What does it take to innovate in the Non-Profit Sector?

Innovation and Philanthropy

An interview with Ms. Michelle Capobianco, CEO of Pancreatic Cancer Canada (PCC), an organization that’s tackling the world’s toughest cancer with the goal of saving more lives.

Since 2016, Michelle has been working to lead and increase the growth of PCC, raising its profile to become a charity of national importance and fundraising capabilities. Since taking over as CEO, Michelle has doubled PCC’s lifetime investment in pancreatic cancer research across North America, and she’s also overseen the creation of a first-of-its-kind network designed for collaboration, connecting top researchers across North America.

Growth and change as key elements of corporate and business unit strategy.

Arcus Consulting Group has launched a major initiative to explore growth and change as key elements of corporate and business unit strategy. The majority of executives say it involves achieving technological leadership, a change in organizational culture and a realistic strategy that will enable an organization to define major trends regarding products, systems and services, and to offering its customers important added value. They say such steps reduce costs, increase sales and achieve higher earnings.

But how does one come up with innovative solutions, and can innovation really be part of a strategy plan? Arcus’ multi-industry survey of senior executives found that of all the challenges companies face in this area, the biggest challenge is finding ways to create a “climate for innovation”.

As Arcus research indicates, doing so means that you need to be surrounded by highly talented people. It also means finding a way to transmit your passion to them, so they will buy into your vision of the future, perform at the highest possible levels, and come up with innovative solutions to the challenges of achieving the vision. No surprise, then, that the topic of innovation has been gaining ground as CEOs seek to incorporate concepts like “a culture of innovation” into their assessments of an organizations long-term value.

Arcus: What is the state of governance in Canada in the non-profit sector, specifically in healthcare today? 

Ms. Capobianco: There is a disconnect on many boards with individuals joining and staying, because they have a personal connection to a cause rather than a capacity to move the organisation forward.

In the non-profit sector, it is often seen as “If I love animals I should be able to run the humane society” And people don’t. I constantly run into people who don’t understand that it is a full-time job even as an executive director.      

Being a fundraiser is a professional profession. I have worked in the sector for 25 years. I find the same thing with boards. There are a lot of people on boards who are there because they have, for example, lost a parent, and they really care for a cause. I care from a distance but that can’t drive the business forward. It’s been a transition to say to people here are the expectations, here’s what I need from a board – create the strategic plan for three years. Three years is your perfect plan and then create the conditions for it to come alive.   

Arcus: Is it about a better understanding of capabilities in areas such as time, treasure and talent?

Ms. Capobianco: You must have a particular talent that we have identified we need at the board level. You could be a talented accountant, but if we don’t need an accountant at the board level you should not be on the board. I think the idea of making board members justify why they should have a spot on the board is quite eye opening for a lot of people.

Arcus: Do you think functional expertise is important and there is a mismatch between the composition of boards today and would you say a majority of boards have the issues that you just mentioned?

Ms. Capobianco: Yes, and I would say even with larger charities I see the same thing happening. I think we will get there with a transition. This is taking a while. The problem may be that the chair or the ED are not pushing hard enough. Who must push an agenda to drive change? I don’t know the answer about who it’s supposed to be. I think that in the vast majority of cases it’s the ED’s responsibility because the ED is responsible for the organisation moving forward, and the board is part of that, and so the ED has to make sure they have a strong board and a strong Chair, and I think when you act as a silent board member or an ED and you suggest very strongly to the Chair what direction they should be heading, but if you got a weaker Chair you are in trouble.

Arcus: Is the problem that some Chairs do not understand their role?

Ms. Capobianco: Not only the impact but the responsibility. I’ve had chairs and they save you on just one vote. You’re not one vote you’re the leader. The board is looking to you for direction, and the Chair should be calling votes and shutting inappropriate conversation down.Speaking of managing, it is a role that requires in-depth training coming in.

Arcus:  Is there an opportunity for better education for Chairs? And do you think there is adequate opportunity for boards or for Chairs to step up? Is it an education issue or is it a recruitment issue?

Ms. Capobianco: I think it is both. Executive directors should make it a part of an on-board strategy with new boards that they will go and pick a governance course. It is easier for new board members to adopt an onboard plan. For an organisation our size, we decided that 10 is the magic number because all I want from the board is introductions to CEOs and leverage for donations. If you want more than an operational board then you’re going to need more roles, but I have heard stories from EDs who have 35 board members and sometimes those board members call these EDs every day. That’s not manageable. And that implies there’s a lack of control and leadership from the Chair. I don’t think there is a correlation between how large a board should be and what the budget is. I think it depends on what is required of the board.  

