It’s true – it’s possible to have a great holiday without turkey, ham, cream, butter and eggs. It’s not only possible – it’s easy, and better for the environment!
Many of our holiday traditions centre around food – and great food is still part of a plant-based holiday, just in a slightly different format. (Plus, if we are lucky, we still get time with loved ones – which is far more important than a turkey! 🌈)
What does that look like? Here are a few simple tips to help get you started. Start with a few easy adjustments – or go all-in, if you are ready for a bigger change.
Instead of dairy cream, mix cashews and water (about equal parts) in the blender. Add salt, pepper, garlic etc as usual. Use in mashed potatoes, or gravy on everything!
Instead of dairy milk in pies and other desserts, use non-dairy milk (homemade is easy) or use a bought alternative. Top with non-dairy ice cream, if desired.
Looking for a main protein dish? Try making a lentil loaf, or buying a ready-made veggie roast or sausage. There are countless options, so try a few until you find your new favourite. Remember that you probably don’t love absolutely every animal product that exists – but you still like some. So if the first veggie sausage you try isn’t your new instant favourite, just keep going and try something different. Be careful not to write off the category (eg “I tried one plant-based sausage and I didn’t like it, so I’m going back to meat”), just because of a few bumps in the road. You have probably been eating animal based products for decades – so don’t be surprised if you don’t find your new favourite lentil loaf on the first try. Give lentils as much time/space to become a staple in your diet as you previously did to meat, dairy and eggs!
What changes have you already made? What would you like to switch but aren’t sure about? Share your questions and wins in the comments and I’ll answer all of your questions!
For the next while, we will be focusing on sustainable holidays. There are a lot of decisions/plans etc to make around the holidays, and not all decisions are easy, clear or straightforward. For today, we’re looking at holiday and year-end donations, although these guidelines apply to all year-round giving, as well.
If you are anything like me, your email inbox is getting overloaded with asks from various NGOs, political parties, faith groups etc, asking for a year-end donation (in addition to phone call asks for money etc.) Sometimes, it’s easy to sort out how to manage all of the requests, and sometimes it can get a bit muddy. So, today, we’re going to talk about some of the red flags and how to make sure that the projects you are donating to are deserving of your donation. In general, these will show up more often in really small organizations, but big organizations can have challenges, as well.
So, here’s a quick (but not exhaustive) list of things to check for before sending off a donation, using an email request (one of many) that I received recently as a case study (in this case asking for funds for an extremely large capital campaign, from a very small organization):
Email received – Check how often the org emails me, and how often they are asking for $.
Answer: Only a handful of short emails per year, and all are asking for $.
Result: Fail
What to Look For: Regular communication and updates on programming etc, going well beyond asks for $.
Website Check – After reading the email, I checked the website.
Answer: The website has not been maintained in any way. Basic pages are up, but most/all pages are basically empty, because the website has not been maintained. Given that the org is asking for donations for a very large capital campaign, this is very problematic. If the org can’t even maintain a basic website, how can they handle large sums of money? What does this gap say about their ability to run effective programming?
Result: Fail
What to Look For: Well designed website, appropriate for the size of the org and the projects being funded. Clear, concise info, easy to navigate.
Overall Transparency and Financial Accountability: With the website and other checks, I’m also checking for accountability and transparency
Answer: There are no budgets, annual reports or any other transparency/accountability measures shown anywhere. It appears that funds received are not accounted for, to the public in any way.
Result: Fail
What to Look For: This piece is really important, and often undervalued in poorly run orgs. (Note: For orgs that are not registered to give tax receipts or acting as a charitable org etc, naturally, some of these rules are a bit different). This, in my opinion, is a significant red flag that funds should not be given.
Contact info and Org Structure: In addition to the basic website info, I’m looking for easy ways to get in touch with senior leadership, board etc. to help ensure that the org is accountable to the public.
Answer: Nobody other than the Exec Director is listed on the website. Given that the website is poorly maintained, the board and others are not named, and the other issues, it does not give confidence that contacting the ED through the website would result in a meaningful and timely reply.
Result: Fail
What to Look For: Senior Leadership, staff, board etc named and with contact info (eg an email address associated with the org). Reasonable term limits etc are also important. Watch out to see if the same person(s) is in a senior position for 15-20+ years at a time, especially in a small org (instead of transitioning by 10-15 max) – as that’s a red flag for other challenges. The org is at high risk of not successfully managing the transition to the next director, and may end up closing down in the relatively near future, which has implications for your donor dollars.
Others – This is not an exhaustive list, but is a good start for evaluating end or year (or anytime of the year) support for orgs (particularly small orgs) that might be asking for help, whether financial, volunteer time or other.
Summary: Naturally, in this case, I will not be sending a donation to this organization. I would advise them, if I were their consultant, to drop the large capital campaign and spend their time building up a well-designed website, developing a clear and consistent communications plan with a strong senior leadership team, ensuring that the basic work of transparency and accountability happens every year (eg annual reports, budgets etc), creating a meaningful fundraising plan with an appropriately sized donor base and so on. It’s much better to have a well-designed program in a smaller building than a huge building with poorly designed organizational structures. Ultimately, donors give to support impact first, not for a shiny new building.
