Before You Start Strategic Planning
Becky’s Blog, Developed for Clients and Friends of Rebecca Schueller Training & Consulting, LLC Invest in the most important step to your strategic planning success. Over the past 30 years, I’ve participated in strategic planning for my workplace, my volunteer passions, and occasionally for external organizations that were looking for broader community input into their own …
The Board Chair’s Job Description
Becky’s Blog, Developed for Clients and Friends of Rebecca Schueller Training & Consulting, LLC Thanks to all the highly committed Board Chairs who play such a vitally important role in the nonprofit sector. When organizations achieve great accomplishments over a prolonged period of time, it’s usually because there’s a strong board in place that has …
Why Effective Supervision Must Precede Quality Performance Appraisals
Becky’s Blog, Developed for Clients and Friends of Rebecca Schueller Training & Consulting, LLC Annual performance appraisals are often dreaded by both supervisors and staff. While some anxiety is normal, when regular weekly or bi-weekly supervision meetings have been lacking, both parties can become highly anxious over the “unknown.” When I train on Supervision & …
Why Annual Performance Evaluations Are Essential & How To Do Them Well
Becky’s Blog, Developed for Clients and Friends of Rebecca Schueller Training & Consulting, LLC Every county, city, tribal department, nonprofit organization, and business should conduct annual performance evaluations for all full- and part-time employees. In this era of mushrooming legal liabilities, it amazes me to hear that some employers are not doing this. It is …
How Should Staff Give Input into the Executive Director’s Evaluation? What Should Boards Do with the Input?
Dear Board Chairs, I invite you to contact me if you’d like to discuss how to proceed with the feedback you received from staff during your recent Executive Director evaluations. Or, if a prior evaluation caused you to abandon the practice for a few years! I was an Executive Director for 16 years and an …
Simple is Best for Strategic Planning
Strategic planning should be rewarding…not a chore. It should leave board members and staff re-energized and re-invested in the essential, life-changing work of your organization. And it should give everyone, particularly the Executive Director, a short-term direction for the next 12 months and a longer-term direction for the next 3 years. Linked In features many comments on …
Strategic Planning: Engage Your Stakeholders!
In conducting Grantwriting Readiness Workshops this fall, I gathered Assessment Data on a variety of issues from 70+ individuals throughout Northwest, North Central, and West Central Minnesota. These individuals represented small, mid-size, and large organizations ranging from food shelves and senior nutrition programs to tribal health, grantwriting, and planning departments, a tribal homeless shelter, public health …
Internal Grant Review Panels: Develop Your Staff & Volunteer Capacity
In fall of 2017, l I worked with 70+ participants who attended Grantwriting Readiness Workshops in Bemidji, Crookston, and Detroit Lakes. One of the most significant “take aways” the vast majority of participants commented on was the Internal Grant Review Panel. We reviewed a state funder’s scoring criteria as well as a grant review template …
Grant Budgets Brief Q&A
In a recent Grantwriting Readiness Training in Crookston, a participant asked: “Should the grant budget zero out or should it show a surplus or deficit?” My reply is that there is a difference between your organizational budget and the budget submitted for a project or program grant. Propel Nonprofits in the Twin Cities makes the incredibly …
