Justin Greene's Blog

Identifying and Realizing Operational EfficienciesIn Non-Profit OrganizationsJustin Greene
The Machine Is Too Lean             Non-profit organizations constantly face operational challenges in today’s fiscally constrained environment. Not only through attracting and retaining diverse revenue streams, but also by ensuring that they are good stewards of the funds they are entrusted with. This means most non-profit organizations typically operate under much smaller overhead costs then companies in the for profit arena. Two primary reasons are the organizations want to ensure as much funding as possible goes directly to philanthropic efforts, and the public perception looks negatively toward non-profit organizations that have overhead rates that are even comparable to businesses in the for-profit sector. Unfortunately, this can lead to organizations that are actually too lean and inefficient! By not having the proper resources such as personnel, processes, procedures, and software systems available, non-profit organizations can actually be hurting their bottom line through an inefficient use of their resources(e.g. not enough resources to properly document business operations or using grants that do not allow funds to be applied toward overhead of servicing the grant). A flip side to this is non-profit organizations that have invested heavily in a customer relationship management or enterprise resource planning system may not be getting their best value from it through improper process control or translation of existing processes into the new system (e.g. not having the resources to properly baseline, update, and manage workflows in a new system). Bringing on a full time resource specifically to address business operations and process improvement is usually too costly to the smaller organization that has limited funds and is generally perceived as an unnecessary expense in a larger organization that might have the resources. Hiring a consultant to streamline business operations could prove to be even more costly with hourly rates in the triple digits plus any expenses incurred. How can non-profit organizations achieve a balance of realizing operational efficiencies without spending themselves out of existence?
Who Goes Where?             Pass-through non-profit organizations are a popular construct for medium to large non-profits that directly fund local non-profits which fall within the pass-through organization’s mission. Part of the mission for pass-through organizations is to assist smaller non-profits with resources that would not normally be available to them. This can include resources to aid in ensuring operational efficiency through process improvement. If these resources aren’t currently available, a business case must be made to bring them in-house to the organization. Paying an outside consulting firm on a temporary, let alone full time basis can be extraordinarily cost prohibitive for most non-profits. Assuming a loaded rate of $150 an hour an organizational or efficiency consultant can run $26,000 a month before expenses! If a position is brought in house, even with a 50% rate reduction to $75 an hour (salary + benefits) this would still be considered extremely high for the industry unless we dive into the numbers. Within an organization that has over $6,000,000 in revenue each year this is approximately 2.6% of its annual revenue. The key is not looking at the cost but learning to understand the value.
The Value Proposition             In a $6,000,000 a year organization a 10% efficiency realization is $600,000. Even a modest 1-5% improvement still yields $60-300k worth of savings a year. Using the $75 an hour rate, cost savings are still realized very quickly through dispersion of efforts across multiple organizations. With the pass-through organization providing the resource to all of its funded partners, efficiencies of all sizes would start to be realized, which in turns makes these organizations more efficient, which makes them better stewards of their money, which ultimately put’s more funding into hands of those that need it most. Since this work is directly supporting not only the pass-through organization but its funded partners, this position could be considered a direct billable support and itself not count toward the overhead of the organization. With rates that would be extremely competitive compared to commercial options, this resource can be marketed toward other non-profits in the area that aren’t funded partners and to local for-profit businesses as a potential revenue stream for the organization. Non-tangible benefits include the increased relationships with funded partners, other non-profits, as well as other organizations, donors, and key stakeholders in the area through the reassurance that these organizations are being managed as efficiently as possible. In tough financial times and the ever present scrutiny that surrounds non-profit organizations, being able to do more with the resources you have through operational efficiencies and process improvement is a much better alternative than having to do the same with less.
References:Pallota, D. (2013, March). Dan Pallotta: The way we think about charity is dead wrong. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.htmlHrywna, M. (2013, February 01). Salary freezes begin to thaw, turnover rockets upward. Retrieved from http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/1359731596_2-1-13_SalaryBenefits.pdfWing, K. (2010, February). Introducing lean for nonprofits. Retrieved from http://www.philasocialinnovations.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=118:introducing-lean-for-nonprofits&catid=19:disruptive-innovations&Itemid=30Goggins, A., & Howard, D. (2009, Fall). The nonprofit starvation cycle. Retrieved from http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_nonprofit_starvation_cycle/Warren, Z. (2008, November). Occupational employment in the not-for-profit sector. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/11/art2full.pdfLassiter, V. (2007, April 12). The role of process improvement in the nonprofit organization. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=od_theses_msodBrowne, C. (n.d.). Corporate vs. nonprofit salary differences. Retrieved from http://work.chron.com/corporate-vs-nonprofit-salary-differences-21564.html         Budgeting for a Consultant. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nonprofitinclusiveness.org/budgeting-consultant

Yesterday my ebook "Starting Up A Business...Smartly: The Basics of 21st Century Entrepreneurship" went live on Amazon.

