Robert Egger's Piece of Mind

I just published a new op-ed in the Huffington Post, titled “The Most Important Word for Nonprofits: MERGER” and it accomplished everything I had hoped, and more.

The article itself presents a few ways in which using collective resources could muster better economies of scale for the sector…but the real experiment for me was how the title itself would be received.

Simply put…the nonprofit sector should be a powerful, vital, recognized force in America…but it isn’t. Much of this is due to our subservient nature, born of decades of relying on the extra our society produces, which we use to fuel our efforts. We run our programs on extra food, time, buildings…and most importantly, extra money.

This has produced, I believe, an inferiority complex, that manifests itself all the time in the form of weak thinking, silo-centric organizing and submissive politics. In short…we should be roaring, yet we purr.

Which is what I wanted to demonstrate by using the provocative word MERGER in the title of my article. I knew it would be immediately rejected by many who would see it  as a call for “2 to become 1″, and I wanted to literally shove that limited thinking into the sectors nose…to say, in effect, “SEE…this is why we grovel when we should be standing tall”.

If you haven’t read it, I hope you will.

And as a glorious example of the power of mergers, I’ve attached a video I took time to record during my recent trip to speak at the 15th Anniversary of the Morgridge Center for Public Service at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. It features my friend Crystel Anders, the CEO of Community Shares. They just opened the Center for Change, which provides shared space for dozens of nonprofits. It’s brilliant, bold and demonstrates, by design, a glorious example of thinking big….which is what I hope nonprofits in the Badger State will do during the upcoming election cycle. Their role in the economy of Wisconsin is too pronounced to be ignored by candidates, but it’s up to them to stand together and be heard. There are almost 275,000 nonprofit employees in the state–that’s a hard number of votes to ignore–but only if nonprofits don’t ignore the opportunity.

Which brings me to this

It’s been too long since I blogged. I’ve been transitioning from full time President of DCCK (which I still am) to now also leading CForward, an advocacy organization and PAC for the 10 million nonprofit employees.  I now wear two hats, and as such, I have to insure that I do not jeopardize DCCK’s 501C3 status with my political work.

SO…while I wasn’t blogging, I was writing a ton…and establishing  a new office and team….and continuing to speak throughout America.

Hopefully, we’ll see each other more often.

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Well…of all the city’s to break the mayor forum mold, it had to be Austin.

Organized by the Austin Area Human Services Association  the event drew all the candidates for mayor, as well as the candidates for the city council.

The cool part—all their questions and a podcast of the candidate’s responses will soon be online. THIS is part of the V3 campaigns long range plan–to make the questions asked at each forum, as well as the replies, available for any and all to learn from or emulate.

But El Paso is not far behind. Check out my friend Frank Lopez’s effort that will take place tomorrow.

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I love the road. It can be rough and it can be righteous, but either way, I love being out and about, particularly with people who roll around in it for a living, like I do.

First stop on this adventure, one of my favorite spots in the greater DC-NYC corridor—Newark, DE, and the Food Bank up there, run by my chum of chums, Pat Beebe.

From some of my writings and interviews, some might come to the conclusion that I’ve got a jones against food banks. Not at all….I just don’t dig old ideas if the times demand new takes. If your house is rockin, then I’m ready to roll with you…and Pat’s house is rockin. A lot of that has to do with her killer team, and Chef Noah, who runs the training program up there (with Chef Nick) play a huge roll in keeping the volume up at the kind of ear slitting levels that I prefer.

Case in point—the graduation of their 20th culinary arts class. There are few things in life more affirming than a graduation, and as you can read from this account in Delaware Online, this was a great gathering of family and friends. If you EVER get up to the First State, or if you want to learn about training from some powerful leaders in this field, then stop by and give Chefs Nick and Noah a shout out for me.

Then I got it on the good foot and made tracks for West Virginia, to speak at a staff development day for the Public Library Squad of Charleston.

Now…it might seem random, and some might assume, given how often I’m up in front of an audience that I’ll speak at the opening of a refrigerator just to hear the sound of my own voice…and they wouldn’t be half wrong…but in this case, I really wanted to be there.

I have ALWAYS dug libraries. Few countries have made public education or FREE access to information so handy. We should be really proud of our country for this part of our history. But…like food programs (who also have a history of giving things away for free), the times are changing for our bookish brothers and sisters.

Now, Public Libraries have to fight for funding. Voters often view them (as they do nonprofits) as part of the “extras” that, if the choice comes down to cops on the beat, they can do without. Libraries (and many nonprofits) are now doing “Return on Investment” formulas to prove their worth. They are tracking how many folks come their to access computers to look for work, gain new skills, or, in the case of that spunky school girl who sat next to the First Lady at President Obama’s first speech before the House, use them to write letters that say “we aren’t quitters!!” Neither are the librarians!!!

But they are up against it right now. West Virginia is one of only a handful of states that have yet to post a deficit (coal), so their library system isn’t as up against the wall of others, but the big questions about the future of libraries is just a relevant to them as it is anywhere else in America. Will the public fund them? Will they continue to come through their doors and the information age progresses? If they build a new one with countless cool bells and whistles—will they come? I URGE YOU to think about this. Be part of the discussion in your town.

When I started the Kitchen—I didn’t know how to start a nonprofit. I went to the library to learn how!!!! I owe them. So do you.

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