Non-Profit Governance: The Work of the Board, part 1

August 6, 2013 erik Board development, Board governance, 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.

Governance: The Work of the Board, part 1

Hiring, Supporting and Evaluating the Executive

By Dani Robbins

As mentioned in Board Basics and reposted on this very site “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.

As you know, one of my goals is to rectify the common practice in the field of people telling non-profit executives and boards how things should be without any instruction as to what that actually means or how to accomplish it.

Since I wrote a recent post on Strategic Planning, I’m going to circle back to that one and start with Hiring, Supporting and Evaluating the Executive Director.

What that means is:

It is the Board’s role to hire the Executive Director, also called CEO. Prior to hiring, interviewing or even posting the job, it is imperative the Board discus what they want and need in an Executive Director. This conversation cannot be farmed out to a committee primarily consisting of non board members, or to a consultant or hiring firm. That will only get you what they want and think you need – not what you want and actually need.

What skill sets and experience do you need in a leader?

Growing, turning around or maintaining an organization require very different skill sets. Which trait do you want your new leader to have? Does your leader need to be a subject matter expert? Does she need to be local? Does he need to be a fund raiser, an operations person or both?

I recommend a search, REGARDLESS OF . . .

if there is a good internal person,
if someone on the board wants the job, or
if there is an obvious heir apparent.

Do a search, let everyone apply and see who best matches your needs. For more information on conducting a search, please click here.

Once your hire an Executive Director, s/he needs to be supported. Supporting an Executive Director is where the rubber meets the road.

I once had a colleague tell her board to “Support her or fire her, but to choose.” While I was shocked, I was also in agreement. The job of the Executive Director is very difficult and energy spent on worrying is not spent on moving the organization forward. (To the Executive Director’s out there: Worrying about keeping your job precludes you from doing your job. You have to do what you believe is best, based on your experience, information and training, within the boundaries of your role and the law. We all know that any day could be the day you quit or get fired. That can’t stop you from leading.)

Communication is key: the Board needs to know (and approve of) what the Executive Director is doing and the Executive Director needs to know (and be willing to do) what the Board wants.

It is the Board Chair’s job to be the direct supervisor of the Executive Director and the entire Board’s job is to support him/her, set goals and hold her accountable to those goals. This means the Board has to let the Executive Director fulfill the bounds of his/her role. There should also be a strategic plan that is being implemented, board approved policies that are being followed and an annual evaluation process for the Executive Director (and the rest of the staff).

The vast majority of Executive Directors rarely get evaluated, and when they do it’s often because they asked for an evaluation. (To the Board Presidents out there: Executive Directors, just like Board members and most other people, when left to their own devices will do that they think is right. What they think is right will not necessarily be aligned with what the Board wants, especially if what the Board wants has not been discussed or communicated. It also may not be aligned with anything anyone else is doing. See the Strategic Plan link above to create alignment.)

Executive Directors should be given expectations and goals (just like all other staff) and should be evaluated against those expectations and goals every year. There should be a staff (including executive) compensation plan that has a range for salaries for each position and reflect comparable positions in your community; raises should be given within the confines of that plan, or the plan should be revised. (More on that in the Setting Policies blog to come in the next few days.)

Hiring, Supporting and Evaluating the Executive Director has to happen – in full- for your executive to be an effective leader, for your board to fulfill its responsibilities and for your organization to fulfill its mission.

When an Executive Director is hired right, supported appropriately and evaluated effectively there’s no end to the impact it can make on an organization and a community.

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

What are the golf balls in your non-profit organization’s jar?

August 5, 2013 erik Uncategorized

I have people in my life who I consider friends that like to spam my email inbox. I bet you have friends like that, too. It isn’t malicious, but it is annoying. However, every once in a great while they catch me in the right mood, and I open one of those emails. Typically, I find sappy stuff about friendship and other times it is a modern-day chain letter. This last weekend, I opened one of those emails and found a fun little video about life and priorities. After a little reflection, I decided there is a lot of wisdom in that video as it pertains to your non-profit organization.

Rather than spam your email inbox, you can either click here or on the picture below to view the short little inspiration video produced by simpletruths.com.

Cute . . . sappy . . . everything that I promised. Right?

However, what if the pickle jar in the video wasn’t your life, but it instead represented your non-profit organization? What would those “golf balls” (aka those things that are most important to your organizational mission and success)?

