No-Nonsense Non-Profit

Endorsements

Over a 40-year career in business, I read and was formed by some of the Masters: Drucker, Peters, Porter, Collins, Lencioni, et al. Never, however, have I read a book that better-integrated leadership principles, business imperatives, cultural observation, Christian spirituality, and missionary initiative. When you finish, you will not only be wiser about what it takes to run a successful enterprise; you'll find yourself challenged to become a better version of your best self.

Brian J. Gail

Former CEO and best-selling author of the Fatherless series

Peter Darcy provides the insight and information needed by every priest and religious – this is the information not taught in seminary. How to run a non-profit organization by remaining focused on its mission and treating people with the respect they deserve. As Darcy emphasizes, ‘leadership is not management,’ and this book will teach its readers the vital difference.

Deal Hudson

Founder of Crisis magazine, The Christian Review, and author of

How to Keep from Losing Your Mind

This book is full of insight for those of us serving the mission of the church. Anyone in pastoral ministry will benefit from the no-nonsense look at basic issues of operations and leadership found in these pages. I loved reading it and plan to keep it handy as a companion for the mission.

Rev. James E. Molgano

Catholic diocesan priest and retired pastor

Working in the Catholic not-for-profit world for almost 40 years, I wish I had had this inspirational and practical treatise on leadership from the beginning. This insightful ‘pep-talk’ to aspiring leaders confirms convictions and provides an essential guide to leading a successful apostolate that is built to last.

Thomas McKenna

President of Catholic Action for Faith and Family and author of The Fatima Century

Do you think leadership is a gift that few are born with? Peter Darcy doesn’t. In No-Nonsense Non-Profit, he sees leadership as a skill that can be acquired by those willing to make a deep and consistent commitment—a commitment of time, effort, and especially spirit. Drawing on years of experience leading non-profits, Darcy presents us with insights, observations, and techniques that will prove invaluable to anyone who seeks to lead, whether in the non-profit world or in any walk of life.

John Collins

Author of A Friar’s Tale, the official biography of Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR

"Though aimed primarily at faith-based leaders of non-profits, any Catholic or Christian leader in any organization, including for-profit corporations, would benefit by reading this book. It takes very little effort or imagination to apply the principles Peter Darcy so succinctly lays out to any leadership position, from that of a small business owner to a middle manager, right on up to CEO. His use of anecdotes, personal experiences, and references to other works was a great mix that made for an enjoyable, easy read. Having spent 35 years in the private sector, No-Nonsense Non-Profit strikes me as a perfect companion to Abela and Capizzi’s A Catechism for Business."

Gene Van Son

Managing editor, CatholicStand.com

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

No-Nonsense Non-Profit: Leadership Principles for Church and Charity, Copyright © 2020 by Peter Darcy. All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Strength of Soul Books. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and review. For information, address Strength of Soul Books, P. O. Box 346, Port Salerno, Florida 34992.

Books and materials published by Strength of Soul Books may be purchased for mentoring, spiritual growth, evangelization, and promotional use. Please visit us at www.strengthofsoulbooks.com or contact us at [email protected].

This work is a revised and updated version of Mister Buddy’s Guide to Non-Profit Leadership: Principles for Success in a Charitable World (Boiling Springs, PA: Tremendous Leadership, 2019).

First Edition

ISBN: 978-1-7332654-2-3

eBook ISBN: 978-1-7332654-3-0

For

Rich Clair, Larry Jenkins, Frank Ruddy, 
Fr. Lou Roberts, and Fr. Jerome Herman, all of whom mentored me without even trying.

Contents

Endorsements

Author’s Prologue

Introduction

When Leaders Are Absent

The Leadership/Management Dance

Chapter 1: Core Leadership Principles

1. Prayer Is the Strength of the Mission

2. You Incarnate the Mission

3. Define Success for Your Mission and Your People

4. People Will Only Follow Those Who Give Them Hope

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for a Sacrificial Buy-In

6. Ask Them How You’re Doing

7. The Primordial Temptation

8. Beat the Perennial Catch-22

Chapter 2: Core Promotional Principles

1. Know Why the World Needs You

2. Promote the Mission With Simplicity and Clarity

3. Communicate With Boldness and Creativity

4. Inspiration, Inspiration, Inspiration

5. Be Prepared for Every Audience

6. Money Follows Mission

7. Stay Constantly in Front of Them

8. Don’t Confuse Having an Audience with Having an Impact

Chapter 3: Core Mission Principles

1. Think People Not Systems

2. Resist Mission Drift

3. Direct Engagement With the Enemy

4. Adapt or Die

5. Build a Performance Culture

6. Create a Culture of Joy and Celebration

7. Generous Stewardship of Limited Resources

8. The Mission Happens Outside the Building

Chapter 4: Core Organizational Principles

1. Your People Want You to Be In Charge

2. First Things First

3. Find the Inside/Outside Balance

4. Regular Staff Training

5. Flow Chart Discipline

6. Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

7. Hire for Work Ethic and Productivity

8. Manage Your Board

Chapter 5: Core Performance Principles

1. It Never Gets Easier—Ever

2. Good Intentions Don’t Pay the Bills

3. Networking and Phone Time

4. Build a Cathedral

5. Always Remember the Core Unit

6. Two Essential Performance Disciplines

7. Hone Your Skills

8. Balance and Time Out

Conclusion: Potestas and Auctoritas

Helpful Resources

About the Author

Author’s Prologue

A few years ago, after leaving a very satisfying and wonderful non-profit mission, I wrote a draft of this work as an aid to the leader who replaced me. It never got out of the rough draft stage, however, and I never sent it to him because it looked like he was performing very well without need of my advice. Frankly, I was delighted the organization was in such compet ent hands.

