BellesBoard, the Nonprofit Sector Strategies (NSS) Board Portal, is the brainchild of the two company founders, Christine Deska and Frank Orzo. Deska brings years of experience in strategic planning, fundraising, and development within the nonprofit sector. Frank’s expertise lies in information technology and software platforms. Combined, they have a comprehensive understanding of the needs of CEO’s, Executive Directors, boards of directors, and management teams to ensure strong communication and growth for agencies and organizations.
Why The Team ‘Gets It’
It’s no wonder that the team at NSS came to the realization that their success in providing the most comprehensive, easy-to-use, and reasonably priced board portal was, in fact, only part of what they could offer nonprofits. The team set to work on the BellesBoard Mission Impact System, a series of tools that, in conjunction with the board portal, enables organizations to recover staff time by eliminating unnecessary tasks, and then assists in redeploying those resources into mission-impact activities. While some of the tools are in the development and building stages, several are available for immediate deployment at your organization. Let’s look at some of them now.
As organizations grow and mature, they realize the importance of strategic planning. At BellesBoard, the goal is for their clients to align the BellesBoard portal with their strategic plan. For clients who have already conducted a strategic plan, several add-on modules are available or in development to complement the board portal for even more organizational effectiveness. These are: the Grant Management Module, Donor Management Module, and the Strategic Plan Impact Module and Impact Report.
Meet the Modules
The Grant Management Module (available) enables an organization to store documents, include notes [that are maintained chronologically], and store profile information on foundation prospects and applications.
The Donor Management Module (available) works in conjunction with your current donor management software, regardless of which one you’ve chosen, highlighting key information about specific donors the CEO/ED and board need to track.
The Strategic Plan Impact Module (in development) will be critical for tracking each initiative and element of the plan. Programs monitored in this module can show percentage toward success, probability of achieving the goal, etc. The Strategic Plan Impact Report (in development) will provide a measure of the financial benefit, priority, and probability, over time for components of the strategic plan. It gives a visual representation of the anticipated value of each initiative and vehicle and over what window of time each is expected to ‘gain traction’ and reach goals.
What if You Haven’t Conducted a Strategic Plan?
However, the BellesBoard team realizes that creating a strategic plan takes time and, often, significant resources. Thus, we currently have in development a tool to self-direct the development of a strategic plan. Once complete, the Strategic Plan Generator will aid in conducting a SWOT Analysis, establishing pillars of the plan, determining metrics, and, finally, preparing the finished plan. With this tool, organizations will be able to develop, facilitate, monitor, and refine their plan. With the plan in place, the other modules referenced above, along with the board portal, will aid in the organization’s heightened efficacy in serving the mission and intentional growth.
The nonprofit industry provides much needed services to the communities in which we live. In fact, our communities [and the most fragile among us living in them] would suffer greatly without the efforts of nonprofits – large and small. What is clear is that the staff and board of these organizations need tools to be the best at what they do. The NSS team is hard at work creating new tools to complement BellesBoard so that you and your board can effectively communicate, use your resources wisely, and get closer – every day – to achieving your mission. For more information, on BellesBoard or our newest modules, contact info@nonprofitsectorstrategies.com.