Read an Excerpt

I N T R O D U C T I O N

LEADING WITH HEART

A Purpose Beyond Profit

When Jeannie was born in February 1986, she was to be immediately given up for adoption. But because she had a serious heart defect and other medical issues, her adoptive parents-to-be backed out.

A second family, the Bornemanns, claimed Jeannie as their daughter.

They saw her for the first time when she was just three days old. She had IVs in her head, chest, and both hands and feet, and she had tubes in her nose.

Their first words were “Hi, teeny Jeannie! Mommy and Daddy are here!”

Jeannie had an extremely rare set of conditions—transposition of the great vessels, pulmonary stenosis, and a ventricular septal defect. Her heart’s chambers and arteries were reversed. Not much was known about this condition then—more research was desperately needed.

Jeannie’s doctors inserted a flexible tube called a shunt to increase blood flow. It was all they could do. They hoped that she would get bigger and stronger and that research would provide new knowledge and tools to help them help her.

Jeannie didn’t grow normally. When she was 5, she weighed just

22 pounds and was 29 inches tall. But she was finally strong enough for the corrective surgery that doctors had been waiting to do.

Jeannie’s quality of life improved a lot after her surgery. She went to school, played T-ball and soccer, and followed her medical instructions without complaint. Despite a severe hearing impairment, she became a fanatic music lover, especially the music of Elvis. She loved people and life and looked like any other normal, healthy kid—except she was hearing impaired, legally blind, and undersized and had a heart defect.

In 1999, at age 13, Jeannie was looking forward to spending a week at a special camp. It was a place where kids with heart disease could make friends, share experiences, and enjoy hiking, fishing, horseback riding, making crafts, and singing around the campfire—while being supervised by doctors, nurses, and other volunteer camp counselors.

Swimming was a favorite activity, because, since all the kids have surgical scars, no one is embarrassed—they even compare scars!

The day before camp started, Jeannie fell from a tree, breaking her collarbone. She was undaunted and still went to camp.

By the next year, Jeannie’s health had begun to decline. Research advances offered new hope, and Jeannie’s cardiologist proposed a heart transplant. Her parents were afraid—but not Jeannie.

On the night before she was set to go back to camp, the call came. A

heart was available. Jeannie missed camp that year but got her new heart.

Jeannie had severe complications after her transplant. She spent thirteen of the next thirty-six months in the hospital. Between hospital stays, she lived the fullest life she could, singing on stage in high school, acting with a performing arts group, going to two homecoming dances, and traveling.

When she was 17, Jeannie got very sick and again went to the hospital.

While she was there, she wrote a short note about the fun she’d had at camp: making friends, doing crafts, hearing silly jokes, and singing a song that ended like this:

When the bugs bite, when the bees sting, when I’m feeling sad, I

simply remember my Boggy Creek things, and then I don’t feel

so bad.

Jeannie Bornemann died in 2004. American Heart Association research and programs had helped keep her alive for eighteen years, but the knowledge we needed—that she needed—ran out.

Lots of people are alive today because of American Heart Association research and programs. Our work brings hope, health, and life to millions of people, throughout America and around the world.

The Bournemanns commented that if she were alive today, Jeannie would say, “Thank you from the bottom of my new heart.” We’re grateful for that, but sadness remains. We’re proud of our successes, but our limitations—

like our inability to maintain the miracle of Jeannie Bournemann’s life—are what drive us to work harder and do more every day.

There are lots of Jeannies and other people living longer today because of the American Heart Association’s research and programs. a believe our work gives meaning to Jeannie’s life and provides hope for millions of people throughout America and across the world. Personal stories like these drive each of us to do our best work every day. And yet a have to say that deaths like Jeannie’s frustrate me that we haven’t done more. We still have so much work to do.

Deaths like that of Jeannie Bornemann make me sad and angry, and that is a good thing. I believe dissatisfaction with the status quo should be part of our organizational culture at the American Heart Association.

The hopes and lives of many people we will never meet rest on our shoulders, and we must continually challenge ourselves to do more. We

need to keep reassessing our program offerings, the research we fund a our structure, our volunteer and staff talents, our fund-raising goals and procedures, and our impact. People are suffering and dying every day from heart disease and stroke, and we must do all we can to save them.

