Issue 53
November 16, 2006

NEWSNOTES is a monthly email newsletter published by NEW. It covers resources available at NEW in Ann Arbor as well as items of interest to the nonprofit community in southeastern Michigan. NEWSNOTES is proud to celebrate its fifth year of publication, with delivery to over 825 subscribers every month! We welcome your feedback and suggestions!

NEW would like to recognize the generous support of its Community Partners:

IN THIS ISSUE

LEAD STORY

Executive Director Performance Appraisal by the Board

Reprinted with permission from Zimnotes*

The most important job of a nonprofit board is hiring a superior executive director and then evaluating his or her performance to ensure that excellence is maintained in carrying out the organization's mission, goals and objectives. The entire board—not just the board president or personnel committee—should be involved in the process. What all too often happens is that the decision is given to a committee and no follow-up or evaluation takes place for years. Once the director is hired, the board should work with him or her to establish yearly goals and objectives. These are reviewed each year as part of his or her performance evaluation and then updated for the following year.

Your role as a board member is to plan the general direction in which you want your organization to go. The role of your executive director is to take your strategic goals and plan the day-to-day events accordingly. If your board is thorough and diligent in making policy, writing plans and hiring the best executive director it can find, there should be no reason for you to be involved in your director's job. Interfering with your executive director's job not only creates more work for the board; it also undermines the director's authority and sends conflicting messages about who is in charge.

An executive director must have clear communication with his or her board to make effective day-to-day decisions. As a board member, you should feel free to voice your questions and concerns to him or her directly but not to his or her staff. Although the board is responsible for monitoring and evaluating the executive director, it has no such commitment to staff. In fact, you should deal with staff issues very cautiously, unless asked by the executive director to participate with staff on a particular project.

Staff management is the responsibility of your executive director — the person accountable for staff's daily actions. If you are unhappy with your director's performance or management style, this should be dealt with in the yearly performance appraisal.

Executive Director Performance Appraisal Procedure
Your board has the responsibility to evaluate your executive director to determine if he or she is meeting his or her own goals and organizational goals, and to provide feedback and communication regarding his/her strengths and areas in need of improvement. There are a number of different processes a board can use for the performance appraisal: some boards may want feedback from staff, clients, funders or other stakeholders; others may do what is known as a 360° approach (feedback from the full circle surrounding the director). Zimmerman Lehman insists on a careful review of how such feedback is gathered. Anonymous surveys do not always promote honest and open communication.

Zimmerman Lehman recommends the following procedure:

To begin the process, a board committee—the personnel committee, the executive committee or a special committee designed for this purpose—should be given the tasks of conveying the board's comments and meeting with the director. It is not recommended that the entire board meet at once with the director; an executive session to review comments would be appropriate. Board members should review the executive director's job description and written goals from the previous year, comment on his or her performance in the areas below and make suggestions for the coming year. The director should also review his or her own previous goals and prepare a list of new ones. If there are no previous year's goals, these will need to be created by both the committee — with full board approval — and your director. The committee solicits comments from the entire board. Some organizations use a form; if you do not have one, areas to consider include:

• Leadership
• Management (including initiative and follow-through)
• Planning (mission and vision, assessing needs)
• Program implementation " Fiscal reporting & budgeting
• Fundraising
• Communication and public relations
• Professionalism

The board's comments should be summarized by the committee, which then meets with the director. During the evaluation meeting with the executive director, review the board's comments with him or her—and allow the executive director to respond. The committee and the director together should set new annual goals. An additional meeting to iron out any differences may be necessary, and final approval of the new goals should be made by the entire board.

When the evaluation process is complete, board members should review its success. What worked? What procedures could be improved next time?

*ZimNotes Vol.8 #3, 2005

Additional Resources:

• BoardSource’s knowledge center answers FAQs on this topic
• Assessment of the Chief Executive is available from BoardSource in both print and online versions.
  

FEATURED ITEMS

BoardConnect

BoardConnect has several upcoming training sessions to help you recruit and educate new board members.

Training for individuals: Serving on a Nonprofit Board addresses the roles and responsibilities of board members, including board operations, strategic planning, resource development, oversight and ambassadorship. You'll also learn about BoardConnect's matching services and boardnetUSA, a national online database that connects candidates and nonprofits. After training, receive assistance in finding a board seat for no additional cost!

• Thursday, December 7, 2006, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. Madonna University, Livonia
• Tuesday, January 30, 2007, 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. NEW Center, Ann Arbor

Training for organizations: Building Your Board covers important aspects of recruiting new members for a nonprofit's board of directors, including recruitment planning, identifying and cultivating candidates, and electing new members. You'll also learn about BoardConnect's matching services and boardnetUSA, a national online database that connects candidates and nonprofits. After training, let BoardConnect help strengthen your search for new board members.

• Tuesday, December 12, 2006, 3 p.m. – 6 pm., NEW Center, Ann Arbor 4
• Wednesday, January 17, 2007, 9 a.m – 12 noon, City Connect Detroit

Find more information and register online.

