Episode 84: The Nonprofit Success Roadmap: Stage 4 – Building Your Leadership Team
How to get a salary? How to hire a paid staff? There’s a formula and it’s based on your leadership team. Learn the formula and how to go from volunteer to receiving a check every month.
SPONSORS:
SmallBiz Pro: https://www.smallbizpro.net/
WaveApps: https://waveapps.com/
NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT:
This week's episode highlights the nonprofit "Educational Student Tours".
"Educational Student Tours" is an organization that provides support as well as anonymously acknowledges the struggles teens go through to illustrate the fact that they are not alone.
Check out Educational Student Tours! 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
Website: https://estcap.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estcollegeaccessprogram/
----------------------------------------------------
Want to learn more about Amber Wynn’s success with helping nonprofits?
👉🏿 Read my blog
CONNECT WITH AMBER:
👉🏿 Follow me on Facebook
👉🏿 Follow me on Instagram
👉🏿 Follow me on YouTube
👉🏿 Connect on LinkedIn
👉🏿 Listen to my Podcast! Anchor/Spotify
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Got Questions? "Ask Amber" on any of my social media platforms or email me at amber@amberwynn.net.
Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey fam, it's your girl, Amber Wynn, Philanthrepreneur, and I'm excited about 2024. A lot of changes are in store here on air with Amber Wynn. And as I wrap up with new episodes and some new additions to the format, I wanted to revisit probably the most important episodes on the show, the nonprofit success roadmap. Because when you stage your nonprofit, you save yourself hundreds of hours in sweat equity and thousands of dollars out of your pocket because you're not focusing on work, your organization isn't ready for it. Here's the thing, you have to be honest. If you've been self-funding your organization for the past 5, 10, 15, 20 years, don't say, oh, I have an accurate budget, or I have a clear mission. Because if you did, you wouldn't still be self-funding your organization do something different to get a different result. Okay? So take a look at the seven stages of the nonprofit success roadmap to determine where your organization is and work to move toward the next stage and look out for new episodes.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn, where nonprofit leaders learned fuse passion and commitment with proven business strategies to create long-term funding, impact and sustainability. And now here's your host. I'm resident Philanthrepreneur, Amber Wynn.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Hey fam, it's me, your girl, Amber Wynn, Philanthrepreneur. And I just want to check in before we get started and see how you're doing because your girl is struggling. It is hard out there right now. And so I can only imagine how challenging it is for the hardest working people in our communities, my nonprofit founders and executive directors. And I just want to pause for a second to encourage you to do what I've decided to do, which is to just slow down, take it easy, and celebrate the small wins. Because the world needs nonprofits right now. I mean, the world really needs you and I'm going to give you my dose of I got you. So don't worry about it. But I really just want to encourage you to just slow down and just appreciate all that you bring to this world because you bring a lot, right?
(02:31):
And I'm going to go ahead and toot my little horn. Yeah, I bring a lot too. And so I've just decided to just step back and take it a little bit easy. Celebrate the small things, the small things for me that make me happy. It's just a nice delicious cup of coffee in the morning just to set the tone, just to get my mind right. I am one of those people where if I don't have my coffee, I get slightly irritated. I do. So today's shirt is instant human. Just add coffee. That's right. And talking about celebrating the small victories. I want to give a shout out to Dr. Tina King Harris, assistant superintendent and vice president of Student Affairs at Southwestern College over in Chula Vista. We had our grant funded for $3 million for a Title V grant from the Department of Education. It's for a first year experience, so it's a challenge for kids of color, black, Latino, getting into college.
(03:37):
It's also a challenge keeping them in. So this Title V grant is going to help retain our amazing black and brown kids over there at Southwestern. So woo-hoo, Dr. King. We did it. We did it. That's my small victory. $3 million ain't small, but that's my small victory. Alright, so let's get it going. Today's episode, we're still talking about nonprofit success roadmap. Why? Because when you can stage yourself, you eliminate a lot of extra time and a lot of wasted money, you get rid of the frustration, the overwhelm, and you stay in that little space. You accomplish all that you need to do in that little space so that you can move on to the next thing. So this session's topic is stage four, building your leadership team. And y'all know what we do before we jump into it. We're going to hear from one of our sponsors, be back soon.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
This is you and this is your business. From invoicing your first client to your 10th client, to your hundredth client. You'll need to get paid quickly. Pretty soon you'll be ready to hire some help and you'll need to pay them. As your business grows. Wave is there to grow with you.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
And we're back. And for those of you just joining us, today's episode, we're talking about stage four, build your leadership team, and we're talking about the success roadmap for nonprofit organizations. I'm covering the seven stages, zero to seven, and I'm encouraging every founder, every executive director to stage their organization so that they know exactly where they are. When you know where you are, then you know where you need to go. And so let's jump into it. Today we're going to talk about building your leadership team and the IRS has created the infrastructure for the nonprofit sector, for the nonprofit organization. And it looks like this. On one side you have governance, and on the other side you have staff governance is your board. And if you're just starting and even if you're fully established, your leadership team is your board of directors. And let me just emphasize that the purpose of the board is to lead, is to advise, is to guide, is to help the executive director.
