I invite you to my friend Tom Johnson's art opening tonight (who recently snapped some photos of me that I plan on using as part of my new website...stay tuned!).  Here's a link to a blog that has several of his Lakewood photos.  Here's another link to a recent story that appeared in the Long Beach Press Telegram about Tom along with more information about the opening:

For those of you not on my email list, here's a link to the recent monthly email update I just sent out.  In it, I share some lessons from Mexico City, tips for starting a nonprofit and updates on my consulting work. Enjoy!  If you would like to receive future monthly news updates sent directly to your inbox, please contact me and let me know. 
Thanks, 
Ron

The Liberty Hill Foundation continues to fund progressive, social-change oriented organizations working to transform Los Angeles into an equitable, livable city.  This year, Liberty Hill established the Wally Marks Institute for Leadership.  When Liberty Hill called me to ask if I could provide personalized coaching for some of their grantees participating in their Leadership Institute, I immediately said yes.

Since then, I have enjoyed working with three of their most dynamic organizations – CHIRLA, CLUE and LA Voice.  My role as a coach is to work with the leadership of these organizations to enhance their capacity around board development issues.  For each organization, we developed a series of goals and are now meeting on a regular basis between now and December to make their goals reality.

As always, I enjoy learning about the issues these organizations work on, ranging from human rights, economic justice and health care.  

1. BUILD YOUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Recruit a diverse group of people that believe in your mission

2. DECIDE THE “BIG PICTURE” OF YOUR ORGANIZATION
Have the Board decide the organization’s mission, vision, values and long-term goals (I recommend doing this at a weekend retreat).

3. DEVELOP YOUR WORKPLAN
Based on your long-term goals, develop a plan – What actions will you take? Who will lead them? When will they occur?

4. DECIDE HOW WILL YOU FUND IT
Develop a plan to raise money - Who might want to support this effort? How will you cultivate these funders? How/when will you solicit these funders?

5. DECIDE YOUR LEGAL STRUCTURE
Some choices: 1) Become your own legal nonprofit  2) Go under the umbrella of an existing nonprofit  3) Go under the umbrella of a nonprofit incubator

Ways in which I can help:

-I’m a skilled facilitator and can work with your organization’s leadership to make important decisions during a retreat

-I’m an experienced fundraiser and can help your organization create a fundraising plan

To discuss further, please contact me.

Having already served 15 clients this year, I decided to bring on some talent to assist me with my consulting work.  After initially bringing Bob Mckechnie on as an intern earlier in the year, I recently promoted him to my first associate here at Ron Milam Consulting. 

Bob McKechnie is a writer, educator and counselor.  For most of his life Bob served as an English and journalism teacher, counselor, and administrator at the secondary and university levels in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Coachella Valley.  Recently Bob turned his attention to raising funds for programs that help the working poor, food insecure, homeless, and youth.  I first met Bob while leading a training at the Center for Nonprofit Management.  His eagerness to learn about fundraising caught my attention.

As an excellent writer, Bob assists me with my work providing fundraising services to clients.  Bob has provided a valuable second set of eyes to me to help my clients develop strong grant proposals.  With attention to detail, Bob has also assisted me as I have researched potential funding sources for clients using resources like the Foundation Center database.

Outside of consulting, Bob serves on two non-profit boards, and works in leadership positions in the recovery community. Bob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in social science and journalism from the University of Oregon, Eugene, and a Master of Science Degree in counseling from California State University, East Bay.  

As I mentioned in a previous post, five years ago this month I launched my own consulting practice.  To celebrate that, I'm hosting a happy hour on Tuesday, June 22nd at Silverlake Wine (2935 Glendale Blvd.), from 5:30pm to around 8:30pm.   I invite you to join me.    For more info on my happy hours, below is some info from a previous blog post:

A small group of LLA Members meeting with the
Executive Director of Clinica Romero

Last Friday, I planned and facilitated a thought-provoking seminar for the Southern California Leadership Network's Leadership Los Angeles class.  Below is a description of the day SCLN wrote for their newsletter.  This week, I'm working on putting together another seminar for SCLN's Leadership Southern California Class focussing on Land Use, Transportation and Housing.  

Having participated in the Leadership Southern California Program, I would recommend the program to anyone interested in engaging more with regional issues and building a stronger professional network.  Right now, Leadership Southern California is recruiting applicants...check out their website for more info.

