Posted by Gayle Gifford on April 2, 2010 in Better Boards
- Only choose board service if you are willing to carry the moral obligation of societal betterment on your shoulders.
- Serve organizations whose vision and values you are passionate about (or will quickly grow to be).
- Limit your board service – two boards at one time is usually enough.
- Know what you are getting into. Vet the organization as it vets you.
- There are many organizations of many sizes that need your help. Choose the one where your talents and passion align with its needs and vision.
- Generously leverage your wisdom, strategic sensibility, connections and expertise on behalf of the organization you serve.
- Value service, collaborative and consultation.
- Keep your eye on community outcomes, insist on high standards of performance and legal and ethical behavior regardless of organization size.
- Hold fast to a philanthropic moral compass.
- Study the nonprofit sector and the issues you serve.
- Observe and respect the boundaries between board roles and staff roles.
- Donate at your leadership level (make this organization the top 1 or 2 in your giving).
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on February 22, 2010 in Better Boards
I was just talking to a board chair who was lamenting the lack of attendance at board meetings and general lack of engagement overall.
One of the conditions I always query for is whether the board has any clear objectives for what it plans to accomplish over the coming year (or longer).
Board meetings are not in and of themselves meaningful work. I’ve attended a lot of meetings where I’ve left thinking “really, did they need me here for that!” Usually all I did was listen to reports where there was no action required. And any decisions before us were pretty inconsequential and didn’t really rise to the level of board work. A year of meetings like that and I’d be surprised if you had any attendance at all.
Every board can benefit from a set of annual objectives. I’d put the usual suspects on that list:
- providing performance feedback to your Executive Director
- setting with your Executive Director his or her goals and objectives for the coming year
- reviewing and approving the audit and other critical monitoring of the health of the organization
- recruiting and electing a high quality board
All of these are important fiduciary obligations of any board.
But what is the added value, the real difference that your board will make? Read More >>
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on October 27, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Better Boards
Advice to business people joining nonprofit boards.
Congratulations! You’ve just joined the board of directors of a charitable nonprofit.
If this is a new experience for you, you are in good company. Many businesses today encourage their staff to serve on nonprofit boards. You’ll share the experience of board service with individuals from all walks of life.
A few of your fellow board members may already be old hands at nonprofit governance. A rarer few have attended workshops or studied some of the literature on nonprofit board governance.
Many, however, are learning on-the-job…just like you.
… Perhaps your organization provided you with a comprehensive orientation to help you start your work on the board
… Maybe you were teamed with a more experienced director who is serving as your mentor?
With luck, you joined a superb board that’s filled with great role models.
It’s not unusual to feel a little unsure of yourself at first.
You should find the reception welcoming, as most nonprofit staff and directors relish the opportunity to benefit from the business savvy, strategic mindset, professional connections, and access to resources that directors from corporate backgrounds can contribute.
Yet, I frequently hear complaints that all of those desired qualities seem to evaporate as soon as a business person is elected to a board. And I often hear business people describe their frustration with their board service.
So here are a few insights about nonprofits that I’ve realized over the last 30 years — and a few tips to help make your board service more rewarding.
Let me start with the insights.
Nonprofits have a different bottom line.
In business, the bottom line is easy to understand – it’s all about profit. Even if your business advocates a dual bottom line (social responsibility and profit), profit doesn’t take second place.
In a nonprofit, there is no private inurement. The bottom line is the delivery of a public benefit – for example, an artistic contribution, environmental protection, or health promotion.
Determining what that public benefit is, how to deliver it and how to evaluate performance isn’t always easy. Imagine you are on the board of an organization dedicated to the promotion of practices for good mental health. Can you concretely define what success looks like? What evidence would you point to? What changes would your small agency claim responsibility for? These are the challenges that will face you as a director of a nonprofit board.
Nonprofits are valued for their prudence, commitment to service and fiscal restraint, yet are expected to produce significant community benefits.
In the for-profit world, business owners are rewarded for taking risks – usually with other people’s money (venture capital). Under-capitalization is warned against. And a personality like Donald Trump is lionized for his opulent lifestyle and forgiven for past business failures.
Not so in the nonprofit world. Here, individuals are expected to make sacrifices for the common good in the name of service. 
Making do with less is a familiar mantra. Pick up a business publication, and the virtuous charities are the ones with the lowest overhead.
Meanwhile, nonprofits are being admonished to “act more like businesses.” In reality, most nonprofits are extraordinarily small, much more comparable to “micro-enterprises.” According to data available through the National Center for Charitable Statistics, over 80% of registered US public charities had annual revenues below $250,000 in 2004.
At these smallest of nonprofits, nominally-paid staff or their volunteer leadership often have limited experience in nonprofit management and resource development — yet they are expected to operate as efficiently and effectively as multimillion dollar, professionally staffed organizations.
It’s surprising that these tiny organizations get anything accomplished at all. But they do! From the neighborhood soup kitchen feeding the hungry to the volunteer land trust preserving hundreds of acres of open space to the volunteer ethnic organization staging an annual cultural festival for 20,000 participants, many tiny nonprofits are making significant and valuable contributions to their communities.
Nonprofits are expected to consult with their stakeholders and to collaborate with their colleagues.
It’s not unusual for business people to comment on the pace of decision-making that occurs at many nonprofits. Change may happen more slowly than they are used to.
Because nonprofits are accountable to their community for doing good, stakeholders (like consumers, funders, politicians) expect to have some say in their functioning. Read More >>
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on May 13, 2009 in Better Boards, Communicating, Tidbits, Upcoming Events, Speaking and Training
Purpose. Vision. Wisdom. Humor. Joy. Passion. Shared Values. Dedication. Generosity. Insight. Productive. Patience. Flexibility. Common Ground. Perseverance. Investment. Struggle. Eye-opening. Community-building. Caring. Deep Caring. Collaboration. Diversity. Gratitude. Leadership. Creative. Integrity. Teamwork. Unity. Heaven. Rewarding. Brainstorming. Listening. Support. Respect. Commitment. Interactive. Different. Communication.
These words emerged from a workshop I facilitated this morning called “boards that lead.” To get us started I asked everyone to think of a great board experience they have had and then to share one word that characterized that experience.
In just a few minutes, the 40+ board members, executive directors and staff who attended shared the words above. Together, they described the perfect board experience. What a gift. Thank you.
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