Center for Nonprofit Excellence

“Once the organization's form 990 is complete, and before it is filed, the board is provided with a copy, as well as irs table t201, guidance for board review of form 990, and asked to review the document. After each board member reviews the document, that board member is asked to fill out an online cne board survey to confirm that he or she acted as an independent director without conflict of interest during the tax year. The organization requires 100% participation in the online board survey and maintains survey records once complete.”

“The cne has a written conflict of interest policy. That policy is included as a discussion item on the agenda for the first full board meeting each year, in february, which is also the first meeting of the year for most new board members. After the board meeting discussion, each board member individually reviews and signs the policy. A signed copy of the policy is kept at the cne office, as part of the organization's official records, and is available for review upon request.”

“Center for nonprofit excellencecenter for nonprofit excellence executive director's compensation decision-making policy the executive committee of the board of directors of the center for nonprofit excellence is charged with the responsibility of making recommendations re: the salary of the executive director to the board of directors as part of the annual budget development and approval process. In fulfilling this responsibility, the committee considers a number of related factors, including the following. Evaluation of quality of performance. The committee, consisting entirely of independent individuals, conducts an informal evaluation of the executive director's performance as needed, and a formal evaluation, which has been developed by the executive committee, in the fall of each year. In preparation for the formal evaluation, the director gives the committee a written report of their accomplishments, sense of their strong points, and identifies any area (s) where they believe improvement is needed. In addition to the executive committee's review of performance, each member of the board of directors completes an anonymous evaluation of the executive director, which is tabulated by the chair of the executive committee, and included in the overall assessment done by the committee. The findings of the evaluation are shared with the board which then confirms or adjusts the recommended salary increase. The executive committee and the president of the board of directors then meets with the executive director for a formal evaluation. Review of current salary ranges and comparison to other nonprofits in the area. To arrive at fair compensation, the committee reviews periodically the salary ranges of nonprofit organizations in the area including use of independent salary surveys, compares where we are on the scale, and then recommends to the board any compensation adjustment. It is the center's belief that fair and just compensation is in the best interest of the cne as a retention and recruitment strategy. Miscellaneous. In determining the salary for the executive director, consideration should be given to the director's vision for the future of the cne, and the ability to develop and sustain the cne to achieve that vision. Documentation. Minutes of committee meetings are kept to insure contemporaneous substantiation is documented.”

“The cne maintains its governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements at its business address and makes these documents available to the public upon request during normal business hours. It also posts its annual irs from 990 and audit report on its website.”

“Center for nonprofit excellence's mission is simple but critical to our area's nonprofit sector: to strengthen nonprofits to realize the potential of our community. Cne accomplishes its mission by educating and building the capacity of nonprofit staff, board and volunteers to effectively manage and lead their organizations and to collaborate in order to increase mission impact. It promotes: effective management through education and training, technology support and resource-sharing strong leadership through its board development academy, board orientation workshops and leaders & learning circle programs healthy collaboration by providing tools, trainings, resources and consulting that facilitates collaboration to achieve better results for the community cne's key accomplishments in 2013 include: opened the doors to its own in-house training center and with expanded resource center and library to bring together nonprofit leaders, staff and volunteers in one central location. Engaged our member community of more than 270 nonprofits and businesses, with more than 230 nonprofit members working in more than 17 issue areas, via online resources, trainings, consulting and peer-to-peer learning. Doubled our website traffic garnering more than 130,000 web site views- 53% of whom were returning visitors-with more than 360,000 page views. Informed our community via our weekly newsletter, which now has more than 2,500 weekly newsletter subscribers. Provided ongoing leadership development to 24 nonprofit executives through our peer support groups-leaders and learning circles offered more than 100 hours of individualized consulting to members regarding nonprofit leadership, management and collaboration, on a wider- range of topics, including staff recruitment, finance, development, strategic planning, evaluations, board governance, and board development. Graduated our 4th class of the board development academy, bringing the total graduates to more than 85 engaged community members. This year the class scholarship gift for the year 5 class was its biggest ever trained teams from 20 local organizations in our twice-annual board orientation workshop.”

