Month: January 2022

Look Into the Crystal Ball: Our 2022 Predictions for the Nonprofit Fundraising and Events Industry

With Covid cases rapidly declining after a peak in early January, the vaccine booster campaign well underway, and few legal restrictions impacting on our daily lives (at least in NYC), Powered by Professionals has now turned our attention to unpacking what the lasting impact of the pandemic will have on fundraising, and making some suggestions about what this means for nonprofits as they plan for 2022 and beyond.

Despite the waves of constant change and uncertainty nonprofits and other businesses have dealt with in the past two years, the switch to virtual events surprisingly did not deter the generosity of supporters. The majority of PBP’s events in 2021 saw an increase of charitable giving! So why are donors being so generous?

We have an idea of what factors may be contributing to the success of nonprofit fundraisers despite the challenges of switching to virtual events. Many people made significant savings over the course of the pandemic – being stuck at home meant they stopped spending money on vacations, restaurants and shopping and started saving instead. This factor compounded with the daily uncertainty and the desire to do ‘something’ to improve the situation we all found ourselves in, meant that charitable giving was up for individuals as a way to find a form of control over the turbulence of daily life.

So what now? Predictions for the pandemic are looking optimistic, with hopes that one day we can give it the status of ‘endemic’ and finally make a return to normal. With normal being a relative term, we suspect to see several changes to what we consider “normal” in the nonprofit fundraising industry. Nonprofits will need to continue to adapt to new trends. Between 2020 and 2021, virtual events became valuable tools to connect with donors when in-person events were no longer possible. Hybrid events, combining the elements of both in-person and virtual events, can greatly benefit all attendees with tech-driven experiences to reach a greater audience and make an experience accessible for all.

The recent demand for QR codes and wearable technology means that nonprofits will need to make giving more accessible and easier to navigate via smartwatches by implementing Venmo, PayPal, Apple and Google Pay, therefore eliminating the need to dig through a wallet to find a credit card. Despite the slowdown the pandemic brought to daily life, there is still a high demand for streamlined, instant giving with auto-filled credit card and billing information for on-the-fly giving to keep up with the relentless need for ‘instant gratification’ that modern technology has allowed us.

Bottom line is that nonprofits will need to continue to adapt to of-the-moment demands, and the best way to prepare for any circumstance is by keeping up with modern technology that allows organizations to reach their supporters anywhere. Cryptocurrency, NFTs, and other virtual items continue to make headlines, and we suspect that those will be a hot item in the nonprofit world as well (we haven’t had a NFT at any of our auctions yet, but perhaps that will change this year!)

Powered by Professionals is excited to meet the challenges 2022 will bring and we are always on the lookout for the latest trends that will impact our fundraising events. Stay tuned as we navigate the year and bring you updates!

SARAH COYNE

sarah@poweredbyprofessionals.com

9 Reasons Why Unlimited PTO is a Good Idea In Hybrid Workplaces

Have you considered offering unlimited PTO? Our partners at Terkel asked HR/recruiting professionals and business leaders their insights on offering unlimited PTO and the benefit it brings to remote, hybrid and in-person workplaces.

What is one reason why unlimited PTO is a good idea for a remote, hybrid, or in-person workplace?

To help you understand the value of unlimited PTO, we asked business professionals and leaders this question for their insights. From accounting for impromptu life events to building trust, there are several reasons why unlimited PTO is good for remote, hybrid and in-person workplaces.

