board development – Page 8 – The Healthy Non-Profit

Dear board volunteers . . . Can we please follow our fundraising policies?

May 1, 2013 erik Board development, Fundraising

DonorDreams blog is honored to be hosting the May 2013 Nonprofit Blog Carnival. The theme this month is “Dear board volunteer . . .” and the idea is “If you could write an anonymous letter to a nonprofit board about something they do that drives you crazy, what would that letter look like and what suggested solutions would you include?” If you are a blogger and would like more information on how to participate and submit a post for consideration, please click here to learn more.

I wanted to expand the Nonprofit Blog Carnival concept in May. So, I reached out to real non-profit professionals and asked them to also write an anonymous letter to their board volunteers. These people are executive directors, fundraising professionals, board members, donors, community volunteers, consultants and front line staff. I promised everyone anonymity in exchange for their submissions.

We will celebrate May’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival on Wednesday, May 29, 2013. Up to that fun-filled day, I will publish real anonymous letters every day from real non-profit professionals right here at DonorDreams blog.

I hope you enjoy this real look at real issues that our community deals with on a daily basis.

Here is today’s letter:

Dear Board Members,

We are so excited that our upcoming fund raiser is nearly at capacity. You all have done an outstanding job in talking up the event to your friends and colleagues, and in getting others to buy tickets to the event. Thank you for that.

Several years ago, you established a process that let each event committee determine the policies around which each event would operate. Once the policies were established by each committee, they were accepted or modified by the full Board. Now I know that each of you did not agree personally with all the policies, but majority rules and the policies were set, or at least I thought so.

To my surprise, and dismay, now I find out that there are many of you asking, assuming, or demanding that we don’t enforce these policies, at least as it concerns you. Some of you want to bring more people with you, of course at no additional cost. Some of you even think you should be allowed to come for free because you are a Board Member.

Good grief, this is a Fund Raising Event. It is designed to make money! Don’t you get it?

Now here is what really ticks me off. You don’t call or email me — the executive director — with these ideas. No, you call or email my event staff, who are already intimidated by you. What kind of spot do you think this puts them in?

So what do we do about this?

First, if you want to make a difference in how an event operates, volunteer to serve on the committee that designs the event. We would love to have more of you actively engaged in these committees. Second, when the committee presents the event at the Board Meeting, speak up, express your concerns then. Make your vote count. Third, once the Board accepts the policies surrounding an event, accept them. We all need to follow the direction the Board sets.

And please, call or email me if you are having issues or concerns with an event. Calling or emailing my staff with this sort of thing just isn’t appropriate or helpful. However, you must know that while I will listen to you or read your email, I will always back up the Board’s decision. You really would not want me to do otherwise.

Sincerely,
Lonely at the top

If you have some advice for the author of our anonymous letter, please be respectful and share it in the comment box at the bottom of this post.

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Nonprofit blog carnival: “Dear board volunteers . . .”

April 30, 2013 erik Board development, volunteers

I love the Nonprofit Blog Carnival because it is an online collaborative space where bloggers can focus on a specific nonprofit theme and readers can easily access different points of view on the same topic. I am very honored and humbled that the DonorDreams blog will host the May Nonprofit Blog Carnival.

Let’s get this party started with the immortal words of Dr. Seuss from “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!“:

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.

Attention all bloggers: Calling for submissions to the May 2013 Nonprofit Blog Carnival

The theme for May’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival is . . .

“Dear Board volunteers . . .”
If you could write an anonymous letter to a nonprofit board about something they do that drives you crazy, what would that letter look like and what suggested solutions would you include?

carnival mask

I encourage you to have a little fun with this topic. You can write it from any of the following perspectives:

executive director
fundraising professional
fellow board member
nonprofit consultant
donor
volunteer
program staff

You can also theme your letter on any number of issues pertaining to: fundraising, board development, leadership, financial management, planning, organizational culture, volunteerism, etc. The possibilities really are endless!

And remember to keep the letter “anonymous” just like the Mardi Gras carnival!

Go visit April’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival hosted by Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog

In April, the carnival was hosted by Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog and the theme was “Best Advice“. She asked bloggers to consider the following questions:

How has it transformed your work?
What is your own best single piece of advice for people who work at nonprofits?

