Meet Cheryl Middaugh: Organizational Development Specialist

by Laura Huth, President & CEO, do good Consulting

I sat across from her for less than 10 minutes and was sold. And she hadn’t even come to sell anything – just to meet at the recommendation of a mutual colleague.

Cheryl Middaugh was in town for the day, transitioning from Chicago to Champaign. When we met, I instantly knew I must recruit her.

It turns out, she didn’t need coercing – as we talked, we realized how closely our backgrounds and goals meshed.

In a word, Cheryl is a dynamo. She is smart as a whip, well-spoken, lightening-fast, and truly passionate about making the world a better place. She’s also a seriously hard worker with a breadth of experience enviable to most: she has compiled an impressive background of non-profit, for-profit, global, and religious work that has given her rich experiences from which to draw.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Cheryl was far from a top student. Way beyond a top student, actually.

While tackling her studies, this over-achiever also spent her final two years at Northwestern as Executive Director of GlobeMed, a student-driven organization working to build global health equity through grassroots project work. She was anything but a figurehead: with a small team of undergraduates and a very lean board, Cheryl directed the then-fledgling organization through the incorporation and tax-exemption processes.

During her tenure, GlobeMed funded the construction of a new health center in Ghana with a $30,000 capital campaign, doubled chapter membership, and increased its annual budget nearly 400%. She was 20 at the time, and a full-time student (who graduated with honors, too).

After graduation, Cheryl worked in the Youth & Family Ministry program at Unity Church on Chicago’s North Shore. She served as the program’s Director and was instrumental in overhauling the organization’s communications strategy, organizing nearly a dozen special events and fundraisers, creating marketing and design pieces, writing program curriculum, and managing a highly successful eight-week, $50,000 capital campaign.

An entrepreneur, Cheryl and a colleague co-founded Mora & Mahogany in 2005, a fair trade fundraising company providing schools, churches, and organizations with new sources of revenue through the sales of unique, handmade products created by artisans around the world.

Cheryl's consulting portfolio is amazingly diverse. From developing donor communications and fundraising strategies to storytelling to organizational start up, Cheryl confidently and adeptly helps clients identify clear actions, weather tough times, build for the future, and grow dynamically.

Cheryl’s professional background and demeanor both ignite energy and effuse vision. At once independent and collaborative, her personality serves as a uniting force: groups are captivated by the very real hope and possibility she espouses. Her compassionate style builds organizational confidence while also building skills and creating positive change.

This is a woman who gets things done.

Want to meet Cheryl and see what sort of change she can bring to your organization or small business? Contact her at 312-593-1937 or cherylmiddaugh@dogoodconsulting.org. Check out Cheryl's full biography.

Getting to Work...

How many people can say they love going to work every day? And of those, how many can honestly claim that each day they learn something new and professionally relevant? Since joining do good Consulting in early January, I can. And I doubt I'd be stepping out of line if I said the entire team—Laura, Beth, Lori, Caroline, Tim, Ginger, and Kim—would agree.

I have been working in the non-profit sector in Chicago area for years, and I know what busy feels like. But I have to say: my first few weeks in Champaign-Urbana have been an absolute whirlwind. True, when I met Laura early last fall, I knew she'd be high-energy—that was one of the reasons I immediately knew we'd work well together. But I never could have imagined how rapidly I'd find myself drawn into the energy, growth, and vision of this little firm, its dynamic staff, and the community.

We've got a great thing going over here on Green and Race, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. I look forward to meeting you and joining with you to grow an even stronger non-profit community!

- Cheryl Middaugh, Organizational Development Specialist, do good Consulting

Q&A: The importance of a database

Dear do good,
I am Executive Director of a non-profit that unfortunately has a pretty archaic database. When we started, we used a simple spreadsheet to log gifts. Today, that's turned into a cumbersome collection of spreadsheets with unconnected data and little reporting capabilities. We are looking to upgrade for a more formal database system, but our financial resources are limited. One of our most dedicated volunteers has offered to “build” a new database for us. He’s a computer programmer with a lot of experience developing such systems. We know conventional wisdom says not to “reinvent the wheel,” but in this tight economy, isn’t it better to cut costs and go with the free option?
- Still in the Stone Age in Urbana

Dear Stone Age,
Actually, in a tight economy, “reinventing the wheel” is one of the most cost-ineffective activities your organization can engage in. Indeed, the very fact that your resources are limited speaks loudly to your need to work quickly to make your fundraising systems streamlined and efficient.

