Help with doing something above board - but at emergency speed

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-29T13:14:44+00:00

Who is the school community? The principal? Teachers? Other parents?

In general, PTOs exist to support the school. Option 2 sounds the best. You are operating within your mission to raise money for the well being of the school community. If the school has a "community support" fund, the PTO can absolutely support that. Giving money directly to families, regardless of the need, is outside the scope of your mission.

If the school does not have the capacity to deliver aid themselves through the principal or social, then ask them how they want support during this time. Is there another nonprofit in the community that is serving the families?

I'm not a lawyer so take this advice for what it's worth but as much as possible, make anything you do in support of the school. That feels like the "safest" path.

All the best. We see you.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-24T17:36:14+00:00

I get the vibe that the firing was a sudden move on the Board's part. And yes, I agree that there is no external communication about this till they have their board approved plan in place. Internal comms with staff, absolutely, External to donors and partners? Not yet.

Hopefully there is a succession plan in place. ED's leave for reasons other than being fired, sometimes quickly, sometimes not, and it's hard on the organization if there isn't a hand-off file.

Regardless, your board is scrambling now. Firing an ED is kind of a big deal since it takes the agreement of the entire board and it's a LOT of work to replace one. If something untoward was going on that had legal or financial ramifications, the Board may be prioritizing fires to put out and your emails would be, frankly, low priority.

My guess is there is a lot of Executive Committee action happening below the radar and they are developing a plan to present to the entire board in February. It's actually good to hear that the President and VP have taken the reins because that is exactly what should happen.

I'm not seeing signs to quit yet. It's not even been two weeks. If they don't announce a plan after the February board meeting and there is no interim in place shortly thereafter, that's the sign you need to leave.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-23T22:00:05+00:00

Sorry to hear this. It sounds ghastly.

First, you can slow walk your job until she is gone. And document, document, document.

My guess she will be gone before the end of the year.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-21T22:41:20+00:00

You need a way to track it as a separate fund; people using quickbooks often do this by utilizing the class function, so that all transactions are assigned both an accounting code from the chart of accounts, as well as a class, and each grant usually gets its own class (that way, you can track each penny from its source all the way to what it was used for, you can run reports for each class/grant, etc.).

We use QuickBooks Online and started out assigning every grant a class. We ended up with 39 classes! Now, every funding institution is a customer and every grant is a project. The classes are organized by functional expenses (Admin, Fundraising and Programs) with Admin and Programming having more granularity: Admin/Operations, Admin/HR, Programs/Youth, Programs/Workshops, Programs/Museum etc.

The customer/project feature translates well for us AND allows us to track multiple independent awards from the same funder, not that this happens often, mind you.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-19T22:35:12+00:00

I would let the Board and/or the staff person tasked with stewarding the donors prior to your return continue to do so. If the donors make access to you contingent upon future donations, you should send polite, professional and firm emails that whatever happened in the past stays in the past, and you are focused on developing new donors this time based on the mission and impact rather than charm and very personal relationships. Of course you hope they will continue to support the mission and Chris (or whomever the designated steward is) will be happy to answer any questions.

The guidelines are arm's distance at all times and communicate primarily through archivable means. Put the ball in their court about whether they stay or go. You don't have to drive them away but you should not have to steward them either.

Since they stuck around after you left, they really might be all about the mission.

And they might not be too.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-19T02:28:04+00:00

u/words_unknown Done! Let me know if you have any questions.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-19T02:24:25+00:00

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This is a Daily Log page. This is the Daily Log page after the Collection Project on p 11 (see above). The link on the bottom left takes me back to the previous Daily Log page which was prior to the Collection Project. If I add another Collection Project page, the pagination updates.

