Board

Nonprofit boards of directors operate on many different levels of sophistication, from a 25-member national board that follows “Robert’s Rules of Order” to the letter at every meeting, to the five-person local board that has never heard of “Robert’s Rules of Order,” and on which the sitting members are all friends with the organization’s founder...

We believe that being a major gift officer is the hardest fundraising job in the industry. It’s incredibly hard. You have to not only develop relationships with donors, but with every one of your colleagues to help you inspire and solicit donors with your organization’s great projects...

At the end of the day our organization and I need highly trained and motivated volunteers to help in a variety of roles, especially fundraising. A board retreat is a great tool to use for this purpose. I strongly encourage annual retreats...

Ethical dilemmas are inevitable. They happen to the best of us, but not to fear! The good news is that it’s not the end of the world. It might seem like it when these dilemmas initially hit, but have faith that you can handle the pressure...

Fundraising Transformed founder Tammy L. Zonker tells colleagues that the key to a lasting relationship is to know the five donor love languages. These languages are based on Gary Chapman’s “5 Love Languages...

The importance of a high-functioning and accountable nonprofit board of directors has never been greater. An effective board can mean the difference between expanding mission objectives and failed initiatives, between meeting constituent needs and shrinking programming, and between hitting financial goals and worrying about meeting payroll...

Outside the obvious red ink or even absence of financial reports, what might be the indicators for the board to reference that all is not right with their nonprofit?...

It’s still one of the chief complaints among nonprofit CEOs: Board members not engaged enough in fundraising. It’s frustrating to have the responsibility fall back on you. It’s too hard and demoralizing to think you’re in this alone. It detracts from the rest of the competing priorities you need to address...

Learn from others. Measure what matters. Start out right. Live out thankfulness. This old dog knows that it takes more than these four things to be a successful and fulfilled fundraiser, but this isn’t a bad place to begin for anyone new to the profession or looking to hit the reset button on his or her career in the nonprofit sector...

To date, nonprofit leaders have looked skeptically at the concept of compensating board members for their “volunteer” service. But the National Association of Nonprofit Organizations & Executives (NANOE) is backing the move to financially compensate board members, as well as give more oversight to those paid professionals who manage nonprofits. The movement is cause for…