Author: eugenefram

Dr. Eugene Fram has over 25 years experience as a non-profit board member, consultant, and author. His model of nonprofit governance has been adopted by thousands of organizaations.

Target More Specific Skills in Nonprofit Board Recruitment – Revised & Updated

Target More Specific Skills in Nonprofit Board Recruitment – Revised & Updated

By: Eugene Fram

When the nominating committee sits down each year to fill vacant or termed-out board slots, their challenge is to identify the “right” directors for the organization. Typically, the group will work with a grid to define the types of skills they deem valuable to the board composition. While this kind of generic search (e.g. marketing, financial, human resource,) is adequate in many cases, the committee would do well to narrow the probe with an approach more focused on a candidate’s specific experience and skills. (more…)

Major Donor Has Remorse — Nonprofit Board/CEO Failed to Meaningfully Engage Him?

After the gift is received, announced and celebrated, where does a nonprofit board and its management go from there? And whose job is it to see that the donor remains meaningfully engaged and involved in the organization? These are questions that I have been thinking about after a friend brought facts of his donor experience to my attention.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-fram/major-donor-has-remorseno_b_4783511.html

Wanted: Nonprofit CEOs with Entrepreneurial People Skills

Wanted: Nonprofit CEOs with Entrepreneurial People Skills

The need for superior leadership skills is as critical to CEOs in nonprofits as it is in the entrepreneurial world. * Following are four such skills and the unique challenges they bring when employed in the nonprofit environment.

• The CEO’s Power of Persuasion

A nonprofit CEO and the board must take the lead in creating the organization’s mission, vision and values. (more…)

Once Again! Should a Nonprofit CEO Become a Voting Member of the Board of Directors?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-fram/once-again-should-a-nonpr_b_4408917.html

BoardSource, a professional governance organization, reports that this question is one of the most frequently asked. Google reports five million citations related to the issue or related issues. A LinkedIn Group group, managed by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, recently had 191 responses to the question. Another LinkedIn group, Non-Profit Management Professionals, generated 40 comments. The question continues to be debated, and the need for comment and opinion seems insatiable.

Nonprofit Fraud Robs Charities of Substantial Dollars

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-fram/nonprofit-fraud-robs-char_b_4276111.html

“According to a Washington Post analysis of the filings from 2008-2012 … of more than 1,000 nonprofit organizations, … there was a significant diversion of nonprofit assets, disclosing losses attributed to theft, investment frauds, embezzlement and other unauthorized uses of funds.” The top 20 organizations in the Post’s analysis had a combined potential total loss of more than a half-billion dollars. One estimate, by Harvard University’s Houser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, suggests that fraud losses among U.S. nonprofits are approximately $40 billion a year.

Are Nonprofit Chairs Roles Evolving?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-fram/are-nonprofit-board-chair_b_4640044.html

Nonprofits can strengthen their governance procedures by experimenting with new ideas that have been successfully implemented in the for-profit sector. Whereas most nonprofit board chairs are independent directors (not part of management) and can be legally described as non-executive board chairs, some for-profits have two executive leaders: a board chair with management responsibilities and an elected independent “lead director.” The lead director is responsible for helping to focus the board on strategic planning and is empowered to call meetings of independent directors without the presence of management.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-fram/the-real-story-of-nonprof_b_4676397.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-fram/the-real-story-of-nonprof_b_4676397.html

When the board and management talk about each other outside the boardroom their remarks are often good indicators of their working partnerships.

The Real Story of Nonprofit Partnerships — Listening is Believing!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-fram/the-real-story-of-nonprof_b_4676397.html

When the board and management talk about each other outside the boardroom, their remarks are often good indicators of the quality of their working partnership. After many years of viewing both sides of the fence via consulting assignments and board chair positions, I have observed verbal behaviors that clearly reveal how the two groups view each other. These attitudes, which I regard as critical to the nature of the board/management relationship, also can be a keystone to mission success. (more…)

Are Nonprofit Board Chair Roles Evolving?

Nonprofits can strengthen their governance procedures by experimenting with new ideas that have been successfully implemented…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-fram/are-nonprofit-board-chair_b_4640044.html

frameugene@gmail.com

Can A Mission-Driven Nonprofit Be Blindsided?

Can A Mission-Driven Nonprofit Be Blindsided?

By: Eugene Fram

Strange to say, a nonprofit organization and Board can become too dedicated to its mission! Such over-zealousness can cause them to overlook opportunities for strategic change. For example:

Nonprofit boards and their organizations offering mental heath counseling services are aware that new pharmaceutical therapies will certainly reduce the need for face-to-face counseling. They need to balance their current and long-term efforts to accommodate the progress that is being made in the pharmaceutical field.

The phenomenal success of the simultaneous broadcast as offered by the Metropolitan Opera has prompted the simulcast to begin to include Broadway theater productions. How will this expansion impact local the theater organization whose prime purpose is to import live Broadway touring shows? And to what extent are the local groups able to anticipate and plan for this new competition?

Travelers Aid’s original mission was to prove assistance to rail and bus travelers, now secondary travel venues. To keep current, the organization has adjusted its mission by offering a wide variety of social services, like homeless housing information, to clients in their local communities.

The following conditions can assist nonprofit boards and managements to be ready for the future:

• To develop farsighted business plans, nonprofit CEOs should have some backgrounds in accounting, marketing, branding, finance and strategic planning.
• One or more board members and the CEO need to be continually alert to global, national and local trends which may impact operations either positively or negatively. They should be able to apply these trends to the nonprofit’s current strategy and mission.
•The CEO needs to regularly present board reports on strategic changes being initiated by similar organizations and focus on those that are worth investigation.
• A board-staff committee, every several years, needs to answer the uncomfortable question, “What trends or organizations might impact the need for our mission and/or services?”
• The organization may occasionally employ a knowledgeable field consultant to critique the strategic posture of the organization.
• If the nonprofit is re-accredited, the board should meet with the visiting team’s to seek its views on what the organization should be doing to prepare for changes in the next three to five years.

Chinese admonition:“The wise man learns by his own experience, the wiser man learns by the experience of others.” Nonprofit boards and managements need to heed the Chinese admonition regularly to avoid being blindsided.