Today I’m celebrating my 100th blog post! It’s been such a privilege to bring you high value content for the past 4 years! Every two weeks I share checklists, tips, or strategies for you to blast forward from intention to execution. What a pleasure it is to be a fierce advocate for your work! (And in case you missed them, be sure to scroll down to check out the top 5 most popular posts that were liked, clicked or commented on. It’s interesting to see how they relate to my pet peeve).

Milestones are a good time for reflection, so I’m treating you to insight on my #1 Pet Peeve –

Ignoring, barely tolerating and otherwise not investing in board members.

The staff and board need to work together!  And while it might be clunky at times, nonprofits have a shared leadership model. The benefits to your community are remarkable when you do this right – it might just blow your socks off to see what you can accomplish together!  So you can’t let them off the hook.

If you want to:
* Enroll trusted advisers
* Raise more money
* Acquire more ambassadors telling the story of your great work
* Establish real working groups and committees
* Reach greater mission achievement

…. then spend more time and invest in your board. When you do it right, you change the community for the better and solve big issues.  Does that matter to you?

Why don’t executive directors invest in their nonprofit boards?!

Can you relate to any of these statements?
* My board members aren’t engaged
* My board doesn’t raise money
* My committees stink
* My board members don’t show up to meetings and events
* My board members don’t connect others to our cause

The list of complaints I get about boards could go on and on. Why do you think that is?

Answer: because somewhere along the line they haven’t been equipped for success. There are any number of reasons for this:

Maybe they don’t understand the expectations.
Maybe you don’t have enough of the right people.
Maybe you gave them a great orientation but stopped there.
Maybe they don’t know how to do something and are lacking confidence.
Maybe they are burned out.
Maybe they think they are doing a great job!
Maybe the mission benefits aren’t clear.
Maybe they forgot or ran out of time.

The most successful executives I know, who are optimizing their impact, spend about 30% of their time working with the board.

Read how to build a stronger board here and email me if you’d like me to do a board assessment for you. You may be amazed at what you learn!

Here are the top 5 most popular blog posts from the past 2 years:

  1. Board Members, Please Speak up! 
  2. The Shocking Truth About the Executive Director and Board Chair Partnership 
  3. Abundance Is A Leadership Issue 
  4. Those Pesky Nonprofit Board Members 
  5. Are You Putting All Your Fundraising Eggs In One Basket?

Thanks for being on this journey with me. Let me know in the comments what topics you would like to read about this year. Here’s to the next 100 posts!

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