Consulting

January 09, 2021 

By Mirja Hanson

When the going gets tough, peer interchange offers the best solutions! As the pandemic accelerated the revenue shortfalls threatening the survival of community newspapers, the MN News Media Institute (MNI) of the MN Newspaper Association (MNA)  responded with a virtual networking opportunity for generating action ideas. With sponsorship from The Blandin Foundation, the MNI and Millennia Consulting’s Mirja Hanson facilitated problem-solving huddles for local newspapers for supporting and sustaining their mission to assure essential community information.

From June to October 2020, a lively series of online peer discussions brought together 50+ newspaper staff from communities across Minnesota. The first forums produced an “idea bank” of insights that was shared with 300+ MNA members as resource for navigating key service challenges:

Supporting HEALTHY NEWSPAPERS

• Negative industry reputation affecting recruitment and advertising perceptio   
• Community closures/economic challenges with losses in events, ads, distribution points
• Navigating through unprecedented unknowns without a track record to use as a guide
• Struggling to address falling revenues while continuing to serve the communi   
• Launching a new paper amidst social unrest and a tough economy       
• Adjusting to print vs. digital and reductions in print days            
• Doing more with even less to continue production and making ends meet   
• Keeping, managing, motivating and finding staff to get the work done       
• Supporting HEALTHY COMMUNITY
• Keeping readers and community interacting and engaged constructively   
• Providing relevant COVID-related coverage and community support       
• Gaining citizen and reporter access to public meetings and key stories       
• By popular demand, MNI convened seven follow-up sessions to allow a deeper dive to identify ideas in priority action areas:
• Seeking revenue strategies – advertising, subscriptions, memberships
• Sustaining the business and operations
• Expanding digital strategies
• Supporting and recruiting employees
• Keeping the core product relevant with in-depth, balanced content focused on local news
• Assuring coverage of all market communities, voices and issues
• Serving as a constructive forum for community information and dialogue

While participants did not expect any silver bullets for their dilemma, they acknowledged the benefits of keeping in touch with others in all areas of the industry and, as one person put it, “the discussions were valuable from a business perspective, but also valuable for moral support. It is stressful publishing during this pandemic. Peer networking is so necessary or professional and personal health.” The biggest take-way was a re-dedication to keep citizens informed and active in their communities and broaden public support for the newspapers’ role.

The virtual problem-solving effort builds on the Rural Editors and Publishers Community Leadership Program (E&P) that has involved 181 participants from 101 newspapers since 2005. Millennia has served as a trainer in collaboration with MNI staff for the past 16 years. The program is funded and originally developed by the Blandin Foundation to equip community leaders with the core competencies of framing, social capital and mobilization and other tools for supporting healthy community.

The networking used an E&P process known as the balcony group that participants have found to be a key tool for translating leadership ideas into tangible action.  Authors Heifetz and Linsky of Leadership on the Line, encourage leaders to periodically “climb to the balcony, above the fray” to gain perspectives for working smarter on the “dance floor” of day-to-day operations.

August 10, 2020

By Tom Lenz

For the past five years I have been assisting the Partnership for Resilience, a cross-sector collaborative of public schools, health care and community organizations in southern Cook County and far southern Illinois. Family and community engagement (FACE) is a huge priority for these schools.  Earlier this year we planned a June workshop at Governors State Community with Eyal Bergman, a FACE expert from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  When the pandemic hit, we reluctantly decided to move the face-to-face workshop to Zoom. Eyal’s good, I thought, but a 3-hour webinar? Would you believe the three hours FLEW by and the evaluation from the 75 participants were almost all “would highly recommend this to a colleague”.  The most-frequent comment: “I wish the workshop had been longer.”  What just happened?  To be sure, Eyal’s core messages on family engagement are terrific.  He’s partnered with the foremost expert on the topic at Harvard, Dr. Karen Mapp.  Her dual capacity framework is a practical and powerful approach that more and more schools are embracing.

But Eyal did two things extremely well that are worth noting:  First, he expertly used Zoom functions to build participant engagement right from the start.  Eyal led with four questions about family and community engagement and used the polling function to share the participant responses in real time.  These four questions previewed key elements of his presentation, and he referred back to them throughout the morning.  He also used the “white board” function to get a range of responses to other questions he posed.  The comments appeared in a quick and dynamic way which created additional engagement with the audience.  Second, he built in large chunks of time for small group work and for breaks.  In fact, his time budget for the three hours looked like this:  •    Presenter talk time – 60 minutes •    Time in breakout groups – 65 minutes •Interactive presenter/participant time – 30 minutes •    Breaks – 25 minutes

March 27, 2020

By Jessica Ticus

As the COVID-19 pandemic is touching everyone, many nonprofits especially health and human services feel the impact acutely. Fundraising ismore critical than ever during this crisis.

If they can, donors will continue to support you. Consider sending an email appeal for immediate funding needs like prepaid Internet cards or more shelf-stable meals for the homebound. Post a special giving page on your website to encourage support and share stories of the impact of even the smallest donation.

Keep in touch with your key donors so you know how the coronavirus is impacting their families and their business. This may not be the time to ask for a major gift, but this is a relationship business and you want to check-in and see how your supporters are doing. Outreach to your volunteers will also be appreciated.

Seek grant opportunities for emergency relief from local community foundations and other aid organizations. The Chicago Community Trust and the United Way have established a website where donations are being solicited and potential grant recipients can provide information.  Continue to work with your public officials as federal emergency relief funds become available.

Postpone fundraising events or move to a virtual format. Many event venues and caterers are open to rebooking with advance notification. Evaluate your resources and technical capacity to host an

interesting and profitable virtual event. While people are looking for something to do, the production quality needs to be high to keep the “gala” in gala.

Crisis is a precondition of communication, not only with people you serve, but also with those who support your mission. Your donors want to know how you are carrying on in these strange and scary times.