Articles

The Art of Great Leadership What is leadership and how is it defined?  Countless books, training sessions, conferences and key note speakers have addressed the topic of “leadership.” Dwight D. Eisenhower explained it this way: “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”…

Getting Started: Non-Profit 101 What is a non-profit organization? A non-profit organization is simply a corporation that has applied for and received tax exempt status from the IRS under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code. This exemption status is granted under one of the sections in 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code – i.e.,…

Board Roles & Responsibilities The board of directors of a non-profit are responsible for setting the direction of and providing the resources for the mission of the organization. They have a fiduciary responsibility to the organization and the constituents it serves. In most cases, the board is comprised of volunteers from within the industry or…

Selling Advocacy as a Members-Only Benefit Selling Advocacy as a Members-Only Benefit I have recently seen articles by so called association gurus and leaders implying that issue advocacy is not “sellable” and that it is “nonsense” to try to convince a person to pay money to join an organization to get what they are already…

Why Conflict Matters Why Conflict Matters: Unanimous decisions by your board could be masking bigger issues. You’ve just finished another board meeting and it couldn’t have gone better. Everything went exactly according to the agenda and all votes were approved unanimously, with very little debate or drama. Time to celebrate! But maybe that smooth board…

Engaging and Empowering Your Employees Engaging and Empowering Your Employees A funny thing happened to me recently at a nearby pizza place. The restaurant was running a special for two slices of New York style pizza and a medium drink for $8.49. I ordered my pizza and moved down to the cashier to get my…

Strategic Planning for Non Profits: How to Prevent your Strategy Session from Turning into a Looong Board meeting Over the past fifteen years, we have employed numerous strategic planning tools and resources with varying degrees of success. In this article, we will review five of the more popular resources we have used, compare their common…

Losing Out On Good Candidates? Going Beyond the Resume When you have an association job opening, one of the first items commonly requested is a resume. After all, you want to know about the candidate’s background, their degree, and try to find out a little more about their personal interests. You post your job to…

Governance Audit Checklist Download checklist: Federal Governance Documents ___Copy of Articles of Incorporation State:_____________Date:_______________ ___IRS Determination letter: Date:_________ ___501(c)3 ___; 501(c)6 ____; Other _______ ___Tax returns for last three years ___Related entities:_________________________________________________________ State Governance Documents ___Business license / registration State(s):____________________Date:___________________ ___State Tax Filing for latest year end ___Most recent state annual report Financial Documents ___Bank…