Exceptional nonprofit boards recognize that diversity is essential to success. By now, it is commonly accepted that a homogeneous board can result in near-sighted decision making. By contrast, a diverse board with a variety of backgrounds and perspectives promotes creativity and innovation that impacts an organization's bottom line, programs and mission for the better.  
 
So why is there still a persistent underrepresentation of minorities and women on boards of directors?

Meet Tamara Johnson, Executive Director of Malaika Early Learning Center and recently elected to the governing board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  
 
Johnson joined Malaika in 2012, after working for Milwaukee Public Schools and COA Youth & Family Centers. Johnson, who holds a master’s degree in Early Childhood Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Human Services, is considered a champion of quality early childhood education for low-income children. She's a member of NPC's Executives of Color Leaders Circle. 

We interviewed Johnson on her work in the sector and why board diversity is important for nonprofits. 

​NPC: What made you choose to work in the nonprofit sector?  
Johnson: There are many reasons, but if I had to choose one, it would be that I am passionate about the betterment of communities and most of the services provided in the nonprofit sector focus on that concept.   
  
NPC: What excites you most about NAEYC's mission?  
Johnson: NAEYC promotes high-quality early learning for all children, birth through age 8, by connecting practice, policy, and research. We advance a diverse, dynamic early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children. What excites me most about NAEYC’s mission is that it 1) focuses on birth through age 8 and 2) connects practice, policy and research - combining all pieces of the puzzle to make the greatest impact on the lives of children.    
  
NPC: What do you find most challenging about leadership in the nonprofit sector?  
Johnson: TIME and RESOURCES! The most challenging thing about leadership in the nonprofit sector is the need for strong leadership across all sectors, connecting on a regular basis to support the community. In my opinion, this is really about the resources available to the nonprofit sector to support and cultivate leaders.   
  
NPC: What is your most memorable moment as an Executive Director?  
Johnson: My most memorable moment was when I was recognized as a “Milwaukee Superhero” and in that same year for Boss’s Day all of my staff and a couple parents wrote superhero messages about me/my leadership and left them on my office door. I tend not to be an emotionally vulnerable person but I literally cried immediately. You never really know the impact you have on others. And the messages are still on my office door.   
  
NPC: As you look forward to your four year appointment on NAEYC's board of directors, what issues do you think will be most prominent?  
Johnson: Early childhood has been an afterthought for decades and really should be at the forefront of every community’s agenda. I am looking forward to supporting the work of NAEYC's strategic direction which includes but is not limited to: equitable access to high-quality learning, recognition of excellence in the profession and the vital role it plays in society (this includes compensation), and cultivating leadership that moves the field forward.    
  
NPC: What can organizations do to increase their board diversity, and why is that important?  
Johnson: Increasing board diversity is crucial in today’s society. Organizations could truly benefit by assessing the expertise, socio-economic status and generation of its members. All of the named areas will bring a different perspective to the work that the organization needs to accomplish. This is important because we live in a society where no one thing matters. The saying “Money makes the world go around” pretty much became obsolete once the world became so dependent on technology. So I’d say that yes, money is needed but you also need innovative thinkers who are able to keep up with the fast-paced digital world that we live in.   
  
NPC: Why is there a persistent underrepresentation of minorities and women on boards of directors?  
Johnson: In my opinion, minorities and women are sometimes underrepresented on boards because they are not always afforded the opportunities to add one more thing to their plate. They are already juggling work, family and in many instances, their own education. I can speak from my own personal experience that it was really hard as a single parent to add anything extra as I was already working full-time, always in school and making sure that my son participated in extra-curricular activities.   
​

The Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee offers an Executives of Color Leaders Circle. ​This cohort group of nonprofit leaders is designed to establish a network of peers to confide in and depend on for professional support and growth.  In addition, the specific goals of this Circle are: 

• To increase the personal and organizational effectiveness through the on-going applications of skills, encouraging accountability, receiving resources and support.
• To provide a network for executives of color to attain focused feedback, new perspectives, validation and renewal.

​For further information, please contact Joyce Mallory.

Blog from the Big Chair

By Rob Meiksins, CEO
 
So, yeah. Life just changed. Whether you like our new president or not, whether you voted for him or not, Donald Trump is now everyone's President-elect. Life just changed for us who work in the nonprofit sector. So now what?
 
