If you are a non-profit founder, you might be wondering what your role is or should be after
you've started the nonprofit and things are up and running. It's a common question and one that
mystifies many founders. So, in this video, I'm going to talk about some of the possible roles
that founders can play in the non-profits that they start or help start. Once again, I'm Amber
Melanie Smith. I am a non-profit founder myself and the executive director of the nonprofit that
I started. I make these videos here on youtube to help other folks who might be on some kind of
social impact journey - whether that is starting a non-profit or social enterprise, or just trying
to do some good volunteering or helpful service out there in the world. I really hope that you
find this video helpful. Don't forget to like the video, and subscribe to my channel for more videos
on these topics. And if you need a little extra support or guidance definitely check
out my website, FoundertoFullTime.com where I now have not one but two online trainings up there.
The first one's focused on starting a non-profit and the process involved in that, and the second
one is focused on fundraising and how to develop a fundraising strategy unique to your organization.
Okay, let's get into today's topic. So one common misconception that I hear often is that
the founder of the nonprofit is the owner of the nonprofit when in fact the way nonprofits
are structured and I'm specifically here talking about how they are structured in the united states
nobody technically owns a non-profit not even the founder and this is because the way non-profits
are structured in the united states in order to get that tax-exempt status that makes donations
to them tax-exempt and makes them not have to pay certain types of taxes, etc. they have to be set
up as a non-commercial entity that has a public serving mission nonprofits are not set up to
generate profits for stakeholders like a company nor can nonprofits be sold like a company could be
to help grasp this concept a little further it's interesting to think of a comparison between
nonprofits and government for example so nobody owns the us government instead it is governed and
led by people that we elect to do that for us and in non-profits the organization is governed and
led by elected board of directors members they can't have staff but the board of directors is
the entity that is voting on policy and strategy for the organization so hopefully that has set
up some context and groundwork for understanding the possible roles that a nonprofit founder could
play since the founder is not the owner of the non-profit and in fact nobody is the owner of
the non-profit what roles does that leave for a non-profit founder to play in the organization
that they helped start i'm going to outline three possible directions that they can go in
in this video so let's go the first possible role that a non-profit founder can play in the
organization that they start is as a voting board member now in most cases the founder is a board
of directors member when things are first getting started when the paperwork to become an official
nonprofit is being drawn up etc they're one of those founding board members but after all of that
after the organization is established and things are up and running perhaps years later what role
can the founder play then do they still want to play a board of directors role if a founder stays
on the board rather than taking on some different role for the organization or i guess leaving the
organization entirely if that's what they want to do if they're still on the board it might be
common for them to serve on the board's executive committee and possibly serve as chairperson
or president of the board it's like the the leader of the board so what does this look like day to
day like what would a founder be doing in this role so when nonprofits are first starting out a
founder might be involved in some of the following activities recruiting and onboarding other new
board members conducting needs assessments in the community to validate the nonprofit's mission
or concept developing the nonprofit's first business plan alongside the other board members
coming up with a budget for the first couple of years developing the first strategic goals for
the organization raising the initial funds to cover the cost of the nonprofit's launch
leading the effort to complete and file that official nonprofit paperwork they talked about if
they are the board chairperson or president they might also be involved in developing the board's
meeting agendas and leading the meetings so then after the organization is up and running
if the founder is staying on as a board member what are some of the
typical activities that they would undertake as an ongoing board member at this point the
founder is operating kind of like just a typical board member they would do things like helping
develop and set the ongoing or long-term strategy for the organization developing strategic plans
every couple of years perhaps developing and refining the organization's annual budget every
year and as the organization grows possibly if the organization determines it needs paid staff would
help oversee the process of hiring interviewing recruiting that first paid staff member who might
be an executive director or other staff members bringing them on and managing that hiring process
and determining how much that person will be paid or those people will be paid okay so the second
possible role a founder of a non-profit might play in the organization that they helped start is as a
volunteer in some cases a founder just might not have any interest in the governing side of things
or no interest in taking a very active role in the organization perhaps they're a serial entrepreneur
and they just like the process of starting things up and then letting them go there could be any
number of reasons that a founder might choose to just play the role of a non-voting volunteer in
this case so as a non-voting volunteer someone who still cares about the cause but doesn't want to
lead the effort here's what that might look like for them as we sort of covered a volunteer who is
not serving on the board of directors that means that they don't have a vote in the organization's
policies strategy their budget what direction they go in even if they have opinions at that point
they're not on the board and they no longer have a vote they can help serve the cause in other ways
but voting on the board is not going to be one of them so while this means that that volunteer
founder no longer has the power or influence or voting ability that board members have it also
means they don't have the responsibility or a liability and for some folks that's totally
fine with them now the third common role that founders of a non-profit could play is as the
executive director of the non-profit that they started now when i'm talking about an executive
director position here i'm typically talking about a paid leadership staff role with the organization
oftentimes this position does not have a vote on the board whether they are founder or not and they
must avoid conflicts of interest so they cannot even if they do have a vote they cannot influence
or vote for anything that directly affects them so a little bit more about what i mean by this
because this is a common question i get from folks is that if a founder wants to become paid staff
for the nonprofit that they started whether that's executive director or some other paid staff role
the board of directors has to be the one to vote whether or not to hire them and what their salary
should be and the reason for that is that you have to avoid conflicts of interest when you
have an established non-profit and a conflict of interest is when someone might be at risk of
personally benefiting or having undue or unfair influence over the organization so they have to
recuse themselves from votes or situations in which they would have influence over a situation
like that so in this case the founder cannot vote to hire themselves nor can they vote what their
salary would be the board has to do that and once the founder is hired by the board of directors
to be the executive director in this case the board of directors then becomes essentially who
the founder reports to as executive director the founder might be responsible for several things
mostly the executive director it's in the title executive execute on the organization's
mission day-to-day this could mean leading the organization's programs running its major projects
conducting outreach for the organization basically bringing the organization's public serving mission
to life through the day-to-day activities of the organization the executive director also needs
to provide updates and reports to the board of directors that's on the organization's financial
status it's progress towards achieving the goals of its programs and its charitable mission
and all of that good stuff the executive director is also helping develop the strategic vision and
strategic plan for the organization so what will the organization's goals be in
one year or three years or five years and what is the action plan to get to reach those goals
the executive director also will help with developing the organization's annual budget which
the board of directors then votes on and providing explanations for the recommendations the director
has put in the budget suggestions that they've offered the board the executive director also
drives a lot of the organization's fundraising efforts of course with the board's help and a lot
more the executive director position is a big role they often wear many hats especially in newer or
smaller organizations if you're interested in learning more what an executive director does
definitely check out my other video it's called what does an executive director do exactly it
outlines all of the major aspects of the role i'd love to hear from you are you a non-profit
founder or aspiring non-profit founder or in some other type of leadership position at a non-profit
organization and what role or roles are you playing or do you hope to play in the nonprofit
share in the comments below i'd love to kind of see what a variety of positions we have watching
the channel and as i mentioned before if you need a little bit of extra help starting or growing or
developing a fundraising plan for a non-profit check out my website founder to fulltime.com
one last thing i have this group on facebook it's called change the world or bust we've got
i wanna say maybe two thousand i don't know it's it's a lot of people now from all over the world
it's super cool all with a goal of changing the world or making an impact or improving
their community in some way whether it's through starting a non-profit or some other project and
it's just a really cool group so come on by come check us out and come have a conversation with us
once again i'm amber melanie smith thanks so much for watching and i hope to see you next time
you