Arcus: Larger operational boards generally have larger foundation boards. Would you agree that the consensus is an average of about 12 board members for operational boards?

Ms. Capobianco: Yes, I would agree with that.But the emphasis gets more pronounced around the foundation in terms of the composition and size of the board. There’s a consensus, especially with hospitals, that 12 is not enough for a robust task, so they tend to think that a larger board that has more giving capacity means more donations.

I also think it’s what you set as the expectation. I know plenty of hospital boards that only have a $5000 donation requirement. The issue appears to be a mismatch between the expertise required on a board from a composition standpoint and a capacity to give because that’s the primary focus; at least that should be the primary focus if it’s a foundation board.

Arcus: What is the biggest challenge with giving today? Arcus research indicates that Millennials have a different attitude to giving versus Boomers and those who have been touched by a health condition or whose loved one has had a health condition, and those are obviously intermittent random triggers. They are not triggers that are driven by consistent parameters.

Ms. Capobianco: It is about expectations and attitudes.People in Canada I find, have a self-righteous outlook towards giving. When they want to support a cancer charity, for instance, they want to go on a walk. They want to be seen doing something and to be able to tell their friends and neighbours they are taking part in a walk and they want to show up at the walk, and they raise the minimum. They want to see good signage, t-shirts and more.

And that’s not really giving. If you want to give, figure out what your cost is and write a cheque. I see these newspaper articles focussed on the cost of giving and how much it costs to bring in a dollar. Every charity is reporting differently, so it’s never fair. You are never looking at apples and apples. So it’s different reporting, and second, it does not put at least part of the onus on where I think it belongs- with the general public.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals has a responsibility to call that into question. We ask people to check the box that they would turn down the prize for the charity to keep the money. Fewer than 3 percent ticked the box and I think people need to be called on that. I always struggle with that.

Arcus: Could you talk about giving across age groups; obviously millennials give different. Arcus research indicates they often give smaller amounts online to specific causes.

Ms. Capobianco: It’s interesting for the type of charity I’m in because our demographic is so much older. People are usually 50+ before they are hit with pancreatic cancer, and so we are much more focused on that age group because quite frankly,  93% of them passed away.  So much of our money is coming from wills and estates and major gifts because they’ve lost someone and so the millennials are a market for us. If they’ve lost a parent or so forth but it’s a more expensive way for us to fundraise. They are looking for events, they are looking for fun things to participate in and challenges and what’s new, whereas it is still an untapped market for us because our charity hasn’t been doing what it needs to have done over the last 13 years with asking those people who have given $100 a month for the last 10 years why they aren’t giving $500 or could they give $500. There’s much more work for us to do in the older demographic so we are just not concentrating on the younger ones by and large.

Arcus: Because there’s a perception that the older ones can give more? Is that changing, or do you think there is a realisation that maybe there is more opportunity in the younger demographic.

Ms. Capobianco: I can only speak for us right now it doesn’t feel like that would be the place of greatest return right now. But there just not as effective on pancreatic cancer in the younger age so if I talked to somebody 50+ they are much more likely to know someone who has the disease than if I talked to someone 20. Also they are much more afraid of getting it. They are not at that magic age.I am frustrated by the number of people who are still looking for that sense of personal fulfilment through a charity. The thing that really drives me crazy and I get a lot of these calls still is someone you know “Will you talk to my friend Mary because she has been a lawyer for 30 years now she’s at that part in her life where she wants to give back and she thinks she wants to work for a charity, and I say “Right seriously go away.” You are at the point now where you want to wind down. I work really hard everyday so I’m pretty bitter about people’s.

Arcus: It’s almost the attitude; they don’t get it so the attitude is quite insensitive.

Ms. Capobianco: Insensitive and I mean I will often when people say to me it’s a fulltime job. I’ll say to them “How many hours?”  I work at this job 55 hours a week.How many hours a week do you give to charity? What would be reasonable for you and how should I feed my family?” “How should I feed my family?”

And just the idea that this is not an actual profession. I mean the number of people that say that they’ve done their cousins bar mitzvah therefore they are an event planner. The biggest misconception I think is between event planning and fundraising. There is a lot of crossover and people say I’m an event planner. That bridge would throw a tea but for the tea to be profitable to make money for our real life sponsors it’s a completely different profession.

Arcus: You touched upon something quite profound that is perception that not-profit sectors is really unskilled and you know in a place where anyone can do that job which is so far from the truth right.

Ms. Capobianco: Well it’s also an economy between unskilled and anyone can do it, but yet now I’m going to become a savvy donor and I’m going to get on my high horse because of your cost of fundraising. Well if I’m stupid and doing this in my spare time of course it’s going to be a high cost for fundraising right.  

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