Episode 117: The Advisory Board: How to Use it for Your Advantage

The Nonprofit Board of Directors has its Fiduciary responsibilities to govern the organization. But what about the Advisory Board? Does it have role? It can. Learn the two ways to strategically leverage an Advisory board to help strengthen your nonprofit.

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🔦 NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT 🙌🏿

THERAPEUTIC PLAY FOUNDATION Pt. 1

👉🏿https://www.therapeuticplayfoundation.org/

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🚀 RESOURCES TO HELP YOU RUN A SUCCESSFUL NONPROFIT

How to Demonstrate Impact https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pJPpJqvtSBSnOsds14dw7xw5jQ3JYcyy/view?usp=drive_link

90 Days to a Profitable Nonprofit https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ofgeHJ2CTVS0t8STMiNqfveaVpWfaK7o/view?usp=sharing

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Podcast Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn, where nonprofit leaders learn to fuse passion and commitment with proven business strategies to create long-term funding impact and sustainability. And now here's your host and resident, Philanthrepreneur Amber Wynn.

Speaker 2 (00:21):

Hey fam, it's your girl back on the scene on Air with Amber Wynn, Philanthrepreneur, and today's topic is the advisory board. A couple of episodes back, there was a question that came in on Ask Amber about advisory boards, and so I got a couple of requests for me to dive a little bit deeper. And so in this episode, that's what we're going to do, the advisory board and how to use it for your advantage. The IRS has systems in place. They have rules and regulations, and one of those is that you have a seasoned board and that board is responsible for guiding the organization for making sure that the organization is financially sustainable and run ethically. But there's this other board, the advisory board, and when we come back, we're going to dive into how you can potentially use the advisory board to strengthen your nonprofit.

(01:18):

When we get back, if your grants aren't getting funded, it could be because the funder can't see how your programs are making an impact in your community. Get the How to Demonstrate Impact Workbook to quantify the work you're doing in your community in a way that a funder can see a potential return on their investment. Funders need proof that your organization will use their grant dollars to improve your community. That proof is called impact, and impact is quantified through measurable outcomes. Leverage my 30 years of program development experience to help increase your chance of securing funding. Order your copy today. Welcome back. You're on air with Amber Wynn, and today we're going to dive into the advisory board. As I mentioned before, there are two boards. One board is your voting board and that is the board of directors. The board of directors has an executive board, which is the president, the treasurer and the secretary, and then you have your regular board members.

(02:16):

This board is designed by the IRS to run the organization, meaning it's setting the vision and it's making sure that you're fully funded, but there's another entity called the advisory board that you can leverage to strengthen your nonprofit. Today we're going to talk about the two ways that you could potentially use an advisory board. How I use the advisory board is to invite individuals who have a little bit of celebrity, who have connections to resources and people, but they may be too busy to really serve on a board. What you don't want are people on your board who are just dead weight. Now, if you say, but this person's got a lot of connections, or this person's got resources, put them on your advisory board. You want working individuals on your regular board. You want people who are going to roll up their sleeves, they're going to be actively engaged.

(03:17):

Those people, those Oprah Winfrey and those Tyler Perry's and people like that who can bring you resources and some notoriety, put them on your advisory board because the advisory board is just that. They're there to support you, but they don't have to show up every month to a board meeting and offer their time and energy an advisory board in that capacity. The way that I would do it leverage people who are probably too busy to meet every month. Maybe they could meet every quarter, twice a year. The way that I set it up is they're responsible for one fundraising event, and that's what they're there to do. They're there to bring in financial resources, and so they may meet quarterly to discuss that signature event. You want to be able to leverage them. So that means you want to be able to put them on your website, put them on your letterhead, and you want them to have access, access to resources, to money to people.

(04:24):

The other way that other people have used them is they will use it as a springboard, right? You think that this person might be a good fit with the organization, but you're not sure. So you put them on the advisory board and you see how they work for a year, right? One year, two years. And if they demonstrate consistency, if they bring in and generate revenue, then you say, okay, we're going to move you from the advisory board up to our regular board. So it's been used in several different ways. I've also had a client who created a corporate advisory board, and basically she would recruit individuals from corporations and their primary function is just to fundraise, but they specifically come from corporations, Microsoft and the Zuckerman Zucker board, whatever his name is, just high end corporations and that's their sole purpose. They have to bring a minimum of 25,000.