I've been trying to keep my ears open as I move around town and talk to people in the sector. But it's almost like people are holding their collective breaths and waiting. It's like that moment in the movie when you know something is about to happen, but you don't know what, so the whole audience sits, eyes glued to the screen, waiting to be scared. That's the theme here: the scary unknown.
 
Yesterday I was talking with the board president of a nonprofit in the health field. For them, the call to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act represents a potential sea change — and worse, a tidal wave. If it is repealed, they don't know how many people won't be able to afford health care anymore, and how people will pay for the care they need. He envisioned hordes of uninsured people swarming the local clinics seeking free or low-cost. Munch’s painting The Scream comes to mind. It's all an unknown, and for many people, the unknown is scary. 
 
I heard the same thing from people who work in nonprofits providing social services and education for youth. They don't know what's going to happen now: Is public education dead in the water? Will we go totally choice and charter? That's probably overstatement for effect, but still — the unknown is scary.
 
For me, the big scary unknown is whether much of the nonprofit sector's funding is at risk: Government represents the second largest source of income for nonprofits nationwide, according to a report published by the Urban Institute (cited on the Foundation Center's Grantspace website). It makes up 32% of nonprofit income. Will we start seeing government funding for nonprofits dry up as government is shrunk in size and taxes are reduced? That's a scary unknown for me.
 
So now what, nonprofit Milwaukee? 
 
Here are some ideas:

1. Volunteer: Our Volunteer Milwaukee program staff tell me they're getting lots of calls from people who are shocked and dismayed — and feel the need to get involved in their community more than ever before. They’re worried for people who are less fortunate, worried that the support programs will be in danger. They feel they have to roll up their sleeves and get to work. For them, the scary unknown serves as a call to action. If you’re one of these people, if you feel like getting involved, go to our Volunteer Milwaukee website and connect yourself to a way to help. 

2. Put volunteers to work: If you work at a nonprofit, this is an opportunity to get more work done. Tap into the surge in residents' desire to do something to help — create more ways for volunteers to pitch in to advance your mission, and post those opportunities at the Volunteer Milwaukee site. 
 
3. Become an advocate for what you feel is important: We can't sit back and wait for the wave of the scary unknown to happen. Get out and talk to your local, state, and federal legislators about the issues you care about. Tell them what you think is important. Then tell them again, and again, because they may not hear it the first two times. Sign up to get emails from websites alerting you when your phone calls or letters will make the most difference. Numerous sites exist for all political perspectives; moveon.org is one example, with a Democratic perspective.

4. Organize a volunteer project for your company or community group. To get information about group volunteering opportunities join NPC's Business Volunteer Council, or contact Debbie Knepke. 
 
5. Join the conversation. One way to get rid of the scary unknown is to start articulating what we're afraid of. Put it on the table and talk about it. An acting teacher I knew in New York City had a phrase: it's not scary territory, it's unfamiliar territory. Let's turn the scary into the unfamiliar. Let's plan for the future. Do some visioning about what might be coming at us based on what we know of the people who are going to be making decisions about our country for the next few years.

Let's talk. If you're an agency exec, join me for a conversation, The Nonprofit Sector Under A Trump Presidency, on December 14, early in the morning. It's free - learn more and register here.

As NPC finalizes its budget for 2017, we need to hear from you about what's going on in your world, so that we'll understand what we need to do to help you. The discussion on December 14 is a great time to do that, so please participate!

Blog from the Big Chair

By Rob Meiksins, CEO
 
It's been a year since I took the job as CEO of the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee. That's hard to believe. Bonnie Andrews, the retiring manager of Volunteer Milwaukee, was in my office yesterday and when I told her about all of the LinkedIn congrats I'm getting, she was shocked. “A year?!” she gasped. “Time flies when you're having fun,” I replied.
 
Has it all been fun?  No, not everything that has happened has been roses and rainbows. But a lot of it has been really good and really fulfilling. Here's my list of really cool things that I've experienced this year – and some things that are not so cool. 

Cool Things 
 
1. Feeling the energy that exists around doing good and helping.

The fact that Milwaukee is ranked third in the nation for volunteerism is an amazing thing and demonstrates what is cool about this town and the people who live here. The fact that our Volunteer Milwaukee program and our very own Bonnie Andrews had something to do with that makes a CEO very proud. 
 
