Nonprofit leadership is the topic in focus at a networking event and presentation hosted by NonProfitConnect, The Center for Modern Aging Princeton, and Your Part-Time Controller LLC on Tuesday, October 22.
The event takes place at the Conference Center at Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor, from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Registration is required. Cost: $40; $55 includes book.
The day begins with a networking breakfast followed by a presentation by Joan Garry on “The Power, Responsibility, and Joy of Nonprofit Leadership.” Following her talk, Garry also signs copies of her book, “Guide to Nonprofit Leadership: Because the World is Counting on You.”
An alumna of Fordham University, Garry began her career as part of the management team that launched MTV and later as an executive at Showtime Networks. In 1997 she moved to the nonprofit sector as the executive director of the LGBTQ rights organization GLAAD. She also co-chaired the LGBTQ Finance Committee for the Obama 2008 campaign.
The New Jersey resident is the founder of the Nonprofit Leadership Lab, an online resource offering content and community to board and staff leaders of small nonprofits, and is the principal of Joan Garry Consulting, offering executive coaching and strategic advising.
Below is an excerpt from Garry’s book, from a chapter on crisis management titled “When It Hits the Fan”:
This is one of those chapters you might feel compelled to skip. I, on the other hand, wouldn’t consider writing a book on nonprofit leadership without addressing it head-on. In fact, I was stunned to see how many books on leadership don’t tackle crisis management head-on. When I suggest to nonprofit leaders that they prepare for a crisis, they tell me, “I have enough trouble managing the challenges of the small and medium variety” or “If we focus on what we do well, we can avoid the big, bad crises.”
Neither is this a topic that readers raise with me; thus, you will not see a Dear Joan included in this chapter. No one ever asks me how to manage a crisis before it happens. But I am regularly besieged by emails about big, hot messes and how organizations can dig out of them. And, as I read the emails, I know the organizations are often making things worse because they didn’t have a plan.
You see, nonprofit leaders are by disposition an optimistic lot. They believe that with time, energy, smarts, strategy, and sheer will, they can improve society in ways large and small through their organizations. It’s one of the things I love about the people I work with. So fierce. So determined. So clear that “If not them, then who?” And “If not now, then when?” I spend my days with folks like this, and this attitude leads me to work harder for them.
So, advocating that these nonprofit leaders take the time to consider the worst possible thing that could happen to their organization, their sector, or their client? This kind of request can fall on deaf ears. These fiercely determined, optimistic change agents don’t want to go there.
But go there you must, for two reasons: first, leaders are expected to take the reins in times of crisis. The great leader gives their community a sense of comfort that the crisis will be handled well, that folks will be cared for, and that everyone is working together. Now, the second reason: leaders are wrong when they say that if they focus on doing good work, they can avert crisis. It would be lovely if this were true, but it simply isn’t.
Learn more about Garry and her book at her website.
