Making Mentorship Work| Finding Relationship Awesomeness

by Sara Shaylie
follow me on Twitter: @shayspeed

Mentorship was a hot topic at YNPN’s Turn It Up to 11 event last November and continues to be on the minds of our board as we look toward the future of YNPN and our own personal career paths. Just as YNPN looks to other organizations to show us next steps, we members can do the same in our personal lives and careers by choosing mentors who have collected knowledge, experience and finely honed talents we admire and hope to emulate in the future.

I have been surprised as the number of folks I meet that have never considered mentorship as a conscious practice in their personal development. I can tout the amazing gifts on both ends of the relationship from personal experience. Rather than convince you of the awesomeness of having a mentor, I’d like to give a few tips on best practices in the mentorship/protégé relationship and leave the finding of the awesomeness in the relationship up to you.

• Know Your Needs: Before you go out and hit someone up to take you on, it is smart to do a personal assessment. THREE simple things to look for: 1) Find out where you are, 2) where you are going and 3) if it is where you want to go.

• Set Goals: Take a look at your biggest needs and set goals that you can clearly articulate. Yes! There is room for creep, and being comfortable with “I don’t know” is one of the bonuses of these relationships. But having a few clear, basic goals will help you with choosing folks that can help you most.

• Build a Range of Mentorship: A mix of casual and formal mentorship with a sprinkle of variety in network, age and experience ranges is part of a healthy professional diet. This includes taking on the role of mentoring yourself. You’ll have a broad support network that may serve you through unexpected turns in your career.

The final and most important consideration is to:

• Let Go of the Idea of Your Mentor: Picking mentors that we admire for skills, connections, knowledge and experience we hope to achieve can sometimes mean we have a preconceived notion of what they can offer. My best experiences are ones where the mentor/protégé relationship can be reconsidered over time. Growth and relationship building can go both ways and the farther the relationships go beyond the idea of the mentor or position of the mentor the greater chance for a long term relationship.

Do you have a mentor? Are you a mentor? What recommendations do you have for making the most of this relationship?

Feasting on Success| The CRAVE CARES Program

by Bridget Ulrich
follow me on Twitter: @BridgetMPLS

CRAVE Restaurants exploded onto the scene in 2008. While most were checking out their great happy hours I focused in on their then lesser-known CRAVE CARES initiative. Over the years I have watched this innovative program evolve into a full-fledged power house within the nonprofit community. CRAVE projects that by the end of 2012 they will have raised nearly $400,000 for hundreds of local nonprofits including Children’s Cancer Research Fun, Smile Network, the Animal Humane Society and Girl Scouts of MN. To learn more about this ever evolving program I spoke with CRAVE’s Marketing Director, Zach Sussman.

Why was the CRAVE CARES Program founded?

The CRAVE CARES program was created out of our desire to give back to the organizations that are the heart of our community. These organizations provide incredible services and support. CRAVE CARES gives us a chance to connect our customers with nonprofit organizations and everyone benefits.

How exactly does it support local nonprofits?

CRAVE CARES supports nonprofits by hosting fundraising events, creating special menus to raise funds and awareness, making donations to silent auctions and most recently sponsoring the CRAVE CARES Heart of the Event Awards.

How can I get my nonprofit involved in The CRAVE CARES Program?

 We are always considering new organizations to work with. Just visit our website and select “CRAVE CARES” from the drop down menu to submit your contact information and voice your interest in being a CRAVE CARES partner.

How do you think the CRAVE CARES Program is changing our local dining scene?

We have seen cause-related marketing in our restaurant industry increase dramatically over the past few years- which we love! We encourage our fellow restaurateurs to jump on the bandwagon and support the communities we serve. CRAVE is excited to be a part of this movement and we see it as a huge win for the Twin Cities non-profit community. We have taken some great steps with the CRAVE CARES program, but we can’t do it all on our own, and we’re thrilled to see others engaging and supporting our non-profit community.

Check out their next event- CRAVE CARES Pink Carpet Event

Why: This inaugural event honors the 20th anniversary of Susan G. Komen’s “Race for the Cure” with net proceeds benefiting the Minnesota Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

When: Friday, May 11, 7pm- 12am

Where: CRAVE Downtown Minneapolis

What to expect: The evening will feature custom pink creations by local designers, food and drink experiences along with exclusive patio access and more surprises.

For more information and tickets click here,

The Scoop| News from Our Members

It's hard to keep up with all the moves of YNPN members, but we're trying. Find out what's new this month, from promotions and grad schools to conference presentations and brand new jobs.

