The Nonprofit Guru of Westchester

Jennifer Flowers has survived multiple recessions and other roadblocks en route to founding her breakthrough niche business, Accreditation Guru, Inc.

Photos by Stefan Radtke

In 2009, Jennifer Flowers was working in Lower Manhattan, at the Council on Accreditation, which evaluates and accredits for-profits, nonprofits, and government entities. When she found herself abruptly laid off from her job one fall morning, she made a large placard about her plight and headed over to nearby Federal Hall, where President Obama was due to give a speech about the economy.

Fortunately, she was positioned directly across from a bored press corps, which had been shut out of any Obama interaction that day. Without a president to interview, why not check out the lady with the big sign?

Sure enough, Flowers, who was among one-fifth of the staff who were laid off that mid-recession morning at the council, landed in the pages of the New York Post a couple of days later, with a Reuters photo of her and an upraised sign, which read: “LAID OFF TODAY 9:30 A.M. HIRE ME.” Other outlets ran the photo, as well, and MSNBC did a short video of her as part of a “Faces of the Recession” segment.

“The fact is, I needed to do something,” Flowers told the Post. “I didn’t want to just go home. I stayed out there and did something that made me feel productive.”

It’s a good story. It’s also a window into who Flowers is and how she operates — dynamic, take-charge, no-nonsense, yet good-natured, with a sense of humor.

Within months, Flowers was firmly back on her feet and working for herself as the founder and CEO of Accreditation Guru, Inc. She has created an entirely new business model and niche service in the nonprofit world that helps human-service groups navigate the rigorous and time-consuming accreditation process. Ten years later, Accreditation Guru has worked with more than 200 clients across the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and Saudi Arabia.

In the process, Flowers has emerged as a trusted and nationally recognized expert in the complicated, mandate-heavy field of accreditation, which offers
human-service organizations professional recognition for meeting specific quality standards in how they deliver services. “I’m the go-to accreditation person for a number of national organizations,” Flowers says. “I work with terrific people, and this is doing what I love, making a real impact. It’s very rewarding work.”

To earn accreditation, an organization must go through an objective review by an independent accrediting body. Once they earn accreditation, it means they have gone beyond minimum licensing standards into a higher realm. For example, if a group home or foster-care agency were striving to earn national accreditation from CARF, COA, or The Joint Commission, it would need to not only write/revise hundreds of policies, procedures, and plans, but also have the processes behind these documents to fully be in compliance with the accreditation standards. Flowers and her team are skilled at navigating that typically arcane and painstaking process of procedural and documentary compliance while providing long-term strategic planning and training, including techniques for developing an effective board of directors and leadership team. To these ends, Accreditation Guru runs boot camps and workshops, creates mock surveys, and performs on-site facilities reviews.

“I’ve been able to grow my business at a rate of 20 percent a year, and I want to keep doing that. I love what I do.”

—Jennifer Flowers, Founder & CEO, Accreditation Guru

In addition to deriving great satisfaction from working for herself, Flowers — who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and earned a bachelor’s in sociology from UC Berkley — says she is also proud that most of her clients are nonprofits that “do a lot of good in the world,” in fields like education, residential treatment, foster care and adoption, and behavioral healthcare. In Westchester, her clients include Valhalla-based Cardinal McCloskey Community Services and The Arc Westchester, a Hawthorne-based nonprofit that supports people with developmental disabilities.

“These nonprofits perform vital services for families in need,” Flowers says. “They are a fabulously dedicated group [who are] not in it for the money. Our role is to help these organizations become more effective,” she says. “What we do really is transformative.”

In addition to her daily responsibilities, Flowers serves on the board of directors of the Northeast STEM Starter Academy in Mount Vernon and is co-chair of Westchester Companies for Kids, which is affiliated with the Westchester Children’s Association. She’s also active in the Business Council of Westchester, as both a volunteer ambassador and as creator-moderator of the popular BCW panel discussion titled “Corporate Social Responsibility Done Right.” In 2015, Flowers won Ambassador of the Year honors from the BCW.

