Marcia Mintz, the CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix (BGCMP), defined a high-performance culture as, “When everybody at every level understands where their role fits into the organization and the plan to get where they want to go.” 

When Mintz took over as CEO, to implement a high-performance culture she followed several key processes: establishing clarity, an organizational plan and a more fluid hierarchy that allows for employee development. In doing so, problems that cause a lack of high-performance culture, like turnover and rigidity, crumble and dissipate. Nonprofit organizations are mission-driven businesses in an industry of service. Establishing a culture of high-performing people increases the functionality and efficiency of an organization toward its goals, and its goals are its reason for existence. The culture sustains itself by setting a precedent for recruiting the right type of people and developing them to fit into an organization.

Clear values and goals

Leadership is crucial to developing and sustaining a high-performance culture because it establishes organizational culture from the inside out. A leader’s values set the direction of the organization, which new employees inherit. All levels of the organization need to intentionally meet regularly to go over and align their reason for existing, their…

Rusty Morgen Stahl, in an article examining research on nonprofit hiring strategies, wrote for The Foundation Review, “It is reasonable to ask what has been done to tackle the talent challenge. At the sector level, reports have provided data and recommendations; unfortunately, many of these ideas have not been implemented effectively into the field.”

It is apparent that the nonprofit sector is going through a time of difficulties and change when it comes to recruiting and retaining employees. Nonprofit organizations are often not able to have separate human resources departments due to budgeting and staff restraints. This issue can lead to a lack of recruitment and retention techniques. Employees at nonprofit organizations who are in charge of HR or recruitment must place utmost importance on recruiting and retaining high-performing and high-impact employees in order for their organizations to be successful. 

According to HRZone, a high-performing employee possesses traits such as self-motivation, ability to take ownership, ability to be a team player and adaptability. There are two main areas that nonprofit organizations should be focusing on to improve their HR departments – recruitment and retention.…

Not all revenue streams are created equal in the nonprofit sector. They are often riddled with limitations and unrealistic expectations. Rarely do funds cover operational or administrative costs and often they may have additional matches or indirect expenses needed to fulfill all requirements. The long-term sustainability of a charity is dependent on unrestricted funding sources allowing the organization to determine how and where resources should be focused. 

Restricted Funding

Restricted funding has been the standard for many charities to accept with a smile while figuring out how to work within the limitations set forth. This can lead to skewed budgets, falsified accounting practices and loss of stakeholder trust. Restricted funds can be a result of grants, donor requests or specific fundraising campaigns. John Fisher of CHARISM learned a lesson in restricted funding when he accepted a grant for new computers. Unfortunately, the grant only covered the hardware, not the software, furniture or education. This cost his organization thousands of dollars in indirect expenses, leaving him frustrated and fiscally short for the year. 

A recent Bridgespan study shows only 20 percent of nonprofit funding is unrestricted, leaving organizations pigeonholed into running only programs they have funding for and skimping on the organizational or administrative side of the charity. This bleeds into the…

I am a busy working mom, wife and student. My current personal mission is to raise good human beings and successfully launch them into adulthood. My relationship with my children is paramount in my life right now and requires a high degree of focus, attention and trust. However, my life would be in great imbalance if while focusing on my children, I didn’t work to foster good relationships with my husband, my parents, my family, my friends, my co-workers, my fellow students, my children’s teachers and coaches, etc. These people are stakeholders in my life and the lives of my kids. My children’s lives are better, richer and more meaningful because of stakeholder involvement. There is a well-known proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” It does indeed.

Nonprofits work in the same way. Nonprofits exist to meet the needs of the people and/or the community they serve. Nonprofits are mission-driven and constituent-focused. However, nonprofits cannot do it alone and should not neglect important stakeholder relationships with employees, volunteers, the Board of Directors and donors. Nurturing these stakeholder relationships in pursuit of mission will increase performance and strongly enhance impact.

The foundation of all successful relationships is built on trust. This is true in nonprofit relationships as well. People want to work/volunteer for and give money to organizations that they believe in and trust. I have…

A 2015 Stanford study on boards of directors in nonprofit organizations found that “over two thirds (69 percent) of nonprofit directors say their organization has faced one or more serious governance related problems in the past 10 years.” In fact, according to management consultant Peter Drucker, “Boards of nonprofit organizations malfunction as often as they function effectively.”

So how does an organization improve effectiveness and increase board performance? Earlier research focused more on improvements of procedural documents, structures, policies and bylaws. As one author put it, “earlier works examined how the governance game was organized; we concentrated on how it was actually played.” Most current recommendations can be boiled down to the three P’s of board performance: People, Process and Planning. 

People

Author and consultant Jim Collins calls this the who, then the what: Getting the right people on the bus first, and then figuring out what they are going to do. The right people can mean those with competencies that can help advance the mission of your organization, but it can also mean people who will actively…