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10 Most Common Board Shortcomings
What governance shortcomings have you discerned in Christ-centered organizations and churches?
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10 Questions to Ask Before Joining a Board
CEOs and board members are asking for more help on board member recruitment strategies.
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2 Big Differences: Decision-making and Conflict Resolution
There is a difference between how a "secular" board governs and how a "Christ-centered" board governs
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27 years — 27 Board Chairs!
How will you inspire and remind your board members (and especially your board chair) to view their colleagues around the table as part of a parade, not a crowd?
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3-Point Talk: Right, Wrong, or Inappropriate
What are we doing year-round to ensure that we are recruiting the “right composition” of men and women onto our board?
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5 Technology Advances for Governance Excellence
This document, authored by Vonna Laue and Michael Martin, offers five strategies some churches and ministries utilize to reap the benefits of technological advances.
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5 Years From Now, What Advice Would You Give Yourself Today?
It’s time to honor your board chair who is stepping down after weathering six years at the head of the table. What gift will you give him or her?
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7 Questions to Measure Your Board’s Engagement Level
Of the four phases of board member recruitment (cultivation, recruitment, orientation, and engagement), the most critical is engagement.
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7 Reasons Why Strategic Plans Fail
Proverb 16:3 says, “Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.” What might be the second reason your plans may not succeed?
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A Blunt Board Member Blesses His CEO!
What’s the trust level between the board and the CEO? Is hard truth spoken frequently, sometimes, rarely or never?
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A Dynamite Idea for Your Next Board Retreat
Who sets the tone at the top for trust in your ministry? How is your ministry perceived by donors, volunteers, the media, and the public? Busby notes, “We ignore perceptions at our peril.” In his chapter on “Perceptions,” he includes a list of ten major issues that can lead to misperceptions (compensation, fringe benefits, intellectual properties, family members paid by the ministry, related-party transactions, and five more).
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Accelerating Board Members to Full Engagement
Proven ideas to accelerate your board members, both new and long-standing, into full service
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Accountability and the Great Commission
Steve Douglass powerfully communicates how accountability supports fulfilling the Great Commission. As Steve suggests, “When people perceive a ministry and its leaders are accountable, they believe in them more.”
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Address Absentee Board Member Syndrome
There are three unhealthy ways that many ministry boards respond to empty chairs at board meetings.
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Advisory Groups for Ministries
Outlines the purposes, benefits, and risks of a nonprofit utilizing an advisory board separate from a governing board
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After Thank You and Good-bye
For a season, board members throw their minds, hearts, and financial resources into the organization, and then they leave. Unless you are intentional about trying to stem the natural progression of things, all those years of service to your charity very quickly fade to a pleasant memory.
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Be Intentional About Your First 30 Minutes
Does your board meeting need a refresh—so you experience holy moments more frequently?
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Begin With the End in Mind
If you begin with the end in mind, you’ll likely build deeper relationships and help board members leverage their strengths and spiritual gifts more intentionally.
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Best Board Books #15: Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom (Second Edition)
Best Board Books #15: Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom (Second Edition)
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Best Board Books #5 – Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask
Best Board Books #5 – Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask
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Best Board Books #6 – Serving as a Board Member: Practical Guidance for Directors of Christian Ministries
Best Board Books #6 – Serving as a Board Member: Practical Guidance for Directors of Christian Ministries
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Best Board Books #8 – The Practitioner's Guide to Governance as Leadership
Best Board Books #8 – The Practitioner's Guide to Governance as Leadership
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Best Board Books #9 – Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board
Best Board Books #9 – Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board
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Beware the Emotional Effects of Transitions
How sensitive are your board members, CEO, and senior team members in recognizing that the decisions you make can trigger a variety of emotions and responses among the staff, volunteers, clients/customers, and donors you serve?
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Big Blessings Abound When Governance Faithfulness Flourishes
Two stories: “The Board and the Bachelor Farmer” and “$1.5 Billion Worth of Burger Blessings!”
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Big Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand
Ministry boards have a natural gravitational pull toward issues that should be reserved for the staff.
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Big Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand
Church boards have a natural gravitational pull toward issues that should be reserved for the church staff.
