Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

By Wendy Liscow
Program Officer

What if you could attend a workshop and magically walk away feeling renewed and ready to face the daily challenges of running a nonprofit organization?  What if you suddenly saw your organization’s programs, staffing, financial circumstances and board through a lifecycle lens that made everything you were experiencing come into focus and you no longer felt  alone because you understand that every organization has or will go through a similar process?  You would find the time, right?

Through May, 2012 the Dodge Foundation is offering a Board Leadership Training Series that promises to provide new tools for strengthening your organization by increasing the effectiveness of the board. The series began on October 18th with two foundational basics:

1. Understanding where your organization is on the nonprofit lifecycle continuum, and
2. Learning how to rethink assessment practices so that you measure the things you care about most in order to improve the work.

It was a day of paradigm shifts. By the afternoon we could turn off the artificial overhead lighting, because so many proverbial light bulbs had been turned on!

David Grant, former Dodge President and CEO, spent the morning teaching Nonprofit Lifecycle basics as described by Susan Stevens in her book Nonprofit Lifecycles: A Stage-based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity. Her theory underscores that you need a different type of board for each stage of organizational lifecycles. For example, if you run a Start-Up organization and your ideas and programs are expanding rapidly because, you are seizing every opportunity that presents itself; you can expect your board to be very hands on. This board is doing whatever it takes to keep the organization running, even if it means licking envelopes, hosting the bake sale, or cleaning the bathrooms. They are working tirelessly because they believe in the founder and his/her vision.

But there comes a time when your programs grow so much that you need to hire more staff to accomplish your goals. Now you need a different kind of board. You need a board that has a clearer understanding of their governance role, one that can develop a strategic plan and help with the fundraising to implement the plan to navigate through this Growth Stage.  This is when the organization begins looking for board members who can help out with legal, financial, marketing and other specific issues. And it can be stressful when the “jack-of-all trades” faithful founding board members are no longer a match for the organization’s needs.

Or maybe you are on your second or third executive director and programs are well-established. You have a strong staff serving in the right seats on the bus. When you get to this Mature Stage, the danger is that boards can become so complacent and confident that all is going well (the Executive Director would have told them if it wasn’t going well, right?) that they fall asleep at the wheel and go into a Decline stage. If the board isn’t prepared to step up their governance role, and execute a Turnaround an organization can reach the Terminal Stage. Just knowing that this is a common risk factor for this lifecycle stage can be enough to prevent it from happening.

The second half of the training day focused on changing how we think about Assessment, practicing a new way of evaluating our work, and discussing what gets in the way of this important effort. I wish every nonprofit in New Jersey could attend this workshop. Fortunately, we have developed a step-by-step online version of the workshop that can give you a taste of what healthy assessment looks like.

There are seven remaining workshops in the Board Leadership Training Series. After each workshop we will ask the instructor and attendees to share their biggest takeaways. I must confess that I too was feeling so jazzed after David Grant’s Lifecycle and Assessment workshop that I kept asking questions, so the video is a bit long. But I guarantee it is worth the 11 minutes. David shares insight on what he feels are the biggest challenges facing nonprofits today and makes suggestions on how you can use Steven Covey’s concept of Quadrant II (PDF) time to change how you approach your work. He also suggests some other resources that you will definitely want to put on your read list. And if you get to the very end of the video, you find out who David would want to play him in the movie of his life!

Remember, you are not alone in your journey. We hope you will attend the Dodge Foundation Board Training Series and join a learning community of nonprofit leaders dedicated to doing great work and improving the quality of life in New Jersey. See you there!

UPDATE: When we published this blog post yesterday, we ran into technical issues with David Grant’s video. We believe we have fixed the issue, but in case you still can’t see view it, please click here.

As we lead up to the launch of our third annual Board Leadership Training Series in October, we’re happy to share a new guest series featuring previous participants and what they have learned. Last week, Laura Otten of the Nonprofit Centre at LaSalle University’s School of Business, kicked off the series with a few words of wisdom. This week, Alan Levitan, the Board President for the Arts Council of the Morris Area, offers several great, practical ideas for any of you who serve on a nonprofit board.

