The Not-For-Profit CEO
A Survivor’s Manual
The Not-For-Profit CEO, A Survivor’s Manual was written to help executives get in touch with the basic realities of managing the not-for-profit (NFP) organization. Used by over 1,700 organizations, it is an essential field guide for new, aspiring and veteran CEOs alike.
NOTE: This book has been providing not-for-profit managers with the sound basics of guiding successful organizations since 1992 — and still working.
George Wright has distilled his 30 plus years as a professional in the NFP sector into Six Checkpoints for the successful NFP CEO:
- Managing a Democracy: The Triad: The board of directors, the volunteer corps, the staff, you must relate to all three.
- Search and Deploy: Recruitment is the key to your success. Whether board, staff, leaders, volunteers, expertise, or clout, don’t be easy on yourself, seek challengers.
- Relate, Relate, Facilitate: Once you’ve got ‘em, facilitating the volunteer process is key; you don’t want spectators.
- Dollars in, Dollars out: Forget charisma if your bottom line is out of whack; you’d better keep an eye on the out-go and increase the in-flow.
- Out and About: Don’t hibernate, get out of your chair; network, create coalitions, join appropriate groups, take you and your organization out into the community; be visible.
- Wide Angle Lens: The inspiration for organizational vision, creativity, and innovation must come from you; you are responsible for stimulating the future.
Wright has taken his NFP experiences, from program staff to CEO, mixed in failures and successes, and blended it all with the ethics and commitment of the profession. Of his chosen field, Wright says:
“To lead the NFP organization, you must be willing to assume full responsibility, while sharing your authority with others, managing effectively, being a visionary, and all the while understanding that the complexity of your job will go largely underestimated. And yet, it is probably the most rewarding field of management in America.”
The Not-For-Profit CEO, A Survivor’s Manual is a concise volume that the practicing NFP CEO will turn to again and again.
Buy this book:
The Not-For-Profit CEO, A Survivor’s Manual
Paperback ISBN 0-9632655-0-4 $11.95
C3 Publications