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Board Chairs: Our Single Greatest Need
At your next board meeting, ask each person (including the CEO) to write out and then share their answer to the question, “What is our board’s single greatest need?”
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Board Input Versus Board Output
“What would you say are the one or two things your board did in the last 12 months that really made a difference for your ministry?”
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Board Meeting Body Language
What are your unwritten rules about board behavior? What guidance do you get from Scripture when confronting character or behavioral flaws?
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Board Retreat Engagement Reading
If you gave a Pop Quiz at your next board meeting, how many board members would be able to intelligently articulate your organization’s strategy?
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Board Self-Evaluation – Is It Time to Give Your Board a Check-up?
Outlines the purpose, importance, and means of board self-evaluation
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Board Service Word Association Game
Does your board service inspire other family members to invest their lives in Christ-centered board work?
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Board Service: “Easy when . . .”
Before you invite prospects to join your board, what process do you use to spiritually discern if they have passion for your cause?
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Board Warts
What are you doing—in every board meeting—to build God-honoring trust, conflict (the good kind!), commitment, accountability, and results?
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Called to Serve #1: What Will You Measure?
As you measure outputs and outcomes, are your board members, board chair, CEO, and senior team members all on the same page?
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Called to Serve #10: What's More Important Than Structure?
Discuss the theological values that undergird your ministry—and assess if the relational values of the Good News are alive and well in your boardroom and in your 24/7 year-round board culture.
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Called to Serve #11: Do Not Censor What the Board Receives
How frequently does our CEO deliver bad news? How appropriately does our board respond to bad news?
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Called to Serve #12: Coherence With Corrals
Is our policy document (corral) current and crystal clear? Does it result in the natural fecundity of a God-honoring organization?
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Called to Serve #13: The Prospect Pipeline
Agree on how many names should be in the “board prospect pipeline” (at various stages in the “dating” process) at any given time.
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Called to Serve #14: There Are No Committee Statues!
“Culture is evidenced in specific and measurable behaviors. People consistently perform according to what is measured.”
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Called to Serve #15: SILENCE!
Before (way before!) you entrust the board chair position to the next “likely suspect,” discuss the high bar that both De Pree and McKenna set for the “call” of the chair.
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Called to Serve #16: Board Member Self-Measurements
Before your next meeting, ask board members to read De Pree’s chapter, “What Does a Trustee Promise?” and then write a confidential, self-assessment, “How will I know if I’m doing a good job?”
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Called to Serve #17: Be a Frantic Learner!
Before you order your next “everyone read this book before the board retreat,” take time to discern where frantic learning is needed. Seek God’s voice—not the hype from the bestsellers list.
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Called to Serve #18: If No Progress—Skip the “Progress Report"!
At your next board meeting, present a gift card to the first committee chair who courageously announces, “We have no progress to report, but we are working on our three to five annual SMART Goals that the board approved at the last meeting. Thus ends our report!”
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Called to Serve #19: The Phone-Book-Size Board Packet Syndrome
Do pre-meeting materials, reports, and minutes arrive with adequate time to reflect and discern next steps?
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Called to Serve #2: Violence and Committee Meetings!
De Pree notes the story of the English visitor who watched his first American football game and observed, “The game combines the two worst elements of American culture—violence and committee meetings.”
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Called to Serve #20: Use White Space to Practice Hospitality
Do we practice God-honoring hospitality before, during, and after our board meetings?
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Called to Serve #21: When Your Organization Is Bleeding and Boring Board Members
Do we address governance tensions appropriately?
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Called to Serve #22: The Ten-Foot Pole Tension
Has your board addressed this common tension—board member evaluation and assessment? How long is your board’s pole?
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Called to Serve #23: Board Meddling on Management’s Turf
Think back to your last board meeting. Did your board chair halt discussion that spiraled down into management and operational items?
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Called to Serve #24: Max’s Most Memorable Message (1924–2017)
Ask your CEO, “What do you want to be remembered for? And what should we measure?”
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Called to Serve #25: What the Board Owes the CEO
Question 1: What is our ministry’s strategy? Question 2: Is our strategy crystal clear to our CEO?
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Called to Serve #26: The Error of Leadership Indifference
“How many errors in organizations are due to leadership indifference?"
