ARTICULATED

I took a break from the blog for a whole month. It wasn’t by design, necessarily. But this past fall brought Kinkennon Communications three big new clients and big new projects, plus a host of volunteer obligations. Sometimes one has no choice but to put one’s head down and work.

And work I have. I’ve even “wErQed,” as the crazy kids say:

• On behalf of my great partners at The Herald Group, we drew every local TV station in Austin, TX, to the unveil event for a new eco-commerce center and airport in Central Texas. (See one of those local TV stories here.)

•  Literally last night for the Retail Industry Leaders Association on the topic of forthcoming regulations on credit- and debit-care swipe fees, we secured a one-hour segment on the nationally syndicated Jim Bohannon Show that ended up pushing on the fly to two hours. The producer said afterwards that in that time slot, the phones never light up like they did last night.  (You can listen to part of that here.)  This is with my regular business partner and drinking buddy Scott Warner of Warner Strategies on behalf of Public Strategies Washington.

• For my new client the Hope Street Group, Warner and I just convinced Reuters to do an exclusive feature story on the release of a big report this Friday calling for a national strategy to reinvent primary care, the health care that people receive on first contact with the medical system. I absolutely love this project.

• With my oftentimes boss / leader / mentor / friend Mike McCurry at Public Strategies Washington (where I serve as something of a regular), I’ve developed and presented a multiyear campaign plan to a category of some of America’s most beloved institutions for proactively telling their great story.

• I’ve just taken on a short-term project to help a major industry group in Washington whip up a plan for building relationships within the LGBT community.

• I’m having a phone conversation today about a potential project that would be one of the coolest things I’ve taken on in years.

And I’ve been on fire with my volunteer obligations, including finding some success in uncovering substantial corporate sponsorships for the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund & Leadership Institute.  This volunteer fundraising stuff is a big learning experience.

All that said, I intend to get back to regular posts to the blog. Onward.

A year and a half ago, I joined the board of a national nonprofit, the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute, the 501(c)3 that shares staff with the better-known Victory Fund. Its purpose is to increase the number of LGBT people in public office. It’s a mission I believe in, and the organization is very good at what it does.

But, candidly, I joined the board as part of a long-term business-development strategy for Kinkennon Communications (KC). I am lucky to be part of a vast network of public affairs pros in Washington, DC. That network of former clients, coworkers, and close friends keeps KC pretty busy. But there’s always room for more.

Because I hate standard-issue, tissue paper-thin networking events, it occurred to me that board-level volunteerism in the nonprofit world might be a smart path. By joining nonprofit boards, I could put myself in rooms with other smart and connected people who I don’t already know.   I was so excited about my epiphany that I blogged about it. There would be ample opportunity to demonstrate that I’m a smart guy who gets stuff done.

I wouldn’t join just any nonprofit board, of course. I’m a passionate supporter of my local no-kill animal shelter, for instance. But I never imagined that volunteerism at the shelter (while it would be gratifying) is where I would uncover high-value new professional relationships. I needed to join at least one high-profile board in which I could be among well-placed professionals, preferably ones who understand public relations and communications and who operate in the same orbits as people who hire consultants like me.

I’m now nearly two years into service on this board … along with another nonprofit board that I joined around the same time. I’m meeting all sorts of smart, connected, passionate people. I’m learning a ton about how nonprofits work. I’m just completing the leadership of a strategic planning task force, which has made me smarter. But I’ve yet to find evidence that my volunteerism is opening doors that could lead to new work for KC. The connection has got to be there, right? My close professional counselors certainly say so. But it’s not obvious.

Earlier this week I had coffee with a friend who’s an executive at a high-profile charitable foundation. He has run nonprofits as executive director, and served them as board chair. On a lark, I bounced my conundrum off of him. He startled me by presenting the first-ever entirely unqualified disagreement with my core premise. “I don’t think volunteerism leads to business opportunities at all,” he said, flatly. “Where did you get that idea? I’ve just never seen it happen.”

Wow. I’m not sure I buy what he’s saying. I feel like I have seen it happen, somewhere somehow. But his point of view has gotten me thinking that I should once again assess how I’m spending my volunteer time, some of my rationales, and what I hope to get out of it.

Photo courtesy of Aidan Jones via a Flickr Creative Commons license.

Last year I joined the board of directors of a national nonprofit organization that has a $35,000/year “give or get” for its board members. That means that I am committed to raising or producing $35K in gifts to the organization annually.

Taking on an obligation like that becomes a BIG item on the annual to-do list. I’m not one to ask my friends and family for money for my causes. And to reach that high bar by hitting up my drinking buddies for $100 each, I’d have to collect 350 checks annually. That’s nearly one a day. But I already have a job.

By contrast, I’m pretty comfortable making my case to foundations and corporations with whom there are some natural synergies. That’s probably the P.R. guy in me. Going that route is still a time-consuming piece of volunteer work, but pursuing money in $10K or $30K increments gets one to $35K much faster.

This year, I’ve already raised $25K. (Thank you, friends who were involved — you know who you are.)  I’m leading a contingent to Houston this afternoon to make a great big ask of a Fortune 500 company. I should receive word in August about a $15K request being considered by a Colorado-based charitable foundation. This flurry of activity could produce zilch. Nonetheless I’m feeling pretty good at this moment.

