Optimize Your Nonprofit's Operations with Pipeline Management for Nonprofit

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[Music] well everybody thank you so much for joining us on this monday for another episode of the nonprofit show we're really excited to venture into the conversation of project management today and we would not be having this discussion without the support of our sponsors so we want to thank all of them so much for being with us um as any of you who are regulars to our show know many of these sponsors who have been with us from day one and uh day one was generally defined by me for a two week commitment don't worry we'll be done in two weeks and here we are um 300 episodes plus so we want to say thank you yeah i mean everybody have almost everybody that that could figure out how to dust off that crystal ball we're saying the same thing again i'm julia patrick ceo of the american nonprofit academy well my co-host jaret ransom the nonprofit nerd herself ceo of the raven group is actually on a plane somewhere going somewhere fabulous so we'll talk about that tomorrow she'll rejoin us later in the week um but more importantly we have three guests on today from project management for change harry zulkauer hello he's waving away beth may hello hello and then kendall a lot did i say your name correctly kendall yeah with the silent t it was helpful hello i love it i love it well you guys are really really interesting because um you're like the total top of the food chain when it comes to brain cells and intelligence and we have been able to get you here with us to talk about project management and so beth give us the whole thing what is project management for change we are an all-volunteer organization we bring project managers together with non-profits to help them better execute on their missions so that they can deliver social change okay well that is a pretty heavy lift i mean i'm stunned by that so let's start from the beginning because when i think of project management i think of it almost like um the purview of construction you know and so talk to us about what that actually can mean sure i think um it's uh probable that the reason why you think about construction is because construction is a very concrete pun intended example where you are building something physical right but project management is useful for uh numerous types of projects and they can be uh creating something that's virtual or just creating an effect or a result so to answer the question what is project management first i have to talk about projects and projects are used to create specific outcomes usually those outcomes are tied to an organization's strategic goals and those outcomes can be products services or capabilities that are new or they can be improvements to existing products services or capabilities so we work with non-profits to provide project management support to help them better execute their missions and create social change wow so i gotta ask you this girl you know what i talked about projects and i forgot to talk about project management so and the um punch line is that project management is the means by which we apply limited resources if if resources were unlimited project management would not be as important especially for non-profits project management is the means by which we apply limited resources so that's people technology time and money to achieve that outcome that we want so that's what project management is okay now let me ask you this let's say you're working with um a cultural organization and then next to it that you're working with um let's say an animal shelter and then you're working with maybe a medical foundation are the tenants of project management going to allow you to navigate the processes or do you need to have specialized project managers that are familiar with medical technology cultural institutions shelter services whatever the case may be i i'll i'll give my a short answer and then i'll open it up for harry and kendall uh absolutely the project management tenants apply to each of those cases equally as well and a project manager who also has domain expertise uh that's even better uh carrie kendall would you yeah i was gonna say uh you know on the uh a little bit uh to the cbd program we'll talk about a little bit but um julia very good question i think if you're a project manager it's almost like being a liberal in liberal arts you can you can apply it to just about any field um you know it's it's it's like you said it's the basic tenets that kind of cross over all disciplines and in different areas so uh for myself personally i've i've been in various different um disciplines and so my project management experience carries over to various you know healthcare or education etc right so talk about you know digging a little bit deeper and you you're let's say you're a non-profit you've got this big project coming forward and you i always believe in that line you don't know what you don't know so the stress of that um what does a project management system do to impact that non-profit i mean can you walk us through a little bit more of what that relationship might look like and what the actual tasks could be i mean harry do you want to talk about this or was this going to be something that kendall talked about well i was going to talk about a little bit more generally but i think both harry and beth have said it up very clearly that you know there is a relationship in almost any project so i think like with any professional service there's a general set of tenants uh where people can be effective and helpful and then the more as best said domain knowledge you have the better in many cases depending on the nature of the problem so you can think of it as like counseling services or something right where maybe somebody trained in a field is helpful but then it's for specific types of things more domain knowledge is helpful same thing in things like systems engineering and engineering right there's some general principles and then there's domain knowledge that's helpful the question really gets down to what is the organization in this case a nonprofit needing and what what caused us to start pm for change those of us that had kicked off the non-profit pm for change to support nonprofits was the basic basic underlying deep kind of tenant that we had seen uh in my own excursion through the nonprofit world and association world i had realized that like all organizations as beth had said right you're wrestling with a lack of enough money right because ultimately money is constrained so economics fundamentally operates on is a scarcity deal