Here is a short list (in no particular order) of what I think your golf balls should be:

Clients
Staff
Board volunteers
Donors
Program volunteers

jar of golf balls I suspect many of you are nodding your heads right now. However, stop and think about your last week and where you spent your time. I suspect that many of you focused lots of time, energy and resources on the pebbles, sand and liquid in your non-profit jar such as:

an upcoming fundraising event or campaign
facility issues
technology challenges
bookkeeping or accounting issues
donor database administration
reconciliation activities

I suspect many of you are now starting to rationalize how these activities are related to the golf balls in your non-profit pickle jar. If you’re doing that, then I encourage you to STOP.

Yes, everything is interrelated. Of course! But take a moment to step back and see the bigger picture.

It is far to easy to focus your attention as a leader on things at the granular level (aka sand). In my experience, leaders are able to focus on the little things as well as the big things.

When putting your calendar together, make sure that your schedule reflects BOTH big and little things. For example, you should be sitting down with your board volunteers in between board meeting as well as putting the agenda and board packet together. You should be meeting with the annual campaign committee to plan the next pledge drive as well as sitting down with donors over a cup of coffee to talk about how their contribution is making magic happen.

The pickle jar analogy can be used to analyze any number of activities related to your non-profit organization. You could be asking questions like:

What are the golf balls in my fundraising plan?
What are the golf balls in my board development plan?
What are the golf balls in my program plan?

The following are links to other bloggers who offer other lists of golf balls for other pickle jars:

grassrootsfundraising.org: “10 Most Important Things You Can Know About Fundraising“
The Fundraising Authority: “The Ten Steps to a Successful Fundraising Event“
Nonprofit Law Blog: “Top 10 Non-Profit Governance Mistakes (And 5 More)“

Did I get your brain working on this wonderful Monday morning? Which pickle jar are you thinking about? What are the golf balls in that jar? What strategies do you use to make sure you aren’t just focusing on the sand as the days and weeks slip through our hands? Do you have time management best practices that you would like to share with your fellow non-profit friends?

Please take a moment to scroll down to the comment box and share your thoughts and experiences. We can all learn from each other.

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

Is your non-profit organization failing enough?

August 2, 2013 erik Fundraising, organizational development, technology

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

Yesterday, I started cleaning out my email inbox, which is when I came across a whole bunch of old emails from my friends at 501Videos.com. They are the folks who publish those amazing FREE “Movie Mondays for Fundraising Professionals“. I came across Episode #237 featuring one of my favorite social media bloggers Beth Kanter. With a title like “How smart nonprofits are using failures to become more successful,” I couldn’t help but click the link and watch.

At the end of the video, my AH-HA moment was “This will make an amazing ‘O.D. Fridays’ post. All I have to do is pair this video with a post from John’s blog, add a little bit of my non-profit thoughts and PRESTO it will be another great Friday post.” Unfortunately, it hasn’t been that easy. After spending an hour combing through “johnponders ~ about life at work, mostly,” I was hard pressed to find many posts that speak to the idea of failure.

So, I’ve decided to turn this Friday’s post into three segments:

The challenge
The summary
Additional resources

The challenge

I think organizational development is fascinating subject matter, which is why I dedicate my Friday posts to echoing John’s blog or bringing a non-profit flare to his posts. As I wrote in last Friday’s post, non-profits tend to get caught in a starvation cycle, which in my opinion is nothing more than a blatant disregard for investing in organizational development.

However, I find it hard to believe that there aren’t more posts by John about failure and the great things that can come from celebrating it and fighting the stigma associated with it.

So, here is the challenge, John . . . “Your mission if you choose to accept it is: a) how about writing a post or multiple posts about failure and/or b) highlighting successful people or organizations who embraced the idea of failing.

The summary

Beth Kanter shares some incredibly interesting things in the Episode #237 video. For example, people tend to have three typical reactions to failure:

Blame someone else
Blame yourself
Deny it

It is for these three reasons non-profit organizations (and probably all of us) tend to avoid taking risks because the costs associated with failure are huge.

However, Beth is a great storyteller and she is masterful at highlighting examples of where agencies took risks, failed and amazingly great things came from doing so. She speaks to the idea of changing your organizational culture to celebrate failure, which changes the risk/reward calculation and stimulates innovation in your workplace.

If you have six or seven minutes, I strongly encourage you to click-through and listen to what Beth has to say.

