The growth and effectiveness of nonprofits often hinge on a strong board that understands and operates within clearly defined roles. Yet most members have never had formal training. As a result, many well-intentioned boards can stray into areas outside of their scope and have a devastating impact on the organization. The session uses stories and real-life examples, diving deep into the legal and core responsibilities of amazing boards. The session covers the myths of nonprofit boards, organizational lifecycles, recruitment and evaluation.
Dan Prater, Senior Managing Consultant at FORVIS
Dan is the Senior Managing Consultant at FORVIS. He provides consulting services to numerous nonprofits and governmental organizations throughout the United States. His services include strategic planning, board governance, leadership transition, and organizational assessments.
Dan has an extensive background in nonprofit leadership and higher education. He was the founder of the Center for Nonprofit Leadership at Drury University (Springfield, MO). He co-created the university’s popular Master of Nonprofit and Civic Leadership degree and continues to serve as the lead instructor in the program.
He has been a leader in various nonprofit organizations, mostly in the areas of poverty, child abuse, and domestic violence.
Dan is a frequent speaker at conferences and workshops throughout the nation. He has been published more than 50 times on nonprofit industry topics.
Board roles and responsibilities covers the baseline roles and responsibilities for board members. This presentation is great for new or emerging board members and
executive directors, as well as anyone who functions and works with boards.
Kimberley Sherwood
Kimberley Sherwood is a consultant, coach, and facilitator who works with nonprofit executives and leadership teams to help make their organizations more effective and humane. Her company helps guide people in creating positive change and aligning their personal practices with their professional aspirations, with a special focus on strategy, governance, and financial health. Stewardship is at the core of her company’s approach, with a deep sense of responsibility to conduct her work and her company for the benefit of her clients, their stakeholders, and the communities they serve. Find out more here.
Nate Broeckert
Nate is passionate about building capacity for nonprofits by uplifting and supporting the individuals on the ground doing the work. Nate believes that service and education are the path of least resistance in the pursuit of changing the world, one community at a time.
Nate has vast experience in both education and programming, coming to the Colorado Nonprofit Association after serving as a Senior Impact Manager with City Year Denver. In this role, Nate was responsible for the training, coaching, and professional development of AmeriCorps members as they served schools and communities. Nate has a proven track record in supporting both schools and nonprofits in leveraging partnerships to build capacity and heighten impact. Nate also has extensive development experience, having successfully written multiple federal and private grants worth close to a million dollars.
When not serving at CNA, Nate serves on the Board of Directors for the Ronald McDonald House Denver, spends an absurd amount of time with his dogs, roots obnoxiously for the Green Bay Packers, and plays golf very poorly. Nate and his wife Sara recently welcomed baby Broeckert in October 2022!
Welcome to the new and improved Principles & Practices!
Developed for nonprofits, by nonprofits, our guide is now fully interactive. Find links to trainings, templates, and more within!
Copy Updated: September 2023
Principles & Practices for Nonprofit Excellence in Colorado is generously supported by:
A Board matrix is a simple tool that helps you review and assess the expertise, connections, lived experiences, and leadership capacity of your Board members.
Many Executive Directors and Development Staff struggle to engage board members in fundraising, and in some cases, in meeting the minimum financial, legal and general requirements of their role as outlined in the Three D’s – Duty of care, Duty of loyalty, and Duty of obedience. In this session you will learn how to create a Board Development Plan that is a guide to building a strong board structure for the future that aligns with your mission, vision, values and goals as outlined in your strategic plan. The session will help you answer the following key questions for your organization:
Dana Bacardi, Senior Vice President of Philanthropy at Strat Labs
Dana Bacardi has 15 years experience in the nonprofit sector where she has specialized in several aspects of fundraising as VP of Development and later as VP of National Expansion with a national non-profit organization supporting families and children facing critical illness. Helping to grow the organization from the ground up, she has hands-on experience with everything from donor engagement, corporate sponsorship strategy and community events, to board development, grant writing, and major fundraising campaigns. Dana graduated with a Business Management and Communications degree from Bentley University in Boston. She began her career in the tech and wireless industry in Boulder, Colorado before moving into the non-profit sector in 2007. Dana is goal oriented, results driven and passionate about bringing people together for a greater good.
Melissa Shane, Vice President of Philanthropy at Strat Labs
Melissa Shane has extensive knowledge in the nonprofit sector with over 22 years of experience in fundraising, board development and management, philanthropic investment, nonprofit case support, and donor strategy. The last fourteen years of her career have been in- house at a large elite university and Illinois’s most extensive hospital system. She began her career in public affairs consulting in Washington DC and Chicago, where most of her clients needed expertise in nonprofit strategy and cause marketing campaigns, sprinkled in with a bit of politics and corporate foundations.
Board meetings are not “just another meeting.” As Executive Directors and Board Chairs, this is your prime opportunity to bring your governance volunteers together. Your meetings should be intentionally crafted, highly effective, and produced similar to a special event. And, while there are similarities between all board meetings, yours should be designed to meet the unique needs of your organization. This one-hour course, followed by questions, will get you thinking about how to execute high quality meetings that drive the work of your agency and help attract and retain valuable volunteers.
Kim Stewart
Kim Stewart is a business and leadership coach and consultant, dedicated to supporting nonprofit organizations, small businesses, and leaders. Kim has a passion for the nonprofit sector, spending over 30-years as an organizational leader serving agencies of all sizes. In 2020, she decided to expand her reach and shift to supporting the nonprofit sector through consulting and coaching. By switching from staff (with one organization) to serving multiple agencies, Kim has been able to expand the impact she has on her community. With the belief that nonprofit organizations can save the world, she helps those that are struggling to fulfill their mission and purpose.
