In the last blog I introduced the concept of a Consent Agenda. This blog will deal with how to utilize it and how to introduce the idea to the board.

How does it work?
1. Committee chairs are told they have to write reports to the board and have them at the office at least one week before the board meeting.
2. The Consent Agenda package is sent out at least one week before the board meeting.
3. Members are urged to read materials before meeting.
4. The Consent Agenda is introduced at beginning of meeting.
5. If Board members have a question or want to discuss any item, it is removed and put on the agenda.
6. Board then approves Consent agenda.
7. The Board meeting proceeds. Those items removed from the Consent Agenda are then discussed.

This one change alone can save most boards an hour of any board meeting.

How do you introduce the idea of a Consent Agenda to the board? We need to change the conception that a board meets as a “committee-of-the-whole”, and discusses trivial details ad infinitum. We must set up viable committees and task forces that deal with the operational concerns of the board. The board needs to trust that the committees will present reports that reflect not only the decisions made but the differing points of view and how the decisions were made.

Therefore reports should show:
• the people in attendance,
• the agenda,
• the items discussed
• and the decisions reached.

If there was a heated discussion and different points of view, this should be outlined. If there are items that effect agency policy, or expenditures outside of the budget, these should be noted and put onto the agenda of the board. If the decision is so contentious that a clear consensus is not arrived at, it should be brought to the board for further clarification.

This is such a simple and important concept, why don’t more boards utilize it?

Why are board meetings so long and often so boring? Maybe it’s because we subject people to sit and listened to long reports, one after another, month after month. We do this because we believe that as board members they have to know what’s going on at the agency. But people can read, and prefer to read, if they know that the same material will not be covered again at the meeting. Often they don’t read what we send because they know it’s just going to hear it later.

But what if we said, “Read what we send, because we are not going to repeat it. And we may even have to make decisions based on what’s in the report, so you’d better read it or you’ll not know what you’re voting on.” That’s where the Consent Agenda come in.

What is a Consent Agenda?
As I have indicated many times, the key to a good board is to have board meetings that are inspirational, educational and strategic. This means moving away from old habits. No more, “old business, new business”. No more board meetings whose agenda looks like the last meeting’s agenda. The key to revamping your board meeting is to introduce the Consent Agenda.

A Consent Agenda is a bundle of items, sent in advance, that are to be voted on without discussion. This includes:
• the previous meeting’s agenda
• the chief executive’s report
• committee reports
• informational materials
• correspondence

What should not be in a Consent agenda?
• Audit
• Financial reports
• Executive Committee decisions

By sending this material out in advance, and by stressing the need for board members to read it in order to approve it, you can turn the board meeting away from people passively listening and to have time for engaging, important discussions and interactions.

Next blog: How to utilize a Consent Agenda

While there is no doubt that these are difficult times to engage in fundraising, my experience shows that many organizations do such an inadequate job in the first place, that refocusing their efforts will result in surprising increases in the amount they raise.

To increase their giving during these difficult times, agencies must move from special events and one-time efforts towards creating a donor-centered fundraising relationship.

Here are a few ideas to consider:

• We must re-examine our definition of fundraising: The one that I like is: “Fundraising is A Result of A Relationship-Building Process with people that results in sustainable annual income that is predicable and can grow from year to year.

• People give to dreams, not deficits: Solicitations should be tied to the realization of a vision or a strategic objective. “It costs $1000 to send a child to a retreat. We want to send 10 additional teens to the retreat this year.”

• We must ask if we are making the donor’s gift more important than the donor: Do people feel the only reason we are contacting them is for more money, or do we really want to engage them in our cause?

• It’s the Impact: Are we building our marketing by stressing the service we provide rather than on the impact of our services in changing lives?

• Cultivation: Do we realize that the first gift usually comes from a marketing effort, a mailing, an ask, or an event, and the second gift comes from the cultivation of a relationship?

• Our donors: Are we more interested in getting new donors or keeping the one’s we already have?

• “Thank you”: Are we following up each gift with a personal telephone “thank you” call which begins the process of relationship building?

