Microsoft Hell
Good afternoon
Over the last few weeks I have had a message pop up on the laptop that I use at trainings to say that my version of MS Office was not genuine.
A few days ago the message got a wee bit more strident - So I took the leap and rang up Microsoft. I have now been on the phone for well over an hour and I am talking to the sixth person. Don’t get me wrong all the customer help people have been very good - but this is now the sixth person!!!
On a much better note the training yesterday finished really well. This was a really great group.
Kathy Pierre from Lummi got inspired by my Marathon goal and handed over her pledge of $26 for the event. Thank you Kathy.
Regards
Kathy
Day 2 of non profit startup training
We are into day 2 of the 2 day non profit startup training. The group includes two people from Spokane and two from Colville who are both interested in language programs. Two other attendees are using cradle board making as a way of getting new and expecting Native mothers to talk about Sudden Infant Death syndrome and steps to avoid (SID).
Native babies are three times more likely to die from SID.
Another person travelled from Warm Springs, he is interested in a range of non profit activities including a program to discourage Native young people from drinking and driving.
One of our longstanding volunteers, Kim, was also there as well a person from the Ventures program at the Lummi Reservation.
Yesterday we went through the theory behind non profits and today we start to focus on the paperwork.
It got to 103 degrees in Seattle yesterday - so keep cool. I will try a longish run after work but will definitely hydrate!!!
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
Non Profit Startup
Morena (Good morning)
Today we are kicking off the first day of a two day training that helps Native groups to understand why they might wish to incorporate their activities as a tax exempt non profit.
The lack of non profits in Indian Country has held back the expansion of philanthropy to Native communities. Most foundations only give money to 501(c)3 non-profits. As such even though Tribes and most Tribal departments are tax exempt because they do not have a 501(c)3 they are made ineligible by some foundations rules.
In the past there has been some reluctance from Native groups to incorporate as a non profit, as to do so required asking their State for permission. This galled many Native groups as States as domestic sovereigns have the same legal status as Tribes.
Fortunately, for groups with this concern there is now a third way. Tribes can adopt their own non profit business code, and then pursuant to this code they can then incorporate non-profits and bypass the States role in the entire process.
Through the excellent work carried out by many groups including the Native American Rights Fund and First Nations Development Institute the IRS has now agreed that such Tribally chartered non profits can also receive 501(c)3 tax exemption.
The whole idea of establishing non profits and getting tax exemption is still very new, and today’s training will take about 16 people through the entire theory and practice of incorporating a non profit.
A quick Marathon update. Jenine Grey the ED of the Chief Seattle Club has come on board with a $2 per mile sponsorship. Her $52 pledge now takes us to $910. We are inching our way to that first thousand.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
Tribal Giving Programs
Morena (Good morning)
We have been told many times that mainstream philanthropy does not need to fund Indian County because of the presence of all of these “rich casinos”.
This is a patently incorrect, as:
- over half of the 560, or so, recognized Tribes do NOT have casinos.
- because of their proximity to urban centers about 7% of casinos generate over 50% of total profits.
- the total income from these casinos would hardly move the poverty statistics within Native communities.
What the Casinos have been able to do is to help the developing Tribal administrations and to also help with vital community infrastructure.
Because we are involved in philanthropy we also look closely at the charitable giving undertaken by Tribes from the proceeds from their casinos. We have been particularly lucky to work with five Oregon based Tribes to help them to quantify the collective impact of their giving.
The giving from each Tribe in the Northwest is normally governed by a Compact that the Tribe has entered into with the State in their area. Most of these Compacts are different, however there are some distinct themes. One theme is that the Compacts make it difficult for a Tribe to give grants to Indian projects. Some Compacts make it difficult for a Tribe to make a grant to a charitable project that it is undertaking; some Compacts require that funds only go to 501(c)3s - and there are not many of those in Indian Country; and, other Compacts require that a certain and sometimes the majority of the money go back to governmental institutions like a State, a City or a Police Force.
The funders in Oregon are very aware of these disadantages that Native applicants to their own processes have to face up to. We have been able to help them by analyzing their giving, since they started, and by providing information to them on the giving that flows to Native communities and projects. The meeting in Coos Bay, Oregon today is a continuation of this work.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
Last Week Before the Canoe Journey Finishes
Welcome to a busy week here at Potlatch Fund. As many of you know one of our longstanding projects is the support of the annual InterTribal Canoe Journey. The Journey is fully explained on our website - but in summary, it is a way in which Native communities come together to celebrate and practice canoe traditions, restore culture, language, pride and health. We are very proud to be associated with the Journey and this year have provided approximately $38,000 in grants to canoes on the Journey and to the host Tribe Suquamish.
This funding has been possible because of the generous support that we receive from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the First Nations Development Institute and from our donors at our 2008 Gala.
We are organizing a funder’s tour to witness the canoes land at Suquamish on Monday August 3, and at this stage we have 16 people booked for this tour.
Later today we will have a meeting with Alice Ito from the Marguerite Casey Foundation. This Foundation has been one of our long term supporters, and Alice Ito has to be one of the smartest program officers that I have the pleasure to work with.