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Online Store: There are new, sustainable items being added to the online store every day! Check out the website for more details!
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How to Support Menno Adventures: All of the resources that we share here are free, and we do not charge for access to anything (except for consulting services, naturally.). If you find that these tools and resources are valuable, and would like to support this work, any donation, large or small, is greatly appreciated. Details on the website. Thank you!
The ways we do things, within and outside of the non-profit world, is constantly evolving. COVID, along with many other challenges, are forcing a reckoning on what our “new normal” will look like. In my opinion, one of our biggest shortfalls, in the NGO world, is the frequency with which organizations compete for donors/funds/projects – or start a new org instead of supporting an existing organization – when supporting/collaborating would be a much more appropriate choice.
We work in this field because we desire a better, fairer, more equitable world – but sometimes forget to make sure that our actual work methods follow the same high standards we set for our external projects. If we are working on a peacebuilding project, why can’t we make peace with another NGO and collaborate instead of competing?
Although based on the US (and written for the American context), Non-Profit Impact Pledge is one step in the right direction, and is just as applicable globally as within the US. The commitments have two parts: From NGOs and from Funders and Donors. Both are important, in their own way, to helping reshape the sector as a whole, and to creating more positive change in the world — which is so critically needed.
To our communities and all those who benefit from the work of nonprofits…,
Our country is at a turning point, and so is the nonprofit sector. The disparate economic and social fallout from COVID-19 and the widespread reckoning with racial justice have put a spotlight on many long-standing problems with philanthropy and with the way nonprofits work. We cannot avoid these problems any longer, nor do we wish for things to return “to normal.” Our old way of existence, and many of our sector’s past practices for collaborating with funders, donors and our communities (while often well-intentioned), are broken. Instead, we wish to create a new future for the nonprofit sector, for the good of all.
As our country starts down the long road toward recovery from a tumultuous 2020, demand for our services continues to grow, resources continue to shrink, and outmoded systems and ways of thinking seem determined to keep our impact small. It has never been more challenging to run and sustain an effective nonprofit organization, but it has also never been more important, and we will rise up in the face of these challenges.
That is why we take this pledge and double down on these 10 commitments to you, the people and communities we work with. We also ask our donors, funders and those who support the sector to make a similar set of commitments to us.
Together, we can create a better future for our sector, for the good of all.
Among the 10 commitments in the pledge, all are important in their own way, and all contribute to better organizations, which are better able to make positive contributions, both locally and globally. Here is one example.
Commitment 1 We will collaborate, not compete. We recognize that we can do more good for our communities together than we can do alone. We will focus our efforts on making a specific contribution that only our organization can make, and when we encounter other organizations doing similar work, we commit to closely collaborating, partnering or merging with them rather than competing in an effort to maximize our collective impact. (Bold mine).
And, I would add – we commit to supporting others before staring a new NGO that is likely to compete with others, when supporting or joining is a more appropriate and sustainable choice for the sector as a whole.
Want to add your name to the pledge? Follow the link to sign up – and add your name, with others, to commit to a better NGO sector.
I recently came across this article (see link above, and it’s posted on the NGO section of my website, along with other resources) and wanted to share it here, as well. While much of it I agree with, I have a few small points of possible disagreement (although it may be a misinterpretation of wording, not content).
The real data from National Center on Charitable Statistics reveals that approximately 30% of nonprofits fail to exist after 10 years, and according to Forbes, over half of all nonprofits that are chartered are destined to fail or stall within a few years due to leadership issues and the lack of a strategic plan, among other things.
Within in the NGO world, there is a lot of great work being done. At the same time, the cycle above (new NGOs starting, failing, and opening up a spot for the next one to open and then fail) is a significant problem. In my experience, it’s a problem that is not being talked about enough, and I think we can change that. So, let’s talk. 🙂
Reason #1: Empty Optimism – or Pie in the Sky Dreams (without the proper ingredients to bake a pie) I’ve seen some of the best, most needed (in my view), and earnest efforts falter and fail because the leaders simply did not accurately calculate the amount of support that would be available and the alliances and partnerships that they would need to support their humble beginnings. In other words – they lacked a sound business plan upon which to build a platform for success. The old saying ‘to fail to plan is to plan to fail’ is so very, very true. (Bold mine).
