Center for Association Resources

The Center for Association Resources supports mission-oriented organizations, assisting them in increasing relevance and accomplishing goals.

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Board training…..getting qualified people on the board

Another in a series of articles related to association management selected from our reading list by:
Robert O. Patterson, JD
CEO/ Principal
The Center for Association Resources, Inc.

The governing body of a non-profit organization is its board of directors. Whether a non-profit is at its infancy, or is in transition to becoming a more mature organization or is already an established institution, it is vital for its board to be effective and productive. The non-profit board must understand and perform its legal obligations and significant responsibilities fully. Therefore the non-profit board’s membership should consist of qualified individuals who are either experienced in non-profit board functions or who are willing to proactively learn about the roles and acquire the tools and knowledge to be competent contributors.

Most of the time, individuals serve on a non-profit board because they are passionate about the cause. However, passion alone is not enough to fulfill the many duties asked of each board member. Time commitment is a necessary requirement for attending board meetings, preparing for the meetings such as reviewing proposals, budget or other documents and fundraising. A main function of the non-profit board is to raise money. It is a common policy among non-profits to require each board member to either give or get a certain monetary amount annually. Board members are also asked to organize and host fundraising events or to meet with foundations or government agencies that award grants to non-profits. Time commitment aside, each board member should have sufficient business and leadership skills as the board needs to approve the budget, establish a process to create a strategic plan, hire and evaluate the executive director, and ensure the legal and ethical integrity of the organization. In order to perform the roles and responsibilities dutifully, the board should evaluate its effectiveness and identify areas where a new board member may bring on skills that would be complementary.

During growth periods, a board may need to grow too. Sometimes the need to find new board members arise from resignation or when board members reach their term limit. Recruiting for board members may start with referrals from the current board or from the staff. There are services that match prospective board candidates with non-profit organizations such as boardnetUSA and VolunteerMatch. The tasks of screening and determining a board candidate’s qualifications rest with the board. There should be a process to evaluate the candidate as well as a process to on-board the new member.

As leaders wanting to make a difference, the board must be made up of individuals who have sound business skills, experience with board duties and functions and commitment to developing a strong board by ensuring each board member is qualified to meet the needs of the non-profit organization.

Why Non-Profits Should Have Conflict-of-Interest Policies

Another in a series of articles related to association management selected from our reading list by:
Robert O. Patterson, JD
CEO/ Principal
The Center for Association Resources, Inc.

Conflicts of interest can arise in any area of an organization, from the lowest ranks to the board of directors, and can create troubling situations. Non-profit organizations have a vested interest in mitigating and managing board members’ conflicts of interest as they arise (eliminating them entirely is generally not feasible). How to manage them? Develop a conflict-of-interest policy.

Step one in creating such a policy is understanding just what constitutes a conflict of interest. The definition is fairly simple: if a board member’s professional or personal affiliations disrupt their ability to place the organization’s best interests over their own personal interests, a conflict of interest exists. Because non-profit board members are likely to be involved in other business concerns or non-profit organizations in their respective communities, conflicts of interest can arise very naturally.

Step two in the process is deciding how to mitigate any conflicts that might occur. To do that, the board must know how these conflicts potentially negatively affect the organization. In all cases, a conflict of interest has the potential to cause a board member to shirk his or her fiduciary responsibility to the organization. If a personal interest is allowed to take precedence over the organization’s interests, the board member’s decisions will not be in the best financial interests of the organization. Board members can even be held legally liable for the organization’s actions because of their fiduciary responsibility. Another concern regarding conflicts of interest within non-profit organizations involves ethical implications. Non-profits are meant to serve the public good, and when board members ignore the best interests of the organization, they are, in effect, betraying the public trust.

After all board members have a thorough understanding of the implications of conflicts of interest, the written policy can be developed. All board members should discuss the policy, and each one should agree in writing to uphold it. There are three important elements to be included in the written policy. The first is a full disclosure clause that states all board members must make known their affiliations with any organizations that the non-profit does business with. The second element is a clause that restricts board members from discussing and voting on issues that pertain to transactions with a company that the board member is involved with. The third clause regards staff members: it should restrict them from being in a decision-making role regarding business with firms they have an interest in.

It is important when drawing up the written conflict of interest policy not to use “boilerplate” documents – do not simply copy another organization’s policy or use a sample one. The policy should be tailored to your organization’s specific needs and goals. By creating a solid conflict of interest policy, the organization’s interests will be protected and legal and ethical troubles will be mitigated.

