Board and Staff Relationships in Nonprofit Organizations

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Board and Staff Relationships in Nonprofit
Organizations

• Presented by SCORE of Santa Fe and Northern New
  Mexico
  
• In collaboration with the Small Business
  Development Center and Los Alamos National Bank.
  Generous support provided by The Messengers of
  Healing Winds Foundation

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Create Alignment
Rewards Consequences
Behavior
Incentives
Performance Plan, Coaching
Job Descriptions Hiring Practices
Policies
Strategic/Business Plan
Vision, values mission
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Why Alignment is Important

• It multiplies your resources.
• It amplifies your brand and name recognition.
• It creates synergy and opportunities for
  growth.
  
• It reduces time and energy spent on conflict
  resolution.
  
• It encourages newcomers and resistors to work
  with the team.
  
• It helps deal with those who resist change.

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Fundamental Changes in a Tough Economy

• Boards and staffs of nonprofits must look at ways
  to change and remain relevant and effective.
  
• The floundering economy is forcing nonprofit
  organizations to trim budgets, cut staff, or make
  plans to do so. Because economic prospects for
  next year are even worse, nonprofits cant view
  these as temporary measures. Instead they have
  to think about basic adjustments that will allow
  them to operate in a leaner, tighter, more
  disciplined manner for the foreseeable future.
• -Susan Gross, author, Seven turning Points
  Leading Through Pivotal Transitions in
  Organizational Life

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Fundamental Changes

• To move to the next level effectiveness,
  nonprofits must periodically adjust their
  leadership, management, structure, governance and
  operating style. Gross calls these adjustment
  periods turning points.
• Each turning point creates tension within the
  organization. These tensions should be managed as
  growing pains and not be allowed to devolve into
  blame, perhaps even escalating into full blown
  crisis.

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Turning Points

• Do we need to get organized?
• Do we need infrastructure?
• Do we need to let go?
• Do we need to focus?
• Do we need to decentralize power?
• Do we need to recapture our core?
• How do we move on?

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Fundraising in a Recession

• Marc Pitman, author of Ask Without Fear, cautions
  against fundraisers making these deadly
  mistakes in a recession
  
• Spend less on fundraising
• Become pessimistic
• Apologize when youre asking

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Fundraising in a Recession

• According to Anisha Robinson Keeys
• Diversify income streams
• Honor your volunteers
• Keep in touch - often
• Be art of your own solution
• Dont stop asking for money

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Basics of Who does What

• The Board establishes mission, vision, strategic
  plan,
  
• policies and by-laws to establish governing
  principles.
  
• The Staff implements policy and procedures
  according
  
• to the mission, vision, strategic plan.
• The Board has oversight responsibility, usually
  through
  
• a committee structure.
• The Staff executes day-to-day operations.
• The Board has fund raising responsibilities.
• The Staff has support functions for effective
• fund raising, i.e. maintenance of donor
  records,
  
• prospect lists, support for special events,
  etc.
  

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Board Responsibilities

• Preserving the public trust through legal and
  fiduciary responsibilities for the mission,
  vision, strategic plans, fundraising, advocacy,
  and financial well-being of the organization
• Hiring and firing the Executive Director
• Setting Executive Director goals and evaluating
  his/her performance.
  
• Creating and enforcing by-laws, policies and
  procedures, not day-to-day management
  
• Attending Board and committee meetings
• Approving budgets, contracts, E.D.compensation
• Signing leases, assignments,

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Board Responsibilities

• Ensuring compliance with regulatory agencies,
  i.e., local, state, federal agencies, IRS, etc.
  
• Making personal financial commitment
• Introducing new Board members/donor prospects to
  NPO
  
• Serving generally without compensation, according
  to the Standards of Philanthropy by the National
  Charities Information Bureau. An exception might
  be if an architect serving on the Board bids on a
  contract for the organization, that person must
  recuse himself from any and all votes related to
  that contract. This action must also be duly
  recorded in the minutes of those meetings.

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Limited Staff or No Staff

• Board members must wear two hats
• As a Board member, one must see big picture for
  whats best for organization
  
• As an employee, one must be willing to do
  day-to-day operational tasks to provide services
  
  
• They may even hold regular, unpaid volunteer jobs
  with job descriptions and scheduled hours.
  
• If Board members are acting as staff, the NPO
  must build in practices that create checks and
  balances
  

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Limited Staff or No Staff

• For example, for better financial oversight and
  control, one person approves bills for payment, a
  different person signs checks, and third person
  reviews the canceled checks and monthly bank
  statements.

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Board Recruitment

• Prepare job descriptions and expectations for
  prospective Board members - time, work and
  financial commitments
  
• Board candidates
• Backgrounds should include accounting, law, real
  estate, information technology, architecture,
  investments, marketing, etc. - whatever you need
  to effectively fulfill your mission
• Personal experience or professional background
  with the mission and/or work of the NPO
  
• Established philanthropic leaders/fund
  raisers/networkers
  
• Ethnic, cultural and geographic diversity
• Community leaders

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Board Recruitment

• Conducting a gap analysis

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Board Recruitment

• Board should keep list of potential Board
  prospects cultivated by members of the Board
  and/or the Executive Director
  
• Prospect pool is often drawn from major donors,
  volunteers, or those in community with skills
  needed by organization
  
• Cultivation should include invitations to NPO
  special events, lectures, celebrations, etc.
  
