Tips for Engineering a Great Volunteer Board
BriefCASE Article Any good volunteer board needs a tune up every now and then—and the boards of institutionally related foundations are no exception. A board’s makeup should change as the institution’s goals change, experts say, whether this means attracting members willing to take on a more proactive role in fundraising or bringing on higher-level executives who maintain invaluable professional networks.

Lessons Learned: Shifting Your Volunteer Board Composition
Product During this webinar, a foundation executive director examines the dynamics and challenges involved in changing the composition of a volunteer board. She talks about the lessons she learned during this highly contentious undertaking. This multimedia file is a recording of an Online Speaker Series webinar originally presented Feb. 14, 2012.

Odds and Ends: The Giving Kind
CURRENTS Article Devoted philanthropists John and Tashia Morgridge talk to CURRENTS about the importance of writing small checks and the challenge of giving large gifts in a public manner, offer advice on how to become informed and engaged philanthropists, discuss possible changes to the U.S. charitable giving deduction, and reminisce about some of the projects they've helped make possible.

Odds and Ends: Woman on Board
CURRENTS Article In this interview with CURRENTS, best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anna Quindlen talks about her board service to her alma mater, Barnard College.

Arm in Arm
CURRENTS Article From recruitment to orientation and beyond, development professionals should be deeply involved with members of their institution's board of trustees. But too often advancement officers treat board members like "hot potatoes," and are reluctant to touch them. This article explains why it is important for the development office to embrace working with the board and offers tips on how to do so effectively.

Winning Words: A Volunteer's Guide to Asking for Major Gifts (Single copy - PDF)
Product Winning Words helps your trustees, alumni, and friends prepare for prospect calls. Along with explaining the duties of the asker and the civic obligations of the prospect, it shows them how to handle the most commonly asked questions and most commonly offered excuses..

Winning Words: A Volunteer's Guide to Asking for Major Gifts (Packet of 25)
Product Winning Words helps your trustees, alumni, and friends prepare for prospect calls. Along with explaining the duties of the asker and the civic obligations of the prospect, it shows them how to handle the most commonly asked questions and most commonly offered excuses.

Winning Words: A Volunteer's Guide to Asking for Major Gifts (Packet of 10)
Product Winning Words helps your trustees, alumni, and friends prepare for prospect calls. Along with explaining the duties of the asker and the civic obligations of the prospect, it shows them how to handle the most commonly asked questions and most commonly offered excuses.

Strategic Board Recruitment and Involvement to Dramatically Increase Giving
Product This webinar looks at strategic board recruitment and offers tips for identifying and engaging board members in meaningful ways to increase giving. This multimedia file is a recording of an Online Speaker Series webinar originally presented April 14, 2011.

Community College Foundations: An Analysis of a Survey Conducted by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education
CASE White Paper This white paper on the structure and staffing of community college foundations reports the results of a CASE survey conducted in 2010. The survey asked community college foundation leaders to respond to questions about board and governance, staffing, alumni relations, budget/funding, fundraising/private support, campaigns, major gifts, endowment and donor outreach.

Best of the Board Cafe: Hands-on Solutions for Nonprofit Boards
Product This collection of most-requested articles from CompassPoint’s Board Café online newsletter offers insights on board responsibilities, executive directors, fundraising, finance and more.

Lessons Learned: Shifting Your Volunteer Board Composition
Online Seminar Hear from a foundation executive director about the dynamics and challenges involved in changing the make-up of your volunteer board – and the lessons she learned from this highly contentious undertaking.

Assessment and Evaluation of Trustees
Product This webinar helps participants learn about various strategies for measuring the effectives of a board as a whole and of individual board members. This is a recording of an Online Speaker Series webinar originally presented April 8, 2010.

Advance Work: Better with Age
CURRENTS Article The alumni relations director at Siena Heights University created a new advisory group for former board members in response to their desire to remain engaged.

Recruitment and Orientation of Trustees
Product The proper recruitment and orientation of board members is of critical importance to the overall effectiveness and success of the board, the president or head, and the management and health of the institution in which these key leaders serve. This webinar covers the identification, cultivation and selection of trustees and the preparation, transition and education of this primary governing body for an institution. Covers specific recruitment strategies. This multimedia file is a recording on an Online Speaker Series webinar originally presented Nov. 5, 2009.

