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Clients'
Corner
An E-Newsletter for the Clients and Friends of Executive
Consulting
 IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO SCHEDULE A BOARD
OR STAFF RETREAT BEFORE SUMMER. . . Consider Retaining a Facilitation Team
from Executive Consulting!
One of Executive Consulting's most
sought-after services is facilitation of board or staff retreats. Executive
Consulting's experienced team of facilitators is available to work with
your organization to design and facilitate a retreat that will address your
organization's most critical issues. Just consider this testimonial from
Laure Stern, Founding President of the Malibu Foundation for Youth and
Children:
"Without exception our Board found
Executive Consulting to be a great fit for our group. Your expertise was
mixed with humor and compassion. Everyone went out with a renewed feeling
of ownership for our mission and a personal call to action. Thanks for
giving us new ears to listen more profoundly to the needs in our community
and the beginning tools it will take to get us to the next step in our
mission to enhance the lives of youth."
Helping organizations understand the
current operating environment, challenges and opportunities is part of what
Executive Consulting does best. Facilitation of retreats, meetings,
conflict resolution sessions, and planning programs can provide a roadmap
for future growth, thereby moving your organization to "higher
ground."
For additional information about our facilitation
services, call 562-951-9514 or visit our Web site, www.interimexecutive.org.
Introducing.
. . Interim Solutions
A Service of Executive Consulting
 Since its formation in 2002, Executive Consulting's
specialty has been interim management: the placement of experienced interim
CEOs, CFOs, COOs and CDOs with nonprofit organizations needing experienced
management to fill a vacancy on a short-term basis. To further distinguish
this service, Executive Consulting is now referring to our interim program
as "Interim Solutions-a Program of Executive Consulting for the
Nonprofit Sector, Inc."
Executive Consulting's Interim Solutions
program provides a team of experienced Executive Directors and senior-level
professionals able to help your organization face the challenges brought
about by terminations, resignations, leaves of absence, demanding
short-term projects and establishing new positions. Our team of
professional interim executives represents the finest corps of trained
nonprofit leadership from recognized and highly regarded organizations
throughout Southern California.
Each professional has at least five years
of experience running an organization, leading fund development or finance.
Many of our affiliates also possess the professional accreditation in their
chosen field of nonprofit management.
We are the largest provider of trained and
experienced interim nonprofit managers in Southern
California. Each interim executive has been carefully screened
by Executive Consulting with thorough reference and background checks. Our
executives subscribe to a set of standards of conduct that is one of the
most stringent in the industry.
For additional information about the
Interim Solutions program, please click on the link below.
Words
of Praise for Executive Consulting
A Testimonial from Newport Community
Counseling Center
"Executive
Consulting provided valuable services to Newport Community
Counseling Center
during a critical period in our growth and development. The strategic plan
developed by Executive Consulting has been instrumental in helping us
identify ways to broaden our donor base as well as enhance our marketing efforts. During our board of directors
retreat, facilitated by a team from Executive Consulting, our board worked
to craft a clearer, more succinct mission statement and also identified
some key areas for focus and development."
"Executive Consulting also developed
a comprehensive case for support document for our organization, which will
help us create more effective fund-raising materials. And the organization
provided four months of mentoring services to me personally— all very
helpful as we put our new plan into action."
Linda Belt, LCSW,
Executive Director, Newport
Community Counseling
Center
Meet Affiliate Mark Friedman
 Who needs the $6 million man when you have Mark Friedman--the $500 million man?
During an impressive 25 years as a
development professional, Mark Friedman
has developed and implemented innovative fund-raising strategies that have
generated $500 million in charitable donations for a wide variety of
organizations, including the City of Hope
and the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, among others.
A graduate of California
State University,
Northridge, with a B.S. in Business Administration, Mark also completed
post-graduate studies in Communal Service at Hebrew
Union College,
Los Angeles.
He recently completed a successful assignment as Interim Director of
Development for the Dubnoff
Center, an assignment
arranged by Executive Consulting.
“By affiliating with Executive
Consulting, I have an opportunity to apply my depth of knowledge and
successful experience," comments Mark. "I also have an
opportunity to work with a wonderful cross-section of nonprofit
organizations in Southern California.”
Assessing the Nonprofit Board
A strong board is
one of the most crucial indicators of a nonprofit organization's potential
for success. But what are the indicators of a strong board? Consider using
these twelve guidelines as you evaluate the effectiveness of your board:
- Roles and
responsibilities. Do your board members understand their roles versus
the roles of staff? Do they understand their own responsibilities?
- Policy development. Is
the board involved in creating and monitoring organizational policy?
- Planning practices. Does
the board play an integral part in your planning process?
- Financial accountability.
Does the board exercise its fiduciary responsibilities?
- Raising money. Does the
board play an active role in identifying, cultivating, soliciting and
recognizing donors?
- Understanding committees.
Does the board understand the role of each committee?
- Effective board meetings.
Are board meetings well-run, with an appropriate balance of
information and discussion? Or, are they boring affairs that make it
difficult to achieve quorum?
Other indicators include:
- Board recruitment. Are
you able to attract new talent to your board on a regular basis?
- Board orientation. Are
new board members provided with an appropriate orientation?
- Relating to staff. Do
board members have an opportunity to interact with various levels of
staff on a regular basis?
- Evaluating the
organization. Do board members have opportunities to evaluate the
organization's effectiveness?
- Reaching out to the
community. Do board members serve as "ambassadors" of your
organization during their day-to-day personal and professional lives?
The information
presented in this article is just one example of the material covered in
Executive Consulting's Board Chairs' Academy, a training opportunity
offered to Executive Consulting's past and present clients. For more
information about Executive Consulting's training programs, please visit www.interimexecutive.org.
An Executive Consulting
Service Partner
 Executive Consulting also offers a
wide array of specialized management consultation services in partnership
with affiliated consultants and our Service Partners, firms that provide
specialized services to the nonprofit community. We are pleased to profile
one of our Service Partners, TechMD, in this issue of Clients' Corner.
TechMD believes that every nonprofit
deserves quality computer services at an affordable price. Since the
company's inception, it has been dedicated to providing nonprofits with
first-class computer service. The company's focus on the nonprofit
community allows it to offer high-quality information technology services
in a cost-effective manner.
TechMD's primary service line is its Total
Care Support Plan, which provides clients with certified computer engineers
who carefully monitor every aspect of their computer networks, perform
preventive maintenance and respond quickly to their problems-- all for a
flat monthly fee! The Total Care Support Plan allows nonprofits to focus on
their mission without a care or concern for their technology systems.
Perhaps a quote from one of TechMD's
clients says it best: in the words of Paul Pulver, Executive Director of
United Cerebral Palsy of Orange County, "I have been extremely pleased
with TechMD's support and service ... their knowledge, responsiveness, and
nonprofit-friendly rates will keep us customers for a long time.”
For additional
information about Executive Consulting's Service Partners Network, please
click on the link below.
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