Top 5 Things to Ensure a Successful Partnership

1) Focus on the cause. When it makes sense for the cause to work together, but necessarily for your own organization, you should still partner (within reason). As others see that you are more committed to the cause above yourself and your organization, it makes you more attractive.

2) Communicate, communicate, communicate. Clearly put in writing the details of the partnership that is equitable to all parties. Outline what responsibilities each of you has, how you will message it, and how it supports the community you serve together. Almost every project we do has an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) which details our responsibilities to one another. When there are no surprises going in, and the outline is fair to everyone, it cuts down on problems.

3) Be ok with sharing the credit. Look, you are partnering for a reason, because each organization has a particular strong suit you want to play to. That’s great, talk about that because it was important to the project. But when your partner has a strong suit, speak to that too. The project is successful because you each did your part. You should be willing to share the credit.

4) Write grant proposals together. Just think about it. What if you wrote grant proposals with another organization. You each talked about what part you would do and outlined each cost but put forward one large budget with who gets what and why. I bet the project would have a greater chance of success and the foundation officer would be more likely to fund. Just a thought.

5) Get over your differences. Too often I see organizations working on the same cause, maybe on the same college campus, but unwilling to work together. They have some fundamental differences that make them different organizations. But to the outsider, it looks like you are more concerned with your own organization than contributing to bringing attention and action to the cause. My advice, get over it. Find out the things you do agree on and do events together around those things. That doesn’t mean you merge into one organization or throw away those differences you find important, but when you focus on the similarities you’ll just get a lot more done.

Basically, if you go into non-profit and you’re doing a good job it means you’re trying to work yourself out of a job. And if you’re not trying to work yourself out of a job, trying to create an environment where the cause you are advocating is no longer a problem, well then I think you need to check your motives. I’m not saying Giving Children Hope is perfect, we are far from it. But as we continue to partner with numerous organizations to make sure joint-projects are successful we’ve learned something about why some partnership work and some that are more challenging. We just want your partnership to be successful too!

More on Human Trafficking

The last two days I’ve had conversations about the issue of human trafficking. If you are not familiar with this issue you will certainly be hearing more and more about it with the different advocacy efforts taking place.

Today I visited with my friend and non-profit partner David Batstone. I’ve known David for about 13 years now I think. Wow, I’m feeling old. I’ve long admired his commitment to teaching ethics and the passion and energy that David brings to solving global problems. David is the ED for the Not For Sale Campaign that is teaching advocacy efforts on the issue of human slavery. But NFS is also carrying out projects around the world. One such project is in partnership with Giving Children Hope to establish a new medical clinic in Northern Thailand to care for children that have been rescued out of slavery.

Yesterday I met with Peter from the Asia Innovative University that is located in Cambodia. Peter came to me looking for medicines for orphans and he’s now in search of funding for this project. When I asked Peter why there were so many orphans in Cambodia he explained to me that because there is a lack of economic opportunities so many of the adults are being tricked into slavery outside of the country. Others are willfully going to Thailand to be sex workers because they have no other choice. Unfortunately this is leaving a large orphaned community in Cambodia. The children are at their most vulnerable as they are picked up by gangsters and forced to work for no wages. Often times these children have no other choices. So AIU is creating safe houses with medical care for these vulnerable children.

An organization like Giving Children Hope can be a hard sell for people. Distribution of product isn’t a sexy thing to fund. But David said it best to me today as he toured our center “It’s amazing that you guys exist. Organizations on the ground need exactly what you do. You are really helping to address global problems in a practical way.” And as we say here at Giving Children Hope, we are only as strong as those who we partner with. We’re in it together. And together we can fight global issues like those of human slavery.

Who are the Poor?

My blog that I promised my friend and web developer Brett (although the title web developer doesn’t do him justice but I don’t know what else to call him) is about partnering in non-profits. All of the organizations we work with come together to serve the poor in one way or another, whatever that means to their specific mission.

This morning in my daily devotionals by a favorite author and dare I even call him a “friend” Henry Nouwen, I was reminded that all of our partners also need care and that many of them are the poor, even if they might be financially rich.

I was particularly reminded of this with our volunteers. We get all kinds of volunteers in our office. They might be the stable individuals who are so filled up they are over-flowing to give back. But people volunteer for a number of reasons and our Volunteer Coordinator can tell you about the people that come through her office.

