Piles of Files

I pride myself on my organizational skills and ability to bring order to chaos. Those traits saw me through undergrad while working full-time and now grad school with a similar schedule— all while trying to maintain some semblance of work-life balance. When confronted by an overwhelming array of tasks I tend to fall back on that old adage: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” This serves as a catalyst to focus my energy in the most efficient manner. But adding the cyclical duties of a program officer and all this entails (professional development workshops and industry functions) as yet another line item on my to-do list was daunting even to me. In my humble opinion, two skills are paramount to success in program work and in life—organization and time management. True, these are qualities one can learn but honestly, do you really want to add those to your to-do list as well? With each grant cycle my proposals are always in various stages of completion. Now in my third cycle, I think I have hit on a system which works well for me:

Sort: When given a proposal packet I sort through all documents to be sure the organization has included everything we require—particularly the financials. I focus on those first because I find they can give me a good overview of the organization’s fiscal health. Also, if the numbers raise a red flag I can jot down any questions I may have and ask them at my site visit.

Schedule: I now move to contacting the organization to set up a visit. I try to get on their schedule as soon as possible—spacing the visits out to maybe two to three a week— until I have gone through my entire docket. In this time frame, I always have to allow for a game of phone tag before I can pin them down to a date.

Prep: We use templates and worksheets which does make the write-ups easier. I attack the financial worksheet first as this can be the most tedious. While reading through the proposal I highlight and note anything on which I my need further clarification. Finally I found writing up a list of questions beforehand to ask during my visit allows the meeting to run smoothly.

Regroup: When I get back to the office after the site visit, I immediately note not only facts about the organization but also my thoughts and impressions. This is the basis of my recommendation or decline at the next staff meeting.

Write-ups: If the proposal has met staff approval, I can begin my final write-ups. I find it much easier to make a dent in these as soon as possible. If I still have some left after all the visits are done I can set aside a day or two later in the cycle to devote solely to this duty.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Believe me it took trial and error before I became comfortable with this routine. Other program officers may have their own system for attacking the mountain of files on their desk and some may actually thrive on the chaos and pressure of waiting until the deadlines. But as I watch the piles of files that inhabit my desk slowly dwindle I know another grant cycle is slowly coming to a close.

Paulette Pierre is a Program Officer intern at The Field Foundation of Illinois. She has a graduate certificate in Non-Profit Management and Philanthropy from Loyola University and is currently pursuing her MA in Interdisciplinary Studies at DePaul University

Declines: The Necessary Evil

Normally, after one grant cycle concludes, acceptance letters as well as declination letters get mailed. When my grantees receive acceptance letters they’re so excited and grateful, their thank-you calls make my day. The recipients of the declination letters……not so much. I find myself fumbling and being put on the defensive as to why we didn’t fund this or that program. In my tenure as a program officer, I have been on the receiving end of a few not-so-pleasant phone calls. To prevent them from getting under my skin, I started categorizing them:

• Immediate declines. This is very succinct: The proposed program just did not fit within our guidelines. Do not pass “GO” and do not collect $200.
• “Maybe but…….” With these we weigh the qualitative component of the proposal and ask a few pertinent questions: Is this organization the strongest and the best to undertake this program? If other organizations are doing similar work, why reinvent the wheel? This came up with a recent decline and the organization phoned me. They proposed a capacity grant for an advocacy and policy staff position. A noble enough endeavor to be sure. But I had to point out that two much larger and better equipped organizations in the city were doing the same work with a stronger policy team. This organization seemed surprised when I mentioned this bit of information. But she was very understanding of our position and thanked me for taking the time to explain the declination. This was actually one of the nicer calls I received.
• Don’t shoot the messenger. These are declines from our board of directors. At this point I have done all I can to get a program funded but, for whatever reason, our board decided otherwise. It is truly out of my hands.
• Blind-sided declines. These declines are the toughest. These proposals have you the most invested emotionally because you have built a relationship with the potential grantee. After all due diligence is performed and it passes the staff vetting process, something crops up that you could not have anticipated. This was the type of call I received about a week ago. This organization had proposed a phenomenal science education program for disadvantaged youth. It was the kind of program that had me more excited than any other I had participated in before. They were partnering with another local non-profit which was to provide them with the teaching staff needed to carry out said program. Unfortunately, disturbing news came to light about this partner organization’s financial stability. My Executive Director said it was my call. So, due to the questionable circumstances and the current economic climate, I decided it was not prudent to move forward with this grant. Fortunately, the grantee understood my foundation’s position. I think it upset me more than it did her.

