I've been working with nonprofit boards for a long time. I write about them, I talk about them on the podcast, and I've observed enough board meetings (good ones and frustrating ones) to develop some strong opinions about what makes the difference between a board that thrives versus one that just abides.

One thing I keep coming back to: boards rarely practice. Anything. They show up, they govern, they vote, they leave. But the skills that make a board genuinely effective: the ability to think together, to stress-test assumptions, to surface disagreement productively, those skills don't develop on their own. They take repetition. They require the occasional, structured exercise where the stakes are low and the learning environment is safe.

So I built a structured, no-stakes exercise to help boards rehearse two, specific skills correlated with nonprofit success. 

I want to play-test it. And I'm looking for the right organization to try it.

What I'm Offering

I'm offering to run this exercise with a local (Atlanta) nonprofit board, at no charge. No agenda beyond the exercise itself. No sales pitch. Just a half-hour at the top of your next meeting, which would include time for an honest conversation afterward about how it went.

The only requirements: your organization needs to be a 501(c)(3) in Atlanta with an active board of directors. That's it.

If you want to check me out first, I run the Nonprofit Snapshot consultancy and I produce the Nonprofit SnapCast podcast. I've spent a lot of time learning and teaching about what makes boards work well. This exercise comes from those experiences.

Contact Me

Find the Nonprofit Snapshot on LinkedIn and drop me a message there. 

I'm genuinely curious to see how this lands in a real room. I think you might be too.

Mickey Desai runs Nonprofit Snapshot and produces the Nonprofit SnapCast podcast.