Leadership L.A. 2010 evaluates the impact of national healthcare reform on Los Angeles
The Leadership L.A. Class of 2010 continued its nine-month program with a session on Friday, June 11 focusing on health care in Los Angeles. The Fellows met at LAC+USC Medical Center with Dr. Hector Flores, Director, Family Care Specialists Medical Group to discuss the impact national reform has had on Los Angeles' local health care providers and practitioners.  As part of the day, Fellows also met with Jennifer Ybarra, Program Manager, The California Endowment, and toured the Legacy LA facilities and Ramona Gardens neighborhood.  Ybarra stated "it's not enough to have health insurance. A healthy community shapes an individual's quality of life. Lou Calanche, Executive Director, Legacy LA, highlighted key issues that still inhibit quality of life in Ramona Gardens, such as air quality and access to quality food. Excursions moderated by Pete Delgado, President & CEO, LAC + USC Healthcare Network, among others, gave the Fellows the opportunity to analyze three different systems used to provide medical services in LA: public hospitals, private hospitals, and community clinics. Read more@SCLN. View photo gallery.

Five years ago this month, I launched my own consulting practice.   Since then, I’m pleased to report I have consulted for over 40 nonprofit organizations primarily in the areas of facilitation and fundraising. 

I love my work.  I get to work with dynamic leaders working on a variety of issues throughout Southern California.   With each project, I learn about my client’s work to create parks and open space, develop affordable housing, transform streets into bicycle-friendly places, create sustainable communities and so much more.  I also learn more about how to make meetings even more effective and how to engage staff and board members around successful fundraising strategies. 

To celebrate, I plan to hold another happy hour on Tuesday, June 22nd, from 5:30pm to 8:30pm at Silverlake Wine.  As always, my happy hours are places where I invite all of my clients and friends to share a drink and discuss the issues of the day.   I invite you to join us.

We’ll see what the next five years bring.  I hope to serve even more organizations that are working to transform Southern California into a sustainable region.  Thanks for all of your interest and support.

I'm excited to attend a fundraiser for the Liberty Hill Foundation, and invite you to join me.  Below is more information about their signature fundraising event.  I'm pleased to continue serving the Liberty Hill Foundation as a Consultant.  Having led many fundraising trainings for their grantees over the last few years, I'm currently serving as a coach for four of their grantees to build their capacity around board development issues.  Both Liberty Hill and their grantees they fund continue to inspire me with their work for social change in Los Angeles. 

Outside of Consulting, I'm pleased to serve as an LA Urban Ranger.  Earlier today, I met with some of my fellow Rangers and prepared for our final Malibu Public Beach Safari, which we are hosting this Sunday.  I invite you to attend.   Below is information the LA Urban Rangers emailed out about the event.

I just returned from a fantastic three-week vacation in Sri Lanka and Thailand.  I learned a great deal about the people, history and cultures of these two fascinating places.

In Thailand, we kept a safe distance from the protest zone, but discussed the current political unrest with locals during our travels.  The most inspiring place I visited in Thailand was the Elephant Nature Park, where I met the founder Lek (pictured in the photo).  She’s a real visionary who’s developed an engaging institution that not only rescues abused elephants, but inspires and engages visitors and volunteers in the process.  

Sri Lanka was another country recently torn by long-standing strife between its peoples, which we had the opportunity to learn about through conversations with various locals.  We toured Trincomalee in the north that until very recently, was a warzone, but has now returned to some level of normalcy.  The most inspiring place I visited in Sri Lanka was Sigiriya, an ancient Buddhist monestary built into a giant boulder (also pictured).

I hope both countries move forward towards a path of peace.  Altogether I return to Los Angeles refreshed and inspired.  I come back with a greater appreciation for the world’s diversity and my own city of Los Angeles.  I highly recommend international travel to local leadership here in Los Angeles. 

 Here's a link to my March Newsletter with tips + updates

Boards of Director’s play an essential role in building a donor base for any nonprofit organization.

One Board I’m working with recently made an important step in this direction by each making a donation to the school.   Now they were taking the next step in fundraising and discussed ways in which they could each play a role in building a broader donor base for their organization.

In general, each Board member needs to think about people they know in their own networks that might be possible donors.  To help narrow down the list, the following three traits make someone a good prospect:  they believe in the cause, they have money to give and the Board member has a good relationship with them.

