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Charity Raters Part II: Managing Your Rating
In Part I of this two-part article, we summarized the features and criteria of six of the best known “charity raters” including Charity Navigator, Better Business Bureau, and others. Many readers added thoughtful comments and noted lesser-known raters …
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 …
Getting to 100% Board Giving
Having 100% of board members make personal donations is a cliché we don’t like. It’s not a meaningful measure of board member commitment, and typically creates a situation where even the best board members have to be nagged. BUT, if you do have this re …
Charity Raters Part I: Charting the Bad and the Bad
Wouldn’t it be great if there were an objective rating system so that donors could choose the best nonprofits to donate to just as investors use rating agencies to pick the best companies to invest in? Don’t answer; it’s a rhetorical question. Here’s w …
How to Keep the Board Under Your Thumb
When nonprofit executive directors say they want their boards to be more “engaged,” they often really mean they want the board to have a lively discussion followed by a vote to agree with the executive director. If you’re a CEO and want a weak, complia …
Ten Biggest Mistakes Boards and Executives Make
"To err is human," and as we all ruefully know, nonprofit board members and executive directors are typically human. Here are some of the biggest mistakes we make:1. Falling in love with the executive director and letting love diminish critic …
Conflict of Interest… or Conflict of Loyalty?
"Conflict of loyalty" is a useful concept and term that gives us another dimension to work with than simply conflict of interest:In our legitimate desire to avoid conflicts of interest in nonprofits, we typically make two oddly opposite mista …
Deconstructing Nonprofit Sustainability
Maybe in some mythic past it was possible to think first about strategic impact goals, and then about how to raise the money. But today we know better: you can’t talk about what you’re going to do without talking about how to get the money. And, …
A Board Member Crosses the Line
Dear Blue Avocado: I’m the chair of a nonprofit board and I have a problem. We recently voted to support a local measure that would change some zoning regulations in our county. This board member — I’ll call him “Joe” — was outvoted (he was the …
