I have said it before, I only hire the best. The senior team at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County (BBBSOC) knows that when we find that special person, position or not, we need to bring them into the company. We don’t hire for positions, or even based solely on resumes – we hire people – and sometimes we find those people in the social impact sector and sometimes they have a corporate background. Regardless of the background, those who have joined the team in recent years would all tell you the same thing – They have NEVER worked harder…ever.

I have heard more than once that people who work for “nonprofits” don’t work as hard as people in corporate America. This perception is so inaccurate, and I would welcome whoever started this rumor to spend the day with us at the BBBSOC office. Our employees are dedicated to our mission, and put all of their energy behind their passion on a daily basis. The office lights often go on before the sun is up and don’t switch off until late in the evening after most have gone to sleep.

Philanthropic organizations are often working with fewer resources, and larger stakes than typical corporate organizations. Both donors and employees spend large amounts of their time and money working toward long-term goals and systemic change in society. When they don’t see direct results from their efforts, they can become apathetic towards the cause. Without constant innovation, organizations run the risk of losing their staff and their donors.

This is why working “smarter” is woven into the fabric of our organization. Spending time and money on superfluous projects can be detrimental to future funding. Every program initiated must work to fulfill your organization’s mission.

Four out of ten workers rank respect, trust, and support by management as important factors in job satisfaction, according to a survey reported in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. It is important to find innovative ways to engage your staff, while supporting your mission.

At BBBSOC, we developed two important programs that are built to further develop our staff, and engage them on multiple professional levels. The Lunch and Lead Program was built to provide leadership development for all levels of the team. We bring in experts to advance our team’s knowledge as professionals, regardless of sector, which can be teaching networking skills, dream-boarding or even getting professional headshots.

We also launched the Lunch and Learn Program, where we invite experts to educate our team on areas that compliment our program. This includes child advocacy training in areas like autism, youth suicide, and teen dating violence.

Part of working smarter is making sure that everyone on your team is engaged, fulfilled, and constantly striving towards improvement. This culture of constant innovation empowers our team, it also takes consistent effort to maintain. Only by empowering your team can you hope to grow an organization.

We must constantly challenge ourselves to innovate so that we stay current with current needs. The children we served 15 years ago are very different from the kids we serve today – their daily challenges and routines are incomparable. Even our volunteer base looks different. If we continue to work in the same manner that we did 15 years ago – or even 5 years ago – we would fail to properly meet the need.

Every dollar has to be used to it’s highest potential. There is no barrier to a donor simply reallocating their time or money to another cause. They don’t have to implement new software or buy new machinery to essentially switch brand affiliation. Most of us will never be able to meet every need of the community, and it is extremely difficult to significantly increase funding year after year especially given philanthropic giving has remained at roughly 2% of GDP since 1971**. We must look into how we can be more efficient, more systematic, and cut out any waste in each piece of our process so we can do what we ultimately set out to do: help more kids.

If you’re interested in learning more about Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County, please visit www.OCBigs.org. Make change happen.