Here are nine reasons why unlimited PTO is a good idea in hybrid workplaces:

Account for Impromptu Life Events
Amplify Long-Term Results
Create Opportunities for Innovation
Attract High-Quality Talent
Reduce Stress and Increase Creativity
Improve Employee Retention
Increase Productivity
Eliminate the Cost to Manage PTO
Build Trust

Account for Impromptu Life Events

One Monday afternoon my then girlfriend called me and told me she won a radio contest. The prize? A round-trip flight from Phoenix to London to sit front row at a Rhianna concert promoting her new album release. The catch? The flight left on Friday, and would cause me to miss work. As a newer employee, I wouldn’t have had the PTO to capitalize on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Fortunately, my company offered unlimited PTO and I was able to take the trip (and then, a few years later, marry my then girlfriend). The moral of the story? Unlimited PTO accounts for impromptu life events that are especially important with the uncertainties of operating in a remote or hybrid workplace. – Brett Familoe, Markitors

Amplify Long-Term Results

With increased diversity of work arrangements, only the end results of work allow apple to apple comparison of the long-term output. With strong mutual trust and responsibility, the PTO can assure a more flexible work relationship where both parties respect each other’s needs. In this arrangement, the employer can allow for time off beyond standard allowance while the employee may periodically dedicate more time and effort to achieve the work. It can be an outstanding arrangement when paired with an adequate and sensible approach by both parties. – Michael Sena, SENACEA

Create Opportunities for Innovation

When your company provides unlimited PTO for remote or hybrid employees, you are providing more opportunities for creativity. When people are able to relax and rest with vacations, they are more prone to creativity. When they return to work, they can implement refreshed ideas into their work. Plus, they feel more valued when their employers take their well-being seriously with unlimited PTO. – Olivia Young, Conscious Items

Attract High-Quality Talent

When it comes to recruitment, competition is at an all-time high and most organizations have reworked their employee benefits in the wake of the pandemic to attract great talent. While some companies offer better health benefits, others offer more flexibility and so on. To get a competitive edge over others, it makes sense that some companies would turn to offering unlimited PTO since it would entice candidates to choose their organization over others. – Riley Beam, Douglas R. Beam, P.A.

Reduce Stress and Increase Creativity

Engagement is a direct result of a compensatory and incentivizing benefits package. We find that offering unlimited PTO brings in quality effort from employees when they are no longer obligated to work when and if it conflicts with personal issues that should in fact take precedence. If an employee has an unlimited amount of time off, they will no longer feel pressured to build their life around work, but rather, their work around their life. Adding a hybrid work model to the equation affords our employees more convenience and the ability to be flexible with their daily routine. Lastly, when employees take time off and are also encouraged to do so, they are more present at work and perform at a greater capacity, engaging more with team members and adding creativity instead of a “burnt-out” mindset. – Nick Shackelford, Structured Agency

Improve Employee Retention

Unlimited PTO is a great idea for your remote, hybrid, and in-person employees. It’s a benefit that is not only enticing but valuable to employee retention. When you offer employees the chance to take their PTO when they need to and for the length of time they need. This benefit gives employees the chance to rejuvenate themselves and come back to work more focused. – Justin Chan, June Shine

Increase Productivity

Today it’s common knowledge that the more well-rested employees are, the more productive and efficient they become. Unlimited PTO could significantly contribute to productivity at the workplace. When people are free to decide when and how they want to rest and recharge their energy, and they don’t feel judged for taking their time to rejuvenate, they will be less prone to burnout, fatigue, disillusionment, and stress. Of course, it will also positively impact the employer’s spending – it is much cheaper to allow unlimited PTO than to cover extended sick leaves due to mental health. – Ewelina Melon, Tidio

Eliminate the Cost to Manage PTO

When a company adopts an unlimited PTO policy, it means they can eliminate the costs of managing paid time off. Some organizations are paying team members in HR and finance to manage time off across the employee base. That time and financial investment almost immediately disappears, creating bandwidth for other more impactful efforts. – Logan Mallory, Motivosity

Build Trust

One reason unlimited PTO is a good idea for businesses is that it builds trust between your employees and the employer. This trust can go a long way and when you give employees the option to take off whenever they want, it builds trust and respect throughout the company. Building the trust and respect of your employees gives you the ability to have more effective communication between them. This helps build a culture where everyone is encouraging each other to do better and nobody feels over pressured to perform. This makes it to where each employee can do their best work and be the most productive they can be each day. – John Wu,

Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.

