NEW Job Ad Feature - Job Candidate Questions

As a nonprofit leader or manager your time is valuable and limited. We have a great way to save you time in the resume review process. Our next step in utilizing the capabilities of our new jobs database (Fall 2011) is the ability to include job specific questions so that candidates can more closely match their experience and qualifications with your position. Wouldn't it nice to know, upfront, if your candidates for Development Director had experience with a capital campaign or how familiar they are with social media? These questions provide a writing sample that you wouldn't see otherwise and discourage unqualified candidates from applying, further reducing your resume review time.

Your organization may have discovered that sending out questions for candidates to answer can assist in matching their experience to your needs, but it extends the search timeline and takes a lot of administrative effort. The Charitable Advisors applicant tracking system makes these questions part of the résumé submission process so that you receive the résumés and question responses simultaneously.

The fee for this service is only $99 in addition to the cost of the job ad. If you request this service, we will send a sample list of questions and request you to select or provide your own for a total of 4-6 questions to be included. Please allow adequate turnaround time to select questions and get your position posted in the next newsletter. Submit your ad or request the sample question list at ads@notforprofitnews.com or contact me with questions.
Bryan Orander
President of Charitable Advisors and Publisher, Not-for-Profit News

Who Leads Your Board? (10 Days til the Summit)

Is it the board chair, the officers, executive committee, the Executive Director? I hear many different answers to this question. In my mind, the Board Chair and Executive Director/CEO are the keys to leading the board and refining the purpose and role of the board in your organization. I work with several dozen boards each year and essentially all consider their board to have significant untapped potential.

We are pleased to be co-sponsors again this year of the Board Chair Summit. Registration is reaching 100 with a little more than a week to go. The event is at the JCC next Friday morning, March 9th - hosted by Lacy Leadership Association with assistance from Peace Learning Center. Board Chair and Executive Director(or CEO) teams are encouraged to register together this year to work with nationally recognized author, consultant, and researcher, Dr. Mary Hiland. Dr. Hiland brings over 35 years of “on the ground” experience, complemented by her own research on building strong and effective nonprofit boards and Board Chair/ED relationships. Participants will learn from their peers, discover practical tips for leading their organization and leave with a plan of action that builds a stronger governance future. The 2010 and 2011 events were sold out so please register NOW. ED/Board leader teams register together for $140. Individual registration is $79. A continental breakfast is included. For more information or to register now, visit www.boardchairsummit.com.

Reality Time for Human Service Organizations?

Many of you will remember Irv Katz, who served in a number of Indianapolis area nonprofit leadership roles before stepping up to the national stage. In this article, he reflects on the demise of Hull House in Chicago and what it means to those of us working in the sector.

"The recent demise of Hull House, the historic Chicago settlement
established over a century ago by socialite, social entrepreneur, and activist Jane Addams may well be emblematic of tectonic shifts taking place in the human service sector. And the big problem with tectonic shifts is, you don't know where the plates will land until they have.

To know about the history of social welfare in the United States is to know about Hull House as one of its most historic and significant icons. Addams imported the idea of a settlement house from England, and had the bold idea of empowering people and giving a hand up not a hand out. Central to the concept was that the settlement house was a part of the community, often an immigrant community, not somewhere downtown where one had to beg for help.

Read the full article here.

How could 'Walking for Dreams 2012' benefit your Organization?

Last year, 40 non profits and over 1500 walkers raised over $100,000. Over the past 8 years, close to 100 organizations have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, in total. I have been involved since the 2nd or 3rd year walking for several different organizations. I think of 'Walking for Dreams' as the walk-a-thon event for organizations who: 1) aren't big enough to do their own event or 2) don't want to spend valuable volunteer or staff time on event organizing, or 3) want to gather a group of their supporters around fund raising for one particular program.

Here's how it works: There is a $350 upfront fee but then the Sycamore Foundation plans, manages, and runs the event. They even provide an on-line donation website where your walkers can form teams and receive donations. All your nonprofit does is solicit walkers to participate and raise funds for your organization. Whether you have 5 walkers or 50, it is a fun event and can raise a meaningful amount of money for the effort you invest.

Promoted as the 'Walking for Dreams Family and Pet 5k Walk', the event encompasses just a couple hours of a beautiful Sunday afternoon on the scenic Canal Walk downtown. The energy is terrific, the colors are bright, the faces are happy. Each organization is assigned a table to greet and gather their walkers plus promote their organization to others in attendance. Everyone steps out together and then winds their way through the walk route and back to food and festivities at their own pace.

