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The Best Route to Approaching Donors: Hand-Head-Heart
As someone who began her career as a fund raiser and migrated to become a funder as head of a large corporate foundation, I have a somewhat unique vantage point on the struggle many nonprofits endure when engaging funders and major donors to support th …
Should Staff Contact with the Board Be Restricted?
Not all nonprofit organizations need or have paid staff. But in those that do, a frequently thorny issue is that of direct contact between staff and board members: Should board members have contact with staff independent of the executive directo …
A Board Member’s Guide to Nonprofit Insurance
Many board members don’t think about the organization’s insurance until something adverse happens. As one Blue Avocado reader commented: “Insurance isn’t sexy, but it’s as essential as a roof over your head.” In these tight times, it’s tempting to make …
Executive Director Evaluation Survey Form
In the last issue of Blue Avocado, we discussed how board evaluations of executive directors (CEOs) are different from all other performance evaluations in the organization. These differences — including the limited ability of board members to observe …
A Board Member “Contract”
One way to be sure that each person on the board is clear on his or her responsibilities is to adopt a board member “contract.” Not intended to be legally enforced, the contract outlines explicitly what is expected of individual board members, an …
Accounting Procedures Manual Template
Has “Create an Accounting Procedures Manual” been on your To Do list for several months now? For several years? You aren’t alone. We often stumble on this task for two, curiously contradictory reasons: Creating an Accounting Procedures Manua …
Nonprofit Budgets Have to Balance: False!
As nonprofits serving people and communities in these difficult financial times, we don’t expect things to turn around for our communities in the near future. Many of us are wondering: how can we achieve a balanced budget in these times? When is it oka …
What to Do When You Really, Really Disagree with a Board Decision
Most of the time, nonprofit boards work through consensus. But what if you think a serious mistake is being made? Sometimes knowing what to do in advance if such a situation arises can help you understand the situation more clearly as it unfolds: …
What is an Advisory Board and Should We Have One?
Recently several Blue Avocado readers have written to say their organizations are considering creating advisory boards or advisory committees of one kind or another. At the same time, others write to ask how to disband troublesome or obsolete adv …
Nonprofit Conflict of Interest: A 3-Dimensional View
Most nonprofit discussions about conflicts of interest are similar to those in the for-profit sector: they focus on financial benefit to board members or staff to the detriment of the nonprofit organization. The classic examples: the nonprofit buys som …