“Jennifer has used her business acumen and connections to help new members maximize their memberships and is the go-to person when there are questions about nonprofit governance and corporate responsibility,” says BCW president/CEO Dr. Marsha Gordon, who adds that Flowers “is widely respected within the Westchester business community.”

Since her company’s inception, Flowers has expanded her team to include one full-time employee, one part-time employee, and 12 accreditation consultants who are scattered across the country “from Florida to Alaska,” she says. “Each one works as an independent contractor, specializing in one or two types of accreditation. We keep adding them on as the company grows.”

Though Flowers asserts that the company culture is “collaborative and all about excellence,” she is quick to point out that she and her crew have a lot of fun, too.

“I know what [Jennifer] wants from me, but how I get the job done is really up to me,” says accreditation consultant Carol Smith, who joined the company in 2016. “She definitely understands that she is working with long-term professionals,” adding that even though Flowers is “really enthusiastic, really smart, and very outgoing,” she is also “very serious and thoughtful about things. There is a lot of respect there.”

Like many businesspeople with a national and international roster of clients, travel eats up a large chunk of Flowers’ schedule. She flies regularly to attend about two dozen state and national conferences a year, and occasionally to meet with clients and her team. The good news about all that travel is that she doesn’t need a corner office — or really much of an office at all in the traditional sense. Instead, she has opted for a stripped-down office at Carr Workplaces on Mamaroneck Avenue in Harrison that she shares with a colleague to complement her home office.

Along with travel, public speaking in front of large groups has become a big part of her job, which is fine with her. “I was good at public speaking even in grade school,” Flowers says. That comfort level likely came in quite handy in 2018, when she was invited to speak at the the National Children’s Alliance in Washington, DC and to the Child Welfare Strategy Group of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, MD on the topic of accreditation under the Family First Prevention Services Act. Last year, Flowers had some 20 speaking engagements, all over the U.S., on her calendar.

Jennifer Flowers has parlayed her knowledge of nonprofit accreditation into a thriving business helping human-service groups navigate the accreditation process.

Supplementing her A-game communications skills, Flowers also speaks Spanish, having spent her junior year of college at the University of Salamanca in Spain. That linguistic skillset was enhanced during her stint in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica, from 1993 to 1995. At the time, she was part of the Small-Business Development Program, stationed in Ciudad Quesada, a few hours north of San Jose. “I worked with a local tourism board and a women’s collective artisan group, among others,” Flowers says.

Just one year before she headed off to Costa Rica and the Peace Corps, she’d earned her MBA in international management from Thunderbird School of Global Management, in Glendale, AZ — smack in the middle of another recession. “It was a bit of ‘Which comes first… a good job or the Peace Corps?’” she recalls. “The Peace Corps won.”

Flowers arrived in New York from San Francisco in the fall of 2001, right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Despite it being an awful time to be in the city, she fell in love with New York and knew she was here to stay. She made her way to Westchester in 2007 and now resides in a three-bedroom Tudor in Mamaroneck that’s exactly eight minutes from her office.

To stay in shape and get her mind off work, Flowers is a regular at the Life Time fitness club in Harrison. When it snows, you’ll find her on cross-country skis or snowshoes at Saxon Woods Golf Course in Scarsdale or a local park with groomed trails. When the big flakes come, however, she heads to Fahnestock Winter Park in Putnam County.

By the way, if Jennifer’s name sounds familiar, you can thank Chappaqua’s Bill Clinton for that. The other Flowers, Gennifer, gained notoriety by alleging a longtime affair with the president and nearly bringing down Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. This Jennifer Flowers laughs it off easily, enjoying the puzzled looks on people’s faces when they are first introduced. “The silver lining is that no one forgets my name,” she says.

Bill Cary is a freelance writer who splits his time between an apartment in Hell’s Kitchen and an old chicken farm in the Ulster County hamlet of Stone Ridge.

Accreditation Guru Hires Director of Behavioral Health Marketing

Accreditation Guru proudly welcomes Peggy Lavin, LCSW as the new Director of Behavioral Health Marketing. In this position, Peggy will work with founder and CEO, Jennifer Flowers, on the fulfillment of strategic marketing goals within the behavioral health and addiction recovery arenas.

