It can be lonely at the top. This topic is for challenges facing ED’s and CEO’s, as well as a spot to share celebrations and strategies.
Feel free to share or post below. We also have a standing monthly call for nonprofit ED’s, the 2nd Thursday of every month, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM. Register here to say in the loop:
February Topic: Board Chair/ED Relationship
Joan Garry Article | Strengthening the Board Chair/ED Relationship
Blue Avocado | Who is responsible for the board doing a good job?
Finding the right balance of board lead/staff lead committees and task forces can take conversations and practice, and training the board how to run the work of the board, even when it is staff supported. These are conversations that need to happen with the board chair, so that the board can lead peer to peer.
March | Joan Garry’s 14 Attributes of Great Nonprofits
MNA Board Member Matrix | For framing conversations around recruiting board members
May Call | Being a Workplace of Choice
Staff policies, flexible workweeks, benefits, handbooks. Whether you are a one person shop or a large org, how can your organization attract and retain great talent?
This is great Christine - thank you!
May 2023 Call Topic: Open Questions
Bylaw review and revision - recommendations to help review bylaws, add term limits, update review requirements, update legal requirements, filing with state
Navigating bringing new folks on the board. Shared tips and tricks for working with the board to manage the board, and making sure someone or a committee owns that. Template for building a committee charter here.
Maternity leave + emergency succession planning. Emergency succession planning quick template. Full Executive Planning Template
Time Management tools. Full Focus Planner. Notion.
June 2023 Call: Timesaving Tools for the Efficient ED with Marie Palacios, Funding for Good
Link to watch session recording
Slide Deck
Agenda Setting Calendar Template
Additional resource - Board Chair and Chief Executive Responsibilities | BoardSource
Has anyone had success with any of the methods explored in the presentation or slide deck?
July Call
Suggestions to trust and hire staff that have other strengths than you, build an annual work plan, develop operations manual, build a board manual AND help board learn boundaries of moving from working to governing board
Resources shared
Other resources to share? Comments or questions? Reply below!
August Call
How do you scale up? How to work across the state, add staff? Build partnerships in new areas?
Grow slowly!
Find partners in regions across the state, get to know community
Have you scaled up/expanded your service area? Share what worked for you, your staff, and your board during this time.
Maternity/Paternity Policies
Hello friends,
I recently came across The Alchemy of High Performing Arts Organizations, a report by the Wallace Foundation. It’s focused on the arts and the organizations in the study are all from the arts sector, but I think it has some great 30,000-foot level concepts that generally useful.
This is a good read for arts/humanities organizations but I think the elements in the proposed module can be universal too. It starts with high-quality programming and a community-oriented focus as cornerstones. It ends with increased financial stability as a long-term outcome.
I hope you find it useful and inspiring. Happy weekend!
Emily
P.S. if the PDF link doesn’t work, try this one: The Alchemy of High-Performing Arts Organizations | The Wallace Foundation
