Get More Hands on Deck (Part 1): Assembling Teams

My mother, who has been in the non-profit sector for more than 30 years, always said that non-profits need people for work, wisdom and wealth. Before I had any wealth or wisdom I always tried to help with the work-stuffing envelopes, stacking cans, distributing food.  My wife and I would also donate some of our wealth each year, but our giving was fragmented and random.  It wasn't really until I was in my 40s that I realized that I could make a bigger impact against specific challenges with focused giving and brainpower. 

This is why we have decided to go all in with Boyer Children’s Clinic and this approach has changed my very idea of what it means to engage with a non-profit. For example, while I still think my mother was right (don't all sons?:),  I would add that non-profits need your knowledge network as well as your financial network. 

My natural default when working with people or groups in a corporate setting is to try to help define the problem and then either work towards a solution or try to identify someone in my network who could provide a POV, a connection, or a receptive ear. I do this for job-seekers, start-up companies, friends, whomever.

I also do this because I have had so many people in my own life who have done the same for me and I feel a sense of obligation to both "pay it back" and "pay it forward".

So as I joined the Boyer Board, I started looking for challenges that I might be able to help with given my background and experience. I realized my greatest constraint was going to be time, so if I wanted to make an impact I needed to figure out how I could leverage my network to help. This meant finding people with specific skills/backgrounds from my work/community whom I could help coordinate and then deploy on a project (in this case helping to refresh marketing at Boyer) in the classic "virtual team" model that many corporations use today to get projects done.

Our seven-person team basically acts as marketing shock troops.  We support and follow the lead of Boyer’s Executive Director, Mike Stewart and their Director of Development, Kathleen Barry, helping with audience segmentation, value proposition refinement, a website refresh, online marketing strategy development, community engagement and event support – with everything building to their 70th anniversary next year! 

The staff at SVP asked me to share this story, because they thought other Partners volunteering with nonprofits might be able to apply a similar approach.  So here’s a little of what I have learned.

Assembling a Team

So how do you get folks excited and signed on to your project?  It’s actually pretty simple. These are the basics I keep in mind:

1. Lots of People WANT to Engage: Many people at Microsoft (and I am sure at other companies) want to be involved and are actually looking for a way to make a significant and meaningful impact beyond just "packing boxes". If you are able to present these types of people with a well thought out business case/project plan, I think it makes it easier for them to buy in.
2. Leverage Your Leadership: As a relatively senior person at Microsoft, I have built up a network of people who have "bought in" to my own leadership. I am sure there are many leaders in SVP in similar positions. I think it strengthens the cultural bonds of an org to have something to rally behind that isn't just about making money and, to be frank, there are always people who like to have a bit more face time--which is not a bad thing.
3. Create Win-Wins for Your Volunteers: I try to frame up different workstreams as growth opportunities for individuals. For example, the woman who became our project manager was 2 years out of college, a real go-getter and had actually just taken a course on project management. Our project became a good way for her to get real experience. I also offered to mentor her and spend an extra hour/month talking to her about the project, her career, current challenges, whatever.

Keeping Your Team and the Project on Track

When I think about the success our virtual team has had, it comes down to using some of the proven techniques for project management.

1. Define clear objectives (what do you want to accomplish by when)
2. Set up regular meeting times that work for the most people
3. Take advantage of technologies (e.g., sharepoint, cloud-based sharing sites, live meetings) to enable team members to participate in meetings and access content without having to be there in person
4. Break down the work, assign specific owners to each workstream, and have those owners identify key deliverables and reasonable timelines
5. Use the meetings as opportunity to share status (red, yellow, green) against deliverables and engage on challenges.
6. Find a young gun who is looking for a challenge and can act as your project manager. The biggest reason, in my experience, these things fizzle out is because the team loses focus or feels it is not getting traction. A project manager keeps everything on rails, makes sure the meetings are productive and resolves conflicts.
7. Be willing to take off your "leader" hat and dig in. This includes trying to breakdown the hierarchy and just becoming one of the volunteers. I think this is critical dimension to making this work. It does a lot to help your own leadership brand as it lets people see another side of you and relates that is not just about the job they do for you.

Meeting the Elusive Deadline

The major difference between running a project at my company and one at the non-profit? 

I have to be more tolerant of people missing deadlines as they are all volunteers. Having said that, I think using the public forum of the meetings to review progress does add the right "peer pressure" to encourage people to get things done. You don't have to hammer them, but highly motivated type A personalities don't ever want to lose. . . you can use that to your advantage.

Want to Learn More?

If you’d like to chat with Randy about inviting your network to get involved with an organization your care about, feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn or via email.  If you're interested in volunteering with Boyer Children's Clinic you can check out those opportunities here.

Don't think you're a born networker?  Does Randy's story sound great, but not for you?  Check out Mike Cadigan's piece on overcoming the awkwardness of reaching out.

What About You?  Any Stories or Tips to Share?

Does anyone else have stories or tips to share about recruiting and managing teams of volunteers? Or perhaps examples of how you've leveraged your network to strengthen a nonprofit you care about?