Peggy brings to the Accreditation Guru team more than 45 years of administrative, business development and clinical experience in a variety of for-profit and nonprofit behavioral health and human service organizations.

Peggy began her professional career as a correctional counselor in a residential facility run by the Illinois Department of Corrections, Juvenile Division. She then worked as an intake coordinator for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

After obtaining her MSW she became the director of social work at Camelot Care Centers, a private agency based in Illinois that provides residential treatment to children and adolescents. For almost twenty years at Camelot, Peggy held a variety of clinical and administrative positions including clinical director, operations director, and chief accreditation and compliance officer.

In addition to performing clinical work, she helped Camelot conform to state licensing requirements, achieving and maintaining accreditation for behavioral health care with The Joint Commission along with the expansion and successful implementation of business development initiatives and strategic plannings.

After supervising the achievement and maintenance of accreditation requirements for programs in all states for Camelot, she then moved to The Joint Commission as Associate Director of the organization’s behavioral health care accreditation surveyor cadre. She then served as Associate Director of Business Development for Behavioral Health Care Accreditation.

Peggy earned an MSW at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Jane Addams School of Social Work, and a BA in sociology and psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Illinois as well as a registered practitioner in the National Practitioners Data Bank.

Welcome to the team, Peggy!

You may reach Peggy via email at Peggy@AccreditationGuru.com.

Wisdom and Value in Strategic Planning

By Dave Branding, PhD

One of my absolute favorite days of the work year calendar is strategic planning. I look forward to this special opportunity when key leaders come together and focus. We scan the environment, assess our positions, incorporate input, determine goals and set priorities for how we intend to perform the important work together in alignment.

Of course, strategic planning is less a day and more an ongoing, evolving process that often includes an identifiable day when teams actively plan together. From my position as a CEO, the value is having key leaders and governing bodies hear the same information and build consensus regarding the way forward.

Imagine YOUR key stakeholders forecasting, projecting and designing elements of a future together. It’s a joy to have teams listen intently, brainstorm and contribute insights in a safe, positive setting. The goal is to find a collective, coherent way forward despite operating in risk-bearing, fiscally challenging and often ambiguous environments. How empowering!

The strategic plan, when thoughtfully developed, might be the single greatest gift that boards and leadership teams can give each other and ultimately to the community served.

Providing a concise framework for strategic planning, accreditation standards emphasize what should be considered in the ongoing planning process, how the plan itself is to be developed, what it must include and how it is maintained and shared with others.

In my experience as a CARF surveyor, one frequently missed standard is ensuring that the plan reflects financial positioning at the time it’s drafted and at projected points in the future.

Organizations achieve substantial conformance by paying attention to detail in documentation and using the actual standards as an outline for the content generated by the process, which informs the resulting written plan.

The Planning Process

In our organization, planning practices have evolved over many years and are constantly being refined.  Rough outlines guiding the planning process, collected formally and informally, are written on large paper pages displayed around the room for reference by everyone.

For our first step, the leadership team and governing board meet together and we facilitate the meeting ourselves. Other organizations find it helpful to use an external facilitator.

We update everyone on the status of the existing plan, acknowledging those items that are completed , note others that are still in process and jettison the ones that will not be pursued.  We use a large electronic screen to update a simple SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis and spend most of the time brainstorming priority areas for our efforts, which are recorded on large sheets of paper.

Further discussion, reorganization and prioritization helps us solidify the plan’s rough content. In the following days, we draft a brief, concise document that is shared with the leadership team and governance board for input and revisions.

Successful Implementation

Last year, we then shared our draft goals and objectives with all 60 staff members throughout our organization and used a nominal voting process to solicit everyone’s input and document priorities.

We listed strategic opportunities on large post-it sheets around the room and everyone voted by placing stickers next to the issues they thought to be most important.  This input also factored strongly into the development of our final written plan.