Board President Alan Levitan, Board 1st Vice President Anh Molloy, Executive Director Anne Aronovitch of the Arts Council of the Morris Area

Alan Levitan

Last year, I attended several of the Dodge Board Leadership Training Series workshops as part of a team of participants from the Arts Council of the Morris Area. Now in its 37th year, the Arts Council has long been committed to “bringing the arts to the center of community life.” With a passionate belief in the important and vital role that the arts play in our lives, the Arts Council continues to find new and creative ways to deliver its wide variety of programs, as well as to work towards the building of a sustainable community in which the arts are an integral part. The Arts Council’s able staff is complemented by a dedicated Board, currently 26 strong with a diverse representation of artists, professionals, business people, educators, and community volunteers.

Since I first became a member of the Arts Council’s Executive Committee, and especially in the past 2½ years that I have been President of the Board, the Board has focused on how to strengthen the organization as a whole: from fundraising and marketing to finances and governance. But I have come to realize that an important component underlying all of those areas is the strength of the Board itself. While all of the Dodge Leadership workshops that we attended were useful, it was the “Care and Feeding of Quality Board Members” workshop in the Spring of 2010 that provided an important framework for work in that area. Attended by our Executive Director and two other Board members, in addition to myself, the workshop provided very valuable information that we embraced with gusto.

So what did we learn and how have we applied what we learned? Here are just a couple of the areas that we began to focus on:

Board Recruitment & Development

To strengthen our process of identifying individuals whose passion, expertise and commitment match what the organization is looking for, we developed/revised several tools that were suggested during the course of the workshop:

• We revised our Board Profile Form, including a new “connections” section which will help in fundraising as well as in recruiting volunteers and new board candidates.
• We developed a method for allowing prospective Board candidates to get to know the Arts Council’s programs and activities before moving to the next step of being recommended to the Board.
• We developed a Frequently Asked Questions summary that gives an important overview of the organization. We have already used it with potential Board candidates and will use in our new Board member orientation program, in addition to sharing it with our existing Board.
• We have begun to reassess the role of the Nominating Committee, recognizing the important greater role that it can and should play in the life of the Board. No longer just focused on proposing new candidates to the Board, the Committee will be taking on a greater role in educating and developing Board members. As a natural outgrowth, a change of the Committee’s name from Nominating to Board Development is being considered.

Board Commitment

To strengthen communication with and among Board members, as well as to reinforce the responsibilities and expectations of Board members, we created several new tools:

• We developed an Annual Commitment Letter to refresh our knowledge of what we originally signed on for and to renew our commitment to the organization we all love.
• We developed and are using new Board assessment tools that include an assessment of initial Board members by the leadership, a member self-assessment, and a group assessment activity, currently in the planning stages for an October retreat.
• We have already set our calendar dates for the entire year for the Board and all committee meetings to allow for better interaction between Board/committee members.
• Our Executive Director began a monthly e-mail to Board members with a calendar of the organization’s events—not only Board activities, but also all staff-led programs and activities taking place during the month. We believe that by disseminating these dates in advance, we are encouraging Board members to become better educated about the organization through attending programs and events.

Board Meetings

In strengthening the Board to attract and maintain good Board members, we realized that we needed to take steps to ensure that we keep those Board members engaged, particularly in these times when Board members often have busy careers and/or diverse community commitments.

Using tools from the workshop, we began to reframe the structure of our Board meetings with the result that both the content and the value of our meetings are in positive transition. We are moving away from “historical reflection” (i.e. what has happened since our last meeting) to proactively focusing on the elements of our strategic plan, using our Board for what we have determined to be a huge strength: brainstorming big issues and mapping courses of action. We learned there are better ways to disseminate committee work, event planning and other “routine” organizational business information without wasting valuable time listening to reports at meetings. We also now begin each Board meeting with an “Arts Moment” that engages the Board in an arts experience. After all, we are the Arts Council! So far we have incorporated both music and poetry into our meetings.

I can honestly say that most of the actions highlighted in this blog were a direct result of what we learned at the Dodge workshop. However, I believe that a key reason we have accomplished so much is that the four of us attending the workshop met less than one week later to debrief what we had learned and to summarize what we felt was useful to bring back to the Board. This summary became our “to-do” list that kept us committed to accomplish as much as we have.

