I've been especially gratified by the response to the services I offer for nonprofit organizations. When I went into practice, I knew that there were lots of places where many hardworking folks needed a hand, but I also know that too many nonprofits wait until it's very hard to help them to reach out and ask for it. Some of the most satisfying work I do is to help groups of volunteers who have formed (or are thinking about forming) an organization to pursue their vision for a better community. I love being able to share some of what I've learned over the years.
And one reason I founded the Nonprofit Organizations Law Section as a professional practice section in the Oregon State Bar was that I saw that there wasn't enough sharing of resources among people who support the sector. Sometimes it seems like competitors in the for-profit sector were doing more sharing than nonprofits who don't even compete with each other.
Then, today, it occurred to me that I could do more, because I have a lot of great resources on my shelf that could benefit more groups than just my clients. So, to continue with the sharing theme, I would like to offer to make my bookshelf available to nonprofits here in Salem (or with board members willing to come to Salem). Just call or send me an email to make an appointment to have your executive director or a couple board members come by to check out what's available -- when I got to looking at it today, I realized it's quite a decent collection of current materials.
I hope I can share some with you soon.
One of my favorite authors wrote this:
Ugly language: strategic planning
Sam Smith - The phrase "strategic planning" is a pretentious business school substitute for the far more descriptive term "long range planning." Progressives should wipe business school words from their vocabulary and this is a good place to start.
Prompting me to send him this reply:
Sam,
You know I tend to agree with you far more often than not, but as someone who tries to help nonprofits, I make a particular and, I think, quite meaningful distinction between strategic planning and long-range planning.
As I use the terms, strategic planning is not schedule based at all; rather, it works best when the participants identify their specific critical dependencies -- the things they have to have to operate and to reach their goals -- and then assess the stability/instability facing each of those critical dependencies and the causes for those.
The key task is to identify the most important threats to the most important things that the organization has to have to function (attain its goals). If there is any time element at all, it's usually only when figuring out which of the problems identified need to be addressed first. Strategic planning actively assesses the "out there" -- the larger forces in society, including limits on natural resources, that will affect the organization's ability to attain its goals.
Long-range planning, on the other hand, is just that -- an inwardly focused look at the organization's goals and objectives. Ideally, leaders consciously relate the results of their strategic planning work to their long-range planning, recognizing that, like federal budgets, the further out you go, the more fanciful they are, particularly because of the factors that the strategic planners have identified.
What most organizations do, to the extent that they plan at all, is a watered down form of long-range planning that occurs during sessions called "strategic planning." You can immediately recognize the faux strategic planning by its assumption that the larger world will remain pretty much as it is today (business as usual assumption) for the indefinite future.
John Gear Law Office opened in September 2010. Thanks to the many clients I've been able to help since then, the doors are still open and I'm able to share some of my good fortune with others -- so thanks to you all. All of these organizations (scroll down) merit your consideration and your support if you are looking for places where your shared good fortune will do some good. And all those icons are hotlinked -- they'll take you right to the page where you can make a gift of support.
Yes, you can't just accept its answers uncritically, but even for the errors that creep in, Wikipedia is a treasure indeed. It's the closest thing we have to giving everyday people low-cost access to the mass of human knowledge.
 Great news from KMUZ:
"Dear Board and key volunteers:
Our 501(c)(3) status has been approved by the IRS. Willamette Information, News, and Entertainment Service (WINES) is its own non-profit and is tax exempt from federal income taxes!!
Kudos to Dave and me for pushing through the arduous process of figuring out and filling out the forms. Special thanks to John Gear for his legal overview, w/out his suggested changes, we may still have been in legal limbo. And to Karen Lord, CPA who help us at the intial stages. And to Fritz Graham, Sen. Wyden's office, for bird-dogging our application on our behalf."
Training without travel for mid-valley nonprofit leaders!
Friday Fundamentals for Flourishing Nonprofits Eight carefully designed, targeted 90-minute workshops, with attendance limited to eight nonprofit leaders, so you will get the personal attention to the questions that matter to you and your nonprofit. Training that gets right to the point, right here in Salem, created and presented by an attorney focused on helping nonprofits do more good while having more fun. 9/9
“First things first? So how do we know what’s first?”
(Priority-setting for nonprofit leaders)
9/23
File, forget, and flounder.
(Using minutes to help make better use of your hours.)
10/7
By law or not by law?
(Bylaws for the bewildered.)
10/21
“Procedures? We don’ need no stinking procedures!”
(How and why nonprofits can learn to love doing things “by the book.”)
11/4
What taxes? I thought we were a nonprofit!
(“Excuse me, your unrelated business income is showing.”)
11/18
“We do the Lord’s work, so why do they act like Satan?”
(Conflict on boards.)
12/2
“We love mankind. It’s the employees who drive us mad.”
(Employment law for nonprofits.)
12/16
“But Judge, . . . !”
(How to raise funds without having a lawyer on speed-dial.)
Each workshop will be at 11 am on Fridays in downtown Salem. Tuition is just $35 for each one (paid in advance) or $40 (paid day of) – or guarantee your seat by enrolling for all eight for just $250 (save $30). Workshop creator and leader is John Gear of the John Gear Law Office, LLC. See http://JohnGearLaw.com for more information. To enroll or for questions, call John at 503-339-7787.
I found an old Salem Resources list with a number of useful listings. As a first step towards updating it, I made a legible version of it (see file below). Anyone knowing of newer or better information is invited to contact me with the updates so I can update the file. Please feel free to direct others to this resource list and to suggest additional resources for people in need.
 | jglo_pdf_4-page_salem_social_services_resource_list_6-2011.pdf | | File Size: | 125 kb | | File Type: | pdf |
Download File
 Nonprofits face a Catch-22 when it comes to spending on "overhead." Lots of services out there like to evaluate (or interrogate under a harsh light) nonprofits for donors based on how much (or, preferably, how little) the nonprofit spends on overhead. But starving the overhead function -- the part of the operation concerned with establishing internal policies and procedures, risk management, evaluating past performance, board development, and all the other "back room" functions -- is setting your nonprofit up for long-term failure or serial crises (and then, often, failure). Nonprofits are like farmers --- a good farmer doesn't just put in crops and harvest them. A good farmer leaves the soil in better condition than before, so that the same land can be used to produce crops year after year. Nonprofit programs --- the services delivered to the community --- are the crops. But if you just put all your energy into crop production, the soil is going to get short-changed. Over time, yield goes down or the inputs required to maintain the yield keeps going up. Here's a good article by one of the authors of the Oregon Nonprofit Corporation Handbook on this dilemma.
 Two Thursdays from now, on February 10, the Salem Progressive Film Series will present "Dirt," a film about the least appreciated part of the three components of the biosphere (Land, Air, Water, or LAW). John Gear Law Office, LLC, is proud to contribute to the Salem Progressive Film Series so that they can continue bringing provocative, intelligent, and important films to Salem's Historic Grand Theater.
|
RSS Feed
John Gear Law Office LLC; 503-339-7787; John@JohnGearLaw.com. My office is in Suite 208B of the Security Building in downtown Salem. That's at 161 High St. SE, across from the Elsinore Theatre, just a block south of Marion County Courthouse. There is abundant, free, 2-hour on-street parking throughout downtown. #### #### #### Lawyerly fine print: Licensed in Oregon. This site may be considered advertising under Oregon State Bar rules. There is no legal advice given or intended on my site. I'm not your attorney unless we have met in person and entered into a representation agreement; while I hope you will consider me when you seek an attorney, you should not hire any attorney based on brochures, websites, advertising, or other promotional materials.