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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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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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Achieving Appropriate Transparency
Facing an insatiable desire for transparency, trusted ministries find the balance between being appropriately transparent while measuring privacy concerns and administrative burdens.
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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 Boards
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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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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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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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 Sample Policy
Discusses conflicts of interest and related-party transactions, and 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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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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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 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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Fraud in Ministries: Real Examples and Red Flags
Ministries can implement a few simple internal controls to remove temptations from employees and protect resources from misappropriations.
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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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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 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 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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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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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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Minimizing Fraud
Trusted ministries are keenly aware of their susceptibility to fraud. They establish and continually test internal controls to minimize significant fraud.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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The Audit Oversight Process
Details adequate financial oversight and how it is one of the central responsibilities of effective board governance
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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 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 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 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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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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Travel Expense of Board Members and their Spouses
Outlines the issues surrounding board member and spousal travel reimbursements
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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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