Upcoming Learning Opportunities
for board members, staff, and volunteers
of nonprofit organizations in South-western Ontario

Executive Directors'
& Nonprofit Leaders' Breakfast

Nathan Garber & Associates and Pillar Nonprofit Network are proud to present another series of breakfast sessions for executive directors and others who are working to strengthen the governance and management of nonprofit organizations. Here is our schedule for 2009

Why We Don’t Do Proper Succession Planning - and What To Do About It.

Friday, March 27: 7:30 – 9:30 am

Presenter: Richard Weston, President, Weston Management Resources

Best Books for Nonprofit Leaders

Friday, June 12: 7:30 – 9:30 am

What books have influenced your leadership practices? Three respected executive directors will talk about the books that they found most interesting.

Presenters: Paul Hubert, Pathways Skill Development & Placement Centre; Jane Fitzgerald, Children’s Aid Society of London & Middlesex; and Lothar Liehmann, Craigwood Youth Services.

Risk Management for Nonprofits

Friday, October 23: 7:30 – 9:30 am

Speaker TBA

Location for all breakfasts: Delta London Armouries Hotel, 325 Dundas Street (at Waterloo Street) in London.

Breakfast at 7:30, speaker at 8:00

The cost is $35 (includes continental breakfast and GST). Members of  Pillar Nonprofit Network  pay $30.

To register, send an email to mindy@pillarnonprofit.ca  and mail your payment to Pillar Nonprofit Network, 251 Dundas St., London, ON N6A 6H9.
 

If you are not on my e-mail list and want to be notified about the next breakfast session, send an e-mail to Nathan@GarberConsulting.com

Excel Consultants Training in
Major Gifts and Planned Giving

 Excel at Major Gifts

Major Gifts are increasingly important to non-profits in raising more money than ever before for annual or one-time needs. This five workshop series will lead you through a process of creating a self-directed, customized plan for finding and approaching donors capable of supporting your organization with larger gifts.

Courses begin

April 8, 2009: Kitchener, Ontario

April 9, 2009: London, Ontario

April 15, 2009: Burlington, Ontario

Excel at Planned Giving

As the Baby Boomers prepare to pass on Trillions of dollars in wealth, secure your organization’s future by being the beneficiary of their generosity. Learn the personal, financial, tax, legal and estate-planning concepts that you need to know to be successful in securing bequests, life insurance, trusts, annuities and other gifts.

Course material is presented in easy-to-understand hands-on exercises teach you the step-by-step process of how to secure large donations. Next course dates:

 March 4, 2009: Windsor, Ontario

 For costs and registration information, contact info@excelconsultants.com

Newest Help Sheets

Strategic Planning Model and Terminology
Strategic planning is notable for the lack of standardized methods and terminology in the field. It is therefore useful to establish operational definitions for terms used in the planning process and to be clear about what elements are included in the strategic plan. This help-sheet describes the strategic planning model developed by Nathan Garber & Associates to help clarify the roles of the board and the management.
Strategic_Planning_Model.pdf

Dealing With a Poorly Performing Executive Director: A Guide for the President
Dealing with the executive director’s performance problems is one of the most difficult jobs for the volunteer president of a nonprofit organization. Although the circumstances will be different for every organization, there are some general steps you can take to prepare yourself to address the problems and come up with solutions. (added April, 2005) Dealing With a Poorly Performing Executive Director

Governance Committee Terms of Reference (revised April 2005)
Many organizations are replacing their once-a-year nominating committee with a governance committee that works year-round to strengthen the board through recruitment, training, and evaluation. I've prepared a sample statement of the terms of reference for a governance committee. Feel free to copy and adapt it to your organization.  Governance Committee Terms of Reference.

Get Ready For Strategic Planning: A Help Sheet
In a rapidly changing world, it is important to have clear goals for our organizations and to regularly review our progress. The steps in strategic planning provide a framework for the board to clarify organizational goals and evaluate different strategies for achieving those goals. This Help-Sheet lists the major steps in strategic planning, focusing on the role of the Board of Directors. Get Ready For Strategic Planning

Board of Directors Application Form
To build a strong and effective board, you must recruit and select volunteer board members with the same diligence you would apply to any other important position. If you have never had an application form for directors, you can use this as a template. Identify the skills you need for your board and modify the form as needed.
Sample Board Application Form.
 