(06:13):
And so I know that a lot of times an amazing individual will start a nonprofit and just shoulder the weight of that organization, but that's not how the organization is supposed to be run. It's supposed to be a partnership, right? With the governing board supporting the executive director. Yes, the executive director reports to the board, but the board has a specific purpose, a specific function, and that is to support the executive director. Believe it or not. What happens though is that annoyingly nonprofit founders will throw their friends or their family on a board and then there's absolutely nothing they can do to support them. So they ended up shouldering the whole organization on themselves. And what I say to that is you got to start where you are if that's what you've done. If you've put people on your board not knowing that the board is crucial, crucial for maintaining work-life balance. I'm going to say it like that. If you have a support team, then there are some things that they're supposed to be taken care of. And then there's other things that you're supposed to be taking care of instead of you taking care of the whole thing. So I'm going to go into details in another episode about how you can transition your lovely friends and family out and transition season board members in. But for today's session, we're just talking about stage four, building your leadership team. So let's talk about this at a high level.
(07:52):
What most founders don't understand about the role of the board of directors is they're there to support you, right? They're not there to berate you, they're not there to undermine you. They're not. They're there to support you. They are your governing entity, meaning you're not running it, they are running it, they're running the organization. That's the way the IRS designed it. So if you want to be the last person to have the last say, so even if you're the founder, then you need to be the president of the board of directors because the executive director reports to the board. Secondly, your nonprofit board is responsible. It is their fiduciary responsibility to fundraise for the organization. So if you're struggling trying to bring in consistent funding trying to sustain your organization, I can guarantee it's because you don't have a seasoned board. The board is supposed to fundraise.
(08:52):
And then also when we talk about growth and sustainability, the main way that you get to grow is through your board. For example, if you're looking to get into a new geographical area, you want to lean on your board, tap into their resources and see how they can get you into some different areas. Sustainability. Sustainability is huge because a lot of the times a founder will give you funds specifically for the program, not for operations. And as you know, operations is the hugest part of the budget salaries. And so your board can help with sustainability, with its contributions, the board dues and those other resources, the get that they bring in. So when we talk about a partnership, when we talk about your leadership team, your board is crucial.
(09:50):
And so that really goes into making sure that you have, I call them powerhouse board members. You don't want people with a good heart. You don't want people who has some experience with this or some experience with that. No, you want to be specific. You want to be intentional about your leadership team. You want powerhouse people. You want professionals. You want people who can open doors. You want people with resources. You want people who are seasoned because when they know what they're supposed to do, you don't have to convince them to do it. And that's the biggest hurdle that I see with nonprofit executive directors and founders trying to make their board do things that they're really supposed to be doing. And so having a seasoned board, you just step in, you do what you're supposed to do as executive director, and they do what they're supposed to do as a board member and it's one big happy family. You've got your A team, you've got your B team, and together you're a powerful team. And that's what we want.
(10:54):
We want powerhouse board members. How do you get a powerhouse board member when you just start an organization? I get this question all the time. Do I pay them? No. Your board member is a volunteer. How you get them is by having a mission that inspires if they can get behind what you're doing, even if you're a startup, they're like, I like what it is that this person is doing and they can get behind it and they're going to leverage their resources. And then you've got to give them something that's like worth them being an ambassador for. So if a person is in the business sector and they sit on your board, you want them to feel proud enough to say, Hey, I sit on this board. Wanted to know, number one, if you'd be willing to join the board because it's also the board's responsibility to recruit.
