Jeff Stern

Improving Home Improvement Incentives

My friend Luke, who leads Durham-based startup VisibleEnergy and blogs on energy, efficiency and sustainability, recently shared a great article from Good Magazine.

After discussing the importance of scaling home efficiency improvements in order to create major change rather than just plugging holes in a dam, the article went on to propose the following as a potential solution:

“And that’s why the 14X Stimulus Plan is so interesting. Santa Fe-based architect Edward Mazria, who heads Architecture 2030, proposes that instead of directly funding building renovations, we incentivize them, through the $6.3 billion in energy-efficiency grants that’ll begin flowing this June.

As Mother Jones reports, cities would offer homeowners and private business the chance to refinance their buildings at a lower interest rate, with one caveat: The more your interest-rate goes down, the more efficiency upgrades you have to make. Architecture 2030 estimates that a family paying six percent on a $230,000 loan could install a $20,000 system of solar panels and save $425 a month.

The “14X” name came about because Mazria estimates that for every stimulus dollar spent on his plan, $14 in economic activity would be created in the building sector and beyond (a compounding effect that’s well-documented for incentive programs). Every $1 would also generate $3 in federal taxes, and $1 in local taxes. And, according to Mazria, if you simply spend $3.2 billion building green infrastructure directly, you create 49,486 green jobs. But if you spend it on 14X’s interest-rate based incentives, you create 692,800. Maybe those numbers are high, but that’s about as close to a magic bullet as you’ll ever get in public policy.

Banks, the Department of Energy, and a slew of mayors are already excited about the plan. You can actually sign a petition supporting it here.”

So You Wanna Be a Board Member?

Bridgestar, the online initiative of the Bridgespan Group (Bain’s nonprofit consulting initiative), just published an article about how to find a non-profit board position. It’s a great, thoughtful article for folks new to the sector, and covers all of the territory I used to cover in my classes for young professionals on getting involved in non-profit board service. After stressing the necessity for a passionate belief in the organization and it’s mission, the article elaborates on each of the points below:

“After you’ve determined those causes you’re truly passionate about, you can begin to evaluate specific opportunities. Four fundamental questions can help you determine whether a particular position will be the right fit.
1. Are my goals the same as those of this organization and its board?
2. Can I contribute skills, experience, or expertise that will increase the impact of the organization and help it advance its mission?
3. Am I prepared to commit the time required to fulfill my legal and fiduciary responsibilities as a board member?
4. Am I required to give/raise money for this board and can/will I do that?”

Based on my experience having served on several non-profit boards, I would also add a fifth question: are the organization and its board what they appear to be, and do I fit into that culture? I have found through experience that asking questions about weaknesses, potential conflicts, etc. is vital. If you are going to be spending 75-150 hours a year working with these people and for this organization, you don’t want to make a commitment based on misconceptions. Due diligence is just as important before investing your time and energy in a cause as it is before investing money.

In most cases, you will be asked to join the Board by someone you know - this *should* help you in your due diligence. Asking questions like “Is the organization’s staffing stable? Is the Board active and engaged in strategic thinking, or more of a rubber stamp organization? Are Board meetings contentious or dominated by a few personalities? Am I going to ask you ‘what have you gotten me into’ one year down the road?” are likely to give you a chance to see if there is any discomfort in their answers. Even if you don’t know the person asking you to join the Board, these questions may still be appropriate. The less formal and more direct your questions are, the more likely you are to get a direct and honest response.

If this is an issue that you’re truly passionate about, you likely know someone else who may be familiar with the organization and its work. Ask around, and don’t forget that many times organizations that are vital, innovative and growing have dull, rubber-stamp boards (and vice versa). It seems counterintuitive, but often non-profit organizations don’t work well when there are two strong visionary leaders (CEO and Board President). That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I’ve seen many organizations that are all the better for having a CEO with little vision but strong management skills and a tenacious ability to execute against strategy and I’ve also seen successful organizations with visionary CEOs and Boards that appreciate the vision and stick to working out the fiscal and legal oversight issues. One isn’t necessarily good or bad - but it will have a huge difference on your own personal fit with the organization and satisfaction in your service. Don’t make the mistake of assuming an organization’s culture will match its Board’s culture, or vice versa. Knowing what challenges you will face going in makes all the difference in the world.

What do you think? Is this the right 5th question? Is there another question you would ask?

"The cloud" in the social sector

Lucy Bernholz was recently on a panel about philanthropy in the cloud for the Nonprofit Technology conference, and has shared her notes from that talk in a great blog post about why the cloud matters for the social sector.

I’m liberally quoting from that post below, because it reminds me that we don’t need to know how something works to understand why it’s important. I also love the power/electricity analogy that she comes up with to explain this to a non-technical audience:

“Now, not being a techie, I don’t know the details of how the cloud works. I do know something about how people and organizations work. One of the barriers to migrating lots of companies and data to the cloud has been concern about the safety and security of the data once it’s up there. It is interesting that this is essentially the same concern that early electrical grid pioneers also faced - since business had always controlled their own source of power (be it a waterwheel, horses, serfs or what have you) it was a huge leap of faith to get companies to “outsource” their own power.* It doesn’t seem far fetched to me to see data and applications as the “power source” of 21st century organizations. The rapidly accelerating success of cloud-based offerings show that this concern is being addressed - organizations are beginning to trust that their information will be reliably available, secure, and maintained, at lower cost and with fewer “off core competency” staff people needed in-house

If history is any guide, we may not be far from the day when managing your foundation’s own data center, IT department, and desktop computers seems as quaint as having your own electrical supply. Online grants management, remote access to secure servers, easier team collaboration - seems to me that foundations and nonprofits that care about spending on mission and cutting administrative costs - might benefit from many of these possibilities.”

For those in the philanthropic world, the entire post is definitely worth a read.