Jennifer E Goldman, Nonprofit Consultant

Being on a nonprofit board of directors is a serious commitment. Many community members, even if they’ve been a volunteer for your organization for year, aren’t aware of what will be expected of them when they join your board. I hear many nonprofit staff lamenting over the lack of engagement from some (or even all) of their board members. Lack of engagement can stem from any number of reasons, but one of the most common I have found is simply that people weren’t told what would be expected of them until after they started their first term, and then they either find they can’t uphold all of the expectations and would have turned down the opportunity to serve if they’d had more information ahead of time or they resent no having been told and now they have a bad taste in their mouths. I’ve come to realize there’s a fear among organizations that if they reveal everything they expect of a board member, people will turn them down. If this applies to you, I say let them! If you tell prospec

  I hear from several of my nonprofit clients that board engagement is a challenge; getting board members to do more than just show up once a month for board meetings has proven more difficult than they expected. I like to work from the assumption that community members who agree to join a nonprofit board do so with the best of intentions of giving back, making a difference in their local community. And I do believe that’s true. What I’ve also come to believe, however, is that the average community member doesn’t really understand what being a board member for a small nonprofit organization entails. So, how do we get our board to be more engaged? The bigger question for me is: how can you get board members who are already engaged? People who understand your nonprofit, your mission, the expectations you place on board members and what ‘engagement’ looks like to your particular organization? I’ve talked in several of my presentations and seminars/webinars about what I call the upsi

 I spent this past week in Goldsboro, North Carolina for the state's Main Street Conference, (say it with me!) THE LARGEST STATE-WIDE DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION CONFERENCE IN THE COUNTRY! I don't know if they are so proud of it being the largest because of attendance numbers, how many days it spans, or what, but I do know that the quality of what they delivered can't be beat.  This was my first North Carolina Main Street Conference, so I wasn't really sure what to expect when I agreed to come as a speaker. I was unprepared for how incredibly valuable, fun, and engaging it would be. If you ever want to put on a conference, I highly suggest you talk to Liz Parham and her people - they absolutely know what they're doing! They know how to throw a conference like nobody's business. What did I get out of it? Probably way too much to include in a blog post, but I'm going to try. I guess I could summarize it and just say it's all about the people. The people I met

And start funding planning for your programs, your overhead, your growth. When I was the Executive Director of a small nonprofit, I can remember feeling like I spent all of my time either fundraising through special events or running the special events. We needed the event to add money to our bank account to keep us afloat until the next special event. Essentially, each event was paying for the overhead and event expenses. It was a vicious (and exhausting) cycle. I’ve been working on two basic things with my clients recently: Proving your value by showing the impact your organization has on its community Raising the funds you need to sustain and grow your nonprofit in a way that allows you to focus on your mission and your programs. By fundraising through events, nonprofits are rarely introducing people to their organization, their mission, their impact and importance. It’s the equivalent of a retail shop having a sale or hosting a pop-up. You may get a bunch of people excite

  I’ve threatened to toss my smartphone out the window. More than once. Of course, I’ve never done it, because I seriously doubt I could live without it. Which makes me worry. How have I become so dependent on this “thing”? I didn’t grow up with smartphones. I can still recall rolling up to my college campus with a bag phone plugged into my car’s cigarette lighter. (Wow, I just realized how old that makes me sound!) But truly, I can still remember what life was like B.S. (Before Smartphones). And while I enjoy a lot of what they bring to table – like the fact that I can now drive myself anywhere in the world without getting lost…AND my phone marks my car with a pin so I can wander away and still find it again! – I also realize how anxious I am when it’s by my side. And it’s always by my side. Why? Because I’m even more anxious when it’s not. Which is why I decided that perhaps it would be better for me to curb my separation anxiety than to remain hyper-alert to the half-million times a

I spent five years as Executive Director for a small nonprofit organization in Northern Virginia and I constantly felt like I was running behind the 8-ball…and never catching up. It felt as if I could do that job 24/7 and never have any less to do. I was the proverbial chicken running around with its head cut off. And then I started my own company. Foolishly thinking I’d be a better boss than my board. Turns out that 8-ball scenario was all my own doing and that damn thing kept on rolling ahead of me, always just beyond reach. So I stopped running. After a year in business, working seven days a week, at all hours, I sat down (though I have no idea where I found the time) and thought to myself, “I did NOT start a business to run myself into the ground!” And the changes began. It was time to slow my roll. Let someone younger and faster go chasing magic balls. I’ma sit right here and figure out a better way. At that point, a winery was one of my clients and they needed a ton of

I recently attended an event hosted by our local fine arts museum; it was a roving lecture on Pablo Picasso. We walked from room to room, hearing about his art (inspiring, innovative, and thought-provoking) and his personality (philandering, explosive, and troubled) as narrated by a curator. While not on the tour, guests were treated to mulled wine, charcuterie and holiday cheer in a large, open, rentable event space. As some friends and I sat at a table chatting, a man approached us – he was clearly excited about the event – and asked if we were having a good time and had we been on the tour yet. Immediately, I knew what role this man had in the organization. I asked questions about the event space, which had one brick side and looked like it may have once been the original entrance to the museum. He very happily told us all about the renovations that had been done to the museum years ago and their plans for further renovations as well as the expansion onto an adjacent property whic

  Another new year is staring me right in the face. It’s like a blank canvas just waiting to be colored in. Only, I’m no artist. I’m an entrepreneur. My brushes and paints are ideas, strategies, methods and actions. It’s a whole year to accomplish all the exciting things I’ve been mulling over in my mind the past two months. It’s time to scale this ship! I launched my company in 2015, on April Fools’ Day. Foolish? Maybe, but it’s been a fabulous adventure. As my experience expanded my business evolved from community relations to management consulting to nonprofit management consulting. I’ve cultivated a niche for myself that’s fun and comfortable, fairly unique but in good company with other professionals who are passionate about advancing nonprofit organizations. I love everything about my business. I love the quiet moments alone in my home office; blogging, creating videos, publishing content and resources of value for nonprofit leaders. I love the business networking opportuni

I often hear from nonprofit board members that they got involved in an organization to make a difference, but that once they joined, they feel useless – no one calls on them to truly be involved. If you read the Board Engagement ~ Conversation Checklist blog post then you know that one of my suggestions was to sit down and have a chat with each of your board members. Whether you’re the organization’s Executive Director or the Board President, it would be good for you to know what motivates each individual who’s engaged in your board. Even better if you can determine their passions and hobbies. And employ them. This post is meant to help you take those one-on-ones one step further. For many people, volunteering is high on their priority list. However, not everyone wants to give their time to a nonprofit doing the same things they do in their job/career/profession. So, while you might be thrilled to have a lawyer, accountant, marketing person, etc. on your board if directors, th

You’re a nonprofit leader. People are in awe of what you can accomplish; how much you can get done in a day. But are you a manager? Do you ever feel like you’re so mired down in the day-to-day minutiae that you just don’t have time to see the big picture? No time to implement new processes or ideas? Being an Executive Director is a BIG job especially when you’re leading a little organization, one with little to no staff, save for you. And that’s when it’s especially important to operate like a manager; like the CEO that you are. In my experience as a former (“recovering”) Executive Director, our board met once a month and it somehow always turned into an idea mill. By the end of those meetings, board members had scads of new, fabulous ideas. For ME to plan and implement. My to-do list got longer every time they met. Not to mention all the suggestions and ideas I fielded from donors and well-meaning community members. So what’s an ED to do with a to-do list a mile long (and growing) and