Nonprofit Board Crisis

Nonprofit Gone Upscale: Threatening Mission?

Planned Parent has announced an effort to "build a broader network of suburban clinics and posh health centers. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, two elegant new health centers have been built and at least five more are on the way.  Centers include "muted lighting, hardwood floors, airy waiting rooms in colors selected by marketing experts -- plus, walls designed to withstand a car's impact should an antiabortion protest turn violent.  Planned Parenthood has also opened more than two-dozen quick-service "express centeres," many in suburban shopping malls."

The Journal goes on to note: Despite some critiquest to the contrary, Planned Parenthood insists it's not compromising its long-held focus on serving the poor with birth control, sexual-health care and abortions."  PP says it takes a loss of nearly $1 on each packet of birth-control pills distributed to poor women under a federal program.  But they make a profit of nearly $22 each month on pills sold to an adult who can afford the full price.  Profits are used to subsidize other operations including care for the poor and pursuing Planned Parenthood's political agenda".

Whew...this is a tough one.  Using good business and marketing strategies is pursuing market where it is -- shopping centers and malls, just like banks and other businesses.  Generating profits from those who can pay to offset costs for those who can't and pursue political strategies strikes me as well as a good strategy.

Nonprofits have tried in the past to serve two masters: those who have and those who don't.  Supposedly this is a nonprofit hosptal approach and look what that has led to -- having to pay for the service before dialysis or chemo. 

Planned Parenthood must be careful with this otherwise smart business effort.  One could argue that all sites should be upscale and that it's discriminatory not to pursue this effort.  On the other hand, I might ean toward making the upscale and 'burban sites for-profits with the license to do what it takes to serve market.  Then the profits can be used to support the not-so-upscale sites and the political agendas.   

Charity Begins At Home

"Charity begins at home" is the basic lesson that U.S. Representative William Jefferson's family from New Orleans have demonstrated to America.

According to Friday's New York Times, some of Representative Jefferson's family members "pocketed grant money earmarked for charitable and educational programs." 

The proper lesson from this news: nonprofit best practice policies, systems and governance can prevent greed and theft.

Right Task For Nonprofit Board

The battle between the north and south continues a bit in Richmond as the American Civil War museum must consider accepting a $100,000 statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from the Sons of Confederate Veterans after having installed a statue of President Abraham Lincoln.

While the debate about the rights, wrongs, shoulds and should nots is interesting, what is more interesting to this blog is the response by Christy S. Coleman, president of the Civil War Center.  According to the Hartford Courant, Ms. Coleman said "her organization is approaching the donation as it would any other gift: Officials will examine whether it fits with the center's collections strategy and consider its future upkeep, among other issues.  The board of the nonprofit center will likely take up the matter in August.  If someone offers us a sword, we may turn it down becuase we have too many swords, or we'll turn something down if it's not authentic, obviously."

Kudos to Ms. Coleman and her board for understanding their role in establishing and enforcing policies which guide important politically charged decisions like the one they are facing.  This is what I believe good governance is about - establishing and enforcing policies that reflect clearly a defined mission and values.

Nonprofit Governance and Duty of Obedience

The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently (May 29) reported on the NAACP Board's selection of a new president.

According to the Chronicle, the newly selected president will be the "youngest president in the organization's nearly 100-year history". 

While the article does speak to the strengths of Benjamin Todd Jealous (the new president) it at the same time highlights a great degree of disgruntlement on the part of the board over this selection noting that the "new president will assume the job with something less than a mandate, as the trustee vote was 34 to 21 in favor of his appointment".

It's certainly true that within an organization, some decisions may not get 100% support.  But the spirit and responsibility of board members, once a decision has been made, is to support the decisions and try to find ways to make it work OR leave the organization.  This is how great organizations achieve greatness. 

That some NAACP board members have chosen to air the organization's laundry and express their dissatisfaction over the selection choice is not in my mind a show of commitment to greatness.  I would hope the Board Chair will speak to this failure while working to heal "wounds" and create a space where the newly selected president will be able to pursue the mission without distraction and with full support.

Historic Homes in Danger

I noted just recently that the Mark Twain House is in trouble -- it's board put the house out on a limb with some big time debt and who knows if a business plan. 

