BoardMax – Software for Boards
Filed Under Board/Staff Relationship
Tagged: Board Governance, board management, board meetings, board self-evaluation
I just got off the phone with Camille Beatty Falor from StreamLink. Camille gave me a tour of their software, BoardMax, which has been developed for nonprofit boards. This software could help your organization’s board manage board expectations (giving, meeting attendance, time), board meetings (agendas, packets, voting summaries), and board committee work (rosters, meetings, actions, etc). It provides tracking and trending statistics and can graph this data for you. This software looks especially interesting for larger boards facing complex decisions and governance issues. For more information, go to: http://streamlinksoftware.com/products/board-management
10 Questions Every MFI (Microfinance Institution) Board Should Ask and Every CEO should Know
Filed Under Board/Staff Relationship
Tagged: Board Governance, MFI Board, Microfinance, Microfinance Institution Board
Unfortunately, many definitions of MFI (Microfinance Institution) Governance involve “all stakeholders” including: the board, staff, donors, lenders, equity partners, shareholders, clients, elected officials and even regulatory personnel. Defining Governance this broadly avoids a critical question: Who is ultimately responsible for making sure that an MFI is ethically and profitably managed? It’s the Boards of Directors.
The board provides oversight in these five key areas: (1) financial stability, (2) strategy, (3) organizational policies, (4) CEO management, and (5) board sustainability. The board guides the organization while the CEO and his/her staff ensure that products are well-designed, clients are treated ethically and legally, employees are well-managed, investments are sound, risks are managed, and the organization has a strong foundation on which to grow in a purposeful, strategic direction.
Here are some simple, but powerful, questions that all MFI boards should be asking themselves and their CEOs as they provide guidance and oversight:
1. Are we more interested in the quantity or quality of our loans? How is this reflected in our managerial policies, procedures, and personnel reward systems?
2. Are we reasonably sure that our loans are invested in businesses that our clients own and manage? What are the benefits of knowing how our loans are used? What are the costs? What are the risks of not thoroughly understanding our client’s financial needs?
3. What are we doing to ensure that our clients are not borrowing from multiple lenders? (If we’re doing nothing, how could we manage this more effectively? What would this cost?)
4. How do we assess the credit worthiness of individual new and existing clients? What are our procedures for assessing new and existing client risks? What training do we provide our employees to assess the creditworthiness of our clients?
5. What is our organization’s public position on the development of a credit bureau? How are we supporting that position?
6. What are our pricing policies? How often does this board review our product line and management practices to ensure that we follow these pricing policies?
7. What client protection policies have we adopted? How do we communicate these policies with our employees and with our clients? How do we make sure that our employees adhere to these standards?
8. How do we assess the risk of our growth? What percent of our future growth will come from (a) increasing loans to existing clients or (b) loans to new clients or (c) new products? How do we compare the risk of these three sources of growth?
9. What financial or other risks are embedded in this business? Should we create policies and develop procedures to manage these risks?
10. What risks (legal, regulatory, and political) are inherent in the microfinance sector of this country? How are we insuring against and managing these risks?
Don’t shy away from these difficult and possibly daunting questions.
If you are the CEO of an MFI, work with your staff and board committees to develop a point of view about each topic. Write policies and create procedures to manage these areas of your business. Seek board approval for your conclusions.
If you are on the board of an MFI, forward this article to the CEO and the Chairperson of the Board. Offer to work with the CEO, staff, and appropriate board committees to discuss these topics and develop policies and procedures for the organization. Seek approval from the entire board. By approving organizational policies and procedures, the board takes responsibility for the MFI and governance of the organization is where it needs to be.
14 Steps to Better Fundraising
Filed Under Board/Staff Relationship
Tagged: Donors, Fundraising, Marketing
- Treat fundraising and marketing as an essential part of your organization’s operations – not an afterthought. The CEO should spend a minimum of 30-40% of their time and energy on fundraising.
- Don’t let fundraising fall in “no-man’s land” between the staff and board. The staff owns the fundraising plan – including creation and implementation. The board supports the fundraising plan at the request of the CEO.
- Have the CEO, ED, or a staff person create an Annual Fundraising Plan (a monthly budget of income from each source of funds) and include “Fundraising Budget against Actual” in the CEO’s report at each board meeting.
- Watch your results carefully. Cut out fundraising programs that don’t work.
- Create and execute a marketing plan that raises awareness of your organization and its achievements in your community.
- Be aware that 80-85% of all US nonprofit funding comes from individual and major donors – and strengthen your individual and major donor programs so that you can strive to achieve this percent for your organization.
- Invest time and money in a donor data base that will perform the functions you need.
- Build strong relationships with your donors and establish multiple, meaningful contacts with each donor each year.
- Tell more stories about the people affected by your work and the results you’re achieving.
- Personally visit your major donors to thank them for their past donations. Tell them the results you’ve achieved with their money and ask them to invest in your specific plans for the future.
- Thank your donors in writing, by email, by phone, and in person (publicly and privately). You can not thank donors enough. Get your board to help.
- Be sure that every board member takes part in one or more aspects of your fundraising plan. For example, board members can thank donors, open doors, approach foundations, organize fundraisers, hold information parties in their homes, speak to community groups, and tell their friends and family how lives are changing as the result of your work.
- Run, don’t walk, to use technology (yes, social media, email, e-newsletters and web sites) to communicate with friends and donors of the organization. Get a “DONATE NOW” button on your web site – and in each e-newsletter.
- Give me a positive reason to send you money – not just that your funding is down this year. Everyone likes to be associated with a winner.
Nonprofit Titles – Trustee vs. Director
Filed Under Board Governance, Board/Staff Relationship
Tagged: director, titles, trustee
A recent question to Ask Alyson:
Hi Alyson, I am a member of a non-profit independent school board. From the start of incorporation 3 years ago, our members have been called directors and the officers are president, vice-president etc… What is your opinion about this wording compared with calling the members trustees and officer titles of chair and vice-chair? Thank you in advance for your thoughts! Steve
Dear Steve:
Nonprofit Board Self-Evaluation
The best-run boards take time to self-reflect. They think not only about their past successes but how they can improve their relationship with the staff, their donors, and each other. Well-run boards are not afraid to ask themselves the hard questions about themselves – and to seek continuous improvements.
For two useful Self-Evaluation tools (Discussion Questions and a Questionnaire), go to the bottom of STEP 7 – Satisfaction on this web site. You can download two free tools for your use immediately.
In addition to the collective satisfaction of the board members, exceptional boards make sure that board members are individually satisfied. The Board President spends time talking to people about their board service and listens for feedback about how satisfied each board member is with the accomplishments of the board as a whole. Also, the Board President makes sure that each board member is fulfilled by their involvement in the board and in their committee.
Board Members are like donors. They usually want to serve on a board because they have a passion for the work of organization and they may be motivated by one of these reasons:
1. They want to give back to the community
2. They want to have more social or business contact in the community
3. They have had a close family member or friend who has been helped by the organization
As you work with your board members, remember to think about these reasons why people have joined your board and make sure that their own personal goals are being met by being on the board.
Working to make sure that all of your board members are delighted to be there will yield dividends for you in terms of greater involvement in your organization’s work and greater enthusiasm for your organization throughout the community.
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