Additional resources

As I searched my blog and John’s blog archives for posts about failure, I did find a few things that are related. If you have a few minutes, you may want to click-through the following links and contemplate how your agency’s culture helps or hinders programmatic, fundraising, board governance innovation or limits an individual from reaching their full potential:

johnponders blog: “Possibility Girl“
DonorDreams blog: “How do you deal with your inner ‘Non-Profit Possibility Girl’?“
DonorDreams blog: “Is your fundraising program failing? Good!“
DonorDreams blog: “Is ‘fear of failure’ defining your fundraising program?“

Does your non-profit organization celebrate failure? If so, how? If not, why not? Do you have an example of where your failure blossomed into a triumphant success? Please scroll down and share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Every non-profit fundraising event needs clowns

July 31, 2013 erik Fundraising, organizational development, volunteers

Clown_chili_peppers I’ve seen it happen way too often. A fundraising professional or the executive director says to a group of people — using at a board meeting — something like this: “We need volunteers to help with our special event fundraiser. Who can help?” At first, there is an awkward silence and no hands go up. Then there are a few reluctant hands. Whenever I see this happen, I’m always left wondering if those were the right people for the job and how many of those people are clowns?

Before starting this post, let me just say that my point of view on this issue is obvious . . . stop using group recruiting techniques to recruit people for tasks that require specific skill sets. You are only setting yourself up for lots of grief and possibly failure.

With this being said, the following is a traditional list of characteristics for special event volunteers:

Familiar with and passionate about your mission, vision and programs
Possess time and willing to use that time to plan and execute the event
Have large networks (hopefully ones that don’t overlap too much with the other volunteers on the committee)
Willing to ask others for money (e.g. selling sponsorships and tickets)
Works well with others (e.g. good listen, not abrasive, demonstrates teamwork)
Has a track record of following through on what they commit to doing
Well organized

I’ve rolled with this short list for years and it hasn’t failed me.

I use the aforementioned list to identify and target prospective volunteers. I also use the list to develop written volunteer job descriptions. I’ve shares it with volunteers on the recruitment call because I commonly get asked “Why are you asking me to do this?” and I simply tell them that they possess all of these characteristics.

However, I’ve had this nagging feeling for years that something is missing from this list, and I put my finger on it just the other day.

I was sitting in the bleachers at Wrigley Field. I was there with my father and my partner. The quality of baseball on the field was terrible, there was a constant drizzle of rain falling from the sky, and the fans were obviously getting antsy. Suddenly, one of the fans got to his feet and yelled at the top of his lungs:

“Hey everybody!
Right field sucks!”

He started chanting over and over again “Right field sucks! Right field sucks!” until other fans joined in.

As this played out in front of me, my first thought was “Hey, sit down! Some of us are trying to watch some bad baseball here!” but then it dawned on me. It was a big AH-HA moment.

There are people like this is every crowd. They love attention. They need to be at the center of the action. In grade school, they were the class clown. As adults, they are just clowns.

I don’t mean this in a bad way. These people are outgoing, love being around other people (aka well-networked) and love a good party (regardless of whether it is a baseball game or your agency’s special event fundraiser).

So, on a go-forward basis I plan on amending my special event volunteer list of characteristics to include: “clown“.

bleachers2 I’m sure some of you are probably skeptical and for good reason. I mean how crazy and distracting would it be to have a committee of people who all want to be the center of attention. Crazy . . . I’m sure! However, I can’t help but dream about the type of event those folks would build in the name of securing more recognition and attention all to benefit my agency.

I suspect that with a little guidance (and after all isn’t guidance your role as a non-profit professional) this strategy could pay off in a big way.

Regardless, anything will be better than asking people to put their hands up and volunteer.

What characteristics and skill sets do you look for when recruiting volunteers to help plan and implement your agency’s special event fundraisers? What has been your experience with recruiting clowns? Please scroll down and share your experiences in the comment box below because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Is your non-profit only living for today? Then you need Picasso!

July 26, 2013 erik 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 “Not Pretty,” John talks about Pablo Picasso’s painting of Gertrude Stein and how it was a portrait of what he thought she would look like as an older woman. John used this story to springboard off into organizational development and change management themes. It was the following passage from his post that really got me thinking:

“First off, how the organization performs in the future may hardly resemble how the organization is performing today … Time — aging — will have its way. Things will change. Without the critical development of structure, process, culture, and talent, time — and change — will wreak havoc. Capabilities will erode. New capabilities will be needed.”

When I read this, I visualized rocks being pounded by ocean waves. In real-time, the rocks seem to win because waves disperse and scatter into mist and foam. However, the reality of the situation is the absolute opposite. The waves are actually winning. Right? Because in the long run those rocks turn into sand as a result of the pounding they take.

