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During her 19 years as Executive Director, Christi also worked with various nonprofit boards to assist them with board development. These boards include Truckee Meadows Tomorrow, One Truckee River, and NoteAbles Music Therapy Services. Christi has also served as an officer on the boards for Western Industrial Nevada, Reno-Sparks Chamber Leadership program, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Washoe Zephyrs Toastmasters, and Soroptimist International of Reno. These varied experiences provided her with a broad perspective on the inner workings on a variety of boards and an opportunity to refine different approaches for board development.

“Whether you believe a board is the best thing nonprofits have going for them, a necessary evil, or a patriarchal institution, I can help you find the magic that occurs when you have an energized and engaged board working in tandem with the executive director.”

“I learned enough to be dangerous,” Christi recalls of her time at United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra. United Way was Christi’s first foray into the nonprofit sector, and it was there that she became familiar with the “Standards of Excellence” for nonprofits, which she promptly applied to her role as executive director. Partly as a result of having an engaged and energized board, Christi’s small environmental nonprofit grew from 1.5 staff with an annual budget of less than $78K, to twelve staff with a budget of $780K in 19 years. This tremendous growth was during two recessions.

Christi and her team grew the volunteer impact of their organization from 300 annual volunteers to more than 5,000 annual volunteers in less than ten years. Imagine recruiting and coordinating 750-1,000 volunteers over several projects happening simultaneously within a single day – Christi and her team did that again, and again, and again.

Additionally, during her time with Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful Christi was instrumental in engaging diverse community partners to address systemic issues ranging from Illegal Dumping, to waste reduction, to protecting the Truckee River. Christi played an integral role in the development of the One Truckee River management plan by helping to engage more than 120 community partners who provided input on a wide range of issues related to protecting the Truckee River. This plan was later unanimously adopted by all three local government jurisdictions.

Is your workload so heavy that you feel like you need two of you to get it all done? Are there items on your “to do” list that never get checked off? Do you have a board president who wants you to cc them on every email, or a board member that never reads their email?

The phrase “it’s lonely at the top” is absolutely true for nonprofit executive directors. Executive coaching is for successful leaders who are willing to put in the work to be even better. Executive coaching with Christi includes the added benefit of 20+ years of nonprofit experience.