“Cne solicits regular feedback from its members and the community to develop new program services that meet identified need; in 2013, we expanded our advanced training series and launched our pilot strengthening collaboration initiative. Lastly, we researched and developed new leadership, management and collaboration support programs, such as a new model of our leaders circles directed at advancement professionals, a management training academy and a leadership development academy, all of which we plan to bring online in 2014 and 2015. Advanced training series: in the fall of 2012 cne began its advanced training series with a pilot evaluation series, which concluded in early 2013. These trainings aim to go beyond knowledge acquisition and skill building, which are core goals of our workshops and brown bag lunches, and move into leadership development and organizational transformation. They are more in-depth, longer or multiple session series and usually include a group consultation, outside assignments or individual mentoring. In 2013, cne offered the following advanced training series: sustainability planning for small nonprofits - offered twice in 2013 grantwriting series making the ask tools for measuring program success strengthening collaborative initiative: it is a known fact that organizations that collaborate effectively are able to amplify their impact by leveraging resources, sharing knowledge, exchanging ideas and diversifying their inputs. But there is an art and a science to collaboration itself, distinct from the programs provided by any coalition. Organizations, individually and collectively, face a wide variety of barriers, including lack of coordination, limited capacity, uneven leadership, insufficient funding, and inconsistent data collection, which can make it extraordinarily difficult to collaborate effectively. As the area's only nonprofit resource center, center for nonprofit excellence (cne) is uniquely poised to provide technical assistance and support to area nonprofit coalitions doing the hard work of collaboration. Cne, along with the mental health and wellness coalition (mhwc), have embarked on a new pilot evaluation program to develop and implement a comprehensive evaluation workplan for mhwc. From this workplan, cne will create a toolkit to assist other community collaborations in identifying key deliverables, charting community outcomes, and making the case for support to key stakeholders. As part of its strengthening collaboration initiative, the goal of this program is to empower the local nonprofit sector to collaborate effectively in order to address and resolve community-wide challenges. For this pilot, cne is partnering first with mhwc to: assess the coalition and implement structural changes as needed to enhance its ability to achieve positive results for the community provide individualized consulting to partner members so that they, and the coalition, can effectively measure and demonstrate progress create shared measurement tools for the coalition to evaluate their program(s) and communicate collective impact cne will bring expert technical expertise and the best and latest research and tools to bear on the question, "what makes collaboration successful?" the project will result in a suite of tools, programs, consulting services and resources focused on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of coalitions while at the same time, strengthening the program evaluation capacity of coalitions and their partner members.”

“Leaders/learning circles on-demand consulting services board & collaboration consults free access to our conference room, media guide, and check out privileges from our best practices resource library in addition, cne provides regular opportunities for its members to meet, network, share new ideas, and build partnerships. Our members report that they join and renew with cne because of the high quality, targeted tools, trainings and resources we develop to help area organizations be more efficient, more effective, make the best use of donor dollars and have the greatest impact. Through membership, board members, staff and volunteers receive the local, affordable, and customer-focused support they need to build healthy organizations that strengthen our community. Member organizations also gain valuable exposure in the community through member spotlights, which are posted on cne's homepage, through cne's online directories, and in our weekly newsletter that goes to more than 2,500 subscribers. Members also can submit postings to our online job, board and volunteer listings, which are then featured weekly in our enewsletter. Finally, members have the opportunity to utilize cne's resource-rich library and reserve our training center for meetings and conferences. Although cne is a member-driven organization, we do make many of our trainings, resources and tools available to the broader community, but members receive discounted rates and have priority on registration. Program achievements: by the end of 2013, cne had 270 members, 230 nonprofits and 40 businesses and consultants who work with or support the sector via cne membership. Our nonprofit members are focused on 13 different issues, including health, education, arts, environment, and social justice, and have operating budgets that range from 50,000 to more than 3 million. Members of cne report great value in being part of the cne network. Cne recently concluded its annual member survey. We received responses from 270 members, which is a response rate of more than 34%, demonstrating a high-level of engagement among our members. We received great feedback - both in how we are meeting member needs and also how we can improve our services in the future. Here are some key takeaways: 97% of respondents indicated that cne had a positive impact on the local nonprofit sector, with 77% choosing "quite a bit" to "significant" impact. Of those who had used a certain cne program or service (i.e. Training, consultation, leaders circle, etc.) the vast majority found the service used "quite" or "significantly" valuable. Over 75% of respondents who found value in our services indicated these reasons: --they trust the quality of the information and services coming from cne. --cne provides them with locally relevant information. --cne allows them to learn new information. --cne helps them improve their organizations. 70% of users share the information and resources they receive with between 2 to 5 people, demonstrating cne's reach within the community. "our organization would not have been able to advance and improve as much as it has over the past five years without the informational trainings and consultation services to educate and guide our board members and volunteers. Thank you" "cne takes the guess work out of efficiently managing a nonprofit." "cne helps all of us sharpen our focus and skills as nonprofit leaders. We can become more efficient and successful organizations through the trainings and other resources." "you provide a wealth of valuable resources that nonprofits could not afford or have access to otherwise."”

