Meetings-The Final Ring of Hell

There is no more painful calculation than looking around a conference room, during a boring, nonproductive meeting and figuring out how much it is costing in staff time for everyone to be there. Personal estimates have run from $190 for a small meeting that only lasted one painful hour to an all day retreat where nothing was accomplished and it cost $5,100 in staff time.

If you are leading a committee, here are some strategies to make the time more productive:

Have a clear agenda- Standing meetings with no purpose are the reason why so many people think meetings are a waste of time. Set a clear agenda before the meeting and give people time to add their own agenda items. The agenda should also include the goal of the meeting, so everyone is clear on what needs to be accomplished.

Make the time clear- Have clear start and ending times and stick to it. Don’t wait 20 minutes for everyone to show up. If you get started on time people that are often late will start to come on time because they know that you respect their time, so they’ll respect yours.

Determine who has to be there- Some meetings may only need to have some of the team members there. It is better to proactively think about who needs to be at each meeting and make the invitations contingent on absolute necessity.

Decide if the meeting really needs to happen- If the core purpose of a meeting is check in’s about a project, save everybody the wasted time and have a document that summarizes where everyone is rather than making them sit through a painful meeting where only a minute or two is relevant to their part of the project.

Good meetings are the result of good leadership. Take the initiative and make it the meeting timely, useful, and relevant for all participants. They’ll appreciate their time being used wisely and you’ll get what you need from your committee.

Get Paid What you are Worth

In an interview with the Zora & Alice blog, Thalia Theodore Washington, the Executive Director of DonorsChoose.org talks about her experience negotiating her salary. “My second job was in a non-profit in LA. I’ll tell the end of the story first, which is that I didn’t negotiate and I should have. I was young, it was my first office job, and I had no idea what I was worth.

I still to this day kick myself for not negotiating . And the reason is that you’re always building off of your last salary. You don’t have a $30,000 salary and then your next job’s $100,000. There are stages.

The fear I had and the fear that women have is that negotiating makes you seem greedy, not classy; it’s a knock against your integrity. Yet, now that I have had the chance to hire people, I would argue that there’s something to be said for advocating for yourself. Probably everyone has a job where an offer was made and you just said yes. But smart people don’t always just say yes.”

Here are some ways to negotiate a higher starting salary:

 Look at salary surveys- These surveys can give you an idea of what local positions, in similar size organizations are paying. Many organizations use these salary surveys to set their salary scales with in the organization. Your local nonprofit association may produce a salary survey or you can look at Idealist’s listing of surveys at http://www.idealist.org/en/career/salarysurveys.html. Use these numbers when you are considering positions at a variety of organizations (e.g. larger organizations often offer a higher salary) and to give you an idea of what to expect during salary negotiations.

 Check out the 990- The last tip told you that salary often is depended on an organization’s operating budget and the place to find that number is on the 990. The 990 is a document required by the IRS for tax-exempt organizations. This form will give you an idea of how large the organization’s budget is and will also tell you how much the top paid staff at the organization are paid (if their salary is over $50,000 a year). Even if the position that you are interested in is not listed on the 990, you can determine what their salary scale looks like compared to similar sized organizations by looking at what they pay their top staff.

Be truthful but don’t overshare- Don’t ever lie about your salary history. The HR department will check your salary history and being a liar isn’t going to help your career. Instead of listing salary history on an application, list your desired salary range for the current position.

Just say hmmmm- Most people immediately accept the first offer from an employer. Even a reflective “okay” when they say the first salary number can immediately end negotiation. Pausing for a second and saying “hmmm” or “that’s a little lower than I expected” gives room for negotiation. The hiring manager almost always have flexibility and starts with a low-ball number to have room to negotiate.

What are your tips to negotiate a higher starting salary?

The Big News

I am so excited to announce that I am co-writing a book on tips for young nonprofit professionals to move from entry level to leadership with the super-talented Rosetta Thurman. The release date is November 1, 2010 and you will find ordering information on this blog. We wrote this book because one in three emerging nonprofit leaders aspires to be an executive director someday, yet only 4% of them are explicitly being developed to become their organization’s executive director. And of that 4%, women are being developed at a lower rate than men.

Our solution? Give young professionals an accessible, do-it-yourself map of how to navigate the nonprofit sector and the tools they need to move from entry-level positions to leadership roles.

The book is based on our experiences as well as interviews and case studies from other young nonprofit professionals who have successfully used the career strategies outlined. We have both also relied heavily on the wisdom that we have gained from our blog readers. As a result of reading this book, young professionals will be able to develop valuable nonprofit expertise, practice authentic leadership, and establish a strong personal brand.

Rosetta and I are looking for young nonprofit professionals to give us feedback on some of the books chapters. Send me an email at tristaharris (at) gmail (dot) com if you are interested in being a reader.

Lower Overhead for Foundations

Hi everyone! I'm back from hacked blog purgatory so you can expect new posts and a very, very exciting announcement coming next week. To keep you busy as you ponder my big announcement (new job? nope! solved centuries old math problem? nope!) I've got an interesting post from The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Give and Take Blog: Charities are all too familiar with being scrutinized over their administrative costs, but in a twist, a foundation in Britain is being asked to reduce its overhead.

John Copps, a head researcher at the British charity-evaluation group New Philanthropy Capital, describes on his organization's blog how the Big Lottery Fund -- Britain's largest grant maker -- is being instructed by the government to reduce its administrative costs from 8 percent to 5 percent.

While it may seem that the foundation shouldn't be immune to the cost-cutting going on elsewhere, Mr. Copps says, limiting the organization's administrative costs will likely cause harm.

Read the rest here