This is the first book in a series called Starting Up Smartly, that will cover a range of topics involved with starting and running a business. Some of the sections that I've written about are:

How your business should be structuredPerforming market researchPlanning and estimating your product and/or serviceUtilizing social mediaCrowdfundingPhilanthropy for cross-promotionLoans and venture capitalThe business plan...and others...The book will give someone a good overview of the effort required in the various areas of a start-up. Even if the business is already running some of the areas about social media, philanthropy, and crowdfunding can be informative to the business owner looking for a new edge in the market.
Follow-on books will be more detailed version of the above topics and more to include: Research & analysisEstimating & planningnon-profitsCrowdfundingBusiness plansSocial media...user submitted sections...Each of the topics will be more detailed with examples, analysis, suggestions, and recommendations. Eventually when I have enough books written I can package them in a complete set or in relevant groupings to offer the reader a variety of price points and selections so that they only need to purchase the sections they need.



Follow me on social media. There’s plenty to choose from. Buy my books @ Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/justingreeneWatch my blogs and reviews: http://www.youtube.com/user/JustinGreeneAuthorRead my blogs and reviews: http://justingreeneauthor.blogspot.com/Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/JustinGreeneAuthorTwitter: https://twitter.com/JSGinHSVGoodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/JustinGreeneGoogle+ Page: https://plus.google.com/+JustinGreeneAuthor
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/justingreene1/

I recently joined the website KindleMojo and setup an author profile. It offers free profiles and is another way to connect myself with potential audiences. Recently the site started their first contest in which you can win some advertising space. I thought it would be a good chance to dust off the ol' creative cobwebs and have a little fun in the process.

Here was the Challenge (Stories must be at least 700 words):

Write this Fellow's back story:

 Below is the story I submitted....

