December 14th, 2009 by admin

Simone P. Joyaux, ACFRE, Joyaux Associates

One of my pet peeves: A staff who does not adequately enable board members and other volunteers to function effectively.

Fundraisers complain about board members who don’t help fundraise. Executive Directors complain about poor governance. Look in the mirror, I say! In general, board members fundraising and board members governing are only as good as they are enabled to be. And enabling is the staff’s job.

Enabling is the process of empowering others. Enabling means giving people the wherewithal, opportunity, and adequate power to act. When you empower someone, you distribute and share your own power. And power shared is multiplied.

Enabling encourages participation, shares responsibility and authority, enhances the self-worth of others, and energizes everyone in the organization. Enabling produces the best performance from individuals and groups. And there’s another result: Enabling allows your volunteers to succeed. Then those volunteers will stick around and even do more.  MORE . . .

Boards, Volunteers