COMMON GROUND CONSULTING LLC

On the Road Again

Today I began a series of road trips that will enable me to provide more on-site consultation to some of the organizations funded through the Civil Society Strengthening Project (CSSP). We started in one of my favorite Macedonian cities, Bitola. I've written here previously about this great town and its wonderful culture.

The organization that I work with in Bitola is the Youth Cultural Center, a terrific youth program working with USAID funds to establish itself as Macedonia's national center for volunteerism. On my last trip, I recommended MKC as having the potential to be one of our High Impact Projects. Specifically, MKC is doing a great job in recruiting new volunteers and is limited only in its ability to recruit organizations that can use well-trained volunteers. This project will support MKC in hiring and training a staff member responsible for developing systems and strategies for creating new volunteer opportunities. The project will also use involvement in the 2008 “National & Global Youth Service Day (NGYSD)” as a mechanism for achieving these goals. Ultimately, we want to see MKC be instrumental in creating a country-wide understanding of “volunteerism,” a concept still very new in many parts of the world.

Our visit went extremely well and together we mapped out a plan for a major event tied to NGYSD next year. The event will be anchored by a series of volunteer service projects completed in five cities with a major celebration of those actions, another service project, and a concert/barbecue in Skopje Park. I love this idea because I'm such a huge believer in youth and community service, going back, of course, to my days helping to launch AmeriCorps in the United States.

Following our meeting, Jeton (from ISC), Jelena (from CIRa), and I had a wonderful lunch at Plaza, a restaurant that specializes in mushroom dishes. Jeton and I are committed to trying every one of the 40+ mushroom varieties on the menu. I guess I'll be coming back often! Bitola is also known for its main pedestrian “walking street” with dozens of shops, restaurants, and cafes. It would not be difficult to spend hours here everyday, relaxing, sipping coffee (or Boza!) ,and just watching the people go by. I wish we had more streets like these in the U.S.

Job Opening: Washington, DC

Following an organizational assessment conducted by Common Ground, one of our clients is hiring a new Director of Development/Communications

The Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA) has headquarters in Littleton, CO with the new position to be located in their in Washington, DC office. Their job announcement follows:

FEEA provides scholarship and emergency financial assistance to civilian federal employees and their families worldwide. FEEA has an enviable record of providing help to federal employees when they need it most including the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing, the terrorist attacks of 9-11, and Hurricane Katrina.

We are seeking a senior level development and communication director to effectively market our accomplishments and cultivate new donors. Candidates will have the necessary experience to demonstrate development and communication skills.

Outstanding opportunity for the right candidate to develop a long-term marketing strategy and development campaign for a non-profit with a compelling story to tell.

Compensation and benefits will be sufficient to attract outstanding candidates. Fax resume to 303-933-7587 or e-mail to [email protected].

Blog & Website Changes

In response to your requests, we have made some changes to both our Blog and the Common Ground Website.

On the website, when you “Check Availability,” you can now scroll over a particular date and see exactly where Common Ground will be working. This will help those of you who are interested in having us work with you when we are in your area . It will also make my mom happy!

On the “Contact Us” page, you will now find our international phone numbers.

Here on the Blog, we've added several new categories for those of you who want to read all of the posts that have to do with a particular place where we work often—Serbia, Macedonia, The Netherlands, and New Orleans, for now; or those who are interested specifically in Youth Mentoring, Human Rights, Fundraising, or NGO Resources. Please let us know if you have other category suggestions.

We've also added one sidebar Item called “Act” which is frequently updated to give you an overview of our work in a particular month; and a second sidebar item called “Biography” where you can read about our primary consultants and (coming soon) sub-contractors. At the top of the blog, there will now be a “Featured Post” which has information that may be useful to you for an extended period of time.

We're always grateful for your ideas, feedback, and suggestions.

High IMPACT in Macedonia

One of the exciting tasks that has evolved in my work on ISC and USAID's Civil Society Strengthening Project (CSSP) is the identification, cultivation, and implementation of several “High Impact Projects.”

Over my many trips here, I've had the chance to interact with great organizations and be a part of supporting outstanding projects. One of the primary goals of the CSSP is creating opportunities for NGOs to provide sector-wide leadership. ISC’s Leader NGOs have been working very hard to meet their unique deliverables for the overall project; and some of these NGOs have committed themselves to strategies or projects that have the potential of greatly influencing the policies, values, and actions of their CSO colleagues all across Macedonia.

I identified four organizations as being uniquely positioned to pilot innovative and cutting-edge activities—“High Impact Projects” that have the potential for impacting sector development in the region. With support from ISC, they will implement their ideas, document their experiences, and share the lessons they learn with their fellow NGOs.

We met today with the first of these organizations, explaining the concept, and enlisting their help. The Association for Emancipation, Solidarity, & Equality of Women (ESE) is a strategic program with priorities that include women’s rights, women and health, women in politics and decision-making structures, and combatting domestic violence. The work they do on these issues is critical and their achievements are well-known.

