Practical Advice for the Nonprofit Exec

The job of a nonprofit executive director involves numerous and ever-changing roles and responsibilities, which can lead to personal burnout — and paralysis for an entire organization, write Mim Carlson and Margaret Donohoe, leadership development consultants and authors who draw on robust careers in the nonprofit sector to deliver a new book, “The Executive Director’s Survival Guide.”

Carlson and Donohoe provide suggestions for tackling duties such as fundraising and creating a budget, as well as juggling internal priorities of staff and volunteer development, financial management, program effectiveness, resource development and board relations.

Peppered throughout the margins of the book are digestible, gray-boxed “warnings” and “wisdom,” like this one: “Take time to get to know and understand your founder’s vision, passion, gifts. Honor and respect the founder’s contributions, recognize and talk about the challenges of letting go, and discuss how that affects your new responsibilities and authority.”

(Jossey-Bass, $32)