A Professional Association Requires a Transformative Experience

The leadership of an organization of substantial national reputation came to Coulter Nonprofit Management with chaos on their hands. Inside a frighteningly short time span, a seven-figure balance surplus had been turned into a seven-figure fund balance deficit. This reversal of fortune was fueled by an array of interrelated structural and operational problems. The result? A near complete lack of staff, financial and programmatic accountability made worse by an unnecessarily cumbersome governance structure that masked poor decision-making. In a very real sense, the organization was on life support and had neither the staff nor structural integrity to restore its health.

The Challenge: The leadership of an organization of substantial national reputation came to Coulter Nonprofit Management with chaos on their hands. Inside a frighteningly short time span, a seven-figure balance surplus had been turned into a seven-figure fund balance deficit. This reversal of fortune was fueled by an array of interrelated structural and operational problems. The result? A near complete lack of staff, financial and programmatic accountability made worse by an unnecessarily cumbersome governance structure that masked poor decision-making. In a very real sense, the organization was on life support and had neither the staff nor structural integrity to restore its health.

Coulter Nonprofit Management’s Response: Clearly, intelligent and immediate action was required. First, Coulter Nonprofit Management gained the assurance that the volunteer leaders understood the profound change required for a turnaround. This meant a commitment on the part of the volunteer leaders to undertake a “cultural transformation,” and in that process, create an organizational structure that would instill a partnership between the leadership and Coulter Nonprofit Management, which could govern with knowledge, trust and agility. On this foundation, Coulter Nonprofit Management and the leadership collaborated in the restoration of the operational integrity of internal systems, including financial reporting processes. This exposed a series of programs that were both loss leaders and untrue to the organizational vision. Those programs were jettisoned. After systems restoration, we focused on building (and rebuilding) a narrow array of programs that were most central to the organizational vision. Simultaneously, we began to restore confidence among the community of external stakeholders who were chiefly responsible for the association’s revenue flow, communicating with them with honesty and optimism.

The Result: In a two-year span, the association’s deficit has been retired and replaced by an enviable surplus. Internal systems have not only been restored, they have been refined and improved. Program value has measurably increased. External stakeholder confidence has been bolstered, and new funding sources are emerging. Perhaps most important, however, the organization is in the midst of a cultural transformation that will provide volunteer leaders both the will and the means to govern with knowledge, trust and agility.