If you’re interested in reading what some very smart and talented bloggers had to say about this Nonprofit Blog Carnival theme, click here.

But wait . . . there’s more!

If you couldn’t tell from my introduction, one of my favorite writers is Dr. Seuss, and he has been described by many as an “architect of social change“. In my opinion, the genius behind his writing is that he talked about social issues in a way that even a child could understand.

So, those of you who can incorporate some reference or tip of your hat to Dr. Seuss in your Nonprofit Blog Carnival submission for May will get bonus points.

It can be as simple as incorporating a quote or a moral to one of his stories into your anonymous letter to nonprofit board volunteers. Or it can be as complex as composing your entire letter in a Seuss-like format.

I’ll even help by providing you with these online resources and ideas:

What exactly do bonus points get you? Simply put, it increases the chances that your blog post will get included in the Nonprofit Blog Carnival in May, which will be published on the DonorDreams blog platform on Wednesday, May 29th.

Finally, if you choose to accept the Seuss-challenge, be careful about copyrights, trademarks, and all of that legal stuff.

How to submit your work for consideration?

You are welcome to write your blog in a house or with a mouse or in a box or with a fox; however, I must receive your submission by the end of the day on Monday, May 27, 2013:

How do you submit? Simply email the following information to nonprofitcarnival[at]gmail[dot]com:

Your name.
The name of your blog.
The permalink of your post.

Who will make the decision on what gets included?

During the entire month of May, I’m turning the DonorDreams blog over to the Nonprofit Blog Carnival theme of “Dear Board Volunteers . . .”

In the last few weeks, I’ve invited a ton of executive directors, fundraising professionals, board volunteers, and nonprofit consultants to do the same thing that I’ve invited you to do, which is write an anonymous letter with some advice in it to their nonprofit board volunteers. Of course, I didn’t ask them to get creative with the Dr. Seuss curveball because they aren’t creative bloggers like you! 😉

I am publishing their work at DonorDreams throughout the month of May. (If you are looking for some inspiration, I encourage you to periodically click over to DonorDreams. Something you read may just spark a blog post for you.)

I will ask those nonprofit professionals and volunteers who get published at DonorDreams in May to help me judge what you and other bloggers submit at nonprofitcarnival[at]gmail[dot]com. Remember, the big carnival celebration happens on Wednesday, May 29th.

Miscellaneous details?

Click here to learn more about the Nonprofit Blog Carnival. If you want to view the archives, then you want to click here.

Do you want to become a “Friend of the Carnival” and receive email blasts twice a month with reminders about the Carnival? Click here if you want to receive those reminders.

Here’s your final piece of Seuss-inspiration: “You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go . . .”

I am very much looking forward to see what you decide to do and where you decide to take this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival.

Here’s to your health!

Should we compensate our non-profit board volunteers?

April 29, 2013 erik Board development, volunteers

Those of you follow this blog know that I’ve been unpacking old boxes of “stuff” in my basement for the last few weeks. There is a small mountain of boxes from my last place of residence. It is stuff that was deemed unimportant at the time of unpacking, but important enough (for whatever reason) not to throw away. As I’ve encountered old non-profit training materials and memories, I’ve shared some of it here at DonorDreams blog.

Last night, I rummaged through another two boxes in an effort to get ready for garbage day on Monday. As I unpacked and recycled more stuff, I came across a March 2004 edition of BoardSource’s “Board Member” magazine. The cover story was titled: “At What Cost? The Board Compensation Debate.” James Orlikoff wrote the proponent article “Yes! In the Accountability Era, Board Members Must Be Paid.” Kevin Murphy wrote the opponent article “No! Paying Boards Is a Solution in Search of a Problem.”

I remember reading this pro-con piece almost a decade ago and I found myself firmly in the “Heck No!” camp. However, I’ve softened over time and enjoyed re-reading this article last night (especially because it took me away from the job of unpacking boxes . . . LOL).

Here is the thesis of Orlikoff’s proponents argument:

“In today’s challenging, complex, and litigious environment, board compensation may soon emerge as a key component of effective governance.”