Ultimately, the governing board approves the strategic plan’s final draft, which is implemented with at least twice-annual updates that are submitted to the board. This year, we are trying a Gantt chart format to more clearly specify when each element of the plan initiates and concludes.

We also seek input and feedback to strengthen our planning process for the coming year by sharing elements of the plan at key community stakeholders meetings, distributing reports to all staff members and holding regular meetings with the people we serve – tailoring content to each audience, as appropriate. Other organizations use their website to share strategic directions with a broader audience.

There is strong wisdom and incredible value in the alignment of people, ideas, resources and purposeful work that’s specified in a well-developed strategic plan, which helps us implement continuous, organization-wide quality improvement and sustainability more than any other initiative or directive.

Accreditation Guru can help you and your colleagues achieve a strategic planning process that meets your needs while conforming to accreditation standards that help your organization Prepare for Greatness! 

Dave is CEO at JAMHI Health & Wellness in Juneau, Alaska, a CARF surveyor and a consultant with Accreditation Guru.

For assistance with your strategic planning, please contact us at 212.209.0240 or email Rocio@AccreditationGuru.com.

 

Lutheran Child and Family Services Receives Council on Accreditation 2019 Innovative Service Award

The Council on Accreditation is one of the nation’s premier accrediting bodies for human service organizations. Out of 75 applicants for the agency’s prestigious 2019 Innovative Practices Award, which recognizes “successful approaches to management and service delivery practices adopted by our accredited organizations,” the Regenerations program at Lutheran Child and Family Services of Illinois received the distinction.

The program aims to get “dually-involved” youth – foster care children who are also caught up in the criminal justice systems – on the right track. In Illinois, many detained or imprisoned foster care youth remained incarcerated long after their sentences expired because the state lacked the appropriate resources to serve them.

Attesting to the program’s success, 300 participants have been released from detention or prison an average of 42 days beyond their sentences, compared with 116 days for a comparable population. Nine out of ten youth in Regenerations avoid re-incarceration and the program places 100% of its population outside of residential care – versus 37% for the comparison group. And, the program costs $118 per day per youth served as opposed to $300 to $500 a day for residential care.

Accreditation Guru spoke with Mike Bertrand, president and CEO of Lutheran Child and Family Services and a co-founder of the Regenerations program.

Accreditation Guru: How did this program get started?

Mike Bertrand: There was a large hole and an under-served population that was being dealt with in an inappropriate way. At the time in Illinois, we had an extensive amount of youth either in juvenile or adult prison being kept past their release date because there was no program or place for them to go.

AG: So you came up with specific strategies.

MB: We knew that we had expertise in the child welfare world, but we didn’t have expertise in the criminal justice or juvenile delinquency realm. So we sought partners, including Youth Advocate Programs, with more experience in the criminal justice arena around the country. From there, we did a search with the assistance of Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago to find programs that we could learn from and we couldn’t locate anything. So Chapin Hall and LCFS – in consultation with Youth Advocate Programs, as well as the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services – put our heads together and used what we felt were state-of-the-art interventions in terms of how we could achieve successful outcomes for youth.

AG: If you were to boil down the keys to success, what would they be?

MB: The culture we built in the program comes down to Never Give Up. Most of these kids are used to having promises made and then they screw up and people walk away. You can dislike the behavior but not the individual doing the behavior. It’s not like we excuse it when we have a youth re-offend or do something inappropriate, but that doesn’t devalue the person.

AG: Can this program be replicated?

MB: To be successful, you have to have a significant risk tolerance with this population because you have significant behavior that needs to be dealt with. You also need to have a strong belief in kinship care. Our success in deflecting youth from residential placement has largely relied on relatives. The most important things are having a real heart for the population and the problems that come with them, as well as having a belief in kinship care and the willingness to adhere to the code of No Rejects, No Ejects.

AG: You also license foster families.

MB: Not all youths are placed with relatives. About half are placed with licensed foster parents that we recruited and trained and take through the state’s licensing process. We make sure they have the heart and the willingness to provide a home and support for kids who are trying to go a different route. We’ve selected and recruited people for this population and we also have longstanding foster parents that we felt would be good with these youth.

