Has your organization incorporated cell phone texting as a fundraising medium? Let us know and we might feature your campaign in our latest research initiative, Nonprofit Next.

In a previous recession a local United Way polled its member agencies with the question: “Do you expect your revenues next year to grow or shrink?” About 40% were expecting hard times and so the United Way and the local media reported that headline. However, the report also revealed that 60% of the agencies expected their revenues to grow – during a recession! Not a very good headline I guess, but good news nonetheless.

Why do bad times bring opportunity? First, with so many others hunkered down, mired in fear, not trying to grow or to do anything new, those who are looking to the future face less competition. Second, funders are besieged with “emergency” proposals, and nothing is less fun for a program officer to deal with than the decision to make a grant to a possibly failing enterprise. So, if you come in with a new idea, you might find an eager audience. Third, weakened competitors, those who have skated through good times with poor management, may be feeling the results of their previous poor decisions, and it may as a result be possible for you to grow into their businesses.

Of course sound management, money in the bank, and outstanding performance are prerequisites for an aggressive mindset during tough times, but then you should have been investing in those things all along.

I just did a little figuring and I have been away from home for 60 of the past 80 nights. Not quite as bad as the presidential candidates, but enough to make it hard for me to compose a coherent blog post!

Last week I was in Washington, D.C. where we hosted the second of the firm’s three tenth-anniversary parties. It was a fun event, and an opportunity to see many old friends and colleagues. The reception was held right before the start of the BoardSource conference so we were able to see not just our D.C./Baltimore friends but many others.

If you missed this fun event, and our earlier San Francisco reception, there is still one more chance to celebrate with us ten years of contributions to the sector. Our third and final party will be held in Honolulu on January 28.

Meetings are being calendared like crazy and, if my schedule is any indication, nonprofit leaders have returned from holiday breaks committed to begin new change processes, mergers, strategy work, and board development efforts.

We are ready.

Reflecting on this new year of 2008 I realize that we have assembled what is possibly the best consulting team I have ever had the privilege of leading.

Our staff has both a very good range of the skills our clients need and an enormous depth of experience. Most have long tenure as successful executive directors, others have been senior nonprofit managers; all have very substantial nonprofit experience. When you combine this experience base with their varied academic training, from law and MBA to social work and public health, and with their substantial consulting track records, we have the dream team.

First my trip to Costa Rica, then the holidays, and then a bug that had me down for a couple of days. But here I am. 

First off, if you have a chance to visit Costa Rica, before Marriott and the Four Seasons develop it beyond all recognition, do it. Great people, absolutely the most beautiful place I have ever visited, miles of terrific beaches with no one on them, and prices well below what we expect to pay here in California. 

I went a few days ahead of my wife and younger daughter, and caught up with my oldest, Marisa, who is spending a year in Latin America before college. She has been living in a small village called Platanillo which is about an hour’s bus ride from San Isidro, which is itself about a 3 hour bus ride from the capital, San Jose.

Just getting there was fun – taking a bus over the Cerro de la Muerte (the hill of death) which is a 10,000 foot pass. Then I got to meet her host community, the kids she has been teaching, the old folks, everyone who has been her surrogate family for the past months. It has been a long time since I spent a whole day speaking only Spanish, but it came back remarkably easily and I had a lot of fun just visiting with people.

Marisa and I stopped for the night with a group of Americans calling themselves Project Revolution. Nice kids who reminded me of the 60′s. We even had a jam session, with me playing percussion.

 Heading back, our bus was late, so we hitchhiked, and between the jam session, sleeping in a hostel, hitching, and speaking Spanish, I could have sworn I was 18 again! 

Costa Rica has amazing natural beauty. We visited an eco-lodge which was the most remote place I have ever been. First we flew on a tiny plane to a dirt airstrip called Drake Bay. By tiny, I mean we were the only passengers. We were met by an ancient Land Rover that drove us for half an hour over a bumpy dirt and mud track. We forded a river and finally stopped not at the lodge but at a beach. We got out, rolled up our pants, and waded out to a small boat with an outboard motor which took us along the shore and then headed up a river. As we entered the river, we saw crocodiles swimming alongside the boat. That’s what I mean by remote. A beautiful place, with monkeys, pumas, wild peccary, and every kind of bird you can imagine.

A time for rest, renewal, and reflection!

I am going down to Costa Rica, where my oldest daughter is winding up several months teaching in a rural school. She put off college for a year in order to do this trip and then, after January, to travel to Bolivia and Peru for another 4 months. I am very proud of her, and also really looking forward to seeing her. 

While I am gone I won’t have email, or any other kind of mail; I am looking forward to spending some quiet family time.

I leave a few days before Mary and Tessa, our younger daughter, giving me a few days of what Marisa, my 19 year old, likes to call “Daddy-Daughter time.” She wants to take me down to the village she has been living in for 3 months, to meet the community she now knows so well now. Sounds great!