Ethics in non-profit associations

Another in a series of articles related to association management selected from our reading list by:
Robert O. Patterson, JD
CEO/ Principal
The Center for Association Resources, Inc.

When examining the field of nonprofit work, which focuses on providing a wholesome contribution to the community, it becomes clear that the ethics of such associations must be pure and unquestionable. This is essential for several reasons: most importantly, the integrity of a nonprofit organization must be intact for it to have any stature in society. Furthermore, the efficiency of such organizations is compromised by any foul play or mismanagement, and in organizations where every penny is supposed to be used to further a particular cause, efficiency is key.

A not for profit organization is meant to be, in most cases, an association dedicated to a certain charitable cause. The very nature of these organizations is typically thought to be pure and selfless. It is in this way that such groups appeal to the public and people’s desire to join in or donate to something that is helping others. However, if the ethics of an association are besmirched, the moral basis of the group is compromised. Since this moral basis is the foundation of the organization and the factor that makes donating to the organization attractive to the public, the entire legitimacy of the group will be destroyed. The public is not willing to donate their hard-earned money to line the pockets of a greedy middle man rather than to feed starving children. And so, when any question of a breach of ethics arises, the public will easily divert their donations to another organization that has maintained such codes of conduct. This will ultimately cause such an organization to not only lose stature and legitimacy, but also to be drained of funding, without which no organization can long survive.

Well-preserved ethics and codes of conduct amongst nonprofit organizations are essential for another reason: an organization cannot run efficiently unless all of its transactions are transparent and above board. Should a breach of ethics occur such as the siphoning of an organization’s funds into an administrator’s personal account, the money lost would be a much greater blow to a not for profit than to a multimillion dollar commercial corporation. Indeed, the majority of nonprofit organizations operate at the bottom line, as they typically rely on charitable donations, not the most opulent of sources, to garner funds. Furthermore, when helping the thousands or millions in suffering, a dollar must be stretched as far as possible, and even then it will fall short. If ethics are breach regarding the handling of an association’s funds, it will drastically decrease the necessary efficiency of the organization.

There are a multitude of reasons as to why ethics in nonprofit associations are essential. Any lack of ethics destroys an organization’s reputation and good standing, and cuts into its efficiency. For these reasons, it is clear that to run a nonprofit organization well, upholding ethics must be a key component of the organization’s mission statement.

Leadership training and development for non-profits

Another in a series of articles related to association management selected from our reading list by:
Robert O. Patterson, JD
CEO/ Principal
The Center for Association Resources, Inc.

Every successful organization or business must have competent leadership.  For the non-profit organization, its leaders are the board of directors and the executive director.  Jointly they communicate the vision, set the goals and provide the direction for the organization to achieve its mission.  As leaders, the executive director and each board member must dutifully carry out their roles and responsibilities.  A leader must also recognize when he or she needs training and development and should seek the proper help to fulfill the requirements of the job in order to advance the organization.

The most important staff role of a non-profit organization is its executive director.  While the primary job of the executive director is to manage the day-to-day functions and the staff (including developing the staff), he or she also needs to work closely with the board of directors on a variety of initiatives such as strategic planning, fundraising, and participate in board involved committees.  Whether the organization size is small, with a budget of less than one hundred thousand dollars; or large, with a budget of over five million dollars, the executive director must have excellent business and people skills and teamwork to work along with staff personnel and the board as well as interface with the organization’s constituents and supporters.  To develop the breadth and depth of skills required for this non-profit leadership role, many nonprofit services offer classes and coaching.

Also vital to the non-profit organization is its board of directors.  Most often non-profit board members serve because they are passionate about the cause.  Therefore board members’ talents and skills vary and may or may not compliment the staff or each other.  Sometimes the board members need to learn about their roles and responsibilities and how to perform them as they are a governing body sanctioned by the state.  There is a wealth of information online about board duties as well as agencies that provide consultation to build and develop non-profit boards in the areas of fundraising, strategic planning, succession planning, governance, and managing the performance of the executive director.

A key position on the board is the president.  The board president leads the rest of the board members by being clear about the board’s role, sets examples of behavior for fellow members to follow, maintains a business focus and develops the board into a cohesive and productive body.  If an area of board development is to bring on training, there are many workshops and programs that would help the board and its president to be more effective leaders.

A trained and developed board and executive director are poised to help the non-profit organization through challenges, to transition the organization to the next level, and most importantly to achieve the mission of the organization.

