The Crazy Lives of Consultants

SEPTEMBER 27, 2007

If you are easily offended, please do not read on. Sent by an alert consultant in Florida: ARE YOU A CONSULTANT OR A HOOKER? 1. You work very odd hours. 2. You are paid a lot of money to keep your client happy. 3. You are paid well but your pimp gets most of the money. 4. You spend a majority of your time in a hotel room. 5. You charge by the hour but your time can be extended for the right price. 6.

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The Nonprofit Consultant

OCTOBER 23, 2007

For a nonprofit board of directors to succeed, the number one key ingredient is: Involvement. Boards fail (and, in turn, organizations fail) when board members become disengaged from either the mission of the organization or their role in the governance of the organization. An engaged board does more than simply show up for scheduled meetings and vote to approve minutes and budgets.

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Chad Barr

DECEMBER 3, 2007

This video reminds me of some of the training sessions we conduct for our clients and even some of the few I personally attended. The post The Benefit of Using a Coach appeared first on The Chad Barr Group.

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The Nonprofit Consultant

JUNE 13, 2007

I came across this quote today that I think should be hung in every nonprofit workplace across the country. It's a great reminded of why we do what we do. "You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.

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The Nonprofit Consultant

MAY 16, 2007

One of the clients I'm working with has always only had one budget for the entire organization. This is fine for small nonprofits that only really have one or maybe two programs, but this client has grown out of that stage, and has at least five or six distinct programs and program areas that should be broken out of that budget. While we were working on that, the question from staff came up of, "How do we allocate the overhead costs to each program?

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The Nonprofit Consultant

DECEMBER 12, 2007

One of the most popular posts on this blog is one the earliest. It is also the one that seems to upset the most people. I'm referring, of course, to my posting on nonprofit grant writing fees versus commissions. In that posting, I explained why I follow the AFP Code of Ethics and refuse to write grants on a contingency basis. Many people have written to me, or commented on the posting, that they don't understand why contingency payment is bad, and I've tried to explain and re-explain the AFP pos

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The Crazy Lives of Consultants

DECEMBER 10, 2007

The flight from philly to phoenix on us scare, i mean air, is about 5 hours. It's so long, in fact, that you can actually take a nap, get all your client work done, do some reading for pleasure, and take another nap. I've flown this route for 2 years. When I boarded the flight, I was so exhausted on Thursday I fell asleep the second I buckled my seat belt.

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The Nonprofit Consultant

DECEMBER 7, 2007

Wednesday morning I was at a "study session" for grantees of San Jose's "Healthy Neighborhood Venture Fund" (HNVF) to review their new strategic plan. HNVF money is a result of the tobacco settlements, and San Jose has been using the majority of their funds ($10 million) to make grants to nonprofits. Of course, whenever the city's budget comes up, there are those who suggest that the city could better use the HNVF money by adding it to the General Fund and spend it all within city departments.

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Chad Barr

DECEMBER 6, 2007

After delivering my speech last week, at the Inn at Castle Hill in Newport, Rhode Island, and while walking outside, I noticed the beautiful and serene picture of nature. The geese, somewhat motionless, seemed to ignore me as they were calmly looking at the water. I aimed my camera, one shot taken, and just before I was ready to take the next shot, they decided to take off.

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The Nonprofit Consultant

DECEMBER 6, 2007

Does your nonprofit have a tagline? Most small organizations that I'm aware of don't, and have never even considered the need for one. Nancy Schwartz, of the Getting Attention nonprofit marketing blog , believes taglines are essential ingredients to success. According to Nancy: In today's competitive marketing (including fundraising, of course) environment, nonprofit taglines must be strong enough to get attention and provoke questions.

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Chad Barr

DECEMBER 2, 2007

After dinner last night, my wife and I went to Caribou Coffee to get a latte. While the coffee was being prepared, I was looking at the announcement board and this ad seemed to grab my attention. It immediately became obvious to me, that the person designing this ad, apparently never realized that they omitted the most critical and important information: (Click on image above to enlarge).

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Chad Barr

DECEMBER 1, 2007

Francis Ford Coppola (age 68), five-time academy award winner, director of movies such as: The Godfather, The Conversation and Apocalypse Now , was interviewed this morning on CBS News Sunday Morning. His life-story attribute that resonated with me most was his tenacity. Although he became quite successful at an early age, he almost faced business financial ruin and was on the verge of bankruptcy.

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Chad Barr

NOVEMBER 30, 2007

It was great when one of the participants in my recent speaking engagement in Rhode Island, came to me after my presentation and reminded me that I did not mention a concept that resonated with him when he heard me speak last year. So here is the concept and thanks for the reminder: Imagine visiting a web site or a blog for the first time, finding it interesting and book marking it for future visits.

