Nonprofit Culture - Facet Reminders
- Tom Iselin
- Oct 13, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 17, 2025
Nonprofit Culture - Facet Reminders
In this video and blog, you'll learn why it's important to remind board and staff about the nonprofit cultural facets you've developed. This will help keep your culture front and center in the hearts and minds of staff and board.
Culture Fades Without Reinforcement
Once you establish a culture, your job is not done.
Culture must be nurtured—and the most important way to do that is through reminders. Why? Because people forget. It’s that simple.
If you don’t actively reinforce your culture statement and the values behind it, it will eventually collect dust, just like many strategic plans do.
Culture does not sustain itself on good intentions alone.
Keeping Culture Front and Center
To remain effective, culture must stay visible in the daily lives of staff, board members, and volunteers.
That means intentionally weaving culture into:
Staff meetings and operational discussions
Conversations about administration, fundraising, and programming
Board meetings and strategic planning sessions
Volunteer orientation and training
Your staff should regularly discuss how your culture affects the way work gets done. Board members should talk openly about organizational culture, board culture, and staff culture—not once a year, but consistently.
Volunteer coordinators should ensure volunteers understand not just what they do, but how they do it within the context of your culture.
Small Reminders Make a Big Difference
It may seem trivial, but cultural reminders are often deeply appreciated.
At times, I would send a simple email to staff highlighting one core value and briefly explaining how it applied to a current project. Other times, I facilitated short board discussions about culture—encouraging members to work alongside staff on volunteer projects or participate in social activities to strengthen relationships.
These small moments reinforce shared expectations and deepen buy-in.
Leadership Is the Strongest Cultural Reminder
Perhaps the most powerful reminder of all is how leaders live the culture.
If openness is a stated value, leaders must model openness.If accountability is a cultural expectation, leaders must demonstrate it first.
For example:
When supervisors share personal goals, challenges, and aspirations, staff are more likely to do the same.
When board members are expected to spearhead initiatives, they are far more likely to follow through if the board chair leads by example.
Culture becomes real when people see it consistently demonstrated—not just discussed.
Culture Is a Shared Responsibility
Sustaining culture is not a top-down effort or a bottom-up effort.
It’s circular.
It’s the responsibility of leadership to define the circle early and continue tracing it throughout the life of the organization. When leaders, staff, board members, and volunteers all reinforce culture together, it stays alive.
Takeaways
If you want your culture to remain strong and visible:
Remind people often—assume they will forget
Integrate culture into meetings, planning, and training
Use small, consistent reminders
Model the culture through leadership behavior
Treat culture as a shared responsibility
Culture thrives on repetition and example.
Summary
Nonprofit Culture - Facets . . .
Culture must be reinforced to endure. Without reminders, even the strongest culture statements lose relevance over time.
If you want your nonprofit’s culture to remain front and center, find intentional ways to remind people—through conversation, behavior, and leadership example.
Tom Iselin
“America’s Best Board Retreat and Strategic Planning Facilitator”
Additional Resources:
Articles
Tom's Books, Podcasts, and YouTube Channel
About the Author
Tom Iselin is recognized as one of America’s leading authorities on high-performance nonprofits. He has built nine sector-leading nonprofits and two software companies, written six books, sits on multiple boards, and has been rated one of America’s Best Board Retreat and Strategic Planning Facilitators. His work on nonprofit strategy, board leadership, and culture has been featured on CNN, Nightline, and in Newsweek.
Tom is the president of First Things First, a firm specializing in board retreats, strategic planning services, fundraising strategy, and executive coaching for nonprofit CEOs.
Board Retreats & Strategic Planning
If you’re looking for a board retreat facilitator or strategic planning facilitator who has been in the trenches and understands real-world nonprofit challenges, Tom can help your board gain clarity, build alignment, and create an actionable plan that improves performance and impact. His sessions propel organizations to the next level of performance and impact . . . and they're fun!
Board Retreats and Strategic Planning Services:
858.888.2278
