Holy Cow! What Every Board Member Should Know About their Organization

The success of every nonprofit organization depends on the strength of their board. Most board members do not know their basic duties and responsibilities. This workshop is designed to provide an in depth overview of essential requirements for boards of directors, which includes legal duties and responsibilities, what makes a good board, understanding the nonprofit organization, conflict of interest, and many things that directors take for granted. This interactive workshop is guaranteed to be insightful and informative, with a dash of humor. Reference materials will be provided.

What is Community Engagement?

It can be challenging to define the word “community.” On the one hand, it seems very complex, but on the other, it seems quite simple. Ngage NM defines the term “community” broadly.

Through the process of community engagement, we bring together individuals with a common cause that benefits the whole. The community of Doña Ana County is very diverse with differences ranging from culture and language to education and experiences. Community engagement necessitates self-awareness and the ability to embrace each other’s differences rather than condemn them. We must be able to step out of our comfort zones and break down barriers for us to work together. Community engagement involves investing energy and time into building relationships – sometimes with one individual at a time – and working collaboratively toward common goals.

Most importantly, community engagement requires respect, effort, and love – love for ourselves, our city, our county, and our people. It requires love for the border, for agriculture, for the desert and the mountains – for everything that comes together to make our community unique.

Collective Impact

Collective Impact is a process that involves everyone in the community- local businesses, government, educational institutions (both public & private as well as higher education), the philanthropic sector, non-profit organizations, faith based organizations, as well as students, teachers, parents, and early childhood providers. These cross-sector groups, along with individual community members interested in working together are taking action to improve education throughout our community and promoting the idea that education is shared responsibility—we all have a role to play.

Ngage NM believes that knowledge is power, and only through improved education, increased community engagement and action can sustainable improvements be reached, which essentially will help to improve the quality of life for everyone in our community. The collective impact process requires time, commitment, involvement, collaboration, and action. Together, everyone involved in this partnership determines specific ways that they can help to improve previously agreed upon educational outcomes for a more productive society.