Learning to Lead for Impact
leadership insight from Tom Okarma
the latest and greatest…
How Joining A Nonprofit Board Boosts Your Professional Development
Why Serve On A Board? Many individuals and businesses miss a valuable opportunity for professional development. They also miss a great opportunity to give back and make their community a better...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Fundraising for Nonprofits: Empower Your Board To Get Involved
Effective fundraising and donor relationships are the lifeblood of a nonprofit. But many agencies tend to overlook one of the most critical — and yet often most effective — tools for improving...
leadership
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...
board development
“Tom-isms”, or What I learned the Hard Way…
...but you don't have to. We all learn a lot of lessons along the way. I seem to learn best by doing rather than taking someone's advice. The result is I learn by getting my nose bloodied from time to time. So in the spirit of wanting to share so others can benefit...
Yes, Your Nonprofit does Need a Board of Directors!
Absolutely, a board of directors is necessary. But, it shouldn't just be comprised of a collection of well-intended directors. Legally, you're probably required to have one anyway, but in addition, the value derived from the "right" board is immeasurable. In fact,...
Do We Really Need a Board of Directors?
There is a pretty simple way to decide what is board business (governance) and what is staff business (operations).
Put Passion back into your Nonprofit Board Meetings
If you’ve struggled to increase board meeting attendance, raise the energy level in your meetings, develop a clearer focus on your mission, or instill a fiery passion back into your boardroom, I have an answer. It is quite simple, costs nothing, and you can do it at...
You Need a Prickly Pair on Your Board
I love the desert, not just because that is where spring training of my beloved losers-The Chicago Cubs- practice but because of its unique vegetation. Cacti come in many different styles. Some say there are over 2,000 species of these complex living creations. One...
My Recent Trip to the Twilight Zone!
There must have been a full moon out recently. I had back-to-back meetings two weeks ago with two different nonprofits and thoughtI had entered the Twilight Zone. At my first meeting, members of a nonprofit board were complaining about their CEO's not doing what the...
strategic planning
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everything…
Is Your Board Missing The Most Valuable Ingredient?
Board development is critical for building (and maintaining) a high-functioning board. Year after year, best-in-class nonprofit organizations have an amazing impact in their communities. Their boards have directors who understand the agency’s mission, are fully...
Are You Leading For the Future?
5 Powerful Questions for Nonprofit Leaders As an executive director, I suspect you often feel like you are caught up in a virtual whirlwind. From the time you walk into the office until the time you go home at night people are tugging at your sleeve looking for “just...
Are There Too Many Nonprofits?
Nonprofit Growth Rates Are at a 5 Year High New nonprofits are being started today in waves not seen since 2010. In fact, at the current pace, there will be over 1.6 million registered nonprofits in the U.S. by end of 2016, and as many as 2.25 million nonprofits...
Is Your Nonprofit Future-Proof?
Discover the 25 Critical Factors that will help ensure your long-term success. Serving others through nonprofit work often involves helping people in immediate need, but that doesn’t mean leaders can ignore the future. In fact, focusing on today only, can be a huge...
The Kickoff: 20 Steps to a Better 1st Board Meeting
How can you make the first board meeting of the year effective, engaging, and use it to set the stage for a great year? In a recent article we discussed expectations for your new board. If you missed that post, you can check it out here. It will set the stage for...
What Should You Do With New Board Members?
How to get the most out of your non profit board of directors. Now that the new year has begun, the makeup of many non profit board of directors may look quite a bit different from last year. Yours is probably no exception. Some experienced and high value board...
How to Fill Empty Nonprofit Board Seats
This is the third and final chapter in a recent series about removing nonprofit board members who no longer fit the future needs of the organization. The first two articles offered suggestions on how to remove board members — How to Deal with Difficult Board Members,...
When Should You Let a Good Board Member Go?
10 Steps to Follow to Make Your Nonprofit Board Better Last week we discussed how to deal with a previously high-value nonprofit board member who has become difficult, argumentative, and even divisive over time. We reviewed approaches you might take to address the...
How to Deal With Difficult Board Members
What do you do when a good board member goes bad? One of the most important roles you have, as part of a board of directors, or as the executive director of a nonprofit, is to help identify and “vet” new board candidates. You use comprehensive checklists, you...