As a leader in your company and in your field, you share your own experiences. It’s a good thing to do. Your stories and the lessons you’ve learned will be valuable to your colleagues when they face similar challenges. By passing the information along, you will be serving them well.…
Continue Reading....Author: Dennis Fischman
Dennis Fischman owns Communicate! Consulting, where he helps local businesses and nonprofit organizations win loyal friends through their communications. He is a former senior manager of the Community Action Agency of Somerville, where he directed fundraising, marketing, and planning. Passionate about social change, he left this position so he could focus on helping tell their stories in person, in writing, and through the social media.
6 Things to Do Before Your Nonprofit Leader Retires
You live in a small town, and the community newspaper runs a frightening headline: “Mysterious Disease Strikes Town: One of Three Residents Will Disappear by 2017.” You read the article, and the news is even worse than you thought. By 2020, scientists predict, two out of three residents will be…
Continue Reading....The Three Generations Nonprofits Want to Reach!
I don’t go to many nonprofit events. I get invited to too many: I can’t attend all of them. So, this spring I chose to go to The Welcome Project’s Yum: A Taste of Immigrant City and skip half a dozen other events held by groups about. Lauren doesn’t go…
Continue Reading....My Generation…and Yours
Does the title of this post mean anything to you? If so, chances are you’re a Boomer. Baby Boomers are the people born between 1946 and 1964, and there are a lot of us. People born between 1965 and 1980 are often called Generation X—“X” as in “unknown”—and people born…
Continue Reading....Lead by Telling the Story of Where You Are Going
“We’ve never had a policy manual. The way we pass along our values is to sit around the campfire and share stories.” That’s the CEO of a $1.3 billion company talking. Elizabeth Weil, in Fast Company magazine, interviewed many business leaders about the power of storytelling. “Leadership is about change,”…
Continue Reading....Serving Leaders Make Someone Else the Hero of the Story!
Here’s a problem leaders face every day. You want to get something done. It will take everyone in your organization to do it. How will you get them pulling in the same direction? You could go around and have a heart-to-heart with each person in the organization. You could explain…
Continue Reading....How Serving Leaders Relieve Stress at Work
“Are you serious about doing business with me?” Diana was a real talent: a former Director of Development for another nonprofit organization who was working part-time these days while raising very young twins. We were lucky she was available. Our nonprofit organization had a lot of grant proposals to write…
Continue Reading....Leaders, Want Your Most Urgent Questions about Social Media-Answered?
Here’s a question I often hear as a communications consultant. Is it a question you’d ask? Would you like to hear the answer? “My nonprofit organization is on Facebook and Twitter and even Instagram, but we don’t really know why. Everybody’s doing it, I guess. But what can we get…
Continue Reading....Say “Thank You” with a Story
You’re a charitable person. Let’s say you gave large donations to three organizations. One of them sends you a one-line acknowledgement for tax purposes. Another sends you a form letter that begins “On behalf of the Busy Community Organization, thanks for your donation of $____ made on December 29.” The…
Continue Reading....Be Kind. Always
This is a more personal message than I usually post, and I hope you will take it to heart. You may have seen the message floating around Facebook. “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.” I can tell you that the message is…
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