Steve Miller: Welcome to another episode of dreamers, Drivers and doers. I’m Steve Miller with the Greater Akron Chamber, and in this podcast, I get to talk to people across our region who are doing some amazing things, creating an impact in our community, helping to lead. And today, I’m talking to somebody who also is serving leaders. Welcome. Biz Voudouris, President and CEO of Business Volunteers Unlimited.
Biz Voudouris: Thank you. Steve, it’s such a pleasure to be here.
Steve Miller: You know, we so we spent a little bit of time together today because we had an opportunity this morning to sit with some of our colleagues from the nonprofit sector. And we’ll talk more about that going on. But tell us a little bit about, basically about your background and what BVU is all about, since your background equals BVU, I think.
Biz Voudouris: Close to it. BVU is Business Volunteers Unlimited, and we’ve been around since 1993. We’re a nonprofit organization ourselves, and we serve as a bridge between the business community and the sources of volunteers and the nonprofit sector. We serve Cuyahoga Summit and all the contiguous counties. And the bottom line is we’re helping to strengthen nonprofits by really connecting business talent as board members, as skilled volunteers, and as direct service volunteers.
Steve Miller: BVU’s creation story is interesting because back in the day and this is how many years ago, 25 years? More? 35 years?
Biz Voudouris: Oh more, 1993.
Steve Miller: So basically, the way I sort of understand it is titans of the business world came together to say we need something that we don’t have, and we think we need to create an organization that can create this. Talk about what it was, the need that they were trying to fill, and how that sort of translated into the mission.
Biz Voudouris: Absolutely. So it was the leaders in Cleveland – this is a unique nonprofit organization nationally. But they said the nonprofit sector keeps coming to us and asking for the CEO to serve on the board – but we have all these other fabulous people at our businesses.
So can we create a vehicle to get those other folks involved in serving on nonprofit boards?
So jump forward to today. We, every year, work with about 100 businesses. They’ll nominate their employees, people who want to get involved, and they just don’t know where to start or who to call. We help people identify organizations that meet their passions and need their skills, and then we train them. So when they get involved as a board member, they know what they’re supposed to do. They have clear understanding of the expectations, and oftentimes they move into leadership within the first year. It’s an impactful program.
Steve Miller: You know, I don’t want to throw anybody on the bus, but I have met a board member or two of a nonprofit organization that come in for the first meeting and pretty much decide that, well, I mean, I’m a business person, so I obviously know more than everybody else around the table. And how hard could this be? But there is something to serving on a nonprofit board, and there’s something about building capacity to do that.
Steve Miller: Because as nonprofit leaders, oftentimes we’re looking for people at the top of the house because we know that they have perspective, they have experience. They may be dealing with their own board, and they can bring that. But what is it about that capacity building that’s so important for, you know, individuals who might want to serve on a nonprofit board?
Biz Voudouris: That’s a great question. And I’ve talked to the CEO of a large company who said, he joined a board and he thought it would be easy, and it was so much more complex than his professional job. And I think that’s an important piece to recognize that these nonprofit organizations are essentially running small businesses, oftentimes with limited resources, increasing demand. And the board essentially serves as the brain trust for the organization, partnering with the CEO or the leadership team to help kind of identify what the opportunities are and set the strategic direction. Navigate around some of the challenges. And so it’s really important for board members to understand their role, understand, the strategic plan and the business model essentially of the nonprofit and respect what the staff is doing to lead the organization, but then bring your own expertise in to help, with some of the larger strategic issues.
Steve Miller: You know, in this past maybe year, 18 months or so, I think, my sense of my colleagues who lead nonprofit organizations is everybody’s job is hard. We know everybody’s got difficult times to deal with. But it has become increasingly difficult for nonprofit organizations specifically to navigate some of the changes, some of the resource changes that have been happening, and those kinds of things. Is that just me feeling that, or are you hearing and seeing that from the nonprofits that you work with day in and day out?
Biz Voudouris: Steve, we’re definitely seeing that this has been a year of tremendous uncertainty, financial uncertainty, because of some of the political and the policy changes. Organizations have lost significant government funding. Because of economic uncertainty, some of the philanthropy and individual giving is down. So many organizations are struggling with financial issues. And at the same time, demand for many of their services is up, especially basic human needs. You know, folks who need more from the food bank and from other health and human services nonprofits.
