Indy Board Blog

2007-05-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

In the May 15 Not-for-Profit News, we offered an article on the recurring theme of next generation leadership. Some people don't think there will be a noticeable impact while others feel that the nonprofit sector will forever be changed - what are your thoughts?

Shortage Decade: Where Will the Next Generation of Nonprofit Leaders Come From?

There are half as many Generation X'ers as there are baby boomers. This is why demographers and policy analyst talk about the impact of retiring baby boomers on Social Security and Medicare and why we hear about impending shortages of leaders and managers in every sector from government to big business to the nonprofit sector. This major demographic change is headline news regularly across the country and was acknowledged by the Chronicle of Philanthropy in their January edition with a front-page story on succession planning.

The less frequently told story is the impact of this societal sea change on leadership of the third or not-for-profit sector. For our critical social and community institutions—our local nonprofits—these demographic trends and their potential consequences are more critical for a number of reasons. First, because nonprofits have a social welfare mandate as opposed to a profit mandate, they often allocate a higher percentage of their resources to providing services than to building infrastructure or supporting management functions. Thus they have thin management structures; according to a recent survey released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, fewer than 15 percent of small nonprofits with zero to five staff have deputy director positions, and under half even have program manager or director positions. These numbers translate into few people "waiting in the wings" to take on leadership. Further, many senior nonprofit managers (in the organizations that do have them) are baby boomers over age 40. Again, the recent survey notes that 70 percent of deputy directors are over the age of 40, meaning that many in this second tier of leadership will also be leaving their positions and will be unavailable as new leaders.

Full article

Please post your thoughts..

2007-04-27T05:35:00.000-07:00

In the Boards 2.0 eNewsletter for April 2007, we are excited to have our first “View from the Corner Office” where we ask a local nonprofit leader to reflect on a topic of interest to them. Ron Carpenter is CEO of Children’s Bureau, one of Indiana's most historic and diverse child serving organizations (www.ChildrensBureau.org). Ron is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee for Boards 2.0. We welcome submissions, up to two pages in length, from other nonprofit staff and board leaders (to Bryan@CharitableAdvisors.com ).

Ron’s thoughts have been posted on this Indy Board Blog to encourage you to add your response to his comments.

The Most Important Partnership

In my career as the Chief Executive of several human service nonprofits, I have been fortunate to enjoy great relationships with my board chairs. Consequently, in the organizations where I have served on boards and have been selected to serve as a board chair, I have utilized what I have learned from those relationships to be more effective. In serving in both roles and based on my experiences, I conjecture that it is this key relationship, this partnership between the CEO and board chair that impacts the nonprofit agency’s community connectivity success the most. There is no ideal “model” for these partnerships, but I would like to advance a few elements of what I have found important. It is rare that an organization with a strong CEO and a weak board, or a weak CEO with a strong board (with the chair representative of such) maximizes its potential—balance and mutual reliance is required for healthy functionality.

One of the CEO’s primary responsibilities is board development. Mutually, the board’s chief responsibility is the selection, development and support of the CEO. The board chair and CEO in turn lead the process of shared governance. Both enter this partnership by choice. Both need to invest in its success. The CEO will need to be flexible as board chairs will successively change in a robust organization over his/her tenure. It is imperative that the relationship enjoys good communication, clear understanding of each other’s roles, mutually agreed upon goals for the term of the chair in context to the long term advancement of the organizational mission, and perhaps most importantly, mutual trust.

I have found that trust develops between an incumbent CEO and future chairs as soon as an eventual chair joins a board. Their passion for the cause, devotion to the organizational integrity and investment of time, not just money, self identifies them and exemplifies their commitment and potential as a board leader.

Kathy Minx, with BSA LifeStructures, is my current board chair at Children’s Bureau. When I asked her about her perspective on this issue, she stated that the board chair, along with board members, is accountable for overall governance of the organization which includes: 1) Board oversight, 2) financial oversight, and, 3) mission oversight. She further stated that the board chair and CEO should have a close relationship. We have developed such a relationship of mutual respect and trust. If our nonprofit is to successfully navigate and respond to both foreseen and unforeseen challenges and opportunities; this is a necessity.

Building social capital is paramount to achieve mission fulfillment in the nonprofit’s arena of service in today’s competitive environment. Social capital is built over time through effectively connecting the broader community to organizational vision. The starting point of building sound partnerships begins with the relationship between the board chair and the CEO. It takes time. It takes some risk and commitment on behalf of both parties. It creates results.

Ron Carpenter
President & CEO
Children’s Bureau, Inc.

Keep Learning… The Most Important Partnership - Maximizing the CEO/Board Chair Relationship will be the topic of the Fridays 2.0 interactive educational gathering on Friday, May 11, from 8:30-10:30 at TLD, 303 N. Alabama Street, Suite 230. Our panel will include local nonprofit CEOs with past and current Board Chairs. RSVP to Amanda@tld.org or register on-line at . A fee of $5 will be collected at the door for handouts and refreshments. Bring both a board leader and staff leader for the greatest learning opportunity.