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Called to Serve #27: Give Space…But Plan Sparingly
Does the board allocate adequate space to the CEO—or does the board meddle and micro-manage?
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Called to Serve #28: Don’t Neglect Your CEO’s Growth
Christ-centered boards should have the same mindset: inspiring their CEOs to thrive by providing an adequate budget and time for personal and professional growth.
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Called to Serve #29: Goal No. 1—Keep Your CEO Alive!
What the board might consider a helpful resource or benefit may not speak to your CEO’s unique needs.
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Called to Serve #3: Loyalty Is Never Sufficient
What Bible verse or passage would enrich the meaning for us as we reflect on these standards of governance effectiveness?
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Called to Serve #30: No Board Detail Is Too Small (Index to 30 Blogs)
Max De Pree: “…my experience has convinced me that no detail is too small to consider carefully when it comes to thinking about the important work of nonprofit boards and the people who serve on them.”
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Called to Serve #4: Challenged With Measurable Work
If you’re “called to serve,” how are you enriching your board service competencies?
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Called to Serve #6: Governance Through the Prism of the Agenda
Do our board agendas align with our philosophy and theology of governance?
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Called to Serve #7: The Bell Curve of a Board Meeting
At your next meeting, ask one board member to observe and plot the bell curve for the entire board meeting—and then share an end-of-the-meeting analysis if the most critical agenda items were discerned at the top of the bell curve.
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Called to Serve #8: No Reading Allowed!
Peter Drucker said, “At least once every five years, every form should be put on trial for its life.”
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Caution! Understand the Governance Pendulum Principle
You have limited time to act when the pendulum oscillates in a positive direction.
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CEO Job Description
Nonprofit organizations exist in all sizes with an emphasis on an array of causes. Regardless of size, or whether the organization’s staff is made up of volunteers or employees, every nonprofit should have one person who is the effective leader that guides the organization.
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Conducting Effective Board Meetings
Outlines the important role of the board chair in planning and leading effective board meetings
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Conflicts of Interest and Related-Party Transactions for Ministries
Discusses conflicts of interest and related-party transactions – includes a sample conflicts of interest policy and related documents
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Covenant of Confidentiality
Nonprofit boards may use this sample covenant of confidentiality to protect the confidentiality of a ministry
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Creating the Vision for the Next Board
Creating a vision for and drawing the blueprint for the future board is one of the most important legacies of a board.
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Cut the Cord! Invite Board Members to Exit When They Don’t Live Your Values
If you want a healthy board, recruit healthy people.
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Dashboards Are Not a Secret Sauce for Sound Governance
Too often the use of dashboards does not clearly communicate the past and give signals for the future.
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Disclosure of Governing Documents and Conflict of Interest Policy
Nonprofit organizations subject to the Form 990 filing requirements should determine how to respond to the Form 990 question about disclosure of certain governing documents.
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Effective Board Governance in Turbulent Times
The furthest thing from your mind is a collapse of Wall Street that significantly impacts Main Street—a collapse that impacts many of your donors and funders, and in turn, impacts the budget of the ministry you serve.
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Eight Best Practices for Recruiting New Board Members
Have you ever served on a board when a prospect was nominated for board service because he was a friend of a friend of someone’s Cousin Eddie?
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Engage Board Members in Generative Thinking
They rely on generative thinking in their day jobs but are rarely asked to think collaboratively in the boardroom.
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Enhance Harmony by Clarifying Your Participant-Hat Expectations
Understand the three board hats: Governance, Volunteer, and Participant.
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Equal Opportunity Talkers
When your board members exited your last board meeting, what percentage of them would have said, “I made a very significant contribution today on an important topic”?
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Executive Compensation Policy
A board’s determination of the nonprofit’s senior staff members’ compensation is one of its key tasks.
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Five Board Governance Trends
Peter Drucker said, "The best way to predict the future is to create it." In this article, John Pearson shares five trends and best practices to help create your preferred board governance future.
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Five Troublesome Misconceptions of Board Members
Understanding board member myths can lead to improved governing effectiveness.
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Focus on Mission Impact and Sustainability
The “dual bottom line” equips boards to address dead horses and sacred cows (or goats).
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Forget the Plaques!