• Continuous contact: Do we have a plan to stay in touch with the donor throughout the year so that they continually learn more about our services, or is the next time we contact them for another ask?

• Lapsed: Do we reach out to people whose giving has lapsed to tell them we miss them or find out why they are no longer giving?

• Follow-up: Do we spend a great deal of time and money creating expensive events and then do not follow up with attendees to cultivate on-going relationships which can lead to annual giving?

There is much we can do to make our donors the center of our relationship, rather than always having our hand out for more money. If we change our focus, we will realize more income even in these difficult times.

Does your organization put the donor’s gift ahead of the donor, or, if you are a donor, how do you feel about only being contacted when asked for money?

Click here to add your comments on my Segall Nonprofit Consulting Facebook Page

Last week at a Board meeting, we saw the impact of the implementation of good board practices when a long time board member said, “We’ve come a long way, baby!” at the end of the meeting. Just a year ago this was a struggling Board of six, and now it’s an energized Board of 15.

Keys to Energizing Your Board
What was the problem? Too many of these Board meetings had been spent reviewing the work of the committees, rather than mapping the direction of the agency. Now, Board members are no longer bored by listening to reports of what has already happened. Their efforts have been re-focused on success in the future. We now have highly interactive meetings where we discuss how to move towards a bright new horizon.

Here are some of the principals they have been following:

1. Mission Statement: Recognize that the reason Board members provide their valuable time and talent is because they have a passion for the Mission of the agency. Start each Board meeting by reading the Mission of the Agency. This will keep the meeting from straying into irrelevant and insignificant matters.

2. Short Agenda/More Discussion: Focus on no more than 5-6 items at a meeting. Leave more time for discussion of each item.

3. Intellectual Capital: Provide opportunities for Board members to use their ‘intellectual capital’ by always having many items on the agenda that requires discussion and decisions. Use smaller breakout groups to encourage more interaction.

4. Strategic issues: Use the Board meeting to make sure that strategic initiatives are being addressed. If there are open issues from the strategic Planning report that have not been resolved, this is the time to do so. The Strategic Plan guides your agenda, not committee reports.

5. Consent Agenda: Eliminate Committee reports and announcements by using a Consent Agenda that is sent out well in advance of the meeting.

6. Education: Always provide opportunities for the members to learn more about the agency, its programs and challenges. Have clients/staff come to meetings to tell their stories

7. Leadership: In order to build future leadership and more competent board members, include one item which provides them leadership insights and skills so they will be prepared to take the reigns of the agency in the future.

8. Reports: Have standardized reporting; keep reports simple and easy to understand.

9. Annual calendar: Create an Annual Board Calendar that schedules recurring items at the appropriate times, i.e. budget presentation, Executive review, By-laws review, Audit report, Board elections, etc.

10. Enjoy: Celebrate success at every meeting. Thank everyone for everything all the time.

Make these few simple changes and watch the excitement grow.

Click here to add your comments on my Segall Nonprofit Consulting Facebook Page

Every year, thousands of well-meaning and committed volunteers assume the reigns as the Chairman of a Board of Directors. Unfortunately, the great majority of these individuals do not have a clue as to what to do. Most of us have done a very poor job of training future leaders to guide the agency’s board when the current chair terms out. Without this training, we are very lucky when someone has the skills or innate ability to take the reigns of a voluntary board. My next few blogs will provide some tips on how we can help the new board chair do a more effective job.

HOW TO RUN AN EFFECTIVE BOARD MEETING
We will begin with chairing a board meeting. This is certainly one of the board chairs most important jobs. As I have written before, I believe that the board meeting is the key to building a successful nonprofit organization. When I start working with a new board, I give my clients a great deal of written material specifically written to help them be more effective in their job. The following content is an example.

1. Create a warm environment:
a. Welcome everyone as they arrive.
b. If there is someone who is new or has been absent for some time, go out of your way to make them feel welcome and make sure they are introduced to the others at the meeting.

2. Start on time and end on time: This sends a message that being late is unacceptable and keeps the meeting focused. A chair can always say “ I know everyone wants to get out of here on time, so let’s try to wrap this up.”

