Nonprofits are rediscovering the power of the vote.

So many issues, so little time! Between the screaming headlines, the social media blitzes and the mountains of position papers, developing an effective advocacy strategy for your nonprofit—much less finding the time to implement it, can seem like an impossible task.

At the federal level alone, current issues surrounding charitable giving, unrelated business income (UBIT), the 2020 Census, the Johnson Amendment and more are all important and worthy of attention. Add state and local issues to the list and it grows exponentially. With so many issues competing for our time and attention, how can nonprofits maximize our impact and effectiveness in the public policy arena? One place to start is by fully leveraging the most powerful advocacy tool we have – the vote.

Nonprofits today employ approximately 13.5 million people and rely on the services of more than 61 million volunteers. Perhaps most importantly, nonprofits provide services to millions of people who tend to be under-represented in the ranks of American voters. Many nonprofits are waking up to the notion that together these groups can be an incredibly powerful influence on public policy, and they are creating initiatives to leverage that fact.

While as nonprofits we are required to be nonpartisan (at least for now – read more about efforts to eliminate nonprofit nonpartisanship) – we must not be nonparticipants. Here are some things we can do:

1. Start in-house – you have a ready-made voting bloc in your employees.
   • Are they all registered to vote and have you made sure they know the deadline to register before the next election?*
   • Do they know where their polling place is and how to vote early and/or absentee?
   • Does your organization have a policy of giving time off to vote?Take advantage of already existing internal communications channels to share information and encourage every employee to vote. Make sure they are aware of the issues of importance to your organization. You can’t and shouldn’t tell them how to vote, but you can help them be informed voters and make sure they get to the polls. Don’t forget your board members! They are key influencers – encourage them to share their own insights about the importance of voting.

2. Engage your volunteers – volunteers are passionate about your organization’s mission. Make sure they know that their vote, and their efforts to encourage others to vote, is another important way they can help.

3. Reach out to clients and the community – many nonprofits serve a client base that may include a large proportion of people eligible to vote but who do not. Consider hosting a voter registration event and asking those who are already registered to sign a “Pledge to Vote”. Help them understand that their vote can be the most effective tool they have to advance their own interests.

4. Make sure your representatives know what you are doing – let them know you are encouraging their constituents to be informed, engaged voters.

For more information and tools to start a voter engagement initiative in your organization, check out NonprofitVote.org – and get started now to leverage your most powerful advocacy tool!

*Deadlines for in-person Voter Registration for the November 6, 2018 Elections are:

Maryland: Tuesday, Oct. 16
Virginia: Monday, Oct. 15
District of Columbia: Same day registration available

More info at: https://www.voterparticipation.org/2018-election-dates/

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Miriam’s Kitchen shares how they integrated diversity and inclusion into hiring practices and key lessons they learned along the way.

Committed to ending chronic homelessness in Washington, DC and interrupting the unjust systems that disproportionately funnel people of color into homelessness, Miriam’s Kitchen has prioritized efforts to increase diversity and inclusion across the organization to better reflect the diversity of their guests (80% people of color; 51% African-American).

So far this year, they’ve had six job opportunities where they turned intention into practice. Mei Powers explains how they successfully filled those positions with six highly-qualified individuals—four of whom happen to be people of color—and shares helpful tips and resources.

Submitted by Mei Powers, Chief Development Officer, Miriam’s Kitchen

I recently sat with our Director of Operations, Jessica Walker, to compile a few lessons that we learned [in integrating diversity and inclusion into our hiring approach]. Each hiring process was unique as departments tried new things to attract skilled, diverse candidates.

1. What you include (or don’t) in the job posting matters.

   For many job postings, including a bachelor’s degree is an automatic requirement. There are certain positions (like a licensed social worker) where a degree or certification is required. But for others, like our two jobs in fundraising, we intentionally took out the requirement of a bachelor’s degree. Instead we emphasized prior experience in fundraising, volunteer coordination, or events management. I have seen highly-skilled candidates with professional experience get screened out of jobs because they did not have a bachelor’s degree. Today, they are senior executives in the corporate and non-profit world.

   Moving forward, we have also decided to consistently include salary ranges. As someone who works in fundraising, it is just good practice to be transparent about numbers. Also, when you don’t post salary ranges you potentially discriminate against women and people of color. Check out Vu’s post from Nonprofit AF: “When you don’t disclose salary range on a job posting, a unicorn loses its wings.”

2. Think broadly about diversity and reach beyond your existing networks.
   

   Diversity speaks to the whole person and encompasses a broad range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives including but not limited to race, ethnicity, culture, socio-economic status, age, family situation, physical abilities and disabilities, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and housing status. With that in mind, we posted beyond the usual networks in places such as Street Sense and tapped into personal affiliations (such as Howard University alumni on staff reaching out to Howard MSW grads).