Once identified, Board members need to think of ways to introduce their organization to potential folks – whether it be an email, phone call or conversation.   Over time, Board members could find other ways to introduce their organization to potential donors and potentially involve potential donors at the organizations events, with volunteering, or other activities.   Over time, after Board members have cultivated relationships with potential supporters, that Board member needs to find a way to ask that person to support their organization, with a face-to-face ask having the highest likelihood for someone actually saying yes.

Building a donor base takes time, but plays a very important role in ensuring a diversified and sustainable funding stream for a nonprofit organization. 

I’m thrilled to be working with several clients right now on this very topic, including SOAR Charter School, SCANPH and LA Voice. 

Like many, I signed up for a Twitter account and invite you to follow me.  I write about what I'm up to as a Consultant and also retweet posts from others that look interesting.  

One of the "occupational hazards" of twittering, as my friend Mud put it last night, is that there are risks of having your account hacked.  That's exactly what happened to me last night as I was at an event for the LA Neighborhood Land Trust.  

It was actually funny, one of the Board members of the LANLT who I worked with on a regular basis last year as a consultant, showed his phone to me with a suggestive direct message I certainly did not send.  I then quickly got some texts and emails from others with folks who figured out my account got hacked.  It was both alarming and a bit hilarious.  

Anyway, moral of the story is be aware of the risks, and change your passwords every now and then.  Happy Twittering!

I'm excited to lead three of the upcoming "Winning Campaigns" trainings for the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking in 2010 (Burlington, Columbus and Asheville): 

• New Orleans, LA: April 16-18 (Hosted by New Orleans Metro Bicycle Coalition)
• Edison, NJ: June 4-6 (Hosted by New Jersey Bicycle Coalition & East Coast Greenway Alliance)
• Burlington, VT: July 9-11 (Hosted by Local Motion)
• Columbus, OH: Aug 6-8 (Hosted by Bike! Walk!Ohio & Consider Biking)
• Oakland, CA: October 15-17 (Hosted by Walk Oakland Bike Oakland)
• Asheville, NC: November 5-7 (Hosted by Asheville Bicycle Coalition)

I’m excited to be working with the leadership at LA Voice to create a fund development plan.  LA Voice is an interfaith organization engaging congregation members on a number of social change related issues in Los Angeles, including affordable housing, homelessness and health care.  For an inspiring video about the organization’s work, click here.

Over the years, I’ve worked with many organizations to create a fund development plan, including having recently developed a plan for SOAR Charter School.  A fund development plan helps chart a future fundraising course for a nonprofit organization and contains the following: 

• An assessment of the organization’s current fundraising generated from a fundraising audit and leadership survey
• A review of the organizations fundraising materials, including past grant proposals, cover letters and appeal letters
• Development of an overall goal targeting specific strategies to achieve that goal
• A timeline/workplan to implement plan
• A list of possible funding sources
• A staffing plan
• An appendix with additional resources. 

If you or your organization would like more information about how I may be able to assist you with the creation of a fund development plan, please contact me.

I recently completed a consulting project that took several months for the Green LA Coalition.  Green LA works to build a strong movement to win campaigns that can transform Los Angeles into a sustainable city.

For this project, I collaborated closely with another consultant, Beth Steckler.  For this project, we interviewed over 30 people within the Coalition’s leadership and outside the organization, along with surveying the entire membership with an online survey.  Based on this work, we developed an assessment report and later facilitated a day-long strategic visions retreat for the Coalition’s Steering Committee.  From all of the information we gathered through these efforts, we presented a final report with recommendations for how the Coalition could strengthen itself as it moves forward so that it could have the greatest possible impact in making Los Angeles a more sustainable city. 

I’m pleased to report the Steering Committee approved the majority of our recommendations and has asked Beth and I to continue consulting for them to help them implement our recommendations. 

I also look forward to attending Green LA’s upcoming awards fundraiser on March 15^th, from 6pm to 9pm, and invite you to attend.

Many years ago, I benefitted from the work from an intern while directing the LA County Bicycle Coalition (my intern, Andrew, currently teaches in Mexico City and will someday be the Mayor of Detroit).  I later worked closely with an intern while working for Enterprise Community Partners in New York City (that intern, Matt, is currently in Law School and will someday be the Governor of Florida).   As Principal of my own consulting firm with a lot of work on my plate, I'm once again looking to bring on an intern to help me with my work.  In turn, I look forward to working with whoever I bring on to build their capacity as a leader in the nonprofit sector.  Here's the job description.  Please forward to anyone who you think might be interested:

Intern Job Description

 
Ron Milam Consulting is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Intern.  Ron Milam has 12 years of successful experience in the non-profit sector and has consulted for 40 nonprofit organizations since 2005.  His mission is to provide capacity building support for leaders working to transform Los Angeles into a sustainable region.  Ron specializes in the areas of fundraising, strategic planning and leadership development.  He’s a skilled facilitator, presenter, coach and project manager.   For more info, check out www.ronmilam.com.

