Like much of the world, I waited for the big Lebron James news today. I don’t really care about the NBA but I enjoy anything that creates a carnival-like atmosphere. Miami. Can’t blame him. But that’s not what this post is about.

It’s about a missed opportunity.

I visited lebronjames.com shortly after the decision as I was curious to see what he had to say on his website. And I was surprised to see a big DONATE button at the top.

What, he doesn’t have enough money? He needs contributions too? I suppose it’s hard to survive on hundreds of millions of dollars these days and he’s gonna need a BIG yacht in Miami!!!

Well, I clicked the link to see where it would take me, and the result was a paypal giving form for his foundation.

I have no idea what his foundation supports or why I should contribute. There was no info on the main site and nothing on the online giving form. Nada.

I’m betting quite a few people visited his website today. I don’t think many people from Cleveland would have been willing to give, but others might have considered it if they believed in whatever it is he’s trying to do with his philanthropic efforts. Opportunity lost.

I realize the main page was probably changed today for the big announcement, but if King James is going to ask us to give, he might want to consider a basic case for support in the future.

Just a thought.

If you work for an organization that operates on a traditional July 1 to June 30 fiscal year, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I’ve got good news and bad news for you.

The good news is that you’ll find out very soon just how your year ended. Are you up? Down? How’s that participation rate looking? You’ve done your work for FY10 and if the check isn’t already in the mail or in your lockbox, there’s not much you can do about it. Perhaps a few more gifts will come in online today, but for the most part you can relax. Your work is done.

The bad news is that FY11 starts tomorrow, all your metrics have reset to ZERO, and you have a million things to do RIGHT NOW!

Or maybe not.

June 30 is always a special day for me. I get to hit the ‘reset’ button. Try it!

I have some rituals I’d like to suggest:

• Take your ‘to-do list’ and set it aside. Make it clear that it’s an OLD to do list. It’s time to start over.

• Take everything on your desk and move it to the floor. Every file, every report, every envelope, EVERYTHING. This might be a good time to dust off your desk while you’re at it.

• Clear out your email inbox too. Either respond, delegate, or delete. For those very special items that have carryover into 2011, we’ll give a bit of flexibility, but mostly you want a clean slate.

• Get out a clean ‘to-do list’ (paper, electronic, whatever you choose) and transfer ONLY the really important items from your old list to the new. Anything that is a true ‘must do’ moves over to the new list. Everything else goes away with the old list. If you hadn’t done it yet, and it isn’t important, you probably shouldn’t focus on it anyway.

• When you’re done with the new list, put everything back on your desk one item at a time. Review everything before you return it, however, and decide if it deserves to be there. Again, this is a good time to delegate or destroy. If it makes it back to your desk, it likely deserves a spot on your to-do list as well. I hope your desk looks less cluttered than it did before.

• Next, on a clean sheet of paper, write down the 3-5 things you’re most proud of in FY10. What really worked. New strategies, new programs, etc. Do the same for what DID NOT work or that you struggled with.

• Close your door, turn off your phone and spend the rest of the day thinking about that sheet of paper and what you NEED to accomplish in FY11. What are your top goals? Where should your focus be? STARE AT THE WALL AND THINK. You don’t get enough time for that.

• Just before you leave this afternoon, check that to-do list again. How does it match what you’ve been thinking about? Are there quite a few items that are just busy work? Are there items that don’t fit the ‘focus on this’ category? If there are, delegate or delete again.

• Finally, make a pledge to yourself that you will maintain focus in FY11. You’ll spend your valuable time on the right things, rather than just keeping busy. This is a promise to yourself. Say it out loud. Don’t be shy. LOUDER!

• Go home. Don’t take any work with you tonight. Play with the kids, read a book, watch TV, mow the yard. Spend tonight thinking about how your work-life balance could be improved.

Tomorrow is a new day. The beginning of a brand-spanking-new-year. Hopefully, if you’ve done a good job of determining your focus and deleting the messy to-do items that really don’t impact your work, you can start the new year on-track and promote a good work-life balance for yourself. If you keep focusing on the right things, you’ll also do BETTER work while you’re at it.

The first few weeks in July are easy. Sticking with it for the whole year is the hard part.

Thanks to @directintel for tweeting about this interesting campaign from the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. I thought it was worth sharing – the video is below, and the link (above) will take you to the campaign website for information and more videos.

On a somewhat related note, I have given up on the quest to find the video referenced in my last post. If you’re still looking, the $25 gift bounty is still waiting, but I need to give the Google machine a rest!

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This is a strange week for me. Normally I’d be attending one of my favorite conferences but, due to budget constraints and some other issues, I’m not.

At the same time, about 50 yards from my office my organization has an open connection to the IFC Online International Fundraising eConference. I can drop in on live interactive sessions from some of the biggest names in the business. It costs less than $300 and everyone on the team can come and go for sessions that interest them.

I hope this isn’t a sign of where my conference life is headed. I value the human interaction available in ‘traditional’ conferences quite a bit. Meeting peers, sharing ideas, breaking bread. Some of the most productive time at conferences happens when nobody is clicking thru their PowerPoint. Even better, I’ve met colleagues who stay in touch and share ideas for years and years and years.

However, if those who coordinate conferences don’t figure out a way to make them more appealing and affordable, I’m afraid the days of the national conference will be long gone. People will stay closer to home, save their funds, and invest mostly in professional development via internet connection. It’s hard to justify flying 2,000 miles, spending several thousand dollars, and find only a handful of peers on the other end who’ve done the same. I’d hate for speakers to talk to empty rooms!

So how can we avoid this?