In this analogy, your non-profit agency is the rock and you’re more than likely eroding.

picasso2 As time passes, the waves of change crash against your seemingly rock solid organizational exterior, but change is slowly occurring. Here are just a few examples:

You lose employees
You lose board volunteers
Your strategic plan is aging (in fact, all of your plans are aging)
Your technology systems are becoming outdated and old
Your base of donors gets older and their individual capacities change
Best practices and cutting edge practices morph and refine themselves (e.g. who saw online giving as an option 50 years ago?)
Your community’s economic foundation is eroding and changing (e.g. industrialization to information, local to global, etc)

Whether you feel it or not, your non-profit organization is being pounded into one big pile of sand.

And you are more than likely making things worse!

In recent years, there has been a lot written about “The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle” by folks like Dan Pallotta (via his books Uncharitable and Charity Case) as well as the recent open letter titled “The Overhead Myth” from GuideStar, Charity Navigator and Better Business Bureau.

I think an article by Ann Goggins Gregory and Don Howard in Stanford Social Innovation sums up the mistake many of us are making very well:

“A vicious cycle is leaving nonprofits so hungry for decent infrastructure that they can barely function as organizations—let alone serve their beneficiaries. The cycle starts with funders’ unrealistic expectations about how much running a nonprofit costs, and results in nonprofits’ misrepresenting their costs while skimping on vital systems—acts that feed funders’ skewed beliefs. To break the nonprofit starvation cycle, funders must take the lead.”

Is this you? Are you skimping? Are you living for today and ignoring tomorrow?

I really like the last sentence in this previous passage because it dovetails with John’s organizational development blog post about Pablo Picasso so very well.

In a previous post titled “Ending the ‘Overhead Myth’ is everywhere,” I was skeptical. I honestly don’t think an open letter to donors or a ton of online chatter will change donor perceptions about the value of investing in what John describes as “…structure, process, culture, and talent…”

If you’re going to engage your donors in this discussion because they are the key to allowing you to invest in what they perceive as “overhead,” then you’re going to need someone like Pablo Picasso to help you assess what your organization will look like in the future. This information will help you develop your case for support, which is what you need before engaging your donors in this conversation.

Is this way too much work for you to consider? No problem . . . I’ll see you at the beach! 😉

What is your agency doing to engage donors and win their hearts and minds when it comes to “The Overhead Myth” and the “Nonprofit Starvation Cycle”? Who is your Pablo Picasso helping you with organizational assessment (both present and future)? If you’re thinking about using an external consultant to help you with all of this . . . I think I know someone who wants to help you! 😉

Here’s to your health!

Is your non-profit good at the Why-How-What?

July 24, 2013 erik Board development, Board governance, Planning

A few days ago I bumped into a non-profit friend who had recently viewed a TED Talks video on YouTube featuring Simon Sinek titled “How great leaders inspire action“. It was obvious to me that this was a TED Talks video that I needed to view because it had inspired her to take action. Not only was she talking to everyone about what Simon calls the “Golden Circle,” but she had also shared the video with board volunteers as a precursor to a strategic discussion.

I think there are three things that make this video so contagious and easy to watch:

The idea of the “golden circle” is easy . . . What-How-Why.
These ideas are woven into many non-profit professionals’ DNA.
The speaker does a nice job of relating What-How-Why to other companies and their successes (e.g Apple)

Early in the video Simon says,

“Every single organization on the planet knows WHAT they do . . . Some know HOW they do it. Whether you call it your differentiating value proposition, you proprietary process or your USP . . . But very, very few people or organizations know WHY they do what they do. And by WHY, I don’t mean ‘to make a profit’. That is a result. It is always a result. By WHY I mean what is your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist?“

I’ve done a lot of strategic planning over the years. I’ve also done lots of tactical planning. And Simon hits on a super powerful idea with his What-How-Why.

what how why Those organizations that excel at strategic planning have a very clear understanding of what they do, how they do it, and why they exist. However, those organizations that are little fuzzy on these ideas do a lot of wrestling with themselves. Sometimes countless hours are spent at the 50,000 foot view talking about these issues . . . and for good reason! Without clarity on What-How-Why, there is no way you can set goals, develop objectives and write action plans that are meaningful in any way, shape or form.

Some of you might be scoffing right now and asking, “How in the world can a non-profit agency not know ‘WHY’ they exist? It is as simple as revisiting their mission statement!”

Well, not so fast, my friend. There are at least two situations that come to mind where this simple idea starts to get blurry.