Here is the thesis of Murphy’s opponents argument:

“. . . compensating board members not only undermines public confidence in the sector, but also begins to erode the underpinnings of our governance system. The media attention to compensation scandals makes one thing clear: With board member compensation, the potential abuses outweigh the potential benefits.”

One reason for my recent defection from the opponent’s camp is that I see many municipalities compensating their city council members. In my hometown of Elgin, Illinois, a citizen who gets voted onto the council received a $1,000 monthly stipend, the ability to participate in the city’s health insurance program, and a few other small perks.

I honestly don’t think the issue of compensation undermines public confidence in our municipal institutions, and I don’t see any erosion to the underpinnings of the governance system. In other words, I am looking at an empirical example and don’t see any evidence of what the opponents to board compensation argue.

Sure . . . the city of Elgin is not a non-profit board of directors, but it also isn’t a for-profit board either.

So, let’s look at a handful of arguments put forth by the proponents:

A lot is asked of non-profit board members, and compensation is a way to reward such work and create an incentive to do a quality job.
For-profit board members are compensated, and non-profits might need to start doing the same thing in order to compete.
Adding compensation to the picture might contribute to a more rigorous board recruitment and evaluation process.

Orlikoff ticks off 10 reasons for compensating non-profit board members, and after reading each argument I find myself shrugging my shoulders and saying “Hmmm . . . maybe.”

However, in my opinion, I am left wondering if compensation might change the dynamics around “engagement” of non-profit board members.

While I have not yet formed an opinion, if someone could show me that non-profit board members would be more engaged in activities like fundraising, financial management and board governance issues, then I might joyfully jump into the proponent’s camp.

I know that some of you might be scratching your heads right now thinking it is illegal to compensate non-profit board members. The simple answer is that it is not illegal to do so. It is just a little more complicated.

According to this BoardSource article, two percent of non-profits currently pay their board members (mostly large and complex organizations), and 25% of foundations pay their board members. Joanne Fritz at about.com answered this question in her post titled “Can a Nonprofit Compensate It’s Board Members?”

So, here I sit again in the middle of a good debate. While I understand board compensation alone won’t improve non-profit board governance, I am left wondering if it isn’t part of the solution.

What are your thoughts? Would adding a small stipend create a change in recruitment efforts? Year-end evaluations? Meeting attendance? Committee meeting attendance? Fundraising? Engagement? What are some of the problems we might create by opening this ‘can of worms’?

Before you share your thoughts in the comment box below, please consider the following quote from American business man James Casey.”

“The basic principle which I believe has contributed more than any other to the building of our business as it is today, is the ownership of our company by the people employed in it.”

I dunno . . . let’s talk about it. Here’s to your health!

The key to your non-profit’s success? LEADERSHIP!

April 26, 2013 erik Board development, organizational development

Welcome to O.D. Fridays at DonorDreams blog. Every Friday for the foreseeable future we will be looking at posts from John Greco’s blog called “johnponders ~ about life at work, mostly” and applying his organizational development messages to the non-profit community.

In a post titled “Dr. Pepper’s Shadow,” John talks about:

how we view leaders,
how our leaders’ words and deeds are hugely influential, and
how leaders can have an unintended impact on all types of situations.

I know that I’m oversimplifying John post, but everything he says points to how important leadership is to any organization. Like it or leave it . . . I believe it is likely the biggest factor in determining your successes and failures.

I’ve worked with non-profit organizations that have great programs, great mission, great vision, great staff, great systems, great policies and practices and great history, but they find themselves “in the tank” because leadership is lacking. As John talks about in his post, the leaders in my example are casting a “long shadow” and its impact is negative.

I’ve also worked with non-profit organizations that have serious gaps and deficiencies. They lack resources, their technology is bad, their systems and policies are poor or nonexistent. . . and they seem to overcome all of it. In these cases, it is always the leader who makes a huge difference.

leadership1

I’m also not just talking about a non-profit organization’s executive director. I’m also referencing board leadership.

The reason I am on a leadership kick this morning is because of an online article I read a few weeks ago about J. C. Penney at NPR.com.