When you honor your next departing board member or board chair, how will you meaningfully connect the dots between faithfulness and Kingdom impact?
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From the Pen of Olan Hendrix
ECFA is pleased to offer excerpts from Olan Hendrix's writings as a part of our Knowledge Center. Please find below many great topical articles that we hope will be a blessing to you in your ministry.
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Getting Your Board Through the Wilderness
Nonprofit ministry and church boards are always facing changes—planned or unplanned (the economy, CEO transitions, shifting loyalties of donors and much more).
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Good Thing Pilots Are Life-long Learners!
Inspire your board members to be trustworthy stewards as they hear from God and pilot the direction of your ministry.
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Governance and the Christian College
In order to have the kind of “shared governance” that is called for in most Christian college and university settings, there is one overarching fundamental that needs to be firmly placed in the hearts and minds of board members and staff alike.
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Governance for Christ-centered Ministries
What are the transformational distinctives of Christ-centered board governance? What is different in Christian-centered board governance compared to the secular governance models?
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Governance Overkill Syndrome
Nonprofit organizations are on a quest to seek out and attain good governance. The failure of a relatively small number of boards to do their jobs should not cause every nonprofit board in America to engage in remedial action that is unduly burdensome and unproductive, and that distracts board members from their true obligation--that of overseeing the effective carrying out of the mission of the organization itself.
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Governing Board Culture
We are confident we need to address our current governing board culture but we are not sure when and how to proceed. What do you suggest?
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How to Avoid Obliteration
On the planning process continuum between “foggy confusion” (and perhaps obliteration) and God’s guiding light…where is your organization?
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How to Avoid Three Common Board Mistakes
You may have been on a board where one or more of these three mistakes were made. Avoiding these mistakes will improve the effectiveness of your board.
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Individual Board Members - Sample Position Description
Describes responsibilities and characteristics for individual board members
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Integrity Slipping?
What is one of our greatest dangers for injury? An issue that tops the charts is the potential for a spiritual 911-type injury is when our integrity slips.
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Invest “10 Minutes for Governance” in Every Board Meeting
We are all guilty of bringing our delightful dysfunctions into every new board experience.
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Invitation for Improvement
With an eye on eternity, how will you inspire your board members to be looking for more “invitations for improvement?”
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Is Your Board Crisis-Ready?
The day will come when the board faces a big challenge, be it financial, moral, spiritual, or relational.
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It Takes a Village to Raise a Board’s Effectiveness
Almost 1,100 CEOs, board chairs and board members participated in the 2011 Governance Survey of ECFA members.
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Keeping Up With the Joneses
How about your board? How much better—how much more God-honoring—could you be if you focused not on the Joneses but on God’s unique call for your important ministry?
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Leverage the 80/20 Rule in the Boardroom
Invest 80 percent of your board work on future ministry opportunities—not rehashing the past.
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Looking for Consensus but Finding Division
Finding consensus on challenging issues requires deft handling and a flexible approach by the board chair.
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Micromanaging Board Members: Ego Satisfaction?
What drives your board's actions: ego satisfaction from micromanaging or ensuring that Christ is on the throne for each board member—and then, as a group, spiritually discerning his voice?
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Mission Creep – Blueprint for Mission Creep
Why organizations drift from their mission: finances, personnel, organizational structure, demographics, or philosophy
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Mission Creep – Temptations and Solutions
Why organizations drift from their mission and how to avoid drift — "all great causes are not your cause."
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Mission Statement Pop Quiz
All the literature, all the books, and all the resources hammer us on the importance of aligning everything we do with our mission.
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More Huckster Than Holy?
Is fundraising the greatest need in your organization? If so, what might you learn by digging deeper into this subject?
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Musical Chairs
If we are to spiritually discern God’s direction, as board members, how important is it that we really know each other?
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Nice Farewell Dinner, But Where’s my Plaque?
What is your CEO’s love language—and how do you regularly express appreciation to him or her?
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No Margin. No Mission.
When staff members, or volunteers, or even board members push back on the importance of profit, margin or cash reserves—it often means we’ve missed opportunities along the way to discuss biblical money principles. Questions like “Is this a ministry or a business?” trumpet bad theology and ill-informed core values about money management.
