Episode 209: Creating and Using and Advisory Group to Benefit the Nonprofit and the Volunteers
Welcome to another edition of Around with Randall, your weekly podcast for making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Halette Philanthropy, Randall Hallett.
It's an honor to have you join me, Randall, on this edition of Around with Randall. In today's 20-minute conversation, My 21st Century Classroom, we want to talk about advisory groups: why they might be important to you, how to use them effectively, and what everyone seems to get out of them when they're done correctly.
That ould mean resides within the nonprofit. Part of what we've talked about is how to get others involved by creating an advisory group. You might parallel this to a campaign committee. I might have been talking about the structure I tend to use when conducting feasibility studies or, more importantly, campaign counsel with clients—building out a volunteer structure, chairs, and all. I'm just referring to a group of people that can help foster insights into what needs to be done.
The challenge in this particular case has been that, as the advancement development/foundational office has put this group together, the organizational executive leadership has pushed back. Based on the conversations I'm having with them, this group has come with opinions, and there are some experts involved. This input has changed the plans a little, potentially affecting costs and other factors. The executive leadership is not all that excited about having this input. This leads me to the question: what can we do to ensure that both the organization and the advisory group get value out of this relationship?
One of the best advisory groups I've seen—though not formal—came from my time at the University of Nebraska. The chancellor of the university was incredibly effective at having what he called his "kitchen cabinet." He would meet regularly with these eight to eleven incredibly influential people. There was no formal mention of the group; they weren't listed anywhere. They certainly did not heighten community awareness of the group, either individually or collectively. Yet, they provided the chancellor with an incredible sounding board for the things he wanted to accomplish and helped inform him about the community’s perspective on these initiatives.
This informal group was especially effective during a $500 million campaign. Thanks to the hospital board—essentially a formalized advisory group for the CEO of the medical center—and the kitchen cabinet, which had some overlap, the community was better prepared for the campaign. These groups were highly effective despite being unofficial. Advisory groups, if you’re willing to listen, can bring people to the table who can better help you.
I want to break this topic into two parts. First, we'll discuss the bigger picture: what are the benefits of creating an advisory group for both the organization and the individuals who might "serve"? Second, we'll address the tactical elements necessary for success.
Let’s start by discussing the benefits. Part of this involves deciding who to ask to join the group. From the nonprofit side, you're often looking for expertise. In the client conversation I mentioned earlier, there was a more technical need that the organization faced—something complex, not easily figured out by everyone. They managed to bring in a couple of experienced experts in this area, which led to changes in plans but also elevated the case for the need.
It became clear that the individuals inside the organization who would ultimately use this area weren't at the cutting edge of what for-profit businesses were doing. The external experts, however, suggested thinking about things differently—changing certain equipment or reframing outcomes. This resulted in a much deeper and more robust opportunity to build the nonprofit’s reputation in the area.
So finding experts is important. So for an education, you probably want people that if you're at the law school that have a legal understanding or if you're in science, they have a science experience or knowledge or wisdom. If you're in healthcare, maybe they were a grateful patient or family who've gone through the process of whatever that particular service area is. If you're a food or shelter, non-profit, you're talking to people who are at the front lines of serving these communities or maybe you need a shelter building. How do you build certain things? Expertise is important because what it does is it gives you a kind of a reservoir of knowledge and wisdom that you may not have. So expertise is number one.
Number two is is that the benefit is it increases credibility. If you're able to, whether quietly or maybe more officially, have some type of recognition of the group, even if it's just unofficially saying, you know, we've got these three people who are kind of guiding us. If you have the right three people when you have the initial conversations that philanthropy might be a part of this discussion, that enhances the overall credibility of the overall project. Hey, my gosh, they're thinking about this from a more holistic perspective, a deeper perspective, more technological, the advanced perspective. So you elevate that credibility.
Number three is you provide strategic guidance about kind of seeing things through a new lens, a fresh perspective, not to parallel my great joy in Nebraska finally making a bowl game. But in the middle of the season, the head coach made the decision to bring in an offensive new offensive coordinator who wasn't there every day. And all of a sudden, new players started to play. There was a different way of they looked at their offense. Sometimes a new perspective can give you an elevated, an enhanced view of what you're trying to accomplish because we tend to get into ruts. We tend to see the same thing over and over again. By having an outside group, they may provide some useful enlightenment into what might be possible or what you might be missing, but you didn't know.
Number four is it expands your network. Who doesn't want a nonprofit who has more people that believe in what they're doing? This comes back to my old, all time favorite adage inside of what we do in the world of philanthropy and fundraising. Ask somebody for money, you get advice, ask their advice, you may get their money. Think about a small group of people who are advising you about what to do. They don't even ask them for money. You're asking them for their expertise, their beliefs, their know-how. That leads potentially, not maybe just for them, but those around them. Maybe some for some philanthropic conversations down the road. If nothing else, it may get them talking in the community about your organization to people that don't know that much about you.