Log4j and the “ER” Cybersecurity Challenge for Nonprofits

As we head into 2022 with Delta and Omicron on our minds and cautious hopes that this will be the year we finally put this disruptive pandemic in our rearview mirror, the impact of the log4j vulnerability continues to be felt across the technology and cybersecurity world.

(If you don’t know anything about log4j, you might want watch this short explainer video first.)

For nonprofits of all sizes, but especially smaller nonprofits (meaning under 100 staff), log4j exposed a weakness that has always been there, but could loom larger as vulnerabilities like log4j continue to emerge. And bear with me here, because I’m going to drop two eye-glazing words on you: enumeration and remediation.

Let’s use the (quite apropos) acronym ER to refer to these two terms. I like ER because it makes most Americans immediately think of “emergency room” (and, perhaps even better, makes Americans of a certain age think of the television series E/R’s George Clooney).

Emergency Room is appropriate because when there is a critical vulnerability disclosure such as log4j, technology personnel need to respond immediately by doing two (2) triage-like actions as thoroughly and rapidly as they can. And these two things are enumeration and remediation.

Think of it like this – let’s say someone threatened to throw a cream pie in the face of any of my colleagues who display the color blue.

Vulnerability – displaying the color blue
Threat – cream pie to the face.

Here’s a picture of my colleagues:

Enumeration would involve going through my staff and seeing who displays any blue. I would immediately see that I have two people with blue showing, one with a blue shirt and one with blue hair.

Remediation would involve having those staff people prevent any blue from showing. I’ll have the person in the blue shirt change to a red shirt and have the person with blue hair change it to red.

Voila! No one gets a cream pie in the face.

How ER applies to log4j and other vulnerability disclosures

The log4j vulnerability was first publicly disclosed on Thursday, December 9th, 2021 and, within hours, attackers were actively scanning the Internet for systems with the log4j vulnerability present and launching attacks against systems discovered to have the vulnerability.

For you to be able to defend your organization against attackers in these kinds of scenarios, you first need to know if you have any systems that are vulnerable to this exploit (e.g. anyone showing the color blue from the example above).

You have to have some way of searching through your systems and software and knowing if you have any devices or software that might be vulnerable and, if so, what they are and how exposed they may be. The process of identifying systems that have vulnerabilities and how exploitable they are is the essence of enumeration.

Enumeration

A typical nonprofit of, let’s say thirty-five (35) staff may have a couple of servers, a firewall (or two), some wireless access points, a few printers, and thirty-five (35) or so laptops and desktops (typically one per staff person). This nonprofit would also have dozens of software applications such as Microsoft Office, Windows and Mac OS operating systems, Adobe Reader, Quickbooks, and so on.

The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) provides many resources for responding to log4j, with an entire GitHub repository for guidance. This includes a list of all known vendors and software with vulnerabilities.

Even if our typical thirty-five person nonprofit has the best of intentions and goes to the CISA repository looking to take action, they are quickly going to find themselves facing a number of challenges:

They have no current inventory of all these systems
They have no person(s) with clear responsibility for leading the process
There is limited or zero ability to automate this process
It is extremely difficult for the decision-makers to make appropriate decisions about resource allocation:
- How urgent is it to do this?
- How much risk is there?
- How likely is it that my organization will be targeted?

That is part one of the ER challenge. How would your organization perform enumeration in a scenario like this? Would it even be possible?

Remediation

Part two of the ER challenge is remediation. Once you have enumerated your vulnerabilities (going back to our cream pie example, the two people displaying the color blue), you need to remediate. This typically means eliminating the vulnerabilities by either patching (running updates that fix the vulnerabilities) or making system changes that render the vulnerability unexploitable.

If your enumeration process reveals many vulnerabilities, you will need to prioritize your remediation efforts. Let’s say, for example, that you discovered a vulnerability in one of your servers and also in software applications running on 10 out of your 35 workstations. How do you decide what to remediate first?

