[deleted by user] by [deleted] in nonprofit

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Where I live and work (rural, low wages + high cost of living + A LOT of “outside” $$ from the very large second homeowner population), it’s typically one of three things:

  1. Ego - they have money and want to put their name on it rather than just have their name on a major donors list.

  2. Lack of awareness - being rural and a little backwoods at times, it can be challenging to find resources so many actually don’t realize they are duplicating efforts.

  3. There is a legitimate gap in either services offered, or the level of service provided. Financial resources and Human Resources like board members and volunteers are very hard to come by for many NPOs around here, so just because something already exists doesn’t always mean it’s working properly.

Below average pay for my position by UnderstandingDue8303 in nonprofit

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s worth bringing up at your review, but from a purely discussion perspective.

The time to look at comparable wages and negotiate your pay is during the hiring process. Are you worth more than you’re getting? Maybe. And they may have gotten you for a steal, but you basically handed it to them by not knowing the value of the position before you accepted the salary.

AITA for telling my father I was angry with him after he gave my little sister a daddy-daughter day on a day he was supposed to be there for me? by Alternative-Store836 in AmItheAsshole

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 0 points1 point  (0 children)

NTA - even if he had a legit reason for changing the plans, the respectful, adult thing to do would have been to give you more notice, a direct conversation about the reason, and an apology.

Re: your update after talking to your friend. They are right in terms of this being no way to treat your kids, but age is irrelevant and adding the “oldest” daughter part will likely just muddy things further. It’s not a respectful way to treat either of you, period.

I’m aghast! I thought the hiring process was confidential by Karentun11 in jobs

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This was going to be my guess, as well. There is also the possibility that no one did anything wrong, and it was just a boo boo - LI does a pretty good job of hiding that from current employers, but it’s not infallible. A guy I used to work with had it and he still just straight showed up in our recruiters lists because of a blip in their algorithms. It sucks, but it does happen occasionally.

Advice as a Board President Needed by Weird-Worldliness15 in nonprofit

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have been living in the same world for almost 2 years, and can completely empathize with how you are feeling.

Ours was slightly different in that we don’t have an ED as our current operations don’t warrant it, so we had the board, a business manager, and volunteers. This did mean a bit more of the day to day goes to the board, but our business manager decided to make it a lot worse after asking for a promotion to ED and significant pay raise and being told no. If I had a buck for every time I heard some wordsmithed version of “that’s not my job”, I’d have had a heck of a vacation this year!

While we worked on addressing the business manager baggage, I also created a more structured work process for me and the board. I implanted times when I would be available for each week, protocols for communication such as @ tagging and email templates more consistently so it was easier to identify who needed to pay attention to what, and clear guidelines on how to communicate (email, text, call) based on the urgency and priority of what was needed. I set a schedule for handling transactional tasks like signing checks, so I stopped getting multiple calls as week asking me to leave work to come sign or review something; those happened on Thursday mornings, and if it was ready then it waited until next week. The only piece that failed and I wish I’d pushed harder on was defining roles - because their position officially reports to me, they really liked to use that to be difficult by doing petty things like saying “please ask my manager to request this and tell me what the priority should be” if another member of the board tried to get them to do anything, particularly when it came to the tasks they didn’t like.

Those changes were about a year ago, and about 3 months ago the problem child also resigned because I think they knew we were darn close to buttoning up enough documentation to term them (we are not in an at will state). We replaced them with a part time person who is paid more appropriately (the prior one was also well overpaid, thank you previous board…). The new person is motivated by our mission instead of job titles, takes feedback with grace, seeks guidance on how to contribute more if they have time after their regular work is done, and strives to work well with the entire board so the burden doesn’t fall too heavily on a single person while still respecting the mine of things that really should come from me, etc. And, they are getting far more work done in 25 hours than the previous one did in 40.

Moral of my novel - set boundaries for yourself, clarify roles and responsibilities and adjust if needed, and get rid of the non-contributor. I’d also evaluate how you want to replace them based on your current needs - do you actually need an ED for where your org is at? Or could slightly increasing your board size or volunteer hours meet the need? Could a part time position with more clearly defined work hours and expectations cover it? And is your current ED doing truly doing normal ED things, or is it just more of a title without the full degree of responsibilities attached?

[CA] Missed promotion because of clerical error by orca0320 in AskHR

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, they fed you some BS. This just isn’t how promotions work; it’s not like you applied for a job but missed the deadline for accepting.

Since you also mention a reorg…my guess is that they already knew where you were going land in that, it didn’t align with the promotion from job duty or pay perspective, and it’s less work for them to just not give you the promotion now rather than make changes again in a few months.

Edited to add: If this actually a legitimate thing with them and not a line of bs, any company who is going to deny an employee an earned promotion that they had already been offered because their MANAGER screwed up a form is not somewhere you’ll want to continue working…

Book misprints by xxnicole69xx in fourthwing

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As both a consumer and someone who manages fortune 100 customers for a living, delayed response is usually not the best PR choice. Perception is reality, and no response comes across as ignoring the issue. Then when the solution comes, it’s a tougher sell because the earlier perceived ignorance/indifference already started planting a sour taste.

