Our Voice
We think a lot. This is our space to share what's on the top of our mind. We hope we don't bore you.
One evening, we were dreaming up big ideas for the future... ideas that energized us, excited us, that were challenging to us, and that we hoped one day would be possible. We talked about a community space... a place where people could go to work. To innovate. To be present. To retreat. And to connect. With others, but just as importantly, with themselves.
Rapid City Police Department Lt. John Olson has seen what idle hands can do. That is why the 20-year veteran can attest to the importance of The Club for Boys and applauds the announcement of a grant that will bolster the organization’s Older Boy Program—keeping kids off the street while promoting positive life choices.
Over the last week I was lucky to speak with several of the grant recipients from The Frontier Fund. The projects range from bicyclist safety and young adult alcohol education to engaging youth in mural projects and book clubs.
One story my mind keeps turning to...
On Saturday, Dima and I revved up the Mini Cooper and ventured out of Boston to North Reading, Massachusetts, to attend an afternoon celebration of "everyone who is near and dear to us." There was tons of food, a pool for kids to swim in... even big tents strung with little twinkling lights.
And then there was the small box collecting money, tucked away in the corner.
This Numad is on the road today--I'm off to New York City bundled up in a sweatshirt on this hot post-Labor Day Weekend day (see previous post) for opening night of The Legend of Georgia McBride at MCC Theater. Should be a fun evening celebrating the start of MCC's 2015/16 season with friends and colleagues.
We are gearing up for MCC Theater's big Miscast gala, which they hold every spring in New York City at the Hammerstein Ballroom, just down the street from the Empire State Building. The annual event brings out some of Broadway and TV's favorite celebrities to perform songs from roles which they would never be cast.
Happy Labor Day, folks.
It is Monday morning on this beautiful Labor Day Weekend in Boston (seriously, we had amazing weather). The Numad offices are technically closed today, but I've been up since 4:30am (couldn't sleep, and I had to drive our friends Karen and Matt to the airport at 6am... they're great people from Iowa who flew to Boston to stay with us for the long weekend).
I was delighted to see our friend and client Lori Pourier of First Peoples Fund quoted in this great piece on the Art of Change Ford Foundation Project website this weekend.
One of the things that I really love about our work at The Numad Group is that we get to tell some awesome stories, like this one that was recently placed in the Rapid City Journal this past weekend about an important reading program at the Rapid City Club for Boys that is making a true difference in the lives of the kids that attend the summer program.
As the year two-thousand and thirteen came to a close, The Numad Group took time to reflect on the past year. The result was this piece, written as a reflection of the many wonderful experiences and opportunities we took part in, along with you - the individuals that influence and inspire us every day.
James Surowiecki’s article “Face Time” (The New Yorker) about Yahoo’s decision to end its then-revolutionary practice of allowing employees to telecommute virtually has been mentioned frequently in the media over the last weeks, and indeed among our circles here at The Numad Group, where even our company name is based on the notion of “the new nomad” (as The Economist referred to virtual telecommuters like us). As happens frequently when I read articles regarding business management decisions, when I read this article my mind immediately jumped to how these decisions relate to (or not) nonprofit management decisions.
When I recently read James Surowiecki's "The Turnaround Trap" (The New Yorker) about the work of J.C. Penney's C.E.O., Ron Johnson, in trying to turnaround the then fading company, I was not planning on writing this entry. However, as I scanned through the article, I began to recognize that Surowiecki's commentary about what makes or breaks a new strategy for a business holds true for nonprofit organizations as well.
Regardless of whether in our professional organizations or in our personal lives, time and time again we all find ourselves asking how to best make ends meet. When it comes to your nonprofit organization, making ends meet relies on getting your audience to engage beyond simply recognizing that you are working toward a good cause. In most cases we all know that you have a good cause, and if you were to ask a stranger on the street they would probably agree. The question we all struggle with is how to get your audience to go beyond saying you have a good cause to actually donating towards that cause. A very legitimate answer to that age-old question, I believe, is crowdfunding.
This morning I'm writing this blog post—our first for The Numad Group and admittedly, my first personally ever—from a restaurant in Davenport, Iowa. I'll be having breakfast in just a bit with an alum from my alma mater who is speaking at the same leadership conference I will be talking at this Saturday.
