CSM Leadership Summit: Lessons for Compassion by the Book

Yesterday, I had the privilege and honor of attending the 3rd Annual Colorado School of Mines Leadership Summit. Having attended the Summit twice now, I have learned that leadership is such a broad topic with so many lessons that attending a day-long conference is like "drinking water from a fire hose." The keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and table conversation were thought provoking and inspiring, so before the experience fades to memory, I thought it best to record some key lessons for Compassion by the Book.

     1. Importance of Vision

In the morning, keynote speaker Craig Valentine gave everyone the assignment to "write down your perfect day." To me, this exercise is the crucial first step to leadership: defining vision. What do you want to do and where do you want to go? Writing out your dreams makes your vision clearer and stronger, kick starts your endeavors, and serves as a measure of progress. Once you have a clear vision, you can share it with others and bring them along for the journey - that is where leadership comes in.

My vision for Compassion by the Book: To empower students at every college and university in the U.S. to make a positive impact in the world through their resources and skills and to see their minds and hearts open to the needs in their communities and the world.

      2. Importance of Planning

According to Mr. Valentine, one minute of planning produces four minutes. If that is true, you cannot afford not to plan. I must admit that planning is one of my most difficult challenges. I am excited about the operations of Compassion by the Book, but I would rather be fulfilling plans than creating them. In a breakout session on "Delivering a Successful Strategic Plan," Andrew Flynn noted that for a corporation, strategic planning can take four to six months. Understandably so, because there are so many aspects of business to consider. In the case of Compassion by the Book, we have to file paperwork, develop the brand, establish values and the mission, and define standard practices, in addition to setting the model of operations, recruiting volunteers, developing systems, marketing and organizing events.


Planning for Compassion by the Book: With so much to plan for, it is probably best to start with a list - and not just a mental list. To manage so much information without documentation means that some will probably fall through the cracks. I am committing myself to write a detailed list of all that needs to be done before operations can truly begin and assign priorities and deadlines to the tasks (because "you master what you can measure" - Mr. Valentine).


     3. Importance of Partnership

You have a vision and you are committed to achieving it, but you cannot do it alone! Both keynote speakers had people in their lives who pushed them to be greater and encouraged them in their dreams. I am lucky to have such people in my life too. I have reached a point where my vision requires more participation. I have to give more responsibility and entrust my idea to others, which can be a scary prospect. I was encouraged by the afternoon keynote speaker, Mr. Robert Waterman, who said that working as a team means you must relinquish some control, but the team can do much more than you alone. Finding the right team, spreading the vision, developing buy-in, building accountability, communicating, and giving value back to team members will add to Compassion by the Book's work and its effectiveness.

Partnership with Compassion by the Book: The purpose of Compassion by the Book has always been to spread the idea of the college student's potential to make a positive impact in the world. It is natural that as many students and others should be involved as possible. In spreading this idea and placing power in the hands of students, Compassion by the Book must provide the right tools and leadership to maximize the results.

What did I learn about leadership? Leadership starts with your dreams, makes a plan to achieve them, and empowers and engages others.


Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/compassionbythebook. You can also follow Compassion by the Book on twitter with username CompassionBTB.

Measured Success

From August 4 to September 20, I listed your donated books on Amazon and pursued buyers at the Colorado School of Mines (hereafter, Mines) campus. I am pleased to announce that 150 books were sold and $6,000 raised!

Nine organizations/groups participated and their causes include but are not limited to, American Red Cross, a local nonprofit effort (to be chosen by students at Regis University), World Vision, and several InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapters in Colorado.

I've included some basic charts with an overview of sales and income to explain the nature of textbook sales.

