Great talent and skills are always hot commodities and even more so during the “Great Resignation”.  This is a time when individuals who feel underappreciated are reevaluating priorities and deciding their future. Despite this, it’s disappointing to see nonprofit board of directors taking actions which alienate their CEO.  Losing a high performing CEO is disruptive; [...]

A colleague from a funding organization shared a serious problem they were trying to solve.  They had a grantee who was in its second year and not really gaining traction with their project.  The grantee had some leadership changes, but a consistent board who was very involved and working hard to be successful.  The challenge [...]

We can all agree that an effective leader never stops learning.  In fact, when learning stops stagnation begins and that’s not good for the leader or for their organization. But just how effective is your professional development (PD) from the odd webinar, networking opportunity, or conference?  Some are better than others, mainly due to how [...]

Are your board members truly energized in the work of your organization? If your non-profit is like most, the answer is "yes" and "no." You're doing well if this describes half of your board members. But what about the other half? The biggest key to a nonprofit's success is the strength of its volunteer board [...]

Let me share two totally different situations of two new executive directors taking over leadership of two different nonprofits.  In each case the organizations were functioning without glaring problems, although both were suffering somewhat from the normal uncertainty of a leadership change. In the first instance, the board was cordial and welcoming but not involved [...]

Board members have a lot of responsibility to the organization they represent, to the community for which they are stewards of the nonprofit’s resources, and also to the organization’s CEO.  The CEO’s success is tied closely to the support he or she receives from the board.  How can individual board members support their CEO’s success?  [...]

How many of your board votes are unanimous?  If it’s all votes, then you may have a problem.  A problem with everyone agreeing?  Yes – if all board members agree on every single thing, then do you really have enough diverse thinking on the board?  But the way votes turn out is less important than [...]

As part of the independent sector, we continuously work to increase our impact in the focus areas of our missions. We think creatively, plan scrupulously, collaborate where possible, and work hard at maximizing resources we can bring to move the needle. Many thousands of volunteer and paid staff hours are spent in these efforts. And, [...]

While teaching a university course on nonprofit leadership, we were addressing the importance of return on investment (ROI) for nonprofits. That is, how funders who make large donations (investments) in a nonprofit expect measurements that indicate their funding is having an impact. One student, who was a nonprofit executive director, pushed back, saying that even [...]

While many factors contribute to a nonprofit’s success, a well-connected, energetic, and engaged board of directors may be the most important.  Every executive director wants a top performing board with the most influential community members and business representatives who have “C” in their title (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and so on).  A passionate [...]