The last is, as I talked about, the resource development, and this is kind of a subset of four. But I've just learned that old adage that I mentioned a few minutes ago about asking for advice and getting money, asking for money, you get advice, I cannot tell you how important that is. When you have people on the inside who are willing to give you advice, to advocate, to connect, they are just simply more willing and likely to give you money because you bought into their emotional perspective. I think the opposite is also true. We tend to not be very good at, you've heard me say this on a million different podcasts or the trainings I do, blessing and releasing. We tend to think, "Well, I'm just going to keep going at these particular opportunities because they got money and they're going to give to me." Well, we know money actually, the highest levels come from emotional connection content, the ability for them to see themselves as a part of the solution. If you don't have that, then why are we keeping that motion of spinning our wheels a part of the process? Sometimes releasing people because they don't have any interest, either advice or not. It's a healthy thing.
From the non-profit side, there are four things that are incredibly beneficial. Number one is really about this idea of impactful engagement. You are, or from excuse me, from the donor in philanthropy's perspective, when you ask someone what they believe, what their opinions are, you elevate their connection to you in the organization. This can be done on a personal level. Sometimes, even if you think you know the answer, it's incredibly powerful to go, let's say, to your team or to someone else and say, "Here's my situation. Love your advice." That elevates deepens the relationship, which may mean morphal therapy. It may not. But what it does mean is that you're getting them to buy into what they believe and they're doing it through the thing you're trying to do.
Number two is connection to the mission. I think sometimes we don't understand that sometimes more often than not, I'll put it that way. We need more people out there advocating for what we're doing. Even if they're not our largest funders. The more people we have telling our story, the better off we are from a community-wide branding perspective, from an awareness perspective, from a connection to what we do and why it's a problem perspective, I think sometimes we underestimate how important it is to have advocates running around all over the place talking about what value we bring in philanthropy in particular for your nonprofit.
That comes as a benefit because if they believe in you, they'll talk about it to other people.
The third is for the philanthropist/donor/advisor/sage of a particular area you're looking for. It brings networking opportunities. They get an opportunity if we do this correctly for a small group to be networking with other people either in their area of expertise, maybe their area of influence, or level people. They people like that. People want to know what others are doing. And in particular, they have the opportunity to kind of know what's the bigger picture and opportunity to chat about what might be possible, not about what you're doing, but in their life and their career. You do that through networking.
The last thing is that kind of leans into the idea of influence. People, and we think about our donors, philanthropists, our sages of wisdom and knowledge of what we're trying to do, people like to feel like they have a part in something. They want to be a part of something. Gerald Panas did a study of the largest donors, mega gifts was the name of the study in the book decades ago. But this is one of the outcomes that I think people are always surprised by, or maybe just forget, is people want to feel like they have influence on positive things that they are a part of something bigger that it makes a difference.
Think about a room full, maybe that's only three or four or five people of individuals who feel like when I show up here, people are listening to me and I'm making a difference on what they're doing to make the world a better place. How powerful is that? Maybe a subset of that is also recognition. Maybe it's just personal recognition. Maybe it's that holiday gift that the, I think about what the chancellor would do so well, taking a holiday gift to their front door to their office door and say, "Want personally, I want to thank you for the 6, 8, 10 conversations we've had with others like you that have helped me strategically move the organization to the university forward." That is incredibly powerful. And no one else knows about it.
So these are the benefits. How do we do this in an effective way? Well, there's two things that we have to make sure we always remember that are the guiding principles. One for the organization, one for the members of the group, however you want to call them.
I'm going to start with the nonprofit. If you and or the people you are working with who are a part of this, if you're an enormous academic medical center, that may be department chairs or division chairs or division leaders. In a smaller nonprofit, maybe the CEO, maybe a board member too. But from the organizational perspective, the elements that are necessary for success, start with one simple premise. You have to be willing to listen to them.
Doing this with only the purpose being, "Well, we're going to make better connections go ask them for money. We'll kill you." If you don't willing to actually listen to their expertise in their opinions, I always talk about it from the standpoint in philanthropy with a content expert that I, when we get into a fun raising, maybe individual donor opportunity conversation outside of this, they only want to take or we should only take 50% of whatever it is we want to do. We should ask the potential donor, "What do you think about this? What's missing? What could we do?"
It doesn't mean you have to take all of their advice. If you call a group of people together and you ask them, "Well, what is it you think that we could do to make this better?" then basically blow them off. You will never get them in the room again.
Where I started this entire discussion was around that story with the client. It wasn't that the executive leadership, the administrative leadership ignored them. But they certainly didn't make them feel important as to their expertise. And now advancements got a problem because they can't get people to come back to additional conversations and meetings because the comment has been, "Well, I give you my advice and basically you don't want it."
If the organization isn't willing to embrace what they're actually saying, then don't do this. It will benefit no one. It won't benefit you. It won't benefit them. So you need to realize you have to be listening.
Number two, you have to give the sub points a clear purpose. You have to be strategic on who you bring in. These should be people that elevate discussions, not just, "Hey, we're going to have a cup of coffee together." It should be regular if done correctly. And regular doesn't mean forever. If the project needs six months of attention, then their role is six months long. They may be able to do something else down the road.
