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Confronting the Economic Meltdown: Thoughts on What to Do and What to Avoid

Consultants from around the world discuss their top 5 ideas for dealing effectively with the current economic downturn, as well as the biggest mistakes to avoid. The critical need for communication with stakeholders and the types of messages to send are also covered.

Listen now (70:00) or here to read the transcript

Featured Interview:
Todd Baker (U.S.)
Steven Bowman (Australia)
Nathan Garber (Canada)
Gail S. Meltzer, CFRE (U.S.)
Stephen Nill, J.D., GPC (U.S.)
Robyn Fern Perlman (U.S.)
Terrie Temkin, Ph.D. (U.S.)

 

Todd Baker

Todd Baker serves as Vice President/Senior Strategist for Grizzard.

For more than two decades, he has helped some of the top charities in North America, assisting them in the development of Mission-Driven Marketing™ strategies. Baker is the author of the free e-book, "Nonprofit Websites," the first of its kind, which has been downloaded by tens of thousands of charities in more than 50 countries. He writes the Fundraiser Confidential series for Fundraising Success Magazine and he is also known for the Baker’s Dozen fundraising series.

Baker is also a contributing author to one of the best selling nonprofit Internet books of all time, Nonprofit Internet Strategies and is the author of Champions of Philanthropy.

Baker is spoken at every major nonprofit association conference in the country. He is a former member of the Association Fundraising Professionals Board of Directors for Washington State. Baker spent over 13 years with World Vision, one of the largest privately funded international relief and development organizations in the United States.

 

Steven Bowman

Steven Bowman is a director of LifeMastery and the Conscious-Governance.com online resources, based in Melbourne, Australia. He is sought after by nonprofits globally as an expert adviser on conscious leadership, governance, strategic innovation, and awakening the power of strategic awareness within nonprofit organizations. Acknowledged as a pioneer in the field of Conscious Governance, Steven Bowman has transformed the prevailing understanding of the meaning of governance.

In the early 2000s, Steven and his partner Chutisa began a successful Governance and Board advisory practice that quickly spread throughout the world. During this time Steven realized that there was potential in the business arena for the establishment of a new conscious business/conscious leadership paradigm, one which encompassed a fundamental principle that moved beyond the traditional business paradigm of profit making and ROI.

He began to envision a conscious governance philosophy based upon the premise that governance is about the choices that people make and not just about compliance, policy and procedures. He introduced the notion that conscious, unconscious, and anticonscious choices form the framework of conscious governance.

Steven's Key Career Accomplishments Include . . .

Steven is one of Australia’s leading governance and senior executive team specialists, having previously held positions as national executive director of the Australasian Institute of Banking and Finance, CEO of the Finance and Treasury Association, general manager of ExpoHire (Australia) Pty Ltd, assistant director of the Australian Society of CPAs, and director of the American College of Health Care Administrators. He is a past president of the Australian Society of Association Executives and has held numerous other board positions. Steve has authored and coauthored over fourteen books on governance and executive leadership.

He was the founder and associate program director of the certificate and advanced certificate in association management at Monash-Mt Eliza Business School for eleven years. He and his partner, Chutisa, currently consult with over one thousand Non Profit and corporate organizations each year in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and a Fellow of the Corporate Law and Accountability Research Group, Monash University.

Trained in both organizational management and as a behavioral scientist, Steve received his undergraduate degree in applied science, speech pathology, from La Trobe University, where he also completed a post-graduate degree in communication disorders. He completed his master’s degree from George Washington University, Washington DC, in speech pathology, where he also completed a master’s degree in association management. He also earned a certificate in association management and an advanced certificate in association management at the Monash-Mt. Eliza Business School.

Steve is a warm and engaging conference keynote speaker and dynamic workshop/seminar facilitator. He brings thirty years of hands-on experience and delivers it in a down-to-earth style that speaks to everyone throughout an organization. He leaves his audiences inspired, with practical leadership tools and tips that they can apply at work, at home, and in their communities.

 

Nathan Garber

As President of Nathan Garber & Associates, Nathan has been working to strengthen the nonprofit sector for more than 35 years.

In 1971, he began raising funds for OXFAM following civil war and devastating floods in Bangladesh. The experience had a profound effect on him and since then, he has devoted his work and voluntary efforts to improving the lives of individuals and communities locally, nationally, and internationally.

His company’s vision is “a stronger nonprofit sector characterized by mission-driven organizations, effective boards, strong volunteer leadership, high quality management, increased capacity, and ongoing quality improvement”. Services are founded upon three basic principles.

• The board’s job is important. Effective performance requires investment in recruitment, training, and evaluation, just like any other important job.

• Effective governance begins with vision and values. The governance model, structures, policies, and practices of your board should be consistent with your vision and values and should advance your strategic plan.
  Nathan’s work has always been marked by creativity, innovation, leading-edge thinking.

• He was founding editor of Nonprofit Boards and Governance Review, an electronic journal with 7,000 subscribers.

• He helped to develop one of the first microcomputer-based community information management systems in North America.

• He was a founder and executive director of an agency internationally respected as a leader in developing standards and training programs for language interpreters in community settings.