Many of the reasons given are clear, and I have no disagreement. Lack of strategic plans, failure to develop a strong organizational leadership team (outside of the founding CEO) and others are clearly top of the list for why countless small NGOs fail to make it through the first few years, and the transition to a new CEO. I have some disagreement with point #6:
Misplacing Priority #1 – or forgetting who the ‘real boss’ is At the end of the day, for nonprofit organizations – Money is more important than Mission. Nonprofits exist to serve and to meet needs on a global scale, and we care deeply for the causes we embrace, often to the detriment of our funders. A successful nonprofit knows that their #1 Customer is their donors, period. Without the donors, there would be no impact, no people served, no mouths fed, no backs clothed. Those we serve are important, but if we really want to have an impact, we must take care of our donors first, we must make sure that our programs are designed to give our donors an opportunity to fulfill the goals they have for their philanthropy, and then constantly communicate to them the impact their dollars are having. And when it comes to taking care of donors, relationships, personal relationships are KING! No fancy CRM or automated gift response mechanism will ever trump a personal relationship.
I agree that NGOs need money to operate, and that NGOs need to be clear, open and transparent with donors about what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how the money is being spent. I do not agree, however, that as non-profits, we are here to serve the donors. Rather, the organization and the donors together are working together for greater good, and to serve the communities in which we work. We share a common goal, and are on the same time to reach our goals.
Here is the author’s summary, along with the items earlier in the article (Nanoe) of the primary reasons NGOs fail:
Not Having a Qualified Leader.
No Website Or Poorly Designed Website.
Poor Planning and Record Keeping
Poor Accounting and Money Management
Marketing Only to Large Donors and Not Thinking Smaller Donors are Just As Important
Nonprofit Doesn’t Mean Tax Exempt.
Ultimately, the real reason nonprofits fail is because they shouldn’t have existed in the first place. (Bold mine).
One that I would add (perhaps as a subset of leadership or money management) is the expectation that goods and services (rent, IT support, computers, staff time, experts/consultants, advertising, pro bono work etc etc) are somehow automatically “owed” to the org, by virtue of the fact that the org is trying to do something good or is a registered non-profit. Volunteer recruitment is important, but does not substitute for a budget to cover the basic costs of running an organization and paying for the goods, services and skills that you need to get the job done. If you don’t have the money (or a plan to get money) to pay for any of the basic items or staff that are required to run an organization, you don’t have a viable plan yet.
And, further to his first point(s), I would emphasize that failure to plan (essentially variations on “I have never run an NGO and have no idea how to do it. I have a different full-time job, no strategic plans, no website and no money, but I’m sure that if I just start, everyone will hand me money, computers, a building and their expertise for free and it will all work out, because I’m such a nice person and I have a nice goal…”) is one of the most common mistakes I’ve seen. Failure to plan also includes lack of plans for how to successfully hand over the project from the founding CEO, in a reasonable time frame. (Considering starting a new NGO? Start at the end with your planning: Do you have a viable plan to hand the org to a new CEO in 10-15 years?)
On a related note, failure to seriously support other existing orgs that are already working in the same space (before starting a new org), is one of the biggest failures that I have come across.
For those of you in the non-profit world, do you have anything to add? Any adjustments you would make to the list?
Freelancers and others frequently get asked to work for free, or for significantly reduced rates. It definitely happens in the non-profit world, and I have heard from others that it is frequently a problem in the creative world as well.
Along with strong support for a Universal Basic Income, and significant caps on CEO/executive and other high earner salaries to close the gap between low and high earners, let’s start from the premise that everybody deserves to be paid fairly for the skills and expertise that the bring to a project. We all deserve to have a living wage, whether freelancer or not.
Happy watching! (And thanks to everyone in the video for testing the theory in the real world, so that I don’t have to do it! :))
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As the pandemic shutdown continues, with some restrictions lifting in various places, several things have shifted, particularly around how we, collectively, source and prepare food. People are baking more – yeast shortages, unheard of before, are now a common occurrence, with flour and other supplies flying off of the shelves. At the same time, increased discussion regarding the possible/likely links related to our current mainstream factory farms/animal food systems (in terms of individual health, zoological diseases and their role in this pandemic, and overall climate health) has increasing numbers of people seeking out more plant-based options.
At the same time, when switching key aspects of how we buy and prepare food, many people struggle with how to make that transition, particularly when also managing other aspects related to living in a pandemic.
Help is on the way! Are you looking for help with plant-based eating? I am now offering coaching sessions – all about how to switch to plant-based eating, whether you want to go 100% plant-based, or start with a few simple changes to how you eat.
Sessions will be customized, depending on what you are looking for, and where you are starting from, and may include, among other things:
– learning simple tricks and ideas about how to switch to more plant-based eating
– finding recipes or resources to help make meal planning, or travelling easier
– sharing and exploring resources related to reasons for switching to plant-based eating
– switching to reduced waste and/or plastic with food purchasing, storage and prep
– other items as requested.
You may choose one-on-one, or invite a few friend to form a group, or book a larger group session. I will do my best to customize sessions to where you are at – whether you are looking for quick and easy or more complex food projects.
NOTE: I am not a certified nutritionist. You are responsible for your own health decisions. I am here to help provide ideas, work with you and to share my experience on the journey towards plant-based eating.
Questions? Want more information? Curious about rates? (I aim to keep my rates as affordable as possible for everyone!) Go to the website and contact me for details. I look forward to hearing from you! 🙂