I agreed, in fact, before I checked the guide book. Big mistake. It says that the three hour bus ride from San Jose to San Isidro is possibly the worst road in Costa Rica, quite a statement in a country that specializes in Volkswagen-sized potholes. It is “winding, narrow, potholed, poorly marked, with steep drop-offs, ” warns the guidebook, which then adds the need to top the 10, 800 foot pass on Monte de la Muerte (Mount Death), “which is infamous for dense afternoon fog, sudden torrential downpours, and landslides.” If, I mean when, we get to San Isidro, it’s just a short ride of about an hour on another bus to her village. At least the whole trip costs only $3.

Actually, $6, we have to get back the same way.

After our special trip, Mary and Tessa arrive, and we’ll visit the rainforests, the beaches, and the volcanoes, staying in eco-lodges including one so remote you can only get there by boat. It should be great fun on all fronts.

See you all in 2008!

I drop everything to get back ASAP, because I know then they will call me again. It’s a free soap box, after all, why not make the most of it?

So, as you can imagine, I get my share of media calls. But I was still a bit surprised recently when I received two calls in as many days from New York City-based reporters wanting to talk about nonprofit mergers.

The first call came from the Financial Times, which seems to be ramping up its coverage of philanthropy. They were doing an in-depth investigation on mergers. The first article appeared on November 27th, ‘A merger of convenience’, and the second should appear on December 8th, ‘Books that lead to success’.

The next day the call came from Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine, which is doing a three-part online series on nonprofit mergers.

There is an unending fascination with mergers in the press, but it doesn’t stop there.

Recently, I’ve gotten a lot of requests to speak on the topic and also to conduct workshops for funders, nonprofits, and consultants. For example, just the other week I was in Phoenix and then Tucson giving talks to nonprofit leaders and their funders. Following that, I was in Cincinnati speaking with a similar group.

Closer to home, our merger business is skyrocketing. “Some days it seems that every time I answer the phone it’s a new merger client calling,” says Bob Harrington, who manages our practice in strategic restructuring (that is, mergers and other types of partnerships).

“While mergers have always been a strong part of our practice, right now it seems to be exploding,” Bob adds.

First, I flew from San Francisco to Chicago to Cincinnati on Monday; then from Cincinnati to Chicago to Minneapolis on Tuesday; and then from Minneapolis to Chicago to San Francisco on Wednesday.

If you are a regular air traveler, you know that Chicago’s O’Hare airport is the worst. Two out of my 3 flights through O’Hare were delayed.

I was just beginning the last leg, and looking forward to being back home in San Francisco by the end of the evening, when, due to a delay, my Minneapolis — Chicago flight was very late. I thought for sure I would be spending the night in Chicago.

When I got off at O’Hare, I checked the monitor, and saw that my Chicago — San Francisco leg had also been delayed. Problem is, it wasn’t delayed enough: I had exactly 7 minutes until the doors closed. To further complicate matters, in addition to carrying my computer backpack and dragging a wheelie suitcase, I was about as far as you can get from the gate. I had landed in the farthest reaches of B Concourse: the last gate, in fact—a place even employees of the airport have seldom ventured.

But, not one to be defeated, I charged down the corridor, like a football player going for a touchdown, dodging travelers who ambled along dazed and bewildered by their Orwellian surroundings.

Finally, I reached the middle of B Concourse and took the escalator down under the taxiway, then ran across the people-mover with the florescent psychedelic installation art flashing and up the opposing escalator, hefting my suitcase in the air as I climbed the escalator.

At the top, I did a quick destination check, made a sharp right turn, and again zigzagged my way through the oblivious, sauntering crowd.

Then, with just seconds on the clock, I ran down the ramp to the plane and threw myself and my bags on board: touchdown!

The crewmember slid the door of the aircraft closed behind me. And, there, locked safely inside the stifling, suffocating plane, we sat for an hour before we finally taxied off.

Just another day in the friendly skies…

• Bill Coy, formerly Senior Associate and Director of Human Resources, was promoted to Senior Manager. Bill has been with the firm for 8 years, and specializes in both merger work and human resources consulting. Both require his outstanding interpersonal and facilitation skills. Bill is also a member of our business management team.

• Kristen Godard, formerly an Associate, was promoted to Director of Operations. Kristen manages all of our business processes, leads the business management team, and also coordinates intake and assignment of projects to our consulting teams.

• Luis Vergara, Senior Associate, assumed the role of Director of Marketing and Business Development. Luis will continue to do consulting, splitting his time between client work and this new role. He will join Bill and Kristen as members of the business management team.

• Bob Harrington and Liza Culick, Senior Managers, and Jo DeBolt and Lester Olmstead-Rose, Senior Associates–four of our most experienced consultants–will provide case supervision to the rest of the consulting staff.

• Our two Practice Groups are underway, serving as vehicles for ongoing learning among our staff in key areas of our practice. The Strategic Restructuring Practice Group is led by Bob Harrington; Jo Debolt and I co-lead the Business Planning Practice Group.