 

As you can see from the graph "Books Sold", the greatest number of books sold in one day is 16 and the least is 0 (the average is 3.25). The highest concentration of books sold occurred between August 19th and September 1st (average of 6). Sales of textbooks is cyclical, with a greater demand during the beginning of semesters and quarters. Textbook sales on Amazon are variable because there are competitors adding supply and changing their prices daily, which affects the visibility of your products on the Amazon search page. For example, in a high demand time, a book may be listed as the lowest option on Amazon for $50 and in two weeks, when demand is less, the going price for the same book may only be $25. Either the price must be adjusted to remain competitive or you have to wait for the high demand time to return (which, may be never, if a new edition comes out). 

The graph above illustrates how the total books sold increases more rapidly in late August and tapers off after the first week of September. I attribute that to higher supply (and lower demand) after September 8, which resulted in the fundraiser's listings becoming uncompetitive. A simple fix is to readjust the prices, but if the books will be worth more again in December it may be worth waiting.

The chart above ("Daily Income") shows the daily income of the books sold. The highest income came on August 20th when I sold eight books on the Mines campus for an average of $90 per book. I have learned from my experience that in-person sales result in greater income and less risk than Amazon sales.

In the chart "Percentage Revenue" I wanted to illustrate how significant in-person sales were to fundraising this semester. Sales on the Mines campus accounted for 21% of the revenue and only 15% of books sold (25 of 157). The average revenue per book from sales at Mines was $50 and the average revenue per book due to Amazon sales was $36.

The success is staggering, but these figures do not even begin describe the full potential of your donated textbooks. I estimate that there are close to 1,000 books still in inventory that must be put to further use by either being sold in a book sale, donated to a library, recycled, or through other means.

I am glad that all the efforts of students donating books has made such a great difference! I look forward to the college students of the U.S. meeting their potential and far exceeding my expectations again!

Business Plan

Last week I met with the CEO of Goodwill Denver, Jesse Wolff, to "pick his brain" about this nonprofit. He got straight to business. Within the first three minutes of our meeting he asked "do you have a business plan written out?" Not extensively, no. Meaning "not at all, no." He went on to explain that the nonprofit sector is very competitive in Colorado and that there is not a lot of money. His frankness was refreshing. I've spent too much time with my head in the clouds and not enough thinking about how the cash flow will work. Yet I still believe that all the needs of this organization will be provided for. However, that doesn't make planning any less important.

My aunt was the first to tell me I needed a business plan (in late June), but amidst all the things to learn about the nonprofit world (from incorporation paperwork to assembling a board of directors) I neglected the planning process to show how this idea will work on a large-scale. I have ideas buzzing in my mind about how to conduct operations and I have one year of experience in small-scale efforts, but this does not convince anyone wanting to know how this will endeavor will succeed. My little efforts at Mines had no cost other than my time, but that will have to change once operations are expanded. For example, I cannot store all the books in my house or office or neighbor's garage. Storage space could cost money, which means it must be accounted for in the business plan. It took my meeting with Mr. Wolff to decide it was high time to work "extensively" on the business plan.

A friend of mine and fellow graduate from Mines, Dylan Engberg, met with me a couple weeks ago and gave me many of his materials and sources for business planning. One source he shared was the Denver Small Business Development Center (denversbdc.org), which offers free consulting to start-up businesses in the Denver area. I scheduled an appointment last Wednesday (immediately after I met with Mr. Wolff) and I have my first consultation this afternoon. I look forward to learning about business plans and getting started on the logistics of running and growing this not-for-profit business.

Monthly Update - August

It has been a month since my last post, so you may be wondering what is new with this project. In the last month, I've busied myself with:

1. Meetings regarding nonprofit establishment, structure, operations

2. Finalizing my accounting from last year's fundraisers

3. Selling textbooks collected last year
     A. Listing books on Amazon
     B. Packing and shipping sold books
     C. Finding buyers for on-campus sales
     D. Accounting for sold books

4. Collecting new textbooks
     A. Contacting organizations and individuals to collect the books
     B. Following-up on tips to pick up books

5. Organizing inventory of books
     A. Developing/enhancing inventory system physically and electronically

6. Changing office locations

Needless to say, the last month has been busy, but the project is progressing. In my following posts, I will highlight some of the important lessons from the last month.