AG: Regenerations provides a lot of assistance. Is some of that financial on top of counseling and other services?

MB: We create individualized services for each youth in terms of what they need. So yes, if needed, we may have to move a family out of a certain neighborhood either to avoid gang territory they need to walk through or if they’re at risk in that territory that has some gang activity and want to get out of it and avoid a peer group that may use violence. We also hire folks who know how to navigate the communities and the informal structures that exist in those communities within Chicago. If necessary, we will provide monetary assistance. We will rent a truck and have staff help move or provide a first month’s deposit if a family doesn’t have that. We have also supported work efforts. If a youth is trying to build on his or her strength, say be an auto mechanic, for example, if they have done well in a traditional structured environment and can tolerate that type of program, we’ll send them to community college. But if they cannot, we’ll go to a community resource. We’ll ask the local repair shop around corner if they’re willing to give them a chance and we’ll pay their salary for the first couple of months and if they work out, then they pick up that salary. That’s the only time we put money into the youth’s pocket, other than the allowance they’re required to receive under state standards.

AG: How long have you been accredited by COA and how has accreditation contributed to the program’s success?

MB: That’s a good question. I know we were one of the first in Illinois to be accredited but we’ll have to check [37 years]. Meeting the national standards for quality and the standards of what a human services organization that’s focused on quality should look like helps provide a yardstick and a guide in all of our programs. When we designed Regenerations, [being accredited] helped to ensure that quality people with the proper education and background, that the proper mix of professional services are in place and that the administrative standards that we have and the metrics are in place to support the staff that is doing very difficult work.

AG: The avoidance of residential care mirrors the goals of the 2018 federal Family First Prevention Services Act.

MB: We realized that residential treatment was not the appropriate services for our primary population. That is what Illinois was doing – sending every kid who came out of prisons straight into residential, but many of the kids did not have serious mental health issues that needed residential treatment. It was really more, for lack of a better term, the street behavior. So they didn’t do well in residential. In fact many of them ran away, which violated their parole and they’d go back into prison. What we did was say “let’s put them where they want to go.” We know in foster care and child welfare that when kids run away, 99% of the time we know where they go – right back to relatives or whomever they deem as their family. So Illinois would cut them off from services, but we said “let’s give them the same level of service no matter where they’re at and put them where they’re going to run away to anyway.” Any time a child can be cared for in the least restrictive environment possible, that’s what’s appropriate.

Happy Birthday FFPSA! Now in Effect, New Law is Changing Child Welfare Services

Individuals, agencies and associations in the child welfare space have been preparing for the initial implementation date of the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) even before it was signed into law in February of last year.

This act, which aims to change the face of child welfare in the United States, required implementation by October 1, 2019, unless a particular state opted to delay enforcing its provisions for up to two years. At last count, only nine states, plus the District of Columbia, are planning for early (2019) implementation of FFPSA.

For more than a year, Jennifer Flowers, CEO of Accreditation Guru, has delivered numerous presentations around the country about FFPSA’s accreditation mandate for a new category of congregate care providers: Qualified Residential Treatment Providers (QRTPs).

In addition to solo speaking appearances, she has moderated numerous panels with top administrators from the three accrediting bodies approved under FFPSA (CARF International, Council on Accreditation and The Joint Commission) at a variety of major conferences. Specifically, Jennifer has spoken for the Association of Children’s Residential Centers, Family Focused Treatment Association, Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Children’s Defense Fund, among many others.

It’s fitting that on October 1, the birthday of FFPSA’s implementation, Jennifer moderated a panel at the Texas Child Care Administrators Conference, which included panelists representing the three approved accrediting bodies as well as Kristene Blackstone, Associate Commissioner for Child Protective Services in Texas – one of the largest CPS programs in the nation. Following Jennifer’s summary of FFPSA and what it means to become a QRTP, the panel launched into a lively discussion about accreditation and the rollout of FFPSA in the State of Texas.

