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If Your Board Looked Like Your Community
Moving board diversity from a ‘problem to solve’ to ‘something to practice.’ Staff and board talk common hurdles and how to overcome them.
A Board Member’s Guide to Nonprofit Overhead
Calculating overhead rates and managing overhead expense are important staff roles. Board members are not required to know how do staff accounting work, but we do need to bring an informed perspective to our oversight: Harvard’s indirect cost ra …
Who’s the Boss? The Board or the Executive?
There is an abundance of advice for nonprofit boards and EDs that speaks to the advantages of “partnership” and “open communications.” But sometimes that advice just doesn’t feel like enough. Who’s the boss? The board or the executive director/C …
The Very Good but Seriously Flawed Executive Director
No executive director has all gifts, and many are brilliant. But what about the nonprofit CEO who is terrific in some ways but whose strengths are matched with some troubling flaws as well? It’s uncomfortable to be a board member when you have s …
I Followed A Founder: A First-Person Nonprofit Tale
Too often the focus on nonprofit executive transitions is about the departing executive. We’re in the middle of interviewing 58 executives who followed founders or long-time leaders. Here’s just one of their stories; we’ll call her “Amanda”: The …
Ten Things Boards Do Right (Without Even Realizing It)
No matter what goes wrong in a nonprofit, somehow the board gets blamed. If the executive director embezzled money, people say, “Where was the board?” Why don’t they say: “Executives are always at the root of the problem. Why don’t we just stop having …
DIY: Make a Bylaws Cheat Sheet
“What does it say in the bylaws?” “Does anyone have a copy of the by-laws?” “I know I got one when I started on the board but . . . ” Here’s a new idea: a Bylaws Cheat Sheet. Even if there is a copy of the by-laws handy, it’s tedio …
How to Staff and Support a Committee
Is staffing a committee more like herding cats or like herding turtles? Actually it’s more like Dancing with the Stars.An important skill for nonprofit managers is knowing how to support a committee of volunteers, such as an Advisory Committee, a Board …
Extreme Board Makeover
Despite the complaints of executive directors that their boards “need training,” often the most effective way to change a board is to change the people who are on it. And sometimes, a board itself realizes it needs to change faster and more dramaticall …
Nonprofits: How to Have a Board Meeting By Telephone
Your board meeting is Thursday evening. On Wednesday you start getting the calls. One board member is home recuperating from surgery. Another is traveling. Yet another can’t spare the time to drive in for the meeting. Can they call in via conference ca …
