“Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare” (Patrick Lencioni).

I believe teamwork is rare because our organizations are built in opposition to working as a team. The key to maximizing community impact is making sure everyone in the organization is pulling in the same direction. This requires clarity, commitment, and focus.

Management philosophy is stuck in the past
Every manager knows the value of teamwork. The problem is the organizational structure in most nonprofits prevents it. Most organizations are hierarchical. This structure is derived from the industrial age when mass production transformed the workplace. It has been the foundation of organizational structure for the last 100 years. Each individual is given a small piece of the work to be completed. The worker only sees his/her part with the emphasis placed on speed of production. Assembly line concepts are so ingrained in our society that they find their way into management theory as well. We assign roles, divide the work and get started. The problem is that with the quickly changing landscape of today’s challenges the assembly line concept is not agile enough to adapt to those changes.

Management philosophy for today
Several decades ago software developers faced this same problem. Work requirements often changed…

Marketing doesn't have to be painful for nonprofit organizations with limited resources. Here are four ways nonprofit organizations can improve their marketing efforts while also spending less money and less time on the issue:

Do Your Research

Know your audience. Who makes up your audience? Analyze your nonprofit organization using Facebook Insights data to understand your core audience and its wants and needs. Examine the data on individual posts to determine which status updates and which photos have been shared the most. Also take the time to understand your organization’s Google Analytics data to get a better idea about who is visiting your site. Make sure to use Google’s Social Value graph to learn more about the correlation between your nonprofit’s Facebook and Twitter traffic with your sales and donations.

Define your goals. Once you've figured out who your audience is, articulate what it is you want from your supporters. Do you want your supporters to buy your merchandise? Donate their time at volunteer events? Donate money to support your operations? Once you’ve figured out why you matter to your audience and what your goals are, use this information to develop your nonprofit organization’s marketing strategies. 

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Many individuals start off already knowing their purpose, having several ideas for a nonprofit, or even believing that they need to jump on filling out Form 1023 as soon as all parties agree on a mission. Well, my journey was a little different. In fact, it was a little backwards. I started a community organization that, by choice, has yet to be registered. But before I jump into why I have made the decision to hold off on registering my wonderful organization as a 501(c)(3), I think I should give you some background on the little gem.

Let me take you back to March 2012. During that month my friend Magui and I had both received some very unpleasant news about our health condition. Apparently our M&M nickname went from “Mel and Mags” to Medical Mystery! We were both frustrated with the fact that although we led very active lives and were at the top of our physical goals, our immune system always appeared to say the opposite.

Well, because we both felt the most invincible when we ran, and because we wanted a way to feel like we were getting back at our ridiculous immune system, we decided to sign up for our first full marathon. We agreed that no matter how bad the diagnoses or the news, illness would always have to try its hardest to catch us!  That night we discussed starting a Facebook page to document our training and gain our friend’s emotional support, but our random spurts of creative ideas led us to something bigger. Creating a…

One of the greatest challenges facing nonprofit organizations is garnering volunteers and, more importantly, the right kind of individuals. The ideal volunteer brings more than a bagged lunch – he or she provides innovative ideas, fresh enthusiasm, and a sincere interest in a volunteer setting. Below are five suggestions that have helped Garage Community and Youth Center form lasting and meaningful relationships with current and prospective volunteers.

1. Offer titles within organization

Even though a volunteer may not consider their position that important, it is our job to dissuade such feelings. Providing volunteers with a title will reinforce that they are an essential part of the team, examples including “brand coordinator” and “social consultant.” Volunteers who are in college or are still establishing their careers may appreciate the opportunity to enhance their resumes, and such roles encourage progression within the organization. While setting up an awareness concert to raise money for cancer, the Garage grouped high school students from different locations. We gave these volunteers the titles “brand ambassador” and “brand promoter”. Even though the students did not know each other, their similar titles were a factor in bringing them together as a team.

2. Allow volunteers to flow through organization

Should you change your nonprofit’s Facebook profile image to show support of a hot political issue? What do you do if someone comments with a racial slur on a photo of your volunteer? How do you react if you find your page to be the victim of the ever-dreaded troll?

As they say, “With any social media profile, comes great responsibility.” (Just kidding, no one really says that. But they should!)

If you have ever found yourself in one of these situations, then you know that making a wrong or inconsistent decision can have disastrous results. And those disastrous results are very, very public. Having a social media policy in place will help you answer these questions, and inform you or your social media manager on what to do in similar situations. And it’s extremely easy to create.

What’s in a social media policy?

Every nonprofit’s policy is going to be different, because every nonprofit has different needs, different audiences, different missions, and different campaign goals. But to give you an example of what a social media policy consists of, here’s a sample of the ASU Lodestar Center’s:

• • Who can post: We determined which employee is ultimately responsible for all of our social media profiles and which other employees are allowed to post on behalf of the Center.
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• • What to post:…