Nonprofit Organizations Need Strong Board Members More Than Ever Before!

In many ways, it’s been a typical week at NorthSky. As usual, we’ve been busy working with many of you, meeting with you at our office or with you and your board members onsite, conducting training programs, and discussing a range of issues and challenges. So, what’s been different? Unfortunately, lately we’re hearing more and more about your struggles to recruit and retain board members. It’s a common theme in our discussions and worrisome since more than ever before nonprofit organizations need strong and committed board members who are on the job and thoroughly engaged in the work.

Nonprofits face intensifying challenges right now including growing client needs, shrinking funding, and increased compliance requirements. We desperately need critical thinkers, business talent, and passionate problem solvers, to augment mighty, but small professional staff.

If you currently serve on a nonprofit board, you’re needed more than ever. Please recommit your time and energy and gear up to support your nonprofit during this turbulent time.

If you’re not on a nonprofit board, please consider joining one. It’s one of the most important things you can do to help our community and those served by nonprofits. We may feel helpless to change the stock market or job outlook but we can aggressively stand together to protect and serve our constituents.

Some tips for seeking out a board assignment.

1. Identify an organization that captures your personal interest and where you share a passion for the work. As a board member, you serve as an ambassador for the organization and it’s important that you are excited and energized by the mission.
2. Ask for a board member role description and be clear about the professional skills, time, and financial commitment that is being asked of you.
3. Review other documents including the organization’s strategic plan, board policies, and promotional materials. Attend a program or fundraising event to learn more.
4. Ask to attend a board or committee meeting and observe the group dynamics. Make certain that you will have a voice and the ability to provide governance and oversight for the organization.
5. Attend a NorthSky training program on “Best Practice Governance” and learn the legal role and fiduciary responsibilities of board members. Our next session is on January 20, 2009. You can register at our website. Get educated to do the work that is needed.
   

Join this discussion by posting your experiences on our blog.

Enjoy the week,

Pam Evans
NorthSky Program Manager

Pondering strategic planning…

We’re hearing a lot about strategic plans these days. The NorthSky team frequently fields inquiries about planning. Do we create a strategic plan now? Do we wait? How do we involve the Board? How many times do we meet? Do we use a consultant? Many nonprofits are skeptical about long-range planning…they’ve been through the exercise of conducting a S.W.O.T. analysis and rewriting mission and vision statements too many times, I guess. They wonder about the value; the time spent, consulting dollars, and how that work really ties to actionable strategies and results. Sometimes we wonder about that, too. Both Debbie McKeon and I have had the experience of meeting with a nonprofit team and watching while they scurry around, digging out, and dusting off an old strategic plan that looks like it hasn’t been cracked open since its final draft. What a waste…

We also see the negative impact of not having a strategic plan. No plan can result in a lack of shared vision between Board and staff members, disjointed action items, unclear accountability, and team apathy. It can be difficult to prioritize and focus your work. It’s hard to chart progress. So, we strongly encourage every nonprofit organization to have a strategic plan. However it must be the right one: practical and customized to your organization’s circumstances and needs.

Some suggestions for creation of a solid and actionable strategic plan:

1. The board and staff must be involved but use their time well. Schedule 2-3 planning sessions with them and complete the rest of the work outside those meetings using a small work team. The work team can prepare documents and discussion items. The work team can also flesh out action items after the larger group outlines key goals and strategies.

2. If possible, make planning sessions fun. After all, you don’t have that many opportunities to meet together and dream about the future and what you’d like to create as a team. Include food, acknowledgements of success, and meet in a unique setting, if possible.

3. The board and staff must be involved in affirming and revising the mission and in the development of a shared strategic vision. The specifics of writing and re-drafting of mission and vision statements should occur outside of the larger planning sessions. Focus the large group on the content and overall direction and have them approve the final versions.

4. Consultants can be helpful in keeping the process moving along, facilitating tough discussions, and completing some of the work. If you elect to use a consultant, ask to see samples of their work, and request a "Scope of Work" which outlines all the deliverables for the project, fees, and other agreements.

5. Review objective performance data as part of the planning process. Conduct an organizational capacity assessment, if pertinent, and review financial, program, and other operational performance data. This helps to identify problems with your business model and strategies for addressing them.

6. Use a good planning template. There are many out there. The approach we are using at NorthSky is "LaPiana Real-Time Strategic Planning". We’ve found this to be an expedient process grounded in excellent business principles.

7. Learn from your colleagues. Ask others about their strategic plans and what went well for them. Avoid their pitfalls.

8. Implement the final plan. Tie every strategy and action item to a board committee, staff member, or other work team. Build in accountability, timelines, and provide routine updates at board and staff meetings.

9. Get comfortable with revising and updating strategies along the way. After all, things do change. Be practical and make adjustments, as needed.

Mad Scientist!

Sometimes I feel like a mad scientist here in the NorthSky lab brewing up new formulas and innovative solutions for the nonprofits here in northern Michigan. I guess there is a little madness going on right now for all of us as we search for new strategies and approaches to age old problems: How do we increase our funding? How do we find and recruit strong Board members? How do we keep staff excited and engaged? How do we get the message out to the community with only a limited promotional budget?

