Organizational Resources for Family-Run Organizations
Resources for Board of Directors
Leading with Intent: 2017 National Index of Nonprofit Practices
The Board’s Role in Advocacy: An Expectation for Engaged Leadership
Advocacy is a powerful way to leverage the important work that your organization does. Board members — as influential community leaders — can help increase the likelihood of your nonprofit’s success by engaging in advocacy. Being an advocate is directly connected to each board member’s fundamental responsibility to champion the organization’s work — to stand for your mission.
Governing As A Team
Creating a collaborative, team culture in your boardroom is one way to take your board from responsible to exceptional.
When most people think of high-performing teams, they think of sports teams, trauma center professionals, or fire department crews. They rarely think of nonprofit boards. Still, if you want an exceptional board, you need to create a high-performing board team.
One reason boards don’t always resemble great teams is that they lack a shared goal, a common purpose. Sure, the members are there to support the mission, but that doesn’t automatically lead to a common understanding about what they should do in support of it.
Sample Board Performance Matrix
Each member of the board of directors plays a key role in the success of an organization,
both in terms of governance and support. Recognizing that each member has a unique and
valued set of attributes in terms of time, talent, and treasure to assist in achieving our mission
and vision is important. To serve on a board is both a responsibility and a privilege. This
sample matrix is intended to provide a benchmarking tool for board members to evaluate
their level of contribution in the various aspects of their board responsibilities.
To access the matrix, click here.
Principles Workbook: Steering Your Board Toward Good Governance and Ethical Practice
This Workbook is designed to help nonprofits and foundations strengthen their governance and ethical practices. Organizations of all sizes, fields, and mission areas will find that it provides a platform on which they can build discussions that serve their unique needs and level of development. Not every topic will apply to every organization, and an important part of the process will be for your organization—whether long-established or just starting up—to review the principles in order to prioritize implementation. Many organizations will find that they already follow—or go beyond—these principles. Others may wish to make changes in their current practices, and some may conclude that certain principles do not apply to their organization.What is vital is to assess and strengthen your practices and the Workbook supports that work.
To read more, click here.
Beyond Political Correctness
Achieving diversity on a nonprofit board is a challenging — but doable and essential — task. Exceptional nonprofit boards recognize that diversity is essential to an organization’s success. They see the correlation between mission, strategy, and board composition and understand that establishing an inclusive organization starts with establishing a diverse and inclusive board.
To read more, click here.
Board Development Resource
To build and sustain a strong nonprofit organization, boards must address a number of critical areas. Board Development provides information on the following topics: board roles and responsibilities; recruitment, engagement, and retention; governance and board committees; and bylaws. There is no one way to engage in board development, and practices will vary from organization to organization, but there are important areas to examine as you prepare your organization to flourish in these changing times.
Click here to download.
Board Of Directors Job Description
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Mission Statement vs. Vision Statement
Both mission and vision statements are vital for nonprofit organizations. The statements should be distinct, yet connected – the mission guides the organization daily while the vision highlights the organization’s long-term impact. Use this guide to help your organization review and revise your mission and vision statements.
Click here to download.
Nonprofit Organizational Life Cycle
Graph depiction of the life cycle of a nonprofit organization, from grass roots – invention to decline and shut down.
To download, click here.
Helpful Websites
Board Source
An online resource for funders, partners, and nonprofit leaders who want to magnify their impact within their community through exceptional governance practices. BoardSource supports a community of more than 90,000 individuals with customized diagnostics, live and virtual trainings, membership programs, and a comprehensive library of governance resources and publications that include original content.
Click here to visit the site.
CompassPoint
CompassPoint is an electronic newsletter for members of nonprofit boards of directors. Board Café offers a menu of ideas, information, opinion, news and resources to help board members in carrying out the responsibilities of their board service.
Click here to visit the site.
Governance Matters
Governance Matters is an organization whose purpose is to encourage and promote good governance in the nonprofit sector. Its web site posts information on good governance, links to other sites of interest to non-for-profit boards and information about courses and conferences for nonprofit board members.
Click here to visit the site.
