good morning good morning this is Valerie Leonard the founder of nonprofit Utopia I want to say welcome to everyone who is able to join us those of you who are able to join us on Facebook live thank you so much for tuning in I thank those of you who are able to join us here in crowdcast if you are watching on Facebook live and you want to join us and crowdcast so that you can download the workbook you can go to crowdcast.io forward slash lowercase e your hyphen first hyphen 100 hyphen days hyphen as hyphen a alrighty we hope that you can join us live here in crowdcast if not please stick around and watch basically the difference will be you won't have access to the handouts we gotta really really nice workbook so those of you who are here and crowdcast I want to encourage you please download your workbook it's your first 100 days as a non-profit executive director you can download this and you can bind it and if you so choose you can even send it to a printer but you know I don't think that's necessary you will find there a note from me basically outlining what is in the book you'll find a worksheet to summarize your findings and solutions as you go along and when I say as you go along I'm talking about you know after this is over and you're back in your work environment you will also find a 100 day checklist and you can follow along as we go through our PowerPoint presentation you will see a worksheet for your 100 day plan so we're going to give you enough information where you can develop your own 100 day plan and then you will have worksheets that you can write your plan down you know specific dates and we also have a weekly work schedule and that's going to help you organize the work that you do on a weekly basis so not only are you going to be able to develop a timeline for the entire plan but you'll be able to go day by day on a weekly basis you know Monday through Friday and then there is an action plan worksheet and that's going to help you to develop your plan for the organization now what you won't have here is the outline for or the individual plan and I can share that with you after this is over and I don't think I mentioned it you will also have a sheet for your finding so as your in your first 100 days and you're doing your own due diligence you will uncover a number of issues so what these worksheets do is allow you to jot down the issues that you find as you sift through various information as you talk to various people and then you can also jot down the solutions and then that will be the basis of your work plan and your schedule and you might want to flip to the very back the back of the book will have notes and you can take notes as we go along alrighty so I'm going to get our presentation so we can get started and if you could just bear with me all right so if you have any questions any concerns please feel free to type your questions in the chat room and then you know you can also you know if you have specific questions you can ask questions here or you can post them in the chat room it's easier for me to see if you post them in the chat room all right okay all right so we're gonna talk about your first 100 days as an executive director and I want to be clear that everybody's walk is going to be a little different but this book is based on experiences I've had as an executive director and these are some general things I think that can provide a guideline for almost anybody starting as a new executive director and this is a list of things that I think are very important for you to make sure that they're in place your first hundred days so we're looking at about your first three and a half months and we definitely have in our workbook we've got a schedule where you can chart out those first three and a half months on a daily basis okay so without further Ado I want to First give you a little information about non-profit Utopia we are the ideal Community for emerging non-profit leaders and not just emerging non-profit leaders but those leaders who are really serious about taking their organizations to the next level we got a lot of really really good content and I'm not just saying this but it's true we got a lot of really good content that will help you to move the needle on whatever issue it is that you're trying to solve and if you don't see what you need in the in the community then you know we're pretty resourceful we can make sure that you get it we have created a safe environment in which our members can share ideas and discuss issues of concern in a safe space what goes on in non-profit Utopia stays in non-profit Utopia and you've got that guarantee for us now our mission is to develop the next generation of ethical non-profit leaders and we provide ongoing professional development networking opportunities as well as a number of other resources we're intentional about trying to create an environment where more experienced professionals such as myself can work alongside younger professionals we realize that people in the baby boom era have about 10 more years before we reach retirement age and there's a wealth of knowledge that we have that we would love to share so the overarching goal of this community is to give our members the tools that they need to develop strong organizations that will make a lasting impact but at the same time we want to make sure that our members are being developed themselves so our vision is to strengthen the global nonprofit sector by providing training and development opportunities for 50 000 people around the world by 2033 you can find out more about us at nonprofitutopia.com or nonprofitutopia.mn.co so a little bit about me I have well over 20 years of experience just in a non-profit sector I am a former executive director myself so I understand what it's like to have that first day on the job and really wonder what in the world I need to do and I help clients to move the needle on some of their most pressing issues and I hope them to answer questions like you know how do I start a non-profit organization and stay out of trouble where can I find good board members who will buy into the organization's Mission and help raise money and how can we put together a group of people that will work collaboratively and we build this collaboration but at the same time we are building ourselves and building our organization so so those are some examples of some of the questions that I am confronted with and I can help clients work with and I do that through Consulting I do it through this community as well as through coaching for people who want to do a deeper dive so over the