Volume 3, Issue 1 January 26, 2007 |
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In This Issue:
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KRISTEN STEELE JOINS THUNDERHEAD STAFF Kristen is also offering her fundraising expertise to leaders of Thunderhead organizations as one of our executive coaches. If you’d like advice on any of your fundraising efforts or would like to run your next fundraising plan by her, please give her a call at (415) 513-5281 or email her at: kristen "at" thunderheadalliance.org. |
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PARTNER CONFERENCES – DEADLINES APPROACH And
speaking of partners, two of our best have their annual conferences
coming up in a flash, so make sure to register soon!:
LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSION’S New Partners for Smart Growth Conference February 8-10 in Los Angeles, California. This is the best place to connect with leaders in smart growth from influential organizations and government agencies. Nearly 1,500 experts in development, transportation, environment and health are expected to converge at this year’s conference. If you’re planning to attend, get registered right away because the discount deadline is January 26th! Register here: http://www.newpartners.org/index.html. LEAGUE OF AMERICAN BICYCLISTS’ National Bike Summit March 14-16 in Washington, D.C. This one is always an excellent place to connect with fellow leaders of Thunderhead organizations as we and others from across the country learn at the first day workshops and then descend on Capitol Hill the next day to bring the bicycling message to Congress. This year’s Summit will be an important stage setter for Thunderhead’s National Complete the Streets Campaign as Congress learns the latest about complete streets from attendees. When we return October 5-9 for our Thunderhead Training and Hill visits, we can then take the discussions to the next level for a federal complete streets policy. Register for the Summit here (discount deadline is February 14th): http://www.bikeleague.org/conferences/summit07/index.php. |
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COMPLETE STREETS CORNER By Dominic J. Liberatore; Complete Streets Campaign Coach Welcome to the Complete Streets Corner. This is the newest addition to the Weather Report. Every month I’ll offer the latest inspirations from Thunderhead’s National Complete the Streets Campaign here! If you would like to share your local or state complete streets experiences with fellow Thunderheaders, please email me your victories and concerns and I’ll see if I can include them in the next issue. This month’s Complete Streets Corner takes us to sunny California. California has 22 Thunderhead organizations and let me say, these folks are on their way to completing their streets! Under the leadership of KC Butler, the California Bicycle Coalition (CBC) is leading the charge to tackle complete streets in 3 separate venues. First is the legislative route: CBC has found a couple of cheerleaders in their state legislature who are willing to work to pass a statewide complete streets bill. Second is the DOT route: members of the DOT staff, seeing value in complete streets, are assisting in an internal complete streets policy. Last but not least is leveraging a recently passed state bond initiative. This was a large pot of money created for infrastructure projects across the state. The CBC is helping to write the new guidelines for the use of these monies. CBC’s take home inspiration: Make sure to look at multiple angles for your potential policies. So my tip of the month to all of you regarding your complete streets policy campaign efforts goes like this: Try to get your DOT to adopt an internal policy first. If the DOT blows you off, sharpen your advocacy swords, prepare your organization and troops for full mobilization, and find bill sponsors in your state legislature. It is best that your initial legislative cheerleaders are in the majority and serve on either a House or Senate transportation committee. A few more considerations when you need to choose one angle include: whether a DOT internal policy will affect all roads. If not, will a legislative policy affect all roads or does your state have home rule that prevents this? If this is the case, a DOT internal policy may be the way to go since this process will not require the massive organizational resources of a legislative campaign. Okay, keep at those complete streets policy campaigns and please let me know how I can help: dominic “at” thunderheadalliance.org. |
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MEMBER NEWS: MAJOR DONORS, MINIMAL EFFORT What would you do if your organization had 6000 members? If you were Jodie Medeiros, Development Director at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC), you would keep pushing for more members with higher average renewals. The SFBC has a very successful membership program, and an excellent system for turning regular members into major donors. The SFBC defines a major donor as an individual who gives $500 or more per year; currently the SFBC has nearly 100 major donors. Thunderhead talked to Jodie about their major donor program: Thunderhead: How do you find and reach out to your major donors? Jodie Medeiros: Each major donor of $500 or more has a board member assigned to them. The board asks the donor for a meeting (coffee or lunch) to tell them more about the coalition’s work and in that meeting is the “ask” to support the SFBC at a greater level. If a donor declines a meeting, then the “ask” is done over the phone. Plus, all members who make a $100 or more contribution (including membership dues) get a call from one of our board members. We have several hundred members in the $100-499 range. The call from a board member helps to establish a personal relationship with that member and we get to find out more about why our members support us. We track all notes from these calls in our database for future use. T: What about your board - are they all major donors, too? JM: Almost all of our board members are major donors; only two board members in 2006 were not major donors, and those two have pledged to become major donors in 2007. We're very fortunate to have this. It is easier for a board member to ask for a major gift if they themselves give at that level. T: What about major donors who don't renew their support? How do you reach out to them? JM: After several attempts by the board, our Executive Director, Leah Shahum, reaches out to them with a personal letter. If that doesn't work, she then gives them a call. It was very successful this last year. T: Speaking of reaching out, do you do anything special for your major donors? JM: This past June we had a major donor breakfast and city bike ride. It was the first time we had a pure cultivation (no ask) meeting, and it was great. Really easy to put on, just bagels and coffee. We are looking into having a mid-range cultivation meeting this spring since it worked so well for our major donors. We feel that good contact, without being overbearing with our major donors is a good thing. T: You hear about those members who initially give $5 as a test to see if the organization is paying attention. Could those be potential major donors? JM: Of course. The thank you letter is always important and shows that every donation counts. Like all organizations the SFBC has limited resources. If you have volunteers and board that can reach out to every member personally that would be best. As your membership grows, so will your ability to reach out to them. Thunderhead welcomes news items from our member organizations based on each month’s theme. Please send your suggested item (maximum 300 words) to: david "at" thunderheadalliance.org. We will publish the most inspiring story and list the web links of other contributors within that month’s theme. Next month's theme is: Quest for the perfect board: does such a thing exist? |
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ORG TIP: PREPARE FOR STORMS IN CALM WEATHER Aid to our member organizations has always been our topmost priority. So nothing is more horrifying than when we receive a call from a leader who has been ripped from their organization because of personality conflicts. Now, after too many of these calls and close calls, Thunderhead is stepping up our efforts for conflict mediation, organizational health care and preventative measures. This Org Tip is our first step in what will build into a comprehensive program for self-exams and organizational health care check ups. We look forward to unveiling these new elements through our web site, Thunderhead Trainings and on-call support. But let’s all start today! Don’t wait until the confusion of the storm hits. And we know from our experience that the dynamic and strong personalities necessary for great advocacy often lead to these lethal conflicts. Take the time now to assess the structure of your organization and strengthen weak areas so that it will withstand the violence of these inevitable personality storms. This will also protect your organization from other unexpected tragedies. Take this basic health care quiz, checking only the boxes you are absolutely confident in:  Our organization has set clear leadership roles placing the
executive director as the authority and visionary on the day-to-day
operations of the organization; the board of directors as responsible
for the organization’s broad governance as well as offering their
particular expertise; and the staff as experts in their particular
programs. We have in place structural documents that clearly set out
these roles including: an on-going executive director agreement (not a
yearly contract!), bylaws that give authority to the FULL board and no
special powers to an executive committee, bylaws that ensure a board
elected board, a Board Letter of Commitment that all must agree to or
be removed from the board, and an employee handbook that clearly sets
out the policies of the organization. We have an
executive director
performance evaluation process that
encourages the board and staff to offer guidance and concerns at any
time as well as a structured, annual evaluation by the entire board
that is confidential and presented in writing to the entire board. Our board meets regularly for productive
meetings and poor
attendance is cause for removal from the board. Our
executive director and board president enjoy a respectful
relationship that inspires both, helping each to inspire the
rest of
the organization. We have
set in place and continually upgrade our other organizational structure
elements including our office operations, our
accountant and payroll services, and our systems and record keeping so
that any leader of the organization can easily find critical
information necessary for the smooth operations of the organization. We pay our
executive director at or above market salary for
executive directors of non-profit organizations in our area. We avoid
working with contractors except for temporary, finite
tasks and NEVER allow contractors to influence the operations of our
organization. We have in
place a mission, vision, values and
goals
document
that all leaders are committed to and refer to in times of
disagreement. We also understand the dangers of strategic planning
during times of such disagreement.If you left any of the above check boxes unchecked, please contact us immediately! We have templates for all of these recommended documents and resources you can tap to make all of these upgrades. Our movement cannot afford to lose dedicated leaders let alone allow our organizations to waste energy on personality conflicts and worse, self-destruction. We all must step back and realize the responsibility we accepted as leaders of this movement – to do our part to save this planet and lives as we bring new life to our communities for many generations to come. That means our organizations must build strong structures so they will thrive for generations and never allow personality conflicts to slow them down. Please let us know how we can help! It is our job and you will be doing our hearts more good than you will ever know. |
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This monthly Thunderhead Alliance Weather Report is for the leaders of our member organizations and our supporters. The Thunderhead Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is the only coalition of state and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations working in unison to break down the barriers to safe bicycling and walking in North American communities. Find more info at: www.thunderheadalliance.org. |