Dispatch from the 2024 TNPA Leadership Summit

By: Polly Papsadore, President | Production Management Group

From the Keynote Workshop: “Creative Leadership with Van Lai-Dumone,” Leadership Consultant, and Certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator and Trainer:

• Practice Divergent Thinking: With this approach, all ideas make it to the table – with no judgement. Encourage wild and crazy ideas, and come up with as many ideas as possible.
  
• Then move into Convergent Thinking to narrow down your ideas. Set parameters, like a project budget, timeline or other criteria.
  
• Try a Perspective Shift exercise to see your project or challenge from a different – and fresh – vantage point. We tried imagining a problem from the viewpoint of a pigeon on a ledge high above a city, a young child and someone brand new to an organization.
  
• In the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY exercise, we learned to think with our hands, making the invisible visible – coming up with ideas in a new and fun way. Everyone was tasked with building a tower with LEGO pieces and then explaining its features. Of course, each tower was very different. That was an “aha” moment – everyone is creative and approaches a challenge in their own way and we can all benefit from each other’s ideas! And if you don’t have LEGOS around, use playdough, pipecleaners, blocks, rocks, etc.
  
• The “Worst Idea Ever” exercise was fun and effective. Think of the figurative or literal opposite of the most obvious idea to start exploring viable solutions to your problem. Try this in your next brainstorm meeting!

The “State of Donor Support Part 1” session was chock-full of data insights from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, presented by Ben Miller, the Giving USA Report from CJ Orr, Mass Market Donor Insights from Wiland’s co-operative database from Cameron Popp, and Giving Tuesday Data from Woodrow Rosenbaum.

Important points to consider:

• Giving to religion has been in decline for forty years yet is still the largest sector. We need to consider that giving may be related to religious identity and faith, AND/OR the programming/work of the religious organization.
  
• Smaller gift donors are being priced out of charitable giving with persistent inflation and other adverse economic conditions.
  
• Fundraisers use a construct of “annual giving” when developing their plans, budgets, campaigns and analysis. But maybe donors don’t really give “annually” or even think in terms of annual giving.
  
• Relying on lapsed reactivation is not sustainable, as those audiences erode over time.
  
• How do we pursue truly frictionless giving in the future? Does the gift transaction have to be on a landing page or a form?
  
• The number of 501c3 organizations keeps growing, which means more and more competition from other nonprofits, and more choices for donors’ gifts.
  
• Generational differences in the meaning of “charitable giving” will further challenge the 501c3 model (crowdfunding, streaming, events, giving circles, etc.)
  
• Modeled data-sets will become more problematic. How we sort and select data shapes future fundraising audiences and behaviors. We also need to be concerned about the fidelity of the actual data.
  
• Generosity is generative. When generosity is ascendant, opportunities to give grow. There’s a strong likelihood that someone giving one way, also gives in other ways.
  
• Not everyone is being invited to give. Our strategies are getting more exclusive. There is an untapped generosity market awaiting us. How are we providing a broader base of people the ability to give, to drive the nonprofit future?
  
• The dynamics of year-end giving and tax deduction incentives are intriguing, requiring further study.

From the “Working Across Generations” session with Deb Taft of Lindauer and Eddrick Martin of Elevated Momentum:

• The generational differences in expectations, and communication methods and styles are always fascinating. However we also need to consider that every person is unique with different family backgrounds, ethnicities, experiences, and even regional differences. Deb Taft noted Pew Research’s new stance on generational research, explained in the article “How Pew Research Center will report on generations moving forward” published in 2023. A key excerpt from this article:
  
  • “By choosing not to use the standard generational labels when they’re not appropriate, we can avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes or oversimplifying people’s complex lived experiences.”
    
• Deb Taft encouraged us to look for peoples’ super powers when determining the best way to build relationships with employees, and with donors.

The Fishbowl Exercise, focused on our responsibility to the next generation of leaders, kicked off with Kerri Kerr from Avalon and Dave Strauss from The Nature Conservancy with several other leaders joining the conversation.

Key takeaways:

• What can you teach vs. what just requires ongoing exposure during your daily work?
  
• Sabbaticals, maternity and paternity leaves give other team members the opportunity to test their leadership skills… have they successfully stretched while their supervisor or team member was away? Can they retain some of these new responsibilities moving forward?
  
• As part of an onboarding program, assign a buddy from a different department to the new person. It’s a great way to start building cross-team relationships and collaboration.
  
• Empower your team. Encourage autonomy and responsibility at all levels. Everyone is a leader.
  
• Strong relationships create an environment where constructive feedback can be given and received more freely – with more productive outcomes and fewer hard feelings.

Hopefully you will find these notes helpful in your work with your own teams, and with your nonprofit clients, starting today!

Polly is currently the President at Production Management Group (PMG). She is an industry advocate who serves both clients and the direct marketing community via her leadership roles in industry associations. Her extensive marketing background in a variety of roles provides a fresh perspective.