Observations of a Consulting Newcomer
Philip Gartenberg
I established my consulting practice last April after a long career in management and administration for fundraising and human service organizations in both the public and nonprofit sectors. The first nine months in my newly chosen profession have been occupied by rewarding consulting assignments along with an extensive outreach to established practitioners—some old friends and many new acquaintances. This article contains observations of someone who “parachuted” into
this field.
Governance
Governance is a key issue for many nonprofit organizations. There is an increasing understanding of the need to articulate the role of boards of directors and the development of healthy and synergistic relationships between the lay leadership and staff. This agenda becomes most clearly articulated when board members from the corporate world bring the issues they have been grappling with in terms of Sarbanes-Oxley to the nonprofit table. A synopsis about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act. For answers to frequently asked questions about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act go to: http://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/faqs/soxact2002.htm. Additional websites for helpful information regarding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are: http://www.independentsector.org/issues/sarbanesoxley.html; http://www.boardsource.org/clientfiles/Sarbanes-Oxley.pdf .
Sarbanes-Oxley focuses on the private sector issues. However, its principles of defining board and committee responsibility, developing and implementing provisions for the appropriate exercise of those duties and organizational transparency are applicable to nonprofit organizations. Probably the clearest way Sarbanes-Oxley issues have entered the agendas of nonprofit organizations has come from:
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Clarifying the relationships between board and staff.
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Assessing board oversight—particularly in financial matters through establishing audit committees with broad mandates for financial and operational review
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Adopting conflict of interest and whistleblower policies—insuring adherence to standards of operational integrity.
Planning
A companion to governance review is the recognition of the need for establishing a clearly articulated strategic or business plan. The planning process may be boarddriven, staff-directed or a combination of the two. Many agencies are engaged in
rigorous reviews of their current status and where they want to be in the future. The timeframes for these planning processes have become shorter and are usually focused on a three to five year outlook, with three years being the more common benchmark. The results of the short cycle are salutary. Plans are pragmatic, targets are achievable and operations are sufficiently nimble to react to unforeseen environmental circumstances.
Financial Support
Governance and planning assessments invariably come back to money. Many human service organizations have traditionally relied on public support for the lion’s share of their revenue. Other organizations have relied on narrowly defined funding streams. For example, they may depend on specific foundations, the generous support of board members, annual event(s) or direct mail. There is increased recognition that viability is enhanced by diversifying the sources of support. As a result, organizations are developing more comprehensive campaigns building on their strengths and branching out to other modes of development, including increased emphasis on major gift fundraising and planned giving.
Support for the Nonprofit Community
How do agencies undertake and achieve the challenging initiatives? Capacity building has been an important initiative for many far sighted leaders from both the business community and the nonprofit world. It is heartening to see support and expertise to assist nonprofit organizations of all sizes and program orientation to carry out their missions. Assistance is available for organizations—for everything from financial management to strategic and campaign planning.
In summary, these are exhilarating times to be associated with the nonprofit community. We are in an era where there are exciting opportunities to marry the good works inherent in the mission of nonprofit organizations with the best practices of the business community.
Philip Gartenberg, PhD, is the President of Fulcrum Associates, LLC.
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