Here is the story in a nutshell:

J.C. Penney’s hires a new CEO.
The new CEO boldly casts a new vision and changes everything!
Everyone follows the new CEO. (He has a LONG shadow)
The new strategy doesn’t seem to work and a lot of money is lost.
The board fires the new CEO and stock prices go up as investor confidence rises.
The board hires the previous CEO and stock prices go down.

There is a lot going on with this story, and I suspect John can carve two or three different blog posts out of it. However, I will point to the one obvious thing . . . “LEADERSHIP! Everyone places tremendous importance on this idea and that person casts a long shadow!”

leadership2

Now there are all sorts of ideas floating around about leadership. Servant leadership, situational leadership, democratic leadership, charismatic leadership, bureaucratic leadership, and the list goes on and on. There are also all different kinds of leaders.

One point of view on leadership that I’ve become enamored with in the last few years comes from organizational psychologist and management consultant, Noel Tichy, who has worked with a number of troubled and successful companies throughout the years. Here is what he has to say about successful organizations and leadership in the introduction of his book, “The Leadership Engine“:

“The answer I have come up with is that winning companies win because they have good leaders who nurture the development of other leaders at all levels of the organization. The ultimate test of success for an organization is not whether it can win today but whether it can keep winning tomorrow and the day after. Therefore, the ultimate test for a leader is not whether he or she makes smart decisions and takes decisive action, but whether he or she teaches others to be leaders and builds an organization that can sustain its success even when he or she is not around. They key ability of winning organizations and winning leaders is creating leaders.”

Uh-oh . . . I may be starting to border on another hot topic and age-old question . . . “Can leadership be taught or are leaders born?” John tackled this question (with regards to a servant leadership paradigm) in his post titled “Born, Not Made“.

I going to stop here and remain at 50,000 feet with my original observations:

leadership is important,
everyone looks at the leader and they cast a long shadow, and
leadership seems to be the great equalizer (and it can make or break your organization).

Does your non-profit organization have great leaders sitting in the CEO and board president’s chairs? How do you know if they are great leaders? Have you ever seen a great organization with bad leadership at the helm? Do you have a “point of view” around leadership like Noel Tichy or John Greco? If so, what is it?

Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts, opinions and experiences. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Great non-profit advice from those boxes in my basement: Part 2

April 10, 2013 erik Board development, volunteers

On Monday, I shared with you that in the corner of my basement, there is a small mountain of boxes from my last place of residence. I’ve decided after seven years, none of it can be very important. So, I’m opening the boxes and starting to trash the contents. In the very first box I found a treasure trove of training materials from when I worked for the Boy Scouts (BSA) as a District Executive in the 1990s. I decided that the readers of this blog might find some of it helpful and useful. On Monday, I shared with you BSA’s tips for running an annual campaign. Today, I will offer you the Scouts’ perspective on volunteer management.

The document I pulled out of the box is super simple. It is a brochure titled “Six Major Tasks for Volunteer Success: To Strengthen District Committees and Commissioner Staffs“.

Define Responsibilities. Volunteers must know what is expected for them to be successful. Carefully define, in writing, the responsibilities for each position.
Select & Recruit. Fit the right person to the job. Consider each prospect’s skills, interests, and other relevant factors. Consider the variety of motivating factors for people getting involved. (And then BSA instructs its employees to use recruitment best practices and references other manuals)
Orient & Train. Provide each person with prompt orientation on the individual assignment and with adequate training to be successful. (Again, BSA references another three manuals for training curriculum)
Coach Volunteers. Provide ongoing coaching as needed. Build a volunteer’s confidence and self-esteem. Help conserve a volunteer’s time. Coaching should be provided by the appropriate chairperson or professional.
Recognize Achievement. Prompt volunteer recognition has an important impact on the tenure and quality of service in the district. Recognition must be sincere, timely, and earned. Use the great variety of formal BSA recognition items, but also be creative with frequent locally devised thank-yous. Even more effective may be the personal “pat on the back” for a job well done. Recognize volunteers on a face-to-face basis, from a person of status, and preferably in front of the volunteer’s peers.
Evaluate Performance. Help district volunteers regularly evaluate how they’re doing. (Would you be surprised to learn that they reference yet still more manuals)

For those of you worrying that I’m violating copyright law, rest assured there is nothing on this brochure that indicates this is copyrighted. Additionally, these six points are all best practices dating back to Biblical times (maybe I’m exaggerating . . . or am I?). Finally, I am infamous for ending my blog posts by saying something like “please share your thoughts in the comment box below because we can all learn from each other“. I guess I’m just imposing my teachable point of view on the Scouts.