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Optimizing the Board-President Relationship: Best Practices that Make a Difference
The executive search process is launched with the best of intentions. The board search committee is put together to set parameters and to ensure due diligence. The multiple documents and resumes provided by presidential candidates are reviewed, finalists determined, followed by multiple interviews, test-taking, and analyses. The choice is subsequently announced to great fanfare, followed by the usual pomp and circumstance of a presidential inauguration, everyone hoping for the best.
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Planning in Times of Uncertainty: An overview of the scenario planning process
This article explains the five main steps of the scenario planning process. Scenario planning involves exploring several ways the future may unfold and devising a strategy that will keep you moving forward no matter what happens. It is useful during times of disruptive change when long-range planning seems impossible.
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Policy: The Board’s Chief Occupation
At the beginning and end of each board agenda item, are you asking the key question: Is our policy on this issue current and clear, or does it need to be amended?
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Pop Quiz on Your Elevator Speech
So…what is your ministry’s elevator speech? Does it prompt the listener’s next question, “Wow! Tell me more!”
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Public Access to Ministry Board Meetings or Board Meeting Minutes
Discusses any legal requirements and the propriety of granting public access to ministry board meetings or board meeting minutes
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Quick Fix Tools for Board Self-Assessments
How will you inspire your board members to measure and monitor their own effectiveness?
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Recording Governing Board Minutes
Outlines the importance of and procedures for recording board meeting minutes, including a sample set of minutes
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Rumsfeld’s Rules on Meetings
If you asked the Lord for a give-it-to-us-straight assessment of your last board meeting, what improvements might He suggest?
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Serving on a Ministry Board with Excellence
Boards seem to give little thought to qualities that separate good boards from the very best
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Seven Best Practices for Cultivating New Board Members
Recruiting the right people onto the board bus must be a high priority for boards. As the board goes, so goes the organization.
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Spiritual Discernment
Dr. Stephen Macchia is one of the leaders of a growing spiritual discernment movement. As Steve says: “No matter who joins you at the discernment table, they bring with them their hearts . . . the condition of their hearts directly impacts the discernment process.” May you bring a burning heart to the discernment table.
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Staff and Volunteer Ethics Sample Policy
A nonprofit's staff and volunteers' commitment to biblical, ethical, businesslike, and lawful conduct
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Strategic Plans that Learn: An innovative alternative to traditional strategic planning
Traditional strategic plans often fail to produce the intended results. In business schools, strategic planning has been replaced with the broader concept of strategic management. Rather than doing long-range strategic planning every three years or so, it is far better to conduct periodic strategic reviews. The article describes six questions to use to guide strategic review meetings.
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Succession Planning: “Appointment Without Anointment Always Led to Disaster”
Do you agree that “appointment without anointment” will lead to disaster?
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Succession Planning: “My Heart Had Left the Building”
“The number one issue for me was passion. My heart was no longer engaged in my job—the fire had gone out. My heart had left the building.”
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Succession Planning: “One Size Fits All” Is Bad Counsel
What are some foundational biblical principles you can glean from David and Solomon or Paul and Timothy or others?
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Succession Planning: “Wise People Know When to Quit”
Does our board regularly practice spiritual discernment for fork-in-the-road decisions, or are our prayer practices more superficial than transformational?
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Succession Planning: 11 Principles (Index to 11 Posts)
Board members should discern not only what CEO competencies they need for the next few years, but what kind of situation their new leader will inherit.
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Succession Planning: Decide If You Need a Search Firm
Michael J. Lotito: “If you spend a lot of time figuring out who you’re going to hire, you’ll have to spend far less time figuring out who to fire.”
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Succession Planning: Does Your CEO Need a Coach?
According to Soderquist Leadership, “92% of executives who received coaching said they would be willing to be coached again.”
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Succession Planning: Hire Slower and Fire Faster
What do board members fear the most? They fear having to terminate a CEO on their watch.
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Succession Planning: The Five Stages of CEO Abandonment
Surprise…and maybe shock! While you thought your CEO would serve until retirement, today she called your board chair to announce her resignation!
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Succession Planning: The Ongoing Continuous Process
“Are there appropriate board-approved succession policies to guide the work of the Succession Planning Task Force?”