We know the allure of a “freebie” can be very enticing when funds are low. However, your donor information – and how well you can access, analyze, and utilize it – is essentially your organization’s pocketbook, so the last thing you want to do is add complexity and uncertainty to the process of retrieving it. True, plenty of custom databases have been built and successfully used by all types of organizations. But almost never do these databases stand the test of time—instead, they prove to be only as long-lasting as their designers are available. Buying a pre-built system gains you access to tech support solutions and training (even if you have to pay for them), a network of users in other organizations, and the potential to hire new staff with existing skills in using the system. Also, custom-built databases often do not integrate well with standard-issue operating systems and software programs (email clients, web design software, and word processing software, among others), because they are not built to do so. You’ll spend time manually logging online gifts when you can have your system do it automatically; pouring over journal notes to learn about donor relationships when you can have them automatically linked; and double-entering gifts in accounting software when you can have them update automatically. Perhaps most significantly, you’ll have to navigate a complex, and probably inaccurate, query system when you need to analyze a donor report.

In terms of price, there are plenty of low-cost options out there. GiftWorks, which is do good’s preferred database system, starts as low as $400 for a single user license. eTapestry has a free module for startup organizations that maintain fewer than 500 records and is web-based, so data is housed offsite. TechSoup has a comparison chart of some of the most widely-used systems (it doesn’t include pricing, because most systems customize their pricing based on the modules and services your organization needs). And if you do a quick web search, you can find plenty of online blogs and discussion boards about other customers’ experiences with various systems.

The bottom line is this: no matter how dedicated your volunteer is, relying on a single person to be your sole source of tech support and training for your organization’s most important and useful information is tremendously risky. A little longer-term perspective shows that access to ongoing tech support and training coupled with a community of skilled users will greatly increase the return on your software investment.

At the same time, be sure you honor the service your volunteer is offering and that he feels appreciated. Try integrating his service in a different way. For example, explain that you’ve decided to select a pre-built system so you can free more of his hours for learning this new system, importing your data, and training staff on the best ways to utilize it. Your volunteer’s expertise is still useful and you’ve saved on staff training and conversion costs. Everybody wins!
- Cheryl Middaugh, Organizational Development Specialist, do good Consulting

Looking to switch to a more powerful database system? do good Consulting can help! Contact one of do good's database specialists – Cheryl Middaugh, Tim Newcomb, or Kim Nystrom – at 217-778-1687 or dogood@dogoodconsulting.org to learn how they can help you select a new database system, transfer all your data, analyze your donor information, and help you build a fundraising plan for the future.

Have a question for one of do good's non-profit experts? Contact us at dogood@dogoodconsulting.org or 217-778-1687.

Group Spotlight: Northlight Theatre

by Cheryl Middaugh, Organizational Development Specialist, do good Consulting

Its location in a northern suburb of Chicago has proven to be both an asset and a liability for Skokie-based Northlight Theatre. Not very convenient to public transportation, most of the theatre’s audience drives to its on-site parking lot from their homes in various North Shore neighborhoods. But in its 35 years of existence, Northlight has become a powerful cultural institution in its community.

It has also been a case study on the importance of remaining loyal to organizational values—and ensuring that your donors are right there with you, especially in a tough economy. In spite of its largely mature audience (the mean age is around 60), Northlight has a reputation for producing compelling, edgy, and culturally relevant works that truly challenge the community’s assumptions and convictions. Take for example this spring’s upcoming production of Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Called by some “the Quentin Tarantino of the stage,” McDonagh delights in writing overly gory, bloody, satirical dark comedy. Lieutenant is a parody of Irish terrorism and, more broadly, the perpetuation of cause-related violence. Easy-to-watch? No. Funny? To most. Timely? Absolutely.

Because of this loyalty to its core mission and values, Northlight’s donors and subscribers have been likewise some of the most loyal in the industry. Indeed, it is not news that the best recession-era fundraising wisdom out there is telling us where to focus our fundraising efforts: retention and stewardship. Northlight Theatre is truly a model for this approach: upwards of 88% of its subscribers renewed this season, and individual giving has actually grown since the end of 2007, even in this climate. This is because marketing and stewardship efforts have, largely, remained untouched. Still, the theatre has felt the effects of the tight economy, especially in institutional and corporate giving. Its outreach arts education program for public schools will be phased out this year, and an ambitious corporate fundraising goal has been re-adjusted twice to accommodate the reality of shrinking profits. Indeed, Northlight has had to do some serious soul-searching about the scope and cost of its programs outside of the mainstage season in an effort to drill back down to its core mission. But the organization’s consistently positive and proactive approach to donor stewardship will carry it through the recession and position it for wild success when the economy ultimately bounces back.

So what can your organization learn from Northlight? Spend your “hunker down” time during this recession not cutting your outreach and marketing costs, but rather reflecting on your services and impact. How well-suited are you to deliver your programs? Are there distractions that are pulling you away from your core mission? Are you showing your donors the impact that they’re making, and keeping them informed about any institutional or programmatic changes that occur? Do some reflection: you might be surprised at what you find out.

And remember: when you’re loyal to your donors, they’ll return the favor.

For more information on Northlight Theatre, go to www.northlight.org.