• He teaches governance in several university-based programs and has served on the boards of directors of a number of organizations dealing with international development, environmental, and social justice issues.

Nathan is not afraid to challenge conventional ideas about the management and governance of nonprofit organizations. His website, [http://garberconsulting.com] is rich with tools, articles, and links on nonprofit management and is considered as one of the best sites on nonprofit governance.

Nathan lives in London, Ontario, Canada with his wife and is the father of two grown daughters. When not at his computer or with clients, he can often be found engaging in his passion for bird-watching.

 

Gail S. Meltzer, CFRE

In the 1980's, in the midst of an intense karate session in what brain researchers would call a flow moment, Gail S. Meltzer, CFRE had an idea. Then assistant development director for the Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, Gail envisioned the hospital reaping the benefits of national exposure.

She convinced the board and staff to participate in the inaugural Children's Miracle Network Telethon (CMNT), secured a local station to broadcast the event, garnered sponsors to cover the costs, and enlisted volunteers. The annual CMNT fundraiser is now one of the largest telethons in the world and has elevated the profile and status of children's hospitals.

A Children's Hospital executive says the amiable Gail is a tenacious implementer. During her 30 year career as a senior development officer in the nonprofit arena, nonprofits have benefited from the comprehensive fund raising programs and major gifts campaigns she has created. Gail has helped long-term care facilities, leadership training programs, private schools, youth group homes, medical centers, community mental health centers, homeless shelters and museums among many other organizations.

Gail is the founding president of the Jacksonville Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and for three decades has mentored many fund development professionals, board members and nonprofit staff and volunteers. As president of the consulting firm Fund Raising Advantage, Inc. and now a founding principal in CoreStrategies for Nonprofits, Inc., she is a skilled trainer, specializing in teaching boards and staff how to embrace fund raising and create dynamic and effective donor relations programs for their organizations.

Gail has also experienced "life on the other side" by serving on numerous nonprofit boards during her career. She has had the distinction of being designated a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) since 1990, which requires ongoing rigorous documentation of fund raising success as well as service to the profession. Gail has a B.A. from Rutgers University.

Gail has had articles published in the Grassroots Fundraising Journal ("After the Lights Go Out: Turning your Special Event into Future Gold" July/August 2003); Advancing Philanthropy ("All on Board!" March/April 2004); Fundraising Success Magazine ("Accountability and Stewardship" July/August 2004); South Florida Sun-Sentinel ("Helping Board Members Embrace the Fun of Fundraising" January 31, 2005); The Major Gifts Report ('How to Overcome Premature Campaign Announcements" March 2008); numerous issues of the AFP Broward Chapter quarterly newsletter 2002-2006; and one of a series of briefing papers for nonprofit board members published by the First Nonprofit Educational Foundation (Fundraising: A Partnership between Board and Staff). How to Make Money as a Freelance Fundraising Copywriter by Mary Guinane McNamara (Article: “25 Website Basics for Nonprofits”) 2008.

 

Stephen Nill, J.D., GPC

Stephen Nill founded CharityChannel in 1992 as a means of connecting his nonprofit hospital chain's fund development staff over the Internet to their colleagues at other organizations. That first discussion community grew into what is today the oldest and largest community of third-sector professionals in the world, comprised of well over 150,000 participants worldwide.

He has been working in the US and international third sector for more than 30 years. He has served as the Chief Development Officer at a major Southern California university, the CEO of a large health care foundation, a vice-president of fund development of a U.S. west-coast nonprofit hospital chain, as a founder and acting director of development of a parochial school in his community, and as a founder of an organization dedicated to providing food and clothing for homeless persons in Southern California.

Mr. Nill is an attorney admitted to practice in California in 1981. His clients include some of the 100 wealthiest families in the United States as well as nonprofit organizations and educational institutions throughout the United States, Canada, and the UK. He has conducted continuing education classes for lawyers on advanced topics in estate planning and taxation (including gift planning), tax-exempt organization law, and Internet law, for such organizations as the State Bar of California, the Western Conference on Tax Exempt Organizations, CEB, and others.

He received his Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles (1981), and his Bachelor of Arts degree in two majors, Communications and Political Science, from California State University, Fullerton (1978). He was selected as Executive Editor of the Daily Titan, the university's daily broadsheet newspaper.

Over the past nearly three decades, he has been a keynote or plenary speaker at most of the third-sector's professional organization international, national and regional conferences.

Mr. Nill is a frequent media source on nonprofit-organization issues, appearing on numerous broadcast news programs such as Fox News and CNN. He has been quoted in numerous print publications such as Fortune Magazine, London Times, New York Times, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Chronicle of Higher Education, Nonprofit Times, etc.

Mr. Nill formerly served on the board of the Giving USA Foundation (also known as the AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy), which publishes the annual Giving USA report. He is a member of the advisory board of the National Philanthropic Trust. In 2005 he received the President's Award of the American Association of Grant Professionals.

Mr. Nill is a self-taught web site developer and programmer. As an amateur computer scientist, he has a particular interest in the application of quantum mechanics to computing. He is also a composer of symphonic music.

