Open Questions: The Ross Collective Blog
Sharing insights and stories on nonprofit strategy, racial equity and leadership
Four Insights and Five Key Steps for More Equitable Nonprofit Governance
Those of us who work closely with nonprofit boards or serve on boards know that a high percentage of boards are not working. And the challenges in terms of the stresses that boards are experiencing (racial injustice, inequities, workplace burnout, uncertainty in the larger economic environment) have increased over the past few years.
Why We Need to Listen When People Say They Don’t Feel That They Belong
We create belonging when we understand the obstacles or barriers to belonging.
Four Steps to Find a Sustainable Financial Path
How to go forward when needs outpace funding
Why Remarkable Boards Focus on Equity and Justice
How do we build a world in which all people can thrive?
Why Informal Practices Matter So Much More Than You Think
Most of us want to understand how we work together and how we can improve our shared work.
What Formal Practices Can - and Can’t do for Board Meetings
To create inclusive, impactful board meetings, you should include those formal structures such as Meeting Agreements. They set the board’s work in the right direction.
Three steps for inclusive, impactful board meetings
How long DOES it take to design one board meeting?
Six Steps to Recruit Diverse Nonprofit Board Members
Have you embarked on these six steps?
11 Reasons Why You Need an Effective Retreat Facilitator
When people ask me the value of hiring a retreat facilitator, I think back to Mark…
Lessons From a Cross-Racial Team About Building Belonging
What should boards do once they recognize that their practices and cultures are out-of-sync with new realities?
Nonprofit Board Strategic Planning Retreats: 7 Tips to Make Them Remarkable
Seven principles that The Ross Collective uses to design and lead impactful strategic planning retreats
How one organization worked through valuing access AND participation
We’re at a moment of hard choices with no clear answers.
For Productive Meetings, Name What’s in the Room
When I design any meeting or presentation, a first question is, “What is in the room right now?”
How one organization made the shift to a more equitable board
“As soon as we had new perspectives on the board, we started coming up with new ideas about how to approach our work and our impact in completely different ways. The shift was really palpable across our whole organization. I can’t recommend putting in the time and investment enough. It was really so powerful.”
An Unexpected Shift From First Steps to Breakthrough
Joanna*, the Executive Director of a multimillion-dollar organization focusing on food insecurity, reached out because she needed help with her board. In most areas, the organization was doing well: Since Joanna had taken over as Executive Director a year-and-a-half earlier, the work of the organization had expanded to serve many more clients. While the previous Executive Director had been content to serve a limited number of clients, Joanna saw the need in the community and found government funding and other funding sources to almost double the number of clients served.
A proven path for nonprofit boards from conflict to progress
The worry in Howard’s* voice came through the phone line. Howard, the board president of a medium-sized arts and culture organization, reached out to us to work with the organization’s board of directors.
From the outside, County Theatre Co. was having a banner year, bringing record crowds to its signature events. But the organization had hit some bumps. While doing some planning work, the board got stuck. Now the board was divided into two factions, with nasty, contentious emails flying among board members. The board’s work had completely halted. No matter what “side” board members were on, all board members were so frustrated that they had turned their attention elsewhere.
Watch What Happens When You Align Energy and Vision
A while ago, I was working with the board and staff of a nonprofit social service organization on some strategic planning. In order to build shared vision, I did an exercise that I’ve done with a number of groups, “What’s My Why?”
“What’s My Why?” is fairly simple: Each person finds a partner. One person is the listener, the other one is the talker. The listener asks, “What is your why?” and the talker shares whatever comes to mind. In this case, participants were instructed to talk about their reasons for supporting the organization.
3 Big ideas for productive and inspiring nonprofit board orientations
Daniel, a client with whom we had worked on governance projects and the executive director of a nonprofit organization, reached out to us with a request: several board members, Deanna and Kyle, complained that they felt “confused” about their participation on the organization’s board of directors. Each had been recruited by a member of the nominating committee, who gave an overview of his or her commitment as a board member.
A powerful process to unlock your board’s energy
Exploring where and how we are blocked is a critical step to forward motion.