powerful and we have not fully unpacked the experience as yet. I hope to be able to better articulate the spiritual experience as I upload pictures from the trip. Maybe seeing events again will trigger a memory and an understanding of the nature of God felt at the time. It is impossible to describe the impact the trip had on our spiritual lives, much less to be able to measure it.

While we will continue to support ServingHIM missions, we are also looking into other ways to help our friends.

Farewell to Dear Friends

It is hard to believe that the working part of this trip has come to an end! We came to share the Gospel, extend Christ's love to those in need and be servants to God's people, but in the end, we are the ones who have been blessed! God Is Great!

So Busy

I'm sorry for the slow pace of the posts but we have been swamped. We are seeing about 70 people a day. The dentists are doing some amazing work. Tom is the dental team leader and each morning, he makes assignments for the healthcare team. The rest of us don't see him much during the working day. He rarely takes breaks and in the evening, he's just plain tired.

Dick has been working in the clean room most days. Here, the dental equipment is made ready for the next procedure. Dick has to follow a protocol and yet turn around the equipment quickly due to the high numbers. Mike spent one day doing this so Dick could have a break. Sometimes, he is in the courtyard where patients wait. That is where I have been most of the week. There, we tell Christ's story, offer comfort for what is to most a potentially frightening experience, and make ourselves available as a conduit of God's love and peace. Dick is wonderful with the children and he takes pictures of all of us and prints them there. Our patients are amazed and gratified that they have a keepsake of their visit in the courtyard with their new friends.

Stephanie moves between the pharmacy and the courtyard. In the pharmacy, she and Sheila dispense the antibiotics and pain relievers that are prescribed by the dentists. They also give instructions on how and when to take the medicines and provide nursing information about medical conditions, nutrition and general health. This also is the last time the patient has a chance to experience the love of God as they care for them, pray with them and invite them to the Holy Trinity Church for a special service on Friday evening. In the courtyard, she tells people about the Good News. Being at the beginning and the end of a patient's time with us lends some continuity to their trip from the waiting area through medical history, triage, and operations.

We will close the clinic and pack up the equipment this evening. Our hosts are providing a buffet and a sing-along in the courtyard, and we look forward to this time of fellowship. Tomorrow, we will visit the new medical/dental clinic under construction next door to the church. It should be in operation for the dental team that visits next spring. We will also visit the House of Hope, established by Pastor Joe's wife. It is a place where boys and girls who need a home can be nurtured and loved in a Christian environment. Friday evening, we will attend a praise service to say goodbye to our friends and offer testimonials of our experiences of the week.

Yarn Ministry Alert

Grace Yarn Ministry: Stephanie and Sheila are working in the pharmacy and as a last evangelical point of contact, they have been passing out the blankets, caps and scarves. Your work has been a hit over here. Everyone has complimented your craftsmanship and greatly treasure the knitting. Everyone has either cried or presented hugs and kisses. Stephanie thinks that the Ministry should consider producing at least twice as many scarves for next year.

First Day at the Clinic

The dentists are seeing about 30-40 people before the lunch break. The evangelism team is working with members of the local church in the courtyard outside of the clinic. We will try to post pictures while we are here.

Setting-up

We attended a worship service Sunday morning and the team was introduced to the congregation of The Holy Trinity Church. With only about 25 voices, the choir was magnificent. We recognized many of the tunes and sang along in English. Translators sat among us and quietly interpreted the words of Pastor Joe and Pastor Cristi. They are mostly youth members of the church and will be with us at the Dioconia Clinic for the rest of the week. After lunch, we headed to the clinic to set up the different units: triage, hygiene, surgery and pharmacy. The 20 trunks that our team packed with dental equipment, distilled water, evangelizing tools and gifts from the yarn ministry at Grace Presbyterian Church, Arlington, as well as our luggage, made it to Braila safely.

Travel Day

We met at the terminal as our team assembled from different parts of the country. Everyone arrived without difficulty and we were ready to test the limits of Lufthansa’s ticket counter personnel with our unusual baggage.

Each airline passenger is allowed two checked bags of 50 pounds each. The week before, we packed trunks with 50 pounds of dental supplies and equipment and brought them to the airport as one of our two bags. For the rest of the trip with a stop in Frankfurt before arriving in Bucharest, each team member had to keep up with his or her assigned trunk.

Lufthansa fed us dinner and showed a couple of movies (Akeela and the Bee, Just My Luck, and Over the Hedge) after we were airborne and later turned down the lights in a failed attempt to make us think it was late at night and we should all go to sleep. A few hours later, the lights were brought up and they served breakfast. We left at 3:00 PM and we were landing in Frankfurt at 7:00 AM after a ten hour flight. After a lay-over, we boarded a flight to Bucharest.

We must have been a sight to behold as we left the Bucharest terminal to meet our friends from Braila. Here were 20 Americans wearing identical shirts in single file pushing baggage carts with a footlocker on each. We were met by a van and a bus from Holy Trinity. The van carried the dental supplies, and the team rode in the bus.

We drove about two hours to Bazau where we had lunch at McDonalds. Yes, McDonalds is about the same everywhere, including the drive-through, except beer is included on the menu here. A wedding was taking place while we ate outside.We watched as the wedding party progressed from a building on one side of the square to the other side, where the church was located.

We reboarded the bus for the remaining two hour trip to Braila. This segment was through farmlands of a great plain stretching from the Carpathian Mountains to the Danube. Every few miles the sameness of cultivated land was broken by a village. It was a stark yet beautiful sight as the sun was setting. Through every village we saw the same scene of farmers leading cows and other livestock along the side of the road back to stables. We were surprised to see villagers getting around in horse-drawn wagons and drawing water from wells.

After more than twenty-four hours of continuous travel, we made it to Braila around 8:00 P.M. Saturday.