In the often hectic world of nonprofit management, it's easy to overlook one aspect crucial to organizational success: board development.
While staff roles often evolve to meet rapidly changing needs of the communities they serve, boards tend to move at a slower pace.
This gradual evolution can lead to board members assuming more traditional roles and deferring excessively to the Executive Director and staff, potentially compromising their effectiveness in ensuring good governance, mission delivery, and organizational sustainability.
How so? Well, by traditional roles I mean typically unhelpful (unhealthy?) things like rubber-stamping the executive without being a challenger of overall strategy and direction, micromanaging tactics, exercising risk aversion to the detriment of the mission, not being proactive about the organization’s sustainability, and so on.
And undue deference to the executive can lead to issues including lack of staff accountability, missed opportunities for innovation, no succession planning for the Executive Director, and an inability to adapt to changing environments.
Consequently, such an entity becomes an unintentional board.
It’s a result of being formed and then getting stuck, without explicit discussions about changing needs of roles, responsibilities, and critical skills.
This lack of intentionality can result in a board that's ill-equipped to meet the organization's current and future needs. It's like setting sail on a long journey without a chart—you might stay afloat, but you'll aimlessly navigate without a clear destination. That’s not too helpful for a nonprofit Executive Director that is focused on maximizing the impact of their organization.
So let’s discuss intentional board development—but first, a note about the basics.
The three legal duties:
Before diving into strategic board development, it's crucial to understand the three legal requirements for board members, as outlined by the Council of Nonprofits:
1. Duty of Care: Ensuring prudent use of all assets, including facilities, people, and good will.
2. Duty of Loyalty: Ensuring that the nonprofit's activities and transactions are advancing its mission, recognizing conflicts of interest, and making decisions in the best interest of the nonprofit.
3. Duty of Obedience: Ensuring the nonprofit obeys laws and regulations, follows its bylaws, and adheres to its stated mission.
Though these duties form the foundation of board responsibilities, effective board development goes far beyond basic legal requirements.
Scoring big with skills
Imagine your nonprofit is heading into a capital campaign involving construction or perhaps the purchase of land for future expansion. Do you have board members with relevant experience and contacts? Or your organization is embarking on an effort to offer services and support to a community that has been under-serviced - do you have board members connected to this community to help guide the overall strategy?
These scenarios highlight the importance of being intentional about the skills represented on your board.
Certainly, all nonprofit boards could benefit from experienced directors in legal, HR, technology, finance, fundraising, and community engagement. Nonetheless, the specific needs of your organization might require or hugely benefit from additional expertise, and these tend to change over time.
Which brings us to the power of a skills matrix
A comprehensive skills matrix can be a powerful first step for board development.
This tool helps ensure that necessary expertise is identified and board members are recruited purposefully. It also allows Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) to be front and center by identifying the need for representative voices from the communities the nonprofit serves and the staff and volunteers that are on the ground making the magic happen.
I recommend dividing the skills matrix into three areas:
- Skills: The talent and experience the potential member brings to the organization.
- Demographics: How the board member represents the community the organization serves and the staff and volunteers that deliver the services.
- Connections: How the board member brings more than just themselves to their service.
Looking at our sample matrix here, it’s easy to get a big picture of not only current board makeup, but notable voids and promising prospects to fill them.
A note on developing a diverse and high-performing board. It’s not enough to just check the boxes.
- How do you bring new board members into the organization?
- Do you bring them onto the board in cohorts so they can form relationships with other new board members?
- Do you assign them mentors so they can form relationships with longer-tenured board members?
Paying attention to the experience of new board members can get them up to speed faster, and deepen their relationship with the organization.
Don't neglect defining roles and expectations
Clear role definition is vital for board effectiveness. For example, where does your board fall on the spectrum from governance to operational involvement? What's the board's role in strategic planning, volunteering, and engagement with staff members? What are the expectations around fundraising, committee participation and board meeting attendance?
Questions like these need to be explicitly discussed and agreed upon to ensure everyone is on the same page.
And speaking of roles, remember, the board is typically responsible for only one employee: the Executive Director or CEO. This unique relationship deserves careful management including regular performance reviews, ensuring alignment with organizational goals, and succession planning.
The path forward
Intentional board development is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. It requires continuous assessment, open communication, and a willingness to adapt as your organization's needs change.
By being purposeful in your approach, you can create a dynamic, diverse, and skilled board that's well-equipped to guide your nonprofit towards its mission.
Just ask yourself: Are you being intentional about your board development? If not, there's no better time to start than now. Your mission, your staff, and the communities you serve will thank you for it.
