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How to Build an Effective Nonprofit Board of Directors

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Build an Effective Nonprofit Board of Directors

As any nonprofit leader knows, an effective and engaged board of directors is crucial to an organization’s long-term resilience and success. Healthy and productive boards don’t just happen, though. They require careful recruitment, consistent communication, genuine relationship-building, and clear expectations.

Organizations that are backed by strong, active board members, who work in partnership with your staff and one another, are typically able to accomplish much more than nonprofits that don’t prioritize board management. Paying attention to board development can bring greater satisfaction to staff, board members, and your supporters by boosting morale and organizational impact.

Strengthening your board to succeed in all aspects of your mission is an ongoing process, but the results are certainly worth the extra effort. To help your nonprofit cultivate a more effective board of directors, we’ll cover how to:

  1. Recruit the right individuals.
  2. Create a solid board structure.
  3. Communicate everyone’s responsibilities.
  4. Regularly evaluate the board’s effectiveness.

At Boardable, we’ve worked with thousands of nonprofit organizations to empower their boards with the right tools and resources. We’ve seen which board management strategies work well for many organizations, as well as which management tactics tend to fall short. With this experience, we’re confident that these four tips will guide you along the path to more effective board management. Let’s dive in!

1. Recruit the right individuals.

An effective board of directors starts with the board members themselves. Too often, recruiting is done haphazardly, at the last minute, and without a sufficient pool of candidates. Instead of waiting until a board member’s term is about to expire, start the process early to avoid scrambling and ending up with a substandard replacement.

Right before embarking on the recruitment journey, evaluate the current composition of your team. This allows you to determine what skills are missing, so you can move forward with finding the candidates who bring the right qualifications to the table. From here, you can jump straight into the recruitment process. 

Boardable’s guide to welcoming new board members explores recruitment in-depth and explains the exact steps your team should take to identify the best candidates:

  1. Set up a nominating committee. Assemble a group of trusted advisors to assess the board’s strengths and weaknesses. Then, this group will locate qualified candidates to fill any gaps. Many organizations include this role in the governance committee as an ongoing responsibility.
  2. Consider your volunteers. These individuals are already committed to your cause and understand your organization’s backend processes. Look for those who possess admirable skills that would serve your board well.
  3. Turn to current donors. Donors are also excellent candidates. Particularly, consider your major and recurring donors who demonstrate a consistent commitment to your work. These individuals tend to have connections throughout the community as well.
  4. Broaden your search to the community. Go beyond your existing network by considering prominent community leaders and volunteers at similar organizations. Considering different individuals will help you to locate the best candidates.

Finding passionate board members who possess skills your board has been missing is a crucial first step to filling open positions and building an effective board. By following these steps, you’ll be able to set a solid foundation for organizational growth and vitality.

2. Create a solid board structure.

A committed, skilled, and diverse group of board members is only the first part of the equation. To make the most of these attributes, your nonprofit needs to put the right board structure in place. This entails a straightforward hierarchy among leadership positions, an agreed-upon process for decision-making, and clearly defined responsibilities.

Your nonprofit’s bylaws should spell out how your board conducts operations. Assess if these guidelines are outdated or overall ineffective, and take the time to refresh your approach if they are. Effective bylaws should clearly define factors such as:

  • Term limits. How long is a board member expected to serve? For instance, a common board member term structure is two consecutive three-year terms.
  • Roles and responsibilities. What are your nonprofit’s expectations for its board members? Be specific by defining the responsibilities for specific officer positions.
  • The process of removing board members. What steps will your board take to remove an ineffective board member from office? Board members who aren’t fully participating or are otherwise a hindrance can drag the rest of the board down.
  • Frequency of board meetings. How often will your board meet to discuss your nonprofit’s strategies? Some boards meet monthly while others only meet a few times a year.
  • The voting process. What procedures will your board follow to make decisions? This guide explains that your bylaws should outline what constitutes a quorum, which board members can vote, and what steps they should follow when voting.

Further, you should have a clear committee structure in place. There are common standing committees that are permanent (like finance and governance). You may also need to occasionally establish ad hoc committees to fulfill a specific function and then disband them once their purpose is fulfilled. With these structural elements in place, your team can stay on track by following the proper procedures.

3. Communicate everyone’s responsibilities.

In some cases, nonprofit leaders don’t sufficiently explain roles and expectations upfront. In turn, new board members might not fully understand the commitment they’re making when they accept a position. As we mentioned, your bylaws should cover these duties, but it’s up to your current board members and leadership to explain them and ensure they’re fulfilled.

Outline what duties new members will be responsible for, and who will be tasked with informing them. Here are a few common responsibilities that board members are expected to fulfill:

  • Attend and participate in meetings. Board members are expected to attend meetings unless there is an emergency. Further, they should proactively participate in discussions and be encouraged to respectfully challenge fellow board members on their ideas and opinions when necessary.
  • Serve on a committee. Nonprofit directors are often required to serve on at least one committee. The board chair appoints committee members and should select them based on past experience, skills, and interests.
  • Participate in fundraising. Some organizations expect board members to play a role in their nonprofit fundraising strategy. They might attend fundraising events, encourage their networks to donate, and contribute their own funds to the organization. 