Some organizations have LONG histories and over the course of time their mission changes. For example, the March of Dimes was founded to address polio and today it exists to improve the health of mothers and babies. When this happens, sometimes the shift isn’t as clear as it was for March of Dimes . . . the ‘WHY’ gets fuzzy . . . and the challenges ensue.
Some organizations experience mission creep because their resource development strategy wasn’t well-defined and board members let staff chase all sorts of funding opportunities regardless of what it was for or what they do. The end result kind of looks like a McDonald’s restaurant that also sells electronics and chiropractic adjustments. In short, the ‘WHY’ gets fuzzy.

I believe that good non-profits revisit the questions of What-How-Why on a somewhat regular basis. I applaud my non-profit friend for using this YouTube video to frame and stage an engaging boardroom discussion. If you have a little time today, I suggest you click-through to YouTube and view the video. If you like it, then forward it to your board president and have a discussion with them about its value. If you’re both excited and engaged, then share it with your board and talk about it as a group.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4]

If you end up doing any of what I just suggested, please circle back around to this blog post and share your experience in the comment box below. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Don’t put Dorothy on your board of directors

July 19, 2013 erik Board development, Board governance, organizational development

On Monday, I shared with you a few observations from The Wizard of Oz and Oz: The Great and Powerful as I think it pertains to non-profit work. At the end of Monday’s post I promised to take you further down the Yellow Brick Road by revisiting a series of Oz-inspired posts from two years ago. Today’s post is about board composition and board development. Enjoy . . . here’s to your health! ~Erik

Don’t put Dorothy on your board of directors

Originally published on October 27, 2011

dorothy September 15, 2008 . . . do you remember where you were and what you were doing? It was the day the world changed. It was what some people have called an “economic 9-11″. Regardless of how you characterize the day that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the stock market started its crash, it is hard to argue the following: 1) the economic paradigm we all used to live in shifted and 2) nothing will ever be the same again.

This week I have used characters from “The Wizard of Oz” to talk about current challenges facing the non-profit sector. Today, we will spend a moment talking about Dorothy.

Dorothy is an iconic character who has been described as a “level-headed, plucky, resourceful, determined, all-American, populist”. However, I’ve always seen her as a traditional “conservative”. Don’t believe me? Refresh your memory with this quick YouTube clip. Of course, I don’t mean this in any kind of political way, but more of the traditional meaning of “holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation”.

You cannot afford to have Dorothy on your board of directors during these tough and turbulent economic times!

Mentally take a look around your board room and see if you can identify how many Dorothy-like volunteers occupy chairs. They are kind folks (dare I say friends) who look and sound like the following:

They are frightened by the economic “tornado” whirling throughout the world. They talk about economic news constantly.
They wish for yesteryear and reminisce about times when your non-profit was facing a different set of circumstances. They fixate on making things better . . . just like they “used to be”. They’re focused on making that formerly kick-butt special event awesome again. They’re insistent that you can hold onto all of your government grants if you just tried a little harder. After all, there is no place like home.
They are visibly closed to new and innovative ideas that have not been tried. They believe ePhilanthropy is a passing fad. They won’t entertain ideas around merger, acquisition, or strategic alliances that share back office functions. After all, that is not the Kansas they so fondly remember.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting a “witch hunt” to root out these folks and fire them. Dorothy serves an important role on your board. She is that cautious voice that keeps you from getting into trouble. She will stop you from pulling the plug on your annual campaign and direct mail appeals and “going all in” on ePhilanthropy efforts. Valuable? YES! However, what happens when you have too many Dorothy-like board members? Or what if you have those well-intentioned people serving in the wrong roles (e.g. board president, annual campaign chair, strategic planning committee, etc)?

My best two pieces of advice for non-profit staff and board volunteers this morning are:

Be especially strategic and thoughtful about where you ask these people to serve in your organization. This means that you need to: a) identify who these folks are and b) have a clear understanding of which volunteer opportunities are acceptable for conservative personalities.
Focus your board development efforts over the next year on recruiting people in your community who don’t resemble Dorothy to serve on your board. This is not the time to pine for Kansas! This means your board development committee needs to double down on the “prospect identification” and “prospect evaluation” elements of the board recruitment process. Gone are the days when everyone sits around a table and tosses out names of good, kind and resourceful people. BE STRATEGIC!

I suggest that the type of people your board development committee should look for exhibit some of the following characteristics:

They don’t appear to be “personally” economically impacted by the Great Recession
Their business or line of work seems to be doing fine
They are naturally positive and have a decent outlook on the future
They seem to be open to new ideas (as evidenced in their personal and professional lives)
They are “outside-of-the-box thinkers (as evidenced in their personal and professional lives)

Remember, if you want to keep the flying monkeys away from your non-profit agency, STAY AWAY FROM DOROTHY.