and the science of scarcity and what we realize though with nonprofits it's not really just money right with from donors or from fees or things it's this whole ability to get what you have with your staff to get it done on time to to be able to focus on the right things and be able to deliver to that end result because the project is delivering something that's like a temporary endeavor which is why it would work for any number of things right whatever you have a start and a finish you could think of that as the beginning of understanding there's a project so what we found was in non-profits not enough money is one thing but it also ends up being not enough time not enough staff alignment not enough skills on the staff for a specific donor request type of program or some part of the mission right so in my mind working with associations and nonprofits there was this thing i called not enoughness you live in a world of scarcity a world of just not enough yeah and what's interesting is project managers for whatever field they're in their lens on the world and they traditionally have kind of happened into project management because they came out of engineering or sciences or management uh in another field right and then they got asked to do a temporary endeavor that had to be done at a certain time right right so what happens is we train in the techniques of managing scarcity it is very specifically how do you get something done on behalf of a stakeholder let's just say an executive you know the organizational powers that have to be done by a certain time right at a certain level of quality and complete what they really wanted within the budget and if any of those things are not happening you got to tell people and that kind of tenant of we got to talk about we have scope schedule and quality we got to be ready to communicate it we've got to make sure that our stakeholders are online and that we stay on top of our budget is what project management is all about so how could you not need it and so that's how we wanted to end to it so we can get into some of the steps but i'm going to tell you one of the first steps that i also ran into one other experience with nonprofits on top of it so all you nonprofits listen out there project managers are not your checklist people so many times i'm like we make big bucks to do this stuff sometimes right and i don't mean being the one who builds any entire large building i mean project management happens in so many layers in so many places but where it's not about making checklist and making sure people check it off that is an outcome of some projects at some parts of tasking but it's actually a strategic issue and it ties to what will we get done here in this organization and executives getting to say if you're an executive a non-profit you're going to love this i need someone to point a finger to and say figure it out and make sure it's delivered in september by january by the time of our next gala by the time of our next annual symposium day or the annual right nonprofit day or whatever you're working towards so i think getting into the steps in is what project managers are able to lead through but it starts with what are we trying to achieve and by when and what resources do i have because we can't miss we can't miss that and that's what we train in okay so i feel badly that i invited you all on this show because i suspect that your email and your phone phones are gonna blow up because beth give him your email oh my god i think it's me i'm like holy cow i need to be talking to you people myself i'm fascinated fascinated fascinated by this um okay wow so we gotta ask then the question about continuous value delivery like what does that mean and how does that factor into this whole concept of project management yeah so you can speak to that yeah thank you very much so this is very exciting so we have a signature event uh that is what we call the day of service which is originally was at on martin luther king's birthday where we got nonprofits together with volunteer pro bono project managers and um the thought was to expand beyond that and to have this relationship to be able to provide services year-round to nonprofits rather than in one day so this is a really really exciting program and what i really want to press upon i guess this group is there are a lot of people who are professional project managers out there that we're hearing who really want to help nonprofits pro bono it's almost like hey free we're offering all this free service and um i think what we're trying to do is get the message out to non-profits that we are out there we're volunteers we're professionals we can help and um so we have engaged um you know several non-profits but there is this energy out there uh where we can basically we have an eight phase uh program starting from doing a needs assessment to a project kickoff to do an implementation delivery all the way up to project closure and what we typically have is a is a short-term project but that short-term project can lead to either other projects or continuation of the first project so i guess what i wanted to impress upon the nonprofit community is that this service is now available we're ready we've got people that are raring to go we've got people that specialize in grant writing and fundraising board development all of this going on um and we're actually having an open house coming up if i may plug that yeah yeah for non-profits coming up on monday april 26th uh we have a a webex that we're going to basically uh discuss in in more depth what the continuous value delivery program and how valuable it can be to a non-profit organization so that's coming up and we'd love to have your group uh be on be on that open house and we can delve more deeply into how they how they can benefit okay so you you said as we call it the f word in the nonprofit sector fundraising so you could actually navigate or find talent that could navigate um more intellectual endeavors more financial endeavors not just physical site specific projects yeah so it's a lot of what we do and i think kendall's mentioned this um is a lot of what we can offer is strategic planning and you know tactical planning and as well as strategic so i think um you know we have a lot to offer as project managers in that regard plus what we do is we have a team which is a little different than other i think other types of programs where we just don't have one project manager we have a team so if there's a subject matter expert that we need to pull in uh with a grant writing or a certain area then we'll pull that person into our team so and let me let me offer