Preparing A Nonprofit Board Welcome Kit and Check-off List:

Some nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations have Board Welcome Kits, material that helps a new board member begin the learning process about the intricacies of the organization.  Such Kits briefly tell the story and the history of the agency (and if the agency is part of a national body that history as well).  The board in most organizations is the leadership for creating and establishing policy, keeping the vision, passion and mission at the forefront.  In most NPOs the board members are expected to give funds and help raise funds for the organization.  The Kit should address the role of the board and list the functions as follows: 

• Establishing and reviewing the budget
• Selecting and receiving the report of the auditor
• Hiring, evaluating, and firing the executive director
• Setting the mission and broad policy for the organization
• Approving all grants and contracts (with recognition some applications have to be filed without board approval but are subject to later review)
• Overseeing accountability to clients/customers, funding sources, and other source-standards
• Participating in strategic and long-range planning
• Establishing priorities
• Evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization
• Establishing the role of individual board members contributing to the organization and in fund raising
• Understanding the legal aspects of board membership, fiduciary responsibilities, ethics of a nonprofit organization, loyalty, conflict of interest, and confidentiality.

There may be limits to the board's authority and responsibilities that are required by law, by ethics or by contracts.  The Kit can describe briefly how staff handles its activities and outline that client/customer information will not be provided to board members except statistically.  There are instances that individual board members may attempt to pressure staff to break policy to assist a relative or friend; the Kit should address the process for ALL clients/customers to receive assistance.  There can be pressure from funding sources and politicians as well to help someone outside of the intake process.  The Kit should address that, but there should be some conscious agreement how that will be handled as well. 

The Kit should address what insurance the organization has and its sufficiency of coverage, how board members may be reimbursed for agency business travel, which they serve without a stipend (although some organizations pay members). Does the budget include a line item for board training and travel?  There should be an indication of the effect of a board member seeking employment with the organization - resign before applying for a job.  A short section in the Kit about the management of the organization clearly stating the executive director hires, evaluates and fires staff, that there are staff meetings, and that there is supervision and formal evaluation of staff.  The Kit can have the following checklist with some detail:

• Information board members should have (list of board and contact information and staff, organization chart, budgets, etc.)
• The awareness of when a board may legally have closed meetings within the state and what documents are open records to the community and the media
• The good faith responsibilities of the board (attend meetings, receive and read material before the meetings, assure minutes are accurate, issues serving on other community boards, etc.)
• Awareness of organizational operations (incorporation papers, bylaws, human resources, conflict of interest, possible litigation, etc.)
• Knowledge of the human resources of the agency (clear personnel policies, staff reflective of the community diversity, adherence to all written policies, grievance procedure for staff and for clients/customers, board orientation process, etc.)
• Information about the finances (internal controls, regular financial reports and projections, annual audit, property inventory, tax forms filed timely and paid timely, role of board as contributor and as a fund-raiser, etc.)
• Involvement in planning (is there a 3-5 year plan consistent with mission, annual evaluation of program effectiveness and efficiency, etc.) and
• Participation in community relations (dealing with the media – whose responsibilities, clear guidelines on client information, assessment of community needs and priorities, relationships with other nonprofits and government service offices, representative board, etc.).

One discussion that has to occur periodically is the expectation as part of the corporate culture that board members contribute financially annually according to means and passion, the board historically and the staff that the board have to help raise funds and the board’s expectation it is not the staff's responsibility to raise the necessary money.  There is significant literature that citizens are tired of receiving letters to support this or that.  There are also significant studies indicating that for many nonprofits, the board disagrees with staff about the role of fund-raiser.  Without meeting that issue and having it clear and agreed upon as corporate culture, there will be an unhealthy aspect where the rubber meets the road, where the board perceives its role.

The board needs to have a clear understanding who will maintain the records and that the records belong to the organization, not the person.  The board needs to develop an accounting procedure for reconciling accounts regularly and auditing the accounts by members who are not handling the funds.  What paperwork will be needed in order to generate a check?

The board needs to develop written policies, procedures, forms and recordkeeping capability for fiscal accountability.  Who will maintain the corporate files for fiscal accountability?  How will the board know what is going on?   

