Learning to Lead for Impact
leadership insight from Tom Okarma
the latest and greatest…
The Hardest Question Every Executive Director Must Answer
The Hardest Question Every Executive Director Must Answer At some level, every executive director’s job is similar to other directors in the community. Each leads the organization, raises funds,...
4 Things Successful Nonprofit Leaders Do Every Week
Guard Your Calendar Wisely Your role as an executive director is much more than a 9-5 job. You may have breakfast meetings, dinner meetings and late evening meetings. Sometimes, your Saturdays turn...
Changing Nonprofit Trends: 4 Things Your Team Needs To Know
Embracing The Change There is a lot of change coming to the nonprofit world. Boards, leaders, staff, and volunteers need to face and process emerging nonprofit trends, all while still serving...
Nonprofit Board Management: 18 Reasons Your Board Is Failing
Get Your Board On The Right Track I have found many nonprofit boards are just a few steps away from seeing high impact results. With a few adjustments, these organizations are capable of delivering...
High Impact: 14 Ways To Improve Your Board Leadership
How Should You Lead Your Board Of Directors? After serving on several boards and consulting with many others, I have seen common problems or decisions made by leadership that resurface again and...
Becoming A Board Member: Stay Confident, Come Prepared
So You’re On The Board Of Directors, Now What? Congratulations! You’re officially a board member of an organization that addresses a cause you care about. Becoming a board member is one of the most...
leadership
Recruiting Board Members: 12 Profiles For A Superstar Team
Who Should You Put On Your Board In 2018? Every organization is a reflection of its leaders. The more capable and committed any leadership team is, the more successful the nonprofit. Recruiting board members is a crucial step in cultivating a leadership team that...
The Illusion of Control: Facing The Realities of Nonprofit Governance
Once I became a leader, it did not take long to understand just how powerful, yet simultaneously powerless, I was to impact the future. On one hand, I led an organization of 350 people and was responsible to see that we were headed in the right direction. On the other...
How To Overcome The Loneliness Of Nonprofit Leadership
Nonprofit Leadership: It's Lonely At The Top You’ve probably heard that serving in a leadership role is lonely. If you are or have ever been a leader, chances are you can relate. Whether you are a new business leader, nonprofit leader, or church leader, until you...
10 Ways Nonprofit Coaching Enhances Leadership
How Can Nonprofit Coaching Help You Lead Better? Serving as a leader in a nonprofit agency addressing a cause you deeply believe in can be one of the most rewarding experiences of a lifetime. What could be more fulfilling than improving the situations of those you...
15 Ways to Turn Strategy into Action on Your Nonprofit Strategic Plan
Planning is Great but Execution Wins the Game! The best nonprofits — those that make the biggest impact — create and follow their strategic plan. Many agencies have recently spent significant dollars developing a new nonprofit strategic plan, or refreshing...
5 Nonprofit Challenges and How To Fix Them: #5 – Burning Out
Challenge #5: Burning Out Contrary to popular belief, you are not, in fact, a superhero. The demands of leading a nonprofit are plentiful, and you are only human. Feeling overwhelmed or stressed out is inevitable. However, your nonprofit relies on you for your...
board development
Will Your Nonprofit Survive?
In 2013 alone there were more than 2.5 million nonprofit [501(c)(3)] started in the U.S. According to the SBA, nearly 50% of all businesses started — including nonprofit agencies — will fail within their first 5 years. It’s no secret nonprofit agencies work very hard...
One of the Most Powerful Ways to Increase Fundraising
Effective fundraising and donor relationships are the lifeblood of a nonprofit. But many nonprofits tend to overlook one of the most critical — and yet often most effective — tools for improving fundraising — the board. It’s no secret that best practices of successful...
Guest Post: Want to build a better board? The key is expectations!
Serving on a nonprofit board presents great opportunities for meaningfully contributing to a worthy cause. But board service also involves significant responsibilities that may feel burdensome at times. How can current board leaders effectively equip newly recruited...
Ever Been asked…Why Should I Want to Serve on Your Board?
Have you ever been asked this question? Let’s say you know someone who is highly respected, has been engaged with your mission for some time, and has shown good judgment in the past. You may even be friends. You have a board seat opening up soon so you figure he/she...
