Books / The First 90 Days of a Nonprofit Board
The First 90 Days of a Nonprofit Board
by Steve Kennedy
Govern. Steward. Lead.
A board's first ninety days, one week at a time, for every director: the new one who just said yes, the chair who inherited the gavel, and the director who suspects the board could do better. By Day 90 the board has officers who know their jobs, meetings that decide things, and a calendar it owns. Each week has a short story from an invented nonprofit facing the same problem you are, the work in plain steps with the reason behind each one, the mistakes people make, and five things to have done by Friday.
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Thirteen weeks
Govern · Days 1 to 28
- Week 1What a Board Is For
- Week 2The Chair
- Week 3The Vice Chair and the Bench
- Week 4The Secretary and the Record
Steward · Days 29 to 63
- Week 5The Treasurer, in Short
- Week 6Directors and Committees
- Week 7Meetings That Decide Things
- Week 8Conflicts, Every Year
- Week 9The Board and the Money
Lead · Days 64 to 90
- Week 10Every Director Gives, Asks or Opens Doors
- Week 11Hiring the Executive Director
- Week 12Recruiting, Orientation and the Next Board
- Week 13Day 90
A sample: how Week 1 begins
Week 1: What a Board Is For. The story.
Wheelhouse's annual meeting was in the church basement, under the framed determination letter that Marcus had hung above the repair stands the week it arrived. There were seven folding chairs around two pushed-together tables now, not three. The board had grown since the summer: Danielle Okafor from the hospital, Ben Achterberg who built websites and rode everywhere, Rosa Lindgren who had retired from nursing in the spring, and Terrence Hale, a counselor at the high school where half of Wheelhouse's young riders went.
The first item on the agenda was the election of officers. Everyone expected it to take a minute. Tess had been president since the kitchen table.
Tess stood up instead. "I want to propose that I not be chair this year," she said. "We're going to start talking about whether Wheelhouse can pay someone to run it. If that someone is me, I can't be the person running the meeting where you decide. I've read enough to know that."
What comes with the book
- The 90-day checklist: every "Before Friday" list in one file.
- A printable 13-week calendar.
- Officer role cards: the chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer, one page each.
- Meeting agenda template, with a consent agenda and every decision written as a motion.
- Minutes template.
- Annual conflict of interest disclosure form.
- New director orientation checklist.
- Board self-assessment.
- Annual governance calendar.
- Download every file from the book's bonus page; the link is in Appendix D.
- Works on paper, in a spreadsheet or in any system you use now. Each week ends with a short note on where All In One Nonprofit does that week's work.
- General guidance, not legal, tax or accounting advice.
Free on an annual plan
Organizations on a paid annual plan of All In One Nonprofit get every book in the series free, inside the platform. The book's offer: the code FIRST90 takes 20 percent off the first year of an annual plan. See the plans at https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/pricing/.
About the author
Steve Kennedy is the founder of All In One Nonprofit. He has served volunteer-run organizations for decades, as a director, as president and as the person everyone called when the tools were too technical. More about Steve
The whole series
Six books, for the founder, the board, the executive director, the treasurer, the development director and the consultant: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/books/