When embarking on a collaborative venture between grantor and grantee, early, continuous, and frequent communications among all players are critical to success.

The creation of a collaborative initiative may solve some problems but create new unexpected challenges. For example, space needs were satisfied, but greater public visibility and recognition spiked the demand for agency services. This created higher operating costs, need for additional staffing, and ultimately pressure to find additional funding. 

Collaboration is difficult and extremely time consuming, but worth the effort when the goals are clear and the vision is embraced by all participants. Although there will be pitfalls along the way, we all found the rewards far outnumbered the challenges while working collaboratively toward tangible and meaningful results.

On Trustee Leadership:

At a recent Foundation sponsored leadership breakfast forum, trustees from various nonprofit organizations shared their lessons learned from board service, leadership, responsibility, and relationships. Much of the collective wisdom stressed the role of trustees is not to maintain but to build for the future - be a voice for the organization - a  value creator.  Too often we focus on what needs to be fixed rather than on what works. It is important to step back and to reinvent or reengineer existing services to be more inclusive. A trustee needs to have a passion for the cause and a willingness to commit the time and talent to promote the mission and financial stability of the nonprofit organization. 

On a more practical note, it was suggested that the agency's long-range plan should be on the table at every board meeting. Boards need to revisit agency policies regularly to insure that policies reflect the agency"s mission. Program goals and objectives should be in keeping with policies and program results measured regularly. It is most productive if Board meetings have timekeepers and the Chair focuses on listening, facilitating, and summarizing all actions.

Finally, succession planning is imperative and cultivation of new board members should begin before a vacancy arises. Boards need to participate annually in self-assessments as well as peer assessments. Always be respectful of one another. There is a big difference between disagreeing and being disagreeable.