Tonianne DeMaria is an accomplished writer and trainer who co-authored the excellent book, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work, Navigating Life. I swear by this methodology, which is an intuitive application of lean thinking to personal and professional productivity. In this interview, Tonianne describes what "kanban" is and how people can use simple tools to improve their effectiveness. If you consider yourself an "expert multi-tasker," listen to this podcast.

In this podcast, Ted Bilich explains why most nonprofit strategic planning is nothing more than strategic hoping or, at best, mere strategic intuition. Unless an organization performs some basic risk management prep work, its strategic planning will have a foundation of sand.

In the podcast, Ted mentions a free risk inventory guide available on our website. You can find that guide by following this link.

In this podcast, host Ted Bilich explains three steps every nonprofit should take concerning risk management. Each step takes nothing more than reading and reflecting on a basic organizational document -- your bylaws, your articles of incorporation, and your employee handbook. These simple steps can save a world of heartache and potential liability.

Gene Takagi, the managing attorney at NEO Law Group, has become an influential voice in the nonprofit sector. In this podcast interview, Gene shares his views on when and how nonprofits should seek paid legal advice, legal risks nonprofits face, and how changes in the legal profession impact the nonprofit sector.

Gene graduated from UCLA Law School and has practiced law for more than 15 years, but he is not just an attorney. He is also a professor of nonprofit law, he has been a management consultant, and he was at one time the managing director of a private company. In addition to his law degree, Gene is also a graduate of the University of San Francisco’s Master of Nonprofit Administration program. He has been quoted and published in the New York Times, Nonprofit Quarterly, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Nonprofit Times, and many other places.

Gene writes regularly for the nonprofitlawblog.com. Gene can be found on Twitter at @GTak, on Facebook at Nonprofit Law, and can be reached by email at [email protected].

we explore emerging best practices in the nonprofit sector.

Example episodes include:

• Should Your Nonprofit Hire for Curiosity?
• Financial Resilience for Nonprofits
• Resources and First Steps for Nonprofit Risk Management

If you have topics you’d like us to discuss or you are interested in being a guest on the show, please email us at [email protected].

Peter Persuitti is well-known in the nonprofit sector. He currently leads the global religious and nonprofit practice at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. -- one of the largest insurance brokerages in the world. Peter, however, has engaged in the sector in many other roles, including as a dean, foundation executive, school administrator and teacher, and the founder of a school. During this interview I ask Peter about insurance for nonprofits and foundations, his views of the future of the sector, and numerous other issues. You can find Peter on LinkedIn.

In our last podcast, we began interviewing Lynn Borton, a former nonprofit executive who now focuses her attention on creativity as a business and life tool. This segment completes that interview and focuses on Lynn's curiosity work.

You can find Lynn’s business at choosetobecurious.com. You can email her at [email protected] or [email protected].  She tweets as @choose2Bcurious. You can also find Choose to Be Curious on Facebook. She’s available on LinkedIn, too.

Lynn mentioned a number of resources on the podcast, including the following:

Ian Leslie, Curious - The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It

Brian Grazer, A Curious Mind

James Ryan's Youtube Video, Wait, What?

Lynn also mentioned Todd Kashdan and Tomas Chamorro-Premusic who both write regularly on the topic of curiosity.

Lynn Borton is one of the most grounded and genuinely kind people I know. She's also an accomplished former executive with a major nonprofit, having spend 20 years at the organization, 12 of those as the chief operating officer. A few years ago she left that post to pursue her deep interest in fostering curiosity as a business tool. In this first interview, we discuss the role of the COO in a nonprofit organization. Two weeks from now we will publish the second half of the interview, where Lynn talks about her abiding curiosity about curiosity.

You can find Lynn's business at choosetobecurious.com. You can email her at [email protected] or [email protected].  She tweets as @choose2Bcurious. You can also find Choose to Be Curious on Facebook. She's available on LinkedIn, too.

Questions in this podcast included the following:

1. You have been on a personal and professional journey over the last few years. Tell us first about your decision to leave a nonprofit after 20 years. What factors went into that decision? [0:48]
2. Over 12 years, the COO position must have changed substantially. It’s an issue that nonprofits face a lot when considering whether to hire a COO. What duties should the COO have, and which should the CEO retain. Tell me about how you and the CEO initially divided those duties. [3:20]
3. Did that division of labor remain entirely consistent throughout your tenure?  [6:30]
4. What advice would you give someone who is thinking about pursuing a career as a COO? [7:26]
5. What advice would you give an organization that was considering creating a COO position? [11:10]
6. What top characteristics would you look for in hiring a COO for a nonprofit? [14:00]
7. The Harvard Business Review published an article that we’ve both read, and which I will link to when we publish this interview, about the uncertainty of many COO’s about their responsibilities and how to maximize effectiveness. Do you think those authors are onto something, in that perhaps companies are not getting the most out of the COO role? [17:15]
8. What advice would you give a COO in a nonprofit about how to do their job? [20:51]

Hilda Polanco is one of the most influential thinkers about nonprofit financial sustainability. Beginning in 1999, her firm, FMA, has grown from 4 employees to nearly 10 times that number. FMA, in turn, has grown into a powerful voice for financial agility within the sector. She joined us for a conversation about nonprofit financial leadership, nonprofit risk management, and long-term resilience.

About FMA

Hilda you’ve built FMA into a real powerhouse for nonprofit finance. Tell us the story of when, how, and why you founded FMA. [0:57]

If you have a clean audit, do you need risk management? [3:53]

These days, are there any particular characteristics you look for when you’re trying to decide whether you will work with a nonprofit client? [7:27]

Is a resilient organization a reflective organization? [8:55]

Do you see FMA changing its range of offerings to address new services that nonprofits need? [9:42]

You have offices not only in New York City, but a number of other places, right? Where do you have physical locations? [12:48]

Planning

You have said you like to help nonprofits “build a planning muscle.” What do you mean by that? [14:26]

Why would a nonprofit need a strong planning function? [15:40]

What concrete signals would one of our listeners look for within her organization to know that it is time for her to build a stronger planning function? In other words, what pain points should the nonprofit be experiencing? [17:17]

Why is it hard for a nonprofit to build its planning function totally on its own? [22:05]

Threats and Opportunities

Among the nonprofits you work with, what do you think their greatest threats and opportunities are right now? [23:05]

How Does a Business Model “Work Financially”?

On your website, you asked the question: “Do you wonder if your business model works financially?” Please unpack that question for us a little bit. What does it mean for a business model to “work financially”? [28:43]

What would be two or three significant red flags that should make a nonprofit wonder about the viability of its business model? [31:35]

Are there any core financial metrics that you advise nonprofits to follow on a regular basis? [33:45]

In this episode of About Risk, we welcome back Katie Leonberger, CEO of Community Resource Exchange in New York City. We explore with Katie broader issues about what nonprofits should do to begin implementing risk management, where they should look for resources and support, and what she sees as key nonprofit risks. Katie can be found online @KatieLeonberger. CRE is on Twitter as @creinnyc. To find out more about CREFT, you can email [email protected].