We hope that we have taken on the challenge that Laura Otten described in the last blog, and we echo her sage advice.

In addition to his role as president of the Arts Council of the Morris Area, Alan Levitan also serves on four other non-profit boards and one public company board. Mr. Levitan is the former president and CEO of Kings Super Markets and currently owns a consulting firm specializing in helping food manufacturers go to market as well as assisting large retailers increase sales through a combination of improving marketing, merchandising and promotions skills.

If you’ve been following along the last several Mondays, you know that we’ve been hearing from grantees who have recently taken part in our Board Leadership Training Series workshops and are now telling their stories about how they are applying what they’ve learned to their organizations. Today, we hear from Eddie Rogers of The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey who discusses his experience joining the board as it was going through major transition and how they’ve managed to increase both the quality and the quantity of their work.

Hard at Work at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey

When I was approached to join the Board of Trustees of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, I had some not-for-profit board experience, but I had not been involved with any arts organization, and there was not much that could be said of my specific qualifications. The most important factor may have been that I was filled with a passion for William Shakespeare and for the classic theater that is grist for the Theatre’s mill. I had been a subscriber to the Theatre’s season for six or seven years, and I was a modest donor with a willingness to contribute more of my “treasure” to the Theatre’s mission. I knew one other Trustee and I had some acquaintance with Bonnie Monte, our remarkable Artistic Director. I soon found out that there was much about the Theatre’s mission of which I was unaware.

A word about our mission: utilizing a company of loyal and talented Equity actors, the Theatre produces a season of six to seven plays on the “Indoor Stage”—the F.M. Kirby Theater on the Drew University campus—and one play at the “Outdoor Stage” of the Greek theater at the College of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station. These productions are drawn from Shakespeare’s canon, augmented by other classic works.

In addition, the Theatre is an educational institution. A touring company called “Shakespeare LIVE!” carries skillfully abridged versions of Shakespeare’s favorites to schools throughout New Jersey and beyond. We operate a Summer Professional Training Program offering comprehensive theatrical training, both performance and technical, to young people seeking a career in the theater. And finally, we provide an introduction to serious acting for middle and high school students through our Junior and Senior Corps programs. The Theatre also offers residency programs to local schools seeking a more concentrated Shakespearean experience.

F.M. Kirby Theater at Drew University

The Board is as focused on the success of these educational programs as on the more “public” aspects of the Theatre’s activities. Not only do they open the way to a broad range of potential financial support, they also enhance the institution’s stature and, most importantly, lay the foundation for a new generation passionate about Shakespeare.

When I joined the Board , I was advised that the Board of Trustees had recently been through a certain turmoil, in the course of which about one-half of the Trustees had resigned. The Board was in serious need of “reconstituting,” and one could say I was part of the “reconstitution.” In terms of board “lifecycles,” the Theatre was pretty definitively in the “Turnaround Stage.” We were facing significant challenges:

• Finding new Trustees to fill the many vacancies;

• Financing ongoing operations in a hostile economic climate;

• Finding a way to eliminate a cumulative deficit;

• Finding new support facilities to replace the distant and dangerous scene-building facilities we had been utilizing.

The “old” Trustees (most of whom had considerable tenure on the Board) strongly believed that proper Board organization was critical to addressing these issues. The Board Committee on Trustees (since renamed the Governance Committee) had the unenviable task of assuring an adequate Board membership, and during 2009 virtually doubled the size of the Board. I might say in passing that having been in the position of attempting to recruit not-for-profit board members myself, I regard the accomplishments of this Committee and the Board’s leadership as awesome. The recruitment of quality Trustees was critical to the Theatre’s fundraising goals, but it was also important to find role players to spread the Theatre’s message. The Board was rigorous in defining the qualities required from any new trustee and unwavering in ensuring that all newly-appointed trustees met the very highest standards that we had set. Whatever success we have achieved has been the result of a constant review and culling of the candidate list by the Governance Committee and remorseless focus on the goal by a core of Trustees and the Artistic Director. (more…)