   We also enabled people to apply in person in case they had limited access to electronic communications. However, we were surprised by some of the fees to post jobs in professional associations of color. To continue to improve our process, we are creating a list of job posting platforms and the associated fees so that we can factor that into our budgets and plans.
   

3. Addressing diversity and inclusion takes time and is worth the investment.
   

   Our Director of Operations redacted cover letters and resumes—removing personal name, location, professional associations, and name of institutions—by hand. Two members of our Racial Equity Working Group reviewed and ranked the applications for key skills that we were looking for in the development positions—prior experience in fundraising, volunteer coordination, events management, and/or graphic design (yes, we were looking for a unicorn). It took more than 3 hours to look over 50 resumes. To save yourself some time, check out this list of “Top 10 Diversity Recruiting Tools for 2018,” which includes a tool to redact resumes that we are further researching.
   

4. Ask candidates about how they have navigated issues of identity, power, and privilege.
   

   After concluding the interviews, we were proud to have asked structured questions focused on skills and our core values such as “guests are the center of everything we do.” However, we wished we had also interwoven questions specifically about racial equity. The Management Center has a great post about this: “3 Ways to Test Whether Your Potential Hire ‘Gets It.’” We plan to review and update the interview questions in our hiring managers’ guidebook based on the suggestions from The Management Center.
   

5. Check your biases.

   To reduce our own biases, the development team asked candidates standardized, skills-focused questions and had candidates complete sample work-related tasks (such as writing a thank you letter and delivering a pitch to a donor). When it was time to decide who would get the job offer, the development team also sat with three members of our Racial Equity Working Group (which includes members of the development team) and discussed the skills and areas of concern for our top candidates.

   Together we asked ourselves thoughtful and prodding questions: “What do you mean it would be easier to hire Candidate A? What do you mean when you say Candidate B is more warm and personable?” From this exercise, we agreed that the ability to connect with supporters is critical to our job, and we need a better approach to assess likeability.

Do you have tips or lessons learned in increasing diversity and inclusion? Please share them with us. Forward to Ellen Pochekailo.

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Board members and staff from our 2018 award winning organizations celebrated with our selection committee, presenting sponsor and other nonprofit members at a special event on Thursday, July 26.

This is the ninth year Kilpatrick, Townsend & Stockton, LLP has opened their beautiful conference room space to the Center, with its amazing rooftop views providing a delightful backdrop for our annual Board Leadership Award event. We thank them for their hospitality.

After mixing and mingling over refreshments, honorable mentions, Compass and Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities, and winners, Easterseals (left photo) and Global Impact (bottom photo), were recognized and presented with awards.

Thanks to our presenting sponsor Cohn Reznick and our entire selection committee, this year’s Board Leadership Award was another success, continuing a tradition of recognizing leaders in our region.

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Congratulations to the 2018 Board Leadership Award winners

… and to our Honorable Mentions: Compass and Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities

Members of these winning organizations will participate in two live webinars to share best practices revealed in this year’s competition.

Join the discussion!

Open to everyone, there’s no charge for the Board Leadership Award Webinars, but registration is required.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – Register

August 22 @ 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
This first webinar will focus on the importance of diversity and how it guides board development.

Developing an Engaged Board – Register

September 25 @ 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
The second webinar will focus on how to create the perfect pipeline: recruit, onboard, engage and evaluate board members.

You’re also welcome to participate on site. To attend in person (at the Center), please email Sean Sweeney.

Special thanks to our selection committee,  ASAE, BoardSource and our presenting sponsor:

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Regina Hopkins has been an invaluable, long standing resource to the Center, serving as a member of the board, volunteer faculty member, leader of the Board Boot Camps, AIM Award selection committee member and the Center’s personal guru to all nonprofit law questions. After a long, successful career, including the last 12 years with DC Bar, Regina has officially retired. She is headed to the Cape with the love of her life.

We will miss her expertise and leadership in this sector, but more importantly, her kindness, compassion and how responsive she is to everyone she meets. The Cape will be lucky to have her! We wish her a long and happy retirement.

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On June 4, members of the Center’s staff (Elisha Hardy, Lorraine Fowlkes, Aziza Rush, Sean Sweeney and Glen O’Gilvie) volunteered their time to help make The First Tee National School Program 4^th Annual Champions Challenge a fun success.

The event hosted about 60 children from 11 schools in the District, including fourth, fifth and sixth graders. Volunteers helped set up, distribute t-shirts, hand out lunches and assist at different stations such as putting, chipping, pitching and full swing. The event was held at Langston Golf Course, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The morning started out cloudy but soon turned into a beautiful sunny day, making it a great time for kids and volunteers.

This event is one of many ways The First Tee of Greater Washington, DC introduces children to the sport of golf while also using the opportunity to share life lessons in their nine core values: honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy and judgment.

The Center supports its members with an all staff volunteer day 4 times a year.

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