In this instance, an Internet-facing server (such as a web server or database server) with the log4j vulnerability present is probably the most critical, since all it would take for an attacker to exploit it is to find it themselves (through their scans of the Internet) and then send it a single packet of data.

The workstations would not typically be Internet-facing (meaning they would not accept unsolicited input from the Internet), and therefore would be less vulnerable, since some kind of user action would be required for an attacker to exploit the log4j vulnerability on those workstations. Note that you will still want to remediate these vulnerabilities, because they can be exploited by getting a user to click on a malicious link, such as through a phishing email. Note that further remediation could include training your staff on how phishing emails work and educating them on how to identify potentially malicious email messages.

The Crux of the Challenge

At this point, unless you’re an IT professional or just incredibly curious about this sort of thing, your eyes have most likely glazed over. Alternately, you might be experiencing minor heart palpitations (if so, my apologies!).

And that’s the issue, in a nutshell. Most nonprofits are in no way prepared to respond effectively to these kinds of major vulnerability disclosures.

What to Do

If your organization does not have in-house capabilities that allow you to keep a current and accurate inventory of your systems and perform some reasonable version of the ER process we’ve described here, think about whether your organization is comfortable accepting that risk or if you’d like to do better. If you would like to be better prepared, consider working with a third-party technology provider (such as RoundTable) that has tools and expertise to respond appropriately to present and future threats.

Also, having an automated digital asset management system (not simply a spreadsheet you update manually) is not only incredibly helpful for day-to-day IT needs, but is increasingly a critical tool in your cybersecurity defense arsenal, without which, you’re left to either guess & hope or do a lot of manual work to perform enumeration and remediation when needed.

If you would like to talk with someone at RoundTable about how we could help your organization with improving your cybersecurity or any other aspect of your technology management, please reach out.

LISTEN TO A PODCAST ON LOG4J

NPP Spotlight: Flanders Fields

We would like to extend a warm welcome to one of our newest Nonprofit Partners, Stephen Wright, Vice President, Domestic Partnerships and Crisis Programs for Flanders Fields. Flanders Fields’ mission is to ensure that each and every Military Veteran has a helping hand when they need one.

We sat down to learn more about Stephen, the organization, and how the NRH community can help support the great work they do.

NRH: Stephen, we are thrilled to welcome you to the Nonprofit Resource Hub and our growing community of your fellow Nonprofit Partners and Associate Members. We all want to get to know about you and your organization, so can you start off by telling us a little bit more about Flanders Fields and the mission?

SW: Flanders Fields was awarded its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status on August 15^th, 2021, the day Afghanistan was overtaken by the Taliban. The timing of this was significant to this new organization.

We are a group of U.S. Veterans and supporters on a mission to help other Veterans in any way possible. As Veterans ourselves, we understand the true problems and situations our troops deal with when coming home. Veterans are often faced with great challenges after service, including PTSD, TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), homelessness, and addiction.

Our team of Veteran Advocates and Peer-to-Peer Support Specialists leverage our resources and connections to assist servicemembers and Veterans in multiple areas.

Advocates coach individuals on the job search process, assist them in locating housing, and assist them in completing college applications or acquiring transcripts. We also work with other companies that provide job placement services, resume reviews, financial literacy training, and other forms of aid.

Flanders also assists our clients by working with the Veterans Administration to expedite their GI Bill benefits, pursue disability claims when applicable, and even negotiate with bill collectors to postpone payments.

Our Peer-to-Peer Support Specialists are highly involved in suicide prevention and mental illness advocacy, outreach, and awareness, providing peer-to-peer support for those we can, and referring those in need of more professional help to our partnered licensed therapists or psychologists, at no cost to the Veteran.

These services are essential to provide for those servicemembers and Veterans who do not meet the criteria for other support programs.

NRH: Now, can you tell us about yourself. How and why did you choose this organization to work with?

SW: I enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2007 and I continue to serve with over 14 years of Active Duty and reserve service. I’m an OEF Combat Veteran (Afghanistan 2013), and I have served in several roles such as Information Operations (I.O.), marketing, and Public Affairs.