years I've helped over 750 people meet their professional goals and I've helped raise over a hundred million dollars and this is through proposal writing through special events as well as technical assistance you've just been hired as an executive director of non-profit organization what do you do in the next hundred days and the things that you do will make a break you know your success going forward so we're going to talk about some of the strategies that you can use to navigate the organizational landscape to make sure that you're on solid footing As you move the organization forward so we're going to talk about a half hour or so and then you'll have an opportunity to ask questions so if you have any questions you know please by all means post them in the chat room and I can come back to them after this is over I am asking that if you're here to post your name let us know where you're from let us know what you want to get out of this and I'll make sure that I can slap my comments that way you will have access to downloadable handouts and those come in the form of that workbook with the notes as well as spreadsheets that will help you as you go through that full 100 days you'll get links to articles and resources in fact I'm going to have to upload some of those after this and then you'll get a recording of This webinar and before we go a little deeper we need to just make sure that we're all on the same page um as far as the role of the executive director and for our purposes you know we're assuming that there's a board in place and that the executive director is reporting to the board so the role of the executive director is to run the day-to-day operations of the non-profit and that person he or she implements the vision and the strategies and programs of the board as well as the policies they engage in fundraising they manage the staff they manage the budget and they also serve as the head administrator so depending on the organization those duties will vary but those are the basic roles okay um I see that you're unable to download the handout or access it all right I will make sure um after this is over that I give you a good link all right thank you for letting me know alrighty so the very first thing you want to do is meet with each board member and that's going to start with your board president you know depending on how the bylaws read the executive director either reports to the board as a whole or reports to the board president but regardless the executive director needs to make sure that he or she is in sync with the board of directors and particularly with the president you know if you're not in alignment with the Pres or president or the board chair then you are really in for a rocky road right you need to get a sense for their Vision a sense for their priorities and remember they evaluate you in your role as the executive director you want to get a sense for what the power dynamics are you know just because people have titles does it necessarily mean that they are the most or the least powerful you know they're situational leadership in which we focus on the the power that person has just because of that title and when that person no longer has that title they no longer have that power and then there are people who actually do will that personal power that personal influence so you really need to spend as much time as you can really getting to understand those Dynamics understand who really really has the power who really has the influence and make sure that you're in alignment with that person or that group of people the next thing you want to do is read the bylaws you want to understand the lay of the land so that would include things like organizational structure you want to understand you know the terms of each officer you want to understand how many committees there are you want to understand your role on the board are you a board member as the executive director and if so are you a voting board member and if you are ex-officio meaning you're only a board member because you're in that spot as executive director when you leave that position you know unless the board says otherwise you are no longer on the board if you are on the board in the first place there's some organizations that choose not to have their executive director on the board so you really really need to understand where you fall in that structure and you need to know what your limitations are in terms of spending in terms of authority in terms of your interaction with committees and so forth so you want to look also for ways that the bylaws can be updated you know are they still relevant for what it is the board wants to achieve have they gotten into a situation where they really need to encourage some people to leave you know so it's their language that sufficiently allows for people to leave gracefully so all of those things need to be taken into account you want to make sure that you read at least one year's worth of minutes um ideally up to three years of minutes and you have to remember that these are legal documents they're legally binding so any votes that are recorded in these minutes if there is an appropriate vote that conforms to the bylaws then the board and the organization are legally Bound by whatever those decisions are you want to assess the board operations and reading the minutes will give you a really good sense for whether or not this board is very active if they're effective you know do they get stuck on one issue do you see an agenda item that's been on on the agenda for a year and nothing's moved on it or do they dispensive things pretty quickly and what is the priorities and you can tell that you know by looking at the matters that have come before the board and look at how the votes have been made and you can get a sense for you know if they record the votes um individually you can get a cent for what's important to people but generally speaking you don't necessarily have to record individual votes you just record the numbers are there instances where the decisions have been properly recorded or have they not been properly recorded and you can tell whether or not they've been properly recorded by one looking at how the vote is recorded and whether or not that's in accordance to the bylaws and then two you can see over time if there are things that are being done that may or may not be consistent with the actions that the board have taken in some cases the board may be overreaching in other cases the staff may be overreaching but you know those are things for you to sift out and then this is a really important one