3. Board members need to know each other as people: Always go around the room and have people introduce themselves. They might add something new each time, such as what they do when not at work, vacations they have taken, interesting movies they seen, etc. This is not a waste of time but actually facilitates getting the work done by giving people an opportunity to speak, which leads to more engagement in the meeting. Besides, it makes being a Board member more enjoyable.

4. Provide context: Review agenda and indicate what you hope to accomplish at the meeting.

5. Minutes: Make sure someone is taking minutes.

6. Control the meeting:
a. Make sure that people raise their hand and go through the chair before they talk. This keeps the more aggressive members from dominating and gives everyone a fair chance to express their views.
b. Avoid conversations between people: This is a business meeting and not a kitchen-table chat. If a dialogue between two or three people is important, allow it to happen, but only under your control.

7. Don’t abuse the chair: Your role is to be the orchestra leader, not the soloist. If you have strong feelings about something, ask someone else to assume the chair so you can talk. Too many chairs make meetings a dialogue between themselves and the Board.

8. Staff: Have your staff person sit next to you so that they can communicate easily by note or by occasionally by whispering if needed. They are not just another member of the Board, but the agency representative, and it is their responsibility to provide information or clarify policies and procedures.

9. Reach closure: Make sure that everyone agrees what the outcome of a discussion has been by summarizing and asking for confirmation. If a decision cannot be made or the discussion is running too long, table the item or send it to a committee for more work.

10. Get feedback: At end of meeting ask people for their reactions to the meeting and what could be done to make it better meeting.

Is this the type of checklist that would be helpful to your chair? What would you add?

Click here to add your comments on my Segall Nonprofit Consulting Facebook Page

Next blog: What are the important elements of a successful board meeting?

Let’s spend a little time talking about how the Board gets it’s work done. I have written in past blogs about Boards and that Board meetings should be all about education and inspiration, strategic thinking and making policy decisions. So where does the work get done if not at the Board meetings? In committees, task forces, teams-call them what you want!

Standing Committees are groups of people who meet year-round, addressing on-going needs, such as building the Board, monitoring the agency’s finances, raising money, etc. Task forces come and go as needed, to deal in depth with a short term problem or issue, and then go out of business. When the Board needs to address an issue or problem in-depth, they convene a smaller group of people to study the problem and bring a solution to the Board for approval.

What I tell my clients is that committees are like the “divisions” in a company, organized around talented, highly skilled specialists who bring the latest ideas and technology to the company. The person in charge is usually part of the company’s management team, responsible to make sure that the efforts of the division or department are in line with the company’s mission. That’s how work gets done.

It should be the same in nonprofits. Committees and task forces are the divisions, and should be headed by a Board member. The rest of the group could be composed of talented specialists, from the Board and from the community, who understand the problem and can look intelligently for solutions. If it’s the challenge of marketing, the Board should find the best people in communication, promotion, writing and publications in the community, not Board members who maybe committed to the agency but have no experience in marketing. You want the best people. Go out and find them!

Another benefit of reaching into the community is often that these individuals will bring with them pro-bono in-kind services; printing, contacts with media, graphics, that are available in their company. We’re not always just looking for money-sometimes we can get facilities, food, music, media-access that would normally cost lots of money-we can get this for free, or at cost, because we involved people in the community and they get excited about the project.

A client recently asked a top notch filmmaker to do a video for their organization. He and his crew spent over 40 hours interviewing the staff and clients and putting together a professional production. This could have cost in excess of $10K, and he did it gratis. During this time, his passion for the agency’s work grew, and when the project was complete, he was so excited about the agency’s services that he asked to come on the Board. Now he’s leading a major marketing effort and bringing in all his contacts. This is why we must be constantly reaching out to the community.

What constitutes a successful Retreat? From being involved with over 100 Retreats, here is what board members tell me are their criteria for success.

• We accomplished something significant-not just talk, but act.
• We had a good time-we get to know each other better-we laugh a lot.
• We come away more committed to the agency than when we went in.

