United Way of the Midlands Blog

If you’ve ever been interested in serving on a Board of Directors of volunteer committee, United Way of the Midlands has a professional development opportunity to help you on your way.

United Way of the Midlands provides Blueprint for Leadership, a professional development course targeting future community leaders. The program prepares diverse groups of individuals for volunteer service in the nonprofit sector.

If you’re interested in nonprofits and you don’t know about Blue Avocado then take a minute and get to know it.  It is good reading for nonprofit staff, board members, or folks generally interested in nonprofits.  The magazine offers great articles and great commentary.  They also post something akin to “the Shameless Self promotion” award, so they have a sense of humor.

While it is an older post, this Blue Avocado article deserves some extra attention. Jan Masoka, nonprofit rock star, believes it is the executive director who is responsible for the organization.  ALL of it- including the how well the board operates. She’s right- everything hums along when both the board and the director are strong and are working well together.  She’s also right that when the board is weak something has to change, and the board likely won’t change unless the director gets involved and helps make the change.

I agree with Masoka to a degree.  However, I’m a fan of checks and balances, so I’m concerned about the director’s power.  I think it is too easy when operating from Masoka’s framework for board members with busy lives to defer to the director.  This deferment can further weaken or disengage a board.  Finally, and I hate to say it, but sometimes bad executives take advantage of or unwittingly hurt organizations. Call me skeptical and slightly paranoid, but I don’t want power of a charitable organization concentrated in one person.

So at Blueprint we work to cultivate an educated and trained group of volunteers who are prepared to step up and work on boards to make sure the best possible work is being done in an organization. The checks and balances from staff, to executive director to a Board of Directors made up of donors and volunteers keeps our message and efforts connected with the community and prevent them from being created in a vacuum, a crucial part to making an impact.

What are you doing to ensure your Board of Directors is engaged?

Members of the 2010 Blueprint for Leadership Class

One of my favorite activities at UWM is Blueprint for Leadership (BPL).  BPL prepares folks to serve on nonprofit boards and committees.  There are lots of great leadership programs in the Midlands, but none have the unique objective to prepare folks to lead nonprofit organizations.

I love BPL for lots of reasons, but because this is a short post, I’ll present three.

• First, I get to meet 20-30 new people who share the same interest, working with nonprofits. BPL participants may share this common interest, but their experiences and perspectives are diverse, such that there always is a lively conversation.
• Second, I have the opportunity to meet and talk to some of the best nonprofit staff people, consultants and volunteers around.  Most BPL sessions include an interview/ conversation with a local nonprofit professional.
• Finally, I get to hear how BPL participants would respond to certain situations because BPL uses case studies to present information.

Nonprofits operate to serve community interests.  Nonprofit board members act as stewards of those interests.  I think this is an important responsibility that shouldn’t be taken lightly.  Anyone interested in being a thoughtful, prepared board member in service to the community might want to join the 2012 BPL class.  Information and applications will be posted on our website in the coming week. The deadline to apply is January 12th. Check the link for more information, or stay tuned to the blog!