OK — if you aren’t buying into my cheesy “Wizard of Oz” analogy, then please go to the library and borrow the book “Who Moved My Cheese“. You’ll thank me later.

How has your agency adapted to the new realities? Have you changed your resource development model or are you still trying to do things the old way? Do you see your board development efforts changing or focusing on different types of prospects? Please use the comment box below and weigh-in. Please remember that we can all learn from each other. In fact, it is probably the most effective way many of us learn.

Here is to your health!

If I only had a heart . . .

July 18, 2013 erik Fundraising

On Monday, I shared with you a few observations from The Wizard of Oz and Oz: The Great and Powerful as I think it pertains to non-profit work. At the end of Monday’s post I promised to take you further down the Yellow Brick Road by revisiting a series of Oz-inspired posts from two years ago. Today’s post is about mission-focus. Enjoy . . . here’s to your health! ~Erik

If I only had a heart . . .

Originally posted on October 26, 2011

tin man There are 9-keys to “inspiring and managing yours board for fundraising success”. In fact, the reality is that these 9-keys are the same nine things you need to do to “engage” anyone in anything. However, I believe that these nine concepts are not all equal. While all are important, I have come to realize that the most important and most difficult engagement tool was best summed up by the “Wizard of Oz’s” Tim Man in this YouTube video.

The most important engagement tool in your nonprofit toolbox in my humble opinion is “MISSION-FOCUS”.

I personally learned this lesson more than 7-years ago when one of my more influential board volunteers (I’ll omit his name for privacy purposes, but let’s just say he was really good with other people’s money) resigned from the Boys & Girls Club of Elgin’s board of directors. While he resigned for personal reasons and still supported the Club, I didn’t see the train wreck coming until it was too late.

This board volunteer was infamous for taking 15+ prospects’ pledge cards as part of the annual campaign every year. His reasoning seemed sound: 1) they were clients of his, 2) they were friends of his, and 3) he had always solicited these donors. I’d be lying if I tried to tell you that I ever tried to talk him out of being such an overachiever. However, in hindsight I wish that I had.

The first year this individual wasn’t on our board, we tried to redistribute his annual campaign prospects to other volunteers. I finally understood how big of a fool I had been when my phone rang a few weeks after our annual campaign kickoff meeting. The call came in from one of our more steady donors who had always been solicited by this former board volunteer.

The call started off nice enough. “Hi . . . how are you . . . how are things down at the Club?” However, pleasant conversation quickly turned into a cross-examination: “why is so-and-so calling me for my annual campaign pledge this year . . . what happened to he-who-I-loved-to-get-solicited-by . . . is there something wrong at the Club whereby he just walked away from your board of directors?” And as if that wasn’t enough to cause me to run to the restroom and vomit, most of the calls ended with the donor talking to me like I was a kindergartener and telling me that they didn’t donate to the Club because of our mission but because of who had been asking.

The lesson I painfully learned was that stewardship was very important in the resource development process. Successful stewardship and relationship building meant transitioning a donor-relationship from their the volunteer-solicitor connection to a love affair with the organization’s mission. While it might not happen overnight, working on it symbolized a commitment to sustainability and a donor-centered paradigm. The Tin Man was 100% correct when he sang about the value of his heart.

Being “MISSION-FOCUSED” goes beyond stewardship . . . here are just a few ideas for infusing mission in everything you do at your non-profit organization:

Host your board meetings, committee meetings and fundraising meeting at your service facility as a way of reminding everyone what their volunteer time commitments are all about.
Focus newsletter content on return on investment messaging and all things related to your agency’s mission. Skip the boring advertisements for the next opportunity to make a contribution.
Don’t let your annual campaign volunteer solicitors go on important solicitations by themselves. Staff should do everything possible to get invited on important solicitations and ensure: 1) the ask is not being done in a “quid pro quo” manner and 2) mission-oriented reasons are infused throughout the solicitation call.
Find ways to bring the idea of your clients into important meetings. For example, ask agency clients to participate in an essay contest about what they value most about your organization, its programs and mission. Share those essays with board volunteers, fundraising volunteers and donors.
Incorporate a “mission moment” into ALL MEETINGS as a way to keep the focus on why you’re asking others to do what they do.

Failure to inject “MISSION-FOCUS” into all of your meetings and fundraising campaigns can be disastrous. It can lead to volunteer-fatigue and donor turnover. It can create a sense of disengagement that results in staff doing everything. Do I need to go on? Come on . . . if a Tim Man can get it, then surely we all understand the importance of this concept. Right?