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The “Quieter” Pool of Board Members
What methods do you leverage to tone down your noisy board members and encourage your quieter board members to speak up?
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The 20% Board Member
During my years at Willow Creek Community Church and Willow Creek Association, I recall that both elders and church board members practiced a very high level of commitment to excellence. And for many, excellence could only be accomplished with a high commitment of time.
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The 6 D's: Doer
Do you have a written pathway to the board that includes reference-checking? What questions do you ask others about a prospective board member?
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The 6 D’s: Diligent and Faithful Participant
How many board prospects are you currently dating and who is observing them, up close, to discern if they meet Criteria No. 4: Diligent and Faithful Participant?
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The 6 D’s: Documented Team Player
How will we conduct our due diligence on future board members to ensure that they are competent team players and not Lone Rangers?
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The Board and the Bachelor Farmer
What stories of management faithfulness and governance faithfulness are you using to inspire and motivate your board members?
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The Board's Fiscal Responsibilities
Board members act as trustees of the ministries assets and must exercise due diligence to make sure that the ministries are well-managed and financially sound. This article outlines the board's fiscal responsibilities.
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The Cardinal Sin Is Dullness
I was catching up on my reading last Sunday evening, with the Oscars on TV in the background. I had one take-away—an actor quoted Frank Capra (1897-1991), the famed director of the 1946 uplifting movie, “It's a Wonderful Life.”
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The Connection Chasm
Does your board have a Pathway to the Board Checklist? How are you communicating board service opportunities to younger board members?
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The Cousin Eddie Syndrome
How does your board avoid the Cousin Eddie Syndrome—and when is the last time you’ve reviewed board recruitment best practices?
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The Great Board Debate: How should ministry boards govern?
This article describes the pros and cons of policy based governance and the requirements that must be in place before making a transition. It examines the tendency of boards to swing from micro-managing to rubber-stamping and what to do about it.
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The Hottest Questions About Board Service
How does your Christ-centered board move from decision-making to discernment (actually hearing God’s voice about your future)?
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The Impact of Founder's Syndrome
Visionary leaders do not just experience personal stress but can also cause great organizational distress. Founder’s Syndrome occurs when an organization is driven more by the personality of the founder than by its own mission. It is an organizational problem more than a personal one. All institutions face this danger, but it is especially complicated in Christian settings, where founders often function as spiritual leaders as well.
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The Meeting Before the Meeting
How will you know the perspective of your board members, if you don’t have some form of “the meeting before the meeting” (lunch, phone call, Skype call, etc.)?
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The Nothingness Syndrome
Are you guilty of receiving (and even reading) emailed board reports—but not hitting “REPLY” with a short encouraging note to the CEO?
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The Peaceful Urgency Continuum
What do you do, in your board meetings and day-after-day, to forge a Peaceful Urgency as your board stewards God’s work?
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The Powerful Potential of Tab 10
What’s your next step for leveraging the God-honoring heart and passion of former board members?
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The Sober-Judgment Board
What is a biblical way to think about board self-assessment? Dr. Philip Ryken, president of Wheaton College, suggests board members should “think with sober judgment” (Romans 12). His outstanding article, "The Sober-Judgment Board," emphasizes the importance of a carefully structured, mission driven, and mutually accountable board.
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The Two Sides of Strategic Planning: How the Holy Spirit inspires our vision and our planning
Strategic planning has two sides and a middle—the visionary thinking side and the detailed planning side—linked together by current reality. Both sides are important and necessary. Like planning a family vacation, you have to decide on a great destination everyone will enjoy, but you also have to make lists and pack the car.
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Then and Now
“If ECFA had not been formed, another organization would have been needed to fill its role,” said Lauren Libby, former ECFA board member.
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There Are Two Things You Should Never Joke About—#2: Fundraising
Flippancy about fundraising is never a good substitute for sincerity.
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TOOL #1: The Pathway to the Board
Give this internal document to your Governance Committee to guide them along the six steps…from suggestion to election.
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TOOL #10: The 5/15 Monthly Report to the Board
Use this tool to keep the board informed and inspired between meetings. Once formatted, it takes just 15 minutes to write and 5 minutes to read.
