How to Manage an Effective Nonprofit Organization: From Writing an Managing Grants to Fundraising, Board Development, and Strategic Planning
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About this ebook
Are you a staff or board member of a nonprofit organization? Do you want your organization to be excellent? Are you a busy person?
If you answered all three questions in the affirmative, How to Manage an Effective Nonprofit Organization is the one book you need, one with more than a thousand practical tips. It was inspired by thousands of nonprofit agency professionals who have participated in workshops the author has led for more than twenty years. Each of the nine chapters includes numerous practical recommendations:
- Board members will learn how to run effective meetings and get and keep the best people on their team.
- Busy staff members will learn how to maximize opportunities to obtain grant funds while minimizing the time spent.
- Grant writers will learn how to prepare better proposals and how to manage the funds once they get them.
- Agencies will learn how to establish an outstanding volunteer program and how to form community coalitions that work.
- And everyone will learn effective strategies to help improve supervisory, personnel, and general management skills.
Is it easy to manage an excellent nonprofit organization? The answer to that questions is easily, "no." Agency professionals at every level will find themselves referring to How to Manage an Effective Nonprofit Organization anytime they have a problem and need helpful, practical and to-the-point advice from an acknowledged leader in the field.
Michael A. Sand
Michael A. Sand, Esq., the author of How to Manage an Effective Nonprofit Organization, has more than 40 years' experience as a staff member, board member, and consultant to nonprofit groups that need to raise funds. He heads Sand Associates, a consulting firm that provides comprehensive services to nonprofit organizations across the country. Sand lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
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Book preview
How to Manage an Effective Nonprofit Organization - Michael A. Sand
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction - Helpful Tips to Keep in Mind While Reading
Chapter 1 - Effective Boards of Directors
A. Bylaws
B. Getting good board members
C. Keeping good board members
D. Governing board responsibilities
E. Advisory board responsibilities
F. Boards function through effective committees
G. Holding high-quality board meetings
Chapter 2 - Successful Community Fundraising
A. Active board participants
B. Active staff members
C. Active non-board volunteers
D. Programs that appeal to the public’s charitable nature
E. Fundraising appeals that stress the benefits to the giver
F. An effective public relations strategy that precedes the fundraising campaign
G. Hold an open house to introduce potential donors to your program
H. Analyze other community fundraising drives and their successes or failures
I. Divide fundraising prospects into those to visit, those to call, and those to receive a mail solicitation
J. Asking for community investments from businesses
K. Asking for community investments from individuals
L. General thoughts about fundraising
Chapter 3 - Writing Grants and Getting Them Funded
A. Preparing to write grants
B. To write a grant or not to write a grant
C. Grant writing steps
D. The search for grants
E. Cooperation is the key word in obtaining grant funding
F. Visiting a representative of the funding source
G. Sections of a grant application
H. Before you submit the grant
Chapter 4 - Managing Grants Once You Get Them
A. Receiving program funds
B. Program contact
C. Auditing
D. Fiscal reporting
E. Special rules for particular budget expenditures
F. Programmatic reporting requirements
G. General grant requirements
H. Grant continuation
I. Closeout procedures
J. Fiscal rules
K. Eligibility records
Chapter 5 - Devloping a Strategic Plan
A. Forming the Planning Committee
B. Deciding who should write the plan
C. Elements of the plan
D. After adopting the plan
Chapter 6 - Being an Effective Supervisor
A. General supervisory duties
B. Dealing with difficult employees
C. Assigning and completing projects
D. The team
model of supervision
Chapter 7 - Hiring, Firing,and Other Personnel Management Skills
A. Job descriptions
B. Advertising the job
C. Hiring process
D. Probationary period
E. Performance appraisals
F. Formal discipline
G. Termination
Chapter 8 - Establishing an Outstanding Volunteer Program
A. Positions with meaningful job duties
B. An excellent recruiting system
C. High-quality job training and updating of skills
D. Maximum recognition in terms of pay and other benefits
E. Improve work and eliminate unproductive work and workers
Chapter 9 - Forming Community Coalitions That Work
A. Types of coalition projects
B. Problems
C. Solutions to coalition-building problems
Conclusion
Appendix - Questions and Answers Introduction
Introduction
Question 1: Board development
Question 2: Board development
Question 3: Board development
Question 4: Board development
Question 5: Board development
Question 6: Board development
Qustion 7: Fundraising
Question 8: Fundraising
Question 9: Grant writing
Question 10: Grant management
Question 11: Strategic planning
Question 12: Supervision
Question 13: Supervision
Question 14: Supervision
Question 15: Supervision
Question 16: Supervision
Question 17: Organizational excellence
About the Author
How to Manage
an Effective
Nonprofit
Organization
From Writing and
Managing Grants to
Fundraising, Board Development,
and Strategic Planning
Michael A. Sand
9781564148049_001_0003_001Copyright © 2005 by Michael A. Sand
All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.
How to Manage an Effective Nonprofit Organization
Edited and Typeset by
Christopher Carolei
Cover design by Foster & Foster, Inc.
Printed in the U.S.A. by Book-mart Press
To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada: 201-848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information on books from Career Press.
9781564148049_001_0004_002The Career Press, Inc., 3 Tice Road, PO Box 687,
Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417
www.careerpress.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sand, Michael A.
How to manage an effective nonprofit organization : from writing and managing grants to fundraising, board development, and strategic planning / by Michael A. Sand.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-56414-804-1 (pbk.)
eISBN: 9781601638403
1. Nonprofit organizations—Management. I. Title.
HD62.6.S346 2005
658'.048--dc22
2005046954
Dedication
This book and my life are dedicated to my wife and best friend, Diane. As I led workshops for nonprofit managers over the years, and provided on-site assistance to nonprofit agencies, I accumulated the tips included in this book. I want to thank all the individuals who choose to work in nonprofits, most of whom are overworked and underpaid. In my home state of Pennsylvania, 11.5 percent of the workforce is employed by nonprofits (634,098 in 2003), a total significantly higher than the national average of 6.9 percent (Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Employment Data Project, Pennsylvania Nonprofit Employment, 2005). Therefore, I would also like to dedicate this book to every individual who devotes his or her life to assisting others by choosing to work for a nonprofit organization.
Acknowledgments
Specials thanks to my family. My wife, Diane, assisted in many aspects of writing this book and proofread every word. My sons, Jay and Marc, lent their computer expertise. Thanks also to my agent, Sara Camilli, who provided invaluable advice. I also would like to thank all the organizations that, over the years, have invited me to lead workshops and provide assistance.
Preface
Nearly everything I learned about how to manage an effective nonprofit organization, I learned from serving as a staff member, board member, trainer, and consultant for nonprofit organizations for nearly 40 years. While experience is still the best teacher, there are now myriad books, articles, Websites, workshops, university courses, and even degree programs in nonprofit management.
While in law school, I coauthored a law review article on the legal aspects of the newly formed consumer movement, led by a young, relatively unknown activist, Ralph Nader. Upon graduation in 1966, I applied to the Philadelphia anti-poverty program, that was starting a consumer program and needed a grant writer. While I had no grant writing or anti-poverty program experience, I don’t think many others did either because I got the job.
Over the next several years as a staff member, I noticed a dearth of excellent trainers and consultants with expertise in nonprofit management. When I attended workshops, for example, they were invariably led by either businesspersons or university professors with no expertise in nonprofit management. In addition, there seemed to be few individuals who could provide practical consulting assistance to nonprofits in areas such as board development or strategic planning.
So, in 1979, I decided to hang out my shingle and form Sand Associates, a firm specializing in providing training and technical assistance for nonprofit agencies. As I began to work with individuals with expertise in nonprofit fields, I added them to my roster of associates and we now number more than 100.
As I developed a core curriculum of workshops, I gathered numerous handouts for each workshop. My teaching style was to present a series of practical tips for managers in each topic area. Often, workshop attendees, nonprofit clients, and my associates suggested additional practical recommendations from their own experiences. After several years of leading workshops, I developed a core of groupies,
individuals who attended every workshop I led no matter what the topic. One of these individuals suggested that I gather all my tips into a book and give out book chapters as course handouts. You now have the results of my work.
Managers of effective nonprofit organizations are busy people. When they actually list their duties, they often find they have several dozen (including every topic listed in this book, plus numerous others). Some of these duties include serving as spokesperson for the organization, liaison with numerous community organizations, maintaining active membership in local, state, and national organizations, and performing general troubleshooting for the agency. Just being the general communicator and problem-solver with board, staff, and community members is extremely time-consuming.
When nonprofit agency managers have a problem, want to make a change in their agency, or need advice, they need a source of information that gives them practical tips they can refer to and implement in a timely manner. How to Manage an Effective Nonprofit Organization is a unique book that will meet this need.
This book contains several hundred practical tips for taking initiatives and solving problems that I developed during my 40 years of working with nonprofits. The appendix includes 17 questions I was asked at workshops, and the answers I provided.
Keep this book by your side and refer to individual chapters when seeking practical advice in areas such as fundraising, board development, grant writing, or strategic planning.
If you want more information about Sand Associates, log on to www.sandassociates.com. Of course, I would be delighted to provide training and technical assistance to your agency, or add your suggestions when I lead workshops. Contact me by e-mail at MSand9999@aol.com.
Michael A. Sand
August, 2005
Introduction
Helpful Tips to Keep in Mind While Reading
As you read this handbook, give special consideration to the following additional tips that can be very helpful in learning how to manage an effective nonprofit organization.
In general, do not say anything, do anything, or write anything down that you would be unhappy (or devastated) seeing in tomorrow’s newspaper. This should be a guiding principle for running your organization. (Look how much better off Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton would have been if they had followed my advice.)
♦ Chapter 1—Effective Boards:
"Robert is dead!"
Henry Martyn Robert wrote the first edition of Robert’s Rules of Order in 1876. My experience is that in most nonprofit organizations, strict application of these rules is used to prolong meetings and make them more complicated, certainly not Mr. Robert’s intention.
Each group should adopt its own rules. If certain provisions of Robert’s Rules make sense, adopt them. If other provisions are too complicated, adopt your own. (See my suggestion of Sand’s Rules of Order
on pages 49-51.) Try to speak in English, rather than in Robert’s.
It is much simpler to suggest to the board chair who is leading the meeting that I think it’s time to vote,
rather than I call the question.
All too often in meetings, you do not know whether you are voting on a substantive motion or voting whether to vote.
And when the meeting is over, the chair should simply state that the meeting is adjourned. Asking for a motion to adjourn and then a second and then taking a vote as to who voted for the motion to adjourn the meeting and who voted against, and then putting that vote in the minutes, wastes time and paper.
♦ Chapter 2—Successful Fundraising:
Plan, plan, and plan some more.
It is essential to spend time in effective planning. Too many organizations wait until the last minute to hold a fundraising event. Then a small group of people frantically starts to sell tickets with little or no planning, or sends out a solicitation letter without giving careful consideration as to whether this is the best fundraising mechanism. Begin the fundraising program well in advance by assigning fundraising tasks to all board and staff members, recruiting community volunteers to help with the fundraising, and developing an annual fundraising calendar with a detailed budget. Only when these and other planning steps are well underway should you begin to