2007-02-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

Boards 2.0 is a monthly e-mail communication that will launch on February 23, 2007. It will provide useful, cutting-edge information and resources to Central Indiana board members and staff leaders in an effective, easy-to-read format. Boards 2.0 is brought to you by Trustee Leadership Development, Inc., an Indianapolis-based nonprofit focused on developing nonprofit leaders and boards.

TLD will increase the benefit of the newsletter by holding a monthly gathering of nonprofit staff and board leaders on the second Friday of each month (Fridays 2.0) to explore the major themes in the prior month's newsletter.

Tell us what you think and what Ideas you have for how to make it better.

To Subscribe To see a Sample Edition

2007-01-05T13:23:00.000-08:00

A Little Nonprofit Board Q&A for the New Year

Question: Can you recommend anything to prepare Boards for an informal "retreat?" We've had two previous retreats and one coming up in January. I'd love to elicit some real discussion and a sense of commitment but have had no luck so far. In some ways, I think our small staff does too much for the Board and they are used to non-participation. You've heard all of this before.

Response:

Dear Executive Director,

Hope you are having a good holiday.

Yes, your situation is very common among nonprofit organizations. And, unfortunately, it is uncommon for a group of people who have been spectators for years to decide to jump into the game. It takes years to develop a board culture and it can take a couple years and several new faces to change it.

A few thoughts - I apologize if they seem too obvious or you have already tried them. We'll also add this discussion to the new Indy Board Blog so we can all learn together:

1) I would recruit a few board members to help you think through and plan the retreat. You might form a "Board Engagement Task Force" to specifically focus on getting people better connected.

2) Consider a few questions - What is success for our organization? What is our impact? What should it be? How is the world/community different today because we exist? How will it be different in 10 years because we exist? What would the community lose if we were not here? You might use the Drucker Assessment Questions (What doe we do?, Who is our customer?, What do they value?, How are we doing at meeting their needs - how do we know?, What is our plan to improve and sustain ourselves?)

3) Send out copies of Jim Collin's "Good to Great and the Social Sectors" for members to read. In your retreat talk about how it applies and see if you can draft a Hedgehog for your organization. It is likely that several of your board members re familar with the book. The short "Social Sectors" monograph is only about 30 page long. It will get them thinking and also increase their respect for the capabilities of nonprofit leaders.

4) Do a survey to gather SWOT information from your board and see what they see as the strengths and opportunities before the organizations. What do they want to accomplish and what/who will it take?

5) Conduct a board self-assessment to solicit their input and also create a platform to discuss the roles and responsibilities of the board.

6) Have a discussion about the gray areas between what the board does and what the staff does. Most organizations are pretty clear on the "Board does the big-picture and staff does day to day" but in small and volunteer organizations the board has to fill more of the space between those extremes if things are going to get done.

7) Call or meet with as many of the board members as you can between now and then and ask them what they are excited about. (Divide these conversations among your Board Engagement Committee members)

8) Look at the articles at http://charitychannel.com/enewsletters/nbgr/ and send one out every few days to your board members to start them thinking about the topics you have identified for the 13th.

I find good planning and topic selection is more important than anything else in a successful retreat. Don't try to do too much and build in a little time for fun. Hope this gives you some food for thought,

Bryan

Readers - Can you provide soem feedback on my suggestions and offer some additional ideas that have worked for you?

2006-12-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

November 28, 2006 Not-for-Profit News
Brief Reflection on Nonprofit vs. Business Decision Making
What Do You Think?
by Bryan Orander

Over the past few weeks I have been in several similar conversations with nonprofit professionals or business people who are involved with nonprofits. We have wandered into sharing observations about decision making and implementation of important decisions and come to very similar conclusions. I would like to extend that conversation to our readers and get your input on it.

To briefly share or remind you of my background, after 12 years in various roles with a Fortune 50 computer company, I joined a local nonprofit as a Director for 6 years, then a large local consulting firm for 3 years, before founding Charitable Advisors almost 7 years ago. So I have been in the nonprofit sector for the past 15-16 years, but feel that I still can put on a business lens when desired - though my MBA is 20 years old :-).

Here is the statement I have developed that I want to get your feedback on:

"Nonprofits spend 90% of their available energy, motivation, and resources making key decisions and assembling a plan - leaving little energy to implement it. Businesses spend 10% of their energy, motivation, and resources making key decisions and assembling a plan - leaving 90% to implement. "

What rings true in your experience?

How might this be way off base?

How is it different in small versus large nonprofits or organizations that rely on different sources of income or in different fields?

If there is some truth in it, how might we focus more resources on implementation?

Share your thoughts...

2006-12-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to Indy Board Blog! We designed this blog to use with our upcoming Boards2.0 e-newsletter that will be launching in ealry 2007. The newsletter will provide cutting-edge information and resources to central Indiana board members and staff leaders in an effective, easy-to-read format. It is a collaboration of Trustee Leadership Development, Inc. and Charitable Advisors, LLC.

In the November 28 edition of the Not-for-Profit News, this blog was mentioned and readers inquired...so, we are excited to go ahead and begin the blog! Enjoy and please let us know what information or topics regarding nonprofit leadership are important to you.