When your Executive Director is not a strong leader

I had an amazing conversation with a client this week.  He’s the Board President of an organization that is facing many challenges.

They’ve been around for years but have relied too heavily on government grants. (Can you feel what’s coming?) Over the past few years, the state has cut their budget repeatedly, so this organization’s funding is shrinking.  They finally realized a couple of years ago that they were going to HAVE to do some fundraising if they were going to maintain their service level, so they hired their first Director of Development.  She’s doing a good job – writing grants, running events, sending out newsletters and appeals, etc.

One of the biggest problems in this organization is the Executive Director.  He seems to get in the way of progress more than he helps.  At a recent Board meeting, it was clear that the ED wasn’t on the same page with his Development staff.

Back to my conversation with the Board President.  Great guy.  Trying hard to do the right thing.  He took the ED to lunch and told him, in a supportive way, that he should be supportive of his Development staff’.  Basically, he gave the ED an attitude adjustment!  I was so proud of him for that, but also in the way he did it.  He was firm and supportive at the same time.  I’ve been really concerned about this organization for a while, but they seem to be moving in the right direction (however slowly).

As the Board President and I talked, I realized yet again how important – no, how CRITICAL it is to have a strong leader in the Executive Director role.  In order to really be successful, you MUST have someone who can hold a vision, motivate staff, and do the right thing.

I recently led a call for the Get Fully Funded Support Club on strong leaders.  I talked about the 10 characteristics of a strong leader, what to do if you are the leader, and what to do if you’re not the leader.  If you’d like to listen to the audio, simply become part of the club and you’ll have access to this audio plus many more.  It’s just $17 for your first month.  www.getfullyfundedsupport.com/benefits.html.

How a small shift can change a whole Board

I led a short training last night for a small nonprofit Board facing some pretty serious yet pretty common problems.  Less than half the Board members showed up for the training.  They have a history of attendance issues, lack of participation, apathy, and so on.  Their leadership isn’t the greatest.  But their mission is very compelling and there’s a small group of committed Board members who want to change things and make them better.

So, I spent some time helping them understand basic roles and responsibilities of Board members.  Then we focused on one problem they’re having programmatically and developed a structure for a plan. 

By the time I left, they were excitedly talking about how they were going to change the culture of their Board and they had already set a date to flesh out the rest of the plan for the solution to the program problem.  The Executive Director had a smile on her face I hadn’t seen in a while and I could feel the new energy in the room.

So what caused the change? 

They bought into the belief that they CAN change if they want to.  Individually they believed it and collectively they believed it.  Basically, I helped them shift their thinking.  Now, instead of being held back by the status quo, they are dreaming about what they want their Board to be.  And the sky’s the limit!

I’ll be meeting with them again in a few weeks to see how they’re doing and to help them take the next steps in developing their Board.  I love seeing Boards make this kind of dramatic change!  It has an impact on the entire nonprofit and ultimately helps them serve more people.

I love my job!

The importance of managing money well

I heard recently about a small nonprofit in my area that has suspended operations and closed its doors.  I think I’ve heard of this group before, but it’s definitely not made its presence known in the community.  I learned that this group has raised a good amount of money over the past few years, but has not managed it well.  It breaks my heart to think that they could still be in business today if they just had someone in leadership who knew how to be frugal and manage money well.

I know the importance of a good set of eyes focused on the finances.  When I worked at the local Food Bank, we had lots of bankers on the Board and they drove me crazy asking questions about the smalled details.  Looking back, I know that was a HUGE blessing!  They watched our operations closely and kept us in excellent financial shape.

Who do you have in leadership at your organization who watches the bottom line?  Does someone raise questions when they see something that needs to be questioned?  If you have someone like this, be grateful.  If not, go recruit someone.  You’ll feel so much more comfortable knowing you have those skills on your team!

How to Teach Your Board about Fundraising in 15 minute segments

Someone asked today how to teach Board members about Fundraising and Development in short bursts.  Since this is something I do a lot of, I had tons of ideas right off the top of my head.  I easily made a list and decided to share it here as well.

If you have the opportunity to teach your Board about Fundraising in short bursts (maybe at each Board meeting), here are some things you can do:

• Have them pair up and share why they said “Yes” to being on the Board.  This helps them tap into their passion for the organization.
• Have them tell each other a story about how the organization is changing lives in the community.
• Have them share their thoughts about fundraising – what they are scared of and what they feel comfortable with.  This helps begin to overcome fear of fundraising.
• Create a crossword puzzle with the words in the puzzle being answers and the clues being about basic facts of your organization.  For example, 1 across might be the number of kids served each year (answer – Fifty).
• Create a game of Jeopardy around organizational facts.
• Have them brainstorm about people in their sphere of influence who they can talk to about your organization or send an appeal letter to.

Over time, this will help ‘bring them along’ and increase their comfort level with fundrasing in general.

 

Have you tried anything like this with your Board?  Click on the comment button and share what you did and what results you got.  Inquiring minds want to know!

