Heads in the Sand (Again)
Last week, we sent out an e-mail blast with the subject line: Does your board want to be the best? While we always receive responses, there was an immediate one that was unique in both content and brevity. It read, simply: “No!”
After I stopped laughing, my concern kicked in: I stopped and thought: oh, maybe the writer was being serious. Maybe he, let me call him Bob, and the board had zero interest in doing things right. As opposed to how I Read more
February 20th, 2009 0 Comment Ask Not What Your Nonprofit Can Do For You
Though President Obama (that feels so good to say and write!) wasn’t specifically addressing members of nonprofit boards of directors in his inaugural speech, I hope they were listening. “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works …. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend Read more
January 23rd, 2009 0 Comment Very, Highly, Truly, Rather, More Unique
It seems like such a platitude to start out the new year with a blog about new year’s resolutions. So, I’m putting out a suggestion, planting a seed for folks to consider. And that is this: get over yourself! You are only hurting your organization and the client base you profess to want to serve. No exaggeration, but conservatively, 80% of nonprofits we work tell us they are unique. Their challenges are unique, their situation unique, their issues unique, etc. “It is hard for us Read more
January 9th, 2009 0 Comment One of these things is not like the other
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If ever there were a time to be reminded that all nonprofits are not alike, now is it. Independence Blue Cross is not the same as a health clinic in a poor neighborhood. A university is not the same as the local literacy or GED Read more
October 31st, 2008 1 Comment Wish You Were Here
Dear Executive Directors:
I am writing to you from summer camp and want to share with you the joys and benefits of vacations. Something all too many of you feel that you can’t possibly take. Why is that? There really is nothing better for the mind and the soul to take breaks, remove yourself from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, allow the gray matter to breathe, the nerves to be released from the tight ball in which they normally find themselves, the blood pressure Read more
August 8th, 2008 0 Comment IRS Form 990 Regulations – Compliance Schmompliance
Earlier this week, we hosted our first session explaining the new IRS Form 990 to nonprofits. Have you ever seen a group of deer in headlights?
Not a pretty sight. Nor is it going to be a pretty sight to get your board ready to answer all of its pages of questions with the “right” answer, and answered honestly. After all, it is one thing to answer a question “yes” with a yes that means, “Yes, we have a policy. We think we know where it is.” Read more
May 2nd, 2008 2 Comments Yo Nonprofit Boards: Get Your Heads Out of the Sand
This is a public health announcement: there is two-pronged epidemic of poor judgment—severe to extreme–affecting the nonprofit sector and it must act quickly to immunize itself.
Yes, I am sounding the alarm because nonprofit boards are risking the health, well-being, and in tough times we could even say survival, of the organizations they are shepherding by keeping their heads in the sand. No longer is the crisis of executive leadership turnover looming; it is already upon us.
And what are boards doing to address this? Read more
February 29th, 2008 2 Comments 