Biz Voudouris: So combining, decreasing resources, increasing need, and then some of the workforce issues and just data and technology and cybersecurity, all these issues, it’s becoming very challenging for nonprofit leaders, again, with limited resources, to stay up and just stay positive and optimistic. They’re doing such good work and it’s all mission driven. But it’s been hard for a lot of nonprofit leaders to keep the momentum and the optimism, given some of the many challenges they’re facing this year.
Steve Miller: So, you talked a little bit about some of the work you do to prepare people for boards and some of the board matching work you do, which we’ll talk about in a few minutes here. But another piece of what BVU does is you got incredible reach in terms of consulting support, that kind of stuff with nonprofit organizations. So, tell me about the consulting work you do and how you’re helping them solve problems. Because I think that’s an aspect of BVU that many folks are unfamiliar with.
Biz Voudouris: Yeah, I bet you’re right. As I said, we started by matching and training people to serve on boards and talking about what are best practices in the boardroom, and people would come back to us and say, I love the mission of the organization that you matched me to, but the board’s not doing what you said they were supposed to be doing. And it’s funny, this morning, the session that we had with you, the roundtable session, somebody said our board is just such a hot mess. So there are different perspectives on boards. So we started offering some consulting to just help nonprofit boards understand as the organization has evolved, you know, what’s our role? How has our role changed? What’s the ideal composition for our board, the ideal structure and the ideal practices. And so we help facilitate a change process.
Biz Voudouris: Then, after, some boards just do it every few years. It’s just good hygiene to just assess the board and make sure that it’s doing all that it needs to be doing to meet the needs of the organization. And then folks would call and say, our board so well, can you help us with our strategic plan? So we started doing strategic planning and succession planning. And so our consulting services really focus on, things that help the board fulfill its role and responsibility as effectively as possible and make the experience as meaningful as possible for the board members. But, that’s really our passion is helping, nonprofit leaders, you know, set their strategic direction, make sure that their board is aligned with the strategic plan, they’ve got the right people sitting around the table. And that can really help a nonprofit, again navigate through challenging times.
Steve Miller: You know, I guess I want to dig in here a little bit because I think one of the important pieces of this discussion – nonprofits play an inordinately large role in our communities in terms of driving things that might otherwise not get done.
Steve Miller: I think our businesses play a tremendous role in sort of driving jobs and investment in the community. But there’s all these needs in our communities that there’s just sort of American ethic of volunteer service philanthropy, nonprofit organizations that might be unlike any other place in the world. And so as you think about the capacity that these nonprofits drive. I was interested to see in your most recent nonprofit pulse. And this is a survey that you do. You try, you try to as you go along and collect data about what you’re seeing, what trends are going on. But as we were talking earlier about the changes in policy and direction over the last year, 74% of the nonprofits that you sort of have engaged in this sort of data collection, I think there’s about 500 nonprofits in this thing. Chief executives, 74% say that the executive orders that have come across over the last year or so, it’s going to impact their ability to fulfill their mission. 84% are experiencing a decline in philanthropic support, and 60% don’t have a contingency plan to cover the shortfall.
Steve Miller: So what does that mean? What does that mean for these organizations? How are they adapting?
Biz Voudouris: How are they adapting? So that’s where again, it’s so important to have folks on the board who are asking the right questions too. If this funding is gone, you know, how are we going to, hope is not a strategy, so how are we going to fill this gap? You know, so, so many organizations are turning to the foundations, and the foundations can’t fill all these gaps. There’s really a lot of pressure on our communities, foundations and as individuals, we’re seeing a lot more requests. So I think it’s really important for organizations to have a contingency plan, not that they’re going to enact when the money’s gone, but well in advance to say we need to – if this doesn’t happen, we’re going to need to pull this lever or stop this program or, you know, take this action because we’re not going to have enough funding to fund it through the end of the year.