“Nonprofit sector. Last year, the theme of the event was collaboration, and was a part of a cne speaker series aimed at exploring all angles of collaboration, its benefits, its pitfalls, and how to engage in it effectively and efficiently to solve complex and challenging community issues. Attendees from around the region heard guest speaker, claiborne deming, the chairman of the murphy oil corporation, share his collaborative experience founding the eldorado promise--an initiative, modeled on the kalamazoo promise, which provides guaranteed college tuition to any student graduating from the public school system in el dorado, arkansas. Program achievements: in 2013, more than 375 community leaders from the business, public, and nonprofit sectors gathered for the event, which was also featured on local television news stations. "in my twelve years volunteering throughout charlottesville and albemarle county, i have witnessed over and over how creative collaborations among our nonprofit organizations can empower our community," said last year's co-chair of the philanthropy day host committee. "it is thrilling to see the progress we are making in this direction; collaboration is good for us, it's good for our agencies, it's good for our donors, and it's good for those we serve. Last year's philanthropy day speaker, claiborne deming, reflected that."”

“And provide an informal setting for nonprofit professionals and volunteers to network among their peers, share information and hone their skills. Program achievements: cne's 2013 building block training series consisted of: 7 "brown bag lunch" trainings. Titles included: major donor cultivation, financial audits: what to consider, best practices in online fundraising, nonprofits and the affordable health care act, situational leadership, trends in philanthropy, enhancing performance reviews with 360 evaluations. All of these trainings were free for members and open to the public for a very low cost. Cne held 11 workshop trainings. Titles included: preparing for a media interview, effective website design, dealing with challenging employees, digital marketing strategy, getting the most from your fundraising events, structuring the high performance board, easy and effective nonprofit storytelling with tumblr, best practices for proposal budgeting, cultivating relationships with foundations, tools and tips for data driven fundraising, techniques for creating engaging website content. These trainings were offered at a discounted rate for members and were open to the public. "highly respect your work and the impact cne has had on non-profits in charlottesville." -nonprofit participant "thank you, and we will look forward to seeing you at another training later in the year. Also let me take the time to thank you and the staff at cne for everything you have done to help our charity to excel in the area. We appreciate each and every one of you." -sam mclawhorn, interfaith humanitarian sanctum”

“Cne serves as a cooperating collection for the foundation center giving the entire community free access to a database of more than 90,000 grant opportunities. Cne also provides a library resource center with books and periodicals germane to nonprofit management. Books include information on strategic planning, governance, nonprofit financial practices, fundraising, volunteer management, just to name a few. Books may be checked out by members. In addition, we carry periodicals that are not carried by other local libraries and are typically too expensive for other nonprofits to afford. Cne provides one on one consultation and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations by trouble-shooting or making appropriate referrals to professional consultants. Areas include strategic planning, governance issues and volunteer management.”

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