How do we at Turnkey For Good approach fundraising for these rare conditions? By emphasizing universal impulses like alleviating pain and suffering, and care for others. By focusing on the outcomes of these conditions rather than their rarity, we appeal to people's innate desire to help others in need and to care about them.

Strategy work is a big part of what we at Turnkey do within our social good community. That work typically results in a strategic plan for an organization or even for an initiative. With that strategic plan, paired like goat cheese and a great chardonnay, is the operational plan.

2023 was a year of transition for you, Turnkey, many of our clients, and the world. Transition brings change and uncertainty, but also new opportunities and the need to reflect on how to tackle challenges in a new way.

Your organization’s strategic plan is more than a roadmap to success that can be understood by everyone from the board chair to the part-time volunteer. It is your hedge against human nature, which can often send us down the wrong path when things get tough.

Are you encouraging board members to come prepared to debate, discuss, and vote on important issues facing your organization? Or are your committee and Executive Committee reports nothing more than actions for board members to approve?

The problem isn’t the board packet. It is the amount of information delivered in a way they can’t absorb in a time frame they can’t handle (during the board meeting).

There is a limit to human compassion. Understanding the hows and whys can help nonprofits raise revenue.

Let’s assume a LOT of people suffer from the condition your nonprofit exists to fix. Will that big number help in your copy for your appeals, or even your website?

No.

Volunteering on a local nonprofit board has changed my perspective on some things I used to say with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY, and with a microphone. As an example: “The federated model is inefficient. All organizations are on the path to single corp, without exception.”

Here’s where the federated model works brilliantly. Because the national organization is protected by a separate 501c3, they don’t mess with us.

Turnkey recently completed the search for the Chief Development Officer for The ALS Association. Patrick Reedy enters the role with deep experience at a range of nonprofits including Shatterproof as Chief Development Officer and JDRF as National VP of Leadership Giving, among other experiences.

Turnkey recently completed the search for the President and Chief Executive Officer for ZERO Prostate Cancer. Courtney Bugler, CFRE will assume the role in August 2023.

Bugler said of her new role, “I am truly honored and humbled to have been chosen to lead this organization. I have been preparing for years to do this job, and every aspect of my experience has given me skills, experiences, and a network to impact prostate cancer patients and their families.”

The low-dollar donor is becoming an endangered beast. In and of itself, the loss of immediate revenue is a problem. But the larger problem will show up later. Most sustaining, major, and legacy donors “started with one small introductory gift years ago,” which means fewer major hitters will appear. In addition, many people won’t be there to support our legislative and program activities. They’ll be missing because they, too, came from the small donor ranks, the rapidly declining largest part of our pipeline. The worst pain is yet to come—but there is something we can do to change this future.

On July 1, 2023 Stacey Murrell will become Turnkey For Good Chief Executive Officer. Founder and CEO for 34 years, Katrina VanHuss, will transition to Founder and continue to work inside the business.

Ian Joyce showed up at Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation after a robust and distinguished career in corporate marketing and communications. He brought that mindset to his new work in social good. But he found there was a missing piece—a pipeline.  

A Desire Path, according to Merriam-Webster, is “an unplanned route or path (such as one worn into a grassy surface by repeated foot traffic) that is used by pedestrians in preference to or in the absence of a designated alternative (such as a paved pathway).

Desire paths are everywhere if you know what to look for. It’s what we do with them that speaks volumes to our non-profit culture.

Turnkey recently completed the search for the Chief Global Advancement Officer for Pencils of Promise. Brad Wisdom will lead advancement at the organization under the leadership of Kailee Scales, CEO.

Turnkey recently completed the search for the Chief Development Officer for Pencils of Promise. Julie Baker will assume the role under the leadership of Kailee Scales, CEO.

An authoritarian mindset is most often the reason volunteer systems fail. Here we examine the impact of the authoritarian mindset on leaders and followers.

First, authoritarians have good intent. It is true, however, that they operate using a method that often impacts others both significantly and negatively. It’s who they are, and because authoritarianism is held by many in poor regard, most don’t want to see themselves this way.

Who should pay for a board member’s expenses in serving? Tricky question.

Board Management is a big part of a CEO’s job. Sometimes the details can get in the way of a great relationship. For example, managing the expenses around board members attending board meetings can be tricky. Here is how multiple organizations manage this conversation with sometimes policy, sometimes art, sometimes psychology.

We want to talk about writing. Words. Language. The melodic string of letters and symbols pieced together to form coherent, crescendoing thoughts.

Written words are the transfer point for your passion—for your mission. Words encapsulate all your work, ideas, meetings, ponderings, agonies, and thoughts. They are the filter through which your work must go to get into the world.

Words have power. So we’re saying the quiet part out loud—you need a good copywriter.

When it’s not working, it can sound like this:

“I don’t know how to prioritize my time.”

“INSERTNAME is not a team player.”

“It doesn’t feel like we are moving the needle.”

Building a culture of teams within your organization who are strong decision-makers takes work. And it all starts, you guessed it, with a solid strategic plan.

I use an analogy that no one gets. It is this, said in conversation when I am trying to make sure someone is telling me exactly what they want, “Ok, I have moved the couch a couple of times, and the couch is heavy. Can we agree where the couch should go before I move it again?”

Let me describe the largest couch I have been asked to move: when a board hires a new CEO.