clarification in there too i think just to make sure that that we all can can really see at the benefit in this there's the role of project management and how it can help and project managers and how they can help in the nonprofit space which we believe one of the other underlying things was that it's typically a skill that nonprofits don't think to buy or can't afford because in a sense it's mission agnostic right it's getting support in your management space but to get things done right so that's why we're trying to offer it so probably we've covered what is project management what are project managers and why we decided we thought this would be helpful in your market where where beth and uh and harry are talking to now it's like when you ask for a continuous delivery and how we can help that's the role of our non-profit called pm project management pm for change where broadly speaking we're saying we're a clearinghouse we're trying to build the clearinghouse of the supply of project managers who want to help with the nonprofits that are in a position to be helped where there's enough clarification of their need that we can begin to work together so we had the one major event that beth has run wow at least probably four of the seven times has happened including a massively successful virtual event and then harry has taken on the rolling wave of continuing to support some nonprofits past a day of scoping or strategic planning and that's the continuous value aspects of it right and i think we're in the sense our nonprofit is a clearinghouse we're kind of preaching the word of project management but we're also trying to make sure that there's something that getting to your point about actual use and i think that's where where beth is really trying to lean in with harry now about the different ways we can actually get into the actual effective use of project management as it's applied to the project managers and then i think you can also bet has a lot of experience with observing a question you had asked earlier so how do how do project managers feel about this i mean they're being lined up to do this so there has to be some value to them too right it turns out there's reasons yeah well you know i'm really interested in that because first of all um this is something that i don't ever recall i mean harry is the person that we originally started chatting with and it got me to thinking about i don't know of another non-profit that's actually used this type of strategic leadership other than when they were physically building something and you know that's kind of saying something considering the number of non-profits that are out there and i think that we're talking about a lot of the same things and we understand that we do have to manage projects and everything but bringing in an actual professional educated person that understands how to manage strategy holy cow that's a that's a huge huge issue here might be your the trigger for your audience to think about what do i have a project yes something that has resources yeah that needs to be done in a certain time and that needs to get started pretty clearly where everyone goes like yeah yeah that's going now okay so if you have kind of like uh it got started it's got to get done by a date or in another event some sort of future event and there's some money associated with it and i'd go one step farther probably in terms of some real reality there's probably some multiple stakeholders like not only are there people working on it and not only do i care but there might be a donor a funder an oversight group another non-profit a community there's some other like complexity like that just a little complexity if you can check the box multiple stakeholders probably some money oh it's got to get going and it needs to get done you got a project i love it and i i love that you framed that up because failure you got a project yeah yeah and yeah there's a risk of failure okay wow so you've like totally you've got my head spinning because i can see this engagement piece for so many non-profits and and this question just popped into my head as we kind of started talking i would imagine as a non-profit once you embrace this methodology and this process it's like we say in my family mama gotta have it you probably are gonna want to replicate this approach for other projects and i'm wondering can is this something that when you bring in a professional and you can observe kind of what they're doing that it helps you to even figure out future strategies yeah i think it's really important that um i'm a big um advocate of the the old saying uh don't give the man the fish feed him to fish and so the way harry has built the continuous value delivery program it's not we listen to you and we go off and do something and produce it for you we collaborate with you explain what we're doing and why we're doing it and we're we're developing these relationships and we're coaching and that's as important as the project we're helping you carry out yeah i love it so we don't have that much time left but i want to get into kind of like um what the profile of your project managers might be how they're impacted um because this is a big deal given that you're taking um time energy and effort towards something that that you all get paid pretty well for if you don't mind me saying to to extract that talent and place it into a non-profit that might not even be in your community right when your folks are are working throughout the country uh throughout the world around the world um skill space just at a high level skill space volunteering is a very powerful concept as a volunteer you can learn or refine skills that you don't get to use normally on your everyday paid job and that can be really satisfying and it can also help your resume in addition you expand your professional network our pm volunteers enjoy working with non-profits and giving back to their communities and often experience more appreciation doing the pm for change work than they typically experience at their normal paid jobs in in fact we have at least two volunteers pm volunteers who have ended up on the board of directors for the non-profits that they supported that's how much they were appreciated and uh and finally those of us who are certified we can use our volunteer hours to earn professional development units which we need to maintain our certification personally as a pm volunteer on the executive team at pm4 change i love the force multiplier effect i love that we help non-profits around the world and then they help their communities so we're taking local action and achieving global impact and