11 minute read
Simplify Board Management in 2021 With Portals
NONPROFIT NEWS SIMPLIFY BOARD MANAGEMENT IN 2021
HOW BOARD PORTALS IMPROVE THE BOTTOM LINE
BY FRANK ORZO
Through our work with over 100 small and medium-sized nonprofits, my partner Christine Deska and I have identified one trait common to almost every organization: Executive directors and key staff are struggling to keep their board members engaged, spending unnecessary time involved with repetitive tasks, and efficiently disseminating information to board members.
Board portals are designed to specifically address these challenges.
We also realized that several of the existing board portals on the market were priced outside the available budget for small and medium-sized nonprofits. As a result, we saw an opportunity to help, and created the board management solution BellesBoard.
Implementing a board portal has a direct impact on the bottom line. In fact, our research has shown that a board portal can easily save a nonprofit organization in excess of $9,000 annually in recovered staff time.
This time can then be redirected to other activities such as fundraising, event management, and getting more done with less outside resources.
In order to accomplish such a beneficial goal, a board portal should meet four criteria: The portal should be (1) full featured, (2) affordable, (3) easy to implement and (4) easy to use.
FULL FEATURED
Nonprofits today are constantly being asked to do more with less. That is why organizations invest in board management software that will eliminate repetitive tasks, increase collaboration and improve efficiency.
To the extent possible, an organization should avoid compromise when selecting a board management solution. Why? Because they want to avoid the additional cost that will be required as a result of outgrowing their initial solution and having to upgrade to a more robust solution down the road.
A board portal vendor should also have a history of continuous innovation. For example, the board portal should also contain a mobile app so that board members have access to relevant information 24/7 on a smartphone or tablet.
AFFORDABLE
Frank Orzo is co-founder of Nonprofit Sector Strategies, PBC. Contact him at forzo@ nonprofitsectorstrategies.com or (516) 902-4638.
The National Center for Charitable Statistics lists more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations registered in the United States. According to GuideStar, the vast majority of these nonprofits are small grassroots organizations.
These organizations tend to be underserved when it comes to technology. Budgets are stretched and every dollar counts. If your organization fits this demographic, ask your board portal vendor if they can provide a net return on investment (ROI) analysis that will estimate the annual savings that can be achieved after deducting the cost of the portal.
EASY TO IMPLEMENT
One of the common stumbling blocks that organizations encounter is getting started! As we said earlier, organizations today need to do more with less.
Having invested the time to find a solution to accomplish that goal, and having made the selection, they now must find the time to enter their meetings, governance material and documents, committee and board rosters, financial and program metrics, and related tasks.
This is where things often bog down.
The sooner your organization can begin to realize the benefits of a board portal, the more likely they will achieve the savings that can be achieved by eliminating repetitive tasks, increasing collaboration and improving efficiency.
EASY TO USE
Board members are busy people. For the most part, they do not engage with board-related information on a regular basis. When they do, it is imperative that they can get to the information they need easily and quickly.
Board engagement suffers if board members are asking questions such as Where are the bylaws?, When is the next committee meeting?, and What is Mary’s contact information?
Even more disruptive is if they must call or email staff members to get the answers. A board portal puts all this information literally at one’s finger tips. Board engagement is directly related to how easily and quickly these questions and more are answered.
SUMMARY
Following these four criteria when choosing a board portal solution for your organization will result in board activity that will be easier to manage and more cost effective. Likewise, your board members will better ambassadors for your organization.
Our customers tell us that BellesBoard hits the mark on all four criteria. Feel free to contact me to learn more about BellesBoard or to arrange a brief demonstration.
entrepreneurs who are in the early stages of development.
After attending at least four workshops on such topics as Branding and Financial Forecasting Marketing, contestants submitted their applications to a panel of judges consisting of local entrepreneurship and commerce experts.
They selected 12 finalists (three in each category) from a pool of almost 50 teams to enter a final round where a second panel picked one winner from each of the four categories.
“Congratulations to this year’s winners and best of luck during your next steps,” added QEDC Executive Director Seth Bornstein. “At the same time, I’d like to remind the participants who didn’t win that they can try again next year.”
STARTUP!
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CHAMBER MEMBER NEWS STARBUCKS IN QUEENS CELEBRATE 5 YEARS
This March, the Starbucks Community Store in Jamaica celebrated its five-year anniversary as one of the first-ever stores of its kind.
Starbucks Community Stores are located in underserved communities across the U.S. with a focus on hiring locally, creating dedicated space for communities to come together for events, and working with diverse contractors for store construction and remodels.
To commemorate the milestone, Starbucks donated $5,000 to Queens-based nonprofits that have partnered with the store to provide programming and training to the community, including Queens Community House, Samaritan Village, Complete Girlz, Uniting Disabled Individuals and Life Camp.
