Nonprofit Board Crisis

Nonprofit President versus US President

Last week President Obama called upon the Boy Scouts to change their position regarding acceptance of gay men.  At this point if I were President I would instead be asking what steps the Scouts will be taking to reduce the risks to scouts threatened by its pedophile leaders.  This is of couse just one more of the many issues that are inherently part of Souting DNA, 

But my better question for today centers on who really has the authority to get a nonprofit to behave differently.  I believe the answer to be simple: the board of directors are the only folks with authority to make change. 

Outside of the board, there are others who may influence change:

Donors -- don't give, give less or give with restrictions

Volunteers -- can express their opnions or not volunteer

Consumers -- stop using the service and maybe give voice

Bottom line -- a nonprofit doesn't have to change its behaviors and it can take the consequences that donors, volunteers and consumers may take their business elsewhere.

 

Nonprofit CEO Resigns

Why is the process for leadership replacement by faith-centered organizations so different from most non-faith centered organizations? 

Today, the Pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, announced he would resign this year.  This is the first time in 600 years a Pope has resigned.  Tradition has been that a pope's only way "out" is death.  Once death or in this case, resignation occurs, the Church's second tier leaders will gather and determine who will be the next leader of the institution. 

Unlike with non-faith centered nonprofits, successsion planning and the use of interims tends not to be practices utilized to ensure a strong continuous leadership.  Skills and experiences in management, planning or even resource acquisition are not considered essential criteria for selection.  Rarely might a search firm be called upon to help develop clear criteria and conduct a search that will identify the best prospects to lead the organization's future. 

Nope, often the primary criteria for selecting leadership among the faith-centered nonprofits: faith. 

How do you think this has been working?

 

Nonprofit Arts Doomed

The Arts are doomed:(No, not specifically in the US. Yes, specifically in the Netherlands.  According to the New York Times,the Dutch government is slashing and burning Dutch arts groups and prospects for survival are dim.  The  Dutch government is balancing its funding priorities on the back of the arts and from what I can gather, that's just necessity.

Also from what I can tell, one reason that similar cuts by the US government have not had the exact same impact on the arts (noting, not exactly the SAME) I believe is because of nonprofit boards and more of a diverse funding base that includes sales and private donors.  Just a hypothesis mind, but I propose that US nonprofit arts boards do some significant heavy lifting that in turn ensures that US nonprofit arts groups have better prospects for survival even with a signficant drop in Federal funding.