Nonprofit Works
An online resource with downloadable forms including board nomination forms and self evaluations.
Click here to visit the site.
Succession Planning
Exit Planning for Retiring Nonprofit CEOs
Smart chief executives — whether they’re running a business or a nonprofit — acknowledge that they will leave their organization at some point. Every job and every career ends in a transition — eventually. It’s just a matter of when, how, and how well managed they end.
To access the full report, click here.
Succession Planning: The Elephant in the Room
One of the most difficult conversations to have is the one about succession planning. While it can be uncomfortable for executive directors and for the board of directors of the organization, succession planning is essential to the long-term sustainability of any organization – especially family-run organizations.
Click here to read more.
A Strategic Approach to Leadership Transitions
The focus of this white paper is managing the planned exit and entrance of an executive director, or CEO.
To access the full report, click here.
Fiscal Management & Sustainability
True Program Costs: Program Budget and Allocations
While the long-term goal for nonprofits is not to return profits to shareholders, we all know that nonprofits are business entities that need to maintain financial health and stability in order to achieve their mission. Understanding the true, full cost of delivering various programs and services in the community is a critical piece of the management puzzle.
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Financing Not Fundraising
This e-book offers ten steps in a new approach to financing the non-profit sector for sustainability.”Really, what the sector needs is a financing strategy not a fundraising strategy. By that I mean that nonprofits have to break out of the narrow view that traditional FUNDRAISING (individual donor appeals, events, foundation grants) will completely fund all of their activities. Instead, nonprofits must work to create a broader approach to securing the overall FINANCING necessary to create social change.”
Click here to access.
The Next Steps to Sustainability
This guide was developed to assist family and consumer run organizations in seeking to expand their funding by becoming a part of a managed care network.
Click here to access.
An Executive Director’s Guide to Financial Leadership
There is an important distinction between financial management and financial leadership. Financial management is the collecting of financial data, production of financial reports, and solution of near-term financial issues. Financial leadership, on the other hand, is guiding a nonprofit organization to sustainability. This is the job of an executive director. He or she is responsible for developing and maintaining a business model that produces exceptional mission impact and sustained financial health. To do that successfully, the executive director has to be ever mindful of essential nonprofit business concepts and realities. The following is a guide to this way of thinking for an executive—a summary of what we see as the eight key business principles that should guide financial leadership practice.
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Strategic Planning & Organizational Assessment Tools
Quick Guide for Self-Assessment of Family Run Organizations
The Quick Guide is for use by family-run organizations. The guide is divided into nine sections addressing important elements of family-run organization development and sustainability. Each section represents several components or characteristics of effective family-run organizations in a system of care.
Click here to download.
Cultural and Linguistic Competence Family Organization Assessment Instrument
Organizational self-assessment is a necessary, effective, and systematic way to plan for and incorporate cultural and linguistic competency. An assessment should address the attitudes, behaviors, policies, structures and practices of an organization, including those of its board, staff, and volunteers.
While there are many tools and instruments to assess organizational cultural and linguistic competence, none has been specifically developed to address the unique functions of family organizations concerned with children and youth with behavioral-emotional disorders, special health care needs, and disabilities. The Cultural and Linguistic Competence Family Organization Assessment Instrument (CLCFOA) was developed to fill this void. The CLCFOA is intended to support family organizations to: (1) plan for and incorporate culturally and linguistically competent policies, structures, and practices in all aspects of their work; (2) enhance the quality of services and supports they deliver within culturally diverse and underserved communities; and (3) promote cultural and linguistic competence as an essential approach in the elimination of disparities and the promotion of equity.
Click here to download.
Strategic Planning Process
The strategic planning process allows your organization to build commitment among key stakeholders and provides a road map for organizational direction. As a rule, most strategic plans are reviewed and updated every three to five years. The task of developing a strategic plan may seem a bit overwhelming; however, by adopting a step-by-step approach and using basic assessment and planning tools, your organization can create an effective strategic plan to help you reach your organizational goals.
Click here to access.
Engagement & Advocacy
On Pins and Needles Report – by The National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC)
While the report focuses on caregivers of adults with mental illness, the findings certainly parallel the experiences of families caring for a child with mental health needs.
