By Wendy Hatch, CFRE, Vice President and JoAnn Yoshimoto, CFRE, Senior Consultant
In the time of COVID, in the midst of so much change and uncertainty, let’s imagine that you’re faced with staff turnover in the development department. What shall we do? What will tomorrow look like? How can we predict the best possible course of action? Continue reading “Love in the Time of COVID”
By Molly Hansen, Vice President, Alford Group
“Please be our next board chair. Joe, Sarah, and Ben have all turned us down and Andrew doesn’t want to stay on for another term.”
Has this ever happened to you or in your organization? With thoughtful planning and leadership development you can create a reality where begging for board officers and committee leaders just doesn’t happen.
In a 2015 BoardSource survey, only 49% of nonprofit CEOs agreed that their organizations had an effective process in place for officer succession. CEOs often navigate (survive?) multiple chair transitions, and cited building a board leadership pipeline as being among the most important area for board improvement.
A recent Board Effect blog post cites the report Succession Planning for the Non-profit Board Chair that finds:
“Most organizations can survive the successful election to the Board of an individual or two whose group participation skills and leadership attributes are less than stellar, as other stronger members of the Board will generally neutralize any adverse consequences to the organization. However, placing Board members into the organization’s highest leadership positions is a much higher-stakes proposition. Persons in elected leadership positions with mediocre leadership skills will, at best, do no harm, but might cause the association to miss strategic advantageous opportunities. Persons with poor leadership skills may create organization dysfunctions that may take years from which to recover, if ever.” Continue reading “Please be our next board chair”
By Molly Hansen, Vice President, Alford Group Read Molly’s Bio
How to find great, or even good, nonprofit board members is an ongoing challenge. For many nonprofit organizations the board development issue feels especially urgent right now. The competition for good board members is increasing.
The philanthropic environment has nearly recovered from the Great Recession, but many philanthropists are still very cautious about where to invest their dollars, time and energy. Organizations who have been largely supported by government grants and contracts, their long-held intention to diversify their revenue through board members with financial capacity and connections, are now faced with the reality that it’s harder than they thought to find strong board members.
Regardless of the type of nonprofit you serve, its size, or the nature of your board and organizational funding, the following tips will help you get started on a productive path of board development. Continue reading “Nonprofit Board Leaders and CEOs: Find excellent board members with these simple tips”
by Tafara Pulse
When it comes to experience, Maree Bullock has done it all during her nonprofit career. She was Executive Director of the W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation for 29 years before joining Alford Group, and has served as a board member for many of Chicago’s esteemed nonprofit institutions. Given her leadership skills, her extensive time as a CEO, and more recently her time as an interim executive director, I was eager to hear her perspective on how interim leadership can help strengthen an organization in transition. I took the opportunity to sit down with her and ask a few questions about her time as Interim Executive Director for The Lake County Community Foundation (LCCF).
Continue reading “Exploring the Benefits of Hiring Interim Staff Leadership”