Here’s what’s new with YNPN-TC members in April:

Kate Borman was promoted to Communications Coordinator at Nonprofits Assistance Fund.

YNPN-TC board member Leah Lundquist and YNPN national Executive Director Trish Tchume will be partnering to present a session called "Creating leader-ful spaces" at the June 26th Minnesota Council of Nonprofits/Humphrey School Nonprofit Leadership Conference on July 26.

Julia Quanrud was recently selected as a Civic Scholar for the 2012 National Conference on Volunteering and Service. The Civic Scholars Program, an initiative of the Points of Light Foundation, is "an opportunity for the brightest, most-promising civic entrepreneurs to connect and collaborate for greater community impact."

Michaela Charleston accepted a new position as Membership Manager at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.

Nick Scheibel is now Philanthropic Services Advisor at The Minneapolis Foundation.

Masha Finn took a new position as College to Career Program Coordinator in the Alumni Relations office at the University of Minnesota's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

Andrea Salazar was accepted into the University of St. Thomas Full-Time MBA program and will be starting classes in the fall.

Regan Smith has taken a new position as Community Engagement Program Associate at AchieveMpls.

Carl Atiya Swanson has taken a position as Executive Assistant at Springboard for the Arts.

Jeanna Hensler was recently promoted to Philanthropic Services Associate at The Minneapolis Foundation.

Ben Schatz is now the Lead Analyst at The Stone Arch Bridge Group.

Share your news for our May edition by emailing bridge@ynpntwincities.org.

On Board| Governance as Mystery

by Lauren Van Schepen
follow me on Twitter: @lvanschepen

As a young nonprofit professional I had, until very recently, no idea what a board of directors did. Even as someone fascinated by the structure and composition of nonprofits’ organizational charts I could give you only the vaguest of answers when asked what the responsibilities, activities, and benefits of board service actually are. (I’m completely aware that this last sentence outs me as a governance geek, which I hope you will not only forgive me for, but come to see as endearingly dorky.)

The truth is, even as the worker bees of nonprofit hives, we rarely know what the queen and her posse are up to on a daily basis. Sure, when there’s a crisis we get a statement from a board chair. When there’s an Executive Director search in progress we may hear more. But what do boards do? What is “executive committee” and what goes on there? Why would someone even want to be on a board?

We are hoping that in this regular column, “On Board,” we will be able to discuss some of these questions. Not only do we want to focus on governance content, but also encourage you to consider your own leadership development, and possible service on a committee or board. Governance is a mysterious term we often hear, but rarely define. So, stay tuned! We look forward to delving into these questions and conversations with you over the coming months.

*If you have a topic you would like to see covered in “On Board,” please email Lauren Van Schepen.

The Scoop| News from Our Members

YNPN-TC members are all over the place, from MinnPost to the Star Tribune to upcoming conferences and more. Learn what your peers are up to in this month's edition of The Scoop. And email updates for April to bridge@ynpntwincities.org.

Here's what's new with our members this month:

Richard Matson-Daley will be leading a session at the NTEN Conference this year on Wednesday, April 4^th from 3:30-5pm.. The session is called Asking Good Questions: Keys to Assessing your Technology Needs and will be a discussion-style session aimed at understanding how technology assessments can fail and how to make sure that they succeed.

Lan Freitag of the Greater Twin Cities United Way was featured in MinnPost's YPN5Q on March 2.

Rinal Ray, staff attorney at the Minnesota Justice Foundation, was featured in MinnPost’s YPN5Q on March 9.

Bridget Ulrich was quoted in a Star Tribune article on The LEAD Project and its five year anniversary celebration.

Ada Okolue has joined The BrandLab as their new Connect Director. In this role she will be working to engage students who have completed the BrandLab program through peer networking and career-building opportunities outside of the classroom.

Andrew Nilsen was promoted to Regional Field Director for Obama for America, the President's re-election campaign.

Jamie Millard, Regan Smith and Megan Murphy of Paper Darts Magazine have teamed up with Pollen in the upcoming launch of bepollen.com on April 1.

Azra Thakur recently signed on board to be a volunteer YNPN-TC blog editor.

Amanda Bingham's guest blog post for NPTalk.co was published on March 9: The Subtle Art of Online Marketing on Twitter.

Austin Wiebe just began a new job as Web Marketing Coordinator at National MS Society, Upper Midwest Chapter.