A Strategic Plan is a map. Strategic Planning is a systematic, documented process where the stakeholders agree and build commitment to, what actions need to be taken by the organization to reach its Vision. The term Strategic Plan usually brings chills to board members, the leadership team, and staff because of the usually confusing, complicated […]
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The Strategic Plan as a Map
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Hiring and retaining employees
Simple, common sense approaches to issues are often the least expensive and most effective. Continuously having to replace staff is very costly and the true cost is never known. Ramp up time for the new employee, lost client service opportunities and two of the costs that cannot be calculated. The time it takes to recruit […]
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The Need for Metrics
We made a preliminary call on a local nonprofit. They wanted to meet us and asked whether or not we would facilitate a workshop to come up with a “Yearly Work List.” We asked if there were documents about how they did this process. We needed to determine exactly what the organization was looking to […]
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Last week the Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Rice University hosted an insightful lecture by Dr. Bob Reid on transparency in private philanthropy: “A Foundation of Trust: Should Private Philanthropy be More Transparent?” (see featured image) Reid is the Executive Director of J. F. Maddox Foundation, a private philanthropic institution in Hobbs, New […]
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Building Rapport
During any staff or board training engagement, the facilitators from the Niles Partners emphasize rapport building. What does building rapport mean? Michael Brooks, author of Instant Rapport, defines rapport this way: “Being in rapport is the ability to enter someone else’s model of the world and let them know that we truly understand their model;” […]
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Strategic Plan Implementation
When the specialists at The Niles Partners facilitates a strategic plan, we take time to discuss implementing the strategic plan. All too often we see a beautiful binder sitting in the executive’s bookcase covered with dust. When asked about it, they respond, “oh that, it’s our strategic plan.” The dust tells the story of the […]
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Board Diversity
The Niles Partners believe board diversity is the primary consideration when assessing a prospective board member. The ability to give or get money is extremely important, however it is not the only qualification for board membership. If getting money is the only criterion by which new board members are brought on, the board may well […]
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The Board Member’s Annual Gift
The single most important responsibility a Board member has is to ensure the fiduciary viability of the organization they serve. Looking at the data The Niles Partners has collected over the years, the largest cause of friction on a Board is the annual personal gift we suggest each board member make to the agency. This […]
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Understanding your organization’s financials
If you serve on a board or committee for a nonprofit organization, there’s one topic that’s more likely to stymie you than others—and that’s the financials. Unless you have a CPA after your name, finance is typically the least understood aspect of nonprofit governance. And, yet, the fiduciary responsibility of boards is among its most important legal […]
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Your Mission Statement
Off the top of your head, can you accurately recite the Mission Statement of your organization? Most of us probably can recall a part of it or “it is something like . . . . . .“ Sadly, for 99% of us, no one outside of our nonprofit knows what our mission statement is either, […]
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