(05:26):

So you can use the advisory board in multiple ways, but just remember that the advisory board, they don't have any voting rights, and you want to make sure that your board president is really actively engaged in your advisory board. If you have a vice president, then you can have the vice president be actively engaged, but you just don't want them out there nearly Willy doing their own thing. They need to have structure, they need to have a fundraising goal, and they need to meet regularly. So quarterly is doable or at least twice a year. So when we talk about the board, just understand that there are purposes for each one. The one for your regular board, your board of directors is to vote and to help drive the organization. And your advisory board can be used either to support your fundraising efforts or as a trial period for potential board members to then advance to the other level.

(06:28):

So that's pretty much it about the advisory board. I would recommend that every nonprofit has one because as you see in terms of the function, they're pretty beneficial. If you're challenged with fundraising, I use a little competition, right? I'll say to my board, oh, you're going to let the advisory board, I'll fundraise you, and you can get a little competition going that way. So if you haven't, think about starting an advisory board, especially because when we talk about diversifying your funding streams, you can definitely leverage what it is that they generate and what they bring in to help you accomplish those goals. Remember though, when you are looking at what types of individuals you want on your advisory board, think about elected officials. Elected officials can't generally sit on the board because then they have a role, but if you're on the advisory board, they're not voting.

(07:32):

So think of celebrities, think of people, bankers, people who are super busy, but they need to look like they're active in the community. And so you want to also have it so where your advisory board attends at least one event because they're going to be out there soliciting on your behalf. They can't just not show up. So you require that they support this one signature event and you require that they attend at least one of your events so they can speak to what it is they're fundraising. So that's it in terms of the advisory board. We're going to take another break, but when we come back, it's your opportunity to ask, Amber, are you struggling to fund your programs? Can't get a grant to save your life. Most consultants will share the what of how to start a nonprofit or how to fundraise. They may even share the why, but they don't share the how because that's where they make their money.

(08:35):

Now, I'm not hating. I'm a businesswoman too, but I've been where you are trying to make the world a better place, struggling to keep the doors open up to the wee hours of the night writing grants and doing whatever needed to be done. And because I've walked in your shoes, I'm not here to make you spin your wheels, waste your or your hard earned money. We ain't got time for that. The world needs you. I'm here to show you how to transform that pit. You keep dumping your hard earned money into a profitable nonprofit. I take my 30 years of nonprofit experience as a founder, executive director, program developer, grant writer in funder, giving out over $7 million annually in grants, and I save you literally thousands of dollars in hundreds of hours. I walk you through setting up your nonprofit organization so that you can be generating enough revenue to cover your monthly expenses in just 90 days.

(09:34):

How would that feel? Not paying bills from your personal bank account. I share my insider secret tips, tricks of the trade and provide you with a step-by-step roadmap on how to turn your bootstrap organization into a profitable nonprofit. Within six months, you could be generating enough revenue to pay your salary or fully fund your programs. The choice is yours, but you have to get the blueprint, and it took me three years to develop it, but it's here and it's going to change your life. Join my other successful clients who are just like you full of passion and determination, but they had no idea all that it takes to run and fund a successful nonprofit. Now they're winning grants and drawing a salary, and they know what it is that they're supposed to be doing to run a successful nonprofit. They're no longer making it up as they go.

(10:28):

They have the roadmap and they're clear about next steps, and I want that for you too. So what do you get in this course? You'll walk away with knowledge, products, processes, and systems, not just a bunch of promises, but exactly what you need to turn your organization into a profitable nonprofit. I promise you don't need grants. What you need is a solid infrastructure, and this course is going to give you all of that and more. And what's more it comes with the money back guarantee. So go ahead, click the link below to register for this course. Welcome back to On Air with Amber Wynn. Today we're talking about the role of the advisory board, but now it's time for you to ask me your pressing questions. Ask Amber our question today comes from Sheree and Sheree's in Vegas, and she says, hi Amber. Are nonprofit boards still required to take meeting minutes?