that's why we like to say we're changing the world one project at a time i love it i love it kendall you looked like you had something to add well she spot on there and i was gonna my thought is there's a bit of a story that you might like from the association or non-profit perspective which is where part of the impetus of this came from your your audience may appreciate this was i was running a large organization of project managers doing professional development in project management and we wanted to have the membership connect right i mean some of your people may be worried about membership sometimes so how do you keep your members rolling and i was sitting and thinking what what is not being asked of project managers what's not being done well it turns out project management is a huge untapped resource of professionals who would love to help in their community and what was happening is we were being invited to do work in the community that is along some of the many events people have fun runs and bicycle rides and fixing things and you know engaging in community activities and what beth just said is so magical the idea of the skills-based volunteering i got exposed to that through other non-profits points of light for example that said why aren't you using these things well we are our my natural thought and many of my colleagues was oh you mean doctors and lawyers do pro bono work right and i was like no no project managers could do it and everyone needs it i think let me ask and i i just tapped the well and there was project managers everywhere saying you know whether they only want to give four or six hours once a year at a day of service or whether they want to join in a structured pattern of reuse or continuing growth you just said that to somebody gone to the boards of their nonprofits um it turns out there's a lot of people that while they don't work in non-profits or associations would love to serve their communities or to use their skills and talents with others and that was a just nobody had asked or struck first i don't think anyone had asked or not commonly asked and secondly and this is what um harry and beth bring forward no one had set the mechanism for that engagement and that's what we wanted to be able to do so that's the call to action we try and find the project managers but frankly there's a lot that wants something and to be able to do something and then connect that with non-profits such as you represent um who might have the demand so what does that look like i mean how many projects is pm4 change able to um you know commit to a year and what does that look like i mean i know you all are in the east are you are you embracing projects throughout the the uh you said you were global but do you tend to have regional focuses or how what does that structure look like yeah that's i mean that's a good question i think right now it's you know it's kind of a natural road out from the maryland dc virginia area but um it's right now this program is like skyrocketing and and the funny thing is is that we've got all these volunteers are ready to go and we we're looking for non-profits right now so to to your question right now i think we right now we've got about five or six uh projects that are in you know simultaneously going on but um that can very easily multiply very very fast um so we've got the capability and we're just now asking the community to to come come visit us so we've got hundreds of project managers involved yeah if you counted all of them over time in the different cities and around the world but across the united states okay well be careful what you wish for my friends because you know we have our live broadcast we have our archive so our these these episodes go up onto roku amazon fire tv our vimeo channel our archive uh piece that we have with youtube and and it's just amazing to hear um this talent level and you know this is the thing i hear morning noon and night from nonprofits we need help with strategy we need help with strategy you know and nonprofit leaders are great at marshalling passion talent commitment and even money even though these are these are things that are tight but they're so good at it but the strategy piece i believe is the achilles heel i mean we just hear this time and time again wow well you guys have just made my head explode um i want to put everybody's information up on the screen um so that you can get to pm4change.org because there's just a lot um we've got several questions where do we find more information and how do we sign up we would like to reach out to pm for change to get on board in new jersey i mean yeah absolutely and we have more and more of those types of questions coming in so p.m for change.org check them out um you've had the ability to get in front of the minds of greatness today with harry zulkow harry thank you for reaching out to us by the way because i think you're that one that that really did you know connect i think with me personally and then we were able to put this together finally beth may thank you so much i love your insight and the things that you had to say and kendall locked no it's a silent p you know kendall i loved your uh the way you're able to frame this up for us and give us some perspective because it's just a really cool thing that um your sector would see the value in joining um with the nonprofit sector as we all know i mean you know we have so many nonprofits doing amazing things that make this world and this nation of ours better and so um what a magical partnership to have your folks bring their talents again i'm julia patrick ceo of the american nonprofit academy jarrett ransom will be back with us shortly she's actually traveling today and we'll hear more about that when she gets here hint look for the little sombrero that we've placed over her head in tomorrow's episode and that might give you an indication of what she is up to we want to remind everybody we have our book club join us on the exploration of some of uh new ideas new ways to get things done you might even find out you can get some books about project management we might have to find out if we can get some of those types of things on our book club um again thank you to our sponsors this has been one of those things that i hope that um has helped you help us and so we are so very excited that our sponsors would allow us to have this conversation beth harry kendall what a great way to start our week you're welcome i love it hey it's been amazing as we like to end every episode we want to remind everyone to stay well so you can do well we'll see you back here tomorrow thanks [Music] everybody [Music] you