C’est la vie!

Reviewing this old 1997 BSA volunteer document, I am struck with the following thoughts:

It is super impressive that the BSA seems to have a manual for everything, which gives new meaning to the expression “They wrote the book on that.”
BSA is dependent on hundreds of thousands of volunteers to implement their programming. It makes sense that they’ve invested countless time, energy and money in developing resources. I wonder if there are collaboration and strategic alliance opportunities for your organization around volunteer recruitment and management. What’s stopping you from reaching out to your local council and starting a dialog?
Boiling it down into six simple tips is misleading and confusing because the devil is always in the details. It is easy to say “Coach volunteers,” but the trick is doing it. There is nothing simple about these six steps, and the BSA has been honing their expertise in the area of volunteer recruitment and management for more than a century.

Is your agency trying to build a volunteer recruitment and management program? If so, how is it going? How many manuals have you developed and on what subjects? Have you hired a volunteer coordinator yet? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box below.

Here’s to your health!

High Functioning and High Profile?

April 9, 2013 erik Board development, volunteers

Dani Robbins is the Founder & Principal Strategist at Non Profit Evolution located in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve invited my good friend and fellow non-profit consultant to the first Wednesday of each month about board development related topics. Dani also recently co-authored a book titled “Innovative Leadership Workbook for Nonprofit Executives” that you can find on Amazon.com.

There are some very high-profile and high functioning Boards on which community leaders serve with distinction. There are other high-profile yet lower functioning Boards on which people serve because they believe in the mission and it’s also good for their company, career or ego. It’s hard to tell which is which, and it may even be hard to decide which you want.

High profile Boards where nothing strategic is happening but everything is basically fine may be enough for you. Then again, it may not. Even if it is, “basically fine” is hard to qualify. How do you know?

If you are invited to serve on the Board of a respected community organization, the best – and really only – way I know to find out what type of board it is, is to ask lots of questions. Those questions include asking about a typical meeting, about the agenda, topics covered and the quality and quantity discussions; about the CEO and how he or she operates.

Is it a yes Board or a working board?
Is it a Board whose meetings include generative and strategic discussions or one that solely focuses on its fiduciary responsibilities?
Does the organization have a vision of where they’d like to be at some specified point in the future?
Are there organizational values?
Do they align with your values?
Is there a strategic plan?
Are there goals the CEO is working toward?
What are they and by who were they set?

The answers will tell you a lot.

If a typical meeting has no written agenda, you know going in that conversation is likely to wander off topic.

If the meeting is described as primarily votes and committee reports with approvals to follow or the vote being tabled until the discussion at hand is taken up by the committee, with others invited to attend, you know there is a Chair who knows how to run a meeting and who is also running a primarily fiduciary focused Board.

If there are robust discussions that challenge the status quo, decisions that move forward the organization’s vision and generative discussions that consider all constituent groups’ positions, you have a Board that is fiduciary, strategic and generative.

Alternatively, if there is very little discussion, you may have a high-profile but lower functioning Board. Further evidence of this will be if there are no organizational values, no vision, no strategic plan and if the goals were set by the CEO for the CEO.

The CEO’s goals are usually tied to the Board approved strategic plan. In the absence of a plan, the Board sets the CEOs goals and evaluates the CEO based on the accomplishment of those goals. CEOs that set their own goals without any Board input also tend to set the direction for the Board, both signs of a lower functioning board and also an indication of boundary issues. Other evidence of boundary issues, though on the other side, includes Board meeting topics that are operational in nature.

Boundary issues mean the Board acts on things traditionally done by the CEO, and the CEO performs duties traditional completed by the Board. The combination creates a lower functioning Board that, high-profile or not, may not meet your Board service goals or its governance responsibilities.