The exciting thing is that when you investigate all that’s going on in the field, you discover tremendous innovation occurring on a national, regional, and local level. Right now, the NorthSky team is excited about the LaPiana "Real Time Strategic Planning" approach which is a practical approach to planning that takes the best of market-based planning and applies it to the nonprofit world. Many of you are also involved in the work we’re doing with Rotary Charities and Chris Ameen, a member of the NorthSky consultant network, on capacity-building models and evaluation. We’re also experimenting in our learning lab with a financial matrix from Fieldstone Alliance to identify and evaluate new revenue sources and with dashboard reporting with our colleagues at the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center.

We also benefit every day from area nonprofit managers and board members who share their innovations. We hear about new tricks for fundraising, volunteer recruitment, communications, and using technology.

So what are you doing in your own learning lab that is innovative and creative? Any thing you can share with your colleagues? Let us know by posting your experiences on our blog.

Enjoy the week,

Pam Evans
NorthSky Program Manager

Ensuring Board Members Have the Knowledge They Need

As I was catching up on my reading, one author commented that she has frequently heard executive directors lament that they are often the ones that attend professional development programs on board governance rather than members of their board of directors. This puts the responsibility on the executive director to interpret and provide leadership in board governance for their boards rather than it being an activity of the board. In thinking about this, it occurs to me that continuing education and professional development activities are frequently assumed to be for staff members only. With this in mind, should continuing education and professional development activities of the board be identified as strategies in continuing to grow an organization's capacity to meet its mission? Should these activities appear in the strategic plan? Should one of the committees of the board be charged with planning its own professional development activities? If so, what are some of the policies in practice?

Some recommendations include an annual board retreat, semi-annual board development learning opportunity and budget for certain board positions to participate in specific continuing education activities. So, who’s attending the next NorthSky workshop discussing the new Form 990 and its deeper focus on board governance? Have members of the board attended the Board Governance workshop and gained a keener understanding of their role and responsibilities? The nonprofit sector is like every other sector, it continues to grow and change. How is the leadership of the organization keeping current in an ever-changing world and assuring new board members have the same understanding of their role and responsibilities as existing board members? Looking forward to your thoughts. . .

Enjoy the week,

Debbie McKeon
Executive Director
NorthSky Nonprofit Network

Check out this article about ongoing Board Education:
http://www.help4nonprofits.com/NPLibrary/NP_Bd_OngoingBoardEducation_Art.htm

Seven Tips for Improving Your Year-End Solicitations

We’re fielding lots of requests from area nonprofits working on year-end fundraising campaigns. I expect as we get closer to the holidays, we’ll be hearing from even more of you. Those year-end appeals can be critical as you capitalize on donor receptivity and interest and ensure you meet your revenue budget.

A few tips to keep in mind as you work on direct mail solicitations.

1. The solicitation letter should be personal, appealing, and compelling. To make it personal, use a personal salutation on the letter and personalized address on the envelope. Craft your message to appeal to the audience receiving the letter. To help you do this, imagine yourself receiving the letter while sitting in the comfort of your home. How would someone capture your attention and create that very important personal link through the opening paragraph in the letter?
2. Attempt to keep the letter to one page or less to make it appealing to the reader. Use bullet points and white space so it’s not intimidating.
3. Use a story, testimonial or example to make a compelling case to the potential donor.
4. Include a response card and call-to-action that explicitly asks for the donation.
5. The greatest letter will not offset a poor mailing list. Put at least or more effort into creating a good mailing list that includes the right individuals, correct spelling of names, and accurate mailing information.
   
6. Be meticulous about grammar, spelling, and the look of the mailing.
7. Consider if an e-mail blast could work for your solicitation. For many prospects, an e-mail letter that links to more detailed information about your organization may be the ideal communication strategy.

Interested in learning more? Check out these articles:
http://www.malwarwick.com/learning-resources/articles/10-most-important-things-about-dm.html
http://www.fundsraiser.com/jul07/direct-mail-fundraising-program.html

How about you? Do you have any tips to share? Join this discussion by posting your suggestions and success stories.

Pam Evans
NorthSky Program Manager

Week of 10/27/08

We’re all watching the economic markets and wondering how that turbulence will not only impact our personal lives but the financial health of our nonprofit organizations. It’s scary to speculate on all the ramifications and too soon to know with any certainty in what ways governmental and private funding will be impacted. We will also, most likely, continue to experience growing operating expenses.

NorthSky is offering a number of training opportunities to help position your organization for change. While we can’t read a crystal ball and identify all the changes coming, we can focus on strengthening our operating capacity and agility in implementing strategies. Learn about telling your story via online strategies from Andy Wolber, Michigan N-Power on November 6, or about the revised MNA Principles and Practices checklist from Kelley Kuhn on November 13. We also will review the new 990 form with our colleagues at Dennis, Gartland, and Niergarth on November 20.

Come out and join us; network with your colleagues, learn and strategize together.

Most importantly- let us know how we can help. Join this discussion by posting your comments.

Pam Evans.
NorthSky Program Manager