This position is ideal for someone wanting to gain real world experience as a consultant working for some of Los Angeles’ leading sustainability oriented nonprofit organizations.  It’s also a good place to build your skills as a leader in the nonprofit sector, particularly as a fundraiser and/or facilitator.  As part of the internship, Ron will identify areas in which the intern wants to build their capacity as a leader and discuss it weekly with the intern.   This part-time position is ideal for current graduate students wanting to gain some real-world experience and additional income on the side.  Specific responsibilities of the intern are as follows:

Fundraising

• Research potential donors for Ron’s clients
• Develop/write/review grant proposals
• Copy-edit proposals Ron develops
• Assist with logistical details of fundraising work Ron does for clients (fundraising assessments, leadership surveys, draft plans, etc.)

Facilitation

• Record notes for meetings Ron facilitates
• Facilitate portions of the agenda
• Assist with logistical details related to meetings Ron facilitates

 Marketing

• Help research and identify new consulting clients
• Assist with social media marketing
• Assist with the development of marketing and training materials
• Data-entry

There may be other projects that come up outside of the areas of facilitation, fundraising and marketing, depending on the needs of Ron Milam and his clients.

Desired Skills and Experience:

• Passion and energy for implementing urban sustainability in Los Angeles
• Experience and/or interest in the nonprofit sector
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Detail-oriented
• Strong leadership ability and an entrepreneurial spirit that thrives in a start-up environment

Compensation:

$15/hour.  Part-time.  Flexible hours.

Application Submission – Deadline February 26^th, 2008:

Please email your cover letter and résumé to rpm@ronmilam.com.

I have a family member who did well running a successful company.  When I asked him why he succeeded, he said “I’ll tell you what everyone will say – work hard, never give up, have vision, etc.”  He paused for a moment, smiled, and looked at me and continued sharing “There was one thing that played a key role in our success.  Once a month, I would invite everyone in my company for a drink, from the most senior staff person to the most junior.  We’d spend the first part just mingling and socializing.  Once everyone had two drinks, I would bring out a note pad and we would brainstorm solutions to whatever problems we faced.  That’s where we generated our best ideas!”

In that spirit, I’ve hosted/facilitated a monthly happy hour for the last year which are not only a place to generate great ideas to improve the quality of life in Los Angeles, but also meet great people as well.  As a consultant, I interact with phenomenal leaders working on a variety of issues all throughout LA.  This is one way in which I bring everyone together and I welcome you to attend. 

My next happy hour is tonight, February 2^nd, starting at about 5:30pm at 7 Grand in Downtown LA.  The question I’m asking folks to consider is “what will you do to make LA a better place in 2010?”  We generally go until about 8:30 or 9pm. I’m looking forward to seeing who attends tonight and introducing some great people other folks they don’t already know.

Here's a link to my most recent email newsletter I sent out.  Enjoy!

Enjoy a great holiday season.  I hope our paths cross in 2010.
Peace,
Ron

Here's a link to my December 2009 Newsletter.  Enjoy!
Happy Holidays,
Ron

I'm staring to plan what trainings I will lead in 2010 and would love to get your input.  Please take a few minutes to fill out my short survey on this.  I really value your input and will do my best to tailor my trainings to your needs. Thanks!

For a listing of the trainings I currently lead, check out my Workshops page.  For a listing of my upcoming tranings, checkout my Calendar page.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Here's a link to my latest newsletter where I give some general updates on my work. Enjoy!

Last week, I led another fundraising workshop at the Center for Nonprofit Management focusing on creating a strong successful fund development plan.  We had a really good discussion as I went through the various elements necessary to develop a fundraising strategy that will yield the highest results.  I'm leading several upcoming trainings on fundraising and invite you to attend.

It turns out information regarding fundraising is what local nonprofits need most, according to a recent study by the Center for Nonprofit Management.  Their recent State of the Nonprofit Sector report provides a general overview of what current nonprofits are experiencing given the current economic downtown. 