Biz Voudouris: And that’s where we’re seeing a lot of organizations. So at BVU for example, we had contingency plans that if by June, we weren’t at this level, we were going to do this, then this, then this, then this, so we could show the board that if we were going to come in well below budge we had plans that we could essentially be sustainable because once if you don’t have those plans in place and some organizations are lucky to have significant cash reserves and endowments, which you can draw on, but you can’t do that year after year. So what is the contingency plan and how are you planning to end the year without a significant deficit and bottom line, sustain your mission? So what’s most important and what are you going to do to sustain what’s most important about the work that you do?
Steve Miller: You know, I think that sometimes our nonprofit board members, they’ve got the distance that they need sometimes from the work that the professional staff sometimes doesn’t have, right? We’ve got people who are leading nonprofits who are passionate about the mission. They may have come out of the subject area that their nonprofit serves. They may be somebody who is sort of can really deliver on those day to days in the space. But I think the ability of a board member to pull the professionals up above the weeds to the bigger issues that they may be seeing out there is super important. And that that says a lot about what the board member needs to know about the organization, but also how they need to engage with the staff and what their day to day, what their meeting to meeting activity is with the staff. Are there some tips that you typically give board members to help with that role of guiding and advising versus doing and telling?
Biz Voudouris: Oh, that’s a great question. The partnership, the board’s responsibility is to hire the chief executive. Some organizations don’t have staff, but let’s talk about those that do.
Biz Voudouris: And then it’s up to the chief executive to hire and manage, and if necessary, fire their staff without board interference. The board also sets the strategic direction. You know, the one of the eight responsibilities is to, you know, set mission, vision and strategic direction. The second one is to hire and support the chief executive. So if you’ve got the strategic direction and you’ve got a strategic plan hopefully – and again, many in our pulse, many don’t have one. People say, ‘I don’t have time to do a strategic plan,’ but a strategic plan is critical to say, given that we have limited resources, what is the best possible way for us to use our time and our money and our people to really achieve our mission? And who should we be collaborating with, etcetera, etcetera. So if you’ve got a good strategic plan in place, the board at each meeting, it should, in theory be talking about one plank in the strategic plan. So I would say to board members, if you’re just going to meetings and not getting your materials in advance, or getting your materials in advance, and then just sitting there and listening to book reports and nodding your heads and not having any discussion, then it’s not a good use of your time or the staff’s time for that matter.
Biz Voudouris: So board meetings should be choreographed like a ballet. I mean, they should just be, what is the best use of our volunteer time and our staff time this month? What’s the agenda? What are the most important discussion topics? Put them up at the front and then really carve out time for a good meaningful discussion. At BVU. I even like to put the discussion questions on the agenda. So folks really understand this is the way we need to think about this and process this in order to get to the right decision for BVU. So I hope I answered your question.
Steve Miller: No, I think that’s important. Sometimes I will sit in a board meeting. One of the exercises I use on boards that I’m in is I’ll sit there and I’ll kind of look around the room and I’ll try to assess based on the person and their role and their experience and the job they’re in. What’s their hourly run rate. Right? Like, how much is this person getting paid to sit in this seat?
Steve Miller: And so and so then when you do that math across the board, if you have a board of 20 or 15 or 30 or 50 people and you do that math, I often look and go, okay, all right, we’re spending 10,000 bucks an hour here. Are we having $10,000 an hour worth of conversation? Is the conversation we’re having impactful enough for the target population, for the work we’re doing, etc. and it really allows you to sift very quickly through what do we spend time on and what don’t we? One of the things that amazes me is how sometimes in boards we get into rote activities like, all right, let’s debate the cost of water for the organization, you know, ad nauseum. But let’s not spend time on the really meaty discussion. So how do we get rid of all that stuff and like, really focus on we’re going to have one or two core discussions today and they’re going to be really impactful on our mission. Is that how you help folks think about the way they run their discussions?
Biz Voudouris: 100%. And I think that’s the board chair and the chief executive working together again to craft these agendas. And it’s not just a litany of rereading the reports that people could have gotten in. I love what you just said. You know, let’s make it worth $10,000 worth of time. So use your board members like a brain trust. And you know, and you need a good board chair. The board chair can’t just be the next person in line. There’s got to be somebody who can lead a good meeting, who can engage people, who can pull out the quiet folks who might have a lot to say. And maybe for the folks who have a lot to say, make sure that they let others participate. So there’s, there’s really a magic and an art to a good board chair facilitating a good meeting. And in theory, your board, your committee chairs are reporting out, they’re leading the conversation, the staff is there for context, the board chair doesn’t necessarily make a report, but they’re the conductor and they’re facilitating a meeting.
