A pioneer of the “no kill” movement, Best Friends Animal Society has been applying innovative networking solutions to the homeless animal problem for decades. Founded by a small group of animal lovers in the 1970s, Best Friends Animal Society’s Network has grown to nearly 100,000 people, including Robin Harmon and Jessica Almeida.
When animal rescue worker Jessica Almeida moved from Los Angeles, CA, to Salt Lake City, UT, she discovered that small breeds are rare in Salt Lake City. As Rescue and Transfer Coordinator for the Humane Society of Utah, she found vacant cages at the local UT shelters and long-waiting lists of families eager to adopt small dogs.
In contrast, the Los Angeles metro area euthanizes approximately 60,000 animals per year. Robin Harmon, Adoption Manager of Best Friends Animal Society of Los Angeles, sees county shelters flooded with homeless “purse dogs,” or small breeds that have become popular fashion accessories thanks to Hollywood films and celebrity trends.
How could these organizations work together to achieve their shared goal of saving dogs from euthanasia? The answer: Pup My Ride, a van shuttle service from Best Friends Animal Society of Los Angeles to the Humane Society of Utah in Salt Lake City.
Joining the collaboration, The Jason Debus Heigl Foundation, provides funding for the shuttle services and celebrity star power. The Foundation, was founded by actress Katherine Heigl and her mother, in memory of their son and brother, Jason, who died tragically young in a car accident. Jason loved animals and the foundation supports nonprofit animal rescue efforts and other animal rights programs.
Today, Pup My Ride transports 20-30 small dogs, twice a month. With nearly 3,500 dogs saved by Pup My Ride in its first 2 years, Best Friends Animal Society is exploring national expansion of the program. If you represent a shelter that has a shortage of small breed dogs for adoption, email RobinH@bestfriends.org or donate $5 by texting PUPPY to 90999.
Occasionally we have a chance to see just how much things have changed in a short period. Two years ago we were working with the Lodestar Foundation to launch the 2009 Collaboration Prize. A few days ago, we announced the 2011 Collaboration Prize. What has changed in that two year period? It’s hard to know where to start.
We looked back to the way in which our team announced the Prize in 2008 in order to plan the 2011 Prize announcement. We found that some of the print sources we used in 2008 are long gone and while others are still around, their print readership is now far surpassed by their online readership. Some blogs have also come and gone. Twitter wasn’t even on our radar in early 2008. In two short years, the Prize team has had to rethink and revamp our communications strategy. Luckily, we have great partners in the Williams Group who are helping us navigate those decisions.
More importantly – knowledge and interest in the sector regarding the use of collaboration has changed dramatically. Lois Savage and Jerry Hirsch at Lodestar were true pioneers in understanding and promoting collaboration as a strategy that could yield bigger, better outcomes. Today, they are at the forefront of a movement.
As we worked with the Foundation Center who has built an amazing new resource on collaboration, we began to surface a dozen foundations around the country who are fostering collaboration in their own communities. For example, there are nineteen funders in Cleveland who have launched a Human Services Strategic Restructuring Pilot, while in New Jersey, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation is nurturing collaboration among their grantees. Plus, Whitney Johnson at the Anschutz Family Foundation in Denver is playing a pivotal role in creating a Colorado Collaboration Prize, and the Foundation For The Carolinas has built the Community Catalyst Fund to support innovative partnerships, collaboration and strategic mergers.
How exciting is that?
We’ll be working with the Lodestar Foundation and AIM Alliance in reviewing and evaluating the applications for the 2011 Prize that will be accepted between June 1 and July 16. I can’t wait to see what has been happening out in the sector since the last Prize process.
Like we found while conducting La Piana Consulting’s NonprofitNext research initiative and described in our Convergence report, today’s nonprofit sector leaders are finding innovative ways to achieve their missions through collaboration. These futurists aren’t just looking at how to combine Organization A plus Organization B. They are saying, “Why do we need to take on one model or the other or a blend of the two? Let’s start with the question: how should we organize our programs and operations to have the greatest impact on our mission?” They are essentially throwing out the old and looking – with great creativity and fearlessness – at entirely new ways to work.
As we approach the 2011 Prize, we have to ask what new ideas have great nonprofits come up with that will help inform the sector and drive the next round of innovation around collaboration? I can’t wait to see the answer.
Not long ago, a reader asked us why we hadn’t included Sustainability as a key trend in Convergence. Undoubtedly, there are profound changes underway – not only in our environment, but our economies and communities – that have governments, business, and the social sector alike grappling with how to respond. For many nonprofits, the issue of their own immediate “sustainability” (i.e. how to keep the doors open and maintain key programs and services) is a top priority. However, there are a growing number of organizations turning their attention to “big-S” Sustainability, with respect to the intersection of ecological, economic, and social challenges facing our planet.
To learn more about Sustainability and how nonprofits are participating in this growing movement, we spoke with Holly Brunk, Membership and Services Coordinator at The Natural Step Network in Portland, Oregon. She remarked on how in many ways the Sustainability field illustrates emerging trends called out in Convergence, such as sector blurring and the use of networks. By its very nature, this work must engage all sectors in developing solutions to complex problems. Brunk described how the evolution of what began as a primarily ecology-based framework into a more comprehensive vision including economic and social components has helped broaden the dialogue and even bring together those who may have traditionally seen one another as adversaries. “Adding financial and social sustainability frameworks to what has traditionally been just environmental creates more spaces for bridging that gap and finding common values,” she added.
