At the Crossroads E-Book

Philip Coltoff

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 222

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

An indispensable guide to the complex art of nonprofit leadership and management In The Challenge of Change, Philip Coltoff distills the insights he has gained from nearly twenty-five years of leadership at The Children's Aid Society of New York City, one of the largest and best-known not-for-profit organizations in the nation. Now in a Second Edition, The Challenge of Change shares his ideas and experiences with a new generation of not-for-profit leaders and board members. * Reflects new changes in board structure, statutory requirements, functional relationships, succession, and transitional relationships * Looks at Coltoff's days at the helm of one of the oldest and most well-known institutions in the United States * Unparalleled insight and wisdom from a true nonprofit leader and pioneer Nonprofit executives and board members will benefit from Coltoff's observations and advice about everything from strategic planning and fundraising, to working with volunteers, cultivating diversity, and achieving work/life balance. His straightforward, conversational style is highly readable, and his tales from the trenches help to illuminate the important lessons he learned along the way.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Governance and Administration

Sarbanes-Oxley

Accountability

Organizational Culture

Role of the Board

Administrative Flexibility

Summary

Chapter 2 - Roles and Responsibilities

Foundation Grants

Government Grants

Growing Your Fundraising

Working with the Board and Staff

The Social Safety Net

Summary

Chapter 3 - Serving the Entire Community

How Location and Demography Affect Funding

Broadening Your Service Base

Serving the Community

Summary

Chapter 4 - The Public Image of the Not-for-Profit

Making Your Not-for-Profit Visible

Outcomes and Results

Communication Strategy

The Media and the CEO

Branding

Summary

Chapter 5 - The Social Work Professional—Manager and CEO

The Church, Immigration, and the Beginning of Social Services

The Social Services Profession Evolves

Managerial Roles in Social Services

Summary

Chapter 6 - Programs and Priorities

Creating an Effective Mission Statement

How Changes in Vision Affect Your Mission

Changing Direction

Summary

Chapter 7 - Public Policy and Government Relations

Bridging the Gap between Independence and Advocacy

Essential Steps to Being an Advocate

Advocacy and Politics—Do They Mix?

Summary

Chapter 8 - Lessons in Leadership

What Makes an Effective Leader?

The Adaptive Leader

What Makes Leaders Successful?

The Role of the Manager

Summary

Chapter 9 - The Board and the CEO

The Board of Directors

The CEO

Summary

Chapter 10 - Raising Money, Managing Budgets, Building Relationships, and ...

Not-for-Profits, Donors, and Funds

Funds Management

Summary

Chapter 11 - Evaluation, Human Resources, Staff Training, and Development

The Evaluation Process

The Theory of Change

The CEO, Evaluation, and Human Resources

Responsibilities of the Human Resources Department

Staff Training and Development

Summary

Chapter 12 - The Age of Technology

The Importance of Technology

Summary

Chapter 13 - Volunteers and Voluntarism

The Growth of Voluntarism

Relationship between Volunteers and Management

Summary

Chapter 14 - International Social Welfare and the Role of the University

Not-for-Profits’ Increasing International Presence

Universities’ Expanding Involvement

Summary

Chapter 15 - Succession and Retirement

Who I Was and Who I Am Now

The Effects of Retirement on the CEO

Succession Planning

Summary

References

About the Author

Index

Copyright © 2010 by Philip Coltoff. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Coltoff, Philip.

At the crossroads : not-for-profit leadership strategies for executives and boards / Philip Coltoff.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-61521-8 (cloth); ISBN 978-0-470-90664-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-0-470-90666-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-0-470-90667-5 (ebk)

1. Nonprofit organizations-Management. 2. Leadership. I. Title.

HD62.6.C649 2010

658.4’ 092-dc22

2010016369

To Lynn Harman, who served many roles in the course of the writing of this book—loving wife, severe but constructive critic, in-house editor, and professional ego-booster.

Foreword

This remarkable guide comes at a providential moment. Even as the American economy is groping slowly toward recovery, the great recession continues to exact painful costs, most of all for people in despair. For nonprofit service agencies, this is a time of triple trouble.

For one thing, the needs of the neediest have grown more acute. Hunger agencies say they are feeding 20 to 25 percent more people. Unemployment and underemployment afflict one of every six Americans. Millions of people, victimized by subprime deception and fraud, stand to lose their homes.

Meanwhile, the ability of nonprofit organizations to serve people in distress has declined sharply. At the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, we experienced a drop of 5 percent in 2009 and a further drop of 9 percent in 2010, even though the number of donors was nearly flat. Other agencies report that their contributions are down as much as 25 percent.

These losses mirror the third source of trouble. Many nonprofits have relied on the annual income from endowments. Now, endowment gifts have become rare and existing endowments have shrunk drastically, chopping into the investment income that agencies have relied on to meet their operating expenses.

This turmoil and, on occasion, tragedy exposes a powerful need. All social services agencies, even those with experienced leaders, are driven to review and improve every operation, to sharpen every tool. This book, from the widely admired and longtime head of a famous agency, offers a series of wise lessons for all nonprofits, from new start-ups to established institutions.

