Love My Way – Resources for Risk-taking
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
By Melanie Lockwood Herman
Executive Director
“You can never win or lose. If you don’t run the race.” – Love My Way by The Psychedelic Furs
Driving home one Valentine’s Day my radio was tuned to 1st Wave on Sirius/XM and a special program featuring love songs from the 1980s. First up was one of my favorites, “Love My Way” from the 80’s band, The Psychedelic Furs. The lyrics reminded me of why human beings risk everything–in relationships, in business, and in serving the nonprofits whose missions touch their hearts. Risk-taking is essential to advancing any nonprofit’s ambitious mission.
If your leadership team is tentative when it comes to risk, inject your mission with risk awareness and energy by asking:
- What big risks will we take this year to advance our mission?
- How is our risk landscape likely to change this year?
- Whose perspective is missing on our risk management team?
- What are the gaps between our exposures and our capabilities, and what can we do to close those gaps?
With equal measures of focus and love, you can evolve the risk management capabilities at your nonprofit to new heights. Invite colleagues to sign up for the RISK eNews to receive weekly risk insights and inspiration. Mark your calendar and plan to attend at least one intensive risk learning opportunity this year. And add a risk briefing featuring a custom risk dashboard to the agenda of at least one board meeting taking place this year.
The topic of love also reminds me of Philadelphia – the location of two prior Risk Summits hosted by our team. The City of Brotherly Love’s best-known landmark is arguably Robert Indiana’s ‘LOVE’ sculpture, which was installed in John F. Kennedy Plaza in 1976.
To help you spread the love in your own workplace, I’ve asked one current and two former NRMC colleagues to share something they each love about our workplace culture. If one of these tips resonates with you, then try it out with your team.
Kay Nakamura, Director of Client Solutions
I love our Affiliate Membership structure. We encourage our Affiliate Members to share the “love” (Affiliate benefits) with their own chapters, agencies, policyholders, and team members. We treat all Affiliate Members the same, whether the organization is a primary Affiliate Member (such as a national nonprofit or umbrella organization), or an Affiliate Member through sharing the benefits of an umbrella organization. Affiliate Members should check out the Affiliate Member Dashboard on our new website; this is the place where you can access all your benefits. Existing Affiliate Members can log in or create an account, and new folks can gain access by joining our Affiliate Member family today.
Eric Henkel, former Project Manager
I really love the spirit of collaboration that’s present here at NRMC. There is an explicit expectation that staff work together and have overlapping responsibilities for our various projects. I think this encourages considering different perspectives and facilitates intellectual growth on my part. This is also good from a risk management perspective because you know that you have a backup to your work! In addition, the informal culture in the office also promotes collaboration and engagement and that makes NRMC an enjoyable place to work.
Erin Gloeckner, former Director of Consulting Services
I love the NRMC’s relatively new approach to strategic planning and budgeting, which involves both our Board team and our full staff team. NRMC’s commitment to transparency and succession planning led us to take this approach, and now our staff team feels a greater sense of ownership and investment in our long-term goals. My own job is even more satisfying now that I take a systems-based approach to my work within the context of NRMC, rather than only focusing on projects and short-term outputs within our consulting practice. In the end, this approach should drive greater synergy across NRMC projects and resources so we can better serve the nonprofit sector.
Though The Psychedelic Furs said, “It’s a new road… follow where your mind goes,” I think our team will continue paving the Center’s future by leading first with our hearts. Perhaps the only traits more remarkable than the nonprofit sector’s teeming talent are the compassion and love of service that abound within our community.
Melanie Lockwood Herman is executive director of the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. She welcomes your questions about NRMC services and resources, and your stories of workplace love and compassion at Melanie@nonprofitrisk.org or 703.777.3504.
“First let me congratulate you on a conference well done. I had a great time at the Nonprofit Employee Benefits Conference and walked away with some valuable tools and questions that we’ll need to be addressing in both the short and long term. Thanks to you and your staff for all you do to provide us with quality resources in support of our missions.”
— Scott Brown, Mohonk Preserve
“BBYO’s engagement of the Center to conduct a risk assessment was one of the most valuable processes undertaken over the past five years. Numerous programmatic and procedural changes were recommended and have since been implemented. Additionally, dozens (literally) of insurance coverage gaps were identified that would never have been without the work of the Center. This assessment led to a broker bidding process that resulted in BBYO’s selection of a new broker that we have been extremely satisfied with. I unconditionally recommend the Center for their consultative services.
— Sidney Abrams, BBYO
“Melanie Herman has provided expert, insightful, timely and well resourced information to our Executive Team and Board of Directors. Our corporation recently experienced massive growth through merger and the Board has been working to better integrate their expanded set of roles and responsibilities. Melanie presented at our Annual Board of Director’s Retreat and captured the interest of our Board members. As a result of her excellent presentation the Board has engaged in focused review which is having immediate effects on governance.”
— Pamela Mattel, Basics Promesa Systems Inc
“The Nonprofit Risk Management Center has been an outstanding partner for us. They are attentive to our needs, and work hard to successfully meet our requests for information. Being an Affiliate member gave us access to so many time- and money-saving resources that it easily paid for itself! Nonprofit Risk Management Center is truly a valued partner of The Community Foundation of Elkhart County and we are continuously able to optimize staff time with the support given by their team.”
— Jodi Spataro, Community Foundation of Elkhart County
“The board and staff of the Prince George’s Child Resource Center are extremely pleased with the results of the risk assessment conducted by the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. A thorough scan revealed that while we are a well run organization, we had risks that we never imagined. We are grateful to know that we have now minimized our organizational risks and we recommend the Center to other nonprofits.”
— Marti Worshtil, Prince George’s Child Resource Center
Great American Insurance Group’s Specialty Human Services is committed to protecting those who improve your communities. The Center team has committed to delivering dynamic risk management solutions tailored to nonprofit organizations. These organizations have many and varied risk issues, hence the need for specialized coverage and expert knowledge for their protection. We’ve had Melanie speak on several occasions to employees and our agents. She is always on point and delivers such great value. Thank you for the terrific partnership and allowing our nonprofits to focus on their mission!