Attn: Nonprofit Directors – Overview Points of Engagement
By: Eugene Fram
Any nonprofit organization has a series of critical points of engagement. The nonprofit board has to make sure it is carefully over-viewing the most important ones. >
Spreading the Good Word: Nonprofit Board Protocol Needed?
Spreading the Good Word: Nonprofit Board Protocol Needed?
By: Eugene Fram
One of the pleasures of nonprofit organizational accomplishments is to communicate the very favorable impacts to their communities or trade/professional associations they serve. Yet frequently these positive results are hidden behind the proverbial bushel! The board and management lose sight of the progress made over a long time period, and the year-to-year successes are construed as routine occurrences internally and externally. (more…)
Harvard Grads Subsidized to Take Nonprofit Jobs: Good, Bad or Irrelevant?
Harvard Grads Subsidized to Take Nonprofit Jobs: Good, Bad or Irrelevant?
By Eugene Fram
According to the May 31, 2013 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, the Harvard Business School Leadership Fellows Program, a special MBA program, supplements its grads’ beginning nonprofit salaries of $45,000 with another $50,000. Over the last 13 years only 106 students have been placed with a total of 47 organizations. However, the 19 grads in the 2013 group is the largest one ever.
Is this a “canary in the mine” singing about coming changes in the backgrounds needed for nonprofit management? (more…)
Are Powerful CEOs Right for Nonprofit Organizations?
Are Powerful CEOs Right for Nonprofit Organizations?
By: Eugene Fram
David Larcker and Brian Tanya, Stanford University Professors, have come to the following conclusions about CEO power and raise some pertinent questions the role of the board, based on research mainly centered on for-profit organizations.*
The research literature clearly shows that having a powerful CEO creates the potential for him or her to abuse this position to extract personal benefits or engage in excessive risks activities. At the same time, the research also shows that (CE0) power is often critical to the successful completion of tasks and the achievement of corporate objectives (and missions). To this end, powerful CEOs can ultimately be a success or a failure. Are shareholders (stakeholders of nonprofits) better or worse off with a powerful CEO?
While it is the role of the board of directors to oversee management, at some point the board must empower management to make decisions. Where should it “draw the line” between giving its CEO discretion and providing appropriate oversight? How much power is too much power?
My Response Related to Nonprofit Organizations:** (more…)
Gold Standards for a Strategic Mission Focused Nonprofit
Gold Standards for a Strategic Mission Focused Nonprofit
By Eugene Fram
The following is Google’s mission statement:
To organize the world’s information and make it universally assessable and useful.
This twelve-word expression of purpose should serve as a shining example to nonprofit boards that wrestle with the development of their own mission statements. Typically the process takes huge amounts of time as boards struggle to accommodate a wide range of viewpoints.* Too often the resulting statements tend to be complex and hard to understand.
Here are some approaches that are of fundamental importance to building strategic strength in a mission-focused nonprofit: (more…)
Recruiting a Nonprofit Digital Board Director: Limitations & Alternatives
Recruiting a Nonprofit Digital Board Director: Limitations & Alternatives
By Eugene Fram
Both FP and NFP organizations are feverishly looking to add persons with digital experiences to their boards in order to be able to understand policy and strategic issues related to their organizations. Betsy Atkins, a veteran director with extensive FP and NFP experiences, makes the following observations about what is becoming a “digital director recruitment chase.” (more…)
McNamara/Fram Discussion on Nonprofit Bylaw Changes
NcNamara
I disagree with you a bit 🙂
Fram
Carter: Thanks for your comments below. I really appreciate your comments, as they force me to rethink and reconsider my viewpoints.
My replies are in bold
McNamara
You and I have been around the nonprofit world for a long time. We’ve seen where lawyers did Board trainings in the ’70s and early ’80s. Everything back then was determined by what was in your bylaws. If you wanted to change how the organization operated, then a change in bylaws was supposed to accomplish that 🙂 (more…)
When is the Right Time to Change a Nonprofit’s Bylaws?
When is the Right Time to Change a Nonprofit’s Bylaws?
By Eugene Fram
In listening to a recent Nonprofit Quarterly webinar, I was again reminded that the habit or long standing culture could hinder the capacity building function of a nonprofit organization. One example cited was the tendency of nonprofits to procrastinate in a review of their corporate bylaws. Original board standing committee structures and board/management relationships remain in place long after they are needed to drive mission growth and to improve client services and impacts. (more…)
What Nonprofit Boards Are Not Doing – But Should!
What Nonprofit Boards Are Not Doing – But Should!
By Eugene Fram
A recent New York Times article* reports that public company directors are coming under scrutiny this proxy season based on what they are not doing. Based on my experiences with dozens of nonprofit organizations, the litany of complaints cited in the Times article, can easily apply to nonprofits, whether they are professional organizations, trade associations, educational institutions or charitable organizations. (more…)
Wanted: Nonprofit Board Candidates With Passion
Wanted: Nonprofit Board Candidates With Passion
By Eugene Fram
Dr. Richard LeBlanc of York University raised the following question to ask those seeking nonprofit board positions: “Do you have an inner passion for what the organization does and stands for (its mission, vision and values), and whom it serves?”
His very pertinent question led me to think of how nonprofits may more easily identify this style of inner passion. Following are my suggestions: (more…)
Nonprofit Management 