I have been struck, however, by their unwavering commitment to diversifying their funding base, building an endowment, and raising the bar for how people and NGOs can work together to improve their communities. ESE's creation of a comprehensive development plan, their dedicated staff, and strong financial outlook make them an ideal candidate for investing in new development strategies. This project will provide additional resources, coaching, and support to help ESE implement, document, and share their experiences with other Leader NGOs.

In particular, the project will help them to share the lessons they are learning from implementing some of the first individual donor-based fundraising efforts in the country. I'm looking forward to sharing some of their many successes with you here on the blog. You know by now that I LOVE FUNDRAISING!!

The Café Experience

Everywhere I go in Europe, I find myself so grateful for the myriad places that make it possible to eat and drink outside. I've had some of the most wonderful conversations with friends over a long meal under a beautiful blue sky. I've also gotten a lot of work done on my laptop while sitting outside drinking an icy cold sparkling water.

In the U.S., there just aren't many of these places and where they do exist, they don't appreciate it much when you take up a seat for three hours. Its too bad.

I mean look at this place! I ate here with Dragana, Karlo, and Mina today before I left Belgrade. Its called Daka.

In the middle of the city is this perfect place with perfect friends, food, and service. Of course, we had a fantastic meal! I even had one dish—a new meat—for the first time in my life. You'll have to ask me what it was! NOT for the squeamish, I can assure you!

Celebrity Sighting

So, I'm walking home from work at ISC in Belgrade, looking for an internet cafe, and I look up to see the Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody (The Pianist, King Kong, The Thin Red Line) walking by me on the street!

I wasn't expecting to see someone famous and I wasn't even certain it was him, until my friends told me he is in the city filming the new movie, The Brothers Bloom. He's been here for a few months with Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz. Cool!

Working with Interpreters

From time-to-time these days, I find myself training participants who do not speak English. This often means I work with a translator/interpreter to help me get my point across. I like working this way, because it means working outside of my comfort zone and pushes me to be learning together with my audience.

Over the years, I've worked with some really amazing interpreters and with some I've struggled. Its been wonderful to read a guide I found online called “Working With Interpreters” written by Dennis List. Its an outstanding resource for preparing yourself to create the best possible approach to any non-profit situation that requires interpretation or translation.

When being interpreted, for example, I'm often struck when one of us in speaking a lot longer or a lot less than the other. This guide explains some of that and offers great strategies for preparing yourself and your work for translation. Thanks Dennis!

Advocacy in Practice

My work in Belgrade this week is the real beginning of a great new relationship working with staff in the Serbian office of the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC). I've been working as a consultant to ISC for more than a year now on their Macedonian project; and I'm excited about the chance to expand that relationship in Serbia, a country I've grown to love over the past four years.

ISC's Civil Society Advocacy Initiative (CSAI) here in Serbia is just about one year old and will soon be announcing its first cohort of funded NGOs working to establish a culture of advocacy throughout the country. ISC describes the project this way:

“CSAI is a $12 million, five-year program that supports Serbian civil society in its ability to influence public policy, serve as government watchdogs, and conduct sustained advocacy campaigns on a wide variety of reform issues. The CSAI nurtures a healthy and vibrant civil society by focusing on the sector’s capacity to successfully advocate at local and national levels for the issues it defines, and to secure a legal and regulatory environment that fosters the long-term financial and operational sustainability of NGOs. The CSAI envisions the growth of civil society such that all people in Serbia identify themselves as citizens of a stable, democratic nation where participation is the norm, and personal responsibility contributes to a renewed sense of individual and national dignity.”

This is my third trip to Serbia this year already, with several more planned before the end of 2007. On this visit, my role is primarily focused on assisting Dragan, ISC Serbia's Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Coordinator, to prepare other ISC staff and external stakeholders for their role in conducting initial assessments of the new grantees. ISC has a few terrific tools they've developed for their many projects around the world including an Advocacy Index and the Seat at the Table Index (SATT), the two tools we'll be using in Serbia.

Gretchen works in ISC's Vermont office and is the program support manager with key responsibility for M&E. She is also in the office this week and I'm looking forward to becoming a part of this great team, which also includes Grant Officers Nina and Bogdan, and Training Specialist Aleksandra (Saska). There are other terrific staff I'm getting to know in the office and I'll have the chance to work with many of them over the next several months. Enrique Roig is the Country Director in Serbia and Nick Green is the Deputy Chief of Party.

I'll be spending a few weeks with ISC in July, conducting another round of assessments in order to write Common Ground's “Strategy, Action, and Results (START)” Reports for many of the new grantees. I'll return again in September to conduct Common Ground's new “Consulting for Consultants” Institute for the many in-country training and technical support experts who will be working on the project over the next few years.

Principles of Accountability for International Philanthropy

Working together, the Council on Foundations and the European Foundation Centre have spent the past two years collaborating on a project to explore and define accountability when it comes to cross-border philanthropy.

The product of this partnership is Principles of Accountability for International Philanthropy—a terrific new 30-page report which addresses the issues coherently and with easy-to-understand and adopt best practices. Click Here to read more about the project and download the full report.

A Little Kierkegaard?

“If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of what can be, for the eye, which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating as possibility?” Soren Kierkegaard from Either/Or