Effective Out Of Office Messages

Friday, December 02, 2011

By Ashley Pero, Program Manager

As the holidays approach so does (hopefully!) your time out of the office. It is important not to forget to set your out of office email and voicemail messages. You can easily set a task reminder for the day of your departure to pop up in Outlook. And, if you do forget it is worth a trip back to the office (or a quick remote in) to get it set. An effective out of office message can save you time when you get back to the office and also lets people know why they haven’t heard back from you. These people can be coworkers, donors, clients, volunteers or that all important potential donor – you don’t want to leave them thinking you are unresponsive or don’t care.

You can craft an effective out of office message by answering a few simple questions.
• When will you be out of the office and what day will you return?
• Will the office be closed during any of the time your away?
• How can you be contacted (if at all)?
• Who can they contact while you’re away?

An email out of office example: 
    Hello. 

    I will be out of the office with no access to email until Tuesday, January 3. I will respond to all emails upon my return.

    If you require immediate assistance please call our office, (888) 888-8888, and someone will be happy to assist you.

    The office will be closed December 23, 26, 30 and January 2.

    Thank you.

Your voicemail out of office can be similar, but try and keep it short with just the important information.

• You could also have limited access to email/voicemail or available only by cell phone – if that is the case let them know how long they should expect a response to take.

• If there is a particular person they should ask for in your office list that person’s name, email and phone number. If there are certain people for certain issues list them all (being mindful while recording your voicemail out of office).

And one last thing, if you are using Outlook make sure to set both the internal and external message (both tabs). The same message can work, but you customize both depending on your office size and office requirements.

Enjoy any and all of the holidays that you celebrate!

An Ode to the Nonprofit Professional

Friday, September 23, 2011

Submitted by Sumac Research at Sumac.com

You are a nonprofit professional. I'm sure you don't pat yourself on the back everyday for the good you do, but you're pretty special. You have dedicated your life to giving back; to helping the world's disadvantaged, filling the gaps in social services, nurturing arts and culture, and saving the environment. You resisted pressure from your parents to become a lawyer or an accountant in order to serve more altruistic ends, often with little pay, long hours, and little recognition. This is an ode to you - the nonprofit professional. Borrowing from some of the greats, we hope to inspire you and remind you why what you do is so wonderful.

"What we do may only be a drop in the ocean, but the ocean wouldn't be the same without it," Mother Teresa

"It takes a noble person to plant a seed and grow a tree that will one day provide shade to those whom one may never meet." Dr. D. Elton Trueblood

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." Winston Churchill

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

" Be the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi

"Remember, the final measure of your life won't be how well you live, but how others live because of you." Bill Gates

It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday, and lose sight of the bigger picture: the good that you have done and the impact that it has on the world, but you should step back every once in a while to see how great it is. A research study conducted by Michigan State University and published in the European Journal of Social Sciences in 2010 examined a simple act of altruism - the act of opening a door for someone - and the effect it had. The research found that when a door was held open for someone, that person was more likely to hold the door open for the next person. So, atruism begets altruism.

If the simple act of holding a door open can inspire others in such a way, you can imagine the wave of good that your service has had on the world. So, whenever you get frustrated because you haven't quite met your goals, or your heart feels heavy thinking about those still in need, remember what you have done, and rest assured knowing that the good you do stretches far beyond what you can possibly see.

Submitted by Sumac.com.

Measuring What We Can Control

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

by Grace Armstrong, CEO, Nonprofit Leadership Center of Tampa Bay

There are very few people I know who get excited about program evaluation. So many of us think of outcomes as something we have to consider when we are writing a grant and we worry about how we can track and prove to a funder that we have met our goals.

I think the world is changing. I know I have changed. I now get excited about having outcomes for our organization, about tracking them, and about talking about our results. The world is changing because more funders and investors are interested in impact. They want to invest their money in organizations that are making a difference and can prove it. There are many new writings about high performing organizations, impact, and how to measure impact.

For me the book that made the most difference in my attitude about outcomes and impact is Mark Friedman’s Trying Hard is Not Good Enough. What I learned from reading this book is that we should only be measuring what we control. One organization cannot reduce poverty in the United States; yet, we often feel that we are supposed to achieve these grand results because our mission statement says that is our goal. Each organization, regardless of its mission, has a piece of the process that leads to the grand outcome. So, what is your piece? What services do you provide over which you have control and which you can measure?

For example, at our organization, the Nonprofit Leadership Center of Tampa Bay, we teach board members and staff members of other nonprofits the skills to run an effective nonprofit business. We can teach skills and provide best practice education. We can provide the best teacher, with the most relevant information delivered in an engaging and interactive manner. We, however, cannot control what each nonprofit does with the information they receive once they leave our training center. We also cannot follow each nonprofit for months. Therefore, we measure each student’s perception of the quality of each program, whether they increased their skill or knowledge, and whether they perceived value for the time and money invested among other things. We use the student’s rating because that is what we have available. They are the only ones who can tell us whether knowledge and skill increased as a result of our work.

We are then able to use this data from every single student about every single training program and draw some conclusions that our work contributes to building a strong nonprofit sector.

It is very liberating to have clarity on what can be controlled and measured and to keep the proper perspective about the impact your work has on the overall problem you are trying to improve or change. With clarity it is easy to demonstrate to donors and funders that you are in control of your work and of your outcomes. It is easy to know where you need to improve and to show where you are doing well if you are measuring those outcomes over which you have control.

The most important thing is to determine clearly what it is that you control and how best to measure those things. The next most important thing is to use the data you obtain to improve your work and to make a great case for support.