Related Workshop
Tuesday, Sept. 30

Cultivating a
Visionary Board

Microscopic thinking and micromanagement leave some boards and organizations stuck.
Others strike out into
unknown territory, trusting their instincts. 

Identify the characteristics of a visionary board; learn to attract members with vision, and cultivate a culture of telescopic thinking.

Presenter: George Myers, gmars Consulting, LLC

Click here for details and to register.

By Guest Blogger Robert Meiksins, Forward Steps Consulting

Having just completed teaching a series of five workshops on governance at the Nonprofit Center, I discovered almost by accident an emerging theme that captures what I believe to be a major difference between boards that are effective and those that are asleep at the wheel (and yes, there are many gradations between those extremes). 

The theme is "intentional governance."

A board that is practicing intentional governance is a group of directors that are thinking. A board of directors that is not governing intentionally behaves a certain way simply because "that's the way we do things," or because they think that's how a board is supposed to behave. 

Being intentional means you are not doing something by rote. To govern effectively means acting with a reason in mind, a purpose that will help provide the appropriate levels of oversight, leadership, and support that a board should give the organization in its care.

This intentional governance can play out in any number of ways, but it always involves having eyes open. In recruitment, for example, it means moving beyond having the board directors ask each other, "Do you know anyone who might do this?" That may do nothing but simply fill an empty board seat with people who, more than likely, will attend meetings on an irregular basis, won’t make a contribution, and certainly won’t help write a strategic plan. 

Back when I was in theater, we used to call it the “warm body school of casting.”
As long as they could move and talk, they had the role. A board that is acting intentionally will go to whatever strategic, annual, or business plan is in place and identify the skills, attributes, personality traits, and connections that are needed to accomplish the adopted goals. These, then, become the rubric to help identify the candidates to look for when recruiting to the board, directors that will have a real impact and help the organization move forward.

When developing and adopting a budget, the intentional board will work with staff to analyze how things have worked over the past few years. If we have invested X dollars in our programs, have we met our goals? If so, great - if not, why not? In either case, if we invest more, will we do better? The intentional Board will also work with staff to analyze if the budget is being allocated appropriately to fulfill the organization's mission: are there elements of what we want to do that need more attention? An intentional board will also ask the staff if there are any emerging trends that the organization should devote some financial resources to in the coming years.

My final example is about how board and committee meetings are managed. An intentional board will never, ever, ever have an agenda that looks exactly like the last one or the one before it. The chair and the executive director should talk before hand and decide what needs to be decided at this meeting, and structure the agenda accordingly.

At the workshops I taught at the Nonprofit Center, we talked about acting intentionally around fund development, board development, oversight issues, and much more. Every time we shared a story about some dysfunction we had seen, it could be traced to a board that was sleepwalking or acting like they had walked off the set of Invasion of the Body Snatchers with blank, mindless stares. OK, I may be exaggerating there, but you get the point. A good board governs intentionally, with eyes open, and with the organization's clients, mission, and goals clearly in mind.

Let me hear from you. Do you have a story that illustrates this idea of intentional governance?

Save the Date:
Thursday, October 30

NPC's 2014 community conference is part of the first-ever Boys and Men of Color Week in Milwaukee.

The conference will strengthen the capacity of local nonprofits to improve opportunities for boys and men of color.

Click here for details.

The Milwaukee Fatherhood Initiative hosts an annual summit, which is one of the events during Boys and Men of Color Week, and offers services year-round.

Its next event will be Check Yourself, a sort of “mini-summit” open to all. September 20th, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Hillside Family Resource Center. Click here to learn more and participate or call 414-286-5653.

By Molly Willms, NPC Guest Blogger

Many of the challenges faced by boys and men of color across Milwaukee can be traced to a single, personal struggle: the absence of a father.

That is why Sharon Robinson, director of the City of Milwaukee Department of Administration, takes personal interest in the Milwaukee Fatherhood Initiative and increasing the number of children with involved, committed and responsible fathers.

“We want to really help give them, the children in our community, a chance and tools and resources they need to really make it,” Robinson said.

The Milwaukee Fatherhood Initiative is dedicated to helping boys and men of color and their families connect in meaningful ways, and to breaking down barriers that stand in the way of responsible fatherhood.

It benefits fathers by teaching them healthy nurturing behaviors and connecting them to programs and services to improve their life outcomes and those of their children and families.

When a father is present in a child’s life, that child is far less likely to end up incarcerated, and much more likely to meet their academic goals, Robinson said.