For more information about FFPSA, visit AG’s webpage devoted to this topic. And, for inquiries about assistance with preparing for national accreditation or for information about Jennifer Flowers speaking at your event, please contact Rocio@AccreditationGuru.com.

Why Hire a Consultant?

Individuals reach out to relatives, friends and other trusted advisors for relationship, financial or career help all the time. So why are many businesses reluctant to hire a consultant?

Some reasons for this resistance include institutional inertia, fear of seeming weak or ineffective and a lack of awareness that a different perspective can provide big dividends.

Companies that consider – or are required – to seek accreditation may think that the process is just a rubber stamp and underestimate the task ahead.

Though many boards and executives only contemplate hiring a consultant when things go south, there are many good reasons to get advice from an experienced consultant when the situation warrants.

Growing Pains

Here’s a familiar scenario in the non-profit world: the board is raising money, staff is hired and the vision is being executed. However, growing demand for services outstrips the capacity of the organization to scale up.

In other cases, the mission expands into new, related opportunities that pull non-profits into unforeseen directions.

These seem like good problems to have, but when you’re faced with an unexpected crisis or an overload of decisions to be made, having a consultant who can see through the fog and help vet options is invaluable.

Few non-profits possess the capacity to undertake their own competitive and/or market research to support decision-making, help your team develop an action plan and set goals and priorities.

Conflict Resolution

It happens all the time: two powerful individuals or factions within an organization clash over direction or policy. Is providing human services to the vulnerable enough or should the non-profit lobby for new laws to deal with the underlying issues causing the problems?

There is a reason why arbitrators, mediators and the court system exist: to serve as neutral, unbiased third-party judges to either make a decision or help develop an agreement for moving forward.

When different opinions hinder the ability of board and staff leaders to settle on priorities, paid consultants can help organizations move beyond the debate, try to develop a consensus and get back on track to fulfill the organization’s original mission. And they cost a lot less than lawyers.

Navigating the Unknown

Leadership transitions or succession issues can tear non-profits apart. This is one reason why sports teams have coaches: when the top players move on or retire, the deck has to be reshuffled. Professional facilitators can help develop a strategic plan and prepare your board and staff leadership for seamless change and determine the best path to ensure future stability.

Through the Viewfinder

When competing priorities or sudden crises emerge, consultants can help focus on the most important ways to deal with adversity. They can be tasked with developing a ranked, detailed action plan throughout the collaboration so that there’s buy-in from every level of your organization.

For help getting everyone to share goals, implement effective tactics, develop timelines and achieve measurable outcomes, consultants are in a unique position to rally the forces and foster lasting growth and sustainability.

Time Savings

When it comes to navigating the accreditation process, hiring the right consultant can save time (and money).

At Accreditation Guru, our team experts have gained valuable and actionable experience in the field. They know exactly what the accrediting bodies are looking for and how best to compile organization data and information.

But achieving accreditation is an involved process that will require your employees to spend less time on their day-to-day responsibilities. To ensure efficient time management, our consultants go beyond providing training functions and serve as sounding boards to answer questions from staff so no one is spinning their wheels or getting lost in a rabbit hole trying to figure out what the accreditation standards mean.

Rather than serve as a sign of weakness, hiring consultants marks a bold, brave move that can provide lasting benefits far beyond the immediate cost. And achieving accreditation will help increase credibility and stability. Don’t leave your destiny to chance!

To schedule a call with Jennifer Flowers for your accreditation needs, contact us at Info@AccreditationGuru.com or 212.209.0240.

Jennifer Flowers Recently Interviewed by NonProfit Pro on Effective Annual Plans

Our very own Jennifer Flowers, CEO, sat down for an interview with NonProfit PRO. In this interview, she discussed ways to best create an effective annual plan after an organization has developed its strategic plan.

Jennifer provides tips and tactics about various issues to consider, including the kind of information an agency should include in an annual plan, tips on fundraising goals, the amount of time an agency should dedicate to its annual plan and how to best incorporate unexpected grants or restricted gifts that an agency might receive midyear.

For these tips and tactics, plus more, read the article here.

