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, […]

At the first board meeting I ever attended, the only person who spoke was my boss, the executive director. Driving back to the office, she asked me what I thought of the meeting. I told her the board was not very engaged. She agreed and said, “I just don’t know how to change that.” I […]

In the May 1st online edition of the Chronicle of Philanthropy a headline stated: “Charities Give Boards Little Training in Fund Raising, Study Finds.” I would argue that most board members do not want training in fund raising. They didn’t join our organizations because they wanted to learn how to prospect, cultivate, and make “asks.” […]

Here’s a simple way to find out. In a middle of a board meeting, look at the people around the table and ask yourself: Does the quality of this discussion match the quality of people? Granted, “quality” is fairly subjective. Yet, it is pretty easy to tell if you have a group of individuals who […]