Transitioning from Corporate to Non-Profit - Lisa Lalande

In this episode of Talking with Charities, Lisa Lalande, CEO of LIFT Philanthropy Partners, talks about her experience and insight transitioning from a corporate environment to the non-profit sector.

Synopsis:
Shifting from the corporate sector to the social sector was not easy for Lisa Lalande. Leaving behind a world focused entirely on the bottom line - where efficiency, focus, and discipline are second nature, to a passion driven environment requires an entire shift in career mentality. The social sector although staffed with high performing, dedicated teams often lacks the resources, network, and structure encompassed by the corporate sector. When the mindset remains, lets do this because it is the right thing to do, it can be tough to adjust your corporate frame of mind to an ultimately passion driven environment.

Working With A Non-Profit Board - Dave Addison

In this episode of Talking with Charities, Dave Addison, Executive Director of Toronto City Mission, shares his experience and advice on interacting with a board effectively in the non-profit sector.

His three keys to working effectively with a board are:

1. understand the roles and expectations of members, 
2. communicate effectively with the board, and
3. know how to use in camera sessions with a board effectively. 

Knowing who is responsible for a task or what expectations the board has on the executive director will ensure board meetings are successful and constructive. Sometimes when communicating with a board its important to make a decision between knowing when to involve or when to inform the board of a decision. Another way this is put is by putting a decision or issue through a review process including executive advisors or in camera sessions. For example, the Toronto City Mission board will have in camera session during a meeting. Then after the in camera session, they will discuss openly the important issues with the executive director. This leads to open, constructive discussions with real results.

How Charities Should Move Forward

In this instalment of Charity Executive TV, David Hutchinson provides insightful advice for how charities and non-profit organizations should move forward with hiring and executing their missions in the future.

For a charity to be successful in the future, their mission be done with proper measures and assessments. The opportunities needs to be opened to talented people from other sectors that have the skills to assume the executive roles but perhaps have never done it there. And then these people need to be given leadership opportunities - to lead and to success, to fail and pick up the pieces - and those are going to be important aspects of charitable and non-profit growth going forward.