Author: jonathanpoisner
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Advice on reading
An acquaintance recently revealed to me their voracious reading habit and, in particular, their desire to read extensively on the subjects of “leadership” and “nonprofits.” At the time, I gave…
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Slowing down to speed up
A few years back, somebody used the phrase “slow down to speed up” in my presence and it really resonated. Doing some quick google searches, I found dozens of articles…
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Thankful nonprofit quotes
About My Work, Board Development, Consulting, Fundraising, Human Resources, Leadership, Strategic Planning, VolunteersLast month, in the spirit of Halloween, I shared the scariest things I’ve heard uttered by nonprofit leaders. As a counterpoint, this month I offer up some “thankful” comments about…
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Scary nonprofit quotes
In honor of Halloween 2021, here are the the scariest things I’ve heard from nonprofit leaders. These are paraphrases as I wasn’t writing them down at the time. If you…
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Effective board governance in a nutshell
Not every one of my client engagements involves work with a board of directors, but enough do that I can safely say I’ve worked with a lot of boards and…
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Facilitating hybrid meetings
Good facilitation is a core part of my work. Since I had already begun facilitating many meetings online pre-pandemic, the switchover to all virtual meetings for the last 16 months…
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Five ideas for staying focused as an executive
Quite a few times in my years as a consultant, I’ve encountered Executive Directors who accomplish tasks very effectively. Their writing is cogent. Documents they produce are always well-formatted. They…
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The bricklayer parable and nonprofits
An Executive Director working for a former client recently invited me out to have lunch at a park and then go kayak on the river with her. We spent most…
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Investment Plans as a strategic planning tool
In many strategic planning processes, prioritization among competing potential ideas or strategies becomes the linchpin of the process. If organizational identity isn’t at stake (e.g. vision/mission), the organization doesn’t face…
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Ticket to Ride and nonprofit leadership
One of my pandemic “weaknesses” has been the amount of time I’ve spent playing Ticket to Ride – the online version. For those not familiar with the game, you can…