The draft sat in my computer for a couple of years, but it seemed to be begging to come to light after so long. Recently, I decided to dust it off and re-work it to apply to a wider segment of leaders in the non-profit world. I hope that the effort of putting these ideas down on paper will be of service to someone who aspires to be a leader in any noble mission that seeks to make the world a better place.

No-Nonsense Non-Profit: Leadership Principles for Church and Charity is full of advice-giving and tidbits (what worked for me), quaint personal anecdotes, a few inspirational stories, and my idea of best practices in the non-profit sector. Who doesn’t need solid advice in the rough-and-tumble world of helping people? Why reinvent the wheel if someone else has already built a good one? It is, in all aspects, a non-nonsense manual on leading and running non-profits, as its title professes.

Even though this work was written from the background of non-profits that were not churches, the principles can be equally applied to the running of churches and parishes, which are non-profit, charitable organizations in the fullest sense of the word. Rather than re-write significant sections of the book to tailor them to clergy – who I hope will benefit greatly from this work – I chose to trust the intelligence of the reader to make a certain translation while reading. For example, passages that refer to a board of directors, legal authority, etc. can be easily thought of as one’s bishop, religious superiors, finance council, oversight committee, or vestry, as the case may be! A similar mental adaptation may be necessary in areas of scale (small vs. large organizations) or scope (local vs. national or international mission). The differing circumstances of each ministry are less critical factors because this book is about principles, not a directory for managing any particular organization.

The goal of No-Nonsense Non-Profit is to break down the business of running a charity or church to certain core principles in five areas: 1) leadership, 2) promotion, 3) mission, 4) organization, and 5) performance. There are eight principles in each of the five areas – as luck would have it, the biblical number forty – constituting a tour de force of short essays for the inquiring mind. (Short bursts of insight work best for busy people.) That last area, performance, is the stuff of an entire industry of motivational books these days, and you will find many good references for further reading in the Helpful Resources section at the back of the book.

I intend this book to be especially helpful to new leaders who haven’t yet been exposed to the complexity of running a church or non-profit mission, but it can also serve as a refresher course for those who have been around the block in charitable work. If you have never worked in the non-profit field, the material in these pages will help you become an effective leader; if you’re already an old pro, perhaps it will make you an even better leader and a better person.

Before jumping into the material, I should note that I use the he pronoun throughout the book because, contrary to many other languages, English has not yet figured out a way to speak of the two genders with a single pronoun. I am not a fan of the "singular they either, which, in any case, has not become a standard way of writing except on social media. So, until literary civilization works out that little anomaly, it is easier to write from my side of the ledger to an audience that is largely male, knowing that female readers and leaders are capable of turning he into she" whenever necessary.

Peter Darcy

Easter, 2020

Introduction

When Leaders Are Absent

Like many good things in life, we only appreciate the blessings of leadership when we are deprived of them.

Most of us take leaders for granted because leadership is often a behind-the-scenes, thankless job, the details of which few people see. We mourn the loss of good leadership when it is absent because only its absence gives us a clue as to how much leaders do for us in silent ways while the rest of us cruise along on the surface of life enjoying the benefits of their hard work. If you ask yourself how important good leadership is to any human venture, you won’t have to look far for an answer. Let’s take just one famous example: the Titanic .

Virtually everyone in the Western world knows the story of the epic Titanic disaster in 1912. It was, of course, fundamentally a business venture for the British company, the White Star Line. It was not a charitable mission, but the leadership lessons we can derive from that tragedy are striking. Starting with the leadership failures surrounding the Titanic misadventure, let’s begin with the most serious.

Leadership Failure #1 – dereliction of duty

Captain Edward J. Smith, an experienced British Royal Navy officer, drove the Titanic full steam ahead through an ocean full of icebergs with the ambition of setting a new trans-Atlantic passage record to New York. That act easily qualifies Captain Smith as the all-time winner of the What Was He Thinking? Award. Pressed for time, Captain Smith cancelled the customary lifeboat drill with passengers the day before the Titanic set sail. That same day, Smith dismissed an officer who took the key to the binocular case with him, thus depriving the Titanic’s crow’s nest lookouts of their binoculars to scan for icebergs. Smith went to bed after a banquet held in his honor the night of the disaster, even though the ship was heading into very dangerous waters, and was awakened by the ship’s collision with the iceberg. The Captain failed to maintain a dedicated line for wireless communication with other ships because his communications officer was too busy sending the first-class passengers’ cables back to the mainland detailing the adventures of their pleasure cruise. Virtually nothing is known of Captain Smith’s final two hours on the Titanic.

Leadership Failure #2 – negligent oversight

The year before the Titanic sailed, the same Captain Edward Smith was at the helm of the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic, which collided with a British warship, the RMS Hawke, near the Isle of Wight. A Navy investigation laid the blame for the incident squarely on Captain Smith. Knowing of this catastrophic event in Smith’s recent history, the Titanic’s supervising authority, the White Star Fleet, nonetheless chose Smith to be captain of the Titanic. That esteemed committee deserves the "What Were They Thinking?" Award, which is given for collective insanity.

Leadership Failure #3 – hesitation in time of crisis

First Officer in charge of the Titanic’s bridge, William McMaster Murdoch, delayed a