are they recording attendance and is there ever an issue where certain people don't make meetings is there an issue where attendance is so low that they don't have a quorum and when you don't have a quorum you can't transact business and then things get stagnant so your minutes are a really really good way to determine the health of an organization next you want to read the board policies and procedures so these are a little bit more detailed than the bylaws just think of the bylaws as the overall structure and the board policies and procedures are the manner in which the bylaws and other policies are carried out so are there ways the board operations can be streamlined you know at least within the guidelines of the Grant and within the guidelines of the bylaws are there any potential problems that could increase risk you know so for example things like a Communications policy if the communications policy is there or if it's not there that can really make a difference in terms of your risk you know there may be a situation you know a controversial situation and you have several people who are speaking and one person who's on the board speaks out of turn but that one person's word seems to represent the ideas or the consensus of the board that can be problematic and that could be risky so that's just one example um are there additional policies that you can recommend at the very minimum there needs to be a conflict of a conflict of Interest policy there should be a conflict resolution policy you know hopefully before any conflicts arise that kind of stuff you want to be as proactive in your thinking just think of worst case scenarios and see if there's a policy in place that will anticipate that worst case so if that worst case ever ever um arises you will have already had something in place and it won't be a situation where you're responding and singling person XYZ out as an example and if there are policies and procedures for the board is the board in compliance are they following their own policies you want to make sure that you read the financial policies and procedures and every policy and procedure whether it's for the board whether it's for staff whether it's for operations or programming every policy and procedure needs to be approved by the board and there needs to be evidence of that in in writing in your minutes as well as some sort of certification on those policies and procedures that indicate the date in which they were approved so generally speaking are the policies and procedures clear do they follow what we call generally acceptable or accepted accounting principles and you might want to speak to an accountant a CPA who is well versed in non-profit matters just because someone is a CPA does that mean that he or she really understands all the requirements behind non-profit accounting I've seen some people get in trouble even though they had CPA but because they didn't know all the ins and outs of what was required for non-profit financial reporting as well as regulatory reporting they found themselves in some very sticky situations so that accountant would be able to tell you whether or not you are conforming to generally accepted accounting principles if there are audited statements you want to look at those audited statements and if there are problems with whether with financial controls there will be a note from the accountant so that'll be a good clue for you to know whether or not your fault you know the organization is following what we would call Gap a clue that they would not be following Gap is they use cash-based accounting versus a cruel accounting so we're not going to get into all of that but I'm just trying to give you some Clues as things to look for you want to also know is there proper separation of Duties no one person should have control of all of the financial operation you know there should be checks and balances so the person who is requesting funds should not be the same person who is approving funds and then sometimes your organizations may be so small that you may have no choice you may have a case where um you can't properly separate but that needs to be documented and it needs to be explained why you can't do it but you always need to have things like two signatures for for checks you know just to make sure that no one person has all of the information are there additional policies that you could recommend and is the organization in compliance with their own Financial policies and procedures you want to read the program policies and procedures for every program there needs to be a set of policies and procedures you know you want to make sure that in your absence or in the absence of the people who are actually doing the work the flow of work is clear and easily understood you want to make sure that if there's some overlap or if there's redundancies that there are ways that you can streamline and then you want to understand too whether or not there's a good description of the roles and responsibilities are there procedures for monitoring and Reporting are there any risks involved so um especially if you have children involve Youth and children and other vulnerable populations you know is there adequate Insurance are there procedures for doing background checks and and all that kind of stuff all of those things the less you have of it the more risk you have so you want to look at this also from a risk perspective and look at ways that you can minimize Risk by making sure you have strong policies and procedures for your programs and is the organization in compliance with their own program policies and procedures again you want to do the same type of process for every policy and procedure for your HR policies and procedures in addition to all of that other stuff we outlined you want to make sure that you review the benefits package review that um with a lens toward being competitive review it within your financial means as evidenced by the financial statements have those policies been approved by the board um what about employee turnover you know how is that handled you know how do you handle hiring you know do you have proper um descriptions are those descriptions and when I say descriptions I'm talking about job descriptions are the job descriptions in alignment with goals and objectives and strategies of the organization you know is there an understanding do you have an understanding as to why people leave you know is there a policy for getting exit strategies so that you can really really understand why people are leaving is there a policy for onboarding to make sure that people