Advance Work: A Boon from ­T. Boone
CURRENTS Article The story behind T. Boone Pickens’ $25 million gift to the University of Calgary.

Developing Effective Alumni Volunteer Boards
Product This webinar provides a strategic framework for developing effective boards and offers tips for managing boards. The presentation is designed for advancement professionals who interact with or staff volunteer boards. This multimedia file is a recording of an Online Speaker Series webinar originally presented May 8, 2008.

Drawn to Perfection
CURRENTS Article Alumni association leadership and operations change through the years, but often the board structure, or even members, do not. This article discusses how to create the best board for your institution.

Work in Progress: Meeting of Minds
CURRENTS Article Remember good old parliamentary rules of order? The rules are alive and well, and they can help keep meetings from veering off subject, dissolving into personal debates, and failing to reach a decision. Author Nancy Sylvester, a certified professional parliamentarian, describes in practical terms how to apply Robert's Rules for the benefit of all meeting participants.

First Class Leadership
CURRENTS Article All alumni volunteers are important, but the ones that serve on your board and advocate for the institution with legislators need to be recruited and trained with care.

As the World Turns
CURRENTS Article Development is a relatively recent activity in European independent schools, which have unique cultural and historical challenges regarding fundraising. This article describes what the challenges are and how several schools abroad are overcoming them. One important strategy is having a strong development team made up of the head of school, the board chair, and the development director. Each has a specific and critical role to play.

Confessions of a Bad Board Member
CURRENTS Article No alumni professional wants a bad board member on the alumni board. With some planning, forethought, and honest conversations, the alumni board can be on track and working for the institution.

Givers and Getters
CURRENTS Article With increased competition for public and private monies, boards of higher education institutions are becoming more involved in fundraising. This article describes how board members can contribute by seeking as well as donating gifts. It also lays out some strategies for selecting and managing the best-suited volunteers to serve on these important groups.

Fundraising Habits of Supremely Successful Boards
Product This book is aimed at developing board members who are effective and successful in raising the financial support for their mission.

Alumni Administration
Product Selected chapters from the Handbook of Institutional Advancement (3rd ed.) cover key topics related to alumni administration: board relations; alumni involvement in fundraising; communications; program funding and legal issues. Also discusses how to structure alumni association board reporting relationships, recruit board members, define board positions, outline responsibilities and communicate effectively with a board.

Closing Remarks: Just Ask
CURRENTS Article Advancement officers should engage governing boards in strategic discussions. Governance expert Richard T. Ingram suggests beginning with five key issues: philanthropy, image management, affiliated foundation relations, donor involvement, and corporate partnerships. He also offers other ways to inform trustees about advancement and to make room for such topics on crowded meeting agendas.

AdvanceWork: Anatomy of a Board
CURRENTS Article Six types of volunteer leaders your campus needs

Back on Track
CURRENTS Article Weerts offers seven suggestions to recharge an alumni board: 1) Recruit well, 2) Communicate the board’s purpose early and often, 3) Don’t underestimate board members’ commitment, 4) Let board members address important problems, 5) Give everyone a chance to speak, 6) Make board participation a learning experience, and 7) Ask students for feedback on important issues.

Who's in Charge?
CURRENTS Article Debra Beck discusses alumni boards and the myths vs. realities surrounding them. She examines the traditional, hierarchical structure of alumni boards and offers alumni associations alternatives to them.

Groups Dynamic
CURRENTS Article Successful development committees share several traits. They have: 1) a clear charge; 2) a dynamic chair; 3) the board volunteers with the most clout; 4) provide a strong orientation and training program for the committee members; and 5) direct interaction with the president or head of the institution. In addition, effective committees have substantive, rather than aimless meetings, clear and frequent communication between meetings, and substantive work assignments. A sidebar article suggests ways of dealing with common development committee problems, such as handling volunteers who won't give a charitable gift, or avoiding the post-campaign doldrums. The composition and responsibilities of the Swarthmore College development committee are presented as an example of what is expected of these members.

Winning Words: A Volunteer's Guide to Asking for Major Gifts (Packet of 50)
Product Winning Words helps your trustees, alumni, and friends prepare for prospect calls. Along with explaining the duties of the asker and the civic obligations of the prospect, it shows them how to handle the most commonly asked questions and most commonly offered excuses.