With so many nonprofits chasing so few dollars, it’s impossible to fund every worthy proposal that lands in my lap. With the economy circling the drain, a staggering number of organizations desperately need foundation dollars to fund the vital services that often fall by the wayside in down economies. I am proud of the fact my foundation has decided to maintain our level of giving as much as possible.

I still believe my days of saying “no” have just begun.

Paulette Pierre is a Program Officer intern at The Field Foundation of Illinois. She has a graduate certificate in Non-Profit Management and Philanthropy from Loyola University and is currently pursuing her MA in Interdisciplinary Studies at DePaul University.

I is for Innovation

I've been recently reintroduced to the wonders of Sesame Street through my four year old son who saw it for the seemingly FIRST time last week. I refuse to believe that it really is the first time because I believe that getting to know this little utopia of a street, where diversity is celebrated and being smart if fun, is the birthright of every child and for some reason my child stared at Big Bird in confusion when we were flipping through channels. "Wow, that's a funny looking bird", he said. When I asked him what the bird's name was he said, "how would I know?" Yikes! It has now become my personal mission to throne the Sesame Street muppets as the preferred characters in my house. I'm sick of that smug little SpongeBob anyway, with his fancy square pants and pineapple house.  This all being said, I started to wonder where the idea of Sesame Street came from? Did some bigwig exec at PBS have a meeting where he said, "I need a show with an infinite amount of marketing opportunities and a lock on the preschool demographic?"  I highly doubt it. Today I was reading an article about the roots of Sesame Street and found that the show was the result of a conversation between a Carnegie Foundation exec and a producer. From the article:

"The idea they came up with was kind of radical: If you can sell kids sugared cereal and toys using Madison Avenue techniques, why couldn't you use the same techniques for teaching counting, the alphabet and basic social skills? And it works."

Indeed, as Davis notes in "Street Gang" (Viking), the genesis of Sesame Street was when the 3-year-old daughter of a Carnegie foundation executive was fascinated by television, waking up to watch the broadcast day begin and memorizing commercial jingles. He talked about his daughter with a friend, producer Joan Ganz Cooney. In the liberal ferment of the mid-'60s, both wondered whether educational TV could go beyond the staid classroom shows of the era.

Foundations are perfectly positioned to encourage this kind of innovation. Foundation staff meet with experts from a wide variety of fields and can bring  ideas from one sector to another. This foundation exec had the interest in improving children's education and the connections with a producer to ensure that this innovation happened.

How are you expanding your network to make sure that you have the right experts in your network to make the next Sesame Street Happen?

Authentic Foundation Communication

For the past few months the staff at Headwaters has been thinking a lot about how social media tools fit into our charge of being a transparent grantmaker. Tools like blogs, facebook, Twitter can start an effective two way dialog where the foundation and our various constituencies (grantees, donors, community organizers, and interested individuals) can exchange information and together build effective movements for social change or social media tools can be an amazing time suck that alienates your audience and undermines your brand.Yikes, nothing like a little pressure to help clarify your communications strategy. We've been taking the slow and steady approach to social media (not usually my style but it works in this case). Instead of throwing out a bunch of content and hoping something sticks, we are organically growing our Facebook friends and inviting them to our events, twittering program updates, and actively searching for content that will be useful for our audience. What nonprofits are at the cutting edge of social media and what do you like about their content or strategy?