(11:29):

If so, what are they used for these days? It's a good question. And yes, board meeting minutes are the way that boards actually document the decisions made during their board meetings, and they are required. You should be documenting your decisions via the board meeting minutes, the documentation, things like your action items, your motions, and the number of votes each motion receives. What could happen is, for example, offender might request a copy of your meeting minutes where a board agreed for the organization to submit for a grant, or the board agreed to cover a loan from the executive director. So they're still very viable, they're still very useful, and they're still very much required.

(12:29):

So that's what you want to use them for. If ever you want to go back and say what decision was made even in the event, let's just say the board decides that they want to vote out a member, that's something that should be documented in your meeting minutes. Thanks for your question. If you have a pressing question, feel free to reach out to me at any of my socials. I'm on Facebook, Instagram, you can hit me up on my website or you can email me at amber@amberwynn.net and let me know your question and we'll feature it here on the show. Next, we're going to move on to my favorite part of the show, which is Shine on Nonprofits, and it was where I feature nonprofits doing the work in the community or a consultant supporting nonprofits in some way. In the next series, we've got four episodes. I'm going to highlight an amazing nonprofit in Los Angeles called Therapeutic Play Foundation. Therapeutic Play Foundation is established to provide access to typically marginalized community around mental health, around healthcare, and I'm just excited to have the opportunity to shine a light on them. So let's get started with our conversation with Therapeutic Play Foundation.

Speaker 3 (14:08):

When I founded Therapeutic Play Foundation, I was in a space of being a new mother. I was already an entrepreneur. I was running at least two for-profit businesses that were related to mental health and school-based counseling. And in that capacity, I was really being exposed to a lot of children and parents who really had a lack of organizational support outside of the school system stepping in to help them manage their children's behaviors or the family's difficulties that were impacting the children's behaviors. So I thought especially children of color as well, and as a black therapist, I had a lot of teachers, students, families coming to me specifically trying to work with me because I was of their culture and I looked like them and they felt safer with me, but I was getting tired and I thought, this is not sustainable for me to be the provider.

(15:07):

For most people, not only in my area we're based in San Gabriel Valley, but also Greater LA and even the whole state. I just was realizing that there was a deficit in mental health care and therapeutic play Foundation, especially after I became a mother myself was born out of me saying, well, something needs to be developed and what I could do is do community offerings for free. So it really started out being just me being available to parents, supporting them with art workshops, therapy workshops, parenting workshops in the community, and then in the pandemic was my business was very greatly impacted my for-profit business. And I was already in stakeholder groups saying these types of things like, Hey, people are suffering. But when the pandemic hit in these stakeholder groups, the systems shut down. The school shut down. DMH was even shut down, and that's Department of Mental Health. And so I was in there in these stakeholder groups saying, well, what is Department of Mental Health going to do? What is this group going to do? What are we going to do? I'm a mom myself, the schools are shut down. My kid just learned how to read, what's the plan?

(16:15):

And we sort of came up with at that DMH stakeholder group for Black and African heritage that we were going to launch a coalition of community members during this Pause and systems, and it was the black mental health Task force. And that motion was passed and we moved forward. And that was actually where Therapeutic Play Foundation started to expand from just being something I did to be of service as an individual to using the organization to bloom and expand into being something that can be a change maker in the world.

Speaker 2 (17:12):

Welcome back to On Air with Amber Wynn. I hope you are as excited as I am to learn more from Nikia Fields about Therapeutic Play Foundation. We've got three more episodes coming up so you get to learn about all of the work that she's doing in the community. And if you would like to be featured on Shine On reach out to me. Let me know that it's something that you want to do because my commitment is to get nonprofits visibility. You guys are doing the work in the community, got your head to the ground doing all of the work. It's important that you get visibility, not just because we want your clients to be able to find you, but we also want funders to be able to find you. So if this is something that you're interested in, be sure to hit me up on my socials and let me know that you'd like to be featured and we can schedule.

(18:02):

That's it for this week. Remember, when we talk about advisory boards, it is a resource for you to be able to strengthen your nonprofit, to get support in generating more revenue and all around having other leaders who could potentially then advance to your voting board. So thank you so much for joining me this week. Be sure to check me out next week. Same time, same back channel, and I'm going to tell you what I tell you every week is to be sure to take care of yourself, like you take care of your community. See you next time.

Speaker 1 (18:40):

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Head over to www.amberwynn.net/podcast for the links and resources mentioned in today's podcast. See you next time.