As described in a previous post The Role of the Board, “the Board is responsible for governance, which includes Mission, Vision and Strategic Planning; Hiring, Supporting and Evaluating the Executive Director; acting as the Fiduciary Responsible Agent, setting Policy and Raising Money. Boundary creep makes the accomplishment of governance responsibilities challenging, which in turn compromise the achievement of high functioning.”

Of course, high functioning and high profile Boards are not the only options. The opposites, low profile and low functioning, are quite prevalent and also easier to spot.

Like anything, it’s important to know what you want out of your Board service before you determine the Board that is right for you to serve. High profile doesn’t necessarily beget high functioning. What’s right for you?

As always, I welcome your experience and insight.

Non-profit boardroom diversity includes a man named Thomas

April 3, 2013 erik Board development, volunteers

Easter was just a few days ago, and I still have things like fake basket grass, plastic eggs, and empty calories on my mind. I’ve also been working hard at turning leftover ham into split pea soup. Apparently, other bloggers have Easter on the brain because I just read a great post titled “Who’s Your Thomas?” that Tom Okarma posted on the Fox West Philanthropic Network’s LinkedIn discussion board. I loved this blog post because it was better than anything the Easter Bunny brought me . . . it was the gift of “AH-HA”.

As you probably get from the title of the post, Tom talks about the value of having a board volunteer who is not a rubber stamp. In fact, this person actively doubts all sorts of things that your agency is about to undertake. They express their concerns. They ask questions . . . lots of them. They share what they believe is the “unvarnished truth” regardless of whether or not the timing is convenient.

When I was on the front line, my Doubting Thomas was a board member named Lee.

I wish I could tell you that I used Lee’s talents appropriately, but I cannot. I worked hard to silence him, and more than a decade later I now see how wrong I was.

Gosh darn it . . . hindsight really is cruel. LOL

Guarding against the rubber stamp

I cannot count how many times I’ve seen a group of people sit around a table, discuss an issue, and look like a bunch of bobble-head dolls. Let’s face it. People are busy and on any given day we can get distracted and fail to focus on the business at hand.

If you have “Board Member Thomas” sitting around the table, the odds are much higher that the bobble-head dolls might bobble at a slightly slower pace and fewer mistakes/oversights might be made.

Improving the decision

One of the things I’ve seen work when it comes to satisfying “Board Member Thomas” is answering their questions. This usually entails more than just verbally telling them what they want to know. It almost always involves data, reports, and documents. After receiving these things, it also almost always involves discussion, discussion and more discussion.

In the end, this information and discussion results in better boardroom decision-making.

Too much of a good thing is always bad

On a few occasions, I’ve had the privilege of being in a non-profit boardroom full of Doubting Thomas board members. Just thinking about those few experiences still sends a chill up my spine. LOL Would you be surprised if I told you those boardrooms brought the expression “paralysis by analysis” to life?

There are two important points that need to be made here:

Diversity is about more than just age, gender and ethnicity. It includes all kinds of other factors: profession/occupation, personal and career experiences/successes, social networks, and . . . yes . . . personality types (e.g. Doubting Thomas).
The funny thing about diversity is that if you over-pursue one thing, then you end up losing your diversity. Target too many Millennial and GenX board prospects, and you end up with a young and ineffective board. If you recruit too many Doubting Thomas board volunteers, then you end up with grid lock. So, tread carefully!

Do you have a Doubting Thomas on your board? How do you manage that asset? How do you work with your board development or governance committee to identify and target such a board prospect? Do you have any Doubting Thomas boardroom stories to share with your peers? Please scroll down and use the comment box to share a thought or two on this very important board development topic. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Is your non-profit board old? Paging all Millennials and GenXers?

March 26, 2013 erik Board development, organizational development, volunteers

Recently, I’ve heard at least three or four of my non-profit friends lament that their board lacks diversity in the area of age. It seems as if their boards of directors are primarily packed with Baby Boomer generation volunteers in their 50s and 60s.

At first, my response to each of my friends was:

DUH!!!

Isn’t it obvious that young people between 20- and 40-years-old are climbing life’s challenging career path trails? Not only are these individuals focused on career, but they are having children and raising families. In my opinion, these ingredients are a cocktail of NO TIME + NO MONEY.

