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Tuesday, Jan 26, 2010Change for the Better
Posted by dgore
EDUCATION-TO-COMMUNITY
GUEST POST
By Lori Putnam
It is not uncommon for many nonprofits to be so focused on a mission of helping others that internal organizational challenges are sidelined. For students in the Graziadio School’s Master of Science in Management and Leadership program, this can present a unique opportunity to contribute to a worthy cause while testing their knowledge and skills.
As a culminating workshop of the 16-month program, Graziadio students are required to complete an Education to Community (E2C) Capstone Project pairing student teams with community-based organizations. The first class to complete the capstone project volunteered with a diverse mix of clients including impossible2Possible, Glendale Healthy Kids, and the Aquarium of the Pacific.
“The capstone project is designed to give Graziadio students the chance to apply what they have learned throughout the program to a real-world situation,” said Professor Mark Allen who teaches the capstone Leadership Through Systems course. “We select nonprofit consulting assignments because this program focuses on organizational issues. Plus, the idea of working with community-based nonprofit organizations aligns well with the university’s motto: ‘Freely ye received, freely give.’”
Dreaming the Impossible
In 2007, adventurer and long-distance runner Ray Zahab made history by running from one end of the Sahara Desert to the other – some 4,500 miles. His feat not only raised awareness of the scarcity of clean water, it also caught the attention of Bob Cox, an athlete in his own right who combined forces with Zahab to launch impossible2Possible (i2P). The organization sponsors youth expeditions in environmentally and socially sensitive areas to both educate and inspire positive change.
“In starting your own company, you’re busy 24/7,” said Cox, who now serves as i2P executive director. “What the Graziadio team provided was invaluable to me, freeing me up to spend more time in growing the organization.”
Graziadio students consulted with Cox on processes to connect the fledgling organization’s team of volunteers. The Graziadio team had a few organizational challenges of its own, including team member Jason Quinter’s field assignments as a U.S. Marine. However, using the skills and insights honed in the program, they were not only able to work effectively as a team, they in turn shared with Cox insights on how to strengthen his own organization.
Prescription for Success
Glendale Healthy Kids is a 15-year-old nonprofit providing primary health care for low income, underinsured kids. With more than 100 volunteers and 250 health care providers, it had a successful track record but was seeking additional help with managing its volunteers. What the Graziadio student team soon discovered was that the organization’s executive director, Camille Levee, was also in need of management assistance of her own.
“Camille knows every volunteer by name, but she’s a one-man show,” observed Bukky Adesanya.
Added Teresa Williams, “In our interview process, the staff were referring most questions to Camille so we realized they weren’t as involved. It became important to us to let her know that she’d be more successful by delegating some of her work.”
In this case, the client was not only the driving force for the organization but also a barrier to its growth. In the end, the client took both the solicited – and unsolicited – advice to heart, and shared the team’s recommendations with the organization’s board of directors.
Starting a Conversation
The Aquarium of the Pacific opened its doors 10 years ago, and enjoyed immediate success as a premier Southern California destination. Today the aquarium remains popular, but its leadership is seeking new ways to increase its multicultural outreach.
For Graziadio School students Arnetta Whiteside, Ryan Lee, and Mark Levenson, this project would not only challenge the skills they developed in the program, but also their assumptions of effective consulting. “It was eye-opening,” said Arnetta. As a consultant, she realized the organization was overlooking opportunities, but as a student, she wasn’t sure how frank her team’s assessments should be. “It wasn’t that we had new information, it’s just that they had never thought about it before,” she added.
In particular, the Graziadio team saw an opportunity for the organization to build its internal staff diversity which would then support its goals for strengthening the diversity of its external attendees. “We wanted to show them how working on diversity on the inside can get results you want on the outside,” observed Arnetta. Although the capstone was a challenging experience, Arnetta is the first to say she came away with a valuable lesson that no matter how difficult a conversation may be, it is the consultant’s obligation to begin the dialogue with his or her client.
Learn More
More than 90 percent of nonprofits are small or midsize, with budgets under $1 million according to the Council of Nonprofits. As the economic downturn increases the need for nonprofit services, while also decreasing contributions, programs like E2C help to fill a void. For more information regarding the E2C program, contact: e2c@pepperdine.edu.
Lori Putnam is a marketing communications specialist, freelance writer and founder of Los Angeles-based PutnamCreative. She collaborates with clients to develop marketing messages and materials that tell their story, in their unique voice, and that resonate with customers, investors, and shareholders.
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