While specific duties may vary from organization to organization, there’s one commonality between all nonprofits: board members should advance their nonprofit’s mission. These individuals are the face of your cause and should act as such. Passionate board members will already be eager to rise to this responsibility, but it’s still necessary to communicate your performance expectations to keep everyone on the same page. 

With the vast array of responsibilities your board members hold, you’ll likely find it best to implement board management software to assign tasks and discuss projects on a regular basis. That way, you can hold the team accountable for its work and ensure all expectations are met.

4. Regularly evaluate the board’s effectiveness.

Without an accountability system in place, it’s much more likely that standards will slip. Encourage everyone to continue doing their best work by conducting an annual review. There are a handful of ways you can regularly assess effectiveness. Four common options include:

  1. Self-assessment. Have the board evaluate itself. Each board member will evaluate their own performance based on a set of criteria. Then, they’ll assess the board’s performance as a whole.
  2. Peer-to-peer assessment. Board members can assess their own individual performance, then also evaluate their fellow board members. You may want to keep peer reviews anonymous, because some board members may be reluctant to call out problematic behavior if they anticipate a confrontation.
  3. Evaluation by the executive director. Have the executive director evaluate the board as a whole. Board members will be able to decipher the executive director’s comments without specifically calling out any one person, avoiding the tension of individual performance reviews.
  4. Assessment by a third-party consultant. An experienced consultant can offer an impartial opinion of your board’s performance. Cornershop Creative’s guide to nonprofit consultants explains that you should select one whose area of expertise aligns with your nonprofit’s overall mission and goals.

Whichever approach you take, it’s important to have an evaluation process in place. A standardized method for assessing effectiveness can help keep track of strengths and identify weaknesses in your board that may require attention. That way, you can determine which skills you need and begin searching for the right candidates to join your board in the future.

Building an effective board of directors may seem like a daunting task, especially since it’s an ongoing process. However, forming an engaged team and equipping these individuals with the right structure and a sufficient understanding of their roles will be invaluable to your organization’s continued success. 

Just because successful board management is an ongoing process doesn’t mean your team has to struggle to keep up. The right technology will be instrumental in your success by helping your board members stay in regular contact with one another, collaborate on your nonprofit’s mission, and hold each other accountable for staying on top of their tasks.

When it’s all said and done, you’ll have an effective board of directors that will go out of its way to make sure your organization can continue working toward its mission.

Nonprofit Board Leadership: 6 Strategies to Steer the Ship

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Nonprofit Board Leadership

Your nonprofit’s board is one of your most valuable assets. A successful board will play an important part in fundraising initiatives, generate community support, and create energy for your mission.

Although governance models vary based on the needs and goals of every nonprofit, the underlying concept is the same. Your board members should provide key advice and amplify your impact. 

But in order to fully leverage the power of your board members, you need to spend time improving board leadership and building a high-impact team. Without the right leadership in place, your board may lack a unified direction or struggle to move your mission forward.

With many ongoing responsibilities, executive directors often encounter challenges with developing a highly motivated, productive board. 

However, leadership can make or break your board’s effectiveness, so to help, we’ve gathered a few proven best practices for effective nonprofit board leadership, including:

  1. Understand your role and your goal.
  2. Create structures for a strong foundation. 
  3. Set clear expectations and hold members accountable.
  4. Cultivate connections and establish a collaborative culture.
  5. Respect the value of your board members.
  6. Keep your eye on the big picture.

By putting these strategies into action, you’ll be better prepared to steer your nonprofit board in a direction that effectively supports your mission. Let’s get started.

  1. Understand your role and your goal.

Running your nonprofit board successfully is about more than just planning retreats and running effective virtual board meetings—though of course, those are important too! 

Taking the time to define and understand your job will set you apart from other nonprofit leaders. And we mean this literally: an estimated 51% of board chairs do nothing specific to prepare for the role.

The exact nature of your role will depend on your title. There are two main titles that have a hand in board leadership, and while they may sound interchangeable, they are actually very different. The “leader” in nonprofit board leadership refers to two primary positions, including:

  • The executive director. This individual is in charge of a nonprofit’s day-to-day operations. They do the on-the-ground work of directing employees and volunteers to fulfill a nonprofit’s mission. Typically, this role has less turnover over time.
  • The board chair. This person focuses more on big-picture goals and initiatives, and they usually don’t have any operational responsibilities. However, one big obligation handled by the board (and the chair) rather than the ED is fiduciary responsibility. Finally, board chairs usually serve for a specified term of just a few years.

The responsibilities of the board chair and executive director do often overlap, and nonprofits will be most successful when they work in agreement. Both are key to running a sustainable and effective nonprofit, which is why clearly defining each role is so important. 

Once you understand your role and responsibilities, identify what success in this position would look like for you. Consider the overall goals of your organization and how you hope to mobilize your board to reach them. You’ll likely have some measurable indicators in place to track the entire board’s progress, but it’s also wise to set personal goals for your leadership.