So, I wasn’t surprised to learn the following facts in an article published in The Guardian titled “How can charities attract young trustees to their boards?“:

The mean age of a non-profit board member in the UK is 57.
Only 0.5% of board volunteers are between the ages of 18 and 24.
One-fifth of board volunteers surveyed said they lack age diversity on their non-profit board.

I am a fan of diversity and believe it is important, but I am not a fan of tokenism. You do yourself and your non-profit organization a great disservice when you recruit people to fill gaps just for the sake of filling gaps.

When your organization decides it is time to add more young people to its board of directors, your board development committee has its work cut out for itself because the prospects you identify, evaluate and cultivate must be able to hold their weight with other more experienced and better resourced board volunteers.

Young board members must be able to:

make a personal financial contribution;
be willing to attend board meetings, committee meetings and events;
have the ability and willingness to solicit their personal and professional network to support the organization.

In all honesty, I am a really big fan of getting young volunteers involved in special event planning, standing committees and task forces, and young professional groups first before asking them to join the board. However, if you’re determined to diversify your non-profit board of directors, your board development committee must have the following in place first:

comprehensive new board member orientation,
board volunteer training opportunities, and
new board member mentoring program.

Has your organization brought Millennial and GenX aged volunteers onto your non-profit board? How has it worked out for you? What lessons did you learn? What would you do differently? Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts and experiences. Why? Because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Too much PowerPoint in your non-profit boardroom?

March 7, 2013 erik Board development, organizational development, technology

A few weeks ago I was sitting down with a client putting the final touches on their Board Retreat agenda, and I received what I thought was an odd request from the board president. He emphatically asked me to please spare him and the board from using PowerPoint presentations during the course of the retreat. He explained that in his line of work he sees far too many PowerPoint presentations, and his eyes glaze over whenever someone starts clicking through their slides and droning on about something obviously important.

Well, I thought it was an odd request, but the customer is always right. Right?

However, out of curiosity I went to Google to see if there are other people who feel the same way. Here is what I found:

strategicsense blog: “Too much PowerPoint can kill you“
Fast Company: “Death To PowerPoint!“
Wendy Russell at about.com: “PowerPoint — The Ugly“
Harvard Business Review: “PowerPoint is Evil, Redux“

Well, alrighty then!

I never realized how many people are tired of PowerPoint presentations (especially bad ones). So, I was left wondering what I should do because I am apparently one of those consultants who over uses PowerPoint.

Luckily, the board president saved the day and told me about a presentation service he found online — Prezi.com. This online service as a software (SaaS) is a dynamic virtual whiteboard that brings a 3-D quality to your presentation. Click here for a better explanation. You can also watch this YouTube video to see a demonstration.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxhqD0hNx4Q]

I’ve now used Prezi a few different times, and I can honestly say that I like it (and I’m not getting paid to say any of this).

Just yesterday I transformed one of my PowerPoint presentations on the “12 Steps to Making a Face-to-Face Solicitation” into a Prezi. After the training, I had a few different volunteer solicitors thank me for using a different format. You can check-out that presentation by clicking here or the graphic below.

Let me end this post with a dose of skepticism.

I personally don’t believe that people are tired of PowerPoint presentations and I don’t think Prezi is the solution to all of our problems.

In fact, I suspect that what non-profit volunteers are actually trying to tell us is:

Enough of the presentations! Can we have a discussion?

Perhaps, we’re talking too much at our board volunteers, and we need to figure out how to incorporate more discussions into our board meetings and board retreats.

Have you been struggling with this question recently? If so, please scroll down and share your thoughts in the comment box about the following questions:

Who should facilitate these engaging discussions in the boardroom, especially when no one on the board is a highly skilled facilitator?
Are there trainings available that a board president can easily access to improve his/her facilitation skills?
What role should staff play in framing and staging these conversations before, during and after the board meeting?
When information is vital to framing an important discussion, what is the best way to present it to board members without lulling them to sleep?

