“Using Partnerships, Volunteers and
Planning to Bring an Organization
Back from Near Extinction”
Greene County Extension Center, Springfield, Mo.
Presented by David L. Burton
George Deatz, Lisa Bakerink and Harold Bender
Handouts on our website http://extension.missouri.edu/greene
In keeping with the sustainability vision of our host university we are
saving paper and making our handouts available on our website
Introductions
• Panelists today are Extension volunteers
– Lisa Bakerink
– George Deatz
– Harold Bender
Some housekeeping …
• You have in front of you a piece of paper
– Please complete your contact information
– Tool for asking follow-up questions.
– Or if you have an idea on how your organization can partner with
Greene County Extension, please let us know.
• Then at the end class, share with us something you
gained during our time together.
– We will follow up with you on your comments or questions
– We will return to you by mail (in three months) a copy of this form
to remind you of what you learned and wanted to change.
– We will send you a surprise communication tool (ESP).
Overview of our presentation
• Offering Greene County Extension as a
case study
• We are not perfect and we have not yet
“arrived” at a complete solution
• We have built this presentation around 10
reasons businesses and organizations fail
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Leaders give up
Run out of money
Overconfidence
Poor strategy
Disagreeing people
Burnout
A stale marketing
message
8. Overreliance On
One Customer
9. Disgruntled
employees
10. Failure to
embrace the
digital revolution
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
1. Leadership
• Leadership issues occur when:
–
–
–
–
–
1) Lack of proper supervision from superiors (including oversight boards)
2) Failure to properly delegate
3) Failure to "inspect what you expect"
4) Inability to work well and manage others
5) The wrong person is in the wrong position
Answered by George Deatz
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
2. Run out of money
Key take away: Don’t put your organization’s mission
at risk by focusing only on fundraising; at the same
time, maintain an operational reserve
Answered by David Burton
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
3. Overconfidence
•
Key take-away: No organization is too big, too old
or two important to fail
Answered by Harold Bender
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
4. Poor strategy
•
Key take-away: Hope is not a strategy
Answered by Harold Bender
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
5. Disagreeable people
Key take-away: There are five main reasons for
disagreements and conflict: poor communication,
different values, differing interests, scarce resources,
personality clashes and poor performance.
Answered by Lisa Bakerink
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
6. Burnout
Key take-away: financial stress causes employees
and volunteers to expend a great deal of emotional
capital. Do not underestimate that cost.
Answered by George Deatz
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
7. A stale marketing message
Key take-away: get all of your staff and volunteers on
the same message, saying the same thing, using the
same name and logo in print, and focused on the
same messages (no more than three).
Answered by Harold Bender
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
8. Overreliance On One Donor or Customer
Key take-away: never let your organization become
dependent on just one major donor, organization or
customer.
Answered by David Burton
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
8b. A subset for us was government relations
Key take-away: “Donor” v. “Public Servant” – this is a
different way of looking at the relationship. The
implications are request vs. demand, persuade vs.
insist, finding common ground, quality and frequent
conversations, prompt responses to their requests
and providing excellent service.
Answered by David Burton
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
9. Disgruntled employees
• Did we have this problem?
• Do we have this problem?
• How are we managing this problem?
Answered by David Burton
Reasons Organizations go Extinct
10. Failure to join the digital revolution
Key take-away: There will be resistence but the
answer is to jump in and do it anyway.
Answered by David Burton
Handouts on our website http://extension.missouri.edu/greene
In keeping with the sustainability vision of our host university we are
saving paper and making our handouts available on our website
Greene County Extension Center,
Springfield, Mo.
David L. Burton
Contact:
(417) 881-8909 or
burtond@missouri.edu
Online at extension.missouri.edu/greene