Biz Voudouris: And you should go into the meeting knowing this is what we want to get out of the meeting here. If we have one thing that’s coming out of the meeting, it’s that we’ve all agreed that we’re going to tweak our mission, or we’ve all agreed that we need to expand to another, whatever it is. But this is the objective. And let’s make sure we have good discussion. Everybody doesn’t need to agree. But once the board votes on something, you need to speak with one voice and nobody should be going into the parking lot and, you know, having negative discussions about the decision.
Steve Miller: Yeah. That’s great. I love the idea of the board chair as a conductor so that you can hear all the different instruments, maybe not just the wins. Right.
Biz Voudouris: Exactly.
Steve Miller: No, no pun intended. There. So we talked a little bit earlier about some of the big issues nonprofits are facing right now. Some of the things that that the leaders of those organizations are kind of feeling, the way they are sort of dealing with different types. What were some of the big challenges that came out today that really struck a chord with you, that you think are important? For anybody who’s working in this space to know is on the minds of some of the leaders.
Biz Voudouris: Well, first of all, and again, I really appreciate you all facilitating, partnering with us to facilitate these roundtables. The fact that so many people showed up on a grey, sleepy, dark day, it was more than gray. It was dark. Because I think what people are feeling is isolation. I’m dealing with a lot of these issues. You’ve got an incredible staff, incredible board. You’ve got these really talented leaders who are trying to hold it all together again and stay optimistic. And so they showed up today to just be part of this community and to have folks to talk to and, you know, see what other best practices and what other folks were doing.
Biz Voudouris: So I thought that was special and that, you know, that I think that’s something that these leaders are looking for. But when we asked, we used, this really cool polling device and the main issues that came out this morning, which are the same ones we’re seeing in our pulse, is the financial instability, the workforce issues. And a couple people actually said staff burnout, again, because fewer people, it’s harder to fill positions. And staff are working that much harder. Some of the political issues that are impacting policy and impacting funding, something else that came out. And then another issue that came up was board engagement and I think CEOs again, it’s up to the chief executives to work hard. It’s not the board’s job. I mean, the board and the chief executive have to work together to make sure that the board is really engaged. But I think folks get frustrated. Like, could our board members be better ambassadors? Could they be better advocates for us? Could they help us with fundraising and friendraising? Could they help us think more strategically about how to navigate these problems? So it’s a frustration, but then what do you do about it? So I think it starts with good meetings and effective meetings and having clear expectations for your board members.
Biz Voudouris: People have good intentions, but if we haven’t been clear about what the expectations are, they might not know what they’re supposed to do and then see what clear expectations are. The right people on the board with the right skills and expertise, the right committee structure. And then making sure that your agenda is really focused, the board on the right kind of discussions that you need to be having. And then there’s good follow ups. So it actually takes a tremendous amount of work to have a good board. And I think one of the keys to that is a strong governance committee that really takes ownership for that and makes sure that, you know, you’ve got a pipeline of good people, a pipeline of good leaders, the right committee structure and clear expectations that board members are being held accountable to.
Steve Miller: Yeah, I think it’s so important to put the time into that planning. I mean, one of the things that I’ve learned from others is that, you know, if you’re going to conduct a good meeting, there’s pre-work involved, right? There’s got to be materials, people to review.
Steve Miller: There’s got to be a discussion with the chair before the meeting to talk about the plan for the meeting, and really allow us to use people’s time very well in those discussions. You know, one of the things that happened to me a little early in my career, I recommend that board members sometimes turn the tables on the staff, and I say that in a positive way in that, I sometimes had viewed board meetings as, okay, we’ve got to have this agenda. We have to have really interesting things to talk about. It’s almost like planning a performance, right? You put it all together, and your board members show up, and they are there expecting you to share ideas with them. Entertain them at some level, provide information for them, and they’re the recipients of information. And I had a board, an executive committee meeting where they kind of turned the tables on me and said, okay, got your materials, liked your agenda and everything, but what’s keeping you up at night? What are you thinking about right now? What are your biggest concerns? You know this space as well as we do, if not better.