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The Crazy Lives of Consultants

DECEMBER 1, 2007

Sent by an alert Government Consultant based in DC: So here's the deal.I work at an Army site, mixed uniforms, enlisted and officers, with contractors in a giant cubeland. Just overheard being said by a Chief Warrant Officer as he stormed down the hall through cubeland , "I'm going to strangle a contractor!" as he is making the universal strangling gestures with his hands.

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The Nonprofit Consultant

NOVEMBER 29, 2007

What's a "blidget"? It's a widget to syndicate a blog. Huh? Basically, if you've got a blog, and you'd like to allow other web sites, blogs, profiles (MySpace, FaceBook, etc.) to embed your blog, a blog widget is an easy way to do it. What's in it for a nonprofit organization? Viral marketing made easy, that's what. Imagine each of your supporters embedding your headlines on their blogs, on their MySpace profiles and on their Facebook pages.

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Nonprofit Tools Marketing 40

Chad Barr

NOVEMBER 28, 2007

I am here at Rhode Island where I will be presenting today “How to Leverage The Internet for Improved Success in Your Business” to the attendees of the Million Dollar Consulting College , held by Dr. Alan Weiss of the Summit Consulting Group. While chatting last night with several of the college participants, I came to realize that most entrepreneurs do not recognize the awesome power of progress and evolution, especially when it comes to their own web site.

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Chad Barr

NOVEMBER 25, 2007

It has been 29 years since I moved to the U.S. and made it my home and the journey has been simply unbelievable. I’ve been fortunate to create and live a great life and as this Thanksgiving holiday weekend comes to a close, I wish to thank you all: My dear wife Laurel, daughter Sharon, son Yoni, son-in-law Hillel and my entire family. My dear mentors, friends, colleagues, clients and of course YOU, the reader of this blog.

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This White Paper targets opportunities for Management to develop proficiency in the Decision Framing and Analyses element of input to Decision, & Risk Analyses for Major Project Funding Decisions.

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Chad Barr

NOVEMBER 19, 2007

I just spent an awesome weekend with my son traveling the Bryce Canyon area. Great bonding experience, terrific conversations, learned some new rap music and beautiful surrounding nature. Life is good! Below are some pictures I took (click on images to enlarge): At Snow Canyon St. George. Snow Canyon – St. George. Sunset – St. George. Bryce Canyon.

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The Crazy Lives of Consultants

NOVEMBER 14, 2007

Let's be honest: this has absolutely nothing to do with consulting. NONETHELESS.it's being posted. Here's the background: Back in 1996, just under a year after my grandmother died, my grandpa married grandma's best friend. He was 88, she was 85. Go Grandpa! He apparently likes the younger women. Enter the entire extended family with whom we now have to spend every holiday.

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Chad Barr

NOVEMBER 10, 2007

I’ve attended the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas and got to meet some terrific people including Marc Cuban and Matt Mullenweg. Here are some best practices ideas I would like to share with you: It’s a great professional development tool for you and your company. It is a rapid publishing platform focusing on delivering wisdom and knowledge while building a community.

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The Crazy Lives of Consultants

NOVEMBER 10, 2007

Lessons learned from a cab ride home from the airport last night: 1. Always do a "lean-in sniff test" of the cab before just jumping in, to see if said cab smells like pee. If it does, once you're in and the door is shut, you're screwed. You'll have pee-smell emanating from your body for the rest of the day, no matter how much travel-size Marriott lotion you might have in your bag to try to cover the odor.

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The Crazy Lives of Consultants

NOVEMBER 7, 2007

Several weeks ago, I was the esteemed recipient of a rarely awarded privilege. For those in the consulting field, you’re probably thinking this means some sort of award, recognition, bonus, special thank you or other sort of accolade. Not in the consulting field? Well, you live lives too normal for me to relate, so, I have no idea what this sort of thing would mean to you.

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The Crazy Lives of Consultants

NOVEMBER 6, 2007

And this is why I don't work at DHS anymore. The Secretary of DHS actually had a press conference to discuss an offensive Halloween costume. Insanity. Here's my favorite quote: "Here is the bottom line: People do dumb things," Chertoff said. Yes. Like give press conferences about Halloween costumes. On the taxpayer's dime. Chertoff also says "The idea that you are going to come and impersonate someone of another ethnic group, I think, is completely unacceptable.

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Chad Barr

OCTOBER 31, 2007

One of the successful concepts of Internet marketing is called Viral Marketing. This concept helps spread an idea very quickly among its recipients. One example of the success of this concept is with singer Marie Digby. She video recorded several famous songs and uploaded them onto YouTube. When visitors searched for the song by the original artist they also found her videos, which quickly brought her fame and the signing to produce a new album.

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The Nonprofit Consultant

OCTOBER 27, 2007

Once upon a time, a local government agency wanted to give grants in a particular issue area, so they put out an RFP and called all the area nonprofits to a special meeting. The nonprofits came to the mandatory 3-1/2 hour meeting and received over 60 pages of instructions on how to complete the seven page proposal package (two pages of actual writing plus lots of forms).

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