Chapters 7 and 8 particularly warrant their close attention for they present two lessons that to me are misunderstood or poorly understood. One concerns advocacy. In Chapter 7, the author explains that yes, nonprofits are forbidden as a condition of retaining their tax-exempt status to support political candidates. At the same time, however, they are free to take public positions, even on the most controversial issues. Indeed, as he writes, they have a duty to take such positions, as “a logical extension of the organization’s mission. The larger mistake is when an agency does not inform the community of the position that it is advocating.”

Chapter 8 offers the second lesson, which, equally laudable, concerns the difference between management, as exacting and important as that is, and leadership. The key is vision and the author is at his best explaining why that’s not just defining a dream but making it a driving force.

Phil Coltoff did that at the Children’s Aid Society over four decades. In the words that follow, he turns that experience into a gift.

Jack Rosenthal, Senior Fellow, The Atlantic Philanthropies, and former President, The New York Times Company Foundation

Preface

Today’s not-for-profit social services organizations face a challenging environment. Revenue sources are strained due to the economic recession and associated blows to state tax revenue and budgets. Compliance activities, including fiscal compliance, overdue attention to conflicts of financial interest, client confidentiality, and other regulations are required of today’s not-for-profits, but seldom funded. The philanthropic public has been well tutored to equate low administrative overhead with quality in social services organizations. At the same time, the people who are served by not-for-profits are in great need, and are themselves negatively affected by the global recession and economic restructuring. Today’s not-for-profits are expected to do more with less, and at the same time, to run like model businesses. This is the challenging context that Phil Coltoff paints for today’s not-for-profits.

In this book, Coltoff, one of the nation’s most respected and longest-leading not-for-profit CEOs, shares the wisdom that he developed over decades as he led the nation’s oldest children’s services agency, the Children’s Aid Society. Phil Coltoff ’s voice brings a balanced perspective, stressing leadership over technical challenges, and person-centeredness in the whole agency, from the board to the staff to the clients.

This book’s contents provide a comprehensive analysis of the contemporary context and resulting challenges for not-for-profits. In addition to thoughtful reflections on the roles of the CEO in governance, board relationships, and roles and responsibilities including fiscal management, human resources, program development, and fundraising, Phil Coltoff pays careful attention to topics less frequently touched upon in not-for-profit management and leadership texts. He addresses the central role of public image and visibility of the not-for-profit to its multiple constituencies, including its funders, public and private, the community it serves, its clients, and its internal image. He reflects on the history of social services and the not-for-profit in America. He provides an insightful analysis of transformational leadership, including the central role of vision, strategy, and values. The latter part of the book addresses the cusp of tomorrow’s challenges for not-for-profits, including leading in an era of technology, building the capacity for effective and responsible deployment of volunteers, the internationalization of social services in the context of globalization and shifting demographics, and finally, succession and retirement, one of the most critical organizational transitions for the CEO as well as for the organization.

Studies of social services show that we are about to enter an unprecedented phase of leadership transition with the retirement of the Baby Boom-generation CEOs. This book provides an outstanding resource to the aspiring generation of not-for-profit leaders. The wise master has spoken.

Lynn Videka, Professor and Dean, Silver School of Social Work, New York University

Acknowledgments

Few books can be written without collaborators, many of whom play important roles and are often invisible. If writing a book were the equivalent of making a motion picture, the people whom I am referring to would be the stage manager, cinematographer, set decorator, costume designer, audiographer, musical director, and so forth. The music of a book requires this type of full ensemble to make it readable, let alone publishable.

In this spirit, I have many to thank. The first is the person to whom this book is dedicated, my wife, Lynn Harman. She truly was my in-house editor, spending hours on painstaking review, suggestions (sometimes made quite forcefully), editing, and proofreading. I can’t imagine having been able to get through this work without her collaboration.

I thank the editors at John Wiley & Sons: Judy Howarth on copy and content and Susan McDermott on overall publication, cover, jacket, and everything else that falls in the category of publishing.

Thanks to my colleagues at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work for their support—especially Dean Lynn Videka for her manuscript review and penning the Preface; and Jack Rosenthal, former President of the New York Times Company Foundation and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, for his encouragement and suggestions and for writing the Foreword. Michael Stoller, executive director of the New York Human Services Council, a colleague and friend, served as a peer reader.

Emerald Pellot, a student at NYU, who served as a work-study student assigned to me, was so helpful in many ways in getting my words on paper (or as it is these days, on the screen). I hope she also learned something from this process. A special nod goes to Bruss Del Valle and Alyssa Venere, who also pitched in, particularly with respect to the final edits. A thank-you goes to Lauren Moore, a colleague who reviewed the early manuscript. A special thank you also to Dr. Eileen Wolkstein, who reviewed the section on technology and made many helpful suggestions. And finally, thanks to the information technology staff at the Silver School of Social Work, ever-so-helpful and always available to me, Matt McGuirk and Andrew Harrison.

I am indebted and most grateful to all of these people for their wonderful assistance, support, and encouragement.