But if you don't have clear roles in clear selection and clear regular communication and connection, this is not meant to be a one-time shot. You should do several of these discussions so people feel like they can learn about it, know about it, and build into it. It should also be staff-supported.
So when I think about the work that the chancellor did, as well as the CEO did with his board—which was more like that than not because it was such a small group—there were staff in the room.
The CEO and the chancellor weren't doing the heavy lifting. I was. I have anything to say. But if someone said, "Well, we want to follow up on that." I knew my job was to make sure it got done.
You have to have people supporting this in a larger way so that the work is being done, not by the volunteers, although they provide their expertise, but by the organization at the proper level. Or members, what is it that you need to make sure that there's effectiveness on their point or on their side or on their perspective?
Number two, number one, overall, overreaching, much like you have to be willing to listen—if you're the nonprofit, you have to make it valuable, a value-driven engagement. If you don't elevate to higher levels of discussion, engagement, involvement, getting and garnering that wisdom, whatever it is, and it's just a cup of coffee and not very valuable, then what ends up happening is they don't come back.
Value is about opportunities to influence and engage. If you don't provide that, if they don't feel that, then they aren't coming back. Underneath that, you need to be open about what recognition might be available. Again, it doesn't have to be their names and lights.
How do you make them feel valuable to the—is the recognition internally just by the people in the room and they feel really good about, as the chancellor did with his kitchen cabinet, those 11, 12, 13 people? They didn't need recognition. What their recognition was looking across the table, that I'm at the table with the key people in this city, in Omaha. That was enough. And then maybe an appropriate appreciation, the holidays, personal note, things of that nature.
This does not have to be, well, we're going to name buildings after this group or individuals in the group. Recognition is more subtle, but more important.
Also, you have to give them opportunity to have input. So a structured meeting is important. How do you get all of them to feel as if their input has value? And it's also somewhat exclusive. They want to feel like the people in the room are almost above them, even though if you actually did this correctly and they all felt that way, they're all at the same level.
But you want them to think about it from the perspective of, I'm in a room with the, leader of, this particular area, whatever that is. Maybe it's a whole bunch of patients who've been through a very similar healthcare series of experiences. And they're like, wow, these people are really cool because they've been treated by the same—there has to be an elevation of exclusivity. This is a special group.
The last thing is you've got to give them a little bit of opportunity to network and collaborate informally. If it's all business, it doesn't work. You have to give them a sense that there is an opportunity for them to socially connect in a meaningful way. That could be 15 minutes before the meeting starts with cup of coffee where they're talking about their families or their businesses or whatever.
But always realize that there's a social part of this that goes well beyond the organization. It's about their connection to each other and to the organization through the mission or whatever it is that they represent.
So the two big takeaways from the organizational perspective: you have to be willing to listen, you have to be willing to accept some of the thoughts that they have. If you're not, don't do this.
Number two, from the members or the donors, philanthropists, whomever they are, you have to make sure they feel this is valuable. And then the sub points that came from that that I mentioned.
If I as your groups can be helpful on lots of different fronts, but if they're mismanaged and misrun with misguided sense of their obligations and/or their intent or their value, you will actually cause yourself damage.
So this becomes a more valuable risk-reward. The reward can be great. The risk can be moderated. But if you mess it up, the risk gets a lot higher because they're out there telling people, yeah, they don't care about the community. They don't want to listen. You don't want that.
You want them saying just the opposite. This is an organization that wants the community to be highly engaged to solve your particular problem that you serve. Advisory groups, formally or informally, greatly help you with that if you handle them in the right way.
And forget to check out the blogs at Hallettphilanthropy.com Two week or so things that I see, read, think about, witness, just something to give you an opportunity. 90 seconds, that's all they are. Give you a chance to think, push maybe a thought to your head to go, "Wow, I hadn't thought about that." That's their goal.
Halifelianthropy.com, get an RSS feed right to you if you want. Or you can communicate with me directly at podcast@halifelianthropy.com.
We move into December, year end, as this is being recorded. And it's a powerful time of the year to realize and recognize how important nonprofit work is. I say this more and more often, particularly with planning and strategy and things that I do with clients, that philanthropy sits between free enterprise where for-profit business doesn't see what is needing to be done as profitable. Say, don't do it. And government, which is kind of inefficient and ineffective at times, philanthropy, nonprofit sit between the two to solve community problems.
What you're doing every day, no matter where you are, what you're doing, who you represent, what mission you're serving, you are someone in that hole that's helping your community to be a better place to help people in need. And that's powerful. I hope you feel that, that there's value in what you do.
Don't forget, we're a world made up of three groups of people, my all-time favorite saying. Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, then they're those who wondered what happened. You are someone who's making something happen. Because you look at what you do, I hope you have a chance every day to realize that you're important to your community and to those that you serve. And in doing so, you're changing the world.
Philanthropy doesn't mean money. It means love of mankind, love of humankind. And you are one of the soldiers that's trying to accomplish just that.
I look forward to seeing you the next time right back here on the next edition of A Round With Randal.
And don't forget, make it a great day.