Getting your house in order.
Who doesn't need to do that? Yes, perhaps the 'house' is a place-of-residence but it also pertains to our work environments. Here it is. You are getting the behind-the-scenes look at my home-away-from home. It's not what you'll see on a Zoom call -- that space looks neat and orderly, but this is my space beyond the camera. It's my organized chaos.
Order is important and certainly that includes the order of our work space, our files, et cetera....but at CDP when we speak of 'getting the house in order' mostly we're referring to organizational infrastructure. Our mantra for many years with nonprofits has been 'Get organized. Get funded' Bring order FIRST and then seek the funding you need So consider your responses to these prompts:
Do you have strong fiscal controls? Do you follow the mantra 'two or three eyes on everything?' Do you have strong fiscal policy about how money is handled and reported? This is an infrastructure key that can't be compromised.
Do your programs make an impact and how do you know? Are you ensuring your work fills a void in the community you serve and can you document that through outcomes? This key requires intentional design of programs and a strong data collection and management protocol. If you can't prove outside an anecdotal story that your organization is making a difference you have some work to do in this area.
How's your image? Image Management is controlling how others view you. Do you communicate your message often and well? Does your community know you exist and do they support what you're doing? If you don't know how you're perceived then start there. Put out a survey or do some one-on-one interviews and conversations.
Do you operate out of a culture of planning? If it's not in writing it doesn't exist. If it IS in writing we have to do it. Lay out where you're headed, how you are going to get there and how you'll know you arrived. Actionable plans that can keep you on track are imperative to bringing some order to the house.
My goal this week is to bring some visible order to my chaotic work environment. What goal can you set out to achieve this week to bring some order to your organizational infrastructure?
-Mindy Muller, CFRE, President/CEO of CDP