A Walk-a-thon event is a great way to introduce people to your organization, a good strategy to give reluctant board members or staff a 'harmless' way to talk about your organization with friends and family, and a nice time for social connection between people who care about your organization. To learn more or get signed up for the June 3, 2012 event, visit www.WalkingforDreams.org.

Can a Book = Professional Development?

A simple question posed to Patrick Lawler 27 years ago inspired his appetite
for business reading. Lawler, the founder and CEO of Youth Villages in
MA(now with a staff of 2300), was at a conference with Mary Lynn Cantrell, a
leader in the field of children's mental and behavioral health. Cantrell
casually asked what he was reading and Lawler had to admit that he wasn't
reading anything. 

Then in his 20s, Lawler had young children and was working long hours just
keeping Youth Villages afloat. But Cantrell's question, coupled with
Lawler's need to learn more about the business of managing a nonprofit
organization, spurred him to read. Lawler is a devoted reader, and his views
about the value of reading fuel his desire to share the resources that have
helped (and continue to help) him. He assumes everyone has already read -
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and Good to Great
by Jim Collins 

1) The CEO Paradox: The Privilege and Accountability of Leadership - Thomas
R. Horton 
2) On Becoming a Leader  - Warren Bennis 
3) Leadership Is an Art - Max DePree 
4) Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done - Larry Bossidy and Ram
Charan 
5) How to Act Like a CEO: 10 Rules for Getting to the Top and Staying There
- D.A. Benton 
6) Boardroom Verities - Jerold Panas 
7) The Executive in Action - Managing for Results; Innovation and
Entrepreneurship; The Effective Executive - Peter F. Drucker 
8) The Visionary's Handbook: Nine Paradoxes That Will Shape the Future of
Business - Watts Wacker, Jim Taylor, with Howard Means 
9) businessThink: Rules for Getting it Right-Now, and No Matter What! - Dave
Marcum, Steve Smith, and Mahan Khalsa 
10) What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even
More Successful - Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter

How much better equipped we would be if we were reading through this list?
What's your plan?

See the full article with book descriptions at:
http://www.bridgestar.org/Library/AGoodBooksRole.aspx 

Don’t Miss the 3rd Annual Central Indiana Board Chair Summit

March 9, 2012

The third annual Central Indiana Board Chair Summit, hosted by Lacy Leadership Association and Peace Learning Center will take place on March 9th, 2012, from 7:30 am to noon at the Arthur M. Glick JCC. Board Chair and Executive Director(or CEO) teams are encouraged to register together this year to work with nationally recognized author, consultant and researcher, Dr. Mary Hiland. With over 35 years of “on the ground” experience, complemented by her own research in the nonprofit sector, Dr. Hiland will share insights into building strong and effective Board Chair/ED relationships. Participants will learn from their peers, discover practical tips for leading their organization and leave with a plan of action that builds a stronger governance future. The 2010 and 2011 events were sold out so register early. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind gathering of nonprofit board and executive leaders from across central Indiana. ED/Board leader teams register together for $140. Individual registration is $79. A continental breakfast is included. For more information or to register now, visit www.boardchairsummit.com.

10 New Year’s Resolutions for Board Members

Last Thursday, January 19, we hosted a pilot session for 20+ new board members from 15 organizations across the central Indiana community at the Harrison Center for the Arts. It went very well and we plan to do it again in September. The intention is to supplement the new board member orientations that your organizations already do and address some topics that don’t typically appear in organization orientations. Our agenda included topics such as a the Board/Executive Director relationship, nonprofit finances, the expectations of and from the board chair, being a change agent, and helping to create a positive, active board culture. Pat Wachtel from Girls, Inc. and Travis DiNicola of Indy Reads were kind enough to join us to share their thoughts and for Q&A. Watch for our announcement of the September session in June/July. These sessions are provided at no charge as a service to the local nonprofit community.

As we prepared for this session, I was reminded of one of my favorite articles published on Guidestar a couple years ago about how board members can start the new year off right:

1. Get more engaged.
2. Have a bias toward action
3. Think big
4. Be optimistic, no matter what
5. Go back to your vision over and over and over
6. Be the catalyst; be the provocateur
7. Make your own proud, personal gift to support your organization
8. Support the staff.
9. Introduce 10 of your friends to your cause
10. Be a sneezer and spread your organization's viral news wherever you go.

Read the article.