In any organization, there is the chance of money going missing between income and outgo. Financial or internal controls are the policies and procedures that minimize this leakage – and protect people handling the money from charges of fraud. Businesses tend to have internal controls because the owner is keeping … Read More
Some people seem to think that generating paper is a goal in itself, but the only good reason to write documents is to help you manage your business better. If it doesn’t help, you won’t use it and it will gather dust. So how can documents help? Any time you … Read More
One technique that can be used to make board meetings more efficient, especially for boards with a lot of routine matters, is a consent agenda. A consent agenda is a way to corral all the straightforward board approvals into one item that can be voted on quickly: minutes, financial reports, … Read More
Being on a board for a nonprofit can be satisfying and interesting – but drawn-out board meetings that slog through a vague agenda and spend more time on housekeeping details than on ways to improve the organization take the fun out of it. Luckily, there are couple of simple things … Read More
Anytime you have to convince someone to accommodate your request, it helps to consider things from their perspective, and to demonstrate that you have done so. Find what they are looking for and keep it front and center when you write your appeal. For instance, if you are looking for … Read More
People generally join nonprofit boards because they believe in the organization’s mission, but that doesn’t mean that they understand what it takes to be a good board member – that is one of those things we all have to learn by practicing. One way to make on-the-job training of new … Read More
Once you have successfully recruited new board members, you can help them by doing more to orient them to their new role than just handing them the by-laws and policies to read. You absolutely want to give them a binder with all the information they need to be a good … Read More
Recruiting new members for a nonprofit board usually isn’t difficult, but it takes time and thought to recruit the members who can help the organization thrive. Recruitment should be an ongoing task for a board, complete with planning and reference checks, not a once-a-year scramble for warm bodies. (And it … Read More
Brand new nonprofits can face challenges avoided by established organizations. One of the strangest occurs when one person has founded the nonprofit to address a problem about which they feel passionately, especially when they are more concerned about solving the problem immediately than about building a team to solve it. … Read More
Good governance is usually used in conversations about nonprofits and government entities, but many of its characteristics apply to good management as well. Good governance is competent management of an organization’s resources and affairs, in a manner that recognizes the needs of all stakeholders. Mores specifically, good governance is: law-abiding … Read More