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TOOL #11: Monthly Dashboard Report
Use this tool to update the board and senior team on the CEO’s or senior pastor’s Top-5 Annual S.M.A.R.T. Goals. (Send updates at least monthly.)
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TOOL #12: Quarterly Board Meeting Agenda and Recommendations
Use this agenda template to signal the board, seven to 10 days in advance, that this board meeting is important—and their insights are needed.
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TOOL #13: Board Retreat Read-and-Reflect Worksheets
Prior to your next board retreat, create a “Read-and-Reflect Worksheet” and inspire the board to read one governance book in preparation for your retreat.
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TOOL #14: The Rolling 3-Year Strategic Plan Placemat
Roll-up your sleeves and gather the strategically-gifted board and senior staff around the table—and begin with this: “What is our strategy?”
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TOOL #15: Board Retreat Trend-Spotting Exercise
Use this trend-spotting template to generate insights and interaction on a key hot topic at your next retreat—each person presenting one article.
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TOOL #17: Board Policies Manual
Use this tool to create a Board Policies Manual (BPM)—and finally, you’ll have all your policies in one document and always updated.
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TOOL #18: Job Descriptions for the Top Leader and Board Chair
Review these sample job descriptions for the Board Chair and the CEO (or Executive Pastor) and then use these insights to refresh your documents.
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TOOL #2: Board Nominee Suggestion Form
Give this suggestion form to board members to help them discern who to recommend for board service.
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TOOL #20: Tent Cards and Tools for Leveraging Board Member Strengths
Inspire your board to complete the online CliftonStrengths® assessment and then create tent cards and tools to leverage strengths at every board and committee meeting!
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TOOL #21: Board Member Annual Affirmation Statement
Share this document with board prospects to communicate your high commitment and generosity standards. Plus, require re-commitments annually from all board members.
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TOOL #22: Straw Vote Cards
Use red and green straw vote cards to discern if you have consensus or division on big and small issues—and save valuable time!
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TOOL #3: Board Nominee Orientation: Table of Contents
Inspire qualified board prospects to consider board service by giving them a comprehensive overview of your governance documents.
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TOOL #5: The Board’s Annual Self-Assessment Survey
Select the board self-assessment survey option that best fits your board’s culture and your board’s aspirations for continual improvement.
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TOOL #6: The Board’s Annual Financial Management Audit
Use this TRUE OR FALSE audit annually as a first step in assessing your ministry’s financial health and integrity.
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TOOL #7: The Board’s Annual Legal Audit
Use this TRUE OR FALSE annual audit as a first step in assessing your ministry’s compliance with applicable local, state, and federal laws and regulations.
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TOOL #8: The Board’s Annual Fundraising Audit
Use this TRUE OR FALSE annual audit as a first step in assessing if the ministry is communicating giving opportunities with integrity and accuracy—and whether or not the board understands and affirms the ministry’s current fundraising practices.
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TOOL #9: The Board’s Annual Evaluation of the Top Leader
Review these templates—and then customize your annual process so it fits your unique situation and your unique top leader! (One size doesn’t fit all.)
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TOOL 1 Review – The Pathway to the Board
Here’s a very practical tool for tracking possible board nominees in your “Prospect Pipeline.”
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TOOL 10 Review – The 5/15 Monthly Report to the Board
In the hallways of boardrooms, perhaps the most constant whine is, “We don’t hear from our CEO in between board meetings. How can I steward this ministry, if I’m not in the loop?”
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TOOL 11 Review – Monthly Dashboard Report
When it comes to goal setting in your ministry, does your CEO embrace “S.M.A.R.T.” goals?
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TOOL 12 Review – Quarterly Board Meeting Agenda and Recommendations
What are the key elements of an effective agenda and board meeting?
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TOOL 13 Review – Board Retreat Read-and-Reflect Worksheets
When was the last time our board read a governance book together—and made boardroom improvements as a result of our study?
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TOOL 17 Review – Board Policies Manual (BPM)
Do you need a flashlight and emergency provisions to search for all of your board-approved policies over the last five decades?
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TOOL 20 Review – Tent Cards & Tools for Leveraging Board Member Strengths
How do we inspire the deep engagement of our board members?
