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Roles & Responsibilities

How to Give a Great Curtain Speech

By Cyrus White 9 Comments

A great curtain speech is an invitation to connect with your organization.

Directors hate them. Fundraisers swear by them. And board members often get called on to make them. Done badly, they kill the natural excitement that fills a theatre immediately before live performance. Done well, they help the audience connect beyond the immediate performance. The curtain speech is very much like the “elevator speech” exercise in business: you have 90 seconds to engage your listener and entice them to become involved in your project. What will you say?

How to Deliver Bad News as the Board Chair

By Cyrus White Leave a Comment

If a crisis puts the organization’s people, assets, or intended outcomes at risk, then major donors, clients, staff, or the community need to know. Here’s a simple outline of what to say.

The New CEO’s First Question: “What Could Sink Us?”

By Cyrus White Leave a Comment

Young Hornblower did everything right — given what he knew. But he failed to get the key piece of data that might have saved his ship.

4 Reasons Why You Don’t Need an Executive Committee

By Cyrus White Leave a Comment

Successful diversity people on a meeting.

Many nonprofit boards still have executive committees. Most of these boards haven’t stopped to consider why they have them or if they really need them. An executive committee may have been a good response when it was difficult for the full board to meet, or when communication was difficult, expensive, or slow. With the options available now to connect groups of people quickly and cheaply, the only reasons for maintaining a separate executive committee are bad ones.

Responding to Sabotage on the Nonprofit Board

By Cyrus White 1 Comment

Sabotage is disruption and damage, usually done on purpose. How can you respond to sabotage on a nonprofit board?

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