The New York Times noted Tuesday that the Mark Twain House isn't alone in its financial troubles.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation estimates there are between 9 and 10,000 historic home museums nationwide.  "Many are operating on a shoestring.... It's a complex financial situation out there for a lot of museums, and there's no question that house museums are facing some unique challenges these days.  In many ways the Twain House is like private homes throughout America where residents expanded during heady economic times or used home equity credit lines, subprime mortgages and private loans they now struggle to repay."

But historical houses are not private homes.  They (a large number) are owned and operated by nonprofit boards who's expertise, experience, knowledge and duty of care (acting prudently as though the business were there own) should guide their organizations away from risk and bad decisions. 

The Twain House is certainly a good case in point that demonstrates that boards need to be better prepared for tough decisions if they want to keep their houses from threat of foreclosure.  They need as well to find other ways to sustain their houses economically.  Perhaps group purchasing arrangements, management service organizations or group ownership would be helpful.

Nonprofit With Goal of Excellence, Cited as Excellent

The nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government's president and CEO Patricia McGinnis announced her plan to leave her position this year. 

What struck me most about the announcment in the Washington Post, was the extent that the organization's vounteers lauded Ms. McGinnis for her own excellence.  She clearly leaves on a high note.  She has grown the budget from $1 million to $7 million.  She has positioned the organization as the "go-to" organization for government management best practices and has built key relationships.

I most frequently focus this blog on citing poor nonprofit performance and particularly poorly performing boards and their execs.  We learn though from both mistakes and successes.  With that in mind, it is helpful to recognize those moments when an exec and nonprofit pursues and achieves its mission to its constituent's satisfaction.

Newman's camp won't be affected by his poor health

"Newman's camp for sick children won't be affected by his poor health". 

That's the headline to a short article in Sunday's (6-15-2008) Norwich (CT) Sunday Bulletin following recently circulated stories that Paul Newman, the founder of the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, is seriously ill.

Newman built and originated the financing of the camp that has now spawned 11 camps in the US, five in Europe and another set to open in Israel in the fall. 

On the outside it's not unreasonable to ask whether Mr. Newman's illness and/or death would be a boon or bust to his camps but if anyone knows fundraising, they likely understand that the future should look good.  Mr. Newman and his staff have been thoughtful all along about the financial future of the camps with or without him .  They have a development team that has been tapping into Mr. Newman's and other's networks to secure a strong financial future. 

I don't know about the succession plan for Mr. Newman (as Chair of the Board) but I am confident that Mr. Newman has paid attention to this aspect of the camps as much as he has the financial future. 

The Hole in the Wall Gang Camps appear to be a good model for nonprofit strategic planning.

Nonprofit Board and Auditors of Museum Fail Responsibility

Missing art, using the credit card for personal purposes, unauthroized pay advances, altered receipts and deposit slips.  Sure, now the executive director of the Long Beach Museum of Art has been fired but this stuff has been going on for years.  And it took a city audit to find all this out!

So, where has the foundation's auditor's been all this time?  And of course, where's the board been?  Talk about a leadership failure -- this is a living breathing case example.  Read more about the story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Strange Effort to Revive Nonprofit

Once upon a time in Hartford, CT there was a nonprofit organization named One/Chane.  It served as a rabble-rousing pre-eminate community organization forum with community betterment as its goal.  It got grants and it attracted lots of smart and committed people.  One day (ok, over a period of days) One/Change ran out of money and oomph and had to close its door under a cloud.

Today, One/Chane is trying to resurrect itself reviving its name and even bringing back the director and some trustees who were on watch when the organization closed its doors.

Good idea?  That remains to be seen but one might suggest that once a nonprofit is down, it really should stay down.  To learn more about the story, go here.

NY Racing Association: A Nonprofit

Did you know that the New York Racing Association is a nonprofit organization.

According to the Hartford Courant, The New York Racing Association is a state-sanctioned, nonprofit group now emerging from bankruptcy, which owns and operates Aqueduct, as well as Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course.  The article from which I learned this fact was focused on which casino operator will get the deal to run a large number of video slot machines at the Aqueduct. 

I don't understand why the Association is a nonprofit.  It's basically an organization running gambling operations to generate dollars for the State of New York.  This is a nonprofit function?  Perhaps the answer is that all revenues in turn go to the State of New York?  But, something just doesn't seem right.....  Go to the website and see what I mean.  No mission statement or description of what happens with the revenues -- just stuff on horse racing and the results.  Hm.....