Chantal Sheehan | Nonprofit Hub Blog

How to Survive Today and Thrive Tomorrow

Chantal Sheehan — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 15:00:14 +0000

Chantal Sheehan is a speaker at Cause Camp 2020

Oh, 2020. It started off strong, but by March, our world had been turned upside down by the ‘Rona. While we’re all learning how to live, work and play (at home, all together, all the time, aah!!) those of us in the nonprofit sector may soon be struggling to survive. So how can nonprofits set themselves up to thrive, not just survive, 2020 and beyond?

Disruption: your new bff

A disruptive, innovative approach to your nonprofit’s operations is key. Thankfully, the theme of Cause Camp 2020 is disruption. (I wonder if Randy has a crystal ball up there somewhere in Nebraska?!) In order to apply disruptive ideas to any situation, we must first understand what the term truly means.

According to Wikipedia, “A disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network.” Some good examples of disruptive innovations are streaming video (thanks, Netflix!) and downloadable digital music (through platforms like Amazon or iTunes). Streaming video replaced video rental services and downloadable music replaced the CD market. Try to describe the concept of Blockbuster and late fees on a rental (remember running to return videos before the store closed??) to a Gen Z-er and you’ll see just how quickly their eyes glaze over – a sign that disruptive innovation results in swift and permanent change.

How to spot a disruptive idea

What are some hallmarks of disruptive ideas? They often:

Shatter or break stereotypes or archetypes
Appeal to a new market or target audience
Create a new market
Are more cost-effective to produce or deliver
Have lower financial barriers to entry for the client or customer

If we were to apply these attributes to the nonprofit sector, one great example of a nonprofit disruption is in the arts, specifically opera. The Metropolitan Opera in New York City, AKA the Met, has long been hailed as one of the most prestigious opera companies in the world. If you wanted to see the Met perform, your only option was to travel to New York City and pay a pretty penny for a ticket.

But that all changed in 2006 when their new general manager put forth the idea to stream to audiences at movie theaters around the country. It was a revelation. People around the US could go to a local movie theater and buy a ticket to a Met show for $5-10, creating a new market for not only the Met, but for opera companies everywhere who might wish to do the same. Suddenly, something available to only elites was accessible to all of us.

The perfect time for action

Disruption and innovation are about creativity, thinking outside the box, and ultimately, taking risks. Our culture is full of clichés to help us feel better about taking risks…

“It’s a leap of faith.”
“No risk, no reward.”
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

In this case, I tend to think the clichés are rooted in some truth. In order for us to, not just survive, but thrive in difficult times, we must push ourselves to do things we never thought we would or could do. As nonprofit leaders, you must push your teams to do the same in order to ensure mission survival.

COVID-19, a global pandemic. An election year. A global and marked increase in climate change-related catastrophe. A census year. A global economic downturn. A decrease in private philanthropy.

Don’t throw your computer out the window but I have to say it and hope you’ll agree: These are unprecedented times.

We cannot face crazy times we’ve never faced before with the same old reactions and solutions that we’ve always used.

It’s time to innovate, friends. It’s time to consider new and unusual ideas and actions that will help us move forward as a community. In our session at Cause Camp, we’ll use real-world examples of disruption and innovation, along with the latest nonprofit trends, to talk through specific strategies you can employ to ensure your mission thrives in 2020 and beyond. See you there!

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Chantal Sheehan : Nonprofiteer Turned Nonprofit Numbers Nerd

Chantal Sheehan — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 17:30:40 +0000

Last year at Cause Camp, I laughed when speaker and fellow nonprofiteer Rachel Muir called herself a “recovering nonprofit executive director.” I laughed because that describes me to a tee.

My path to #nonprofitlife was winding at best. My parents instilled in me a strong work ethic and a servant leader mindset from a young age. No matter what job I had or role I played, I constantly looked for ways to make things better. In my late 20s, after working for small and large companies and the government, I longed for a career with real purpose ― a career that would make a difference. So, I gave the nonprofit sector a shot and served as a nonprofit executive for two different organizations from 2009 to 2013.

The Great Recession was technically coming to an end when I got my first nonprofit gig, but as many of you remember the effects of that economic downturn reverberated in the nonprofit world for several years afterward. As a newbie to the sector, I was (naively) surprised at the persistent financial pressure our organizations were under.

The constant grind of cash flow concerns, a board with a scarcity mindset and very real fundraising challenges due to internal and external circumstances quickly wore me down. Networking and commiserating with colleagues and friends in the nonprofit space revealed that I was not alone. We were all on pins and needles, and most of us were constantly stressed about finance.

Foundations and institutional funders were talking about sustainability and capacity building, but what we really needed was operating funds. Overhead dread set in with each grant or ask. It was all just too much for me. In 2013, I retreated to the private sector to save my sanity (and my health) with holes in my heart and a heavy soul.

For the next two years, I continued to reflect on my nonprofit experience and talk with colleagues still in the sector. Sometime in 2015, it occurred to me that if nonprofit finance was more strategically approached, and if boards and staff alike were more educated and open about money, the space could be radically different. Sustainability, then, would not just be a word we toss out to make a funder happy – it would be a real possibility. Stewardship of every dollar, of every gift, would be a team sport for board and staff, reducing or even eliminating unhealthy power dynamics.

I was so excited by this idea that I was compelled to do the one thing I swore I would never do: start my own company. Blue Fox was born in 2015 with a singular mission ― to disrupt the traditional accounting model through technology, innovation and a radically client-centered approach to finance. I put a stake in the ground to only serve nonprofits and social enterprises, and we developed services that were uniquely tailored to those two types of organizations.

We’re not your average accountants. We’re strategic partners, we’re numbers nerds who care about our clients’ missions, and we’re the team looking at the financial big picture with an eye towards sustainability and true stewardship. And we’re actually fun to be around ― imagine that!

After four years of serving nonprofits all over the country, it’s my vision for 2020 and beyond that Blue Fox lead the sector to revolutionize its approach to finance. Our clients excepted, nonprofit leaders spend 90% of their time chasing funding, and 10% of their time analyzing how they leverage those hard-fought dollars ― if that! If we were for-profit companies operating this way, we’d be out of business in a matter of months.

We must shift our habits and mindsets. Financial stability and sustainability depend on it. I look forward to talking with you all at Cause Camp 2020 about your fiscal experiences as nonprofit leaders and managers, and having some fun (yes, FUN!) together as we talk about all the money things ― including how to change your organization’s approach to finance from reactive to proactive and how to get your board on board.

Get your tickets today! Early bird pricing available now, register HERE.

*Early Bird pricing available until January 31, 2020.

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