Now, resources from many of these sessions are available online.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, unable to leave D.C. because of the health care debate, sent her keynote remarks via video. Below, she discusses how these unprecedented times for our country are a call to think and act anew – to meet the challenges head on – to examine every opportunity to bring together government, the private sector, nonprofits and communities to build a better future. She also highlights recent developments in D.C., as well as new initiatives in Minnesota. (Close-captioning for this video will be available in the coming weeks.)
Conference presentations and handouts from many of the breakouts are posted online and accessible on the conference website’s Download Center.
Despite the down economy, the 2009 Joint Conference of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and the Minnesota Council on Foundations drew a record 1,700 attendees. MCN and MCF partner to present a joint conference every three years.
- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate
At kitchen tables across America, we’re mulling over what the current economic situation means for each of us. Jobs, bills, education, loans, investments, travel, holiday shopping, donations.
With the exception of holiday shopping and perhaps travel, similar conversations are happening around foundation boardroom tables as well.
Decisions to shift funding guidelines, focus areas, investment practices, grant timelines, grant payouts, internal staffing and organizational short- and long-term priorities – the list goes on – are not made lightly or quickly. And for many board members and trustees, this is the first time they’ve encountered such significant and perhaps drastic discussions.
These conversations and decisions by foundation leaders are critical and necessary. MCF’s Effective Governance Principle calls for its members to share a commitment to excellence and achieve effective governance by ensuring performance in the areas of stewardship of assets, donor intent, fiduciary responsibility and sound decision-making.
Join the conversation: What types of effective governance decisions has your organization made during these challenging times? What shifts and changes in how your organizations does its work have resulted from discussions by your board or executive leadership in response to the economic stresses we’re facing?
Have you ever thought there might be a haiku about working capital? That thought had certainly never crossed my mind until I attended the session on “Change Agents: Getting to Sustainability” at the MCN/MCF Joint Annual Conference last week.
The presenters, Janet Ogden-Brackett and Michael Anderson of the Nonprofits Assistance Fund, gave a truly humorous, yet quite informative presentation on understanding financial statements and the use of ratios in identifying areas of concern.
They gave a good, basic overview of income statements, balance sheets, and cashflow projections, followed by a review of a number of financial ratios, including days of cash on hand, working capital ratio, and debt-to-equity ratio.
And then there were the haiku! In case you are not familiar with haiku, haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that includes just 17 syllables (5 in the first line, 7 in the second line, and 5 in the third line). Also haiku often include a reference to nature.
Here are a few of examples that Janet and Michael shared with us:
Working Capital Haiku
All assets are fixed
Feel as liquid as pavement
Alas, cash is king.
Beautiful buildings
Don’t always sow future’s seeds
Or help make payroll.
Balance Sheet Haiku
Humble balance sheet –
Force proud income statement to
Tell the truth mostly.
Maybe this will inspire you to write some haiku about financial statements…or even about the Joint Conference.
If so, please share them by commenting on this entry!
- Cindy Moeller, MCF director, professional development and member services
"Now is the era of partnerships." Grantmakers are uniquely positioned to connect the dots between public, private and philanthropic organizations.
Right in line with our conference theme, “Transforming Our Work: From Challenging Times to Hopeful Futures,” Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the Council on Foundations, shared his thoughts on transformations in philanthropy.
Foundations are moving toward mobilizing resources and making strategic philanthropic investments. The reality is, after the federal stimulus money is gone, resources will not be available to return to the way we worked before. “How will we respond?” Gunderson asks. “Now is the era of partnerships.”
Gunderson cites education as an example. In the past, the public, private and philanthropic sectors worked separately in their own way to tackle their priorities. In this new time of partnering, these sectors are playing not just side by side but together.
Philanthropy’s role can be to create innovation – to connect the dots – to connect funding resources with those who need it. Gunderson outlines the four Cs key to public/private philanthropic partnerships:
Connections: Nonprofit delivery systems and the philanthropic sectors need to be connected with the public sector. This needs to occur on the federal level, and just as importantly, on the state and local levels. Regional associations and local governments must be involved too.
Communication: Sharing, opening and broadening communication that is two-way is important to partnership success and future efforts.
Capacity-building: What role can philanthropy play in equipping nonprofits and government?
Convenings: Bringing diverse groups in each community together to define strategies and move forward is key. Nonprofits who are on the ground, know the needs of their communities and provide delivery systems to meet those needs must also take responsibility for bringing the many players together.
Join the conversation: What’s your take on this new era of public/private/philanthropic partnerships? What can and should be the role of each sector? What’s a great case study or partnership example?
– Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate
Any nonprofit that wasn’t feeling stretched and stressed before the recession most certainly has since the “R” word became a reality. While the outlook is still uncertain, the Joint Annual Conference of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and the Minnesota Council on Foundations will provide essential tools and knowledge to weather the storm.
According to the book synopsis: “Gross defines turning points as critical junctures at which organizations must adjust their leadership, management, structure, governance, and operating style to fit their changed circumstances…Organizations will know they’ve reached a turning point when the structure, management approach, leadership style, and organizational culture that once worked just fine begin to sow a host of new tensions and problems…Organizations do not always evolve in an orderly fashion, graduating from one life cycle to the next. ”
Here are Gross’ seven turning points as outlined in her book. Some food for thought:
Turning Point 1: Do we need to get organized?
