BWB Solutions LLC

01/31/2025

Hello

What makes not just good, but great nonprofit leadership? For National Leadership Day (February 20th), what are a few practices for assuring great nonprofit leadership from one of the top leaders in the social impact space?

I have Donald Summers, CEO of Altruist Partners LLC, Social Impact Advisor, and Author of “Scaling Altruism: A Proven Pathway for Accelerating Nonprofit Growth and Impact,” who can provide seven practices for great nonprofit leadership:

Possible tie-in:
● National Leadership Day – February 20th


1) Establish and Maintain Psychological Safety: This is the fundamental cultural underpinning for any organization seeking to improve its performance and accelerate growth. It occurs when everyone feels it is okay to take risks, speak candidly, and critique the status quo without fear of reprisal.

2) Practice Intentional Change Management: Leaders can deliver the right strategy and the right tools,
but if they don't apply principles of good change management (the structured methodology for guiding your people through organizational change), nothing will stick.

3) Identify and Manage Disruptive People: For impact and growth methodology to take root, both the CEO and board chair must identify and either resolve or remote disruptive people. We identify four types of disruptors: “The Dominator,” “The Interrogator,” “The Aloof,” and “The Victim.”

4) Define Good Governance: It's important to create a clear job description for your board members, such as ensuring equity; establishing clear roles and responsibilities; securing definitions of board characteristics, skills, and behaviors; and guidance for the policy and administrative side.

5) Ensure Balanced Thinking Styles: Your executive team must be balanced across the four major kinds of thinking styles: "Producer," "Administrator," "Entrepreneur," and "Integrator." The result is called a neurobalanced team.

6) Invest in Great People: It's a simple fact that strong compensation is necessary to hire top talent. And in order to keep that top talent happy, productive, and under your roof, you must also make investments in culture as well.

7) Ensure Clear Succession Planning: The board chair and CEO are the most important positions at any nonprofit. and, when these positions change, an organization's strategy, operations, governance, growth, and impact can be disrupted or destroyed if there is no succession planning.

For more information, visit the online press kit at DonaldSummers.OnlinePressKit247.com and public site AltruistPartners.com. For interviews with Donald, send requests to Anita J.K. and Michelle T.N., Wasabi Publicity, Inc. 828.817.4034 [email protected].

About Donald Summers:
Donald Summers, Ed.M., is the Founder and CEO of Altruist Partners LLC, a pioneering social impact advisory firm. He is also the founder and executive director of the Altruist Accelerator, the firm's nonprofit arm. Summers’ new book, “Scaling Altruism: A Proven Pathway for Accelerating Nonprofit Growth and Impact,” became the #1 on Amazon in Nonprofit Organizations & Charities upon its release. He holds a Master’s Degree in Leadership & Policy from Harvard.

01/29/2025

Banner with the the National Council of Nonprofits Logo and the slogan, "Champions for the public good."
An update on the potential federal funding freeze
It has been a rollercoaster 24 hours for many of you, wondering if critical funding for your nonprofit’s mission would be frozen at 5pm yesterday. With a pause in effect until Monday, we want to take a brief moment to bring you all up-to-speed on what happened, where we are, what’s next, and what actions nonprofits should be taking now, in case the pause is lifted on Monday and the freeze goes into effect.

What happened
On January 27, the federal Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to federal agencies to institute a pause in “federal funding assistance.” The wording of the memo was very vague, leading to uncertainty for the tens of thousands of nonprofits that are paid with federal funds to deliver services in communities. Even the federal agencies themselves did not seem to know what funding would be affected and what wouldn’t.

The National Council of Nonprofits took swift action, joining with the American Public Health Association, Main Street Alliance, SAGE, and Democracy Forward to file suit in federal U.S. District Court to have the funding freeze blocked. Just before the freeze was set to take effect, United States District Court Judge Loren L. AliKhan issued an Administrative Stay through Monday, February 3 at 5:00 pm.

Where things stand
The stay allows time for both sides of the case to present the judge with more information, so the court can make a more lasting ruling. With the Administrative Stay in place, nonprofits have a few days to try to gain more clarity over whether their programs are affected and to make contingency plans. Our hope is that Judge AliKhan will find in our favor and put a more lasting order in place. And Monday may not be the final word on this, as either side may appeal this all the way to the Supreme Court. For now, nonprofits should be taking these next few days to make contingency plans, just in case.

What nonprofits should do now
If you receive any federal funding – whether directly from the federal government or a pass-through, such as a state or locality – reach out to your grant/contract contact immediately to ask if you will be affected if the freeze is allowed to go into effect.

If you receive confirmation that your funding will be affected, please fill out this form to help us understand the scope of programs affected and the effects a freeze would have on your mission and the people you serve.
We will keep you updated on new developments as they happen. Also, be sure to follow us on social media for more real-time updates. And don’t hesitate to encourage other nonprofits you know to sign up for this newsletter to stay informed.

Thank you all for the vital work you are doing in communities across the country and around the world. We are proud to stand with you.

— The National Council of Nonprofits Team

01/28/2025

https://www.nonprofitpro.com/post/why-common-sense-can-prevent-board-governance-failure/

Here are three things that can make a difference in board members fulfilling their fiduciary duties of care, loyalty and obedience.

05/10/2024

In this episode nonprofit board expert Mike Burns dives deep into the purpose, challenges, and innovative practices concerning nonprofit boards! Our discussion critiques conventional wisdom around board responsibilities, such as budget approval and the potential benefits of rethinking board members'...

09/21/2023

Engage and Include Your Board
By Mike Burns for NonProfit PRO

You are one of the few individuals in the universe who possesses the knowledge and experience this board understands it must have to inform and make s...

09/19/2023

Can Boards Evaluate Themselves: Why Not?

Here's this week's Eugene Fram thoughts with a focus on board evaluation. My answer to whether they can evaluate themselves is of course. I believe during a strategic planning process it's helpful to have a more objective eval with a...

09/14/2023

AI and other Meeting Agenda Topics
https://nonprofitboardcrisis.typepad.com/mbblog/2023/09/ai-and-other-meeting-agenda-topics-nonprofitboards.html

09/12/2023

Conflicts Of Interest

It is generally the rule that nonprofit board members must both sign a promise to identify and avoid conflicts of interests with their nonprofit. But the Las Vegas Review Journal suggests that sometimes conflicts of interest are not so simple....

09/08/2023

Rejection: A hard pill to swallow

Cooler summer greetings! This is the time to enjoy our outside natural resources as much as we can take the heat. But for some, this season may also r...

09/07/2023

Cooler summer greetings! This is the time to enjoy our outside natural resources as much as we can take the heat. But for some, this season may also r...

01/17/2023

https://www.nonprofitpro.com/post/discover-introspection-self-improvemnet-via-board-totem-pole-process/

Boards can be well-represented as an entity in the form of a totem pole, like those derived from Northwest Indigenous people. Boards might even improve their understanding of and effectiveness as a body by developing their own board totem pole process.

01/02/2023

Numbers are a dominant question when it comes to designing a good, effective and efficient board. How many are too many or too few? This list highlights the numerical challenges, or at least questions that come to mind, when considering the design and maintenance of a nonprofit board.

Numbers are a dominant question when it comes to designing an effective board. How many are too many or too few? This list highlights the numerical challenges, or at least questions that come to mind, when considering the design and maintenance of a nonprofit board.