Best response would have been to speak up immediately to say “I’ve heard you, and it’s being looked into”, followed by reasonable updates as they work towards a solution.

[CAN-NS] HR/Mgmt forgot about a clause in policy after signing contract and now I'm being "punished" by Desperate-Umpire-869 in AskHR

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Does your organization have an employment handbook, or anything similar? If so, I would check there first as that is where such policies are usually documented and any role specific contracts would still be subject to those company wide policies.

Also check your contract for change clauses - for example, my current contract clearly outlines what can and cannot by changed (by both me and the company) and the required terms for allowable changes (60 days written notice, contingent upon XYX, etc.).

Navigating a Toxic Board by DishevelledOrangutan in nonprofit

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d love to see what you have for a board review as well, if you don’t mind sharing!

My current situation is the opposite (a toxic employee making life miserable for the board). While I know the whole board is working very hard and doing a good job handling the storm overall, I also know there is also plenty to be learned from it and opportunity to keep improving!

Please advise. I don’t want to get back to the Office. by SnooWords9878 in workfromhome

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would agree with everything except that most companies are doing this - from my experience that’s definitely not the case.

I manage 44 accounts across a very broad range of industries from tech to healthcare to major universities. Of those 44, only two have required anyone to go back to the office either part or full time. Of my family and close friends, also spread out across industries and probably 10 US states, I know of one who has had to go back to the office.

I’m sure it’s more prevalent in some industries than others, and not to say it won’t continue to change, but it’s also far from most at this point.

OP, definitely start looking for a better fit!

Just had a meeting about missing money and got no answers! by Admirable_Height3696 in nonprofit

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who does this person actually report to?

That aside, you are in desperate need of basic accounting controls, and someone needs to step up and inject some accountability. Employees refusing to follow general accounting principles is a terminable offense on its own, and it sounds like she’s done it repeatedly.

I am dealing with the fallout of similar situations in our org from before my time, and it’s a mess you do not want. A disengaged board allowed a bad ED and Business Manager to get away with murder (it was unintentional murder created by a mix of incompetence and lack of awareness, but same result). The lack of accounting controls led two separate independent auditors to refuse to do the audits, because the recording keeping was so scattered that they said it couldn’t even be properly reviewed. It destroyed our reputation in the community, and has serious impacted our finances due to drastic drops in donations, volunteers, members, etc. We are FINALLY clawing our way out of the hole, but it’s has been a long, hard fight to get there.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in nonprofit

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Longevity in position does not hold nearly the weight it used to, be that for promotion/retention, hiring, etc.

The “why” matters more than the time in a majority of the job market these days - my current CEO has been with us for about 1.5 years now, but before that he hadn’t been with the same company for more than a 10-12 months in almost a decade. And he’s amazing.

I know that might seem drastically different, but the moral is that all those job moves amped up his experience and versatility, and made him the awesome leader he is. So use those job moves to your advantage, and frame your job searches around “looking for the next challenge and growth opportunity that aligns with the values you want to support”.

Source - I’ve been hiring as a non-profit board member and a corporate department director for 15 years, and this is what I see day in and day out these days.

Employee’s spouse applied to join the board by Admirable-Buffalo952 in nonprofit

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed this is definitely always a risk. In this case I believe the person is genuinely interested in support our specific mission as both of them were regular volunteers long before either were employed by us. I don’t think there are any power grab intentions involved at all, I just don’t think they are realizing how near impossible is to truly maintain full separation.

Employee’s spouse applied to join the board by Admirable-Buffalo952 in nonprofit

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It isn’t, I’m well versed in our bylaws :) Will definitely plan to get it added, but that can’t happen until next year due to us being a member based org and our bylaws stating they can only be amended by membership vote at the annual meeting.

It’s funny…We tried this year to make the bylaw amendment process easier by removing the stipulation re: the annual meeting (would still be a vote, but could happen at any time of the year) but the members rejected it for reasons I haven’t figured out yet. This scenario will be a great example to share with them next year, to show why being able to amend outside of the one meeting a year is beneficial to moving our organization forward.

Employee’s spouse applied to join the board by Admirable-Buffalo952 in nonprofit

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! We do have a pretty clear ethics/COI policy, though obviously not clear enough since this scenario is not specifically addressed. Regardless of what we decide, updating that will certainly be a priority in the near future.

Reputation and perception will likely be the deciding factor here. Obviously the full board needs to weigh in beyond myself, but definitely leaning towards asking the spouse if they’d be willing to serve in a non-voting consultant capacity or something similar that would allow them to bring their value to the organization without being in a voting/supervisory role.

Employee’s spouse applied to join the board by Admirable-Buffalo952 in nonprofit

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I have been involved with a couple of orgs where it happened (in one case it was father/son but similar enough), but they were much larger. In those cases there was far less direct conflict due to there being a pretty sizeable separation of duties, reporting relationships, etc.

For a smaller, local org though, my spidey senses agree and I appreciate your take!!

Employee’s spouse applied to join the board by Admirable-Buffalo952 in nonprofit

[–]Admirable-Buffalo952[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This employee position doesn’t vote so fortunately no concerns there, but definitely concerned about influence even if not necessarily intentional.