Tips to engage your Board in fundraising

Recently, I facilitated an Executive Director’s Roundtable and our topic of conversation was engaging Board members in Fundraising.  I think most of us would like to see more participation from Boards when it comes to raising money!

Here are some tips for helping them join in on the fun:

Set the expectation when you recruit new members that they will need to give a personal gift AND participate in fundraising. This will help you avoid a bunch of mess later on.

Be clear with Board members about what you want them to do. They aren’t mind readers.

Make it easy for them as much as you can. This will encourage more participation.

Give them the tools or training they need to be successful. Make sure they have a fact sheet about your organization and that they know a story or two that they can tell.

Help them find where they fit in. For those who don’t want to do direct Asks, ask them to make Thank You calls to donors. Or ask them to host dinner parties in their home to share with their friends about the good work your organization is doing.

And don’t forget to celebrate successes with them! Positive reinforment will help shore up their new skills!

Help your Board members overcome their fear of fundraising

I’ve talked to lots of Boards over the past few months. These were Boards full of good-hearted, well-meaning people who wanted to help their small organizations grow.

Unfortunately, many of them suffer from a debilitating fear of asking for a gift.

To help them address their fear, I created a short workbook called “How to Take the Fear Out of Asking for Money.”  In it are five sections of exercises that help the reader identify the source of their fear and diffuse it.

Here are a couple of tips found in the workbook:

• Tell your story. When you get scared that you might say the wrong thing, speak from your heart and tell stories about the good work the organization has done.
• Be honest and authentic.  Don’t apologize for yourself, but be as real as you can be.
• Speak the truth. Don’t try to impress anyone by trying to talk about statistics or facts that you aren’t quite sure about. Just say what you know for sure.

Want to know more? Visit my website at http://www.sandyrees.com/butterflies_book.htm to read more about the workbook.  It’s just $27 including shipping.

When Board members frustrate you…

What do you do when Board members frustrate you?

When I was a staff person, I would regularly get frustrated with Board members who didn’t seem to want to help with anything that remotely resembled fundraising. I know now that there are ways to put an expectation out there with new Board members to let them know they will need to fundraise.  But at the time, it was hard to deal with!

So what can you do when a Board member frustrates you?  Figure out what you can do to change yourself and do it.  You can’t change other people, so don’t waste time thinking about it.  Then try to move on and focus on something more positive.

Keep in mind that some people who are on Boards don’t know what they’re supposed to do or how to help you fundraise.  A little education can go a long way with these folks.  I’ve done lots of fundraising trainings for Boards over the past year and I believe that most people can be successful with a bit of support and direction.

Also remember to take a break and recharge your batteries.  You’ll be much better at handling frustrations when you’re well-rested, well-fed, and have had some fun lately.

Can your organization be Great?

I got my hands on “Good to Great and the Social Sectors” recently.  I’ve read it and I highly recommend it.

I’m a big reader of all things nonprofit and there are a couple of things in this short book that really resonate with me.

The first thing in the book that struck me was the importance of leadership for a nonprofit.  We all know that already, right?  You’ve got to have a good Executive Director in place to keep the organization moving forward.  The book talks about leaders being “ambitious first and foremost for the cause, the movement, the mission, the work – not themselves- and they have the will to do whatever it takes to make good on that ambition.”  It goes on to talk about this leader having a combination of personal humility and professionalism.  What a wonderful combination!  Sounds like a “servant leader” to me.  When I read it again, I think it applies to fundraisers as well – being committed to the cause and not themselves.

Another point in the book that really hit home for me is to get the right people on board.  When I was responsible for hiring, I knew this to be true!  The book suggests “getting and hanging on to the right people in the first place – those who are productively neurotic, those who are self-motivated and self-disciplined, those who wake up every day, compulsively driven to do the best they can because it is simply part of their DNA.”  You can’t teach someone how to always strive to be better.  You have to hire that talent.  But what about people who are already working for your organization who are stuck in the status quo?  From the top leadership, you can shift the culture of your organization to encourage staff to reach for more.  Be warned it can be like steering a cruise ship – direction can be moved only a little bit at a time.

Jim Collins, the author, writes “Greatness is not a function of circumstance.  Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.”

How will you choose to be Great today?

What to do with inactive Boards

I get asked some variation of this question all the time.  “My Board won’t do anything”  “How can I get my Board to actually DO something”.  It’s unfortunate and all too common.

Bored boards are a sign of an organization that is headed down a slippery path toward big trouble.  It can lead to an ED who does whatever she wants (not always a good thing) or financial crisis or worse, a complete deterioration of the organization.

You probably know the signs that your Board is getting bored:  folks don’t show up to meetings and don’t let you know beforehand that they won’t be there; they don’t respond to email or phone calls; they don’t sign up to help with events or other activities; and so on.

To reverse the situation, you must first figure out what this behavior is about.  Are they completely disinterested for a particular reason?  Do they have so much confidence in the ED that they don’t feel the need to do anything?  Are they lazy?  Or just not engaged?  Once you figure out the root of the inactivity you can do something about it.