Ninety-five percent of the program’s participants are African American men, Robinson said, but just about every participant has one more thing in common. 

“Most of them didn’t have a father that was present,” she said.

One participant shared that his several stints with the criminal justice system were the result of self-medicating through illegal drugs, his way of coping with the absence of his own dad.

“It was so painful not to have a father who they felt loved them,” Robinson said. Thus, the initiative’s first task is to cater to the needs of the fathers.

Often from scratch, participants literally learn how to be a dad.

“Most of these men just did not have a role model to model after,” Robinson said. “It’s more than just being a provider and making money.”

The program teaches helpful nurturing behaviors, and encourages expression of emotion – such as allowing little boys to cry – in ways that foster healthy relationships.

On the practical side, the program can help a father regain a suspended drivers’ license so that he can find work, or reduce the interest on child support debt so that a father’s money can go toward spending time with his family and improving his own situation.

Robinson has seen fathers that do not believe they need the program. They may be in it for the practical benefits, she said, when they first arrive.

But by the end, Robinson said, everyone is glad they participated, and grateful for what the initiative has done for their lives and their families.

“They say, ‘The best thing that ever happened to me was going through this program,” she said.

By Molly Willms, NPC Guest Blogger

Save the Date:
Thursday, October 30

The 2014 NPC community conference is part of Boys and Men of Color Week in Milwaukee.

The conference will build and strengthen the capacity of local nonprofits to improve opportunities for boys and men of color.

Click here for details.

Jeff Roman was working in teen pregnancy prevention when he noticed something peculiar: program-wise,
half the equation was missing.

He saw multiple groups focusing on the health of young women, but none for young men, particularly men of color.

That gap, he said, is where the conversation started that led him to where he is today, at a time when the challenges facing men and boys of color are taking the national stage.

Roman is Benchmark Coordinator-Minority Male Achievement at Community Advocates Public Policy Institute and serves as Chair of the City of Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission. 

A master facilitator, Roman in many ways is a “glue that holds together” Milwaukee nonprofits, foundations, governmental groups and grassroots agencies that work with boys and men of color. He is a lead organizer and spokesperson for the first-ever Boys and Men of Color Week in Milwaukee October 26-November 1 (see sidebar).

“What can we do together,” he asks, “to really get to bigger, scalable impact?”

In his role at the Public Policy Institute, Roman works with the City of Milwaukee, the Center for Youth Engagement, Milwaukee Public Schools, UW-Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Boys to Men Coalition and a number of other local agencies and groups.

Unlike when he first started, a dearth of agencies dedicated to this work is no longer the problem. “Our issue,” he said, “is we don’t know how to work together as well and as efficiently as we can.”

For Roman, this is not a crisis – it’s a perfect, urgent opportunity. Roman calls  Milwaukee “ground zero” for the national movement to empower boys and men of color.

The black male unemployment rate in the city is 44 percent, and only 45 percent of black men graduate from high school on time, according to statistics Roman cited. Further, half of the city’s African American men under 40 have been incarcerated.

Boys and Men of Color Week coincides with President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative, which focuses on providing opportunities for boys and men of color across the country.

“The stars have aligned,” Roman said, “nationally and federally.”

The goal for the week is to unite every group and person working for men and boys of color in Milwaukee to create a coordinated effort.

The starting point, Roman said, will be gathering data, something the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will assist with.

From there, he said, it’s up to the community to develop a shared vision, and combine it with the data to “create a roadmap for success in the future.”

Part of the solution is shifting the focus from the problems to the possibility of what can be.

Roman says that means looking at a man of color and seeing the potential of what he can achieve. Or looking at a Black man who has achieved all his goals and identifying to scale the causes of his success, while examining and addressing those that hinder others from reaching the same.

“What was different in his life,” he asks, “than that other young man who maybe took another path?”

 “Looking at the resilience,” as Roman said, “while acknowledging the structural and personal barriers that impede success or achievement.”

There’s no question: there is no quick fix or single solution to the problems faced by men and boys of color, Roman said. The obstacles were created over multiple generations, so an overnight fix is out of the question.

But organizing is the first step, and the solution is worth the effort.

“This is worthwhile, lengthy work that is going to take years and years to accomplish,” Roman said, “but it can be accomplished.”

Part of what makes it worthwhile is that it has the potential to affect more than just Milwaukee.

“We will be the model for the country,” he said, “and that’s the opportunity.”