This article originally appeared in the Nonprofit Quarterly in 2005.  “We will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.”This declaration by President Kennedy is considered one of the most effective national promises ever made. Not because we were fascinated by the moon, or space, or even science, but because it […]

I was sitting in a board meeting this evening asking myself this question and at the same time my brain went click. Off it went. I just nodded my head for the rest of the meeting wondering if I had drool coming out of the side of my mouth. I know there is no such […]

Here are three key ingredients to create an effective mission statement.  

Several year’s ago I was facilitating a meeting when the president of the organization said… “We are not who we are.” That odd statement codified what everyone was feeling in the room—lost. Somewhere along the organization’s journey it got detoured and ended up in a place it never intended to go, serving the community not […]

Without telling anyone I decided to take the summer off from the blog. Unfortunately, I took the summer off from being a board member too. I didn’t tell anyone about this either. It was not my intention to stop being a decent board member, it just happened. I got wrapped up in my consulting work, […]