The whole gamut of board issues is covered from “A Blue Ribbon Nominating Committee for your Board” by Jan Masaoka to “Act Your Age: Organizational Life Cycles and How They Impact Your Board” by Mike Burns to “Don’t Just Whack“Em and Plaque“Em” with an excellent example for an exit interview of Board members by Carol Weisman.
A common situation in small organizations is this: the finance department consists of a bookkeeper, the executive director’s background is as a program manager and there are no accountants on the Board. Many of these organizations are continually at the edge of a fiscal cliff and deal with ongoing crisis with staff cutbacks or skimping in other ways that actually hurt the organization. Even small nonprofits need to have a sound financial strategy.
Some action steps should include:
If you are going to embark on a strategic planning process make sure that the plan will be meaningful and be a call to action. Many of the trends lead in the right direction to having this happen. When you are designing your process – either self -led or with a consultant make sure you are considering these issues.
Here’s a summary of the trends I have seen in the last year:
Timeframe
The strategic planning process has to be shorter than it used to be. I have a process I use with small organizations which calls for 2- 3 closely placed meetings, then a break from meetings as committee members complete interviews and then 2 -3 closely placed meetings culminating in a whole Board Retreat.
I was working with an excellent, engaged Board and the lifecycle analysis was very helpful for them as a springboard to beginning their strategic planning process. The analysis brought into focus issues that should be in their plan that might not otherwise be there. It was important that the board was engaged because they were able to take an honest look at their strengths and which areas needed improvement to bring their organization to the next level
Many nonprofits just don’t communicate why they are worthy of a donor’s gift very well. Your strategic plan should help you identify your strengths and opportunities. The planning exercises will help you frame stronger key messages. Having fundraising be an issue to be addressed in your strategic planning will make sure that communications about your mission, goals and specific plans are a key output item from your plan.
Your strategic plan will only be as effective as who you invite to participate in the process. In fact, sometimes, it is even a good idea to set up more than one planning session in order to avoid diluting the ideas by having too many interest groups involved in the same session. So plan well, […]
Tracking the statistics for a non-profit is an important part of fulfilling accountability measures of funders. Every non-profit should have a statistics gathering strategy. This will ensure that data is gathered accurately and becomes a part of the regular activities of your non-profit. Your statistics gathering strategy should include: Who will do it – It […]
I recently encountered an organization that’s on the cusp of a big change … a change about which its huge constituency is feeling a bit uncertain. The agency has never had a chief executive, and that’s part of the new picture that has some supporters skeptical. After all, things have gone okay without one, why […]
Marion is a popular facilitator of workshops and Board retreats. Her expertise includes strategic planning, board development, governance and harnessing the power of technology. [Read more ...]
Carter McNamara of Authenticity Consulting, LLC, provides organizational development, consultant training and Action Learning services, and is developer of the Free Management Library. [Read more ...]
