Thursday, October 27, 2011

Visit Our New Website and New Jobs Database

The whole Charitable Advisors team has been working hard over the past few weeks to pull our new website (you may need to refresh your browser) and jobs database together. The new website emphasizes our key roles in supporting area nonprofits through Leadership Transition, Planning, and filling Nonprofit Job openings. The jobs database gives employers some new tools to better promote and manage their search processes. Special thanks to Lora Olive for doing our web design, Nora Woodman for juggling all the moving parts, and Kristen for being a good sport about all the changes in her job entry routines. We hope you will take a few moments to explore the website and database, and let us know what you like. We’d also like to hear about what doesn’t seem to work or could be improved. For this week only, we are including the job ads in both formats, just to be safe and ensure that everything is working. www.CharitableAdvisors.com

Please send your comments or questions to Bryan@CharitableAdvisors.com or Nora@CharitableAdvisors.com.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Our New Jobs Database Coming Next Week (10/25)

I am excited to share that we have been moving to a new jobs technology platform over the last few months and will release it next week (Oct 25). It will be accompanied by an update of our website. We will continue to post all jobs in the newsletter, but short introductions of the job will link to a much longer description, if employers choose to provide it. Our goal is to be the obvious choice for all of your nonprofit job advertising. Here are some highlights and benefits:

For Employers /Job Advertisers

· Same price, more features (Only $150 for 2 weeks in newsletter, 30 days on website).

· Unlimited job details in each posting by completing and submitting a new form we will provide.

· All applicants throughout the system are uniform with easy access to key contact information.

· Two standard screening questions, free, with ability to add more or customize for a small fee.

· Each job listing has its own web address and includes tools to circulate through social media.

· “Apply” button can link to your applicant tracking system, ATS, if desired.

· Beginning January 2012, you can license the full candidate tracking and communication capabilities of the system on a job-by-job basis.

For Job Seekers

· Easier access to job postings

· More information on each position

· Sort listings by job title or location

· Apply thru the system, attach your résumé and cover letter

Newsletter Readers

· Shorter, more uniform job introductions and ability to easily forward job postings to your friends and acquaintances through social media

Bryan Orander
President of Charitable Advisors and Publisher, Not-for-Profit News


www.CharitableAdvisors.com
www.NotforProfitNews.com
317-752-7153

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Board Development is “In Season” – Two Great Opportunities

One of the most common refrains I am hearing these days is how nonprofits who have always looked to their Executive Director/CEO and staff to keep the organization financially and operationally sound now need the board to step up and do more than attend meetings and review the financials. You might recall an article we ran in August overviewing research that found three critical success factors in boards that increased their effectiveness:

From: What Really Works in Building a Strong Board (Not-for-Profit News - July 13 Blog Post).

1. Outside governance expertise or training – a “nudge” – from a facilitator or board member attendance at outside training contributed to a new vision of the board.

2. The Board Chair - critical in creating movement and building momentum for change, in partnership with the executive director. The board chair usually engaged a few other board members, building a small group of champions for change.

3. Intention - Study participants described a specific, articulated intention to develop the board: ”We were obsessed with board development.” “Status quo was not OK.”

Here are two great opportunities for board leaders to set aside any excuses for not knowing how to create a strong board for their organization. Please get these dates on the calendars of a couple of your board leaders – or bring a group!

How True Philanthropy Can Transform Your Board: a workshop for nonprofit executive directors and board chairs with Jamie Levy of J.D. Levy Associates, Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 8:00 AM – Noon, Shepherd Community Center – Admission $15. Jamie Levy is president of J.D. Levy and Associates and a faculty member at Indiana University, where he teaches in the graduate and professional programs through the IU Center on Philanthropy, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and The Fund Raising School. Through his teaching and consulting, he has trained nearly 12,000 professionals from over 30 countries. Join Jamie to explore how an understanding of "true philanthropy" can move your board from a group of individuals to a body of unified leadership, and how seeing your board through the eyes of a culture of philanthropy will empower your board members to be lifelong advocates as opposed to short term duty. See how the board meetings change when we view the board as a social asset and begin moving the board culture away from problem spotting toward value creation and framing.. We invite you to attend as a team, executive director and board chairman. Register at http://transformyourboard.eventbrite.com, or call 812-447-0345.

2nd Annual Central Indiana Board Chair Summit, January 21, 2011, 8:00am-Noon, Madame Walker Theatre – Admission $49. The primary purpose of the Central Indiana Board Chair Summit is to provide an opportunity for Board Chair leaders to learn new strategies and share ideas with one another that will foster healthier and higher performing Boards. The first-ever Central Indiana Board Chair Summit sold out in January 2010 and elicited tremendous feedback from the more than 80 organizations in attendance: 95% of board chairs rated the Summit as “above average” or “excellent”; 94% of board chairs learned new ideas or skills that could be put into practice immediately; 88% believe they will serve more confidently in their role as Board leader. As one of the 2010 Summit attendees stated: “Realizing that our problems were universal and typical with non-profit boards and hearing peers in my position talk about approaches for resolving them were the most useful aspects of the Summit.” Registration will open soon. Watch the NFP News for more information or contact nruschman@peacelearningcenter.org to be added to the mailing list.

Let us know what other resources you are finding to encourage and empower your board on our blog.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Failure to Communicate? Failure to Steward? The Board/CEO Relationship

Over the past year, the stress level on many local nonprofits has continued to increase as funds from most sources shrink, demands for services increase, and many board leaders and volunteers are distracted by demands in their personal lives.

Anecdotally, we are perceiving an increase in board-initiated CEO/Executive Director departures. Nationally, it has long been held that about 1/3 of chief executive departures are board-initiated. In an environment with high unemployment and unstable financial markets, we are seeing fewer retirements and less natural movement between positions so it may just feel like the balance has shifted. One of my long-held concerns is that a significant number of nonprofit boards do not evaluate their CEO/ED on a regular basis – this lack of discipline in defining and discussing organizational and personal performance sets the stage for knee jerk reactions to bad news and organizational “politics”.

In the weeks ahead, we will be distributing a short survey targeted to Board leaders and chief executives to ask for your candid, and anonymous, input on this topic. In preparation, we encourage you to review the findings of the latest Daring to Lead 2011 study conducted by CompassPoint in CA at http://daringtolead.org/. We did have some local organizations included in their sample this year.

If we can include your board chair in this survey, please forward their e-mail address to Nora@CharitableAdvisors.com. We will not add board addresses to any other mailing list and will only use them to distribute the survey and the results. I would love to hear your ideas and feedback as we prepare this survey – either on our blog at http://charitableadvisors.blogspot.com or to my e-mail at Bryan@CharitableAdvisors.com.

And thanks to all of you who participated yesterday in the 9th annual Get on Board event.


Bryan Orander, President
Charitable Advisors and Not-for-Profit News

www.CharitableAdvisors.com
www.NotforProfitNews.com
317-752-7153