Steve Miller: What do you think we should be really thinking about and talking about? And I wasn’t really prepared for that question because I was prepared to tell them, you know, about this program or this initiative. But I think if board members could do that every once in a while and really take the time to listen to what their staff leadership is really thinking about, because my guess is they’ve got answers that would surprise you.
Biz Voudouris: Absolutely. The staff have the answers that would surprise you?
Steve Miller: The staff have answers that might surprise you, the things that they’re thinking about are dealing with that the board isn’t even thinking about.
Biz Voudouris: Right. And then the board sometimes you think, oh, well, they’re not in a nonprofit, but it doesn’t matter. Like some of the things that our board members are doing in their businesses are very relevant and could be great ideas for us in running our non-profits. So, yeah, if you leave the time for that discussion, that meaningful discussion, that’s where really good things happen.
Steve Miller: So let’s talk about succession planning for a minute. That’s one of the as you said, one of the biggest jobs for a board is to be, you know, is to identify, hire a CEO and then hold them accountable. And so what are you seeing in the succession planning space right now for non-profits? I remember a few years ago seeing some really scary numbers about the way in which leaders of nonprofits were aging and aging out and sort of shifting, and the capacity for future leadership is a big question mark.
Biz Voudouris: Yeah. And I think what something else that happened is that a lot of people who might have been planning to retire didn’t during Covid and so the wave is coming back up now. We’re seeing a lot of transitions. And we actually get calls from nonprofits saying, our CEO or our chief executive told us that they’re going to be leaving in six months or a year. Can you help us with a succession plan? That is not a succession plan.
Biz Voudouris: That’s a transition plan. That’s a search, you know. So I think what’s important to recognize is that succession planning is that, if the board’s responsible to protect the valuable assets of the organization, one of those assets is the leadership and how it’s being led. So the board is responsible to make sure that if there’s an emergency, that there’s an emergency succession plan. So, you know, if I walk away tonight and don’t come back tomorrow, what does the board need to know? What are the key things that I do, who can fill in in the short term? And there should be some kind of an emergency succession plan that’s updated every few years. And sadly, we know many organizations that have needed that. So that’s A. B, the longer term succession planning, and we’ve talked about this this morning and many others. There’s almost a war for talent right now in the in the sector. And even at BVU, we’ve got folks who are then being hired away by the for profit sector at much higher compensation levels.
Biz Voudouris: So what are we doing to develop our high potential employees early on? And it doesn’t have to be expensive professional development. Or are we teaching people about the budgeting process or are we letting people come to board meetings? You know, what are the different things that we can do to identify and develop high potential people that maybe 4 or 5 years from now, they could move into a leadership position. So the board should have the emergency succession plan and then the longer term succession plan. And if there are any high potential people within the organization, just make sure they’re getting the development that they need so that they might be ready in a few years to move into leadership.
Steve Miller: Yeah. It’s so important to have that long term view. And some of the tools that I’ve seen BVU use with organizations in terms of looking down the pipeline to say, okay, who’s ready? What areas do they need to be developed in? How are we going to do that development this year? Because I can’t think of a worse thing.
Steve Miller: And I’ve been in this position in a board role. I can’t think of a worse thing than becoming the chair of the board. And all of a sudden figuring out you have to do a search, or that your person is leaving and how you do that, especially if the organization hasn’t prepared for it. Because, I mean, what are you going to do? You are legally responsible for the organization as the board. And when you lose your person and you don’t have a plan, man, that’s a tough place to work from.
Biz Voudouris: Oh, absolutely. So yeah. And there are different options. But sometimes there’s an interim or I think it’s something that I think what happens is boards are nervous to talk about it with the chief executive, because they don’t want to imply that they think they should be leaving or going anywhere. The chief executives might be nervous or anxious about bringing it up with the board, but it’s not about transition. It’s about just good, solid practice and making sure that the organization is sustainable.
Steve Miller: Yeah, I mean, that’s one of those courageous conversations that you have to have, right? Because both sides probably want to have it. And you got to broker it and maybe having it part of your regular annual board hygiene. And when I talk about that, what I mean is every year there’s a few topics we should be talking about at least once a year. Maybe that makes it less scary to talk about because, you know, it’s coming up and you got to do it because you said you were going to do it each year. So maybe it may be a way of thinking about it.