If you are involved with a nonprofit organization as a staff member, volunteer, board member, or funder, are you sure that the organization is following all legal and contractual obligations?  Do you have written policies and are you following them?  Where do you place your loyalty, values, passion, vision – this nonprofit group or another nonprofit on whose board you serve? What community do you serve and represent?

As a board member or staff member do you know about your rights and responsibilities about advocating for pubic policy affecting your organization, its clients, customers and the community it services?

Are you thinking about incorporating a not-for-profit organization?  Do you or the organization have a business plan, a mission, a vision, goals and measurable objectives, appropriate activities and are they being met?  What roles are expected of the board or staff and are those expectations being met?  When was the last time the organization was given a wellness checkup?  Just as we humans need medical and dental checkups and our motor vehicle needs a checkup, so do nonprofit organizations need a checkup.  Are you part of a sick organization that needs a tune up or are you humming on all cylinders? Do you want to know how well your group is? 

Here is the start of an online library.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Implications for Nonprofit Organizations – 

http://www.independentsector.org/issues/sarbanesoxley.html

Audit Committee Toolkit - http://www.aicpa.org/Audcommctr/toolkitsnpo/homepage.htm

Checklist for Accountability - http://www.independentsector.org/issues/accountability/Checklist/index.html   

Article by Jeffrey S. Gittler, CPA for Guidestar in August 2011, Roles and Responsibilities of Nonprofit Audit Committee Members

http://www2.guidestar.org/rxa/news/articles/2011/nonprofit-audit-committee-roles-and%20responsibilities.aspx?hq_e=el&hq_m=1234478&hq_l=11&hq_v=e088500728

Insurance Questions for Nonprofits – http://www.idealist.org/if/i/en/faq/144-221/50-5

Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice: A Guide for Charities and Foundations http://www.nonprofitpanel.org/

Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability Standards and Best Practices - http://www.ecfa.org/Content.aspx?PageName=ECFABestPractices

Maryland Nonprofits: Standards for Excellence - An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector - http://www.marylandnonprofits.org/html/standards/04_02.asp

Standards for Charity Accountability - http://us.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=113&id=4dd040fd-08af-4dd2-aaa0-dcd66c1a17fc  

2010 New Year’s Resolution – No New Nonprofits Unless…

http://dongriesmannsnonprofitblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/2010-new-years-resolution-no-new.html

Minutes: The Ongoing Record of Your Nonprofit Organization

http://dongriesmannsnonprofitblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Agenda

One Phase of Nonprofit Organizational Readiness for Grant Funding: Recordkeeping

http://dongriesmannsnonprofitblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/one-phase-of-nonprofit-organizational.html   

The Nonprofit Business Plan - Program Precedes Money. Planning Precedes Program

http://dongriesmannsnonprofitblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/nonprofit-business-plan-program.html

http://www.idealist.org/media/pdf/FAQ/080123NP_Biz_Plan.pdf  

Before you join that board... from the Wall Street Journal, November 28. 2011 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203716204577018071821606512.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments

A Reflection about Nonprofits – Eliminating Poverty or Trying to Make It Palatable?

A Reflection about Nonprofits – Eliminating Poverty or Trying to Make It Palatable? Blog Action Day - Poverty 2008

Palatable: acceptable or agreeable to the mind or feelings: palatable ideas. Dictionary.com, http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=palatable

A nonprofit, nongovernmental and governmental organization that features the word “Poverty” in its mission or vision statement, its goals and objectives should be reflecting and meditating today on that word: poverty. When I write “poverty” I include all its relatives, low-income community, working poor, low-income senior citizens, low-income disabled people, poverty community, the poor, homeless, medically unserved, people who are too different than us and are not deserving (to eat, to work, to have a home, to live) and so on.

Poverty in the United States and the world is predominately about women, children, disabled people, senior citizens and people who are “different”.