I know that you have the same passion for the issues your organization works to support or affect. This is why the status quo is not good enough. Taking bold, innovative action is an absolute mandate, whether the work of your organization is focused on health, the arts, poverty a homelessness, domestic abuse, children, religion, the environment, a particular local issue, or any other concern.

T H E 5 P E R C E N T C H A L L E N G E

As someone who has spent forty-plus years in the nonprofit community, a have learned a lot, read a lot, tried a lot, succeeded a lot, and failed more than a few times, too. In this book, I am sharing it all. I explain the theories and strategies I have adopted, how I have executed them, and the results we have achieved. This book is about being bold, working hard, and making a difference in the world today and into the future.

Although we are all competing for a limited number of donor dollars, a believe that the better each nonprofit does, the stronger and more successful the entire country becomes. Imagine an America without a vibrant charitable community. The work of these organizations and their millions of volunteers and staff keeps us in touch with our humanness and ensures that the diverse needs of our communities are met.

What kinds of organizations constitute our community? The Panel on the Nonprofit Sector describes eight categories of charitable organizations:

1. Arts, culture, and humanities: This includes organizations such as museums, symphonies, orchestras, and community theaters.

2. Education and research: This includes organizations such as private colleges and universities, independent elementary and secondary schools, and noncommercial research institutions.

3. Environment and animals: This includes organizations such as zoos, bird sanctuaries, wildlife organizations, and land protection groups.

4. Health services: This includes organizations such as hospitals, public clinics, and nursing facilities.

5. Human services: This includes organizations such as housing and shelter providers, organizers of sports and recreation programs, and youth programs.

6. International and foreign affairs: This includes organizations that provide overseas relief and development assistance.

7. Public and societal benefit: This includes organizations such as private and community foundations and civic, social, and fraternal organizations.

8. Religion: This includes organizations such as houses of worship and their related auxiliary services.

Imagine all of these organizations disappearing in the blink of an eye.

How different would our world be? One thing is certain: We would be a weaker America. And if we can strengthen these organizations, we can build a stronger America.

The advice that I share in this book comes with a challenge to you.

You might know principles and concepts, but how good are you at executing?

It is one thing to adopt a theory or strategy, but it is quite another to make that theory a reality for your organization. This book is about implementation. It is about creating measurable results. It is about bringing common sense into common behavior. Because I am such a stickler for clear objectives and outcomes, I have one for this book:

My goal for this book is for you to increase your

organization’s or your operation’s effectiveness by

5 percent (or better) over your current projections.

It is up to you to determine the specific metrics for achieving this goal.

Depending on your unique situation, this may mean 5 percent higher revenue from fund-raising, 5 percent better retention of staff and volunteers a or 5 percent more people served by your programs—in short a the goal is to become 5 percent more effective in a way that is most meaningful for you. No matter what target you select, it is about making a commitment to apply these strategies in a measurable, meaningful way.

Lesson Learned

No matter how successful your organization is today, you

can—and should—always aim for bigger and better results.

As well-known business author and consultant Jim Collins

has said, “Good is the enemy of great.”

To help you do this, I invite you to take an inside look at my leadership as CEO of the American Heart Association over the past eleven years, as well as my work in various levels of the organization prior to becoming CEO. I share some stories from other organizations, but for the most part this book sticks closely to my personal experience, about which I can provide the greatest detail and insight. Along the way a highlight lessons you can apply to your organization and helpful howto lists, dos and don’ts, and other takeaways to make my experiences applicable to organizations of various sizes and missions.

This book is not just for large nonprofit organizations. The principles and concepts can be applied to all organizations and to you professionally.

This includes readers who serve on nonprofit boards, committees a or task forces. It likewise includes paid staff and volunteers at all levels.

Among many other lessons and topics, five overarching themes appear throughout this book. They are the key philosophies that I have adopted over the course of my career, and I briefly outline each one in this introduction.

The first theme is the most fundamental: Our organizations exist for a purpose beyond profit. Sometimes we become preoccupied with the politics, fund-raising, and programmatic activities on our daily to-do lists. Although this might happen, we must never lose sight of our core mission of public service.

Theme #1: Nonprofits Exist for a Purpose Beyond Profit

Our sense of mission and dedication to our particular cause

must be top of mind in all that we do. We all must work and

lead with our hearts by staying focused on serving our constituents

and bettering our world.