Joan Garry's Guide to Nonprofit Leadership: Because Nonprofits Are Messy

Nonprofit leadership is messy Nonprofits leaders are optimistic by nature. They believe with time, energy, smarts, strategy and sheer will, they can change the world. But as staff or board leader, you know nonprofits present unique challenges. Too many cooks, not enough money, an abundance of passion. It’s enough to make you feel overwhelmed and alone. The people you help need you to be successful. But there are so many obstacles: a micromanaging board that doesn’t understand its true role; insufficient fundraising and donors who make unreasonable demands; unclear and inconsistent messaging and marketing; a leader who’s a star in her sector but a difficult boss…  And yet, many nonprofits do thrive. Joan Garry’s Guide to Nonprofit Leadership will show you how to do just that. Funny, honest, intensely actionable, and based on her decades of experience, this is the book Joan Garry wishes she had when she led GLAAD out of a financial crisis in 1997. Joan will teach you how to: Build a powerhouse board Create an impressive and sustainable fundraising program Become seen as a ‘workplace of choice’ Be a compelling public face of your nonprofit This book will renew your passion for your mission and organization, and help you make a bigger difference in the world.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments ix Introduction xiii Chapter 1 The Superpowers of Nonprofit Leadership 1 A Quiz 3 You’re Not on Top of Anything 7 Power and Authority 8 What Do I Do with All This? 11 So What Was This Quiz Really About? 16 The Five Key Superpowers 16 The Real Power of Leadership 22 Chapter 2 You’ve Got to Get Me at Hello 25 Tell Me About Your Organization 29 In the Lobby—The Mission Statement 29 In the Elevator—The Pitch 31 Step Off the Elevator and Work the Room 33 Doin’ What Does Not Come Naturally 33 Two More Examples for Emphasis 39 Practice, Kid, Practice 41 Chapter 3 Co-Pilots in a Twin-Engine Plane 43 The Ideal Board Chair Profile 46 Recruiting the Ideal Board Chair 47 The Five-Star Board Chair Checklist 48 The Telltale Signs of Wrong 51 Playing the Hand You Are Dealt 52 Get It Right from the Start 53 The Partnership in Action: The Devil Is in the Details 55 Holding the Board Accountable 64 Here’s What They Signed Up For 65 Put It All Together and What Have You Got? 66 Chapter 4 The Key Is Not in the Answers. It’s in the Questions 69 The Power of Deleting a Word 69 The Power of Inquiry 71 We’re All in This Together 73 Start at the Very Beginning 75 A Mission Sniff Test 77 What Success Looks Like 79 Big Dreams, Big Challenges, and Small (No) Budget 84 Ten Final Words of Advice—Keep Them Handy 86 Chapter 5 You Can Do This 89 I Just Can’t 92 Fundraising Is “Terrifying?” 93 My Friends Will Be Mad at ME 93 Yes You Can 94 Yes, You Will Screw It Up 97 Case Study: Girl Scouts and Those Damned Thin Mints 99 How Can the Board Take the Lead on Fundraising? 106 Building a Culture of Fundraising in Your Organization 109 Saving the Most Important Lesson for Last 111 Chapter 6 Managing the Paid and the Unpaid (Or, I Came to Change the World, Not Conduct Evaluations) 117 Managing in 3-D 119 Having a Voice in Decision Making 121 Ownership of the Work 125 The Missing Piece: Clearly Defined Roles and Goals 128 And What About the Not-Paids? 131 The Clash of the Type A’s 133 Group, Team, or Family 136 Retreats Are Nonnegotiable 140 My Retreat Recipe 141 Keeping the Keepers on the Bus 146 Supervising and Evaluating the Executive Director 147 Two Things Everyone in Your Organization Wants 149 Chapter 7 When It Hits the Fan 151 How Are We Defining Crisis? 155 When the Light at the End of the Tunnel Is an Oncoming Train 156 Building a Crisis Management Plan 158 So Now You Are All Set for When It Hits the Fan, Right? 161 Is a Crisis Preventable? 164 What Crisis Management Should Look Like 166 The Most Common Nonprofit Crisis: Financial Crisis and Layoffs 168 The Main Thing 172 Chapter 8 Hello, I Must Be Going (Or Navigating Leadership Transitions) 177 Scenario Number One 179 Scenario Number Two 180 So Are These Folks Good at Their Jobs? 181 Board Leadership Gone Awry 185 The Autocrat 186 Board Chair on Steroids 188 The Weakest Link 189 Staff Leaders Who Aren’t Leading 191 The Five-Alarm Blaze 193 Toast 196 The Founder (The One Who Sticks Around Too Long) 197 The Five-Star Staff Leader Who Calls It Quits 199 The On-Deck Circle 204 Chapter 9 You Are the Champions 207 Bibliography 213 Index 217

About the Author :
JOAN GARRY began her career as part of the management team that launched MTV. After a successful eight-year tenure, she became an executive at Showtime Networks. In 1997, Garry left corporate America and was named the executive director of GLAAD, one of the largest organizations working for LGBT equality. Since leaving GLAAD, Garry has worked as a consultant for hundreds of nonprofits, teaching them, with wisdom, joy, and humor, the keys to effective nonprofit leadership. She is a regular panelist on NBC's nonprofit reality show Give. Garry is also the founder of The Nonprofit Leadership Lab; an instructor at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches nonprofit media strategy; and a sought-after speaker on nonprofit leadership. She blogs regularly at the popular website www.joangarry.com and hosts one of the top nonprofit podcasts on iTunes, Nonprofits Are Messy. Garry lives in New Jersey with her wife of 34 years and their three grown children.