The reflection and meditation on the word “poverty” should include whether the group is seeking to eliminate poverty, for a person, a family, a neighborhood, a village, a country, the world or simply making it palatable. And the reflection, meditation should include palatable to whom? Is palatability for the person or family or group who are poor or palatable to the organization or palatable to the supporters of the organization or palatable to the rest of the world?

Reflection and meditation: Thinking with your soul and your brain.

Poverty is never palatable, never acceptable, and never agreeable to those who are poor. Never!

The poor may ask, “Are you trying to make me unpoor or to help me accept my poverty a little better today than I did yesterday?” What is the organization’s answer? What is your personal answer?

How does your organization show demonstrably to the poor and the rest of us that it is attempting to its fullest capabilities to eliminate poverty? Or are you satisfied with palatability?

Foundations, corporations, governmental bodies, donors: where do you stand on poverty? If poverty is what you are fighting, how are you demonstrating that through grants not only for services to the poor but also for advocacy by and for poor people? Who is listening to those you serve? Who is attacking the people who attack the poor?

In my view service without advocacy is leaving poverty palatable to someone…not the clients or customers or patients who receive the service. Advocacy is attacking the causes of poverty, the policies and decisions that have impact making or keeping poor people poor.

One interesting take on poverty that lingers with me is an article by Professor Herbert J. Gans of Columbia University written in 1972, The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All. He writes in part:

"… there may be some merit in applying functional analysis to poverty, in asking whether it also has positive functions that explain its persistence.

[Snip]

Associating poverty with positive functions seems at first glance to be unimaginable. Of course, the slumlord and the loan shark are commonly known to profit from the existence of poverty, but they are viewed as evil men, so their activities are classified among the dysfunctions of poverty.

However, what is less often recognized, at least by the conventional wisdom, is that poverty also makes possible the existence or expansion of respectable professions and occupations, for example, penology, criminology, social work, and public health. More recently, the poor have provided jobs for professional and para-professional "poverty warriors," and for journalists and social scientists, this author included, who have supplied the information demanded by the revival of public interest in poverty.

Clearly, then, poverty and the poor may well satisfy a number of positive functions for many nonpoor groups in American society. I shall describe thirteen such functions - economic, social and political - that seem to me most significant."

[Snip]

For the thirteen positive functions that help keep poor people poor see the full article.
http://www.sociology.org.uk/as4p3.pdf

Is your organization in there? Are you in there? And am I in there? How will we change after reflection and meditation about poverty today?

Excellence can be attained if you

-Care more often than others think wise.

-Risk more often than others think is safe.

-Dream more often than others think is practical.

-Expect more than others think is possible.

Janet Cagery, date unknown

http://wku.edu/teaching/db/quotes/byart.php

The Mission Statement - The Spiritual Rudder

Some 40 years ago I developed the Camden Episcopal Community Center in the heart of Camden NJ. The center continues in existence serving the community as the Camden Community Center at Broadway and Royden. Back 40 years ago when I sought funding and prepared grant applications, no one talked about mission statements.

The times changed and the concept of a mission statement for nonprofit and for-profit corporations caught on. Looking back on the change, I say it is a great idea. When statements took hold, it was not very clear what it should and maybe not say. I remember the first mission statement I used I wrote myself. It did not dawn on me to include others in the process of creating it and celebrating it. It had some 4 paragraphs of multiple sentences. I have no idea what it was about now.

The idea of a mission statement is now so burned into me that I cannot envision a nonprofit that does not spend the time and energy creating one.

What is it? How do we define a "mission statement"?

I call it the spiritual rudder. It defines the purpose for the nonprofit's existence. It briefly describes the uniqueness of the organization, why it exists, what it will accomplish. It gives the board, the staff, the community and potential funders a sense of what the organization stands for. It keeps the organization focused and under control.

As the rudder guides and forces a boat, ship, airplane or submarine to stay on course when water, wind and weather attempt to move it off course, the spiritual rudder maintains the direction when inside and outside forces attempt to change it. It is strong. It is bold. It expresses the soul of the organization, the spiritual rudder.

