Board Your
One of the concerns I hear voiced most frequently from my clients is that board members don’t participate as actively as the board president or chief executive expect them to. As I ask questions to better define the issue, I often learn that these boards have never had formal training in roles and responsibilities. Most members came on the board because they liked the mission of the nonprofit, knew board members, or were asked by someone they respected. It was just assumed that these new members knew the basic responsibilities of board services, but people who have never served on a board (or served on a dysfunctional board) often don’t have a clear idea of what they are expected to do.
By the end of these conversations, I generally suggest offering a training session or workshop, but not a “one size fits all” model. Most consultants are familiar with the ten basic roles of a board as defined by Board Source and this could be considered an industry standard. In fact, I do sometimes use this list as the basis for a workshop. However, if you type “Responsibilities of Board Members” into Google, you will get nearly 400,000 hits which tell you that there is a universe of information on this topic. Although getting diverse information can be useful, it can also be overwhelming and unnecessary when helping nonprofit board members truly appreciate what they need to do.
To simplify the topic, I always highlight these two key, encompassing responsibilities:
- To secure the money to achieve the nonprofit’s mission.
- To manage the money efficiently so that programs and services achieve the mission.
Is this too simplistic for the complicated work boards must do? I don’t think so. If you look at a longer list of board duties, each if not all of them ultimately come back to one of these two responsibilities. Let’s use the Board Source list to see if this is so. The very first item is “determine mission and purpose”. Both of these topics are included in the two key responsibilities. The next is “select the chief executive”. Board members must secure sufficient funds to hire a person qualified to manage efficient programs and services and they also must “support and evaluate the chief executive” (the third responsibility) to ensure this efficiency.
I could go through the remaining seven items and demonstrate how each relates to one of the two key responsibilities listed above but I think you get my point. Does this mean that I never use the entire list of ten? No. If the board is willing to do a half day session, the longer list is quite useful and there is time to go over each item in depth. Another place I go into detail occurs when orientating of new board members because they need to fully understand in depth what they have signed on to do.
Here are a few examples where using just two key points for focus can be very useful:
- With an experienced, well trained board who likes to insert a brief (30 minutes or so) educational piece at their regular meetings.
- As introduction to a workshop on fundraising to emphasize the importance of the role of the board in raising money.
- When training a finance committee to ensure they understand the importance of helping the board manage its finances.
- At the beginning of a strategic planning process to make sure everyone understands the relationship between planning, fundraising and financial management.
- When meeting with prospective board members so that they are clear on what board membership can involve.
In conclusion, having board members understand what their roles and responsibilities truly involve is important to the success of your nonprofit. Using the framework that the primary responsibilities of board members are to raise money and manage money is a simple and effective way to help them as they work to achieve the organization’s mission.
©2010 Jane B. Ford, M.Ed.
Jane B. Ford, M.Ed. is a speaker, author, teacher, coach and consultant who guides individuals and nonprofits on the road to prosperity. She has worked with small to mid-sized nonprofits for three decades in the roles of executive director, trainer, fundraiser and management consultant. You can learn more about Jane at http://TheJoyPath.com and http://GetGrantsNow.net.
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