*Conferences need to be relevant. The subject matter must be well defined and the speakers of a national caliber. Know the audience. Actually, know the intended audience and if others attend and later say the content didn’t meet their needs, that’s their problem. Don’t penalize those who chose the right conference from the start or they won’t come back either.

*The conference should be ‘as advertised’ – there’s nothing worse than having a senior-level conference that provides entry-level information or vice-versa.

*Conference fees have gotten out of hand. Choose reasonable locations with good hotel rates, easy access, and reduced costs. I need value from the experience, I don’t need lobster. I understand the value of a ‘cool’ city to drive attendance, but substance should be more important than style. $900 to register and $300 a night just isn’t going to compete with the online conference world.

*Plan ahead. On average, I receive invitations to most conferences about 2-3 months in advance. That simply isn’t enough time. Busy professionals have trouble finding 2-hour meeting slots in that range. I don’t need every single detail, but I do need more information earlier.

*Don’t sell me. Too many consultant and vendor presentations annoy me. If a vendor is going to speak, make it crystal clear they’re not to sell ANYTHING. And if they do, don’t invite them back. I think our vendor-partners have amazing insight and ideas to share and I also understand the value of their sponsorship. I want to hear from them as speakers and attendees owe them the respect of stopping by their booths and learning about their products in return. But too often the line is crossed in their presentations.

*Finally, strive for size. Times are tough, and the value many attendees receive from a conference is directly proportional to the number of attendees. More people = more networking = more good ideas. As attendance shrinks, so does the value of the conference. It’s a cycle that only ends when the last person decides he/she doesn’t want to attend alone.

Online conferences are valuable and they add to the professional development arsenal available to all of us. But I hope it won’t be our only option in the future!

I recently received an email from a GettingGiving reader asking for some assistance and I need your help. I’ve been wearing out the Google search engine for a couple of weeks now, and it’s getting personal. I HATE not being able to find something on the web, and I’m quite stubborn so I’m pulling in the GettingGiving cavalry. Here’s the part of the email that applies to the search:

I’m trying to find a video that I saw about a year or so ago. The video features a guy in a bar who is trying to pick-up a woman. The guy represents a ‘fundraiser’ and the girl represents a ‘prospect’ – so the ‘pick-up’ is really about the guy trying to get the girl to make a gift. The video is full or irony / humor because the guy’s language indicates that he only sees / knows the woman as a collection of general bio/demographic information (that he’s gotten from his less-than-perfect database). The woman quickly realizes that the guy is not treating her as an individual – and is turned off by the crude attempt. The video is a great lesson in the importance of knowing your prospects and engaging them as individuals.

My first thought was this video, which was close but not the one he’s looking for:

The mystery continues. I’d love to help this gentleman out, so I’m offering a bit of an incentive. If you’re the first person to send me an email with a link to the video I’m looking for, I’ll make $25 contribution to the nonprofit of your choice. Send your links to jlindaue@gmail.com – I’ll relay the link and when he tells me we’ve got the right video, I’ll make the gift.

You also might reduce my insanity in the process!

Penn State (otherwise known as The Pennsylvania State University) went public recently about “For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students” which will raise $2 billion by 2014. I know many of the good folks at PSU and wish them well.

Normally this wouldn’t make the blog as billion-dollar campaigns have become commonplace and, while it will be a well-run campaign, I wouldn’t find anything interesting to post about it. Until I read an article about the announcement event at statecollege.com.

At the event, Joe Paterno (he’s been the Penn State football coach FOREVER) delivered a quote that has become one of my favorite quotes ever:

Only people like JoePa can pull that off in front of 1,000+ alumni and friends.

I love JoePa.

NOTE: I’ve been told there have been variations of this quote used by others, but I bet JoePa delivered it better!

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I love stumbling across interesting items on the web, as it lets me claim ‘web surfing’ as a productive use of my time. In a recent search for some other extremely important information, I found the Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment flowchart. See, I TOLD you I was being productive! It was shiny and new and I found it both interesting and the impetus to start the process of formalizing a similar response plan for my workplace.

I won’t ramble on about this, as when I looked for a cleaner copy of the flowchart I found that it’s only new to me. You’ve probably seen it before, as it’s been around the block a bit and several others have written extensively on this topic. Google ‘Air Force Response’ and you’ll see what I’m talking about. To summarize them all: You need a plan. Now.

Ok, maybe I’ll ramble just a bit, I can’t resist. Maybe you’re like me and haven’t seen it either.

From the recent feud between Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines (they thought he was too fat to fly, he attacked them publicly on Twitter for days on end) to reader commentary entered after an article is posted on a blog or newspaper’s website, the internet and social media takes the complaint letter to a new level. Accurate or not, if it’s on the web anyone and everyone can read it, forward it, or comment on it. Even worse, they might hear only one side of the story, believe it, and absorb it as fact before you have a chance to react.

HINT: Click the graphic to print or re-size for people with normal eyesight.

Gone are the days of receiving a complaint letter or e-mail and having ample time to consider how or if you want to respond. You can’t spend hours (or days) writing a thoughtful response letter to the editor when an article is being commented on right now. You may find yourself with the need to decide how to respond and what to say within minutes (or even seconds) and there won’t be time to determine your philosophy. If you take the time to develop a strategy in advance you’ll be in a better position to react quickly.

The Air Force’s flowchart is a great example of how you might start to formalize your response procedures. They’ve taken the time to determine what types of posts they’ll respond to, how they’ll respond, who to involve, and more. It’s a good start for any communications team and it might just save your reputation some day.

I invite your comments. I’ll consult my flowchart and decide how to respond.