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Your First 30 Days as the New Director of Development

If you are a first-time or newer Director of Development, you are certainly eager to make an immediate impact, impress your team, and identify which strategies will drive your organization forward. With so much to tackle, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. What should take priority? Managing Director Ben Hoke has shared his playbook designed to help you navigate the first month in your new role and make meaningful progress right from the start.

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Reviewing organizational documents

3 Essential Governance Qualities that Maximize Impact

The board governance model requires constant effort, participation, attention and refinement to make it the best form of leadership for our organizations. In David Butler’s 40-plus-year career, he has found organizations that commit to and focus their efforts on the following three essential qualities of governance practices maximize their leadership function and resulting impact. Here are his thoughts on these critical qualities, as well as some tips you can use to build on them at your organization.

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Writing resolutions

Steve Higgins’ New Year’s Resolutions for Nonprofit Professionals

Making manageable and attainable New Year’s resolutions is hard. In fact, if you keep and follow your New Year’s resolution the whole year through, you are among the estimated 9% of Americans who do, and you likely have other superpowers! With this in mind and based on his experience working alongside and learning from hundreds of organizations and sector leaders, President & CEO Steve Higgins, CFRE, compiled his recommended resolutions for nonprofit professionals.

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Four individuals discussing and engaged in Strategic Planning Process

Need a Strategic Plan? Don’t Skip the Planning!

Having a strategic plan in place is great and often necessary, but if you don’t engage in an inclusive planning process to co-create a shared vision, you’re missing the point of creating a strategic plan in the first place, and your organization is more likely to struggle in achieving impact. If your organization is getting ready to develop a strategic plan, consider weaving these key essentials into your approach to maximize the work of the process and resulting plan.

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