We have people who volunteer with us because they are developmentally disabled and unable to perform other types of work, so they become a part of our fabric sorting through items into categories. We have the people who are socially awkward and have a hard time making friends. We have the community service workers, many who really do not want to be there, volunteering their time. We have the elderly who used to have thriving careers and now are longing to find ways to spend their time. We have young people who are required by the high schools to come in. In other words, many of the people who come through our doors to give of their time are often in need of receiving; even if all they are receiving is acceptance and belonging to a cause greater than themselves.

One of the things I love about working for Giving Children Hope is that we make space for people from all walks of live to be cared for in our facility and to me this is part of the essence of the Church. And we love it when we can mix it up. You know, have the high school service club serve alongside the developmentally disabled volunteers together. In this way, they are each crossing the other side of the aisle and “serving the poor” that is right next to them while together serving the financially poor.

Read today’s devotional from Henry Nouwen about the poor:

The poor are the center of the Church. But who are the poor? At first we might think of people who are not like us: people who live in slums, people who go to soup kitchens, people who sleep on the streets, people in prisons, mental hospitals, and nursing homes. But the poor can be very close. They can be in our own families, churches or workplaces. Even closer, the poor can be ourselves, who feel unloved, rejected, ignored, or abused.

It is precisely when we see and experience poverty - whether far away, close by, or in our own hearts - that we need to become the Church; that is hold hands as brothers and sisters, confess our own brokenness and need, forgive one another, heal one another's wounds, and gather around the table of Jesus for the breaking of the bread. Thus, as the poor we recognize Jesus, who became poor for us.

So the next time think about volunteering I encourage you to not volunteer with just your large group of friends or Bible Study as a service project, but go rather with one or two and meet some new people. As you work together to serve the financially poor, meet some new people that might be poor in spirit and serve them as well. You might find that as you serve those people that they will in turn serve deep needs within you and you might in turn be richly blessed.

Church Partnerships

One of the things I love about working at a faith-based non-profit is that we can work with all different churches, and they can work together with us and with one another.

On Saturday we had a big work day at our facility. Four different churches came together to serve us and others. They met new people as they served alongside one another. We had people sorting medical supplies to be shipped to Dominican Republic and Houston, people painting some rooms under construction and people doing yard work on our campus. Wow, what a day!

And as we gear up for our big Gala event on October 10th, we hope all kinds of people from the community, from different churches, and different service groups will attend and network with one another around a cause. We’re excited to have our amazing partners from Houston be the featured guest speakers at our event. If we had tried to plan the program we couldn’t have planned to have them speak right after such amazing events as what they have done in Hurricane Ike. It’s a good thing God was in charge of the program. So we are hopeful for a full room with lots of great people to have fun and find new ways to collaborate together.

If you have a church or service group that would like to collaborate, please call our office. And if you haven’t made your reservations for Voyage of Hope, please register on-line or call our office to book your seat today!

Giving it all to God

Today in church I had a good reminder to STOP and pray!

The church I am attending asked the congregation to show up morning, noon, and night this week to pray and on Friday to fast for the direction of the next year. It’s encouraging to see churches taking prayer seriously, and such a reminder to ME to be giving everything to God in prayer.

At Giving Children Hope, we also take prayer seriously. We don’t require donors, volunteers and those we serve to be Christians, but we are Christians and we do what we do because Jesus told us to feed the poor and care for the sick. And from 9:30 -10 AM every morning we pray for our shipments and our partners around the world. We know that getting medicines into places like Myanmar is difficult, and WE can’t do it. So we ask God to provide a way when we see no way.

Sometimes I’m overwhelmed in my work here at Giving Children Hope. Requests for assistance of product come up simultaneously like when a cyclone in Myanmar happens at the same time as an earthquake in China. Or a hurricane hits several places just after several other disasters. I wonder, how can I send out another request for financial help when I sent out one last week? Aren’t people tired of hearing from me asking me for their help? And yet, if we can help, we know we must help. We know that when disasters happen children around the world are at a higher risk to being kidnapped into slavery. We know that medicines arriving in time save lives. And, after all, isn’t this our job? And when we serve those in the field who are under dire circumstances, that their favor in the community they have been working in is greatly increased.