Creating the mission statement is not a solo act. It can and should be considered and discussed by the leadership. The board and/or staff can participate in several ways including saying how the members want to proceed. My experience shows that it can be a slow process. That is it can be democratized for greater sharing and dreaming. I have been in a process that took six months and resulted in a universal agreement of what the organization was about. We celebrated the end - which was a new beginning.

We used the statement regularly. It had to be out front. We posted it at staff and board meetings. All or the heart of the statement was a watermark on letterhead. It appeared in all publicity, all grant applications. We created a portable, folding triptych poster display for community events featuring the mission statement at the top center. My last development of a mission statement, except for myself, predated websites and other wonderful ways to position the mission statement.

It was not important whether it was short enough for a baseball cap or too long to memorize. It was more important that it was accurate, honest, forceful and expressed our values.

The statement may have to be revisited every so many years. Organizations grow, slide, shift in focus. New people, changed circumstances may alter the direction with a better way to say the words for the spiritual rudder.

Every corporation, including nonprofits, develop a corporate culture. That culture should be influenced by the mission statement from as early a moment as possible, from the first board meeting onward if possible.

For experienced nonprofits that are considering a mission statement for the first time, the development process should have an effect on the culture and can have positive and negative implications that will have to be managed.

The mission statement is the "bottom line". It is one of the three Ms - mission, management and money.

Some resources for understanding a mission statement, a vision statement, marketing, positioning, and advocacy:

Tony Poderis, The Mission Checklist,
http://www.raise-funds.com/1101forum.html and
http://www.raise-funds.com/exhibits/exhibit46.html

Carter McNamara’s Basics of Developing Mission, Vision and Values Statements
http://www.managementhelp.org/plan_dec/str_plan/stmnts.htm

“So, when you are preparing your Mission Statement remember to make it clear and succinct, incorporating socially meaningful and measurable criteria and consider approaching it from a grand scale. As you create your Mission Statement consider including some or all of the following concepts.

1. The moral/ethical position of the enterprise


2. The desired public image


3. The key strategic influence for the business


4. A description of the target market


5. A description of the products/services


6. The geographic domain


7. Expectations of growth and profitability”

From Business Resource Software, Inc. Mission Statement http://www.businessplansoftware.org/advice_mission.asp

Often overlooked at the beginning of the development of a new organization is communication. Communication includes talking and listening. You will find some guidance through these concepts at Smart Chart 3.0 http://www.smartchart.org/ Free registration required.

Independent Center’s Mission & Market: The Resource Center for Effective Corporate-Nonprofit Partnerships
http://www.independentsector.org/mission_market/index.html

Ron Meshanko’s article at Idealist.com, What should our mission statement say?
http://www.idealist.org/if/idealist/en/FAQ/QuestionViewer/default?section=03&item=21

Joanne Fritz’s article at About.com, How to Avoid Mission Creep: 7 Hallmarks of Mission Statements That Stay Put
http://nonprofit.about.com/od/nonprofitmanagement/tp/Mission-Creep.htm

Joanne Fritz’s article at About.com, Mission Impossible? How to Write Your Mission Statement http://nonprofit.about.com/od/nonprofitbasics/a/mission.htm

Third Sector New England, Strategic Communications Blog Video: What is the difference between a nonprofit’s mission and vision?
http://tsne.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/vlog_mission/

Nancy Schwartz, The Nonprofit Tag Line Report
http://www.gettingattention.org/tagline_report.pdf

Vince Hyman, Positioning Your Organization for Success http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/npEnterprise/message/2094

Vince Hyman, Reputation Builders http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/npEnterprise/message/2131

Alder Consulting, Branding Your Organization through Your Website
http://www.alderconsulting.com/branding.html

SAMPLE MISSION STATEMENT

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is the national, professional organization for all certified public accountants. Its mission is to provide members with the resources, information and leadership that enable them to provide valuable services in the highest professional manner to benefit the public, employers and clients.

And how do you achieve this mission?
http://www.aicpa.org/MediaCenter/MissionStatement.htm

Use your mission statement for advocating for your organization and what it is doing. We do not spend much energy advocating for our nonprofits and we should . When you advocate for your organization, advocate with the mission statement involved.

Be at the helm of your spiritual rudder.