Roughly half of the consulting work I do deals directly with building my clients capacity to raise money.  I've helped multiple nonprofits, including:

• assessing their fundraising capacity
• creating fund development plans
• researching potential funders
• engaging their boards in fundraising
• writing grant proposals
• coaching executive staff
• providing general and customized trainings

Last Friday, I facilitated another seminar for the Southern California Leadership Network.  This time, we looked at a specific neighborhood:  Koreatown.  I really enjoyed putting this seminar together, which invovlved developing the day's agenda and recruiting the speakers.  I especially enjoyed facilitating the afternoon debrief where participants talked about their experiences exploring various aspects of the neighborhood.   Here's a summary of the day that the Southern California Leadership Network just emailed out:

Leadership L.A. focuses on neighborhood development in Koreatown
The Class of 2009 learned how neighborhoods grow and develop in Los Angeles on Oct. 9 with Dr. Fernando Guerra of the Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University, who discussed the DNA of neighborhoods in the city and his "5 Ds" that have driven what L.A. has become: decentralization, democratization, deindustrialization, development of land and demographic shifts. The case study focused on Koreatown, where Fellows met with Korean-American leaders, including Leadership Southern California alumnus Hyepin Im, Korean Churches for Community Development; as well as local business owners, developers, community organizers, historians and neighborhood councilmembers. The class closed the session at the new Solair Wilshire transit-oriented development with L.A. City Councilmember Tom LaBonge. Read more about the day on Twitter by following @SCLN. View photo gallery. 

Ever wonder what the life of a consultant is like? Well, now you can get a taste for that life by following me on Twitter.  Not only will I share some of the interesting work I'm doing, but I'll also occassionally update you where I'm doing that work (like right now, as I update this blog, I'm sitting on the beach in Venice where groups of pelicans keep flying by in beautiful formation).   If there are interesting events that I'll be attending, I'll also post some of those too. 

I'm leading another "What's your Message" media workshop this Thursday at the Flintridge Foundation in Pasadena and welcome you to attend.   Here's more info about it:

"How can people choose to donate to your organization if they don't know you exist?

Media visibility about your organization and work increases your credibility in the community, helps you to obtain financial, in-kind, and volunteer support, and also plays an important role in shifting societal perceptions and moving your organization's mission forward. If you had one minute with a reporter, what would you say? How would you pitch that story to get media coverage in the first place? In this workshop, you'll learn how to craft your message to pitch to media. You'll have the opportunity to practice and receive feedback from both the instructor and your peers in the workshop. The workshop will explore what's newsworthy and discuss various strategies for securing media, including the development of an effective press release.

This workshop is designed for nonprofit professionals with no or only moderate amount of media experience."

I recently facilitated a day long planning session for the Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust, an organization working to exercise land stewardship as the basis for creating pedestrian-centered neighborhoods that emphasize sustainability-oriented affordable housing.

We had an especially productive retreat.  As a facilitator, I helped create a space for the Board of Directors to decide their organization's long-term goals, short-term goals and the beginnings of a 2009/10 workplan. 

At the end of the retreat, one of the participants shared a list she had been making throughout the day of “Ronisms”: little things I said to encourage the group as they made tough decisions throughout the day. 

Here are some of the things I said:  “Nice”, “Excellent”, “Good work”, “Awesome”, “That’s Great”, “Huge”, “Amazing”, “Lets Rock and Roll”, “Give yourselves a hand of applause”, “You folks have chosen well” and “We have less than 40 minutes people”.

I laughed as I heard this list and was reminded that part of my work as a facilitator is to help ensure full group participation in the decision making process, which is done in part by encouraging and affirming participation throughout the process.  By the end of the day, everyone was very happy with the results of their hard work and thanked me for my hard work as a facilitator. 

I’m here at LAX waiting to catch my plane to Toronto, Canada, where I will lead another “Winning Campaigns” training for the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking.  This highly interactive, fast-paced and fun workshop gives participants the opportunity to develop their own campaign strategy to win improvements in their local bicycling or pedestrian environment.  This will be the eighth training I have led, having also led trainings in the following cities over the last couple of years: Denver, Albany, Louisville, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Flint, and Philadelphia.

As always, I’m excited to meet local advocates and have the opportunity to bicycle around a new city to gain inspiration for ways in which we can make Los Angeles a better place to bicycle. Later in the year, I’ll lead the same training in Denver and Little Rock.  If you’re interested in learning ways in which to make your own community a better place to walk and bicycle, I encourage you to attend.

