Posts Tagged ‘nonprofit boards’
Posted by Gayle Gifford on April 15, 2010 in Better Boards
For the last week, every time I leave my house I step out to a front yard radiant with spring bulbs and flowers. A few years ago we ripped out the sad looking front lawn and replaced it with raised beds filled with summer perennials, spring bulbs and ground covers. 
While I love all of my flowers, I think I love the spring bulbs most of all.
Last fall, as the flowers were fading and the temperatures falling, I dug the holes, dropped in the bulbs, a little organic bone meal, a little water, and waited for spring.
I plant the bulbs knowing that it will take months before I’ll reap the rewards. Yet I do it anyway, craving their beauty and anticipating their arrival throughout the coldest and snowiest months of winter.
And voila! here they are. First the crocuses, then the tulips and daffodils to take their place. I’m rarely disappointed (having learned to select varieties that the squirrels won’t eat).
Monday I was facilitating a planning meeting with some board members and staff of a nonprofit that I worked with on board development the previous year. Before our work together, the board was tired and ineffectively turning in circles.
We began our work together in in the fall, right around bulb planting time. In June, we elected five new community members who have been an incredible addition to the board, bringing hope, energy, new friends and growing commitment.
As I arrived at the meeting Monday, I stopped to say hello to one of the staff. He looked to the room where we were meeting and smiled, reminding me of the renewal of the board.
Like the bulbs of spring.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on April 9, 2010 in Better Boards, Big ideas, Strategic Thinking
With the extremely poor financial condition that states are experiencing and the coming wave of dramatic cutbacks in state and local funding of services delivered through nonprofits (one colleague noted close to 15 nonprofits on the financial brink in her Florida community), one would think that boards would crave new thinking around program delivery, organizational structure, partnership or cost reduction.
But a conversation yesterday brought back to me a dynamic that I’ve been observing for many years: the role of boards as conservators.
A little background.
Yesterday I made my bi-annual trek to life portfolio company New Directions to discuss life in the nonprofit sector with their clients. New Directions clients are accomplished people in business or the professions who are designing the next stage of their life journeys.
My portion of the conversation was “The rewarding and confounding world of the nonprofit sector,” which is partly nonprofit 101 and partly DEEP THOUGHTS.
A fellow “interpreter of the sector” was the Executive Director of a capacity building (smallish, $500K budget) nonprofit. He mentioned that for the last two years he had been a co-executive director, a leadership team that resulted from a merger. He mentioned that the other ED was winding up his term and he would soon be the sole ED. When I asked how the co-directorship worked for him, he shared he really liked the arrangement, but his Board just wasn’t comfortable with the shared leadership model.
Boards as Conservators
At first a bit surprised by this tale, it reminded me that many boards are naturally suited to their role as conservators.
Here I’m using conservator in its definition as someone who conserves or keeps safe. Like a custodian, guardian, or protector.
The words we use to describe board duties — like prudent, loyalty, care, fiduciary — imply moderation and caution. Another word I might use would be “conservative.”
In my experience, most Boards of Directors are loathe, and rightfully so, to take big risks. In their conservator role, boards put the breaks on reckless spending. Because boards usually reflect the mindset of the communities they serve, they often restrain choices, decisions or actions Read More >>
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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 September 16, 2009 in Upcoming Events, Speaking and Training
Check out the nonprofit workshops we’re giving around New England this Fall. We hope you’ll join us.
- Wednesday, Sept 30th: Gayle will be co-presenting on Annual Giving Campaigns at the Boston Fundraising Summit at Simmons College. Our session runs from 9:30-10:45 am.
- Thursday, Oct 8th: Jon and Gayle will be presenting “How to make the most of your year end appeal” for the RI Land & Water Partnership from 5:30-8:30 pm. The session will take place at Audubon Society of RI headquarters in Smithfield, RI. While the session is open to all, first dibs go to watershed associations and land trusts.
- Tuesday, Nov 3rd: Gayle will be leading a lively discussion “Building Board Leadership: The role of board officers” at TDC’s downtown headquarters in Boston, Mass.
- Monday, Nov 9th: Gayle will be presenting “Funding your work in these times” at the YES WE WILL Conference at the Crowne Plaza, Warwick RI. Her workshop is from 2:45-4:15.
- Friday Nov 13th: Dig deep into board self-assessment at Gayle’s workshop “How are we Doing? Using Self- Assessment to Jumpstart Your Board Improvement Plan” at the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network/Associated Grantmaker’s Conference at the Sheraton Framingham in Framingham, Massachusetts. Session runs from 1:45-3:00 pm.
- Thursday, Dec 3: “Strategic Planning and Succession Planning” will run for the last time in 2009 at the Rhode Island Foundation/ Fidelity Investments Board Development Program. This one is an early morning session from 8:30-11:00 at Fidelity’s Smithfield, RI campus.