Click here to download the report.
Engaging Parents, Developing Leaders
Yet we know that leaders seeking to improve family engagement and parent participation in programs often face several challenges, including knowing where to start and figuring out which among the myriad possible approaches and strategies to undertake. Indeed, most organizations fall on a continuum when it comes to parent engagement, doing some things really well and needing improvements in other areas. Most leaders struggle to find time to assess what is working and determine the best next step.
This tool aims to address these challenges by enabling a variety of nonprofit leaders to assess their organization’s family engagement and capacity-building activities. It also provides suggestions on realistic next-step strategies. We have grounded all of the provided suggestions in proven or promising practices identified through extensive research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, as well as insights from leading organizations and parents themselves.
Click here to access the report.
The Role of Family-Run Organizations in Systems of Care: How Partnerships with States Can Achieve Shared Goals
The roles of family-run organizations highlighted in this document are based on the experience of more than 30 organizations that play a critical role in supporting the families of children, youth, and young adults with behavioral health challenges. They provide invaluable services to assist families to navigate complex services systems and to develop the knowledge and skills they need to improve their lives and the lives of their children. They also have developed partnerships with state and local systems that have incorporated “family voice” into system and policy decisions to ensure that services and supports meet the needs of youth and families.
Their impact has been enormous, and their work has created a paradigm shift in children’s behavioral health towards family-driven, youth-guided systems.
Click here to download.
Growing and Sustaining Parent Engagement – A Toolkit
The Toolkit is a quick and easy guide to help support and sustain parent engagement. It provides how to’s for implementing three powerful strategies communities can use to maintain and grow parent engagement work that is already underway: Creating a Parent Engagement 1)Roadmap, 2)Checklist and 3)Support Network.
Click here to download.
Father Involvement Guide
This guide shares information about the importance of fathers in the lives of their children, and it identifies potential consequences if they are not involved. It also offers strategies for systems and families, especially those who are involved in systems of care, to help fathers become more involved. Section I discusses statistics about the presence and absence of fathers in families. Section II describes effects of fathers’ absence or presence in the lives of their children, and explains why children need an active father in their lives. Section III outlines ways in which systems of care can best support the involvement of fathers in individual and family service plans. Section IV explains how systems of care can involve fathers in all core dimensions of development (including family-driven, youth-guided services/ supports, cultural and linguistic competence, clinical services and structure, governance, social marketing, evaluation, logic model development, strategic planning, the technical assistance plan, and continuous quality improvement). Section V discusses three different cultural perspectives of fatherhood. And more…
Click here to access the full document.
Engaging Families in Child & Youth Mental Health: A Review of Best, Emerging and Promising Practices
The family is a foundational institution across all cultures. Parents are entrusted with the responsibility for taking care of their children. Because parents are essential to the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual development of their children, it is vital that parents are also involved in their child’s mental health. Parent involvement positively influences the outcome of treatment and empowers them to continue to nurture their child’s development.
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Enhancing Family Advocacy Networks
In 1990, the National Institute of Mental Health funded the development and enhancement of 15 statewide advocacy organizations that were to be controlled and staffed by families of children who have serious emotional disorders. These family advocacy organizations had three major goals: to establish support networks, to advocate for service system reform and to develop statewide family advocacy networks. Seven of these networks worked with sponsoring organizations because they needed assistance and/or could not receive funding directly. This paper proposes a conceptual framework that includes a clear definition of the sponsoring organization’s roles and an analysis of the advantages, limitation and critical issues for the sponsoring organization.
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The Carter Center Journalism Resource Guide on Behavioral Health
The resource guide aims to increase accurate reporting of behavioral health issues, decrease stereotypes, and help journalists better understand mental health substance use issues and access expert resources. “This guide will enhance the ability of journalists covering stories that involve real or perceived mental health issues to report with accuracy, fairness, and sensitivity,” said Dr. Thomas Bornemann, director of the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program. “Ultimately, we hope the guide also leads to an increase in public understanding of behavioral health issues leading to early intervention for people with mental illnesses and substance use disorders.”
Click here to download.