(11:46):
But secondly, you want them to feel comfortable enough to ask people for resources. If your nonprofit is janky, then they're not going to leverage their social capital, their brand. They're not going to pull a card that someone owes them on your behalf because your organization is janky. And so what you want to do before you go into the second iteration of recruitment is to get your nonprofit tight. You want to make sure that you have systems in place. You want to make sure that your mission is tight, that it's succinct, that it's clear and that it inspires. And then secondly, you want to make sure that your programs are sexy. If your programs are innovative, if your programs are demonstrating an impact, you're making a difference in your community, your board is going to get out there and be like, Hey, can you write me a check?
(12:41):
We're doing some amazing things in our community, and that's what you want them to be able to say. But here's the thing, when you first start your nonprofit, it is going to be a little janky because it's a startup. You're trying to figure things out, you don't know what to do, and that's why it's important to have a strong board. They can help guide, lead, and support. So it all kind of makes sense, right? If you have a strong board with some experience, with some knowledge, with some resources, with some networks, then they can help you create those nonprofit programs that are going to be innovative, that are going to inspired. But if you have people on your board who have absolutely no experience about the area, the field, whatever it is that you're focusing on, they can't help you. And so then the onus is going to be on you to just do everything and guess what?
(13:38):
You're going to end up feeling like I felt this morning, a little tired, a little burnt out, and those things happen, but we don't want those things to be the norm. We want those things to be the exception we want. When you step into your nonprofit to be like, I've got resources and I've got help and I've got assistance, and that is your leadership team. Now, when you get to that second iteration where your board is helping you to bring in consistent funds, a part of your leadership team is going to actually be your staff. Like if you are the executive director, you're going to have a program director, you're going to have a program manager. You're going to have a CFO and a COO, and that leadership team is going to be the team that works on the implementation side, which is your staff.
(14:28):
But if you're a startup, your leadership team right off the bat is your board. Now, when you get your organization to that place where you have a staff and a board, we're going to dive in deeper on the leadership side of the staff side, but right now I'm talking about stage four building your leadership team, and that's the board. That board is going to help you raise funds so that then you can pay for staff. The final thing that I wanted to say as it relates to your leadership team is you want to make it easy for them to want to be by your side. If you've got a powerhouse board, that means that they are professional. That means that they're active, that means that they're doing a lot of things. What a powerhouse is, right? They got their hands in things, they're making things happen, they're movers and shakers.
(15:24):
And so if you have a janky nonprofit, that means that they're going to have to work extra hard. Now, there's a difference between working extra hard and putting in the work. If you have an organization that is making a difference, then your ambassadors, your governing entity, your leadership team, they're not going to have to think twice about putting in the work. But if they've got to put in the work just for you to have an infrastructure just for you to do the normal business things, you're going to lose your people or you're not going to be able to recruit those people. You need to make it easy. So you need to have your infrastructure in place, you need to have your board packets for your board meetings every month. You need to have an agenda, you need to have a calendar. All of those things are going to inspire and attract seasoned board members because they don't want to come into anything janky.
(16:18):
Their time is valuable. So you want to respect their time, you want to keep them engaged and excited about being an ambassador for your organization. And that happens by making their job easier. You're going to have to have an annual budget. What they're going to use to make their decisions on how to raise funds, they're going to need the annual budget to determine what are the needs of the organization. So you're going to start your recruitment of your leadership team, of your board knowing that your primary goal is to make it easy for them. Alright, so that's it in a nutshell. For those of you just joining, we're talking about staging your nonprofit. We're on the nonprofit success roadmap, and the reason why it gets you to a successful place is because you take care of those foundational things and you just grow and grow and grow.
(17:14):
Once you take care of those foundational elements of your nonprofit, then it makes life easier. You don't have to go back and fix things because a funder's asked you for something. You don't have to go back and tweak any things. We want to get it right the first time. And so how do we do that? We follow the nonprofit success roadmap, and today we're talking about building your leadership team. Alright, so we're going to pause right now for another sponsor, but when we get back, you know what time it is. It's the question of the day.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Do you have a tool that organizes your company's and takes care of all your record keeping? Does your current record keeping system send you 90 day alerts to remind you that your key documents are about to expire and need to be renewed? Can you find contracts and procurement opportunities in seconds from any of the 50 United States so you can grow your business?