Checklist for the Chairperson:
The chair can make the difference between a successful, productive, stimulating meeting and a frustrating, disappointing, waste of time. Chairing a meeting effectively does not come naturally, but it can be learned through practice and effort. Use this checklist to help your board or committee work more efficiently and effectively.
      Checklist for Chair - html format       Checklist for Chair - pdf format

360 Degree Performance Appraisal
Questionnaire Template:
(revised 2004) A template for creating questionnaires to obtain feedback from board members, sister agencies, funders, and employees. The results can be part of the performance appraisal of the CEO. Applies some principles of John Carver's Policy Governance model.  (Adobe Acrobat format only)  360_degree_questionnaire.pdf

Your feedback on these help sheets and my website is always welcome. Please reply to feedback

Newest Links

I've  recently added the following to my links page.

five new links to websites with good information on writing and presenting financial reports for the board of directors.  Financial Reports in Nonprofit Organizations.

abcGTA is an initiative of The Maytree Foundation aimed at addressing the current imbalance between the proportion of immigrants and visible minorities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and their relative lack of representation on the boards of public agencies, boards and commissions (abc). The project has published some well-constructed guides to help boards be responsive to the needs of the diverse communities their organizations serve. The two newest toolkits are

Diversity in Governance  www.abcgta.ca/docs/diversity_toolkit_nonprofit.pdf. is a toolkit describing  seven ways to dismantle barriers that potential board applicants may face, enabling organizations and board members to benefit from increasingly diverse skills, experiences, and perspectives.
 

Board Mentoring Handbook  www.abcgta.ca/docs/BoardMentoringHandbook.pdf  outlines a plan for a mentoring program to prepare new board members for full participation in the work of a nonprofit board.

Newest FAQ

What is a "Consent Agenda" and how will it make our meetings go faster?

What is the difference between a constitution and bylaws?

How much money should an organization have in a reserve fund?

What is the procedure for handling confidential matters?

Visit our  Frequently Asked Questions Page
for answers to your questions about nonprofit boards and governance.

Presidents' Club

The aim of the Club is that members will be able to effect positive change in the practices of the boards and committees that they chair. Through presentations, reviews of articles and tools, discussions, and e-mail communication with peers and experts, members will be better able to have better meetings, mentor their successors, develop stronger recruitment practices, improve accountability and planning, and create more effective boards.

Membership is open to volunteer presidents, vice-presidents, committee chairpersons and prospective presidents of nonprofit organizations.

The club addresses some of the difficult issues faced by volunteer officers, including

• Improving meeting management
• Strategies for recruiting new board members with the skills your board needs
• Dealing with board or committee members who are not fulfilling their responsibilities
• Recruiting and training your successor
• Evaluating governance models
• Evaluating the Executive Director
• Protecting your organization from liability
• Ethical and legal issues
• Supervising staff members
• Creating financial reports that everyone can understand
• Planning a board retreat Who is it for?

Meeting Format

The club provides face-to-face meetings for people within traveling distance as well as  telephone conference call supported by e-mail for members from other locations.

The format is informal, with topics to be decided by the group. We use case studies, and guest speakers, and collectively consider issues brought by participants. You will receive worksheets, articles and other valuable resources to supplement the sessions.

In order to facilitate discussion, group size is kept to a maximum of 10 to enable you to address the issues most important to you.

When and Where

to allow time for discussion and problem-solving, the face-to-face sessions are approx. 2 hours in the evening, held in London, Ontario.

Exact time, dates and location are set by members. If members wish, we can begin the meeting with dinner (see questions below).

Telephone conference calls are approx. 90 minutes in length.

Cost

 $180 (plus tax) for a six-month membership. Meetings and conference calls are held every two weeks.

For more information

For more information, click here to send me an e-mail. Let me know your name and location. I'll keep you informed of progress.

This Website Chosen for the
Nonprofit Good Practice Guide

I'm pleased to report that this website has been judged by The Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership  as as one of the most helpful resources on Governance for nonprofits and has been profiled in the Nonprofit Good Practice Guide. The Guide is a project of the Philanthropic and Nonprofit Knowledge Management (PNKM) Initiative, which seeks to capture, organize, disseminate, and promote the use of good practices in the nonprofit sector.