Organizing for Fundraising Success

Categories: Board Member Roles · Fundraising · Good Board PracticesTags: · · 1 Comment

In this post, I share insights from a board member who has served on smaller, community based organizations. She has several stories. In one volunteer-led organization, she wishes that someone had documented processes to make fundraising easier. She describes two situations where board members did not follow through on their commitments. And finally, she provides an example of a board that paired new board members with experienced board members to do fundraising. This is the fifth in my series of fundraising. In the first of the series, I shared a story about a successful capital campaign where a board member… Read more

How Do You Know That?

Categories: Board Member Roles · Board, Board Chair, ED/CEO Roles · Good Board Practices · LeadershipTags: · · · · · · 6 Comments

After my last post which encouraged board members to ask hard questions, several readers asked what questions? Board members need full information to make good decisions. And that means asking lots and lots of questions – the ones that break out of group think, that uncover hidden issues, and that get to the essence of unseen problems or opportunities.  I started brainstorming questions and came up with a very long list. So, I decided instead to share just a few really key questions. I organized them in five areas: finance, program, funding, staff, and board. But you will see that… Read more

The Story of a Controlling CEO and a Weak Board

Categories: Board Member Roles · Board, Board Chair, ED/CEO Roles · Good Board PracticesTags: · · · · · 2 Comments

Organizations can have great CEOs and weak CEOs and manipulative CEOs. Organizations can have strong boards and weak boards. In today’s post, a former staff person describes an organization with possibly the worst combination — a controlling CEO and a weak board. The story also raises the question of intersectionality. Is it distracting for a woman’s organization to analyze data about women of color, women with disabilities, gay women, rural women, poor women? Does intersectionality diminish the focus on women? This staff person insists – and I agree – that if you don’t address intersectionality, if you don’t dig deeply… Read more

Board Chairs Should Keep Full Board Informed

Categories: Board Member Roles · Board, Board Chair, ED/CEO Roles · Good Board Practices · LeadershipTags: · · · · · 4 Comments

Challenges arise in every organization and with every board. If you are the board chair, you have to decide what to bring to the full board. As chair, you don’t want to cause panic when a situation can be easily handled. But you also have to remember that the board chair does not have more power than the rest of the board and that the full board has fiduciary responsibility for the organization. Other board members cannot exercise this responsibility if they don’t know what is going on. Plus, we all work to bring great people onto a board. The… Read more

Getting Board Members to Do Things

Categories: Board Member Roles · Board, Board Chair, ED/CEO Roles · Good Board PracticesTags: · · · · · · · Leave a comment

Board members are volunteers. Organizations select them because they have specific skills or connections or because they represent groups whose input is valued by the organization. Some board members are donors, some are connectors, and some are doers. Many fit into more than one category. But what happens when board members say they want to be more involved but then don’t step forward when asked? In this story, one board chair shares her frustration with board members who never raise their hands. She suggests making assignments and taking care about who you ask to join a board. My advice to… Read more