(18:12):
Is your business organized so that you can tell which key documents are needed to efficiently run the business? How about woman-owned small business or disadvantaged business enterprise certifications? You have a checklist of all the key documents you need to become certified. Does your current system allow you to conduct market research from multiple sources and provide you industry and market data in seconds? Well, small BizPro does all of that and more small BizPro is the number one business management compliance, procurement assistance, and market research assistance tool on the market today. Download the app now and you will be amazed. It's like having three additional employees working for you, but you don't have to pay them. What are you waiting for?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Welcome back, fam. Today's conversation is about building your leadership team stage four, and we're going to jump into Ask Amber where you get to ask me all of your pressing questions. Whatever it is that's on your mind, you can let me know. Feel free to hit me up on my social media handles, Instagram, Facebook, ask your questions, and then I'll make sure to answer them here on air. Today's question is, where do I find powerhouse board members? And that's an excellent question. I say it all the time. You don't just want somebody who's got a good heart, somebody who loves you and supports you. You want a powerhouse board member. You want someone number one with skills. Number two, who's got resources? Number three, in my opinion, who's not afraid to ask somebody for some money on behalf of your organization? We'll talk a little bit about that in a minute.
(19:56):
Everybody brings their different strengths, but you can't have people on your board and everyone's afraid to ask for money. Yeah, that's not going to work. So where do you find powerhouse board members? I'm going to tell you to start with in-house, if you have one amazing board member who you absolutely adore that you can turn to and say, Hey, can you help me? And they're like, yes, I got you. Or if you have a question or a problem and you're like, what do you need? I'm here to support you. Turn to that person because typically what your mom would say, birds of a feather flock together and say, Hey, we really need to grow our board. Do you know anybody that you think would be a good addition, someone with this skill, someone in this field? Because typically people really hang the same caliber of people, and because that person is already on the board, they can really speak to the experience provided that they've had some good ones.
(20:58):
And you can say, I really want to build the board so that you have some support so that we can grow the organization so that we can make more of an impact in our community. And there is no better person to do that than a person who's already doing the work. So start with if you have any amazing board members on your board, start with them. If you don't, then I'm going to suggest going outside your circle and look for people who already have the skillset that you want your clients to achieve. For example, let's just say if you're doing a STEM program and you want your students to become an engineer or a math, an accounting professional, then I would start with the associations, especially if they are specific. So if you're trying to support young African-Americans, then I would go to the Black Association of Engineers or the Latina Association of Small Business Owners, entrepreneurs or something like that, or Asian Pacific Association of Lawyers, whatever it is.
(22:13):
I would start with the association number one. It's because you understand that they have that subject matter expertise, so that's one of the skills that they're going to bring to your board. Number two, they are a part of an association. Associations have dues, so you know that they're comfortable with paying a monthly or annual dues. That's important. Number three, because they are in an association, that means that they have access to hundreds, maybe thousands of people that they can then leverage as your ambassador. When you have programs or you have conferences, they can get their association to help support that and help build your network. And then finally, as a member of an association, maybe they can help with supporting some of your programs. So association would be a really great place to start to find powerhouse board members. Then I would also suggest looking at corporations.
(23:17):
Corporations are always looking for opportunities to build their leaders. And so I would reach out to the human resources department and let them know that you are a nonprofit and you're looking for some board members. And even if they're like juniors, so if they're senior directors or vice presidents, they don't have to be at the top of the corporation because they're honing their leadership skills. And so they'll be able step into your board and help develop their leadership skills and go back to their corporation and say, look what I did to enhance this organization. So it's going to be like a win-win. So look to corporations in your field. If you're doing technology, reach out to dreamworks, reach out to Sony. If you're doing arts, reach out to the monds in theater. Look for corporations that can fully support what it is that you're trying to do.
(24:12):
And then finally look for board training programs. They have board training programs out there, and their specific role is to teach people how to be on boards. Sometimes it's a referral from a corporation and they're like, Hey, we want to get our people more engaged in the philanthropic side. So they send them through these board trainings and other people, they're just really interested and they're not sure, but they want to be good board members. Those are the people you want to get. So check out board training programs, and all you really have to do is just Google nonprofit board training programs and they'll come up in your area and you reach out to them and let them know, Hey, I'm interested in recruiting really highly trained, seasoned board members or junior level board members and form a relationship, you're going to have to do some work letting them see what type of organization you are, the programs that you have, they're going to ask you for a budget, all of that stuff.