Comforting Non-Conformity            Reginald Shaun Tuttleworth, or Regger, as he liked to be called had always considered himself a loner and a rebel. Not because of his fierce independent spirit and constant shirking of societal norms; but because he was a huge fan of 1980’s pop-culture. Living apart from society and constantly fighting against its perceived “norms” offered a stark, bi-polar contrast to his obsession with 1980’s pop-culture and the commercialization associated with it.Regger’s mother was a stage hand for a number of local punk rock bands that traveled the Pacific-Northwest. She was on the road almost 7 days a week. Setting up and tearing down gigs, sometimes multiple bands on one night, was physically challenging and time constrained work. Most of the punk bands she supported were notoriously late for the venues. As such, the equipment that needed to be setup was never available early to allow for a proper, professional setup. Wires and cables were rarely tied off or wrapped neatly. Instead the jumbled spaghetti stranded masses of black instrument, speaker, and power cables were hastily plugged in and duct taped down the best they could to, hopefully, keep them from getting pulled out during the high energy, and often violent sets the bands performed. The hours were long, but the pay kept food on the table, the bills paid, and the opportunity to work with and watch perform some of the best punk bands in the world.Regger’s father was a mid-level avionics engineer working for the Boeing Company in their commercial aircraft division. Growing up it was obvious he was destined to become and engineer of some sort. He was always taking things apart, putting them back together, and tinkering with things trying to make them work better or more efficiently. When he got to high school he enrolled in computer aided drafting and electronics classes. After graduating high school he was accepted into the University of Washington’s engineering program where he double majored in electrical and aerospace engineering. Graduating with a 3.9GPA Boeing hired him immediately. Starting out as a junior engineer working on commercial aircraft, designing and testing parts and assemblies, was the challenging and exciting engineering career he had always wanted. Slowly though, as he worked his way up, the bureaucracy of working for one of the world’s largest companies started to get to him. No longer was he building, creating or modifying. Instead he was writing performance requirements, verifying vendor specifications, and attending product team meetings. The hours were long, but the pay kept food on the table, the bills paid, and the opportunity to work with and watch some of the best aircraft in the world.The Rancid Rockabilly Café was the very definition of punk personified into a small dive bar. Just north of Everett, Washington it was a 1,800 square foot pre-fabricated drab metal building a couple miles east of Interstate 5. Inside the walls were adorned with a variety of instruments, more broken then intact, along with vinyl records that cover almost the entire history of punk rock music arranged haphazardly on all four walls and in absolutely no discernible order whatsoever.  The only seating in the entire building were 10 stools, bolted down to the concrete slab floor in front of the bar. The non-stop mosh pits and late-night bar fights precluded the need to have much furniture as it would only get broken or used as a weapon during whatever drunken group melee unfolded.It was a mild July evening at the Café. Reggers mom was pacing out back, chain smoking and muttering obscenities under her breath. The equipment hadn’t arrived yet, neither had the band for that matter, and the show was supposed to start in 25 minutes. She was so engrossed in planning her setup routing in her mind that she didn’t hear someone approach her. “Got a light?” the young man asked nervously. “I don’t really smoke and I forgot matches. Then again I don’t normally go to places like this on a Thursday either.”“Where do you normally go on a Thursday then?” she asked as she pulled a worn matchbook out of her jean pocket.“Nowhere, I’m usually at work or at home reading” he replied with a sigh. “What about you?” he asked her.“About the same thing I’m doing now, just not necessarily at this dive.” She said back sighing too.“If you’re really bored we could go make out somewhere.” He replied. Although he tried to pass it off as a joke his voice cracked as he finished up his sentence.She looked back at him incredulously, seeing the shyness and fear in his eyes, she smirked and shot back “Who ARE you?”“I’m not really anybody, just an engineer that doesn’t do engineering for a company that builds things.” He half-heartedly responded.She looked him over intently. He wasn’t a bad looking guy, maybe a little too introverted and unsure of himself for her liking. But she thought back to her current dry spell with men. She had a pretty strict no dating musicians rule because of the complexities of travel and the close knit circle the punk community was in the area. Unfortunately all her time revolved around musicians who put her ability to have a relationship, physical or otherwise, in a serious dilemma. The guy was DEFINITELY not in the same circles she ran in. “Screw it.” She said, flipping her cigarette but on the ground and grabbing him by the arm. “My station wagon’s over here.”After their brief parking lot tryst that was the last she ever saw of him. But not the last she would ever think of him. Nine months later she gave birth to Regger. Being on the road almost non-stop made it impossible to properly care for a child though. Fortunately her mother lived in a small semi-secluded cabin on Whidbey Island, west of Everett, Washington, so she left Regger with her to be raised. Unbeknownst to Regger’s mom, Regger’s grandmother was suffering from mild senility and dementia. Regger’s real parent was the TV. Before and after school Regger spent hours and hours glued to the programs of the 1980’s while his grandmother would doze off in her recliner. Seeing his mother sporadically led Regger to confusedly idolize her and he developed an obsession with punk rock through his brief interactions with her over the years.
By the time he turned eighteen his love of his TV upbringing combined with his obsession with punk rock had led him to get a myriad of tattoos all over his body. The culmination of which ended up being a black outline tattoo of hello kitty, complete with a filled in pink bow on his forehead. Every time he looked back at himself in the mirror it screamed societal non-conformity while simultaneously comforting him with its reminder to the simpler television pacified childhood he had with his grandmother in the absence of his real mother or father.

150th Anniversary of the Gettysburg AddressYesterday, November 19th, 2013 was the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln reading the Gettysburg Address. I participated in Learn The Address a collaboration between Ken Burns and PBS.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, documentarian Ken Burns, along with numerous partners, has launched a national effort to encourage everyone in America to video record themselves reading or reciting the speech.The collection of recordings housed on this site will continue to grow as more and more people are inspired by the power of history and take the challenge to LEARN THE ADDRESS.

One thing that I didn't know about the address was that there is actually five different version of the address. You can read more about them here: Five versions of the Gettysburg Address

I just recently got a webcam setup to start blogging so I thought this would be as good a time as any to try it out.

Welcome to my blog!This is where I'll write and also share videos from my Youtube Author page. I plan on keeping the content and ideas fresh. Since I can't offer ebooks and other works for free permanently on Amazon I will publish them exclusively through here! I will also write book reviews, post trailers for any of my upcoming writings, and blog about issues concerning business, entrepreneurship, non-profits, and philanthropy.

If you stumbled across this by accident here's a little more about me and where to find me on the web.

Justin Greene, a Tennessee native, and resident of Huntsville, AL is an author, results driven leader, manager, entrepreneur, designer, consultant, and analyst working with over 16 years’ professional experience in commercial, government, and non-profit organizations. In his spare time he enjoys volunteering his time and resources for a variety of local philanthropic causes.
Follow me on social media. There’s plenty to choose from. Buy my books @ Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/justingreeneWatch my blogs and reviews: http://www.youtube.com/user/JustinGreeneAuthorFacebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/JustinGreeneAuthorTwitter: https://twitter.com/JSGinHSVGoodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/JustinGreeneGoogle+ Page: https://plus.google.com/+JustinGreeneAuthor
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/justingreene1/