Top Five Takeaways from Essential Advice for Executive Directors

Every other week the Resilia team and community get together for Ask Us Anything - an open, informal conversation where our community members can do just that - ask us anything - about  their nonprofit journeys. Last week we had an energetic session with our community and nonprofit experts about essential advice for nonprofit Executive Directors. Our nonprofit founders brought great energy and questions, and our team of experts shared their insight and advice. 

We were joined by our very own Chief of Staff, Sarah Angello and Ron Rivers, our Director of Institutional Partnerships. If you missed it, no worries - we’re taking notes for you every time on Resilia Insights! From effective delegating as an Executive Director, to building a fundraising board, we’ve got the top five takeaways from Ask Us Anything: Essential Advice for Executive Directors. Until then, we’ll see you at the next one!

#1 How do you determine what must be done by you and what should be delegated to other staff members?

One thing that can be hard about being an Executive Director (ED) is you want to do everything. And what’s really important to remember, especially when you have a staff, is you’ve got the people on the bus now. You have people there supporting your mission and you don’t need to take all of their tasks, and give them the tasks and follow through on it all. You’re the person advancing the mission.You need to be the person who can make sure your team has the tools and resources they need to complete those tasks and go out and execute and support your mission. You’re the person with the strategy, and the one who sees the big picture. Your team is your arms and eyes. 

Ron offered great advice for ED’s in what he calls The 6 T’s - six core things you should consider when delegating. 

1.Tiny Tasks - Things that seem inconsequential on the surface but really add up over time

2.Tedious - Anything you can define as repetitive and simple like entering data into a spreadsheet or updating a slide deck

3.Time Consuming - Anything that is important, kind of complex but takes a lot of time.

4.Teachable - It’s something every ED wants to do when they’re crafting a team. take opportunities and engage your staff in a learning process.The idea here is over time as you use these teachable moments, eventually you won’t have to delegate anymore, and these things will become embedded in your organization and that individual responsibility. 

5.Terrible At - You want to make sure that if you’re not good at a task, you don’t want to spend a ton of time on it by yourself. You want to engage someone that is on your team that may have a more robust skillset and leverage their talent and technique. 

6.Time Sensitive - There’s not enough time to do everything at once, I think this is the struggle of every ED. There’s so many things to do, and just never enough time in the day. Try and delegate your important, time sensitive tasks to be done in parallel to other project based deadlines so that you’re ensuring that everything you’re doing is aligning towards your grander version. 

#2 How much time should Executive Directors spend on fundraising versus Operations / Vision Strategy at the early stage of a nonprofit organization?

It’s flexible, but fundraising is certainly one of the primary priorities of an ED. Typically, half of your time, maybe more depending on your circumstances, and what kind of team you’re going for, should be spent on fundraising. As an ED, it’s your objective to guide the amount of impact you can have and the unfortunate reality is you can’t do a ton without capital, so fundraising is a really critical function for any ED, advised Ron.

When you think about how you want to structure your time, especially as a new ED, one thing I would really suggest doing, especially in your first few days, months, even in your first few years, is to take a listening tour of your organization. And that might include spending some time with your program partners, meeting your board, your volunteers, your major stakeholders, and just listen. Make sure you learn and know everything that’s going on on the ground. Once you’re armed with those stories, and you know more about the impact of the work that you’re doing, you’re both an expert on your programs and your mission, and you’re armed with that information, you have all of that in your wheelhouse that you can use to support your fundraising, Sarah advised.

If you are making sure that you’re capturing those stories, that you know those anecdotes of your organization’s mission, if you know what your volunteers are doing, if you know about the incredible legacy of the individuals on your board, and what they have been supporting as ambassadors of your organization, knowing all that information and being strategic about how you’re capturing that impact, that’s going to amplify your time and make it easier for you to support fundraising and have a better sense of your programs as well.

#3 What advice do you have on building a fundraising board?

You might be on a nonprofit board because you love the mission and you are so excited to support the cause in your community, but not only have you never fundraised before, maybe your board doesn’t know how, they don’t know what is expected of them. They don’t realize that this is something that you need support with, and they just need some training at the forefront of this. Just like you would train staff or volunteers, train your board too. Unless you have a board member who comes from a background in fundraising, or has a lot of professional experience serving on boards, it might be a little overwhelming to just say,  Hey board, I need you to go out and fundraise. 

Provide your board with resources to help.

At Resilia, we have a course that your board members can take. They can watch a video on fundraising essentials. They can read resources that we have available for you to share on how to get started with fundraising. Maybe it’s something you can do with a board member that you want to start fundraising. Sit down with them. Help them brainstorm some contacts, and think about how they can communicate to their friends and network that they are on your organization’s board. 

Some little things that you can do to get started is find out if each of your board members has a LinkedIn profile. If they do, are they listing your organization on their LinkedIn? That’s a great way for your board to make sure that their network knows that they’re involved with your organization. And that’s a great way to start building out that culture of ambassadorship so that your board can support you in everything you’re doing to advance your mission, especially fundraising. 

#4 What is the difference in the roles of an ED, versus the board chair, and how do they best work together?

You have your board chair and your ED - that’s the dynamic duo of your organization. When those two positions are operating in lock-step, and you have that great synergy, there’s so much that’s possible. One thing that’s incredibly helpful is when the board chair and the ED have that clarity on their roles and on what their deliverables are. Just like you would attack any other job, role, or program that you’re working on, having that clarity of expectations is really key. 

But it’s important to remember that your board chair runs the board of directors. They are responsible for the fiduciary duties of the organization. Ensuring that the organization is advancing its mission, and at the end of the day, the organization is doing what it’s supposed to do, which is advancing a charitable purpose and moving the organization forward. The board chair also assesses the ED’s performance, and that relationship is so key. 

As the ED, you can think about that as being the position that is strategizing, that’s working with the staff, that’s more in the weeds, more responsible for the day to day oversight of the organization. But having an honest, thoughtful, meaningful relationship with your board chair, that’s when the beauty of the organization becomes a flywheel effect going forward. 

#5 As an ED, who should I make as my first hire?

It really is organization specific about what you’re doing. The most common first hire is in fundraising. But it may be different for your organization. You may need someone to help you be in the mix, be on the ground, or help you if you’re running a program. It’s going to depend on your organization, and the direction and vision you have as an ED, and how you imagine that strategy playing out. I think what is critical is that no matter who you hire, you want your board to have a constant flow of communication and always be learning and growing together, especially with a new ED and a young staff (young in terms of limited experience in the organization). 

You want to make sure that you two are on the same page, operating as seamlessly as possible, cooperating, and collaborating to the highest degree. I think with many nonprofits, people are excited to be there. They’re mission driven individuals who are applying for your organization. Evaluate your needs, where you are on your journey, and go back to those 6 T’s. What would take the most off your plate?

If you missed this Ask Us Anything, join us at the next one, The Resilia Community Presents #AskUsAnything - How Nonprofits Can Better Address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on Thursday, Aug 19 at 1 pm EST.

p.s. Don’t forget - the deadline is Aug 16 for our Resilia Grant Opportunity. You can visit Discover.Resilia.com/microgrant to apply for a $1,000 micro grant, with no strings attached. Five grant recipients will be selected. and winners will be announced on August 23 with funds deployed immediately. Good luck!