(Here's a link to some photos from the training)

This week, the LA Times reported on the exciting work Public Matters is doing to engage the community around food-related issues through the use of media.  Working with high school students and other community members, Public Matters has generated some exciting media content that takes on the issue of the Food Desert in South Los Angeles.  You can watch some of these videos on Public Matters’ Vimeo Site.  The Associated press also recently wrote about Public Matters. 

I’m excited to be a part of the Public Matters team.  Working with the founders, I have been working on helping grow Public Matters so we can engage with more communities. 

“Public Matters generates innovative, artistic, place-based projects that build creative, civic and social capital in communities. Our projects develop creative community leaders. We engage residents in the creation of media-based neighborhood narratives that illuminate its history, character and conditions and integrate the results with broader civic processes, advocacy efforts and community initiatives. Our work addresses social issues through long-term educational projects. Our interdisciplinary approach is creative and analytical, left-brained and right-brained. We establish long-term sustainable programs that evolve beyond our initial involvement and are ultimately shaped by the community and its needs.”

If you’re interested in learning more about Public Matters, or are interested in partnering with Public Matters on a project, please contact me.  Thanks.

I’m really excited about the upcoming Los Angeles Bike Summit on March 7th and encourage you to attend.  “The Bike Summit will bring together bicycle advocates, advocates for healthy communities, and others to network and to plan a bikable healthy future for Southern California.”

The Summit features four keynote speakers from New York City, Portland and Mexico, all with stories and experiences that Southern California can learn from.  I used to have the pleasure of working with one of these speakers – Noah Budnick from Transportation Alternatives in New York City, and am excited he’ll be in town. 

I’ve been working hard to leverage the impact of the Bike Summit by planning a series of meetings on the Thursday and Friday before the conference where I will introduce the Summit’s keynote speakers to staff from local elected officials, transportation agency staff, advocates working on transportation reform, the media and public health professionals.  At each of the five meetings we have scheduled, I will facilitate a forum for the keynote speakers to share best practices, take questions and then have a conversation where we can learn from each other.  Because for as much as Los Angeles has to learn from New York City, Mexico City and Portland, there’s quite a few things we can teach them about like implementing the Orange line dedicated busway/bikeway in the San Fernando Valley, which we will also be touring. 

Then Friday night, we’ll ride in the “Root Down Ride Around”, which will tour important sites of bike advocacy/culture in Los Angeles.  I’ll be presenting at one of the stops to talk about some of the work I did while directing the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. 

I’m really excited about the Summit.  Not only will we be inspired from the keynote speakers, but there will also be over 20 workshops on a variety of topic.  I will be leading one of these workshops: Overcoming the Barriers of Bicycling through Social Networking.  The workshop will explore the BikeSage concept and launch our effort to begin recruiting a larger community of BikeSages in Southern California.  I hope to see you there.

One of the things I appreciate about being a Consulant is having a flexible schedule.  I'm excited to spend the four days before the national election in Nevada working to get out the vote for the Obama campaign.  I encourage you to vote for Barack Obama.  If you're planning on voting for Obama, then I encourage you to contribute to his campaign or volunteer some hours and make some phone calls to swing states.  Or, if you'd like to join me and the campaign in Nevada, please let me know.  The more we can all pitch in to help elect him president, the higher chances he has of winning the election.  Thanks.

Greetings,
Welcome to my new website! In addition to describing the services I provide, background on my experience and my past clients, I’m excited to launch a blog where I will share with you valuable lessons I’ve learned about nonprofit management over the last 11 years.  Every week, my goal is to capture a bit of wisdom I’ve learned that will hopefully be a resource to you and your organization.  Over time, I hope to build an online library that you can access anytime, on a series of different topics.  If there are certain areas you would like for me to address, or questions you have, please email them to me.  If you would like to discuss any of these areas in greater detail, please contact me.  Thanks and keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Ron

Ready to launch a nonprofit organization? What’s the most important ingredient? Passion. When I launched a nonprofit at age 22, passion fueled my work.  When challenges arose, my passion for the organization’s mission helped me navigate through the tough times. With it, I learned everything I needed to success at leading a nonprofit – strategic planning, fundraising, board development, budgeting and so much more. So ask yourself, how passionate are you about the mission of your nonprofit? If your answer is “I’m extremely passionate about the mission of my new nonprofit”, then you’ve got what it takes to make your dream reality.