How to Have a Winning Board Retreat

A well-functioning, cohesive and engaged board of directors is a crucial factor for your organization’s ability to fulfill its mission. As a nonprofit organization continues to grow in both size and significance, it is increasingly vital for board members to understand their evolving role and the importance of their contributions to successful mission fulfillment.

One way to help support your board members’ learning and engagement is to hold an annual board retreat.

The first thing to understand is that board retreats are different from regular board meetings beyond the significant impact of holding a retreat off-site in a unique location from where board meetings are normally held.

Make a Retreat Unique

A retreat is not simply a longer board meeting. The agenda for your retreat should be entirely different from your normal meeting agenda. Also, board retreats should be at least a half day – a full day is even better.

There are three key reasons for having an annual board retreat: team building, strategic planning and board development/education (including fundraising). Holding a retreat allows your board time to regroup, reconnect and recharge.

1. Team Building

Although you may know your board members, they may not know one another all that well. Most people come into a board meeting, sit in the same seat where they always sit, go through the meeting and then leave. How are they expected to get to know one another if there is no time for socializing and team building?

Time needs to be spent on encouraging board members to know one another better and begin to develop personal ties. I have known people who served on the same board for more than five years and never realized that their kids played on the same sports team and they knew many of the same people until I facilitated their board retreat and we engaged in an interactive exercise. The experience provided new connections and let them relate on another level.

Successful board retreats should also include a “mission moment,” where you remind people why they serve on the board. It might be a short video or presentation by a staff member or a testimonial by someone served by the organization. You want to re-engage people with personal stories of mission impact and how their work as board members support mission fulfillment.

2. Strategic Planning

An annual board retreat is the ideal time to advise the board of progress made and/or the difficulties faced when trying to achieve strategic goals. Be realistic, however – they are there to help you make difficult decisions.

It might also be a time to review and revise your strategic plan, if necessary.

If you don’t have a strategic plan or if your mission and vision need to be updated, you can set the stage and gain input along with the necessary buy-in to the process. An outside facilitator can be especially useful here if you are inexperienced in developing strategic plans or revising mission statements.

3. Board Development and Education (Including Fundraising)

If your board is an EXCEPTIONAL board, consider yourself lucky! Many nonprofits I speak with, however, have room for improvement (sometimes a lot of room!) before their board of directors is fully engaged.

A retreat is the perfect time to provide education and discuss board development topics with your board members.

Start by reviewing the roles and responsibilities of your board members. Everyone should be clear about the expectations of board members by the organization and they, in turn, need to be honest about their ability and willingness to meet these expectations. You may ask your board members to sign a form acknowledging their roles and responsibilities as a way of recommitting to the organization for the coming year.

Do you have a board that tends to overstep its boundaries? Perhaps you can participate in an exercise that focuses on responsibilities of board members as they relate to nonprofit leadership and staff.

Many nonprofits expect their board members to be actively involved in fundraising. However, few administrators take the time to actually train their board in how to be effective fundraisers. And if you aren’t training them, who is?

Use your retreat to re-engage your board members in fundraising. Provide exercises and scenarios to help them get over their fear of fundraising and help them learn from one another. Also, explore with them ways that the board can be involved in fundraising beyond making “the big ask” (more on this next month).

Benefits of Holding a Retreat Off-Site

A board retreat should take place away from the site of daily business, if possible. This provides a different perspective and going to a new location helps to generate creative and strategic thinking among the group.

Whenever I facilitate a retreat, I push hard to have it held off-site. When there has been resistance, it is inevitably because of cost. However, you don’t need to spend a lot of money on a fancy retreat location. Perhaps one of your board members has an office with a spacious meeting room you could use. Or you could approach the bankers and attorneys who service your organization (whom you are already paying via their fees) and ask them to use that lovely board room that is going unused. They might even offer to donate lunch for the retreat. Remember, it never hurts to ask.

Pros and Cons of Hiring a Board Retreat Facilitator

The only downside of hiring an outside facilitator is the cost. That’s it. However, if you approach this as an investment in your board and, ultimately in mission fulfillment, then it is well worth the expense.

