Board Essentials

The ethical, financial, legal, and fiduciary challenges facing board directors in both the for-profit and nonprofit arenas have increased dramatically in recent years. The resolve of board members to really make a difference and not be wasting precious time and resources is also perhaps higher than ever. The Essential A-Z Guides are lively, practical resources for business and investment professionals, as well as politicians, public servants, and students. Each book contains hundreds of entries that concisely explain the subject's concept in a handy reference that complements any business library. The complete series includes these four titles: Essential Economics Essential Investment Essential Negotiation Essentials for Board Directors

Radiation Therapy Essentials is intended as a refresher for those preparing for board certification or recertification in the field of radiation oncology. Outline format brings key points to the forefront. Examples and diagrams are provided for easy recognition and clarification of the topic. Over 200 practice questions and answers are included.

"Finally! The book that all health care board members needed but were afraid to ask for! Those dark days of staring at incomprehensible numbers during board meetings, of nervous nodding when their financially-literate brethren make comments or ask questions, of voting on things that they do not understand are gone! This book is long overdue and should be read by every trustee who is not a finance professional." --James E. Orlikoff, president, Orlikoff & Associates, Inc. and executive director, American Governance & Leadership Group Accounting for $1.4 trillion in expenditures (13.7 percent of gross domestic product), health care is one of the nation's largest and fastest growing industries. This concise, expertly written primer on health care organization finance is a nuts and bolts guide to what has become every hospital's most sensitive topic. Health care organization board members must possess basic financial competence to govern effectively. This book will help them acquire, easily and painlessly, the basic financial literacy essential for discharging their roles and fulfilling their fiduciary duties.

"Major gifts are at the heart of any coordinated, successful fundraising effort. Julie Walker shows you how to do it all-- find the prospects, staff the program, and ask for the money. The sidebar stories and real-world examples sprinkled throughout the book are entertaining, yet still make a point. I would buy it for the advice and keep it for the anecdotes." --Duris Holmes, Chairman of the Board Benjamin Franklin High School New Orleans, Louisiana Part of the AFP/Wiley Fund Development Series, Nonprofit Essentials: Major Gifts is a professional guide to major gift fundraising, concisely presented in a format that is accessible, lively, and easy-to-read. With in-depth advice from experienced fundraiser Julia Walker, this book takes the reader from the early stages of establishing a program through the core elements of all major gift programs: identifying and rating prospects; preparing the case; training volunteers; cultivating donors; making the ask; and providing recognition and stewardship for the gift. Its nuts-and-bolts presentation focuses on how to create a prospect-centered program that develops the capacity to engage and solicit donors, effectively based on their unique interests and needs.

Praise for Endowment Building "This comprehensive work shows how endowments can provide multiple opportunities for donor involvement when the solicitation program is well designed and integrated with other fund development and program goals. Emphasizing the critical ethical issues inherent in marketing and structuring endowment gifts, it is an excellent reference manual and training guide." --Joanne Scanlan, PhD, Senior Vice President for Professional Development Council on Foundations, Washington, D.C. "Endowment Building provides both practical, hands-on advice and a philosophical, inspirational framework to guide novice and experienced mission-based organizations. Given the demographic opportunities and challenges facing the nonprofit world, this book is a must-read." --Nancy Herrold Strapp, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer Buckhorn Children & Family Services, Louisville, Kentucky "A comprehensive guide on how to start, grow, and maintain an endowment. It shows how to put theory into practice with numerous real-life examples and success stories." --Joe Bull, Director of Planned Giving, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio "After you read this book, you will know what to do and how to do it. It is a wonderful tool for new and emerging community foundations!" --Kay M. Marquet, President and CEO, Community Foundation Sonoma County, California "Endowment Building is an insightful, succinct, easy-to-read resource on building successful endowment programs. It's a well-organized guide containing practical suggestions and reminders of things development professionals know but some-times forget." --Jeff W. Smith, Vice President and Trust Counsel, Baptist Foundation of Texas, Dallas

Practical strategies to propel your company to the top American business is entering unchartered territory. Recent trends suggest that we are moving out of a recession-fairly labeled The Great Recession-into a recovery phase characterized by high unemployment with growth. As such, the business road ahead will be challenging. Growth will be harder to achieve and business failure will be more prevalent. But the best of America's growth businesses will pass through this cycle to experience renewed and hopeful growth in contrast to the high failure rate of those who fail to grow. The numbers are proving this to be the extreme case-a higher upside with a greater failure rate. What are America's recession-proof, highest growth companies doing differently? What are the values, fundamentals, and actions that will make the difference between failure, or just surviving and thriving? The answer to these questions is, what Thomson calls, The 7 Essentials-value proposition, high growth market segment, marquee customers, big brother alliances, exponential returns, inside/outside leadership, and essential board experts. This book is the timely answer to the search for what it will take to propel a company's growth through these challenging times. It's for management teams of any business, independent of size or industry, which desires to identify a course of action to improve their opportunities to grow. "Applying the 7 Essentials will improve your company's growth prospects," says author David Thomson. Growth companies are especially defined by their ability to grow through recession and recovery periods to become the new growth leaders. The case studies and the numbers in this book prove it. This reliable resource extends the insights from Thomson's bestselling book, Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth to apply the 7 Essentials to all companies. Thomson is known as America's growth expert on what it takes to transform a small business into a billion dollar one. He has been recognized by Investors Business Daily as the "Guru for Uncovering the Blueprint for Sizzling Growth Companies." Offers busy professionals essential insights that will move their business or business unit beyond surviving and into thriving now and in the future Written by an expert on how companies achieve growth in challenging markets Contains key CEO interviews and quick case studies and is supported by on-line scoring tools to help teams apply the 7 Essentials Economic weakness has not changed the need for companies to grow. This book provides you with a proven framework to overcome such challenges and thrive in today's challenging business environment.

An accessible beginner’s guide to the fundamentals of audit and assurance Audit and assurance is a basic and vital aspect of the financial world and a key element of all professional accountancy programs. Whereas professional training on the topic frequently immerses students in too much detail while glossing the basics, this book begins with the fundamentals and expands to cover the details in a more measured way. With practical examples and end-of-chapter examples, External Audit and Assurance Essentials breaks down a difficult and challenging field of professional accounting.

Contributors represent a diverse denominational cross section and include Dennis Williams, Gary Bredfelt, Gordon Coulter, Michael J. Anthony, James Estep, Jr., Jane Carr, Mark Henze, Mark Simpson, Michelle Anthony, Richard Leyda, and Tony Buchanaan.

"Nonprofit Essentials: Managing Technology is a comprehensive work. Suitable for any size organization, the book is distinguished by its focus on 'the human factor' along with volumes of technology information. It should prove to be an invaluable resource for administrators, volunteers, and trustees who must ensure their organization's effective use of technology." --Richard F. Hobson, President Hobson Renaissance Solutions LLC