are getting uh the best experience when they come in so they can hit the ground running in their jobs the better the onboarding experience the better they are in terms of performance and hopefully if you have good policies in place if you provide a healthy and nurturing culture and you want to make sure those policies actually support a healthy and nurturing culture that Fosters diversity that Fosters advancement then hopefully that will serve as a way to reduce turnover you want to make sure that you meet with top staff and when I say top staff those would be people in your c-suite that would be the Chief Operating Officer the Chief Financial Officer the chief programming officer you know some people have a chief marketing officer if you have a smaller organization and you don't have a c-suite you want to get the highest level of management and meet with them you want to get a status report from them you want to get a feel for what their jobs are what their goals what their aspirations are what their soar points are so not only do you want to understand what their personal goals and aspirations are but you want to make sure that you understand how their job fits within the context of the strategy of the organization what's been accomplished you know how much money have they spent in trying to accomplish that how do their jobs and performance align with strategy I think I've indicated that are they happy with the way things are going what would they change and when I talk about change you know at this point you're just taking it all in if you were to try to change things too suddenly even though you know that there's a need for a change you can open yourself up for a lot of turmoil and once you meet with that top layer you of management you want to then meet with the middle managers or the department heads program managers and you want to go through the same process with them you know ask similar questions and excuse me and then you want to align their answers with their immediate supervisors you know is their similarity in what their goals and objectives are is there a similarity in their perception of what the job should be or what their or how their Department fits in with the scheme of things is there an alignment with how they feel about one another's performance if there are discrepancies in perception you know that's one of those things that you want to make a note of you know that is an issue because you want to understand you know is it a matter of management is it a matter of quote-unquote poor performance is it a matter of expectations that are unrealistic given the resources within the organization again you're not at the point where you're making any decisions you're just talking to people taking notes um really keeping abreast of what issues come about you want to review documents and contracts so that includes Grant contracts that includes leases that includes operating contracts that includes your own Employment contract if you are a contracted employee that includes contracts with other service providers other partners you know are the contracts current is the organization in compliance you hear that word compliance a whole lot right uh are there opportunities to get better deals are there policies and procedures for the way you enter into these contracts and how you manage them and how you track them are those policies current and again is the organization in compliance and if there are no such policies and procedures it's your job to make sure that those policies and procedures are in place and that's for every procedure that we're talking about you want to at this point you know now that you've looked at the policies and procedures of the programs you want to dig into the weeds and review every program are the programs operating in a manner that's consistent with their proposals and logic models is there a logic model have those programs been evaluated is there a formal evaluation is they're informal evaluations are those programs in alignment with the Strategic plan are the programs funded properly are they in danger of losing funding are they still relevant you know is attendance you know still up in in your workshops do people still use the services are there systems in place that will help you monitor the program performance help you monitor the outcomes and if not guess whose job it is to make sure that those things are in place you know so depending on the organization and how many employees you may not necessarily have to do all of this work but you as the executive director has to make sure that those systems are in place so after you've looked at the various programs you want to look at the operations so in a nutshell operations are anything that's not program programs are those activities that are looking to improve the quality of life of of clients improve the the physical quality of life for the community the physical infrastructure you know so if you're in housing you know you care about the impact that you make to the housing stock and that kind of thing you want to look at your you know your representation by Lord you have a you know a lawyer on staff you have a lawyer at least at your that can call is there a lawyer on the board are the board systems in place do you have a strategic plan do you what are your marketing and Communications like what is your fundraising like you know so are all of those systems running sufficiently well that they help you to actually serve your clients in your programs well are those operations in alignment with the Strategic plan do you have enough money to actually Finance your operations your day-to-day operations things you know keeping your lights on keeping your copier up and running paying for telephone is there performance management system in place to help you really understand whether or not your organization is running efficiently is there a way that you can compare how you're going how you're running compared to similarly situated organizations so do you have Performance Management Systems in place are there benchmarks that you're trying to achieve are you adequately funding your operations and it's really hard I'm going to tell you to get money for General operations because most funders want to see the program outcomes that they want that halo effect for making a difference but if you don't have proper operations you really can't have programs that make a significant difference and are there opportunities to upgrade those operations you want to make sure that you review the financials so when you review the financials you want to make sure that