Biz Voudouris: And we need to do it for the board too. And that’s another place that I don’t see boards doing it. They don’t have succession plans. So somebody’s the chair, I talked to someone the other day who they’d had the same chair for 13 years.
Biz Voudouris: Oh my gosh. But, yeah. So how are you developing? Because if you’re not turning over your committee chairs and your officers, first of all, you should be a committee chair before you become an officer, because the leading a committee is how you demonstrate your ability to lead a group and work with the staff and everything else. So then you become an officer. But you need to rotate those people somewhat. Somebody could serve two full three year terms on a board and never have the opportunity to move into leadership If you’re not rotating, and it’s so important to continue bringing that fresh leadership perspective into the into the leadership of the organization.
Steve Miller: So, as we sort of get close to the end here, give me a short list. if you could give nonprofit CEOs or nonprofit board leaders maybe three priorities for 2026 is, you know, everybody’s taking this time to eat their cookies, enjoy their holidays, and then think about all the things that they want to do in this magical new year that’s coming up. What would be a couple of the priorities you might suggest that, board leaders, CEOs think about for their organizations in 26.
Biz Voudouris: Thanks, Steve. That’s great. I’m going to be really tactical here and not big bold. And I think we talked this morning about elevator speeches and making sure that the full board has a very concise and compelling elevator speech, and then asking each of them to deliver it twice a week. I mean, that’s something that board members can do. And if you’ve got the right message, you really do a lot to spread the visibility, credibility and people being aware. So that’s simple little tactic. But get a good elevator speech and have your board members use it a couple times a week. I think secondly, thinking about board engagement. And maybe for anybody who’s board isn’t perfect, and nobody’s is, identify one or two ways you can really try to strengthen your board engagement, because that can have a huge ripple effect for your organization.
Biz Voudouris: So try to, whether it’s clear expectations, accountability, committee structure or just better meetings and better discussions, plan out your meetings for the year. And what are the meaningful discussions we’re going to have at each meeting? So I’d say, elevator speech strength and board engagement if you can, make sure you’ve got a strategic plan. If you don’t have a full blown plan, at least try to get something that you can use as your guardrails so you can really focus on what matters most and then think about collaboration. And the more that we all collaborate with each other, instead of feeling like we’re competing with each other, I believe the stronger our sector is going to be. So I think those are, again, more tactical, but some things that we can all do that don’t feel like overwhelming.
Steve Miller: Well, thank you for helping me fill up my board resolution list for 2026. That’s super helpful Biz, because I wasn’t sure when I was gonna get time to do that, but I love those ideas. So as we as we close up here, I got to ask you, you work all throughout the region, you spend time in Cleveland, you spend time in Akron and all around northeast Ohio. turn us on to one of your Akron jams.
Biz Voudouris: My favorite thing is the Akron Zoo and the wild nights at the zoo, I think is coming up soon. The Akron Zoo is the most extraordinary zoo. You can walk the whole thing without getting lost. I get lost a lot. So you can explore the whole zoo. You can learn so much to see so much. And it’s just it’s educational, it’s entertaining, it’s beautiful, and it’s a real gem in the Akron community.
Steve Miller: I love lots of gems.
Biz Voudouris: Lots of gems.
Steve Miller: Wild nights all lit up right now for the holidays, so make sure you walk that the weather is still relatively manageable, so hopefully folks get out over the winter for that. You think it’s too cold and too dark and too wet? Maybe it’s okay, it’s good.
Biz Voudouris: But my gosh, I really appreciate I love talking with you Steve. This is such a pleasure.
Steve Miller: Oh, good. Well, thank you for sharing with us today, biz. And, we really wish you and all the other nonprofit leaders you work with, a great 26, a great end to their 25. But Biz Voudouris is President and CEO of Business Volunteers Unlimited. Thanks so much for the work you do. I think the idea of connecting business capacity to nonprofit mission is so important, and I’m so glad there’s somebody like you and your team who’s focusing on that every day.
Biz Voudouris: Thank you.