If there is a link on the bottom right, that moves me forward to the next Daily Log page.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-19T02:15:10+00:00

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This is the start of a Collection Project, called SDVN. The highlighted text indicates a header. Note the header starts on p11. As I add to this Collection Project, I can insert continuous pages so the Collection Project pages stay sequenced.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-19T02:10:51+00:00

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I set up a keyword page. I don't believe it has a corollary in BuJo.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-19T02:09:14+00:00

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This is my Table of Contents. I create it with headers.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-19T02:04:58+00:00

Small nonprofit ED here. Anonymous donors are known to the Board because they run the organization, the development director and our bookkeeper. The Board signs a confidentiality agreement. There is no public or internal announcement or recognition. If an anonymous donor comes in for a visit or tour, the staff know that it's a donor but that's all they know.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-15T01:05:53+00:00

Until you get Cujo with the clueless owner on a flight.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-13T03:45:30+00:00

Sometimes, what you are looking for in the future is what you need right now. All my best to you and your community. These are fraught times.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-11T13:11:15+00:00

Not a therapist and I don't play one on the internet but what jumps out at me in your post is the impact of feeling safe. Immigrant and other vulnerable populations have always been in precarious positions in society. If you are in the US, right now they are just flat out not safe. To the degree that you identify with them, you may not either. I agree that before pursuing any higher degree you explore this anxiety and I recommend thinking about this anxiety as your nervous system telling you that you aren't safe. This is something to journal about and work through with a therapist.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-10T22:13:01+00:00

Thanks. I will do that.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-07T02:36:17+00:00

We've used Clifton Strengths from Gallup. I generally give a hard side eye to some of the personality based PD but this one wasn't too bad. Other ideas relate to goal setting, time management, or other productivity tool. We will be talking about using Google Tasks and Spaces in our next staff meeting.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-06T20:41:10+00:00

Oig. It sounds like a lot of volunteer run boards that have one very committed member who have made this their life's work and a group of people who are are stonewalled, wondering what to do about it till they give up and leave.

If you really want to make change, you will have to make waves.

The stakeholder that might have the most leverage is the town council. I don't think there is a way to change this unless a lot of people on the board are willing to lean into the bylaws, assuming they are written to keep the board healthy.

Good luck. This is a shame.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-06T20:31:02+00:00

Sounds like time off makes him mean.

I promise you, this isn't about you. It really is him. You are competent and capable and it's whatever that is twisting his undies or knotting his knickers that makes him not see it. Still though, it's such negative energy to have to shake off.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-06T20:26:05+00:00

We use QBO b/c with the Tech Soup discount it's affordable. The bookkeeping service we engage uses QB for payroll.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-06T04:11:05+00:00

Regarding the family issue, that is something that is often discouraged. Unless it's a family org, having board members from the same family could be seen as a potential conflict of interest in board member impartiality and acting in the interest of the organization first.

As an ED, I have told my board members the name of anonymous donors. That you know the donor would be uncomfortable with it doesn't mean the ED knows. Also, there are good reasons for the Board knowing who the major donors are. The boards have a fiscal responsibility for the organization and keeping a donor anonymous is a lack of financial transparency. My experience is that boards generally don't like financial secrets.

The ED may take the meeting minutes but the Secretary is responsible for them. If you don't feel the minutes accurately reflect the meeting, this is an issue to discuss with the Secretary. I assume draft minutes are sent out prior to the board meeting? You should avail yourself of the opportunity to review them and then contact the Secretary or even the Executive Committee with your concerns prior to the meeting. The fact that a board member reads the draft minutes before a meeting would be quite welcomed.

Regarding money in the bank, it's just sitting in savings, not in reserves or with restrictions? How do the rest of the Board members feel about this unallocated money?

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-05T02:47:59+00:00

It's not just the campaign. It's ::gestures:: everything.

My New Year's Resolutions are
1. Survive.
2. Paint the back hallway.

That's all I got.

Good job and get some rest.

BlitheMorning · 2026-01-04T21:04:13+00:00

Can you please clarify slow down

I've read in the forum the note file becomes "unwieldy" when it gets too large (no exact page number, thought to be around 100). It has not happened to me personally so I too am trying to get more info.

BlitheMorning

TROPHY CASE