Board Governance Boot Camp
Spring 2025 Series: April 2, 9, 16, & 23
Four half-day sessions, 9am – 11:30am. Via Zoom.
Nonprofit board members play a vital role in enriching and governing organizations with their unique expertise, connections, and unwavering passion for the cause. While they may not always start with extensive experience in nonprofit fundraising or governance, they bring invaluable skills and perspectives that can elevate the organization to new heights.
At CVNL, we understand the immense potential of strong, dynamic boards and their critical importance to the health and success of an organization. That’s why we’ve designed a four-part series on board governance, led by CVNL’s Linda Jacobs, CEO, and Tom Hayashi, Chief Capacity Building Officer.
This series is dedicated to helping organizations identify and build upon their board’s strengths while providing the essential training and resources needed to enhance their leadership capabilities.
Covering everything from foundational principles to advanced performance metrics, these sessions are crafted to empower your nonprofit’s most dedicated advocates and allies, ensuring they are fully equipped to drive impactful change.
Who should attend:
This series is ideal for nonprofit Executive Directors/CEOs and nonprofit board members. Board chairs and those serving in an officer position, or are thinking of doing so, will find the sessions particularly useful.
CVNL is pleased to offer partial scholarships to Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and under-represented individuals who are nonprofit staff or volunteers serving in Marin, Napa, Sonoma, and Solano Counties.
These scholarships are made available by generous grants from the Peter A., and Vernice H. Gasser Foundation, the Community Foundation of Sonoma County, the Solano Community Foundation, Marin Community Foundation, and U.S. Bank. For more information on scholarships, please contact us at learning@cvnl.org.
These scholarships are made available by generous grants from the Peter A., and Vernice H. Gasser Foundation, the Community Foundation of Sonoma County, the Solano Community Foundation, Marin Community Foundation, and U.S. Bank. For more information on scholarships, please contact us at learning@cvnl.org.
Program Details
- Four half-day sessions via Zoom.
- Register by March 5 for the Early Bird discount of 20% off tuition.
- Tuition: Full series $525 for CVNL members; $600 for non-members.
- Tuition discounts: 10% discount for groups of 3 or organizations with budget size under $750K.
- Tuition includes: All materials, including handouts and additional web resources.
- Limited to 30 people.
- Registration deadline: April 1.
- BIPOC scholarship available for eligible participants who are CVNL members serving Marin, Napa, Sonoma, and Solano counties.
- CVNL Certificate of Completion awarded to participants who complete course requirements.
Schedule
This session provides a solid foundation to deepen understanding of nonprofit governance and how to better align the work of the board to heighten engagement and maximize impact. The focus of this course is on the roles and responsibilities of individual board members and the collective board. Session will cover:
- Define the roles and responsibilities of board members
- Differentiate between operational and governance decisions
- Apply practices that build effective boards in the areas of structure, role clarity, team dynamic and board continuity
Without a strong structure, boards can fall prey to a whole host of dysfunctions, including wasted time, unfocused meetings, and lack of strategic engagement. This course will dive deeper into specific structures and assessment practices that strengthen nonprofit boards. Session will cover:
- Committess, task teams and advisory council structures and functions
- Running productive board meetings
- Board and Chief Executive Assessment
Given the board’s tremendous responsibility and decision-making power and the length of most board member’s tenures, making sure you have the right composition of leaders on your board is essential. In this course, we will look at ways nonprofits can “get the right people around the table” and keep them engaged through ongoing development and evaluation. Session will cover:
- Board composition and needs
- Recruitment and cultivation
- Process for electing, and orienting new board members
- Approaches to ongoing training and development
- Evaluating board performance – key metrics and dashboards
While fundraising is one of the main roles that nonprofit board members play, it is often one that many people are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with. We will craft a training that includes the psychology of fundraising, common myths and basic truths, fundraising best practices, and how nonprofit board and staff can work as partners to achieve fundraising goals. This training will be interactive and will include time for participants to practice using new information and approaches through role play scenarios. Session includes:
- Engaging and actionable training on board fundraising
- Expert guidance on questions/scenarios specific to your organization as part of the training, and a workbook of related information and resources.
Cancellation policy: If plans change and you are no longer able to attend, we will transfer your enrollment and payment to the next program cycle. Funds must be applied and used within a 6 (six) month period. We do not offer refunds.
Program Faculty
Tom L. Hayashi, MS Ed, PhD, CMC®️, CFRE, SHRM-SCP, ACC
Chief Capacity Officer, CVNL
Tom comes to CVNL with over 20 years of fundraising, senior management, and consulting experience which represents direct engagements with over 100 organizations on an array of capacity-building projects and programming. Read more.
Linda Jacobs, CEO, CVNL
With over 40 years of combined executive and nonprofit management experience, Linda—a self-proclaimed “governance nerd”—regularly presents on key issues and trends in the nonprofit sector and provides board consulting to hundreds of nonprofit leaders. Read more.
Sponsored in part by:
If you have any questions about Board Governance Bootcamp or other CVNL training opportunities, contact:
Tom Hayashi at thayashi@cvnl.org