you are looking at their reporting style do they do monthly Financial reports do those financial reports include budget versus actual reporting Does it include an income statement Does it include a balance sheet Does it include a bank reconciliation those does it have a cash flow statement those reports need to be produced once a month and they need to be signed off on and approved by the board of directors you want to make sure that you're in compliance and when I say in compliance that means you have fulfilled the obligations for your funders so are your funders reports up to date are your reports with various government agencies up to date have you completed form 990 with the IRS have you filed annually with the attorney general for that state have uh you know if there are payroll taxes involved you know if you have a staff have those payroll taxes been paid so every thing that requires some sort of oversight either by a funder or by some government regulatory agency all of that stuff needs to be up to date and it's really really important that before you talk to any funders you have a sense form where you stand on on these issues of compliance because one of the most embarrassing things that can happen to you is you go and you asking for money and the funder has kind of gone behind your back to do their own due diligence to make sure that you have you know that you're in good standing with your reports with the state and you can't receive the money because you haven't filed your reports with the state and even worse you haven't filed your reports with them and even worse you might be in a situation where your organization is in danger of losing tax exempt status because they haven't filed those reports for three years and you want to get a hold of this quick fast in a hurry before you get really really into your job because you want to make sure one that the situation is manageable and two you want to make sure that you're not blamed for your predecessors stuff but even though this happened before you got there now that you're in that job it's your responsibility to clean it up the sooner you identify those issues and come up with the plan you know if there's a problem coming up with a plan of action to address those issues the better off you are you know you come across as a strong leader you come across as someone who's decisive but most importantly you have already just with that act alone increase the capacity of your organization to raise funds you want to meet with clients so you want to get a sense for what your clients think about the programs you want to understand what their journey is like from the time that they first come in you know through the intake process you know even before that you know when they make a phone call so you want to get a sense for what their experience is like for with the receptionist what their experience is like with the person who handles the program so at every stage from start to finish you know what the experience is with the website um get a sense for whether or not they like the services what improvements can be made you know you really want to keep your finger on the pulse you know how do you engage them and keep them engaged so that you can make sure that your programs are always relevant to what they need how can you put them on an Advisory Board to make sure that everything that you do is customer and clients centered and not a point where you developing programs and building them and hoping that people will come and how do you make sure that there's an ongoing feedback loop and there's ongoing continuous Improvement meet with your partners and in this case when I talk about Partners these are organizations that have already been in collaboration with the organization before you got there what do they think about your organization's programs and services what is the relationship like you know has it been a good one has it been Rocky what has been their experience in terms of working together and trying to marry operational systems you know are there bugs in policies and procedures that need to be fixed you know are there ways that you can you know with the existing Partners can you deepen those relationships you might not want to deepen those relationships in some cases you might want to bow out gracefully you know what kind of mousse are in place and what are the exit strategies what are the goals and objectives for those collaborations and how well have they met those goals and objectives and how will their input be used to improve your organization's programs and services you want to meet with other stakeholders and in this case I'm talking about stakeholders from the community or other people who have a vested interest in seeing your program succeed and again you want to ask similar questions you know what do they think what improvements would they suggest what is the relationship been like how can you engage them consistently and obviously you want to meet with your funders quick fast and in a hurry but you never want to meet with them unless you have a really good grasp for what's going on you may not know all the answers but you really really want to understand what's going on with their particular grants and whether or not there have been any problems so you want to give them a status report and find out if they have any questions or concerns and you really really want to understand what motivates them what drives them what are their key issues what are they trying to achieve and how can you position the organization to help them meet their needs so you gotta be more focused on them before you can really really ask if there are any problems with your grants um you know as a result of Prior relationship you know you gotta be sure that you're ready to you know answer any of those questions and come in with the plan of action so that you can fix those problems how can you engage the funders either on your Advisory board or even on your board you know and that has pros and cons but you want to make sure that you always keep open lines of communication and how would their input be used to improve services or even create new services and after you get all of that information you want to do an assessment of your organization's capacity so that'll be things like for the leadership and management financial management programs fundraising the the networks in which you operate and the impact you know and when I look at impact I'm talking about you know how well has the organization been able to meet their goals and objectives and outcomes and how well you have systems in