(25:09):
But that's a very good place to go that they're being specifically trained on that. Alright, so one other thing. When you attend galas and they have a journal, sometimes in the back of the journal, they'll list who their sponsors are. Those are good people for board members. Or if you go to a hospital or a wine guard, W-Y-W-M-C-A, what is it? WMCA. You know what I'm trying to say? The why on their wall, they'll have donors and they'll have board members that they support youth. If you're a youth program, reach out to them on LinkedIn and see if they would be interested in joining your board. The beautiful thing about that is you already know that they are seasoned. If they're on that board, that means that they gave money so you know that they're used to giving money, like vet them as much as you can just because they're on one board, most likely they are open to being on another board because most board members sit on two or three boards.
(26:16):
So find these resources, tap into these resources and leverage them to help recruit powerhouse board members. Alright, so that was Ask Amber. Now we're going to move into my favorite part of the session, which is a spotlight on our nonprofits who are doing the work in our community. It's my favorite thing, as I said before, because our founders, they're so far in the weeds that they don't really come up in number one, get the accolades that they deserve. But number two, get the visibility that they need to not only connect with their clients, but kind of showcase themselves for potential funding from funders who are out there looking for amazing programs to sponsor. In this episode, I'm very proud to feature Educational Student Tours. EST is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that's dedicated to supporting youth from the foster care and low-income families. And they help them with attaining their dream of graduating college, a four year college at that. So we're going to pause for a second and hear from EST
(28:14):
Oh student tours, as you saw, started off back in 2002 and they basically did physical tours to HBCUs, but after a while they really realized that just showing the kids what the colleges looked like and where they were wasn't enough. And so they expanded their services to include college advising application essay coaching, ACT/SAT prep, tutoring, financial literacy and scholarship essay coaching. Over the years, the organization has helped hundreds of students secure scholarships including four year full ride scholarships. So if you're really interested in making a difference, if you are a funder who'd like to support an organization that's really doing the work, one of our most marginalized communities, I would encourage you to make a donation to EST at www.tcap.org, which stands for Educational Student Tours College Access Program, or reach out to them at (3 1 0) 2 1 5-9 5 2 2. That's (3 1 0) 2 1 5-9 5 2 2. We're doing some amazing work over there.
(29:34):
And so as I mentioned before, we are on a journey. It is not about getting everything done right now, it's really about the path that you're on. And in this pathway, I want you to just pause for a minute. Today's mindset minute is about you stopping and realizing that it's not your responsibility to do it all. So for this mindset minute, I'm going to talk about stop doing it all. So the IRS has designed it so that you have help. Today we're talking about building your leadership team. I'm a type A person, and up until I hit my fifties, I felt like nobody could do it. Like I could do it. Yes, they could do it, but it's not going to be the caliber of how I do it. Once I got into my fifties, I realized that you can't always sacrifice great for good.
(30:39):
Sometimes good is just good and it's good enough. Why? Because it helps to preserve me. So yes, I may want it to be great, but good is good. My reality is my 20% is somebody else's 100%. And for a lot of my nonprofit founders, I find that to be true. So respect the infrastructure that the IRS has created for you as the founder, as the executive director, and lean into the fact that you have an entity, a governing entity called your board, and their responsibility is to support you. It's written that their role is to support the executive director. So you may believe that this is your baby. You may believe that no one can do it the way that you can and it may get done differently, but it will get done. And in the end, you want to preserve yourself so that when we talk about long-term and sustainability, that you are there.
(31:45):
If you're doing everything, which is what you're tasked to do as an executive director and what the board's tasked to do, you're going to get burnt out. And the world needs nonprofits right now, and it's the executive director who's holding the nonprofit up on their shoulders. So I am going to encourage you to shift your mind around what it is you're supposed to do. You are not supposed to be doing it all. If you're going to put your time and energy into anything, I'm going to encourage you to put your time and energy into building up a very powerful leadership team. People who when you pick up the phone to call, or if they come in and they see your face is stressed, the first thing they're going to say to you is, what's wrong? And how can I help? Stop doing it all? Let go.
(32:36):
Let people do what they're supposed to do so that you can be the powerful, passionate, not burnt out community leader that you really want to be. So that's it for my Mindset Minute, and that's it for this episode today. I want to, again, just encourage each and every one of you to be your best self. Your best self starts with taking time for you, leaning into what is being comfortable with asking for help, and at the end of the day, just celebrating your victories, even if they're as small as a delicious cup of coffee or a $3 million grant. I'm just saying. All right, fam, thanks for joining me and we'll see you next week.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Head over to www do amberwynn.net/podcast for the links and resources mentioned in today's podcast. See you next time.