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TOOL 21 Review - Board Member Annual Affirmation Statement
"If volunteers see the fulfillment of their role as ‘obeying and serving God’ rather than serving you or your [organization], it will cause motivation to swell.” -- Al Newell
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TOOL 22 Review – Straw Vote Cards
“Did we sense any holy moments—that clearly demonstrated our ministry is governed by eternal values and obedience to God’s direction?”
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TOOL 3 Review – Board Nominee Orientation: Table of Contents
“Recruit board members for their passion, not their position. Don’t swallow the board myth that says you need a CPA, an attorney, and a fundraiser on your board. . ." John Pearson
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TOOL 4 Review – Five-Finger Feedback
What if…you’re the chair and the Five-Finger Feedback exercise reveals low scores (just one or two fingers up)? What would you say or do?
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TOOL 5 Review – The Board’s Annual Self-Assessment Survey
“Self-assessment is the first action requirement of leadership: the constant resharpening, constant refocusing, never really being satisfied.” – Peter Drucker
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TOOL 6 Review – The Board’s Annual Financial Management Audit
“In the worst-case scenario, clarity of ministry finances is a key to avoiding a financial shipwreck. In the best case, clarity prevents a ministry from becoming an embarrassment to Christ.” – Dan Busby
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TOOL 7 Review – The Board's Annual Legal Audit
What if—at your next board meeting—senior staff reported this bad news (a RED alert on your “Ministry Dashboard Signals” report)?
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TOOL 8 Review – The Board's Annual Fundraising Audit
“#4. The board is aware of communication being shared with givers concerning the potential of over-funding or under-funding of projects for which funds are being raised.” – True or False
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TOOL 9 Review – The Board's Annual Evaluation of the Top Leader
Are we leveraging our CEO’s strengths? Are we leveraging the strengths of our board members?
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Travel Expense of Board Members and their Spouses
Outlines the issues surrounding board member and spousal travel reimbursements
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Try “Stoppage Time” at Your Next Board Meeting
At the end of your next board meeting, read this tongue-in-check post to the board and then ask for feedback.
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Two Prayers and a Poem Are Not Enough!
How will you raise the significance of the devotional thoughts at your board meetings and retreats?
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Two Things Boards Should Never Joke About, Part 1
Oswald Chambers wrote that prayer is “the vital breath of the Christian.” Is that vital breath evident both in your board meetings and outside of board meetings?
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Two Tools for Improving Communication
Has your board agreed on the template and standing topics that your CEO should report on each month (and the report frequency)?
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We All Need Feedback
God is honored when we ask for feedback—and when we practice what we preach, our CEOs will ask for feedback.
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What Color Is Christ-centered Governance?
All of us have different views of the board’s role. Our perspectives are colored by our experiences. Maybe Fred’s last board stint was colored by high trust and stunning Kingdom outcomes. Jennifer’s previous experience, perhaps, was colored by mediocre results, less-than-honest reporting, and infrequent board meetings. Maybe Fred and Jennifer could meet in the middle on board roles—but the middle approach may not be effective for their organization.
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What Drains Your Board Members?
This subject arrested my attention when a good friend, Jim Galvin, asked in a recent eNewsletter, “What’s Your Kryptonite?”
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What If…Every Board Member Wrote 5 Thank You Notes?
At your next board meeting, bring notecards, envelopes and stamps—and ask every board member to write five or more thank you notes—on the spot—to the people that are responsible for the success of your ministry.
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Where Two or Three Are Gathered on Social Media
Conflicts of interest always sound more questionable on the internet and social media.
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Why Do Board Members Micromanage?
What would be the upside if the board and senior team agreed on a two-page strategy document?
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Your Board’s Fair Share of the World’s Burden
How many of us really get it right—a holy balance in bearing our due share of the world’s burden?
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Your CEO’s Worst Mistake!
What are the top three things you need to accomplish in the next six to 12 months to give your organization the best chance of long-term success?
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Your Designated Dicernmentarian
When we’re facing a fork-in-the-road decision, do we have the spiritual tools at hand to truly hear from God and practice “indifference” to our own personal views?
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Your Greatest Need: Money or Discernment
What’s the most important need in our ministry right now? Raising money to do our work or discerning what work God wants us to do?
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