I graduated from the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy in 2014, where I became a certified law enforcement officer, specializing in narcotic interdiction and investigations. I worked at the National Guard’s Marksmanship Training Center, serving both as a Public Affairs Officer and an international shooting competitor. I also attended UA Little Rock in Central Arkansas where I studied Applied Communications and Political Science.

I now serve as the Jr. Vice Commander of a local Arkansas-based VFW Post, a member of Rotary International, and also as the Vice President of Domestic Partnerships and Crisis Programs for Flanders Fields.

Volunteering with Flanders Fields was an easy decision. After spending weeks working on the disastrous evacuation from Afghanistan, the founder of Flanders, Ben Owen, asked me if I’d be willing to join the team. It was a rather easy decision to make, as Flanders had an identical philosophy to mine when it came to helping our fellow Veterans.

I’ve lost many friends from military service to suicide. Serving as a law enforcement officer, I saw many unintentional suicides due to overdoses, specifically opiate overdoses.

I’m tired of losing friends. I’m tired of the senseless deaths. I’m sick of seeing addiction overtake the nation and I take our mission personally. Every aspect of Flanders Fields is near and dear to my heart. We’re there when others aren’t and we fight for those who need it. Sometimes it’s just an ear that people need, sometimes it’s a bed or even a treatment facility to overcome addiction.

I work with a phenomenal group of colleagues at Flanders, such as Ben Owen, the president, Robert Coleman, our COO, and Tyler Ledford, our CFO. They have all made a significant impact in my life in the time that I’ve known them. That’s how I know the Flanders mission is worthwhile. I’d like to add, as I feel obligated to, that every penny coming into Flanders, goes right back out to our support services. Nobody on the board, no executive, and no volunteer collect a dime from our incoming donations. We put 100% of everything we receive into the programs our Veterans desperately need.

NRH: Tell us what your goals are for your organization this coming year?

SW: We have a lot of goals for 2022 but the most important, in my opinion, would be the expansion of our list of resource partners that have a common goal of assisting Veterans in need and increasing the number of volunteers we have available to assist us in our day-to-day operations.

NRH: Tell us about one success story you are really proud of.

SW: One of our success stories that I’m really proud of, involves a Veteran that was trying to keep his family together. He was living in temporary housing, separate from his wife and children at the time but he wanted to work on his marriage. They went to counseling together and decided to get their own place and move back in together.

They had both just acquired new jobs but simply didn’t have the finances on hand to pay for all of the required utility deposits. I and our CFO, Tyler Ledford, worked for two days straight simply trying to make contact with the utility companies and see what we could do to assist. Tyler was finally able to get a representative that allowed us to provide the required amount for the Veteran’s utility, allowing him to move into the residence the very next day.

That is simply one of the numerous examples of how we’ve helped get people on their feet, giving them a hand up when they’re down and ensuring they have the means and resources to become financially independent and thrive self-sufficiently.

NRH: What do you find to be the biggest challenge to working in the nonprofit industry (or with your organization in particular) since the start of the pandemic?

SW: I believe we, America, have been fighting a pandemic, before “the pandemic”. Opioid addiction and suicide rates have skyrocketed, even so with the pandemic. The war we wage on the pandemic before the pandemic has relied on an increase in efforts, but addiction and suicide are difficult areas to address already. The fall of Afghanistan and COVID are just adding layers of issues to the overarching problem we fight daily.

NRH: Aside from increasing awareness and donations, what is one area of your business you would love assistance with?

SW: Any Veteran that has struggled with addiction, will rarely choose any other means of ending their own life. Suicide is suicide and it doesn’t matter if it was from squeezing a trigger or ingesting a lethal amount of a toxic substance.

From what we can best gather, the number of Veteran suicides is actually double what is being reported. Reporting suicide all depends on state law, ME or Coroner knowledge, reporting requirements, etc… Suicide, be it intentional or unintentional (drug overdose), has gotten out of control.

