Grace, Harbor Point Mutual Aid. We started as a group of neighbors dropping off groceries during a bad winter and somehow that turned into a 501c3. We serve about 200 households on the east side. I am here because the organizing part I know, the running-an-org part I am learning in public.

Jerome, First Chair Music Access. We lend instruments and pay for lessons for kids whose families cannot. I taught middle school band for nine years and quit to do this full time, which my mother still thinks was a mistake. Ask me in August.

Aisha, Northside Literacy Project. Adult learners, mostly folks working toward a GED or reading with their kids for the first time. My whole thing this year is volunteers, I have great ones and no idea how to keep them.

I had a version of this. What worked was giving him a real job that was clearly his, board-level, not program-level. Once he owned the fundraising committee he stopped hovering over the program, because he had something that was actually his to run. People hover when they are bored and want to help.

Seconding the give-them-a-lane idea. I would also just say the quiet part to him directly and kindly, that the program days are staff-run and you would love his eyes on strategy instead. Big donors can take a clear ask better than we think, it is the vague resentment that wrecks the relationship.

This is genuinely helpful, thank you both. The fundraising committee idea is smart, we do not have one and he would probably love it. Going to try that before the session and report back.

Yes please share it. The parking and who-to-find part is exactly what we miss, we hand people a binder and wonder why they look overwhelmed.

This tracks with what I have seen. The binder is where good volunteers go to feel dumb. One page, three things. Stealing this.