From Bored to Blazing: 7 Steps to Get Your Board Reconnected, Reengaged and Enthusiastic

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Take a look for 7 steps to create new energy, excitement and commitment with your nonprofit board. Boards love these ideas!

New Year’s Resolutions for Board Members

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New Year - New Outlook. Time to sharpen up a positive outlook for 2021. This post is updated from earlier years - but it is so popular that I'm updating with a 2021 twist! Here are some ideas for nonprofit board members - to remind…

7 Rules for Successfully Soliciting Board Members

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Are you ready for something that happens every year-end - soliciting board members for their annual gifts? We get many questions about how to set this delicate process up for success, so here are our recommendations. We originally…

Board Chairs: How to Fire Up Your Board with a Call to Action

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Here's a call to action for all board chairs! You have a big job. Especially these days.  Many organizations are facing major decisions - about funding, staffing, service delivery - and everything else. As we said two weeks ago, a…

Board Members: How to Approach Decision-Making in Times of Crisis

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If you’re a board member serving an institution or organization, you are probably dealing with many challenging decisions in this time of crisis. This is a difficult time for everyone and board decision-making is not easy. Your organization…

Nonprofit Board Members: Leadership Tips for Uncertain Times

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  As a nonprofit board member, you have much to deal with right now, as you might in any time of crisis. It’s a tough position to be in, because board membership carries a lot of responsibility. The board is the legal authority…

Give Board Members Something to Say-Help Them Become Personal Advocates for Your Cause

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If you are a board member for a nonprofit, we imagine that you're excited and passionate about your favorite organization. We're willing to bet that you joined the board because you really, really believed in the cause. It meant a…

(Major Gifts #4) What’s the Return on Investment from a Major Gift Program?

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Wish you could have been there. We were up in a New York City office tower, gathered in a big conference room, surrounded by smart, thoughtful board members. We were presenting the strategy for a robust, newly expanded major gift effort. It…

New Year’s Resolutions for Board Members

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It's the New Year - and it's a great time to make smart resolutions for the future! This post is updated from posts I wrote in 2018, 2017 and 2015. It's a perennial favorite with my readers - so we've updated it again for 2020! Here…

Why You Should Invest in Your Organization’s Infrastructure

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How important is your organization’s infrastructure? Just consider: infrastructure is the fuel that makes everything run. If you are trying to heal the sick, feed the hungry, or help the poor, nothing happens without organization…

How Your Board Governance Committee Is Like My Garden

My garden is a work in progress. And so is your board. Just like my garden, your board needs an overseer – to care and feed for the board itself. Every garden – and every board  - needs a designated person or group to watch over its…

Myths and Realities about Nonprofit Board Members and Fundraising

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There seem to be a lot of myths when it comes to nonprofit board members and fundraising. Staff often expect that board members are supposed to raise money. But board members are not so sure of this – as you probably have experienced. It…

Fire Up Your Board Retreat: Turn it into a Porch Party!

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  In all our years of leading board retreats, my team and I find that some board retreats are fabulous and build energy. And others are duds and a waste of time. It all depends on careful planning and your true objectives. What…

Build the Board You Need to Succeed

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Board recruitment can be a challenge for many nonprofits. Here's a post from one of our consultants: Adam Hartzell, who's sharing his insights as a former executive director and leadership development expert:    Board members hold…

Rule #1 for Board Members: Fundraising is Based on Relationships With Donors

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Some board members think fundraising is "hitting someone up." But fundraising is so very much more than that! Fundraising, in the very largest sense, is all about making the world a better place. People who don't understand fundraising…

5 Fundraising Mistakes We Make With Our Boards

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Are you making fundraising mistakes with board members? Is fundraising something your board members avoid? Hope not! But this IS a perennial challenge for fundraisers and CEOs, too. But board members often are scared to death of…