I am also prepping for a meeting in Oregon tomorrow. This is a meeting of five of the gaming Tribes in Oregon and we have been helping them to quantify the impact of their giving. We also have a non-profit start up training happening in Seattle on Wednesday and Thursday so I need to get everything ready for that today before I leave the office tonight.
On the running front I did a 10 mile 90 minute run on Sunday, with the first third slow, the second third medium and the last third as fast as I could run. That on top of a 6 mile hike and a shorter jog on Saturday has definitely tired me out. David Cournoyer, from Native Americans in Philanthropy has agreed to sponsor my marathon effort, and with his pledge we are now up to $858.
Have a great day and keep cool it is supposed to be over 90 out there today.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
Back in the office
Its just gone noon here in Seattle and I am now back in the office following the two day training for the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe. This was truly a great group of people - they were incredibly welcoming to me and reminded me why I love this work so much.
On day two of the training we recapped the first day, then moved into budgeting, evaluation, on-line searching for foundations, other resources available to assist projects within communities and where you should go when you get stuck.
People were particularly engaged with the idea that budgets were not about numbers - they are actually another way of telling your story. Therefore the best way to start a budget is to make sure that there is a clear understanding about the story. The story includes what has happened right up to this point and what is our plan from now. Once we can agree on the story then it is easy to put the numbers around that story to form a budget.
The training finished with the CEO of the Tribe giving all the guests to the training from Darrington and me a Tribal blanket. Even though it was something like 90 degrees outside these were warmly received.
I got home, with about 5 minutes to spare, in time to see my daughter Eva swim her breast stroke heat at a local swim meet (I suspect the traffic tickets for running the odd orange light may well be in the mail).
I did a 6 mile training run in Darrington on Thursday morning. A couple of local dogs followed me for the entire run, and woke up every other dog in town and completely terrorised every cat they came across. My quiet run turned into an early wake up call for most of the people in the southern part of Darrington. By the way two of my staff and one of my Board members, namely Lawrence Leake, Dana Arviso and Dawn Houle have all committed to the Marathon - so we now stand at $832 in pledges.
I was late into the office this morning as I had a meeting with the Chief Seattle - they are working on an entire development plan with two fairly amazing consultants from The Spelman Company. I am definitely learning as much as I am offering in this process. The sad news from Chief Seattle Club is that one of their club members has died in the last week and the Seattle Police are treating the death as a homicide. Life for Native people on the streets in Seattle can be as hard as it gets.
He roimata ua, he roimata tangata. Let our tears join the tears from the rain as we cry for those who have died.
Ken Gordon
Sauk-Suiattle Tribe - Journey to Successful Fundraising
Today I have been running a training based at the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe. This Tribe is located about 7 miles north of Darrington, WA. This is about 2 hours northeast of Seattle.
We were invited to come in to provide a two day fundraising training by the Tribe. The Tribe has invited a number of its staff members and a number of people from community organizations in Darrington to attend the training. Trainees from Darrington included the Mayor, representatives from the School District, the Fire District, the Community Center, and the Senior Center.
Sauk-Suiattle reps were looking at projects to:
- upgrade the Tribes IT infrastructure,
- build a new fibre optic backbone for both Darrington and the Tribe,
- provide better services for young people, for young people transitioning from foster care and for the victims of domestic abuse,
- provide more safety training for Tribal staff,
- provide a new Pow Wow ground and an expanded Longhouse and further stages of the playground,
- provide a new language and history curriculum within the school district, and also improve the library together with other school services, and
- undertake various economic development projects.
The curriculum today reviewed the scope and operations of philanthropy, and discussed the initial steps required for researchiung and contacting a foundation and starting the process of writing a grant.
This was a really engaged group of 19 people with a diverse range of grantwriting experience. Of particular note the Tribe had a very sound strategic plan which is driving their development. Another exciting note is the partnerships that exists between the Tribe and the wider Tribal community as witnessed at this training. Well done you guys!
Some really great news on our own funding. The Norcliffe Foundation confirmed a grant today of $25,000 to Potlatch Fund together with a $25,000 commitment in 2010. THANK YOU.
On a much smaller scale Lyn Hunter from Philanthropy Northwest has pledged to the Marathon effort. I think we will be up to $1,000 by early next week. I am still looking for training buddies …
From Darrington, WA that’s all folks.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
Quick Update
Morena (Good morning)
This is another busy prep. day here at Potlatch Fund.
Lawrence is starting to work on the Native Art applications that came in on Friday. Dana will be back from her stint of teaching in Tahiti and we will be able to get out a bunch of grant payments to our Community Building grantees.
I am doing final preparations for the two day fundraising training for the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe. They are located about 7 miles north of Darrington, WA. I will be there on Wednesday and Thursday - so it is likely that my blog may be quiet for a couple of days.
I am also working on some data analysis for Tribal Grantmakers in Oregon. We have been working with this group for the last two years to help quantify the impact of their giving. The next meeting of this group takes place on Monday the 27th in North Bend, OR. We also have a nonprofit startup training next week being held at the Seattle Indian Health Board. Finally next week I will be working with a firm of architects on how they can work better in Indian Country.