2. Thinking in big-picture terms about the nonprofit sector and what we can do to help.

Working with people on redesigning our training curriculum, for example. Getting a small team together and thinking about what we want a curriculum to do, the competencies we want a nonprofit organization to demonstrate, and the domains for those competencies – I just love that part of this job. Call me a geek, but I find strategizing around the best systems and approaches for helping the organizations that do great things in our community incredibly energizing.
 
Not-So-Cool Things
 
1. The politics among and between nonprofits and the people who work for them.

Brutal honesty here: topping my list of uncool things is when people are on power trips and want you to help them but will not return the favor. When people get territorial and prioritize defending their little fiefdom at all costs. The flip side of that one is not caring that there is already something in place, and creating a competitive environment that does not need to be there. We’re all in this together, folks. We’re all trying to reach the same goal of a strong and vibrant community. Let's start putting our money where our mouths are: let’s start acting the way we say we want the whole community to act. We can do better!
 
2. The nonprofit sector’s inferiority complex.

We just assume we do not deserve the same investment as any other type of business, government entity, or other initiative. We assume that our salaries should be smaller than anyone else’s. We assume our buildings should look beat-up. We assume that we shouldn't invest in our overhead. In fact, we brag about it. Here's what I hate to hear: “We're doing more with less.” If that’s true, maybe you aren’t doing it as well. It costs more to do things now than it used to. So how are you making that work? We need to stop saying – and thinking – that doing more with less is a virtue, because the nonprofit inferiority complex is starving our sector. 
 
I can't end in a rant, so I'll share another positive: hearing the stories of the people who feel they've been helped by us. When someone tells me NPC Organization Development Consultant Joyce Mallory is the reason their organization is doing so well, now. Or when a board director tells me he learned from my class on governance how to get everyone on the board to talk, and how that transformed their meetings. Or when I see people talking to each other before or after a meeting and they're finding out what they share and learn from each other. That's a good thing.

When we have successfully built a learning nonprofit community, I will know I've done my job with this organization. 
 
So, yeah, it's been a good year overall. We've started some very exciting things, and I truly am looking forward to year two. I may be opening myself up, here, but I'd love to hear from you, dear reader. What are your observations of my first year in the big chair?

Blog from the Big Chair

by Rob Meiksins, CEO
 
Recently I wrote a blog addressing some questions about HR issues that we've been hearing from our members.  We've also been hearing a lot of questions about a proposed change to the Fair Labor Standards act that could have a significant impact on overtime pay requirements. We've been researching this proposed change and asking a few questions.
 
The changes proposed by the DOL would more than double – to over $50,000 – the current salary threshold determining whether an employee can be exempt from hourly and overtime pay requirements. No accommodations for the differences between profit and nonprofit organizations or for regional differences in cost of living: $50,000 means something different in Milwaukee than it does in New York City. 

Impact on Services and Staffing
 
This considerable increase has raised questions and concerns among many in the nonprofit community. For example, a good number of nonprofit executive directors in our area work for small organizations and are paid under $50,000. In many cases, they are providing direct service to the organization’s clients and this could have a negative impact on the people in need in our community who are getting assistance. Are they expected to log their hours and punch a clock? When they have reached 40 hours, how should they proceed?  Are they supposed to stop working with their clients? 
 
While we all want fair wages for workers, we have to wonder if the DOL and legislators have thought through the ramifications of this proposal and the impact it will have on the nonprofit groups that are already taxed with difficult budget circumstances at the same time there is a growing need for their work in our community. 

Next Steps for Milwaukee Nonprofits
 
This is critical legislation that is going to have long term impact. Legislation has been introduced that will require the DOL to take some time and better examine the impact of their proposal. I encourage you as an employee in the nonprofit sector to take the time and learn about this. Download this handout from the Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity to get detail, talking points, and case studies of how the changes would impact specific nonprofits. Also read the very good analysis of the proposed legislation by the National Council of Nonprofits.

Once you've decided what you think of these proposed changes, please take the time to reach out to your legislators in Washington using the following contact forms, and let them know what you think:
 
Contact Congresswoman Gwen Moore
Contact Senator Tammy Baldwin
Contact Senator Ron Johnson