A Message from our President

Hello!

Welcome to the February issue of our Ezine for nonprofits, the healthcare industry and institutions of higher learning. First, I'd like to congratulate Dan Bruer on his new role as Director of Development for the Triangle Land Conservancy. We know he will do a great job!

We hope you take a moment each month to enjoy our articles by Amy Etheridge. This month Amy explores the difference between Communication and Dialogue, two words that appear to have similar meanings but, upon closer examination, have very different outcomes.

As always, we also have for you listings of upcoming events and our current searches. If you know anyone looking for a top-notch fundraising professional to help make the best of these tough economic times, please pass along this message and ask that person to contact us. We stand ready to help.

Have a great day!

Rebecca Worters
President, Capability Company

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  Current Searches

Our team of professionals is available to help find your ideal client. Call today for a free consultation!

Good business comes from good referrals. If you like the work we do, please remember to pass our name along to those in need of our services. Thank you.

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Article of the Month

Word count: 348

Approximate Reading Time: 5 Minutes

More Than Just Words: Communication vs. Dialogue
by Amy Etheridge

Mere communication - imparting ones thoughts or ideas - may deliver a message but the message may be met with resistance or ambivalence. When genuine dialogue - an exchange of thoughts or ideas - takes place, all parties are engaged.

This engagement fosters collaboration and innovation; honest assessment; and ultimately, agreement or settlement. And, even where there may be disagreement, it often fosters respect and admiration.

As a Nation we are facing conversational dead space about the economic decline. There is a lot of static and chatter, but where is the real dialogue? In times such as these, advancement offices and entire institutions as so focused on revenue that conversations practically cease and dialogue no longer takes place.

What was once worthy of dialogue becomes an e-mail, voice mail, or nothing at all. While these electronic vehicles are useful tools they can't replace present voice-to-voice or face-to-face dialogue.

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, give your staff the gift of dialogue. How much more job satisfaction and productivity would your staff experience if they knew:

1. Definitively what you wanted from them and the department,
2. That you value their efforts and their successes, and
3. That their voice is being heard?

Whatever the economic situation in your advancement office, take this moment to strengthen the conversational skills of yourself and your staff. Keep the airways open for substantive dialogue. Let's revive front porch rocker (or bar stool, if you will) dialogue and rediscover dynamic conversations.

Get straight to the heart of the matter. Whether the dialogue takes place within your advancement office staff or board meetings, performance evaluations, goals and objective reviews, or strategy sessions. All would benefit from genuine dialogue and, in fact, help focus you and your staff as you pursue annual goals.

Need to get the dialogue started? Think about this question as considered in Jim Collins book, Good to Great*:

What is the brutal fact of your current reality?

With courage, openness and an honest desire to explore this question and the many solutions, genuine dialogue is a proven path to discovery and innovation.
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*Collins, Jim, Good To Great: New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 2001; ISBN 0-06-662099-6

Amy Etheridge is president of Giving Leadership Opportunity (GLO), a professional resource for personal, customized nonprofit and business consulting services. GLO is committed to creating growth opportunities for organizations as they seek to achieve their missions and fulfill their community promise. Amy may be reached at Amy@GoToGLO.com or 919.521.5776.

Capability Company helps find, recruit, and hire the best top administrative team members for nonprofits, institutions of higher learning, and hospitals. To find out more about our services and to see if we can help you, visit www.capabilitycompany.com.

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Event Listings

Don't see the old stuff. Instead, visit our up-to-date calendar of events.

Advertise Your Events

Let us know about your upcoming professional development events by emailing us at RebeccaWorters@capabilitycompany.com and we'll include them in our upcoming issue(s). Please give the date, times, contact information, website, and any additional pertinent information. Monthly deadline for submission is the 1st of the month, for distribution near the middle of the month.

You are receiving this e-zine as a subscriber of Capability Company's or Nonprofit Oyster's email list. If you no longer want to receive these mailings please see the unsubscribe information below.

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A Client's Perspective

"We can't thank you enough for all your hard work and dedication to this project. You made this process seamless and appear effortless! It was a pleasure working with [you]."

Cheryl Pickard
HR for Environmental Defense

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Case Study

Marsha Basloe at Durham's Partnership for Children was "...quite sure that fiscal year 07-08 would have been a nightmare without Capability Company."

Read the full text of the case study here

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A Gift from Us

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