I can go on and on, but I’d rather you share with your fellow DonorDreams blog subscribers what you do to maintain a healthy dose of “MISSION-FOCUS” in everything you do. Please use the comment box below to share your example because we can all learn from each other. There are no right or wrong answers. Please jump in.

Here is to your health!

Are you King of your non-profit forest?

July 17, 2013 erik Board governance, Fundraising

On Monday, I shared with you a few observations from The Wizard of Oz and Oz: The Great and Powerful as I think it pertains to non-profit work. At the end of Monday’s post I promised to take you further down the Yellow Brick Road by revisiting a series of Oz-inspired posts from two years ago. Today’s post is about leadership. Enjoy . . . here’s to your health! ~Erik

Are you King of your non-profit forest?

Originally published October 25, 2011

cowardly lion As a new business owner who just opened up a nonprofit & fundraising consulting practice, I’ve made it my business to “get around”. In addition to visiting with many of my oldest and dearest non-profit friends in Elgin, Illinois, I recently attended a regional Boys & Girls Club conference and engaged countless staff and board volunteers from around the country through a very aggressive social media strategy including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and this blog. While I don’t want to exaggerate, I was surprised at how many conversations looked and sounded like this“Wizard of Oz” YouTube clip.

Here were some of the things heard I nonprofit CEOs, fundraising professionals, and board volunteers saying that leaves me wondering “King or Coward”:

“Erik, I am so sick and tired of my board volunteers passing the buck on fundraising and expecting staff to pick-up the pieces. I’m just gonna tell them ‘how it is’.”
“Erik, our staff has let us down and not provided the necessary leadership during these tough economic times. I’m afraid the board will just need to look at making draconian cuts and muddle through these tough times.”
“Erik, donors are cutting their charitable giving during these tough economic times. So, the only thing left to do is tell donors and anyone who will listen that our agency is on the brink of closing its doors if people don’t start stepping up.”
“Erik, I know we need to invest heavily in capacity building activities during this economic down turn if we have any chance at making it out the other side. However, I just know that the board isn’t up for this kind of work at this time, and I won’t use my influence to push for something that doesn’t have legs.”
“Erik, I refuse to invest in ‘planning’ activities because they just don’t work. We once wrote this amazing plan, and it just ended up on the shelf collecting dust.”
Erik, fundraising is the board’s job, and I am hesitant to offer my opinion on what needs to be done because then it becomes ‘my idea’. And if ‘my idea’ falls short, then it just becomes one more reason for the board to fire me. Remember . . . board volunteers don’t fire themselves, they always fire the executive director.”

I understand that tough economic times has a chilling effect on leadership, but your only chance at surviving these strange and new times is by eating an extra bowl of Wheaties in the morning and showing up for work ready to take some smart risks and actively lead. Here are a few observations and suggestions I have for the non-profit community as my “listening tour” comes to a close:

My kindergarten teacher always taught me that “telling people” isn’t very effective if you want them to be your friend. I suggest sharpening your listening skills and do more asking than telling when it comes to engaging donors, volunteers and board members.
The “blame game” is an old and tired game. If the board is unsatisfied with the agency’s performance and is feels inclined to play this game, my advice to those board volunteers is skip it, save your breath, fire the executive director (because you know you’re going to do it regardless of what anyone tells you), and get on with the business with digging out of your hole. Brutal? Sure it is, and I’m uncomfortable with the recommendation. However, how many times have you seen board and staff struggle through tough times with lots of finger-pointing and it all worked out “happily ever after”??? Never! So, be decisive and move on to what is important — survival. By the way, after the hatchet job and search for a new leader, it is probably important the board turn the mirror on itself, dust off the guillotine and quickly get rid of non-performing, poor fundraising members. I suspect many of those soon to be headless board volunteers were leading the charge to fire the executive director. Vive Le France!
Pointing the finger at donors is the quickest way to lose a finger. I don’t care if it is an individual, corporation, foundation or government agency. I’ve seen “the little boy who cried wolf” fundraising strategy work once, but it gets more difficult to fundraise the more you use this tactic. Of course, the reason for the fast diminishing return is because no one likes to invest their charitable giving in what they perceive to be a “sinking ship”. Stay positive and double down on stewardship efforts. People like to see the good things their contributions helped produce. So, show it to them.
Written plans that fall short are most likely the result of: a) a poorly designed planning process that did not appropriately ‘engage’ those you needed to step forward during the action plans part of the process, b) thin-skinned leadership who didn’t like what they saw during the evaluation phase and dismissed the call to action by putting their heads in the sand, or c) a poorly designed implementation tools (e.g. committee work plans, staff performance plans, dashboards, scorecards, etc). Don’t toss one of your few ‘engagement tools’ out the window. Instead, double down on do it differently and better!
Attention agency staff: If you find yourself treading water and paralyzed by fear of failure, then please do the honorable thing and resign. I don’t say this to be mean, but board volunteers need strong leaders who know how to LEAD. With leadership, sometimes comes failure. Right? So, don’t be the “Emperor who walks into the room without any clothes on“. (Please accept my apology for this last YouTube link. It was salty and unprofessional, but it was sooooo funny I just had to share it because this uncomfortable and funny video is exactly the same feeling we all share when a non-profit staff person is paralyzed and unwilling yet pretending to lead)