Additionally, Kim spent 15-years developing wellness coach programming and training coaches. The initiative has helped thousands of people through behavior change and creating healthy lifestyles that are right for them. These skills have translated smoothly to coaching leaders as they run their business, lead their staff and balance their own lives.
Today Kim offers a wide variety of coaching, consulting, and facilitation services. Her ultimate goal is to help leaders get their organization/business to a place where the mission/vision, values, goals, and every single staff and volunteer is aligned and moving in the same direction. By simplifying, aligning, and calming the chaos, leaders find more time to focus on what’s important to them.
Kim and her family are originally from Iowa. They love being active in the outdoors, live music, art, reading and more. Her family includes two delightful teenagers ~ Libby and Callahan.
In the current landscape, nonprofit organizations are working diligently to diversify their board of directors. The focus tends to be on “where to go to find diverse candidates” or “how do we recruit diverse candidates.” Rarely, will the volunteer nonprofit leaders ask “why”? The intent of this workshop is to examine your “why,” which can lead to a meaningful board recruitment process and a culture of belonging to ensure everyone has a rewarding board experience.
Carolyn Love
Carolyn Love, PhD is the founder of Kebaya Coaching & Consulting. The Company focuses on enhancing the leadership talent in organizations, creating equitable and inclusive workplaces, and facilitating meaningful and sustainable change. Carolyn served as the executive director and CEO of three nonprofit organizations in the Denver area. She is an Affiliate Faculty member at Regis University, teaching Governance and Organizational Leadership, Leading from Within and Social Justice and Civil Society. As a consultant, trainer, and leadership coach, she facilitates workshops and training on leadership, equity, diversity, inclusion and creating a culture of belonging.
Internationally, she presented workshops at La Universidad Anãhuac in Mexico City, Mexico and University of Stellenbosch Business School in Bellville, South Africa on non governmental leadership and change. Additionally, Carolyn spent time in Cuba studying their health care system.
Carolyn is a graduate of the Coach Training Institute (CTI) and serves as a leadership coach for the Community Resource Center and Colorado Health Foundation. As a public speaker, Carolyn focuses on discussing the question “what does it really take to create and sustain an inclusive multicultural, multi-racial democracy?”
In 2021, Carolyn launched a nonprofit organization focused on bringing the voices of Black women working in the areas of racial and gender justice into the public domain. The nonprofit, Black Women Solutionaries, hosts webinars to educate, share knowledge and uplift the work of Black women who are solutions oriented.
Carolyn serves on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado and the national board of ACLU. Carolyn also serves on the Colorado Supreme Court Advisory Committee. Carolyn earned a PhD in Leadership & Change from Antioch University and a Masters in Nonprofit Management from Regis University.
Question: Board and Staff – Who does what in a well-run nonprofit organization?
Answer: It’s a partnership!
OK, but Who does What? Attend this two-part series to discover the answers. Using a football analogy and based upon the popular manual The Invisible Yellow Line™ these sessions will explain the basic roles of board and staff in five key nonprofit management areas: governance, planning, finance, human resources and resource development.
Session 1: April 6th, 9 AM – 11 AM: We’ll dig into the primary roles of the board and staff leader in governance and planning. We’ll start with some definitions, explore the duties of Care, Loyalty and Honesty, discuss conflict of interest, mission and vision, disclosures and reporting, bylaws and policies, the basics of planning for a vertically-aligned organization, and more.
Session 2: April 26th, 9 AM – 11 AM: This session will cover key roles of board and staff in finance, human resources and resource development. At this session, we’ll answer questions about who is responsible for what financially, how well-meaning board members could cross the yellow line into HR management and why this is a no-no, and the importance of the board’s fundraising responsibilities.
Jean Block
The workshops are led by Jean Block, a nonprofit consultant and trainer in nonprofit management, board development and fundraising, and author of the Invisible Yellow Line™ and
several other nonprofit books and manuals. You can learn more about Jean at www.jblockinc.com.
Session 1-A=Acquiring. We’ll explore tried and true ideas for getting ready for effective board recruitment, recruitment requirements and ideas, where to find board members, the process and tools of an effective nominating committee, new board member orientation, and much more.
Session 2- B=Building and Managing. If you’ve worked hard to recruit the best board members, you must manage the board effectively to keep them engaged and involved. In this session, we’ll discuss best practices in board operations and management including tips for holding effective meetings, committee structures, planning, and basic board roles and responsibilities.
Session 3- C = Celebrating and Rewarding. Think about this: “You Get What You Accept and What You Reward!” The last session will share more best practices and ideas for managing and rewarding those best board members. We’ll also look back at the first two sessions and recap what we’ve discussed and the highlights of the first two sessions.
Jean Block, Jean Block Consulting
MindEdge courses in nonprofit management offer a comprehensive training program in topics from volunteer development and grant writing, to fundraising and budgeting.
Running a nonprofit can be a challenge. To be successful, your organization needs talented grant writers, solid financial management, and committed volunteers to bring your mission to the
attention of your community so you can receive the support you need.
Fundraising, board and volunteer development, budgeting, reading financial statements, leadership, marketing, and setting strategic direction are all addressed in our collection of nonprofit
management courses.
Course List:
▸ Certificate in Nonprofit Management
▸ Nonprofit Management (ACE CREDIT®)
▸ Advanced Grant Writing
▸ Capital Campaigns
Find a complete list of courses at https://catalog.mindedge.com/coloradononprofit
Member Savings
Association members receive a 10% discount on MindEdge courses.
Get Started!
After you select the sessions you would like to purchase through the MindEdge website above, enter the discount code CNA10 when prompted to receive your 10% discount.
