Category Archives: Mankato Networking Meetings

Mankato Recap: Nonprofit Leadership Tips and Tricks

Posted on February 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

During last Friday’s Mankato Area Nonprofit Networking Lunch, Lynn Vincent of Vincent & McBride, a Northfield-based consulting firm, shared some of her favorite tips, tricks and resources.  It was a full-house and the pens were busy, including mine.  Here are a few of things I managed to jot down:

  • Have a “lieutenant” — someone who is empowered to act as needed (in addition to you)
  • As the executive director, work in deep partnership with the board chair/president. Be seen together. Make sure people know you are team.
  • Remember to regularly assess the strengths of individual board members and to have a variety of people on your board.
  • Don’t underestimate the importance of the nominating committee.
  • Also, boards should do a self-assessment of themselves.
  • Other board reminders: make sure your board knows how to read financial statements, make sure they are not micro-managing, and remind them one of their jobs is to “give and get”.
  • Encourage the board to set the agenda — it empowers them.

Lynn also spoke a lot on leadership and shared several books that have helped guide her through her years of leading nonprofits. It was such a good reminder that while  even in the midst of the challenges that come with simply managing day-to-day (sometimes hour-by-hour), that taking time for some big-picture leadership is critical.

If you missed the networking lunch or want to follow up on any of these thoughts with Lynn, please feel free to contact her or her colleagues. They are MCN Associate members, have an amazing combined experience and are looking forward to working with nonprofits in Southern Minnesota.

Our next lunch in Mankato will be Friday, March 18!

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Posted in Mankato Networking Meetings

Mankato Networking Lunch Recap: Virtual Assistants

Posted on January 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

Despite the coldest air of the winter and a late-start day for area schools impacting many schedules, we had a nice turnout of the first Mankato Networking Lunch of 2011. MCN associate member Holly Anthony of Anthony Office Solutions joined us to explain a little bit about what a virtual assistant is and how they can help nonprofits. Turns out Holly can not only help with a whole bunch of things (check her website for a complete run down), but she is also a wealth of knowledge about what is new/good/not-so-good when it comes to web-based software. She shared some of her favorite resources and we heard about how she helps clients all over the country using web-based resources. She has one client that relies on her to a lot of reminding and it got me thinking how useful something like this would be in fundraising. How often have you had in the back of your mind to touch base with so-and-s0 that you met a while ago? Well, one of things Holly can do is help keep people on track and does of a lot of behind-the-scenes the leg-work too, like crafting emails, but makes sure that it’s authentic and is coming from the client. She also is a Constant Contact Business Partner and is qualified to come talk to you or your group about the benefits of using this software.  Despite much of her world being virtual (and acknowledging that her entire business was in her laptop bag), Holly has a real life in Madison Lake, which just east of Mankato, and offers a free phone consultation if you want to chat with her about the unique needs of your organization.

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Posted in Mankato Networking Meetings

Mankato network lunch — June recap

Posted on June 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

We had a nice turnout of nonprofit leaders from the area last Friday, all attending to learn more about the Pepsi Refresh grants. Julie Peck, the local Pepsi representative, focused more on the local grants than the national project. The deadline for the local grants (which need to be from 501(c)(3) orgs in their distribution area) is July 31, 2010. What was nice about Friday’s lunch, was that in the mix of the nearly-20 attendees: there were a couple of orgs that had received a grant and were able to share their experience, as well as a student who sat on the local grant committee, who was able to share a bit more about how they awarded the grants. It was also interesting to see some of the posters Pepsi has put together, featuring some of the grantees, and learn more about the added benefit of receiving a grant: the publicity generated by Pepsi through radio, posters and social media. In all a great meeting, filled with nonprofits learning from each other, which is exactly the goal of the lunches. Thanks to everyone who attended, thanks to Pepsi for their support of nonprofits, and thanks to Julie, for her time and  for bringing free cans of — what else — Pepsi!

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Posted in Grant Opportunities, Mankato Networking Meetings

Want more information about the Pepsi Refresh Grants?

Posted on June 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

Success! I just confirmed that a rep from Pepsi Mankato will attend the at the Friday, June 18 Mankato nonprofit networking lunch to share her insight and knowledge about both the national Pepsi Refresh grants and as well as the local Pepsi grants. As always, the lunch will be from Noon-1:00 at the Blue Earth County Historical Society in Mankato! Save the date and plan to attend and watch for details…

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Posted in Grant Opportunities, Mankato Networking Meetings

Databases: Mankato nonprofit networking lunch recap

Posted on March 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

Although I wasn’t able to attend last Friday’s networking lunch (see previous post about vacation) meaning I’m unable to provide any additional insights from the lunch, I did want to thank guest facilitators Shannon Robinson, executive director of MCN member org Twin Rivers Center for the Arts in Mankato and Peter Olson, executive director of MCN member org Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota. Both have experience in researching, purchasing and implementing databases and I’m thankful they were willing to share their experience. I’m sure that if you were unable to attend but have questions regarding databases, that either or both would be willing to share.