I could go on and on, but I’ve gone on too long. Please use the comment box below and share a story on how you are “king” of your non-profit castle and not a “coward”. How are you investing in capacity building efforts? How are you engaging others who seem to be stuck in neutral during these tough times? Please weigh-in because we can all learn from each other. Your words can also serve as inspiration to others who are struggling.

Here is to your health!

Board Development Done ….. Less Effectively

July 3, 2013 erik Board development, organizational development, volunteers

process1 Last month I wrote on post entitled Board Development Done Right. Let’s talk today about the other side of board development: what it looks like when it’s done less effectively.

In the absence of a board development plan that is being followed, most organizations do some combination of the following:

A board member or member of the senior staff meets someone in the community who they think might be good for the board.
They pass the name on to the Board Chair or the CEO who later meets with the prospect and may or may not invite them to join the board.
If they do, and the person says yes, they bring the name up at the next board meeting, and that person is voted upon and becomes a board member.
Usually, but not always, the new board member is brought on board without an orientation as to what the expectations and requirements are of board leadership.

It’s a process. It’s not great, but it is the process that is fairly consistently followed by many organizations.

Will that process build a great board? Probably not, but it works — to a degree — and it’s much better than the alternative.

process3 The alternative is this with the same beginning:

a board member or senior staff meets someone in the community who they think might be good for the board and asks them to join the board.
They say yes.
That person shows up at the next board meeting and is voted upon while in the room and voila! They are a board member.

Lest you think I am exaggerating . . . I attended a luncheon not too long ago where I was seated next to a nonprofit CEO. He asked what I did for a living, and I shared that I was a non-profit management consultant, who primarily works with organizations on board governance, executive couching, system development and planning. He immediately asked me to join his board.

As I’ve written before, strong boards beget strong organizations. It works the other way too. Less effective boards beget less effective organizations. Those boards hire less talented CEOs (or the wrong CEOs), for whom they don’t set goals and whom they don’t evaluate. They do not have a written strategic plan or a board development plan (or many other plans for that matter). There is no orientation process, no education and no board evaluation.

transparency Here’s the rub . . . Board strength isn’t just an internal issue that is invisible to the community. It is visible. Here’s what it looks like:

The organization has a revolving door of CEOs.
The CEO has a revolving door of senior staff.
The CEO has a very strong personality and does the work of the board, which the board allows either because: 1) they don’t know they shouldn’t, OR 2) they are afraid that if they challenge the CEO s/he will leave, and they don’t have the time, the inclination, the ability, or a plan to deal with.
The Board Chair has a very strong personality (and may also be a big donor) and other board members are afraid to alienate him/her.
There are quorum issues.
Board members tend to stay only one term.

Just because it’s like this today, don’t mean it has to stay like this.

Organizational transformation is possible and even probable with the right plan and the emotional fortitude to implement that plan. Like any other challenge in life, if you don’t like the path you’re on, pick a new path! Get your board together (or at least your executive or nominating committee) and come up with a plan.

Start by answering these questions:

Who do you have around the table?
Does everyone look the same?
Is everyone, in fact, the same?
Are there gaps in skill set, faith, race, capacity, interest, thought, ability, orientation, age, and gender?
Are there leaders in your community who can fill those gaps?
Who can get in front of those people, introduce and engage them in your organization?
How will you decide when and to whom to offer board seats?
When will you vote on new members?
What will you include in your orientation?
What type of evaluation will the board conduct of itself and how often?
What type of education does the board need and want?

Board development is the intentional process by which the board is perpetuated, evaluated, and educated. Let’s get to it!

What’s been your experience? How have you built a board? As always, I welcome your experience and insight.