Strong Culture & Leadership Critical for Nonprofit Board Strategic Success
By Eugene Fram
The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) is conducting a series of sessions focusing on board “challenges and opportunities expected in the next five to seven years.”
http://bit.ly/1wuW8Wt
Following is how I perceive one of the session’s results (in bold) could apply to helping nonprofit boards focus on culture, leadership and achieve strategic success: (more…)
Can A Nonprofit Find Strategic Ways To Grow in Difficult Times?
By: Eugene Fram
Nonprofits have always had to struggle to meet their client needs, even when economic conditions and social turmoil were much less constraining than today. How can mid-level nonprofits uncover growth opportunities in the present environment? (more…)
Can Nonprofit Boards Suffer From Agenda Deficits?
By Eugene Fram
In a recent study of 772 for-profit and nonprofit directors from around the world, McKinsey & Company found that 25% of the sample assessed their board impact as moderate or low, “… while others reported having a high impact across board functions. “ http://bit.ly/1iFEINR
Following, in italics, are brief abstracts from the study, followed by my analysis of the importance of the information to nonprofit boards. (more…)
What Nonprofit Boards Are Not Doing – But Should! Revised & Updated
By Eugene Fram
A recent New York Times article* last May reported 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…)
Can the Deloitte® Governance Framework Be Applied to Nonprofits?
By Eugene Fram
I have been impressed with the Deloitte® Governance Framework (Copyright-Deloitte®), and following are my opinions on how nonprofits might benefit by understanding the model.
The lower four sectors of board governance chart are functions that can be delegated to management. The level of delegation should depend on the stage of the board’s development. However many boards unfortunately continue to micromanage the nonprofit, long after it has outgrown the start-up stage. (more…)
Bibliography: Articles Related to For-Profit & Nonprofit Governance – September, 2013
By
Eugene Fram, Professor Emeritus
Saunders College of Business
Rochester Institute of Technology
frameugene @gmail.com
Remembering it is the beginning of the school year, I have developed the following bibliography for those needing references on corporate governance. It is a list of articles I have published over the last several decades. You can easily access most by listing article title via a Google search. If you have problems accessing any, please send me an e-mail. Several additional articles are scheduled for publication, and I will add to this bibliography as they are published. (more…)
The Challenge of the Nonprofit Board Meeting: Some Tips for Board Chairs
By Eugene Fram
The new director sits down at his first board meeting and turns to the director sitting beside him. “What am I supposed to do?” he asks the more experienced director who replies, “Pity the Board Chair!”
One of the biggest challenges for a president or board chair is to run a tight and meaningful meeting. Without careful planning and new approaches, the obligatory periodic 1.5 hours with the directors can also be a major frustration. Directors often either don’t show up or appear to be bored, tired, disinterested clock-watchers during this important effort to collectively oversee the state of the organization.
Here are some ideas- some innovative, some old stand-byes- that may help the chair ”Preside” more effectively. Be sure to sit down with the CEO well before the scheduled meeting to set the agenda, establish meeting goals and brainstorm the format. Anticipate the inevitable “bumps in the road’ and how best to handle them. Agree to try a new idea occasionally to facilitate discussion, nurture participation, and generally engage the directors. (more…)
The Nonprofit Overhead Myth – Devil Is In the Details?
By: Eugene Fram
Do nonprofits have to consistently report low overhead percentages for administration and marketing to satisfy donors? Do these modest overhead percentages do more long-term damage to the nonprofit’s ability to fulfill it mission than short-term good? * (more…)
Nonprofit Evidence Based Evaluations: Using Imperfects Metrics Well
By: Eugene Fram
The Office of Management and Budget has issued a call for more rigorous program evaluations. According to Jeffery Zients, acting OMB director, “Where evidence is strong, we should act on it. Where evidence is suggestive, we should consider it. Where evidence is weak, we should build the knowledge to support better decisions in the future.”[i] Assuming this directive will trickle down to many nonprofits using federal dollars, using imperfect metrics for evaluations are becoming accepted, especially for smaller nonprofits, which can’t afford statistically significant studies. These resources are needed to deliver services. In addition, evidence based imperfect metrics can help track progress and drive change. (more…)
The Nonprofit Quarterly Newswire (July 8th) reprinted a 2007 study showing “ The Best and Worst of Board Chairs.” Based on personal interview and online surveys, conducted by Yvonne Harrison & Vic Murphy, the study showed five major clusters for effective nonprofit chairs and one cluster for ineffective behavior. Effective chairs had; 1. Relationship Competencies; 2. Commitment & Action Competencies, 3. Analytical Skill Competencies; 4. “Willingness to Create” Competencies; 5. Ability to Influence Competencies. Ineffective Chairs had: Dominating Behavior.
I thought it would be helpful to show this leadership characteristic information along with the action attributes from previous blog. The action attributes Were developed from my field insights into the action attributes of effective chairs.
The Best Attributes of an Effective Nonprofit Board Chair
By: Eugene Fram
A nonprofit CEO’s professional attributes are the topic of dozens, perhaps even thousands, of articles. However this is not the case with Board Chairs.
Following are my views of the professional attributes a nonprofit Board Chair needs to have to operate effectively.
Nonprofit Management 