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The Content contained on this site and documents found herein have been prepared by The Foraker Group as a service to our readers and the Internet community and is not intended to constitute legal advice. Nothing on this website or associated pages, documents, comments, examples, answers, e-mails, articles or other communications should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. The Foraker Group recommends that you seek accounting or legal advice and consult an attorney experienced in nonprofit law for any significant of specific issues facing your organization.
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Dennis McMillian, President of The Foraker Group, worked in the United Way system for twenty-one years in Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana before moving to Alaska in 1992 to run the United Way of Anchorage. During his tenure at United Way he trained hundreds of United Way professionals and volunteers, spoke at numerous national conferences and consulted for over forty United Ways across America. He has also worked with numerous United Ways in Canada, throughout Asia and in Russia. The United Way of Anchorage first envisioned The Foraker Group, and prior to Foraker Group, provided nonprofit training throughout Alaska; Dennis did many of these trainings. Since Foraker Group was formed in 2000, Dennis has now worked with over 500 Alaskan nonprofits building their capacity and has trained thousands of Alaskans serving on boards. He has a B.S. Degree from New College from the University of Alabama and an M.S. in Education Management from UAB. He is married with two grown children. When he's not flying around Alaska helping to strengthen nonprofits, he likes to read, run and travel around Alaska to hike and sightsee.
The following are letters written by Dennis focusing on nonprofit issues and goals. |
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What to Do When Alaska's Nonprofit Funding Assumptions Change?
The headlines in Alaska cause concern. Our Congressional delegation is under scrutiny that could overshadow the good they have done for our state for so many years. This scrutiny could have a negative effect on the delegation's capacity to advocate for the concerns of Alaskans, including its nonprofit sector. Federal funding has made such an important impact on our sector's activities for so long, we have perhaps become overly dependent on our delegation's dedication and unique ability to support Alaska's priorities.
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So You Want to be a Nonprofit CEO?
Most people become a chief executive in a nonprofit through their passion for the organization's mission and their competence in implementing it. No matter what you call the chief professional officer or CEO ("current employee on-top") - executive director/general manager/executive secretary/president - that person frequently has little training in how to manage staff and even less training in finance and the other essential skills needed to run an effective organization. While these technical skills can be learned, the most critical skill is left to chance - forging successful relationships with the board.
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Find the Right Nonprofit Executive
During the last few years, I have written 20 articles on various subjects. Of those, six have been on the topic of nonprofit CEO success. The reason I have written about this subject so often is that the recruitment and retention of the CEO position in nonprofits continues to be an area where we see boards (and CEOs) make the same mistakes time and time again.
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Leadership Void for Sector Predicted
The Bridgespan Group, one of our nation's leading resources to assist nonprofit organizations, conducted a study in 2006 of leadership requirements for nonprofits with revenues greater than $250,000 (excluding hospitals and institutions of higher education). They found that over the coming decade, a leadership void will become very acute.
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Alaska's Nonprofit Sector - A Major Participant in the State's Economy
Alaskans are certainly familiar with the good work performed by nonprofits across the state. We are enriched and informed through arts and cultural organizations - helped in times of need by health and human service agencies - cared for at hospitals. We also advance our businesses and industries through chambers of commerce and trade associations - maintain our natural environment through the work of conservation organizations - and participate in a civil society with the help of advocacy groups. These are all nonprofit organizations that contribute to our quality of life. And now we can document how strongly they contribute to our economy.
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What I Did That You Should Consider
With the strong encouragement of The Foraker Group board, I applied for and was granted one of the coveted Rasmuson Sabbaticals in 2006. Having been in nonprofit management my entire career, 30 of those years in health and human service organizations -- with the last six years involved in starting a new organization while transitioning out of leadership for two others -- I was moving quickly toward total burn out.
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Board Member, Staff Member; Is That a Question?
Alaska's nonprofit sector is facing an issue nonprofits are facing throughout the nation, only here it's on an extreme scale: where will we find sufficient leadership for the future? It is becoming harder for boards to find the right candidates for key professional positions. Not only are boards spending more time recruiting the right CEO, they have also become more aggressive in their recruitment of other key positions such as Development Director and Finance Director. It is not just the nonprofit sector experiencing this concern.
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A New Year's Resolution - I'll Learn How to Better Manage My Organization
A key factor in nonprofit sustainability is "human capacity" - and a key element in developing that capacity is education. One of the first programs we established at The Foraker Group, The Certificate in Nonprofit Management, was designed to enhance the skills of nonprofit professionals throughout Alaska. We launched the program in the fall of 2002 and graduated the most recent class in December. To date, we have had the privilege of working with seven cohorts, each averaging 20 students. These cohorts were comprised of people from all types of organizations -- large and small, urban and rural - with missions that cover the nonprofit spectrum.
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Managing Board CEO Relationships
The traditional role of the nonprofit board was to establish and monitor policy as well as determine the strategic direction for the organization. For the past two decades, a third more challenging role has emerged -- the result of research on effective governance in addition to a better understanding of organizational management.
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Executive Evaluation
In the nonprofit world, executive evaluation concerns two employee classifications. The first is an evaluation done by the board on its executive leader. The other is the evaluation done by that executive on other executive staff.
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