Nonprofit Leadership – Page 2 – Wishnick & Associates

Why Job Descriptions Are the Keystone of Your Volunteer Program

Volunteers are strategic assets for nonprofits. Some of my clients rely greatly on volunteers to fulfill their missions. In addition to board members and committee members, there are event organizers, fundraisers, service providers, tutors and mentors, crisis/helpline responders, and people who shelve books or staff the waiting rooms of a hospital to let you know your loved one is out of surgery. The list goes on.

To treat your volunteers with the respect they deserve, think strategically about their roles within your organization. Next, create proper job descriptions. […]

New Year Surprises: Are You Ready to Manage Staff Transitions?

A new year often inspires life changes, big or small. Among these are the decision to pursue a new job or career. Because employees at all levels contribute to the fulfillment of your mission, nonprofit leaders need to be tuned into staffing transitions throughout the organization. How a nonprofit executive copes with staff transitions both draws from and contributes to the organizational culture. If handled well, a staff transition can boost an organization’s well-being and capacity, but if handled poorly, morale and service continuity can suffer. […]

Resolve: The Will to Lead

It was not necessarily my intention to mine any further the situation put forth in my blog post, Executive Transition: Cautionary Tale #1 – Settling for Less. I had a completely different topic in mind for this post. However, it turns out that the last lines of the Cautionary Tale #1 are haunting me now. […]

Summer Reading – Favorite Books

Many of us spend happy hours ensconced in our summer reading. I like to diversify mine with books that are better characterized as “reading for work.” These can yield productive and often ongoing results – they’re the gifts that keep on giving.

There are three books, in particular, that stay with me and continue to make a difference in my work with clients. I often refer to them and recommend them to clients and fellow consultants

Here are my suggestions for your summer reading pleasure. I hope you find as much in them as I have. […]

Happy Fiscal New Year – a New Beginning

The start of the fiscal year, even if not recognized with champagne and fireworks, often signals new beginnings. In the months and weeks leading up to July, there is often a burst of activity in nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit executives and their boards of directors create and ratify new budgets. Perhaps the governance or nominating committee puts forth a slate of new directors, and even officers stepping into leadership roles. In some years there will be a new board chair, in other years a board chair may be considering how to have an impact during the final year in office.

Here are some manageable and worthwhile fiscal New Year’s resolutions to […]

A Case Against Playing Good Cop, Bad Cop with the Board

Bad news is a fact of life, including organizational life, and it can be difficult to deliver. There are times, for example, when budgets are tight and the staff needs to be cut, is asked to take voluntary furloughs, or must accept delayed paychecks. Or, services or hours of operation need to be cut back.

It can be tempting to blame these unpleasant decisions on the board, since the board may be a mysterious, unseen reality that staff rarely encounter.

But avoid this temptation. Don’t throw your board under the bus when you have to deliver bad or disappointing news to your staff. Own being the executive leader – the good […]