Leading a non-profit organization is not for the faint of heart.
In many respects, it is more difficult than running a for-profit enterprise. The challenges include finding and keeping volunteers, securing sustainable funding, and recruiting staff with less money than they could expect in the
for-profit world.
In Snohomish County, we are fortunate to have many great non-profit organizations providing services that enhance the social infrastructure of our community.
One is the Snohomish County Chapter of the American Red Cross. Chuck Morrison, its executive director, has been at the helm for eight years.
We recently sat down with Morrison to ask about what it takes to successfully run a non-profit organization. Here are the highlights of our conversation.
Q: What do you enjoy most about running a non-profit?
A: I like creating a vision that allows us to be better than we were when I started running the organization. In today’s world, this means, as everyone has heard before, the ability to “do more with less,” to “work smarter, not harder,” etc. I enjoy helping people when they are most vulnerable.
At Red Cross, we get the honor of sending volunteers to areas of the country they’d never visit, to help people they don’t know when they need it most. While we specialize in responding locally, and do so about 110 times annually — to house fires, floods, etc. — our volunteers get the most meaning out of travelling to Montana, Missouri, Oklahoma, to help people recover from their personal disaster, even if they’re sharing that personal disaster with tens of thousands of others.
Q. What do you dislike the most?
A. I’d love to do more financially for victims of disaster than we can do. Without government funding, we rely solely on the generosity of the American public, and in a time of economic hardship, the level of personal giving is not what it once was. That’s understandable, and like most non-profits we under pay the market for our incredibly dedicated staff.
Q. What advice do you have for a person contemplating starting a non-profit?
A. Get advice from as many people as possible, and allow more time than you think you’ll need. Clearly articulate the problem you want to address, and articulate a vision for the end state (what the town/state/world will look like when you’ve accomplished what you want to accomplish).
Q. What are the most critical skills, knowledge and attributes required to successfully run a non-profit?
A. A great non-profit leader can be, and knows when to be, a visionary, a manager, a leader, a friend, a teacher, a coach, the quarterback, the counselor, the tactician and the taskmaster. A great non-profit leader can do some/most of those things, and knows how to hire the right people to get the rest done. Endless patience helps as well.
Q. What is stressful about running a non-profit? Why? How can one minimize that?
A. At the Red Cross, it’s the difficulty of managing, staffing and leading in a field where you can’t predict where you’ll be needed. Wal-Mart knows where to put the next store; we don’t know where our next shelter will be. How do we weigh the risks in Los Angeles versus the risks in Louisiana, versus the risks on our own South Whidbey fault? With unlimited resources, we could invest in all areas to match the worst possible scenario, but that’s not realistic. So the constant push/pull of 170 regional executives is to be strategic in investment decisions, while assuring our local residents that we’ll be there when our community needs us to be there.
Q. What failures have taught you the most and why?
A. I don’t ask enough questions of staff sometimes. I need to challenge them more to ensure that their policy and/or procedures are the best they can be, not just “the way we do it.”
Q. What keeps you awake at night?
A. The budget decisions that affect the lives of people who’ve worked incredibly hard and well to make us successful.
Q. What’s the best thing about running the local chapter of the American Red Cross?
A. I get to work with a great staff. I have the honor of helping more than 350 volunteers to meet their personal volunteering goals (and these volunteers come from a wide swath of our community — teachers, nurses, engineers, law enforcement, IT professionals, etc.). I have the honor to be the face of Red Cross with our government partners, our community leaders, and our generous donors. How cool is that?
Pat Sisneros is the Vice President of College Services at Everett Community College. Juergen Kneifel is an Associate Faculty in the EvCC Business program.
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