Can you measure your Retreats against these benchmarks? Do you hear these comments?

I have a few suggestions to energize those Retreats.

1. Provide lot’s of opportunity for interaction. Make sure any long presentations are interspersed with highly interactive activity. Some I have found helpful are:
• Always leave enough time at the beginning for people to introduce themselves and say something about themselves and their lives. I ask such questions as, “What’s something nobody in this group knows about you?” “Who do you consider your mentor or the most influential person in your life?” “What gifts do you bring to the Board?” Don’t rush the process. This is why Retreat’s are different from board meetings. They provide important opportunity for bonding that is so critical so that the board works as a team.

• Always ‘break bread’ together. Timing the Retreat to include lunch is a great idea. Continental breakfasts aren’t as relaxed because people are just arriving and getting settled. Lunches provide more casual time.

• Schedule time when small group discussions can take place, i.e., writing the Mission or Value Statement, setting priorities, analyzing alternatives. These smaller discussions provide an opportunity for everyone to participate, which doesn’t happen in the larger group.
• Always end the Retreat by going around the room and asking everyone to give feedback about the Retreat. This neatly summarizes the Retreat’s impact and usually leaves people feeling they accomplished something, and energized.

2. Leave time at the end of the agenda to take the Retreat’s recommendations and begin their implementation. I try to estimate what the main issues will be and preplan committees or task forces needed to address them. Then I break the group up into these groups, telling the people they don’t have to stay on these committees after the Retreat (they usually do). I tell each group to do three things and report back to the whole group.
a. Write a charge for the committee.
b. Determine who else is needed in the group to fulfill the charge.
c. Set a time for the next meeting.

3. Make sure there is an opportunity to provide some inspiration, by showcasing a client, telling stories of successes, showing a video, etc.
This is the pay that volunteer board members get for giving up a day to devote to the work of the agency. Ask yourself, when they get home, what are they going to tell their partner or spouse about the Retreat? They will probably share the stories they hear from this part of the program.

4. Preplan a debriefing of board leadership as soon as possible after the Retreat to make sure that all commitments are being followed up on. Make sure that those not at the Retreat get notes on what took place.

These are simple suggestions that I find have worked over and over. At a recent Retreat a new Board member said, “I really didn’t want to come because I’ve been part of lots of stodgy Boards. This certainly not a stodgy Board”!

I didn’t say it’s going to be easy, but it can be done. I know. I see success every day. New donors! Larger gifts! The good news is that so many nonprofits have been doing such a lousy job of fund-raising that any improvement will result in new funds.

The first step is to develop a first-class Board. We must turn many more people on to our Mission and the impact we make on people’s lives. The days of small, operationally focused boards, is behind us. The more people we have out there doing smart fundraising on our behalf, the better.

So how do you know if you have a good board?

These are eight indicators of whether you have a good Board. How do you rate?

1. Our Board does not micromanage. Our Board meetings are filled with pursuing strategic initiatives rather than focusing on operational issues. Our board is future-oriented. We let the committees focus on the present.

2. Our Board understands the role of board and staff. We believe that it is our job is to provide operational guidance by conducting an annual review of our Executive Director based on the accomplishment of strategic objectives. (Please don’t laugh at this! A few directors do get annual reviews.)

3. We choose our Board members carefully. We have conducted a Board Assessment to determine the skill sets and diversity we need. We seek out new Board members based on the existing gaps rather than just asking our friends.

4. We are always training our Board. We have a good orientation program for new Board members. We always have some leadership training at every Board meeting. We understand that people have to learn how to function in a democratic, consensus-based, culture.
5. We clearly understand our roles and responsibilities: We have a good board manual and by-laws which are reviewed annually. Everyone has a clear idea what they are doing.

6. Our Board meetings are interesting and inspiring. When our Board meetings are over, Board members hang around to chat, and plan future meeting. There is a feeling of good will and energy. We have had fun!

7. The work of our board is done through committees and task forces. These committees and task forces are addressing the operational and strategic issues facing the agency. Their reports are presented to the Board through a Consent Agenda. We don’t spend a lot of time listening to reports.