Such cross-sector bridging is the topic of an upcoming webinar presented by the Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership, a funder collaborative seeking policy change to realize the vision of “healthy people living in healthy places.” The May 25 webinar, Strategies for Multi-Field and Cross-Sector Collaborations, will focus on partnering across fields (from health to urban planning, transportation, food and sustainable agriculture, and community/economic development) to build thriving communities. Is your organization prepared to work with others toward a more Sustainable future?
In our work in the Leadership Practice Area we have the opportunity to explore what leadership means in the small communities of North Dakota and the island cities of Hawai’i. How is it similar? How does it differ? We have learned that there are cultural elements to leadership that must be integrated into our capacity-building work for it to resonate locally. We have also learned that certain elements are universal and are essential to building a broad base of leadership throughout organizations for long-term sustainability.
As I young girl, my family owned a restaurant and at age 10, I was given the job to “observe” what was happening throughout the day and to report my observations to my father at the end of the day. This wasn’t a spying mission, but an exercise in heightening my awareness to operations and interpersonal skills. What was working well? What wasn’t? Paying attention to the surroundings is a skill that heightens the ability of leaders to make adjustments to maximize the efficiency and productivity of the organization.
Although systems are important, it really comes down to the people. People – how you relate to them, what you expect of them, what level of engagement you give them in the big picture. I am a strong believer that leaders are bred, NOT born. We all have areas of leadership within us; it is a matter of uncovering these areas and leveraging them for the greater good.
In our workshops, we present the work of many different thought leaders – Kouzes and Posner, Collins, Kotter, Senge, Blanchard, Goleman, etc. – and if I were to distill it to the most critical elements, I would say: it is about relationships, interpersonal skills and listening skills. Leadership is something your carry in all aspects of your life, it isn’t only a jacket you put on when you go to work. It is part of your being. If you think about the people that have inspired you in your life, what attributes did they possess? Did they care about you as a person? Did they believe in your ability to succeed? Were they good listeners?
There are several people in my life that demonstrated these attributes and shaped my leadership skills: my third grade teacher who allowed me to stay after school every day and cared about my future; my baseball coach who believed that I should play baseball even if I was a girl; and most recently a professional mentor who really solidified the tenets of leadership in my practice. These tenets I carry with me in my wallet as a daily reminder: They are:
Be nice to people because you never know when you might have to work for them
Hire the smartest people you can find
Give them far more responsibility than they can handle
Don’t get mad when they make mistakes
Always acknowledge good work
Don’t meddle
Leadership is something within all of us, it takes commitment and dedication to strengthen. With this commitment.. the change we can be in the world is infinite.
Boomers beware: you may lose your top talent. The emerging Generation X cohort is poised to take on senior leadership positions and the top performers are demanding a seat at the table. Bottom line: in this environment of constant change and uncertainty, the emerging Generation X leaders bring a set of skills and values that are essential to addressing today’s challenges. If the opportunity to share leadership does not surface, the most valued Gen-Xers in your organization will likely walk out the door and find something elsewhere. If you haven’t seen the recent HBR article by Tamara J. Erickson, it’s really worth a read. It also dovetails with what we’ve been discussing in our Convergence report.
Databases rarely engender feelings of excitement or empowerment but Ushahidi, a crowd-sourcing tool developed as an open-source platform to map reports of violence in Kenya, is doing just that.
As described in the New York Times, Ushahidi is being used by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an advocacy group dedicated to reducing accidents at Louisiana refineries, to collect and log reports of the effects of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It relies on witnesses to self-report via tweets, texts, e-mails and online submissions spill-related damage.
In many ways, diversity is about our ability to see and be seen, to hear and be heard—apart from the homogenous mass and overwhelming din of the dominant culture, in all our many distinct flavors. For the social sector, this becomes acutely relevant each Census year. “The count” is uniquely important not just for recognizing our diversity on a statistical or intellectual level, but for translating that into much-needed services and tangible resources. Nonprofits know from experience just how much is riding on our ability to be honest in quantifying who we are in order to meet the basic needs of our communities.
This is my golden year. In some traditions when the year you were born coincides with your actual age, it is referred to as the “golden year.” Next month I will be 55 and, you guessed it, I was born in 1955.
But like most baby boomers, that number has no correlation to my self-perception. I am, in fact, wondering how a 32 year old man such as myself can actually have a 55th birthday.
This cognitive dissonance first surfaced about three years ago. My wife and I, with some friends, went to the Oakland Coliseum to see a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young concert. Prior to the start, I stand up, look around and am amazed by the crowd. “Who are all these old people, and why do they like my music?”
I am currently working with a client who is looking to better target the Latino market. One of their two offices is in a city with a Latino majority (above 75%). The office staff speaks Spanish, and all their material is translated. Yet they know that to attract and keep their clients they need to go beyond translated materials and bilingual staff, and really understand who their clients are. I applaud them– it’s unfortunate that more nonprofits don’t think this way.
If you’re interested in the future of nonprofit leadership in its many diverse forms, Rosetta Thurman is a name you should really know. She has been a prolific blogger on next generation leadership and diversity in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector since 2007, and has been tapped as a speaker and presenter numerous times by those seeking to better understand the changing face of leadership in the social sector.