Turning Point 2: Do we need infrastructure?
Turning Point 3: Do we need to let go?
Turning Point 4: Do we need to focus?
Turning Point 5: Do we need to decentralize power?
Turning Point 6: Do we need to recapture our core?
Turning Point 7: How do we move on?
For insight on the causes, symptoms and how to guide organizations through these turning points and achieve greater effectiveness, impact and staying power, check out Gross’ breakout session at the MCN/MCF Joint Annual Conference, Thursday, Nov. 5, 1 to 4:30 p.m. Gross is also the keynote speaker at the conference’s CEO/Trustee Dinner, Thursday at 6 p.m., when she’ll discuss “Leading in a Time of Uncertainty and Change.”
– Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate
Happy Halloween to all those zombies and zombettes out there who will be attending the conference next week! With my holiday themed entry today I’d like to spotlight one of the “don’t-miss” features of the MCN/MCF Joint Conference, the Ask the Experts sessions happening in the Resource Room.
The conference features a host of "heady" selections for the discerning undead.
We’ve got a great line-up of local experts from the following organizations ready to speak with attendees on a variety of topics:
Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) – Fundraising Issues
Charities Review Council (CRC) – Nonprofit Policies & Practices
MAP for Nonprofits – Governance, Management and Technology
Midwest International NGO Network (MINN) – International NGO Issues
Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration (MAVA) – Volunteering/Volunteer Management
Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN) – Public Policy
Nonprofits Assistance Fund – Finance
Springboard for the Arts – Enhancing the Arts & Arts-Focused Nonprofits
Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) – Professional Development
For a complete description of each organization’s area of expertise and when they will be available, visit the Transforming Our Work website.
While I’m talking about great things happening at the conference, I’d also like to give a shout out to the people over at the Nonprofits Assistance Fund, who have launched a fun little contest that they’ll be conducting during the conference. The challenge–write a haiku about the beauty of the balance sheet. Submit your entry online, and you will be eligible for a “very special” prize.
Have a safe and fun Halloween weekend! We’re looking forward to seeing you boys and ghouls next week.
-Cary Lenore Walski MCF web communications associate
MCN and MCF are proud to announce that Senator Amy Klobuchar will deliver the keynote address at this year’s MCN/MCF Joint Annual Conference. Sen. Klobuchar will share her thoughts regarding President Obama’s desire to strengthen and grow public and philanthropic partnerships. The Senator will discuss opportunities for nonprofits and grantmakers to work together and share her observations on the impact of stimulus funds, the current health care debate, and what the legislative priorities might be in 2010.
Following the Senator’s remarks, Tim Delaney, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, and Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the Council on Foundations, will offer their observations and comments regarding the state of our sector in these challenging economic times. Our time together will end with Karen Kelley-Ariwoola, vice president of community philanthropy at The Minneapolis Foundation, moderating a discussion with the audience.
Visit transformingourwork.org to read about Senator Klobuchar’s background and to learn more about the Transforming Our Work: From Challenging Times to Hopeful Futures Conference happening November 5 & 6 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre.
In preparation for the MCN/MCF Joint Annual Conference, Christine Durand and I have been brainstorming ways of using twitter as a tool to engage our attendees during the conference. Here’s a list of some ways that you might consider using twitter at your next conference or large event. If you’re attending the conference, you’ll see some of these ideas in action on November 5 and 6.
For the sake of brevity, I’m going to assume that you already have a twitter account and a healthy list of followers, which admittedly is no mean feat. But I could devote a whole blog to the art of building a robust list of followers. So, let’s fast forward to a week or two before your event.
A Month Before Your Event:
Help your attendees identify themselves to you in advance by including your own twitter handle in your event communications. You may also consider having an option on your registration form for twitter handles.
It’s easy for chatter about your event to get lost in the endless churn of messages going out over the wire. The best way to ensure that you can find the conversations that are relevant to you is to ask your attendees to use a specific keyword or hashtag in their tweets and in their photos. Use a hashtag that is short, memorable and specific to your event.
At the Event:
Remind your users about your hashtag! Then watch the conversation unfold. You can use your account to tweet about event happenings that everyone should know about, and respond to direct user questions and concerns. Some event organizers invite people to ask questions via twitter to event speakers during Q&A sessions, in addition to the usual “walking” mic.
If you have a projector and an extra laptop, you might consider projecting a live stream of user tweets based on your event hashtag outside the event hall. I recommend using a service like twitterfountain or wiffiti to do this. Some event organizers use this method to allow audience members to ask questions of event speakers directly.
After the Event: Communicate with attendees about event follow-ups like downloadable presentation slides or other goodies via your account. If you’re using a different account than your typical organizational twitter account use this opportunity to invite people to follow your primary account.
Finally use the hashtag, your account name and any other relevant keywords to search for and collect feedback that you received during and after the event so that you can report back to your programming folks about the success of your event logistics and speakers.
Continue the Conversation:
Have you used twitter as an engagement tool at an event, or have you been at an event where it’s been used successfully? What recommendations do you have to share for effectively leveraging twitter as an engagement tool? You can post your suggestions here, or you can send us a message @MCNandMCF.
-Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate
Posted by Chris Noonan 