New Staff, New Connections

Nonprofits have spoken and NEW is responding. To heed your call for trusted resources for assistance with a range of management needs, ResourceConnect is growing its services in innovative ways. Visit www.resourceconnect.org to find the ever-expanding resource directory, where you can rate the resources based on your experience. Also, check out the new visual training calendar which links you directly to the training host to make registration easier. Make an appointment to come in and search the Foundation Center database (FC Search) and compile your prospects on a personalized CD-ROM. Of course, call anytime and speak with Ann Gladwin, ResourceConnect’s senior resource expert. Dallas Moore, former education director at NEW, has joined Ann to form a team that will help you diagnose your information needs and connect you with solutions. The resource team also recently welcomed their new director, Eric Firstenberg, who comes to ResourceConnect with over 15 years in the nonprofit sector as a program and information manager in environmental affairs, community development, and the arts. Eric looks forward to speaking with many of you in the coming months to learn about how ResourceConnect can best serve your organization.

Nannette Gottfried has also joined NEW’s staff. As Manager of Marketing and Outreach, she will work with each of NEW’s core programs to identify services that will help nonprofits meet and exceed their goals. Her twenty years of experience in strategic marketing, marketing communications, branding, public relations, and market research will serve her well in getting the word out to nonprofits about NEW’s innovative services. She holds BA, MSW and MBA degrees from the University of Michigan.

Discounted D & O Insurance

Member organizations of The Society for Nonprofit Organizations (SNPO) have the opportunity to receive preferential pricing for Directors and Officers Liability Insurance. To learn more about this program and/or to apply for a quote, visit the SNPO website. Jason Chmura (734-451-3582) is available to answer questions about this program or other SNPO member benefits.

Meet Robert Egger, Author of Begging for Change

You are invited to a spirited and informal wine and cheese reception to meet Robert Egger, the founder of DC Central Kitchen and author of Begging for Change: The Dollars and Sense of Making Nonprofits Responsive, Efficient, and Rewarding for All (Harper Collins, 2004).

Food Gatherers and DC Central Kitchen grew up together and helped launch the national network of food rescue programs. Robert pioneered the combination of food rescue and job training, which is the model and ongoing inspiration for Food Gatherers Community Kitchen in the Delonis Center. The Nonprofit Times voted Robert one of the top 50 most powerful people in the service sector, the only direct service provider to make the list. He is funny and irreverent and will be sure to give an enjoyable talk. Learn more about Robert and DC Central Kitchen.

When: Wednesday, December 6, 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Where: Food Gatherers Warehouse, 1 Carrot Way, Ann Arbor
Cost: $10 suggested donation
RSVP: Eileen@foodgatherers.org

U of M Social Enterprise "Consulting" Teams for SE Michigan Nonprofits

Social enterprise is defined as a revenue-generating enterprise adopted by a nonprofit to provide a stream of unrestricted resources to the organization. A dynamic and knowledgeable team of University Michigan graduate students, mainly from the business school, is seeking nonprofits interested in having them develop a feasibility study for a potential social enterprise business development plan, a marketing plan or market access study, as a project for a course called Social Entrepreneurship: Business Tools for Enhanced Social Impact. The end results, deliverable by February 2007, will be concrete and practical products of real value for the nonprofit organizations. Interested nonprofits should contact Kelly Janiga (734-615-4562) to discuss specific ideas for projects or get more information about the course.

MNA Open House

MNA members and other leaders are invited to an open house at Michigan Nonprofit Association’s Metro Detroit office on Wednesday, December 6 from 3:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. A brief program will be presented at 5 p.m. and light refreshments will be served.

MNA opened the office in August to provide resources and services to nonprofits in southeast Michigan. It is located in Detroit’s New Center area and housed in the Detroit Youth Foundation’s Youthville Building. Reservations are required to attend the open house. Call 313-309-1653 by December 1 or register online by that date.

ArtServe and MACAA Have Merged

Michigan Association of Community Arts Agencies, the Lansing-based statewide nonprofit that builds capacity for arts and cultural organizations, communities and artists, has merged with Southfield-based ArtServe Michigan, the largest statewide arts and cultural advocacy and arts education organization in the state. The merger took effect on October 1, 2006. Employees of the two organizations have joined together to form the new ArtServe Michigan. ArtServe Michigan’s former President and CEO Barbara Kratchman has become the interim President; the Michigan Association of Community Arts Agencies’ Executive Director Debbie Mikula has become vice president and chief operating officer of the new organization.

Peer Learning Demonstration

You are invited to experience the demonstration of a facilitated peer-to-peer learning process – proven to provide high-impact results. This session is sponsored by The Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center in association with the Edward Lowe Foundation. This is not a training program or speaker-focused seminar, but it is about maximizing the value of the brain trust of your peers. It will be held Thursday, November 30 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Morris Lawrence Building, Washtenaw Community College (4800 Huron River Drive, Ann Arbor, Room 105). Please RSVP to Jeannette Jackson (734-417-6429).

NEW's 2005-2006 Annual Report Available

Download a copy.

REGULAR FEATURES

Volunteer Management Review. The October 11, 2006 issue featured the article “Herding Cats.” When it seems that everyone is going in a different direction, a strong leader will bring information, ideas, and people together to form a strong team. This article has relevance to all leaders, but volunteer program managers will want to get their own subscription to this weekly online newsletter from Charity Channel.

Nonprofit Bulletin Board

Visit NEW's Nonprofit Bulletin Board to post and view notices about free resources, fundraising opportunities, and other items relevant to the southeast Michigan nonprofit community.

Events Calendar

Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau calendar of events. E-mail Nick Miller to request a password to submit an event.