Next, it’s time to clean house.  Your Board President or other leader needs to address the Board and have some frank discussion about the situation.  (Sometimes the Board President IS the problem and you need another leader to take the reigns here.)  Tell the Board that the current way of operating isn’t working and isn’t supporting the organization, and it must be changed for the good of the organization.  If folks doesn’t want to do something different, it’s okay for them to resign.  If there are folks who need to be let go because of attendance problems, thank them graciously for their service and tell them that you are taking their name off the Board list for now because they are obviously too busy to serve right now.  (I call this “Bless and Release”).

Next, you need to recruit some fresh leaders.  Use a matrix (like the one in this article) to help you determine the skills and talents you need on your Board.  Then, get started recruiting.  Remember, it’s better to have quality not quantity when it comes to Board members.  Think about friends of the organization first – volunteers and donors – because they already have an interest and commitment to your work. As you recruit new people, make it clear what you expect of them, including fundraising.  This sets an expectation from the get-go that they will need to help out with raising money.

Once you get a few new people in place, make sure you are doing what you need to do to keep them.  Make your Board meetings interesting and engaging by incorporating lots of discussion about future plans.  Involve folks in ways that are meaningful to them (this will be different for each person and you’re going to have to have individual conversations with them to determine what this is).  And don’t forget to thank them for their service.

I’ve coached lots of Boards through this process and it isn’t always pretty, but the result is really worth it!

100% Board giving is a MUST

Your Board is the leadership of your organization.  And 100% Board giving is a MUST!

This means that every one of your Board members must make a financial gift to your organization.  Doesn’t matter how much they give, although I would hope that they would make a meaningful gift.

It’s not enough that they give their time.  That’s wonderful if they volunteer.  But they must support the organization monetarily.

I can’t tell you how many donors I’ve heard of that want to know how many of your Board members have made a gift.  Donors are much more savvy today than ever before.  They want to know why they should give if your leaders don’t.

If you don’t have 100% Board giving, get started on it today.

Fundraising requires strong leadership

Leaders who embrace their roles make all the difference in the success of a nonprofit organization and its fundraising efforts.

Board members are all Leaders of the organization.  They must accept their roles and responsibilities, and if they don’t know what those are, get training quick!  Board members must be willing to participate in fundraising and make a financial gift themselves.

Executive Directors should provide vision and enthusiasm for their organization.  They have mentoring and coaching duties for their staff.

Here are some helpful quotes on Leadership:

Great leaders are great simplifiers. Complexity breeds procrastination. Grand ideas, plans and ventures must be broken into doable bits, understood by all.  –Mike Monahan

Let your energy and enthusiasm shine when you talk about things you believe in.Your wholehearted commitmentto what you believe in will make it easier for others to drop their natural resistance.  Your energy and enthusiasm, if genuine, will make it easier for others to choose to believe in what you believe in.  –Doug Smart

Practice the Leadership ABCs… Attitude, Behavior, Communication.  Think like a leader (attitude).  Act like a leader (behavior). Speak like a leader (communication).  –Donna Satchell

How do you get Board members to fundraise?

This is one of the most common questions I get asked when it comes to fundraising.  And here’s the answer.

The best thing you can do is re-connect Board members to your mission and help them re-fire their passion.  Find a way to bring a client or volunteer to a Board meeting to give a first-hand account of the mission in action.  Or show a short video (no more than 5 minutes) of service delivery. This can inspire a Board to take their role seriously.

I’m working with a small organization with a Board of just nine members.  They had become very complacent and would not participate in any fundraising.  After a heart-to-heart talk, they admitted that they just weren’t totally committed to the organization.  They said they felt disconnected.  So, at the next Board meeting, we brought in a key volunteer to tell about his experiences in delivering the organization’s service.  He spoke for about 30 minutes and afterward, people were visibly moved. We were then able to have a serious conversation about what needed to happen to move the organization forward. It didn’t take long for them to realize that what they really need is more money – money to run programs, money to hire staff, money to deliver their mission.

This Board story has a happy ending.  Try these techniques with your Board and see how your story ends.

How important is Board Orientation and training?

I was reading the latest newsletter from Help 4 Nonprofits and there’s a great article about training new Board members.  I’ve always known that training new Board members is important, but they put it in words that really hit home to me:

“If you wouldn’t ignore training when hiring a janitor, why do you think it’s ok to ignore training for the people who are accountable for everything your organization is about?”

Check out the newsletter at http://www.help4nonprofits.com/BrainTeaser/BrainTeaser-What_Does_Your_Board_Know.htm.

100% Board Giving

Does your Board support your organization?  I mean, does each member of your Board make a financial gift?

If they don’t, they should.  Donors today are quite savvy and they want to know that the leaders of your organization (your Board) supports the organization with their time, their talent, and their treasure.  Don’t be surprised if donors start to ask if you have 100% Board giving.

I believe that it doesn’t matter how much each Board member gives.  I would hope that your organization is one of their top 3 charities to support.  But the most important thing is that they make a gift.