Is Your Nonprofit Strategically Deprived?
By: Eugene Fram
A vital concern to the future of any nonprofit organization is frequently neglected. Responsibility for the lack of strategic planning must reside with the chief executive, board members and the tactical challenges that inevitably flow to the board.
Before a nonprofit board can begin successful strategic planning, it must: (more…)
Lifestyle & Behavioral Information – Critical in Seeking Nonprofit Directors
By: Eugene Fram
Over the last two years, I have conducted several nonprofit board recruitment projects. The boards with which I worked had rather similar challenges. (more…)
Management Expectations of the Board – The Nonprofit Story – Part II
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.apps01.yorku.ca) For reading simplicity, Dr. Leblanc’s specific quotations, which can apply to either FP or NFP boards, are noted in italics.
1. Candor
The board should speak with one voice and not send mixed messages to management (and staff when dealing with nonprofits). Nonprofit boards are usually composed of people with widely diverse backgrounds, as compared with for-profit ones. (more…)
Board Expectations from Management – The Nonprofit Story – Part I
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.apps01.yorku.ca) For reading simplicity, Dr. Leblanc’s specific quotations, which can apply to either FP or NFP boards, are noted in italics.
1. No Surprises or Spin
The biggest surprise that I ever a received as a nonprofit board director was in a situation where the executive committee of the board acquired a profit-making business without a full open discussion by the board. The agreement package presented placed the board in an untenable position. I quietly resigned soon after, but the remainder of the board, largely senior business executives, stayed, which was quite a mystery. (more…)
Once Again: How Should Nonprofits Conduct Board Evaluations?*
By: Eugene Fram
Process Expectations Including:
• Value of board materials: board book delivery time prior to meetings, material clarity, meeting notices, etc. Are board books delivered a week ahead of meetings?
• Stakeholder Relations: Board interactions with various nonprofit stakeholders, especially staff. To what extent do directors meet with key stakeholders? To asses this expectation, are records noted of these
interactions? Which directors are most adept at building these relationships?
• Willingness to evaluate qualitative outcomes** To what are data developed that go beyond typical records such as accounting statements and membership records? What about more diffcult datga to develop such as brand
image and impact on the community? Hearsay evidence should not be used to assess these important outcomes.
• Composition of the board in regard to diversity including gender, skills, age, board experiences, etc. Does the organization have a diversity policy? Do current board members have sufffient prior boartd experteinces in
order to act as models for new members without prior board experience.
• Action plans including a summary, for the board minutes, which obligates the board professionally to take action and may have liability implications if plans are not executed. The plan should provide evidence of a robust
evaluation. With luck, some nonprofits may be able to relate their field accreditation processes with the action plans.
Director Evaluation Approaches (more…)
Does Your Nonprofit Board Have Enough Conflict?
By Eugene Fram
I recently encountered a human services board director who said he would like to see more conflict take place during board meetings. He was not suggesting civil disobedience, but he felt that the discussion level was modest, and there was too much deference to each other and especially to the board chair. (more…)
Strategic Planning: Nonprofit Board Orphan??
According to a 2012 BoardSource study, nearly half of over 1300 nonprofit chief executives gave their boards a C, D or F grade in strategic development efforts. This is further evidenced in the frequent absence of long range planning items on nonprofit board agendas. What are the root causes of such a deficit in an area that is of critical importance to the future of the organization? One or more of the following challenges may apply: (more…)
Nonprofit Board Recruitment & The Millennials – Challenges Coming?
By: Eugene Fram
The millennial generation, those born between roughly 1980 and the early 2000s, is now entering its third decade. As such, they are becoming prime candidates for nonprofit board positions. Most nonprofits would love to have millennial personalities, like Mark Zuckerberg, on their board!! But their behaviors and values are distinctly different from current nonprofit board cohorts, and these differences will certainly impact how they can be recruited for board positions. (more…)
Bridging Effectiveness Gaps in Nonprofit Organizations*
By: Eugene Fram
Like for-profit boards, nonprofit, “Effective board oversight demands information that is as current and relevant as possible. There are, however, natural gaps between what management communicates and what the board needs to know. “ The purpose of this blog is to highlight major gap areas, cited in the NACD report listed below, and to show their relations to nonprofit governance. (more…)
Does A New Nonprofit Board Director Really Understand Your Organization?
By: Eugene Fram
The careful nurturing of a board member, whether for-profit or nonprofit, is critical. The pay-off of a robust orientation process is an informed and fully participating board director. The following are very similar occurrences in both for-profit and nonprofit boards:
The CEO of a transportation firm agrees to become a board director of a firm developing computer programs. He has risen through the transportation ranks with a financial background, but he knows little about the dynamics of the computer industry.*
A finance professor is asked to serve on the board of a nonprofit school serving handicapped children. She has no children of her own and has never had any contact with handicapped children, social workers or teachers serving handicapped children.
In these similar cases, the new director needs to become reasonably conversant with a new industry or a new human service field in order to be able to better apply policy development skills, strategic planning skills and to allow generative thinking.
On nonprofit boards, the problem is exacerbated when the new director often is asked to immediately join a specific board committee without being able to understand the board perspectives and the organization’s mission vision and values. Following are ways in which the nonprofit board can resolve this problem:
• Don’t appoint the new board member to committee until she has completed a board orientation program including a review of board procedures, attending several board meetings, has had visits with the staff, as they normally operate, and becomes alert to the major trends in the field. This ideally should take about six months assuming the director is employed full-time elsewhere.
• During this time, the chief executive and board president should be available to the new director as frequently as she wants in order to respond to questions.
• Hopefully, the chief executive would informally meet the new director (and each established director) quarterly to review current issues and opportunities. ** In addition, to the information presented at the board meetings, this will provide a better perspective of the board’s mission, vision and values.
• Ideally, the board volunteer should attend one staff meeting and one outside professional meeting to acquire a feeling for the topics reviewed at these gatherings and the field terminology.
If most of these actions can be accomplished within a six-month period, major blind spots are removed, and the new board member can then join a standing board committee. Now, reasonably understanding the organization and her own participation on the board, she has a background to make a substantial contribution for years to come.
• *Robert Frisch, Managing Partner of The Strategic Offsites Group, presented this type of example as a common one for business boards. SVNACD Meeting January 17th, 2013, Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University.
• ** For more details, see my book and blog site:
Blog: http://bit.ly/yfRZpz
Book: http://amzn.to/eu7nQl
Nonprofit Management 