Learning to Lead for Impact
leadership insight from Tom Okarma
the latest and greatest…
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...
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...
5 Nonprofit Challenges and How To Fix Them: #4 – Avoiding Mission Drift
Challenge #4: Avoiding Mission Drift Every nonprofit organization started out with a mission. We all want to affect meaningful change and make a difference in the world. But sometimes, the...
5 Nonprofit Challenges and How To Fix Them: #3 – Board Recruitment
Challenge #3: Board Recruitment Finding the right person to fill a board director position is a challenge for most nonprofits. Where do you turn when you are searching for a good quality candidate...
5 Nonprofit Challenges and How To Fix Them: #2 – Fundraising
Challenge #2: Fundraising This week, we are taking a look at five of the most common challenges I hear from nonprofit leaders, and how I advise approaching these issues. While I cannot...
5 Nonprofit Challenges and How to Fix Them: #1 — Your Board
Challenge #1: The Failing Board I offer advice to many nonprofit leaders and board members each week. Over time, several common nonprofit challenges have surfaced from those discussions. This...
leadership
The 1 Thing That Will Have the Biggest Impact on Your Non-Profit Leadership
Is there a secret to successful non-profit leadership? If you're leading at a non-profit then your world is filled with a never-ending stream of new challenges. Whether you’re a new leader just stepping in, a seasoned pro, or somewhere in between, there is one thing...
4 Key Areas That Can Kill Productivity in a Non-profit
Declining productivity can suck the life out of a non-profit... and a non-profit leader. Feeling overwhelmed? Way too much to do and no where near enough time? Never-ending to-do list? Sometimes I think when it comes to productivity, we can be our own worst enemies....
Are You Making The Right Impact?
6 Questions to tell if your agency is on the right track. Leaders of just about every type of organization--church, nonprofit, or business--say they are client-centered and offer services tailored to their clients' needs. And, most of the time, they do. But, have you...
10 Ways to Have Better Board Meetings
Anyone who has served on a nonprofit board, will know this feeling all too well. We’ve all been there… suffering through a board meeting that makes a root canal seem like a night on the town. Whatever the reason, too many board meetings feel like a waste of time with...
Should You Start a Nonprofit?
The Critical Things You Need to Know to Make a Better Decision Should You Start a Nonprofit? According to the 2016 Nonprofit Trends Report nonprofit growth is climbing at a staggering rate. Some of these new organizations fill much-needed gaps in services, but others...
Is Rising Employee Turnover Hurting Your Nonprofit?
7 Ways To Help Reduce Nonprofit Employee Turnover In compiling the 2016 Nonprofit Trends Report, we discovered hiring at US nonprofits is at an all time high. Great news for all those needing a job with more purpose. But our data uncovered another trend and it’s...
board development
Every Director can Fundraise (Really!)
Getting directors to fundraise; how reluctant directors can get started
Maximize Your Nonprofit Board’s Performance in 2014: Here’s How
Time to set the tone for the new year. Your budget and goals may be set, but how about your board? Unless you want the board to simply roll into 2014 and repeat its (good, or average, or poor) performance from 2013 you'll need to do something to "up their game"....
True Confessions in the Board Room
Are your board meetings getting a bit routine and boring, especially as you negotiate through next year's goals and budget? Do you wonder if you are getting full and complete feedback and "best possible" thinking from your board of directors? Here's a quick way to put...
Electrify Your Sleepy Directors
Fall is planning time for most nonprofit executive directors and board CEO'S. Two questions you may be asking yourself are: How can I get more out of our current board next year? Or, How can I re-awaken and fire up those solid directors who "checked out this past...
5 Unspoken Thoughts of Your New Board Members
With the end of the calendar/fiscal year approaching, many nonprofit boards will be undergoing important change. New directors are coming and term-expired directors will be leaving. Thank you to both groups for your service. Change is never easy but it is necessary...
Transformational Thinking on Board Recruitment
On a trip out west recently I visited a nonprofit organization that just blew me away. I have written in the past about the importance of strategic alignment and impact in the past and this organization has it all--and then some. I thought I'd share some information...
strategic planning
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
everything…
5 Questions Every Nonprofit Leader Should Ask
How to change your thinking to make 2016 your best year yet. We're quickly coming up on the end of 2015, and it's time to start thinking about the new year. How can you help your nonprofit board and leadership team ignite its entrepreneurial spirit and begin the new...
How to Extend the Reach of Every Volunteer
14 Ways To Create a Volunteer Program Built for Impact Are you using volunteers to extend the reach and capabilities of your team? No doubt about it, volunteering is on the rise, or at least, the desire to volunteer is. According to LinkedIn, more than 4 million...
Where is Your Nonprofit Going?
Understanding the key role Mission, Vision, and Values play in moving an organization forward. These elements are probably some of the most important in your organization, yet they are often the most overlooked. They help guide decision-making, budgeting, and...
How To Run Nonprofit Board Meetings That Actually Work
10 Ways To Make Your Next Board Meeting Better Nice work! You’ve done the analysis and identified and recruited onto your board the perfect slate of candidates to replace the retiring board members. This new panel of directors is exactly what you were looking for and...
What Should Your Nonprofit Board Be Doing?
Learn how to create clear roles and responsibilities for your board of directors, to get the results you want for your nonprofit. From time to time executive directors express frustration about the support and cooperation they get from their board.“They don’t do what...
How To Build a Nonprofit Board For Maximum Impact
Great organizations have great boards -- that fact is indisputable. The most important initiative of a nonprofit board is its responsibility to objectively and thoughtfully identify, recruit, and orientate the best board candidates it can find. But often, this process...
Can millennials and baby boomers work together to create better nonprofits?
No doubt about it, the Millennials are coming — in fact, they are already here… and they’re having a significant impact in both the business and nonprofit worlds. We Baby Boomer leaders can live in denial for a while if we wish, but the smart “play” would be to reach...
Do Women Make Better Nonprofit Leaders?
The 7 Characteristics That Give Women a Distinct Advantage After many years of serving in various leadership positions and with both women and men reporting to me, and even more years observing other leaders, I firmly believe that women, by a fairly wide margin, can...
Even “Perfect” Strategic Plans Usually Overlook This Component
One of the most frequent assignments I am asked to take on when asked to work with a nonprofit board or its CEO is to help them get back on track, to help them get things going again. They contact me because they feel bogged down and unable to break through the...