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
Nonprofit CEO-Board Relationships
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.
Management Expectations of the Board – The Nonprofit Story – Part II Revised/Updated
Management Expectations of the Board – The Nonprofit Story – Part II Revised/Updated
I am indebted to Dr. Richard Leblanc of York University for the action headings used in this blog. The blog uses headings developed by Dr. Leblanc for his blog: “What a Board Expects from Management, and What Management Expects from a Board, January 27, 2013, York University Governance Gateway Blog. (rleblanc.aps01.yorku.ca) For reading simplicity, Dr. Leblanc’s specific quotations, which can apply to either FP or NFP boards, are noted in italics. (more…)
Board Expectations from Management – The Nonprofit Story – Part I Updated/Revised
Board Expectations from Management – The Nonprofit Story – Part I Updated/Revised
I am indebted to Dr. Richard Leblanc of York University for the action headings used in this blog. The blog uses headings developed by Dr. Leblanc for his blog: “What a Board Expects from Management, and What Management Expects from a Board,” January 27, 2013, York University Governance Gateway Blog. (rleblanc.aps01.yorku.ca) For reading simplicity, Dr. Leblanc’s specific quotations, which can apply to either FP or NFP boards, are noted in italics. (more…)
Once Again! Should a Nonprofit CEO Be a Voting Member of the Board of Directors?
The question continues to be debated, and the need for comment and opinion seems insatiable.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-fram/once-again-should-a-nonpr_b_4408917.html
Viewers Insights: Nonprofit Boardroom Elephants and the “Nice Guy” Syndrome: A Complex Problem
Viewers Insights: Nonprofit Boardroom
Elephants and the “Nice Guy” Syndrome: A Complex Problem
By Eugene Fram
This blog-post has gone viral and has received nearly 1000 views, and still counting, in the last two weeks, plus about two-dozen comments. Although most were simply descriptive, following are abstracts that have significantly added to the discussion. (more…)
Chairing Nonprofit Boards or Committees? Beware of Accolades!
Chairing Nonprofit Boards or Committees? Beware of Accolades!
By Eugene Fram
“Great Meeting!” That’s the pro forma exit line often delivered by nonprofit volunteers to the chair when the meeting is over. The meeting may or may not have been productive; the leader may or may not have been stellar. But it’s in the volunteer’s DNA to toss a parting compliment to the chair, also a volunteer. Here are my suggestions for conducting a meeting that will have at least a chance of earning the accolades. (more…)
Nonprofit CEO: Board Peer – Not A Powerhouse
Nonprofit CEO: Board Peer – Not A Powerhouse
By: Eugene Fram
Some nonprofit CEOs make a fetish out of describing their boards and/or board chairs as their “bosses.” Others, for example, can see the description, as a parent-child relationship by funders. The parent, the board, may be strong, but can the child, the CEO, implement a grant or donation? Some CEOs openly like to perpetuate this type of relationship because when bad decisions come to roost, they can use the old refrain: the board made me do it.
My preference is that the board-CEO relationship be a partnership among peers focusing on achieving desired outcomes and impacts for the nonprofit. (I, with others, would make and have made CEOs, who deserve the position, voting members of their boards!)
There are many precedents for a nonprofit CEO to become a peer board member, some without voting rights, some with full voting rights. One nonprofit group is university presidents, where shared governance with faculty bodies can be the norm. For example, when General Eisenhower became president of Columbia, he referred to the faculty in an initial presentation as “Columbia employees.” Later a senior faculty member informed him “With all due respect, the faculty is the university.”
Another nonprofit group is hospitals where the CEO may also be or has been the chief medical officer. The level of medical expertise needed to lead requires that a peer relationship be developed. Also if the hospital CEO is a management person, he and the chief medical officer must have a peer relationship, which extends to the board.
Hallmarks of a Peer Relationship
• The CEO values the board trust assigned him/her, and carefully guards against the board receiving surprise announcements.
• The board avoids any attempts to micromanage, a natural tendency for many nonprofit boards.
• When a board member works on a specific operating project, it is clearly understood that he is accountable to the CEO for results.
• The CEO has board authority to borrow money for short term emergency needs
• The CEO understands need for executive sessions without his/her presence.
• The CEO understands the need for robust assessment processes to allow the board to meet its overview duties.
• Both board and CEO are alert to potential conflicts of interest which may occurs.
• Both value civil discussion when disagreements occur.
• The board realizes that nobody does his/her job perfectly, and it does not react to occasional CEO modest misjudgments.
Summary
Elevating a nonprofit CEO to a status of board peer does not automatically make the CEO a powerhouse. The board legally can terminate the CEO at will. However, in my opinion, the following benefits can accrue to the organization.
The peer relationship help will:
• Help the organization to build a desirable public brand,
• Allow a capable person to interface with the media.
• Define a role for the CEO to lead in fundraising.
• Allow the organization to hire better qualified personnel.
• Allow the organization to present a strong management environment to funders. After all, top people readily communicate with people in similar positions.
Bibliography: Articles Related to For-Profit & Nonprofit Governance
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…)
What Is The Level of Your Nonprofit Board’s Behavioral Quotient (BQ)
What Is The Level of Your Nonprofit Board’s Behavioral Quotient (BQ)?
By: Eugene Fram
Most viewers will have a working knowledge of Intelligence Quotient (IQ), a predictor of academic achievement or Emotional Intelligence (EI), an assessment of a person’s social skills and intelligence.
I would like to suggest that nonprofit boards, as a team, assess their behavioral intelligence (BQ). BQ involves the acknowledgment that how leaders behave will directly impact the success of the organizations they lead. Following are some critical BQ questions for the board team.* Answering all these questions openly will enable a board to develop its own BQ. (more…)
Nonprofit Management 