Another resource is this week’s MCN Technology and Communications Conference, coming right up this Wednesday. Database-related topics will undoubtedly come up throughout the day both in breakout sessions and in the exhibitor area. Several nonprofits from South Central/Southwest will be attending — feel free to scroll the list and follow up with them after the conference. Better yet, head on up yourself — on-site registration is available!

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Posted in Drive Worthy, Mankato Networking Meetings

Mankato Networking Lunch Recap

Posted on February 19, 2010 | Leave a comment

No, this picture wasn’t taken during today’s Mankato Area Nonprofit Networking Lunch, (although ice cream would be a welcome addition to our lunches) –  it was taken during a much-deserved break at the Coffee Hag in Mankato after the lunch. Besides, there was no time for pictures during our jam-packed hour+  meeting today. Steve Francisco, federal policy director for the Minnesota Budget Project and Jeff Narabrook, public policy assistant and Census guru, covered a ton of information in a short amount of time. Steve discussed some federal issues, how they impact Minnesota’s nonprofits,  and provided some action items.

Jeff shared a bit more about the overall importance of the Census, addressed possible barriers to the Census and talked about the important role nonprofits have, especially since nonprofits often have access and trust with many of our hard-to-count populations. A member of the North Mankato City Council in attendance, who also works for a nonprofit,  pointed out that in her city alone, the difference between the official Census count in 2000 and the count by the City is off by 300-400 people, meaning North Mankato, over the past ten years, has lost out on $1000 per each “not-counted” person per year for the past 10 years.

Jeff also got the best response of the day when he demonstrated “the cool Census pens”. And yes, he left me a box of the cool pens, so if you’d like one, let me know. And, if you’d like more information about today’s presentations, I do have a few handouts and/or would be happy to direct you to key resources. MCN is also hosting several free Census webinars.

A special shout-0ut to the many nonprofits who came from out of town today — we had nonprofit representatives from New Ulm, Redwood Falls and Elysian along with many nonprofits from the Mankato-St. Peter area.

Next Mankato Area Nonprofit Networking Lunch: Friday March 19. The topic will be nonprofit databases with guest facilitators from MCN member orgs Twin Rivers Center for the Arts and the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota. They will share a bit about how they researched and purchased their databases and facilitate a discussion about this ever-popular topic.

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Posted in Federal Policy, Mankato Networking Meetings

Mankato Networking Lunch: Tips from Rep. Terry Morrow

Posted on January 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

Minnesota House of Representative Assistant Majority Leader Terry Morrow was the special guest at today’s Mankato Area Nonprofit Networking Meeting. He gave an overview of the state of the state as he sees it, answered questions and listened to organizational stories. He also left the group with some tips for nonprofits who want contact their elected officials:

  1. Be in touch with your elected officials, but be prepared to tell them what will happen if funding is cut. Real-life impacts, short-term and long-term implications are key. Don’t just say “services will be cut” — what does that mean?
  2. Keep acronyms/organizational lingo to a minimum.
  3. Let elected officials know what regulations are being imposed on your organization. What is your organization no longer going to be able to do because of those regulations?
  4. Don’t send form emails. Have it be from constituents with their personal stories.
  5. If you’re at the Capitol (ie: a day on the hill type event) don’t spend time meeting with elected officials that you know support you. Instead, ask those that support you to let you know who they think may need to be persuaded.
  6. If you bring information, keep it to one sheet with bullet-points.
  7. Inform the public/work with media to let them know about your work. Messages like “the arts contribute to the economy” get people talking about your issue. And if more people know about and support your issues, there is a higher chance they will help speak on your behalf.  As he said “would the people at EconFoods in St. Peter know about your issue?”
  8. Have constituents speak on your behalf. A “regular” person speaking on behalf of the importance of your nonprofit stands out.  (See numbers 1, 4 and 7).
  9. Email is good.
  10. Invite elected officials to your organization.

Find out more about and how to contact your elected officials.
Learn more about Governor Pawlenty’s visit to Mankato on January 20.

The next Mankato Area Networking Lunch will be Friday, February 19 with special guest Steve Francisco, federal policy director of the Minnesota Budget Project. Steve will be discussing the local impact of federal legislation.

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Posted in Mankato Networking Meetings, Public Policy