Please don’t misread me. I’m not suggesting that you throw all of your PowerPoint slides away. I’m not suggesting that Prezi is manna from heaven. I’m not telling you to only have robust discussions in the boardroom or board retreat. However, I am suggesting there is a delicate balance and we need to figure out if we want our non-profit boards to get better at governance.

We can all learn from each other. Please weigh-in with your thoughts using the comment box below.

Here’s to your health!

Back to non-profit board basics: Fiduciary Responsibility

March 6, 2013 erik Board development, volunteers

The book Governance as Leadership, by Richard P. Chait, William P. Ryan and Barbara E. Taylor, and the modes of governance contained within, changed the way I look at Board service and the capacity of Boards to move the needle of change in their communities.

Several recent blog posts have been dedicated to discussing how to move governing Boards from focusing primarily on the fiduciary mode toward becoming more strategic and generative. High functioning Boards manage in all three modes depending on the circumstances and the needs of the organizations, yet fiduciary is and must continue to be the foundation of Board governance.

As a quick reminder, those modes are as follows:

Fiduciary – the board is faithful to its mission, accountable for performance, and compliant with relevant laws and regulations. It exercises its legal responsibilities of oversight and stewardship.
Strategic – the board is responsible for strategic thinking and sets the organization’s priorities and course, and deploys resources accordingly.
Generative – the board’s work entails efforts to make sense of circumstances, to discover patterns and discern problems, and to make meaning of what’s happening.

Boards are made up of appointed community leaders who are collectively responsible for governing an organization. That includes:

Setting the Mission, Vision and Strategic Plan;
Hiring, Supporting and Evaluating the Executive Director;
Acting as the Fiduciary Responsible Agent,
Setting Policy and
Raising Money

Most of how that happens is at Board and committee meetings, which is really the point of today’s blog.

The minimum requirements to become a functioning governing Board operating in the fiduciary mode is this:

You must have a quorum at all Board meetings. The organization’s Code of Regulations (also called by-laws) will dictate the number of Board members required to be in the room to have a quorum; it is usually half or half plus one. When you do not have a quorum the Board will not legally be able to take action, which in addition to stymieing the organization’s capacity to function, will also be noted in your audit, and in turn will quickly become a concern for your funders.

Minutes must be taken at each meeting of the Board of Directors and approved at the following meeting. Those minutes should include who was in attendance (distinguish between Board and staff please), the approval of the prior meting minutes and the financial statements as well as any and all votes, including the complete motion that was made and by whom, who seconded and if it was a unanimous vote. Minutes should also include the name of any Board members who voted no as well as anyone who abstained. Only Board members can make motions. Staff can make recommendations but in most cases cannot vote.

Financial statements, including a profit and loss, variance against the budget and a balance statement must be presented, explained and voted upon at each meeting. The Treasurer, when presenting the financials, should review anything that is higher or lower than expected, and explain anything that is not immediately obvious. Board members should ask questions until they understand and are willing to have their name listed as voting yes in favor of accepting the financial statements as presented.

Committee decisions should be presented by the Chair of the Committee (not by staff, other than occasionally by request of the Chair) and anything that requires a vote should be motioned by that Chair. As listed in a prior post the following need votes:

Any Policy – crisis communication and management, personnel, etc.
Past board meeting minutes;
Financial reports;
Agency Annual Budgets;
Plans – strategic, board development and/or resource development;
Changes to the strategic direction of the organization;
The hiring of an Executive Director;
Audits;
Campaigns;
Opening, closing or changing the signatures on bank accounts;
Changes to the mission or vision; and
Board Members and Officers being added, or renewed.

Board meetings should also include a report from the Executive Director (also called CEO). Any recommendations that are made must be motioned by a board member and should then follow the voting path outlined above.

Board Chair’s often make reports as well, yet do not make motions or vote themselves unless there is a tie to break.

The meeting ends with any old or new business.

There are myriad ways to move a Board from a strictly fiduciary Board toward a high functioning Board, but none can happen before a Board masters their fiduciary responsibility. Fiduciary responsibility is the price of admission to Board leadership, but it can’t end there. Strategic and generative leadership is what engages Board members and moves the needle for change in our communities. Isn’t that why we serve?

What’s been your experience? As always, I welcome your insight and experience.