“Board Building” – Articles
How To Run Nonprofit Board Meetings That Actually Work
10 Ways To Make Your Next Board Meeting Better Nice work! You’ve done the analysis and identified and recruited onto your board the perfect slate of candidates to replace the retiring board members. This new panel of directors is exactly what you were looking for and...
What Should Your Nonprofit Board Be Doing?
Learn how to create clear roles and responsibilities for your board of directors, to get the results you want for your nonprofit. From time to time executive directors express frustration about the support and cooperation they get from their board.“They don’t do what...
How To Build a Nonprofit Board For Maximum Impact
Great organizations have great boards -- that fact is indisputable. The most important initiative of a nonprofit board is its responsibility to objectively and thoughtfully identify, recruit, and orientate the best board candidates it can find. But often, this process...
Will Your Nonprofit Survive?
In 2013 alone there were more than 2.5 million nonprofit [501(c)(3)] started in the U.S. According to the SBA, nearly 50% of all businesses started — including nonprofit agencies — will fail within their first 5 years. It’s no secret nonprofit agencies work very hard...
One of the Most Powerful Ways to Increase Fundraising
Effective fundraising and donor relationships are the lifeblood of a nonprofit. But many nonprofits tend to overlook one of the most critical — and yet often most effective — tools for improving fundraising — the board. It’s no secret that best practices of successful...
Guest Post: Want to build a better board? The key is expectations!
Serving on a nonprofit board presents great opportunities for meaningfully contributing to a worthy cause. But board service also involves significant responsibilities that may feel burdensome at times. How can current board leaders effectively equip newly recruited...
Ever Been asked…Why Should I Want to Serve on Your Board?
Have you ever been asked this question? Let’s say you know someone who is highly respected, has been engaged with your mission for some time, and has shown good judgment in the past. You may even be friends. You have a board seat opening up soon so you figure he/she...
Presenting at CLA 2015 Outcomes Conference
Last week I led two workshops at CLA's Annual Conference in Dallas and was one of the authors signing books in the book store. It was a "kick" and I am grateful to CLA for putting on this event and allowing me to be part of it. I spoke with a lot of members about...
Why Your Nonprofit Board May be a Huge Disappointment
After leading a comprehensive process to identify and recruit new board members you found your best candidates and they agreed to join your board. You looked forward to working with them and six months ago you could not have been more excited as they were installed on...
Why I Believe Leading a Nonprofit is Harder than Leading a Business!
When I became involved with nonprofits—starting with volunteering, then board service, and finally board chair—I thought it would be an easy transition from my previous business leadership roles. I have been a small business owner and the president and CEO of an...
3 Reasons Your Nonprofit Board is Having Problems: How to Overcome 3 ICK FACTORS of Board Leadership
There are several reasons why certain nonprofit boards struggle and I believe the top three reasons override almost everything else. Fix these three problems and you will see your board soar to new levels of impact and success. ICK FACTOR 1: POOR BOARD CANDIDATE...
Means and Ends: Who does What
One of the major causes of friction in the area of nonprofit leadership and poor nonprofit board performance, and a big reason why boards and CEO's may part ways, is poor boundary setting between the board and the CEO. For most agencies, everyone understands each...
Who Owns Your Nonprofit Agency?
The board of directors has a weighty responsibility-to convert the vision of an owner into a viable organization and to keep it in alignment with that vision. Its job is to take the owner’s concept, create it and watch over it once built. In this process, the board’s job is to accurately reflect the owner’s vision and values. For this reason, I think my question raises serious issues, especially if you haven’t thought about it previously…so, who owns your nonprofit?
Bully Boards-Here’s One Way To Avoid Them
Every so often, I hear about tough, demanding boards but nothing like a board I recently “met” through a friend who also serves as the CEO of a separate, very successful, well-mannered nonprofit agency. My friend told me about the rude, abrasive, unruly practices a different board had, including a confrontational, in-your-face, no-fun board style. My friend asked, “How do I keep my board from becoming like this one?
25 Ways Your Board May be Failing
Do many of these sound familiar? If so, it’s time to do something. Let me know what else you might add to this list. No strategic plan in place Poor alignment between goals and:resources, staffing, structure, budget, decision-making Infrequently monitoring financial...
“Tom-isms”, or What I learned the Hard Way…
...but you don't have to. We all learn a lot of lessons along the way. I seem to learn best by doing rather than taking someone's advice. The result is I learn by getting my nose bloodied from time to time. So in the spirit of wanting to share so others can benefit...
Yes, Your Nonprofit does Need a Board of Directors!
Absolutely, a board of directors is necessary. But, it shouldn't just be comprised of a collection of well-intended directors. Legally, you're probably required to have one anyway, but in addition, the value derived from the "right" board is immeasurable. In fact,...
Do We Really Need a Board of Directors?
There is a pretty simple way to decide what is board business (governance) and what is staff business (operations).
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