He has been happily married to his first wife continuously since 1978, has two beautiful grown daughters, and has an English springer and a golden retriever who think they're daughters numbers 3 and 4 -- and they are.

 

Robyn Fern Perlman

While an executive at Caesars World, Robyn Fern Perlman exported the entertainment conglomerate’s motto of glamour, fun and creative enterprise to the hills of Kentucky, putting a serious twist on it. To communities without running water, Robyn imported the ballet. Her vision: children exposed to the arts would grow up knowing that “anything is possible.” With that vision, she helped form the WINGS Foundation, which was instrumental in bringing not only the arts but science programming to children in rural Kentucky.

Robyn’s uncanny ability to meld media, corporate entities, celebrities, civic and philanthropic leaders with charitable concerns – developing press conferences, media tours, speaking engagements and community affairs programs on the national level – continues unabated. Her nonprofit and government clients have included the Urban Land Institute, Florida Department of Transportation, Broward County Transit, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, the Museum of Art of Fort Lauderdale, 11th Circuit Dependency Court, Guardian Ad Litem, the Dependency Court Intervention Program for Family Violence, North Broward Hospital District, and the Henderson Mental Health Center.

As president of R.F. Perlman, Inc., a strategic marketing and public affairs firm founded in 1993, she specialized in the development and implementation of public relations strategies not only for nonprofit organizations, but also initial public offerings, corporate development, technology, retail sales, consumer products, travel and tourism, and patent and copyright issues. She has a unique ability to work in partnership with in-house public relations and marketing executives to help create imaginative campaigns that complement the organization’s objectives.

For example, under the auspices of Warner Bros. Publications Robyn created a national campaign for music education in public schools. She engaged the major press and staged public events in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., corralling the support of the White House, elected officials, school chancellors, principals, teachers, pupils, local orchestras and major musical celebrities.

Robyn – a founding principal of CoreStrategies for Nonprofits, Inc. – has held many positions in her more than 25 years in the business. She has served as senior in-house public relations director, senior corporate public relations liaison and independent consultant for companies such as Lucent Technologies, Saks Fifth Avenue, Kenny Rogers Roasters Corporation and Holland & Knight.

For Caesars World she handled the promotion, publicity and marketing of the Caesars’ image including landmark events such as hotel grand openings, publicity tours, sporting events and various extravaganzas. She collaborated with such diverse entities as Vogue Magazine, Bloomingdales, the designer Diane Von Furstenberg, and national headliners.

Robyn’s knowledge and experience enables her to quickly assess clients’ goals in order to develop comprehensive strategies that ensure quality publicity. But, it is her ability to encourage dialog between key stakeholders that takes her clients to a whole new level.

Robyn currently serves as Vice Chair of the Broward County Early Learning Coalition, which allocates $90 million per year for school readiness programs in the county. She also serves as a mentor and chair of the scholarship committee for the Women of Tomorrow Mentoring Program, which gave out over 100 scholarships to senior high school girls in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in 2007. Robyn is also on the board of Legal Services of Greater Miami and Women Executive Leadership which helps accomplished women learn about and acquire corporate board seats. She has a B.A. from the University of Miami.

 

Terrie Temkin, Ph.D.

Dr. Terrie Temkin is an acknowledged thought leader in the areas of governance, board development and planning.  She is an award-winning speaker and a sought-after group facilitator who, as one meeting planner said, “serves steak with her sizzle.” 

Terrie, who brings more than 30 years of nonprofit management, organizational communication and adult education experience to her work, began her consulting life by founding NonProfit Management Solutions, Inc., in 1994.  She rapidly built a solid reputation and an international client base.  Among those clients: the National Council for Voluntary Organizations in England, the Center for Innovative Programming Azerbaijan NGO Project, Pilot International, the National Epilepsy Foundation, the National Immune Deficiency Foundation, the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, National Business Volunteers for the Arts and Zappkaas in Kenya.  A growing desire to provide her clients with the most unique capacity-building consulting services available to community-benefit organizations led her to co-found CoreStrategies for Nonprofits, Inc. 

Known to many as “the Ann Landers of the nonprofit world,” Terrie authored the biweekly “On Nonprofits” column in the Miami Herald for five years.  The column is currently published by a number of chapters of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, community foundations and management support organizations.  She has written three books, has chapters in three others, and has written and presented numerous papers. Her articles are found in such publications as Advancing Philanthropy, Board Member, Bottom Line Personal, Community Jobs, Consulting Today, Enhance, e-Volunteerism, Journal of Voluntary Action Research, Nonprofit Board Report, Nonprofit Boards and Governance Review, Nonprofit Nuts and Bolts, Nonprofit World, and Strategic Governance.  Staying up with the technology, Terrie is now also facilitating Webinars for organizations such as the Society for Nonprofit Organizations and E-Philanthropy.

Besides working with her own clients, Terrie regularly works with nonprofit management support organizations around the country.  Believing in the need to educate future leaders in the philanthropic field motivates her to also serve as an adjunct faculty member for Florida Atlantic University’s Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management.

Terrie is a member in good standing of the Society for Advancement of Consulting^SM (SAC), completing a certification process that speaks to her ethics and professionalism.

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