Yesterday's Center for Excellence in NonProfits (CEN) event, supported by Hood & Strong LLP was, in the words of attendees themselves, a success.
Chuck Loring, senior consultant with BoardSource, led a full day workshop to a sold out room of just over 100 people at Silicon Valley Community Foundation's Mountain View location.
Chuck Loring's reputation preceded him, and the quality and depth of his presentation, his take away material, and his slightly dry wit had the room laughing and engaged the full day.
The workshop covered three key areas; Board Roles, Structure and Organization; Effective Year Long Board Building, and Effective Nonprofit Board Fundraising. In these economic times, Chuck’s perspective on effective fundraising stemming from the tone and role model set by the organization’s board, really hit home for most of the executives in attendance.
A strong message was that board members need to be about outcomes and impact, rather than ratios and overhead. There are clear distinctions between the roles of staff and the roles of the board members, and more often than not, it is the muddling of these two that leaves not for profit boards less than their full potential. The hands on workshop had attendees walking through examples to help identify the roles of their existing board members, ways to structure and activities to increase high caliber board building.
Regarding fundraising as a primary board function, the audience welcomed Chuck’s perspective that fundraising is not about the ask for money, but the relationship building that enables the ask. The development process has many steps, and the workshop identified and role played several “non-ask” development activities that could be accomplished by those board members who are less comfortable with their closing skills.