Of the money I’m raising, nearly 90% of it goes to program. And I believe it’s very good and important program. But I’ve lately discovered a more selfish motivation for spending my time this way. My line of work is P.R., and I have no desire to change that. But I figure, if I really sharpen my fundraising skills, I’ll always be able to find a paying gig.

(Photo courtesy of Nathan Gibbs via a Flickr Creative Commons license.)

Photo courtesy Jeff Wolfsberg http://bit.ly/b6WxXE

I’m on the board of directors of a national nonprofit organization doing some game-changing, reasonably high-profile work in its sector. Right now, the organization is developing its strategic plan for the next five years. It’s a board exercise. The staff is engaged, but the board drives the process, conducts the meetings, and writes the plan.

Somehow I ended up chairing the strategic-planning task force, a group loaded with some fairly heavy-hitter types all over the country … and me. We’re about halfway through the process, and I can say I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. Already, the learnings are rich. At once I have been intimidated, surprised, invigorated, challenged, overextended, and frustrated.

This morning, as I packed my bag to jet off to Chicago for another meeting of the task force, I reflected on it all. I asked myself: if a friend were about to take on a role like I’m in now for an organization he or she cared about very much about, what might I suggest being prepared for?

Even at this early juncture, I’d say these five things. I may not be doing all of them well.  But I’m pretty sure they’re all critical components.

1. Set aside more time than you think it’ll require. Estimate what you believe will be the time requirement. Then double it. If you want to do the job right, you’ll spend hours emailing and phone calling and traveling and consensus building. If this were a client, they’d be paying me lots of money. But that’s why we call it volunteerism.

2. Bring your patience. I’m lucky the task force I serve on is free of ego and agenda. But smart people have gotten where they are for a reason. They are not shrinking violets. Even the most agreeable will call things like they see them and not hesitate to dissent. You’ll rethink, reexamine, and revisit like it’s your job. Patience is indeed a virtue.

3. Develop a thorough process, then deviate from it. A brilliant MBA type on the task force developed a brilliant MBA-type process for us. I loved it. Now I’m off of it, at least partially. At the outset, the task force needed to see that its work would be organized and that the effort would be respectful of peoples’ time. But it’s a nonprofit, and folks want the freedom to be creative. So that’s where we’re headed.

4. Spread ownership, even when it’s not convenient. No plan – no strategic plan, marketing plan, campaign plan, or whatever – is worth a thing unless it’s the product of a lot of people. The buy-in, the “ownership,” is what will ensure the plan will actually be followed through upon so that what is envisioned might actually be achieved. Sometimes it’s just not convenient to make those two extra phone calls to be sure ownership remains spread. But almost nothing is more important.

5. Relentlessly engage the staff so they feel nothing but enthusiasm. Closely related to #4 above, the board may be responsible for developing the plan, but the executive director and staff will have to live it every day. If they don’t have a BIG say in organizational strategy, it’ll be much harder for them to operationalize that plan with any sort of enthusiasm. As a board member, I’ve got the advantage of outside perspective. But as staffers, they simply know more than I do. For the plan to situate the organization to move mountains, it needs to be theirs.

I’ve been doing something very interesting of late, something that may ultimately reveal new opportunities for both Kinkennon Communications and me personally.

Earlier this year, I joined the board of directors of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute. Based in Washington, DC, the nonpartisan organization teaches qualified, talented, openly gay people around the country how to run for public office and how to keep constituents happy once they get there.

I believe in this mission because I think it’s a smart, sane path to social equality. So in my spare time, I’ve found a way to serve. I’ve been out trying to spread word about it among respected community and business leaders in Colorado, even as a relative newcomer to the state.

As a result, I’ve come to get to know some very interesting, accomplished people who are heavily inclined toward philanthropy — not solely on social equality for gay people, but on a wide array of worthwhile charitable causes. It’s a network that has come to fascinate me because these people seem to me to be living “purposefully.” Their common thread is formidable intellect combined with notable generosity with their time, brainpower and money.

This exercise is providing me a good degree of intellectual stimulation. I’m hoping it helps me refine my ideas about my own volunteer and philanthropic life … and the role that service and responsibility will play in my future and the future of my business.

But for today, because I’m engaged in board-level conversations with seasoned people, the kinds of folks I wouldn’t necessarily access wearing a “PR guy” sales hat, I’m hoping I reveal that Kinkennon Communications is smart enough to be worth a hire, should an appropriate opportunity ever arise from out of these new relationships.

Who else, by chance, is at the point where they are really discovering the meaning of “service” and seeing it as a pathway to myriad new opportunity?

This little op-ed I wrote appears in the current issue of OutFront Colorado. It’s about one of my latest volunteerism ventures, membership on the board of directors of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute, which shares staff with the well-known Victory Fund. The piece is my thoughts on investing in bright young leaders who happen to be openly gay and who may some day aspire to hold public office. They can be Democrat, Republican, or anywhere in between. I’m pretty passionate about this work.

I’m one of two new members of the board of directors of the fantastic Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute. When joining the board, new members make a commitment to raise a significant amount of money. Privately, I guessed my fellow newbie and I would enjoy a bit of a “honeymoon” period before being expected to haul in real dollars. My co-newbie is a nice, quiet lady. Candidly, I didn’t expect her to drum up a $100,000 commitment in only our second month on the job. I guess I’d better get busy.