We have an extremely valued partnership with American Defense News where they assist us in highlighting the issue of veteran suicides and removing the stigma surrounding veteran addiction.

We are helping many Veterans fight “The War, After The War” and we would greatly appreciate any available assistance.

NRH: What program initiatives do you have scheduled for this coming year and how can the NRH community get involved to support you?

SW: One of our program initiatives for 2022 is the acquisition of properties and the establishment of, for a lack of better terms, halfway houses for Veterans. A place where they can have proper shelter, reintegrate after addiction treatment facility release, and prepare themselves for self-sustainability by utilizing our other programs that help them with their resumes, workforce development, and job placement.

We would love any type of support available for this initiative to include, but not limited to, additional virtual peers, licensed mental health providers, employers or placement organizations, and, of course, donors.

NRH: What are you most looking forward to as a new Nonprofit Partner with the NRH?

SW: We are here to help and network. If somebody sees that we offer a service that their nonprofit could utilize, we look forward to them utilizing us. We are Veterans supporting Veterans and we are proud to be of service.

NRH: Is there anyone you would like to connect with that, perhaps, we could help make an introduction for you?

SW: Gary Sinise, of the Gary Sinise Foundation.

NRH: We encourage all of our Members and Partners to work on building our community and relationships within. How can we get in touch with you? What is your preferred method of communication?

SW: Phone: 501-503-9910

Email: stephen.wright@flandersfields.org

Website: https://flandersfields.org/

Flanders’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/flandersfields Stephen’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwright2269/

Associate Member Spotlight: Timeshred

We would like to welcome one of our new Associate Members, James Dowse, COO for Timeshred, a paper shredding service provider. Please take a moment to read about Jim, Timeshred, and what they are doing to help support the nonprofit community, businesses, and homes.

NRH: Thanks for sitting with us today, Jim. Welcome to the Nonprofit Resource Hub! Can you tell us about Timeshred?

JD: We offer the following:

On-time shredding for businesses
Scheduled or Ongoing Office Shredding Programs
Residential Shredding
Shredding Events

NRH: What is your company’s motto?

JD: Call us today to shred your documents tomorrow.

NRH: Can you tell us about your role at Timeshred?

JD: I’m the COO, I’m responsible for all aspects of the running of the company.

NRH: What is your personal motto?

JD: Negative thoughts will never give you a positive life.

NRH: That’s a great motto! Can you tell us about your team at Timeshred?

JD: Our entire in-office team knows how to sell shredding so when you call a real person answers the phone. They will explain our services, give you a quote and set up your appointment as soon as tomorrow. All of our service techs are well trained and will do all the work for you, even carrying your documents up or downstairs if necessary.

NRH: Can you tell us how Timeshred supports the nonprofit community?

JD: We offer flexible shredding programs to meet the individual needs of each organization. We can also help nonprofits host shredding events to generate donations.

NRH: Do you have any events, programs, or promotions running right now (or in the near future) you think the NRH community would benefit from?

JD: Not right now, but we know a lot of people are taking advantage of their time at home right now and are cleaning out their houses. We encourage everyone to shred their documents accordingly. One question I’m asked often is if we provide services to residential homes. We do. We will send a truck right to your house and the shredding will be done through the truck in real-time. You never have to worry of your persona information wasn’t shredded with us.

NRH: James, if there is one nugget professional of wisdom you want to share with our community, what would it be?

JD: Focus on your website so people can find your business or organization.

NRH: What are the goals for Timeshred as you move forward into 2022?

JD: Continue to grow the business through marketing and networking.

NRH: What are you most looking forward to as a new Associate Member with the NRH?

JD: Being able to help nonprofits protect their private information on paper.

NRH: We encourage all of our Members and Partners to work on building our community and relationships within. How can we get in touch with you? What is your preferred method of communication?

JD: Phone: (516) 690-8999

Email: jamesd@timeshred.com

Website: www.timeshred.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameswdowse/