Local Board of Managers
The GiGi’s Playhouse experience exists due to the tireless effort of volunteers and volunteer leaders. In order to support growth, more paid staff at the national office has been added to ensure consistency of service and a quality experience that all participants have come to expect from a GiGi’s Playhouse. Each local Playhouse also has one to two paid staff members in addition to a host of volunteers to run day-to-day operations and support programming. Each major role which supports a fully functioning GiGi’s Playhouse location is listed below. The definitions of the roles are the same whether filled by a single volunteer, team of volunteers, or a paid staff member.
Board of Managers —Roles and Responsibilities
The local sites are managed by local Board of Managers and the relationship between the local sites and the National Office is outlined in the Operating Agreement. All members of the local Board of Managers should receive a copy of the Operating Agreement and Licensing Agreement.
Board of Managers General Responsibilities
Individual responsibilities:
- Acquire sufficient knowledge of Down syndrome and the organization to promote its mission and programs and to serve as an ambassador and spokesperson for the organization
- Prepare for and participate in the board meetings in order to participate in the major work of the local board
- Review local financial statements monthly
- Make a $2,000 annual contribution or directly raise that amount
- Provide a list of donor prospect names to be added to your location’s database for cultivation and solicitation
- Participate in at least one fundraising activity (help solicit by signing letters, or making phone calls, or personally asking, securing event sponsors, selling tickets to events, making follow-up thank you calls to donors, etc)
- Participate in the process of identifying, cultivating, and recruiting new local board members
- Consider all board meetings and board information as confidential. Support publicly all decisions of the board. Participate in at least 2/3 of the meetings
- Abide by and sign annually the Conflict of Interest Policy.
- Optional: Serve on an executive-level committee: program, fundraising, publicity and marketing, board development, strategic growth, and finance.
Responsibilities of the board of managers as a group:
- Prepare for and participate in the board meetings in order to participate in the major work of a board: program evaluation, policy development, financial oversight, and fundraising
- Review financial statements and attend to issues of fiscal management and internal control. Adopt and monitor the annual operating budget
- Welcome families, supporting activities, participating with a goal to increase participation each quarter
- Perform staff functions until paid positions are funded
- Source volunteers for activities, education programs, and fundraising committees and events
- Train the volunteers that serve as hosts
- Fill all the roles for a fully functioning local Playhouse with qualified volunteers. Ensuring no gaps in roles occur at the local Playhouse to ensure program quality and consistency
- Train the local volunteers with materials supplied and maintained by the central office, and designed with the executive board program development committee
- Maintain the quality of experience for all participants by providing feedback to the national office
- Meet fundraising and budget goals on a quarterly and annual basis as determined by the local board of managers leadership, under the guidance set by the executive board strategic growth committee and finance committee
- Ensure fiscal accountability and responsibility
- Meet financial goals supporting local programs
- Seek out financial opportunities for local Playhouse
- Continue to grow programs and serving more families by increasing fundraising effectiveness under the guidance of any regional fundraising structure provided by the national office. Establish specific fundraising and events committees and provide leadership accountable for quality fundraising activities and regional leadership to ensure synchronous activities within a region
- Hire paid staff upon meeting the financial reserves thresholds specified by the executive board finance committee and meeting the growth and stability thresholds established by the executive board strategic growth committee
- Participate in the annual performance review of any paid staff at the local Playhouse.
Qualifications of Board of Manager Members:
- Possess a high level of motivation and personal interest in the mission
- Are leaders in their businesses and communities
- Possess a strong knowledge of Down syndrome-related issues
- Possess a strong knowledge of the nonprofit community
- Are willing (and able) to pro-actively lead a committee
- Are successful professionally and bring contacts to a new sector
- Finance
- Marketing
- Legal
- Accounting
- Education
- Development
- Bring diversity in terms of age, race, ethnicity, residence, professional experience, etc.
Ideally, the Board would recruit individuals with each and every one of the above credentials. This is unlikely, so we need to recruit individuals with strengths in each of the criteria listed above. Each individual will bring a different level of competency to each of the categories. The ultimate goal is that the Board be comprised of a well-rounded team, each individual bringing a balance of qualities, skills, resources, access, and influence to lead GiGi’s in pursuit of its mission.