The following week - the week of August 3rd, the annual InterTribal Canoe Journey finishes at Suquamish and we will be taking a small group of funders to both witness the landing and to also visit with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. If anyone is interested in attending this they need to touch base with Lawrence, as soon as possible.
So a busy, busy, busy period - so I need to stop blogging and start working.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
LEAD Cohort
One of our most exciting programs is the LEAD Training Cohort which is funded by First Nations Development Institute (FNDI).
This is the second year that we have been involved in the program. In Year one we had six participants in the program, and this year we have 12 participants.
The purpose of the program is to provide management and finance training and culturally appropriate mentoring to emerging Native nonprofit leaders. The group meets at least once a month. About 2/3rds of the sessions are mentoring focused, where existing Native leaders will join us to share from their own lives and careers.
Potlatch Fund in addition provides trainings on fundraising and development, staff management, governance and other more general nonprofit management topics. We will also bring a Finance professor to run a session on Financial Management for nonprofits.
Today’s session looked at staff management and governance. Bridget Ray, a cohort member and a proud sponsor of my marathon efforts, also ran a session on Strategic Planning. At the end of this blog there are some of my takeaways in terms of Governance.
Marathon update: I did my short run on Saturday which did not go well. I had sore feet, got way too hot and had no energy. Sunday was a different day where I was able to run for 1 hour and 45 minutes quite comfortably. Training this week will be a bit opportunistic as I will be meeting with the Duwamish on Turesday night, and in Darrington on Wednesday and Thursday. Dawn Houle one of my Board Members and a member of the LEAD cohort also confirmed her sponsorship today. We are inching towards out goal.
If anyone in Seattle (Columbia City area) is interested in training pls give me a call at the office.
Naku Noa
Ken
Ken’s Governance Takeaway
a. the Board is the boss.
b. the Board can be uniformed but still need the ED to support them and their decisions.
c. it is the EDs job to keep the Board informed. Potlatch Fund gives Board members staff meeting minutes as a way of doing this.
d. when Board members do stupid things – the ED needs to balance following through with protecting the organization.
e. it needs to be remembered that most Boards are part time, they are amateurs, receive no compensation and little Board training.
f. the EDs role is to guide them to the right decisions (which should be an amalgam of both the EDs thoughts and the Boards thoughts).
g. you should have regular board meetings, with agendas and Board packets circulated at least a week prior to the meeting, with minutes that are prepared promptly, and which are approved at a subsequent meeting and then retained.
h. the ED needs to know the rules and make sure that the Board meets its minimum standards.
i. Boards make the best decisions when the Board and ED listen to each other.
j. The following aspects of Board makeup were discussed.
i. size (ideal 7 people +/- 2 people).
ii. recruitment should be based on skills that are needed not just friendships.
iii. the board makeup should be diverse and reflect the community served.
iv. Board procedures should encourage free and frank discussion. It is noted that sometimes following Roberts Rules too strictly prohibits this.
v. Performance reviews can be a really useful way to help to train Board members.
vi. All Board terms should be limited with an option to re-appoint,
k. As ED you need to protect your patch and their patch. Again there is a tendency for them to want to be in the kitchen and for the ED to want to be the strategic decision maker.
l. the ideal is to make decisions by consensus. However sometimes to progress stuff you need to vote. When this happens it is good to know the basics of Board meeting/voting procedures.
TGIF
It’s late Friday evening and this is the first chance to note some quick thoughts for the blog.
Firstly, I am proud to report that both Lawrence and I followed though with our promise and donated a pint of our red stuff yesterday. With some prompting from Lawrence I also added my name and DNA to the National bone marrow list. This was all painless and the good folks at the Puget Sound Blood Center looked after us well during the whole process.
I also wanted to comment on the meeting that we had with the Meyer Foundation yesterday. I have to say that I have been uniformly impressed by the Program Officers that I work with here in the States. They tend to be very smart, very well informed and they know the community well. We got grilled by Paul Reich from Meyer, but they were great questions. And what Paul knows is that at this point he is now the intermediary between us and his own Board. So he has to predict the questions that they will come up with and be sure that he can give a well researched answer to the same. One of the things that I like about Meyer in particular is that they have hired people who themselves were non-profit EDs so they know what it is like in the trenches and they feel like they are advocates for the work that we do.
Finally have been busy today finalizing the first edition of a new newsletter which highlights the work of many of Seattle’s Native non-profits. Those groups that are not in the first edition will be invited to take part in all future editions. It is looking good and will be available by Friday the 24th.
I think it got to 90 degrees in Seattle today. Far too hot for running. This weekend I will go out early Saturday for a 30 minute run. The on Sunday it is out for a ten mile jog - this is when things start to get serious. By the way Bridget Ray was so inspired by my progress that she has doubled her commitment to $2 per mile for a total of $52. We are edging closer to the first $1,000 of the $10,000 target.
Have a good weekend.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon