This week, we attended an informative Alliance for Justice briefing on the IRS proposed rules for 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations. Have a listen to Lea Michele's Get It Right while perusing this week's tweets on nonprofits, philanthropy, governance and social enterprises: AFJ Bolder Advocacy: For info on present 501(c)(4) rules and proposed rules, see […]
governance
Nonprofit Tweets of the Week – September 20, 2013
The official end of summer and a busy fall conference season ahead for many. Today, Erin and I are attending the American Bar Association Exempt Organizations Committee Meeting with many of our colleagues from throughout the country. Have a listen to Jon McLaughlin's Summer Is Over while you peruse this week's tweets on nonprofits, […]
Screwtape’s 10 Pieces of Advice to New Board Members
Be fashionably late to meetings. Don’t show up too often so the board recognizes it’s special when you do. Start preparing for a meeting just before you go in so the materials are all fresh on your mind. Dominate the discussion; to sound smart, use buzz phrases like “we’ve got to collaborate,” “what’s our value […]
Board Roles and Duties
One of my favorite things about our work is the opportunity to speak to boards about their roles and duties. A nonprofit’s board members are one of its most underutilized and important assets. We believe most board members genuinely want to contribute in a manner that will best help their organizations but they are challenged […]
Nonprofit Boards and Change: Center for Excellence in Nonprofits Program
One June 15, I attended Champions for Change: How to Orchestrate Strategic Level Transformations presented by Susan Meier of BoardSource for the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits. Susan began by providing us with three examples of for-profit corporations that either successfully transformed or failed to transform, setting the stage for an examination of nonprofit governance […]
Lessons Learned from Invisible Children and Kony 2012
Although "Kony 2012" may seem like a phrase of the past, it was only a couple months ago in March that the San Diego-based nonprofit, Invisible Children, took the internet by storm when it released Kony 2012, a 30-minute video documenting Invisible Children’s efforts to stop Joseph Kony, a rebel war leader of the Lord’s Resistance […]
What Board Members Should Know About Reviewing a Form 990
Gene and I recently wrote an article on the Form 990 for BoardLink, a newsletter for bar association board members by the American Bar Association Division for Bar Services. In this article, we address a troubling question for many boards: What do we need to know about the Form 990? We hope this article will be helpful […]
The Spotlight on Nonprofit Boards
On December 9, 2011, Martin Lipton's post The Spotlight on Boards was published in The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation blog. Lipton lists 15 expectations of corporate boards and 5 requirements for meeting such expectations. While the post focused on major public companies, much of the information on "best practices" […]
Governing Boards – Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp 2011
At this year’s Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp, Vance Yoshida, Senior Manager at La Piana Consulting, and Lynn Luckow, CEO of Craigslist Foundation, presented an informative session on "Governing Boards: From Good to Great." Vance and Lynn provided useful tips on a common and difficult issue for many nonprofits: how to create and maintain a strong […]
Leadership Through Board Service – YNPNsfba
Last Tuesday, I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel at an event for the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (YNPNsfba) on “Leadership Through Board Service” with Bruce Marcus, San Francisco State University Instructor of Volunteer and Board Management, Ann Lehman, Planning and Policy Specialist and Partner at Zimmerman Lehman, […]