Co-Locating a Meeting with another NPO

Another in a series of articles related to association management selected from our reading list by:
Robert O. Patterson, JD
CEO/ Principal
The Center for Association Resources, Inc.

As a non-profit organization, the nature of your work makes it quite a process to find funding for your start-up (as well as your continued operation). Part of your initial goals should be to develop a plan that raises funds in the short- and long-term. There are many ways to do this, from going door-to-door and distributing literature to setting up phone banks and calling around, to name a couple. But the focus of this article is on one resource that many people overlook – other NPOs.

After all, they’ve already succeeded where you hope to, so why not benefit from their experience and maybe gain a friend while you’re at it? Other NPOs are easy enough to find. The internet is rife with databases whose sole mission is to allow easy communication and location between and by NPOs all over the United States and the world, at large. Getting in touch with one another is now the simple matter of a Google search and picking up the phone. Many organizations (especially the larger ones) have what is known as an “Open House” – usually a specialized event held once a year either at the group’s headquarters or some other location – and is a great opportunity to rub shoulders with the higher-ups of a particular group, learning the ins and outs of an NPO and knowing (personally) those who run it will give you an advantage and possibly an ally, as well. Maybe you can structure a joint open house of your own? Or have a fundraising event that seeks to benefit your NPO as well as the others in attendance? The possibilities of what you can do with other NPOs are truly limited only by your imagination, and of course by the funds you can raise to trigger such an event in the first place.

But what do you really stand to gain from meeting with other NPOs? Can they really give you anything that you wouldn’t be able to secure on your own? After all, competition exists in every facet of corporate and public enterprises in America, and in that respect NPOs aren’t much different. You might be trying to book the same groups of people as donors or even fighting over the same government grants, but like all other marketplaces, NPOs are better off when they work together. It’s already a difficult marketplace to survive in, as NPOs face several dilemmas unique to their distinctive manner of practicing business, particularly as it relates to creating capital. If you can learn what other NPOs are doing, you can either follow suit and make your time in the business world that much easier, or you can gauge where and how other NPOs are creating their capital so you know what resources are and are not available to you. Any way you look at it, you’re going to want (and likely need) other people on your side. It’s difficult to survive as a pure non-profit organization, and you’ll be lucky if you can find someone to help you out.

Tips for Effective Strategic Planning

Another in a series of articles related to association management selected from our reading list by:
Robert O. Patterson, JD
CEO/ Principal
The Center for Association Resources, Inc.

In fulfilling their missions, nonprofits must make a plan, lest they follow the adage that those who don’t know where they are going will certainly get there. Strategic planning is a sort of road map that allows organizations to plan where they are going, how they will get there, and what benchmarks will prove that they have met their goals. An analogue is the business plan of a for-profit venture. However, the methods and the goals may be slightly different.

There are, of course, as many ways to approach strategic planning as there are nonprofit organizations. However, the means of putting plans together have key points in common. One important starting place is that the planning has to come on the heels of intimate knowledge of the organization, its constituents, its methods, and philosophy. One tip for strategic planning meetings is to assemble binders that have all these elements in them for planners. Some materials that may be useful to include are previous budgets and figures regarding service delivery. When things will happen is an important question to answer. Proposed timelines for implementation can be included in the binder to maximize the usefulness of the time and materials.

In addition to mechanics of fulfilling the mission of the organization, it is important for the binder to include materials that both present and illustrate the vision and values of the organization. During strategic planning, planners may even notice that a modification of the mission statement is necessary because of an evolution in the organization’s practice or purpose. Examples of how the values of the organization have been implemented in the past can be an important tool in planning for the future. While day-to-day management of the organization is not the focus of a strategic planning session, it should be included from an eagle’s-eye perspective. One thing to include in written materials is a list of key positions and how they support the fulfillment of the organization’s mission.

There will be a significant amount of information and action to discuss when doing strategic planning, Another tip for planning effectively is to allow enough time for reading and active discussion. Following that, It may be useful to change settings with planners. If planning has thus far occurred in a conference room setting, the final stage could take place at a restaurant or in a retreat setting. One final question to answer is what the results will be of successful implementation of the proposed plans. Looking at the answer to this question both at the beginning and the end of planning will inform the answers selected.

No matter what direction strategic planning takes, It is important to remember that whatever is determined must boil down to tangible steps and measurable results. If planners combine these with their passion for the work of the organization, strategic planning has the greatest chance of being successful. As planners take things a step further and clearly communicate the results and expectations of planning to the people within the organization who are affected, something commonly overlooked, they are planning for success.