Nonprofit YEAH!

Your board seats have terms. I presume. But do you have term limits? Should you have term limits? This podcast is a look at why term limits may or may not be a good thing for your board. Believe it or not, there are really good reasons not to have term limits... for some organizations.

The only thing that's "the same" about every nonprofit is that we all must adhere to IRS requirements, and rules laid down by the Secretary of State. Every organization branches out from there because people - you, me - get involved. We bring our own personalities to the organization.

Can this personality be changed? Yes! Should it? You in your organization might want to take a look at what it is you like about your personality, and what you don't. You can change, and the first step is to talk about it.

When you make the "Ask" for a nonprofit, there are two responses. There's "yes!" and it means your donor has moved from prospect to donor. Yes means yes. If your prospect says "no" it usually is a nuanced answer. It's either "no," or it's "no... I need to think about it." There are a lot of meanings to 'no,' and it's your job to take a no as an opportunity. You can learn and become stronger for the future. And by treating the 'no' as a possibility, you might even get this donor prospect to become a donor in the future.

Your nonprofit organization needs a strategic plan. It guides you for the year, or three, or five... it's your road map to the future. It holds your feet to the fire, assigns responsibilities, and helps you budget. Supporters love to hear you have a plan, too. How do you create one? This episode dives into the steps and reasons. It takes a concerted effort by staff and board, and it's work that really pays off.

Take a listen and pass it around!

Mark Twain has a couple of good quotes about doing hard things. The essence of his guidance is that if you have to do something hard, do it first thing in the morning. The rest of your day will seem easy! We do lots of hard things in nonprofit, and often they're messy, and we don't exactly know what we're doing. This episode is about getting down and dirty and eating that frog, even if you don't know how to do it.

It doesn't occur to many small and medium sized nonprofits to get their books audited. It didn't to me when I started one 20 years ago. But it turns out to be a great exercise to understand where your organization is under-performing, and even over-performing. It covers you if the IRS comes knocking, and it impresses those donors who ask to see your financials. This episode explains the why's and how's of organization auditing.

Sometimes we get lost in the urgency of the work, or we become to routine and staid. In this episode I urge you to shake it up a bit, reintroduce some fun, food, and a little French into your meetings and other work.

Boards and staffs are filled with all kinds of people. We all have Super Powers. Often, however, one or a few voices are heard again and again. Whether it's a founder (thank you for being a founder!), or an overly-assertive board member, the cost of them being heard a lot, is that others are rarely heard. In this episode I urge you to 'show up, listen up, and speak up!'

I had the opportunity to sit down with Beth Stipe, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of North Central Washington. Don't worry if your organization isn't in one of the three counties her organization serves - CFNCW is one of 700 community foundations across the country. One of them almost certainly serves your area. Beth talks about how they do their work, why it matters, and how you can be successful in working with a community foundation to further your mission and programs.

The very last week of the year should be a time that you give donors a chance to make a gift. These are the ones that may say, "You know, I meant to give them a hundred bucks this year..." and it's an impulse gift imbued with the holiday spirit. (It's also imbued with the IRS if the donor itemizes.) This is how to make it easy.