Faith enough to start a nonprofit

When I started textbook fundraising, it was an action taken in faith. I believed the idea was God-given and I decided to obey even though I never foresaw how successful it would be. Before long, God instilled a desire in me to do more good and I started to believe this project should be expanded. After much wise counsel, careful consideration, and a good deal of soul searching, I am diving in. As I encounter challenges and fears, I must fall back on trust in the grace and provision God has for me.

A nonprofit for textbook fundraising

Anyone can start a textbook fundraiser and begin impacting the world. That was proven by a number of clubs conducting fundraisers last year (see my first post, "The birth of an idea" for more details), but my experience has convinced me that a nonprofit organization would greatly benefit students who want to take up this project.

Here's why:

1. Marketing - Who has ever heard of a textbook fundraiser?
Anyone can start a textbook fundraiser, but either they must have the idea independently or they have to hear about it somewhere. People need to be invited. A nonprofit would invite and encourage students and student groups to participate and then help them run with it!

2. Empower - Who has the time for a textbook fundraiser?
Students have more time than they think, but it is easy to understand that students may be too busy to figure out (let alone run) a textbook fundraiser's operations while in school. Some students have time to manage a fundraiser and others do not. I don't want to discourage the latter from participating and making a difference with their friends. Empowering comes in two ways: 1) advising students who want to conduct a fundraiser independently and 2) being the seller for individuals or groups that don't have the time to handle the necessary logistics.

3. Storage space, unsold inventory, and customer service
As the seller of textbooks for the participating students and student groups, a nonprofit would enable students to focus on the collection of textbooks rather than where to store them, how to organize and inventory them, what to do with unsold books, how to sell or ship them, or providing customer service. The nonprofit would provide logistical services and advice for fundraising groups.

4. Credibility and accountability
When a student or group chooses to help a cause by starting or contributing to a textbook fundraiser, they should feel comfortable knowing that their efforts are going to make a difference. Nonprofits are held responsible by the U.S. government, but a nonprofit would also offer detailed reports summarizing funds raised to participants to ensure the greatest credibility. In addition, proper accounting practices would be in place to ensure all the hard-earned funds go to helping a participant's cause as soon as possible.

5. Efficiency and expertise = maximized results
A nonprofit with the mission to help textbook fundraisers would develop a specialization in selling books that would bring both efficiency to the operations and expertise in maximizing funds raised. Additionally, a nonprofit would be able to conduct its work on a regular, daily basis and mobilize volunteers from many backgrounds to assist the varied causes of participating students.

I would greatly appreciate your comments and feedback about reasons good or bad about starting a nonprofit for textbook fundraising. You may email me at kurtis.griess@gmail.com if you do not want to comment below this post.

Textbook Fundraising: the blog's purpose

Now that I have started this blog, I will define its purpose and goals.

1. Spread the idea of textbook fundraising
Textbook fundraising is an idea. And a good one too. But ideas don't act on their own; they require people to act on them. First, people need to hear the idea and be convinced to act. This blog is meant to convey the idea that college students can begin changing the world for the better by the simple donation of textbooks.

2. Share my experience ("expertise") with others
I have one year of experience in textbook fundraising, which in my estimation is more than almost anyone else in the world (at least for purely nonprofit purposes). That said, I have some tips that might be useful for the upstarting fundraiser that can spare them trouble and lighten their load.

3. Process a method to assist willing fundraisers
Students may have textbooks and they may be willing to donate them, but they may not have time or energy or resources to conduct their own fundraiser. It is my goal to enable students who want to make a difference by helping them start and sustain a fundraiser with tutorials and programs or by offering to be seller on their behalf. That said, I currently intend to create a nonprofit organization to carry out such tasks.This blog will document the process of the nonprofit's development/collaboration to advance this practice.

4. Engage others in this process
This is a team effort. Please share your thoughts, experiences, concerns, etc. in a comment or email to me (kurtis.griess@gmail.com). I would love and appreciate your help.