See you there.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on June 30, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Better Boards
Vision matters. It inspires. It enables. It overcomes. It achieves.
Your founders most likely shared powerful dreams…
They saw people who were hungry and set out to feed them.
They saw people stricken by disease and were compelled to heal them.
They were outraged by the burning river and resolved to make it clean.
They saw a community without spirit and promised it art and music.
They saw their heritage at risk and vowed to preserve it.
Imagine those founding days of your organization.
Can you picture the founders, conspiring around a kitchen table? Can you hear them talking? Passionate, outraged, inspirational? Can you see them working tirelessly, day and night, in service to their cause, despite overwhelming obstacles, hungry to make a difference?
If you polled your board members today and asked why they serve, would they echo the passion of your founding vision?
Or would they describe their purpose in more mundane terms — attending meetings, monitoring finances, raising money, creating policies, supervising the CEO?
While these routine tasks are important components of the Board’s duties, they only have value as they enable the means to achieving the greater vision.
It’s not enough to outfit and command a tight little ship. That ship has to deliver its passengers to their desired destination or you’ve failed your mission.
Ultimately, your performance as a board isn’t judged by the health of your balance sheet, or the sparkle of your facility, no matter how important these may be.
The real measure is the difference you make in the lives you save, the natural resources you protect, the beauty you create, or the spiritual comfort you provide.
Whether you describe it as a vision, a mission, or just your promise to your community, achieving that vision is what truly matters.
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Adapted from the opening chapter of Gayle’s book How Are We Doing? A 1 Hour Guide to Evaluating Your Performance as a Nonprofit Board
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on May 26, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Better Boards
What enables change in a nonprofit board of directors?
- A critical mass of directors, including key leadership, perceive a need for change.
- The rest of the board is willing to go along.
- Directors find an inspiring new vision to rally around.
- Directors are actively involved in and agree with the “diagnosis.”
- Directors believe that the change is possible and will make life significantly better.
- Directors are open to trying new ways of acting.
- Directors believe that the benefits of change outweigh the costs.
- Directors are willing to, and learn, the new skills needed to perform the new behaviors.
- Directors believe that they personally can do it differently.
- The Board itself supports and reinforces the change over time.
- Directors are willing to commit the time to working on the change and to changing over time.
- Directors trust each other (and the change agent).
- Directors are willing to commit resources to support new ways of behaving.
What else have you found necessary to enable major improvements in your nonprofit board of directors?
And if you are thinking about launching board development, you might want to start by assessing just how many conditions for successful change are already in place.
For more about behavioral change and organization development, check out this helpful summary of Change Theory courtesy of University of Twente, Netherlands.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on May 22, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Better Boards
Does Rumplestiltskin describe the life of a typical nonprofit CEO?
You remember the fairy tale. A poor miller’s daughter is locked into a room by the king and told to spin straw into gold upon penalty of death. She is saved by the appearance of a odd little person called Rumplestiltskin who offers to spin straw into gold for her but only on the condition that she give up her first born child.
Has your board imprisoned your Executive Director?
In surveys conducted across the U.S., most nonprofit executive directors report that they love their work. Yet they also lament how they’re subject to constant stress, never ending days (and evenings and weekends), and financial and personnel worries.
If there is anywhere in an organization that the buck truly stops, it’s in the office of the executive director. Yea, the moral authority of the organization is on the shoulders of the Board. But the reality… it’s the CEO responsible for success or failure.
According to a survey done by The Urban Institute ” more than a quarter of CEOs [of mid-sized organizations] rate their boards as fair or poor when it comes to evaluating the CEO, planning, monitoring programs and services, dealing with the community, and educating the public about the organization.”
Time after time, I hear from the executive directors of very successful nonprofits how alone and unsupported they feel. “I appreciate the vote of confidence of my board, but I don’t feel completely comfortable steering this ship without some direction from the Board.”
Certainly boards hire their chief executives for their leadership and with high hopes for great outcomes. But like the poor miller’s daughter, few mortals have gold-spinning powers. Most need some support to achieve great results.
CEOs need a strong partnership with their Board. They want to find a collegial, dedicated and self-managed team that employs the right amount of monitoring while at the same time offering support and wise counsel.
Too often they get micromanagers instead, or equally bad, uninterested and unreliable directors the care and feeding of which just squanders precious time.
How do you know what your CEO needs from your board (beyond meaningful work, reasonable compensation, a healthy workplace, and opportunities for professional growth)?
There are two ways to find out:
1. Put yourself in your exec’s shoes. What would you want from the board if you were in that job?
2. Ask. You can learn a lot through direct conversation.
Don’t make your CEO strike a Faustian bargain with some funny little man. Supported by an effective board, many CEOs actually can spin straw into gold.
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An earlier version of this appeared in Chapter 12 of Gayle’s book How are We Doing? A 1-Hour Guide to Evaluating Your Performance as a Nonprofit Board
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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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