“This store offers a home to nonprofits – large and small – and community members who want to make a difference,” said Andy Acevedo.
Acevedo has served as store manager for two years and has been a Starbucks partner (employee) for 15 years. A Queens native, he lives just a 15-minute walk from the store, which is located at the corner of Sutphin Boulevard and 89th Avenue. “Almost all of the partners at this store are from Jamaica,” he said. “This is our home and every day we come to work and help make our neighborhood better.”
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Acevedo had to get creative to celebrate the store’s five-year anniversary.
“While we would have loved to throw a big party, we had to put health and safety first,” he explained. “So instead, we made goodie bags for all of our customers that included cookies and PPE and handed them out throughout the day.”
The store includes an onsite community space available to local nonprofit organizations. The store also supports local hiring initiatives and utilized minority and women owned business enterprises (MWBEs) for the store’s construction and upkeep.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the store hosted three nonprofit events each week, ranging from youth groups to job readiness workshops. Since the store’s inception, over 300 youth received job readiness training through a partnership with Queens Community House, Queens Community Store, and The Starbucks Foundation, which supported the work with over $200,000 in grants.
Over the past year, the store has worked to support its community throughout the pandemic.
“We donated coffee to Jamaica Hospital and local authorities to support their food pantry,” said Starbucks district manager Selena Pichardo. “Our goal was to make people feel seen and say, ‘we’re here for you’ through a cup of coffee.”
The store also supported The Starbucks Foundation’s Neighborhood Grants program, which empowers partners to nominate local nonprofits that they volunteer with for grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. Eight Queensbased nonprofits were awarded grants thanks to Starbucks partners throughout the borough.
“We are here to lift people up,” Acevedo said
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StaRTING aT6 $275.00
EXPERT ADVICE NEW LAW FOR POWER OF ATTORNEY
BY RONALD FATOULLAH & STACEY MESHNICK
On December 15, as a result of advocacy by the New York State Bar Association, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a new law that changes New York State’s power of attorney short form.
The document is called a “short”
Ronald A. Fatoullah, Esq. is the founder of Ronald Fatoullah & Associates, a law firm that concentrates in elder law, estate planning, Medicaid planning, guardianships, estate administration, trusts, wills, and real estate.
Stacey Meshnick, Esq. is a senior staff attorney at the firm.
form not because it is particularly short, but because it does not state every single power listed in the statute.
That being said, additional powers can be added - and often are added - to the document by drafting attorneys in the Modifications section of the document. The law will take effect 180 days from the signing.
A power of attorney enables an individual (“agent”) to step into the shoes of another individual (“principal”) to handle his or her financial affairs.
Powers of attorney are used for transactions such as paying rent if the principal is in the hospital, paying bills, selling property, creating trusts or engaging in estate planning and Medicaid planning.
Without a valid power of attorney, if an individual becomes incapacitated, it is often necessary to petition the court to appoint a guardian for that person. As such, a power of attorney is one of the most important documents one can have and, to date, there has been a great deal of confusion regarding the document.
The confusion with the current form has often resulted in banks and financial institutions refusing to accept it as valid. In addition, people have found the current form to be too complicated and difficult to use.
The major reason for this is the requirement of the current law that the exact language of the statute be incorporated into the document. This has caused many issues and rejections created by even the most minor mistakes.
The new law is designed to address the problems caused by these insignificant mistakes. The new law allows the language of the power of attorney form to substantially, rather than exactly, conform to the statute. This should result in the document being more easily accepted.
Another major change is that the Statutory Gifts Rider (SGR) has been eliminated. Currently there is a lot of confusion because the SGR is a separate rider placed after the page where the agent signs, while having to be signed simultaneously with the power of attorney.
The new law simplifies the document by allowing gifting provisions to be included in the Modifications section of the power of attorney, rather than in a separate document.
Another very positive change is that individuals who are physically unable to sign a power of attorney can now direct someone else to sign on their behalf, as long as they can make it understood that they wish for another person to sign for them and they direct that individual to do so.
If banks or financial institutions unreasonably reject the power of attorney, there will be a process to have it accepted as valid. There is a list of specific reasons for which banks can reasonably deny a power of attorney.
However, the law also imposes penalties and requires payment of attorney’s fees by financial institutions and banks that unreasonably refuse to accept a valid form.
It is safe to say that while the current law causes the presumption to be in favor of a document being considered invalid, the provisions of the new law create a presumption in favor of the form being deemed valid.
Ronald Fatoullah & Associates can be reached at (718) 2611700, (516) 466-4422, or toll free at 1-877-ELDER-LAW or 1-877-ESTATES. This column is not intended to be individual legal advice. If you need legal advice please contact our offices to schedule a consultation.
MY BENEFIT ADVISOR
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