Workshops for Effective Board Leadership

Good Governance for Highly Effective Boards

Good governance and healthy boards don’t just happen. Board governance is the framework that structures how your board operates including the board’s responsibilities, how it sets direction, creates policy, and monitors the staff’s accountability to its mission and the public. This workshop helps organizations select and customize their board governance approach to support the sustained success of the organization. Workshop participants will gain clarity on what they can accomplish, how to best accomplish it, and will build a framework for clarifying roles, committees, and a board work plan.

How Good Governance Supports Tackling Challenging Questions

Strong, highly functioning boards work in close collaboration with the executive director. When challenges arise they are in a position to advise and to help guide the organization forward - if - the governance structure of the board anticipates and supports their actions. As organizations are emerging from the pandemic they are facing multiple challenging situations. Knowing whose shoulders carry the weight of pursuing answers to these questions is essential to meeting, and exceeding, the expectations of your constituencies. Building on the principles of good governance we will discuss how power, privilege, equity and inclusion fit into this governance framework and work with your organization to establish the systems to address the challenging questions and exciting opportunities ahead.

Board Leadership, Recruitment and Evaluation

In this workshop, we start with identifying what leadership looks like for your board, and providing the board with the tools to make decisions, respond to opportunities, align staff and board on the vision, and monitor programmatic and fiscal health. With these measures in place Momentum will help your board figure out what skills and expertise is needed on the board, and how to fill these seats with highly qualified and enthusiastic volunteers. This workshop wraps up with providing some alternatives for board self-evaluation and leaves the board equipped with the processes and tools to routinely deliver and sustain quality results within the limited time available.

Understanding Consensus Decision-making

Many boards operate with some form of consensus decision-making. At the same time, individuals have a different sense of precisely what consensus means. Although consensus is commonly used to mean complete or unanimous agreement, it’s true meaning is that consensus is reached when all members of a group are willing to accept a decision, even when the decision may not be their preference. In this workshop we train the group on how to apply consensus decision-making by establishing an environment for listening and hearing all points of view, facilitating good discussions, and holding space for reasonable disagreement. Ultimately, we will help your board make decisions in a cooperative and supportive environment.

Effective Board Meetings and Decision-making

In this workshop we explore tactics for creating good meetings including using specific agenda types, clarifying what belongs on a full board agenda or is best for a committee, ground rules for meetings and forms of meeting facilitation. We explore decision making techniques and setting expectations for how decisions are made. At board meetings it is critical to be clear about how decisions are made and when a decision is made. Setting clear expectations and defining a process for decision making will create overall effectiveness and efficiency for the many important conversations and topics a board must tackle.

Skills-Building for Board Members

Embracing Your Role as a Fundraiser

Whether you are a new board member or a veteran of many boards, there is frequently one question that board members dread, are you willing to fundraise? What is frequently misunderstood is that board members already have the essential skills needed to enhance their organizations fundraising - a passion for the mission and a willingness to serve. In this workshop we will explore the many different ways in which board members can support and enhance fundraising. We will help you to develop the skills you need to be a friend-raiser and fundraiser, look at different ways to organize board fundraising and practice different ways you can share your passion and commitment for the organization you serve.

Developing Will Power

One of the most powerful, and transformative, philanthropic acts is to leave a planned gift. In this workshop we cover the power of planned giving, what the board and staff do and do not need to know to launch a planned giving program, how to set-up a planned giving program, and how to access legal and financial resources. Most importantly we’ll discuss the leadership a board can bring to launch, focus or revitalize a planned giving program. Developing a planned giving program will help your board to leave a legacy that propels the work of the organization for generations.

Turning Every Interaction into a Moment to Remember

Your Executive Director has just presented the board with an updated organizational brand including an inspiring mission statement, clear and compelling messages and a heart-warming positioning statement. Now what? If you want to hit the marketing jackpot you need to unleash the power of word of mouth. Everyone associated with your organization, your staff, your partners, your board members, your volunteers and those who benefit from your programs is a potential ambassador with the power to move others with just one conversation or one click. In this workshop we will utilize a range of tools and techniques to increase the confidence of your new and seasoned board members to deliver these messages, to bring their stories to the forefront and together we will navigate the tricky territory of how to empower others while retaining control of the message.