However, it can lead to a feeling of responsibility to care for the entire world, a burden I can’t bear and one that as an organization we simply cannot bear. But when you get emails like I received yesterday, it’s hard to sleep at night unless you know you are going to do something. It’s the times like this that I am most reminded that the work that we do is really the work that God does. I can’t do it and we cannot provide on our own. It’s at these times that I must do as I was instructed in church today, STOP and pray. God will provide for all of our needs.

So this week, as we work on the up-coming community development projects, the continued relief to Iraq, relief to Georgia and relief to New Orleans and Haiti, I’m stopping and praying for God to provide the necessary resources. I know how much I care. And He cares infinitely more than me. I’m so glad that God is at the head of our organization and I pray that I do better at giving it all to God.

Non-Profit and Church Collaborations in Orange County

One of the great things about my job at Giving Children Hope is that we are an organization built on collaborations. And one of the great things about this time in history is that collaborations over competition are highly valued.

I attended two collaborative meetings outside of the office today.

The first was the Quarterly Mission’s Pastor’s meeting I attend at Saddleback Church. Saddleback has done a great job at engaging their congregation in missions and giving them ownership. Ten years ago they began these network sessions to share information and foster collaboration. Today’s meeting was focused on disaster response and even included a fireman who talked about church collaborations with the fire department. Wow, how great to see everyone working together.

The next meeting was at the Orange County Register. They are our local newspaper and have created a section called TouchOC. This is a philanthropy section that comes out every November (and now on-line) that allows for non-profits to tell their stories and encourage philanthropy and giving in the county. Isn’t that great! The local paper is fostering us to work together and fostering an environment to encourage every day citizens to give back to the local community workers.

Orange County, leading the way in collaborations!

Partners even in competition

I'm watching the Olympics with so much joy this year! I'm not the biggest sports fan, but the Olympics are something of their own.

Of course, all eyes are on Michael Phelps. I had no idea who he was, and he is really amazing! I watched tonight as he barely won his 7th gold. Wow! I also watched the ladies gymnastics that took place last night, but I opted not to stay up until 3 am. Watching Nastia and Shawn compete, but in a spirit of collaboration as fellow teammates, I think is a wonderful display of sportsmanship.

However, one of the greatest acts of sportsmanship I watched was when Dara Torres went to tell an official that another swimmer had a torn swimsuit and asked to please hold the race. This is amazing for 2 reasons. First, if you can knock a competitor out of the race, even on a technicality, most people do. Why would you help a competitor who could overtake you? Second, spending the extra time waiting on the block can throw off your psyche. It is better for the athletes not to delay. So Dara really went out of the way to ensure that another person's opportunity was not spoiled for a silly reason. I thought it was wonderful when she then came in first in the race. Go Dara!

What can I say, I love watching people working together and looking out for one another!

Community Partners

Some of my favorite partners in doing community development are the partners out in the private sector. Of course, I LOVE our field partners - that is why I love doing my job - but I am continually inspired by the people OUTSIDE of my org who want to do something. So inspired that last year we created an entire space on the front page of our website where we wanted to bring attention and inspire others - it is called the Power of YOU!

At the moment, our good friend Jessica Haley is up there. You can read her story at http://www.gchope.org/the-power-of-you12.html. Jessica is affectionately known around our office as the "bootie lady". The reason is, Jessica, owner of Mia Joie, makes the most adorable baby booties you'll ever find. I've never actually met Jessica, but she is a cool lady and I know that if we lived near to each other we'd be great friends.

Let me tell you about Jessica. She's someone who wants to use her God-given talents to make a difference in the lives of others and she gets to do that by making baby booties. How is that possible you might ask? Well, Jessica decided when she was starting her biz that she wanted to donate part of the profits to a non-profit. She selected Giving Children Hope and decided to give 10% of the profits away. Wow - that's amazing!! Jessica is using her talents in the private marketplace but also using her gifts to bring awareness and needed funding to provide for kids all over the world! She's just getting started, but my guess is that because Jessica has made the decision to give this chunk of money away, that her business will flourish all the more.

Now, if her shoes were ugly, just because she is engaging in cause-marketing, it wouldn't work. However, when you have a good product AND you decide to make a difference, it attracts many people (and often many sales).

So people like Jessica are as much of a partner to Giving Children Hope as are our field partners around the world. It takes so many partners to make projects happen. I am thankful that my job allows me to interact with so many passionate and inspiring people! If YOU have ideas on how others can partner leave a comment. At GCH we just love new ideas.