place that'll help you to capture that and you know in the nonprofit Utopia Community we actually have those assessment tools that you can use and then you want to also assess your own leadership capacity and style you know what are your strengths and challenges um what are your skills how do you like to work what environments do you really thrive in and from what you can see is the organization you're in now is that the type of organization that you typically thrive in you know look at the culture you know how much autonomy is there even though you're the head of the organization you still gotta report to the board and the board is in reality legally the head of the organization is this organization a good fit if it's not a good fit you might be thinking about an exit strategy a graceful exit if it's not a good fit are there things that you can do to improve it so that it's a little more conducive to how you like to work and change is hard you know sometimes you can make changes to environments to to kind of suit your leadership style you know if it's a smaller organization if people are open to change if it's a large institution and there's not a good fit there's very little that you can do you also want to conduct a community needs assessment if there's not one that's done already so it may not have to be something that's really formal but you really want to get a sense for you know what the main issues are in the organization I'm sorry in the community and whether or not your organization even positioned to give an adequate response who else is out there addressing those needs you know and how well does your organization address those needs and how well do your competitors or potential collaborators collaborators address those needs and even if your organization is part of a network of people though that are doing similar things or complementary things are there still gaps in services and are there ways your organization can actually fill those gaps and after that you want to develop an individual leadership plan so you're going to identify and State your own leadership style your strengths and your weaknesses your professional goals and objectives as they relate to you personally as they relate to your ability to lead the organization to its desired goals and objectives and fulfill the strategies so you want to have goals and objectives and make sure that they're in alignment with your organization's goals and objectives and then you want to identify those activities in which you need to engage so that you can increase your chances of success you know do you need more professional development do you need to join professional association so that you're in the loop and plugged in um do you need to find a mentor who can help you navigate and make sure that you that one of those mentors is your board president yeah so that that person can be you know a good sounding board and help you navigate the choppy Waters and again you want to keep the board abreast of your progress and after that you want to develop an organization action plan so given you know all of the information that you have given all of the issues that you have identified in ways that you can address those issues you need to prioritize them you know determine who is responsible you know determine if and when those issues get addressed you know some things may not be worth addressing you might find that it might be in the organization's best interest not to engage in certain programs services and activities and you might have you know this processes will give you a good reason a good rationale for making that decision so so based on all of the stuff that you uncover based on what the organization's goals objectives and strategic flow is you want to prioritize and then proceed accordingly you want to develop a plan that will list the tasks indicate who's responsible indicate a deadline by which those tasks will will be taken care of and this is not a strategic plan this is just action planning to make sure that you are up to speed and you and you can identify issues going forward and at the appropriate time if the board wants to go through a strategic planning process then you'll you know you would have been very very equipped to start that process you know you can't really have an effective strategic planning process without really understanding what's going on in the organization without understanding what's going on with your partners or in the environment or with your employees so again this action plan is just so you can you know get a firm grasp of what's going on and then move forward and then finally you want to implement the plan that you put in place and you want to be able to report your progress on a monthly basis to uh not only to your staff but to the board as well you want to report to every stakeholder that you've been engaged with um and you report as appropriate you give information on an as needed basis but everyone needs to be kept abreast of any progress that you make so from a client's perspective if there were problems with certain aspects of a program they weren't running smoothly or the quality wasn't up to par you want to tackle whatever those issues are you want to raise the quality and then you want to communicate that out to your clients that the quality of service has improved and of course you want to share that with your funder but you want to communicate information as appropriate to the audience all right so if you have any questions you can you know if you're in a chat room you can post those questions right now if you are on Facebook live you can post those on Facebook live and I will get back to you just as soon as I can I can't see what you're writing write about now and if you have any questions you know that you hadn't thought about just now you can always email me at Valerie F Leonard nonprofitutopia.com all right so I want to thank you again thank you so much for joining us I I know you're taking time from your busy schedule to be with us so I'm gonna hold it open for just a little bit longer if you have any questions please feel free to share them in the chat room I know that there is a concern about the link to today's workbook not working I will make sure that I fix that link I will also email you to that you know that that link is is working and I'll send you the link and it'll also be in this form alrighty so again I want to say thank you so much for joining us and I'm going to sign off now and this recording will be ready in about I would say about a half hour or so alrighty so thank you very much take care bye-bye