If you’ve been following along the last several Mondays, you know that we’ve been hearing from grantees who have recently taken part in our Board Leadership Training Series workshops and are now telling their stories  about how they are applying what they’ve learned to their organizations. Allison Trimarco of Creative Capacity kicked off the series with some really helpful and humorous advice about fundraising. We also heard about fundraising from Matt Finlay. Ruth Fost talked about organizational succession planning while Liz Mitchell shared her organization’s turnaround story. All of these experiences, as well as today’s excellent post (John Gattuso of the Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance talks about losing and choosing board members), are, we hope, helpful to all of you folks in the nonprofit world who are struggling with the same issues.

We encourage you to comment on any of these blog posts with your thoughts, your questions, or your own organization’s struggles and stories and get a conversation going. At Dodge, we see this blog as a community forum – a place to get and give information – so your input is always welcome.

Stepping Up, Stepping Down

I joined the board of the Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance about six years ago and have served as an officer for about four—first as vice president, now president. It’s been a period of rapid growth for the group, which was founded in 1996 as an all-volunteer organization and now has a staff of six.

I sometimes say the organization is in its adolescence: constantly changing and prone to growing pains. And while growth can be exciting, it’s also tricky to manage. Good planning is essential, but, as we learned at Dodge over the last couple of years, a plan will only go so far if we don’t have the people to execute and revise it. Thinking about what the organization is going to do is only half the battle. Knowing who is going to do it is equally important. For our trustees, and especially for our leadership, that meant getting a handle on the issue of board succession.

Ironically, one of the first and most important lessons we learned is to get comfortable with the idea of losing board members. Initially, I felt that a trustee resignation was a sign of failure. And, in truth, we lost several people in my first few years whom I regarded as part of the organization’s brain trust—some of our most experienced and accomplished members, not to mention a couple of our biggest donors. But I also saw a new generation of trustees step in and fill the void. We were lucky. The transition happened more or less organically, because we had people ready to move into leadership positions. But what if the situation had been different? What if nobody was prepared to lead? Clearly, this is not the sort of thing you want to leave to chance.

With Dodge’s encouragement, we came to realize that losing board members isn’t a defeat. On the contrary, it’s an opportunity to reinvigorate the board with new people, fresh ideas, and a broader network of supporters. It’s unreasonable to expect trustees to serve indefinitely, and it’s unfair to the organization to retain board members who aren’t fully engaged.

As a first step, our executive committee decided to do a simple check-in with our fellow trustees. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a phone call to discuss their thoughts about the organization and their plans for the future. Did they feel their time and talents were being utilized effectively? Did they have an interest in a leadership role? Did they intend to continue serving on the board?

As it turned out, some trustees were thinking about stepping down but were reluctant to do so out of a sense of loyalty. They needed to know that it was possible to exit gracefully, with the organization’s thanks for their years of service. Just by starting the conversation, we gave them permission to leave the board with a sense of accomplishment instead of guilt.

Of course, the other half of the equation is finding new trustees. Until recently, our method—if you can call it that—depended mostly on personal recommendations. Typically, one of our board members would suggest a candidate and, after a little bit of vetting and a meeting or two, he or she would be invited to join the board.

Now we approach board nominations much as we would a new hire. It starts with an analysis of the skills, experience, and personal qualities the organization needs. We solicit names of potential nominees from our trustees and associates, narrow the list down depending on how well the candidates meet our criteria, then interview each one. It’s a fairly involved process, but it works. We recently welcomed five new trustees and three non-trustee committee members. Equally important, we’ve already started identifying prospects for our next round of nominations.

Finding and cultivating new talent is one of the key responsibilities of board membership, and it requires a sustained effort. Admittedly, it’s not always the most comfortable thing to contemplate—nobody likes to think they’re replaceable. But when the time comes to step off the board—and sooner or later that time comes for everybody—we should do so with the knowledge that we’re leaving behind people who can do the job at least as well as we did, if not better.

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John Gattuso is president of the Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance, a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the natural resources, open spaces, and productive farms of Hunterdon County, New Jersey. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Milford, New Jersey, where he runs a design and communications firm.

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