Cutting edge executive coaching team grooms non-profits for donor presentations.

Perhaps because I worked in the non-profit sector and now teach grad classes on how to manage non-profit organizations, it comes as no shock that a few rough edges still exist when NPOs attempt to get corporate types to fund their charitable programs.

Over the years, the management quality of NPOs has improved considerably, but there is still a need to finesse those bipolar interactions in the corporate boardroom.

That’s where “The Social Innovation Forum” comes in.

Through a competitive selection process, it identifies promising Boston-area nonprofits, gives them free services like management consulting and executive coaching, and introduces them to potential donors.

Each year, six of those nonprofits, dubbed “social innovators,” make a formal, 15-minute funding appeal, complete with PowerPoint presentation and prospectus, to a large group of prospective funders.

NPO presenters do a heavily-critiqued run-through with people like Dale Bearden, a managing director at Babson Capital Management, an investment management firm.

For the next 15 minutes, Kochka – the manager of ReVision Urban Farm, a Dorchester nonprofit that provides fresh produce and job training for homeless young mothers – fielded a battery of similarly blunt feedback. The scene was a bit like “American Idol,” with PowerPoint presentations subbing for musical performances and executives like Bearden offering the brutally frank critiques.

Jennifer White of Cradles to Crayons fared better with her practice presentation. Although judges praised her ease answering questions, they urged her to be louder and more concise. They suggested she better differentiate Cradles to Crayons from nonprofits that do similar work, like Toys for Tots.

All of that, White said, was welcome feedback.

“It’s really great networking exposure, and the opportunity to tell our story to an audience such as that was huge,” she said. The input, she added, “helps us make sure that we’re making our case clearly.”

Read the complete Boston.com story.

The Marketing Taxi is ready to help coaches and other practicing professionals.

I suppose a shameless plus once or twice a year wouldn’t test the loyalty of my readers too much. After all, my purpose is to help myself by doing something amazingly helpful to you.

The Marketing Taxi is a new marketing ezine targeted directly towards the people I work with every day — coaches, consultants, practicing professionals of all stripes (CPAs, attorneys, health care providers, mediators). Its goal is to help them achieve their unique vision of success as professionals and community leaders.

There are four aspects of The Marketing Taxi that make it unique among newsletters.

The articles we publish and the advice we give are geared towards small businesses with limited resources. While we often talk about retoolling successful approaches used in larger companies, we are also committed to givin you advice that  must work in the small office, sometimes the one person office.

Second, from our perspective YOU ARE THE BUSINESS. Marketing the business means marketing you the business owner. So we will talk about you — your role, your dos and dont’s, the little things you can do to attract new customers using the power of your passion for your business and the primary draw. In the process you will become a more confident, more focused, better manager and leader.

Third, we understand that your relationships with your clients are very different from say, a replacement window business or cable company, or even your auto repair mechanic. The level of trust, honesty, and openness required for success far exceeds the typical business-customer relationship. We will delve into this more in The Marketing Taxi, but we believe it is the crucial perhaps the most important consideration in your business.

Finally, we believe that the work you have choosen do is a path towards your personal fulfillment and self-actualization. Not everything we do takes us to that special place of personal transcendence, what Thomas Moore calls the “life work” or “work of the soul.” But that’s where we strive to belong.

So, as marketing ezines go, The Marketing Taxi has a very special task and mission. For sure, you will read plenty of useful marketing tips and how-tows. But it’s all laid out for you for a very specific purpose, to turn you into “The Transcendent Marketer” if that’s were you want to go.

Let me invite you to suscribe. Just click on the link at the top of this page. Along with some other additional info, you’ll see you can get right away a copy of your free report: Creating Effective Press Releases in a Web 2.0 World. We also have an iron-clad Privacy Policy: your info is safe with us, and if you are not happy for any reason or just have too much to read, the unsubscribe process is simple.

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Sincerely,
Frank Marafiote, Editor
Coaching New and Events
The Marketing Taxi

Is visualization the key to successful coaching or a confusing detour?

At least one coach thinks so — and I am sure he is not the only one — George Purdy, a business coach writing in the Education Information Guide touts visualization as an essential ingredient to successful living.

 Purdy writes:

Science has confirmed the validity of visualization as a way to transform your life. If you do it the right way, you can see yourself attaining your goals and firm up your determination to do whatever is necessary to achieve them. Along with giving it your best shot, visualization will land you success in whatever it is you wish to do. Businessmen worldwide are convinced of the value of business coaching for every business in every field. 

After making a short detour to discuss other tools for business coaching and how they process, generally, works, Purdy again returns to the notion of visualization, though the connection to his practice seems a bit confusion and tenuous.

‘Visualization’ has been proven by scientists to have miraculous possibilities in people’s lives when properly practiced. Without determination, achievement of any worthwhile goal is difficult at best. Visualization, coupled with great effort and smart techniques, will bring success right to your door. This is the reason why business coaching has gained such importance for business, with many having a firm belief in its value. A lot of expertise is required in the field of business advertising. Proper coaching done by business organizations, have paved a role in multiplying their profits. The growth of business is proportional to the development of any economy.

Although it seems to take Purdy some effort to decide what the theme of his article really is, it is worth a look for yourself and you can form you own opinion.

 To read Purdy’s article in detail, click here.