It is really a red letter day on the calendar. I can blog about something that I actually have real, honest to god, experience in.
Most of my professional career has been spent in the management of not for profit organizations. There are two basic types.
One type is the ‘professional association’ where doctors, plumbers, massage therapists get together to advance their professional or career before governments and/or the public. Hence we have the Electrical Contractors Association, Canadian Dental Association and so on.
Members of these professional associations know that running association is very different work from what they themselves do so members will, by and large, hire professionals experienced in managing associations. Working for these kind oforganizations is a snap. The Boards set the policy and the goals of the organization and if the professionals hired to carry out that mandate can’t do the job, they’re fired and someone who can do the job is hired. Everyone knows where they stand. All very simple, cut and dried, and to the point.
The second type of group is charities. Charities come in two major types: causes and diseases. Causal Charities attract the committed and the passionate. People join them because they BELIEVE in the ’cause,’ whatever it happens to be. Disease charities on the other hand attract those who have been directly or indirectly affected by a particular disease such as breat cancer or schizophrenia.