• Prospects may even serve as community volunteers
  on a standing or ad/hoc committee

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Board Orientation

• A board manual brings much needed information
  together all in one place.
  
• Likely contents include mission(who you are)
  vision(who you aspire to be) strategic plan(how
  you will get there) the financials by-laws
  recent minutes and reports board member bios and
  contact information NPO staffing structure,
  etc.
• Board members should be trained in any regulatory
  requirements to fulfill the mission of the
  organization
  

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Board Orientation

• A board position description stating what is
  expected of all board members and what specific
  strengths the individual brings to the table is
  helpful to the NPO.
• It is useful for the board to have set an amount
  or financial range it expects all board members
  to contribute to the NPO annually and to
  occasional capital campaigns.

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Board Orientation

• One is either an asker, an advocate or an
  ambassador for the organization.
  
• Board members should know specifically what their
  term of service is.
  
• Establish a term rotation system so that no more
  than one third of members rotate off each year.
  
• Helpful to have a buddy system or mentor system
  pairing new board members with established ones.

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Effective Boards

• Schedule board meetings well in advance with a
  frequency that is useful.
  
• Send reports out well in advance. Use meeting
  time to engage the expertise of the board members
  so they will be and feel useful.
  
• Periodically review the mission(every three
  years), the vision(every three years) and create
  a new/revised strategic plan and assign
  roles/responsibilities for achieving it.
• Recruit board members to appropriate committees
  and change assignments from time to time to
  encourage breadth and vitality.
  

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Effective Boards

• Whenever possible, have NPO clients/beneficiaries
  or appropriate staff speak at board meetings
  for first hand reporting on how well the NPO is
  succeeding and what its needs are.
• Annually provide a self-assessment mechanism in
  which board members can reflect and comment on
  satisfaction with their role on the board, the
  work of the board, etc., and have it submitted by
  them to the board chair or head of nominating
  committee for review/discussion
• Strictly enforce term limits

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Build Manage Key Relationships

• These skills, when applied correctly, can help
  you leverage your resources, brand, products and
  services.
  
• When applied incorrectly, poor skills can result
  a dysfunctional organization.
  
• Success is achieved when all the stakeholders in
  your organization are working in harmony and
  pulling in the same direction.
  

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Identify Your Stakeholders

• Clients
• Customers
• Patrons
• Donors
• Board members
• Volunteers
• Advisory committees
• Employees
• Nonprofit community

• Vendors
• Alliance partners
• Business partners
• Advocacy groups
• Community leaders
• Opinion leaders
• Legislators
• Government Officials
• Other resources

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Relationships
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Keys To Better Relationships

• Identify your key stakeholders.
• Understand the relationships among them.
• Define their roles and responsibilities.
• Understand the value proposition (reciprocal
  benefit) for each of them.
  
• Relentlessly communicate the same vision, values
  and mission.
  
• Provide multiple opportunities for their input.
• Issue progress reports and successes regularly.
• Address problems immediately.

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More Keys

• Align people to the organizations vision
  connect their success to the organizations
  mission
  
• Be aware of individuals bringing their own agenda
  that may not be in alignment with the
  organizations
  
• Cultivate a sense of urgency among all
  stakeholders
  
• Empower action and eliminate barriers to achieve
  goals
  
• Create a culture of openness from the start
• Be present both physically and emotionally
  use MBWA technique
  
• Motivate, energize, and reward quickly
• Seek help and be willing to change
• Work collaboratively with your stakeholders to
  maximize productivity

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More Keys

• Hold new member orientations and where practical
  assign mentors.
  
• Create handbooks for stakeholders where
  practical.
  
• Gather stakeholders together whenever possible
  let them get to know each other

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Potential Relationship Problems

• Board members who are volunteers and employees
• Non-supportive political and governmental
  leaders
  
• Change resistant cliques
• Board-staff conflict
• Micromanagers
• Competitors
• Staff/Board/Volunteer burn out

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Increase Management Effectiveness

• Start with including staff in developing
  strategic plans
  
• Prepare relevant job descriptions
• Establish performance plans and evaluate
  annually
  
• Reward and discipline quickly
• Instill the basics of organizational structure to
  make clear the importance of a good relationship
  between the Board and the staff
  
• Give your staff the tools and resources they need
  to do their job - time, equipment, training,
  etc.
  
• Ask what you can do to make their job easier

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Increase Management Effectiveness

• Delegate effectively
• Organize teams where practical
• Communicate organization results often
• Celebrate success - even small ones
• Manage difficult employees quickly
• Establish weekly or monthly progress
  meetings/reports
  
• Good management grows out of respect and
  cooperation among managers and their employees
  

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Increase Management Effectiveness

• Problem solving is one of the most important
  aspects of good management
  
• Define the problem
• Develop strategies to eliminate the problem
• Implement and monitor problem-solving strategies

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CONTACT NFORMATION

• SCORE - 988-6302
• www.santafescore.org
• Judith Nix - jknix_at_cybermesa.com
• Mary Ellen Degnan - med_at_cybermesa.com