The benefits of hiring a consultant as a facilitator include providing expertise and professionalism to your retreat. An experienced facilitator can be an invaluable resource in retreat planning and execution.

They ensure that retreats are efficient and effective, hold workshops and exercises that help you reach your goals and elevate the event’s importance.

Facilitators who are unencumbered by existing politics can provide a unique perspective, guide discussions and decision making. They also help to develop a relevant agenda, facilitate group activities and keep the retreat on schedule.

Conclusion

There are many ways to design a board retreat, but be sure that it is well planned and has realistic and meaningful objectives. Getting full commitment from the board and executive leadership is key.

Don’t forget to allow time for informal interactions among board members. They don’t often have time to connect and foster relationships; a retreat is a prime opportunity to do so.

Wishing you all the best for your board retreat and to having an exceptional, engaged board of directors!

For more information on board retreats, contact us at Info@AccreditationGuru.com or 212.209.0240.

Team Member Highlight – Bobbie Lison

Bobbie has been a peer surveyor and team leader at the Council on Accreditation for more than ten years. She has reviewed a variety of agencies, including nonprofit, religious and military organizations.

Her areas of concentration include, but are not limited to, Performance and Quality Improvement (PQI) programs and Financial Education and Counseling Services (FEC).

Since 2000, she has served as operations manager, program manager and PQI chair for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, where she led the agency through two successful re-accreditations. She also sits on several local boards and committees.

Bobbie believes that earning and maintaining accreditation allows agencies to affirm what they are doing well and offers organizations the opportunity to strengthen their services through nationally accepted best practices.

Outside of her work, Bobbie enjoys being with family, running marathons and embarking on new adventures. Her family consists of her daughter, Tina, two sons, Colin and McKenzie. She has an amazing son-in-law, Kevin, and a granddaughter, Annika, who has stolen her heart.

Bobbie is fortunate to enjoy travel through work and when doing so, she makes it a point to challenge herself by trying things outside of her comfort zone. She has surfed, paddle boarded, climbed mountains, zip-lined, flown in an gyro-copter and participated in disaster responses.

Bobbie shares this quote: “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde

We are fortunate to have Bobbie as an AG team member.

EAGLE Recognized now as an Approved Accreditor for QRTPs Under the Family First Prevention Services Act

On May 15, it was announced that EAGLE Accreditation Program is recognized by the Department of Health and Human Services as an approved accreditor for Qualified Residential Treatment Programs (QRTPs) under the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA). As we have discussed here, FFPSA, which passed in February 2018, allows federal funds to be spent on preventative services to help keep families together and also restricts funding on congregate care or group homes for children and youth who require removal from their families. In part, FFPSA mandates that all residential treatment providers convert to QRTPs, a new licensing category, in order to be eligible for reimbursement through Title IV-E foster care funds after the first two weeks of child placement.

One of the requirements to become a QRTP is to be accredited by CARF, COA, The Joint Commission and now, for the first time, EAGLE Accreditation.

EAGLE, which stands for Educational Assessment Guidelines Leading toward Excellence, is the only faith-based accrediting body in the country. It focuses on ministries serving older adults, children, youth and families, and those with developmental disabilities with emphasis on excellence, quality and how applicant organizations incorporate their Christian mission, religious heritage and values throughout the organization and its daily operations. EAGLE accreditation has provided an option for faith-based organizations since 1984.

The EAGLE Accreditation Program is operated by the United Methodist Association of Health and Welfare Ministries (UMA).

“We are proud of this recognition for EAGLE,” said Mary Kemper, president and CEO of UMA. “As an accreditor of faith-based organizations for more than 40 years, EAGLE has a solid history of promoting excellence with the added focus on organizations’ faith-based mission, vision and values.”

For questions about EAGLE or other accrediting bodies and for assistance preparing your organization to become a Qualified Residential Treatment Program, please contact Accreditation Guru at Info@AccreditationGuru.com.

For more information about FFPSA, visit our FFPSA Resource Page and blog.

For full press release click here.