8. We have a clear sense of the agency’s financial needs and a plan to meet those needs: We get 100% participation rate on board contributions and everyone is involved in some way in helping to raise funds. We have an active Fund Development Committee who is using a segmented marketing approach to different donor bases.

How do you grade your board? Does this list give you some guidance as to what areas need to be strengthened? What other benchmarks should be added to this list?

After months of trying the Board has attracted several new, well-connected and enthusiastic Board members. These new board members are already reaching out to their friends and acquaintances to help this wonderful agency. Recently struggling to get panelists to a women’s event, one panelist is recommending others, and all of a sudden there are four. A new development director was recruited whose skills and enthusiasm has been a lightning rod for more electricity. Board members are eagerly taking assignments and following up on them. The future all of sudden seems brighter.

So why am I writing this story. I have always believed that if you bring the right people together, inspire them with the mission of the agency, that magic can happen. I was trained as a social group worker, and I was taught to believe in the group as an agent for change. In my many years of working with nonprofit Boards, it always struck me as somewhat magical how the Mission of an agency, properly articulated, can motivate volunteers. And once they “drink the Kool-Aid” (that’s what we describe as really understanding the Mission), how a snowball can begin to sweep up other critical resources that the agency so desperately needs.

Everyone can sense when they are associated with a winner, with an agency that has big dreams and is going somewhere. Often it takes just one new person who comes in with a fresh vision, with enthusiasm and skills, to turn a down-hearted organization into a one that continues to attract new opportunities, and human and fiscal resources.

Often just one person! A new board member, A new staff member. A consultant. They say, “hey wait a minute! We have a treasure here. We can make this happen.” A suggestion here. Someone else agrees and new ideas begin to flow. Energy builds, people begin to see new opportunities and resources that were there before but were hidden under despair, and that despair become elation, energy and movement.

I see it over and over. It’s what I preach to my clients, and when it does happen, it seems like magic. But the magic is contained in the mission, the cause, and the services. We just somehow have to to get people to “drink the Kool-Aid”!

So many times I hear staff and board members complaining that they can’t get volunteers to do what they promised to do.

 I believe there are several reasons why we are often disappointed when commitments made are not commitments kept.  Three critical factors can keep volunteers motivated and assure that decisions that are made are carried through. These are the Mission, a strategic plan with clear goals, and a culture of ownership by the board. And they are having fun.

 Let’s look at each.

Mission: Is your agency’s mission statement clear and compelling.  Does it excite and energize the board.  Is it short and memorable.  When we hear, “we’re the best kept secret in town”, it’s probably because of an unclear message and confused messengers. Do we hear, “what does that agency really do” or “I’m not sure why I should support them.”  The Mission must be written in language that moves and excites the listener.  When people don’t follow up on commitments it may mean they have forgotten the urgency and the critical reasons why they are volunteering. Stress the Mission.

Strategic Plan: If we don’t have a clear road map, it doesn’t matter how fast we go, we’ll never get to where we want to be.  Activity without direction may feel good, but people can lose sight of the end goal.  Knocking on doors to get a candidate elected is a boring and often scary task for volunteers, but they are clear why they are doing it.  Do our volunteers know why they have agreed to undertake a task. The end goal must be clear and compelling.

Ownership: People who are involved in making a decision will own it.  People who are just told what to do are likely to disappoint us. Going through the process of getting “by-in” may take longer, but has a better chance of getting the job done than by constant “nudging” Leadership should make sure that the Board understands that when they make a decision, they own it. If they are going to raise more money, they have to develop a mechanism to do so, not just hand it off to staff.  The more that the leadership focuses on the mission and is a cheerleader, the better chance that the volunteers will be successful..

Have fun! Wherever possible, do thing together. People enjoy being with others when they are doing mundane tasks, such as sending out flyers, making follow-up “thank you” calls, packing meals for delivery, assembling mailers, or dozens of other critical support tasks. This builds the morale of the board or committee. They can celebrate little successes together. They can laugh and have fun. Bring in the pizza and have a good time.