Presenting at CLA 2015 Outcomes Conference
Last week I led two workshops at CLA's Annual Conference in Dallas and was one of the authors signing books in the book store. It was a "kick" and I am grateful to CLA for putting on this event and allowing me to be part of it. I spoke with a lot of members about...
Why Your Nonprofit Board May be a Huge Disappointment
After leading a comprehensive process to identify and recruit new board members you found your best candidates and they agreed to join your board. You looked forward to working with them and six months ago you could not have been more excited as they were installed on...
strategic planning
SHAPING THE FUTURE
Have you ever had to rebuild a department…or entire organization? Did you wrestle with how much to structure the process versus letting others handle it? We did. One of our departments had gone through a tough period. An ego-driven, bully-type person had led it. There...
The Best of Times…The Worst of Times
The Worst of Times… Leading a nonprofit organization, especially a social service organization, is an honor and singular opportunity to positively impact the lives of those going through tough times in your community. We all should be so fortunate to have the chance...
Customer Intimacy
Strong customer relationships may be the best way to serve your clients and retain their business over the long haul. Another word for that is “intimacy”. While pricing and other terms are important, and must be “in the ballpark”, strong client relations, or intimacy,...
Is your organization ready for the future or living in the past
Is your business model or organizational structure ready for tomorrow’s opportunities and challenges, or does it still reflect your “hey days” of the past? If your firm did not exist and you were to create it new today, what would it look like? It’s true, many...
Mission, Vision, Values
Having a clear mission, vision, and values (MVV) statement, one the entire leadership team helped create, fully understands, and commits to follow, is a terrific tool. It not only provides a motivational and rallying point for employees and volunteers, it also...
Financial Management
One thing about a nonprofit’s financials is that revenue projections can be a bit “iffy”, while projected expenses always seem to roll in just as planned. Aggressive revenue projections are not necessarily bad, but unless someone owns the fund raising function-and...
everything…
Nonprofit Trends 2017: Is Your Agency Future-proof?
Since 2014, we have seen the volunteer rate drop nearly 13%. Nearly 50% of nonprofit leaders report their organization has no strategic plan, yet nonprofit giving has increased over the last 4 years, and continues to grow. Nonprofit Trends 2017 -- What do these...
Strategic Planning for Nonprofits: 3 Ways to Make the Process Easier
How To Make Strategic Planning for Nonprofits Easier And More Successful Many agencies will shortly begin holding planning sessions, or retreats, for 2018. The announcement of these events is usually met with either groans or cheers, depending on how your past...
Why We Need Strong Nonprofit Leadership Now More Than Ever
It’s no secret we’re living in a world of increasing turmoil. Protests are climbing. Hate is rising. Lines are being drawn and redrawn every day as portions of our country band together to oppose others. Culturally and politically, we are as divided as we ever have...
Board of Director’s Role: What Exactly Should Your Board Be Doing?
Do you know the Board of Director's Role for Your Nonprofit? The board of director's role in an organization can make or break it. Individual directors (and boards as a whole), play key roles in the success of a nonprofit agency. Yet two of the most overlooked steps...
What Will 2017 Hold for Your Nonprofit?
A New Year, New Leadership, a New Nonprofit Landscape... Change is in the air, no doubt about it. Many nonprofit leaders and boards are concerned right now as they try to figure out what their new operating environment will look like next year and beyond. After eight...
7 Ways to Engage Millennials in Your Nonprofit
Everywhere I go, I hear nonprofit leaders and board members talk about the same challenge -- Millennials. How do you attract, engage, and leverage this group of individuals in their organization. There seems to be a strong sense of urgency to connect with as many of...
12 Biggest Board Meeting Myths – Exposed
How to Make Your Board Meetings... BETTER. Sometimes, being a leader feels like you are out in front of a marching band, with everyone smiling and marching closely behind you, in lock step to your tempo. One tight team all in sync. It is a beautiful thing. But other...
Is Your Board a Little Too Close for Comfort?
Most nonprofit board of directors fall into two categories — Governance boards and Working boards. Both have important responsibilities. Either can be necessary at times. They can each can be the perfect board for a nonprofit, based on the agency’s characteristics,...
Is Your Board Going Bad? 8 Things You Need to Know…
You're likely a nonprofit leader, an executive director, maybe a board chair. At minimum, you're probably on the board. You've helped to lead your agency for a long time and things have gone well, other than the periodic crisis you've had to manage through. All of...