  1. Create structures for a strong foundation.

The best way to ensure long-term growth of your nonprofit board is by establishing a strong starting point. A few important building blocks involve training, communication, and key systems. Having these in place from the outset will save you time and frustration down the line.

First, it’s always a good idea to provide information and training resources to new board members. But even if you’re working with a more experienced board, consider formalizing key protocols so that everyone is on the same page. 

By laying the groundwork for training and development, you’ll set your board members on a path for continuous improvement.

Strategic communication is also a key element of board leadership. We recommend implementing communication best practices including:

  • Providing a roadmap. Make sure everyone understands roughly when and how often they’ll hear from you. Sticking to a schedule will help your board stay engaged and help you stay on track.
  • Surveying current needs. Especially if you’ve just taken the helm of your nonprofit board, you’ll want to assess the current communication plans to see what is working well and what needs to be revamped.
  • Listening. In any sector, a good leader is one who listens. Establish clear channels so that your board members always know how to approach you. And when they do, practice active listening and take action on their suggestions!

You’ll also want to work with your team to decide what tools you’ll use to stay in touch and execute tasks. You could use a group messaging system, email, or something with more features. We recommend dedicated board management software to keep everything in one place.

  1. Set clear expectations and hold members accountable.

To be successful, everyone on your board needs to understand what is expected of them. Before joining the board, there should be a frank discussion about the necessary time commitment so that nobody is taken by surprise.

But that should be just the start of the conversation. Set clear expectations for all levels of involvement, including big-picture responsibilities as well as the minutiae of day-to-day tasks. 

Each board member will have their own set of responsibilities depending on their own specialized skills and the needs of your nonprofit. Take the time to define these so that there’s no uncertainty.

And when smaller tasks come up, have a plan in place for assigning them. Many of us have experienced the challenge of wondering, who was supposed to take care of that?

This is especially critical for one-off projects or needs that arise in the middle of a meeting. As Boardable explains in their guide to board meeting minutes, dedicated board software can help you clearly define even small responsibilities so that nothing falls through the cracks.

Once everything is defined, you’ll be well-positioned to follow up with members and ensure they are achieving their individual goals. This will keep the overall board moving in the right direction.

  1. Cultivate connections and establish a collaborative culture.

Efficiency is important, but a truly successful board is driven by a sense of community. Strong leaders provide opportunities for board members to connect with each other and engage with the mission.

One way to accomplish this is by holding an in-person or virtual board retreat where members dedicate an afternoon or a weekend to your nonprofit. Depending on your plans for the retreat, this can knock out several goals at once, including strategic planning and culture building. 

For a year-round approach, create a mentor system among your board members. Newer members will appreciate having a veteran to show them the ropes, and more seasoned individuals will enjoy being able to provide advice and expertise. This can also boost motivation and accountability for both parties.

Finally, there’s also the tried-and-true method of doing an icebreaker activity at board meetings. Although some of the ideas out there may be a little corny, they really do help your members engage on a personal level. Even a simple conversation prompt like sharing a favorite memory with the nonprofit can help form connections and get the conversation flowing.

  1. Respect the value of your board members.

Your board members lead busy lives and often have limited time and energy. Respect the commitment they’ve made to your nonprofit by honoring their valuable time. 

One key way to do this is by running efficient and well-planned board meetings. Your board members should never finish a lengthy meeting and think, That could have been sent in an email. Ineffective meetings are a recipe for burnout and disengagement.

Luckily, it’s simple for board chairs to avoid those outcomes with the right strategies in place. This guide to board meeting agendas offers some key tips for planning your next meeting:

  • Set and distribute an agenda ahead of time. This gives your board members the opportunity to prepare effectively. You don’t want to blindside someone by asking for a project briefing that they weren’t expecting to give! This will also help everyone come to the table with insightful ideas and thought-provoking questions.
  • Create a logical order. A well-organized agenda will keep your board from jumping around randomly to different topics. You could organize by type of item, by the associated board member, or by importance.
  • Note goals for each item. For every point of discussion, your agenda should say whether the goal is to inform, generate ideas, or reach a consensus. This makes it clear whether the meeting has accomplished everything you intended.
  • Limit length. Each item on the agenda should have a prescribed length of time for discussion—keep it as short as possible! This rule of thumb also applies to the length of the agenda as a whole. 

Incorporating these tips into your board leadership strategy will help keep meetings productive and on-track. Ultimately, this will convey that you value your board members’ time, encouraging them to stay engaged.

  1. Keep your eye on the big picture.

While it’s important to keep routine responsibilities like meeting planning running smoothly, that’s just a small part of your role.

As board chair, you’ll have a key role in strategic planning for your nonprofit. While the exact nature of each plan varies, it will include measurable goals, initiatives to prioritize, an assessment of strengths and weaknesses, and a roadmap for the future.

According to Bloomerang, your board should meet to revisit your strategic plan every 3-5 years. But as the leader of the board, your big-picture strategic plan should always be in the back of your mind.

As you help your board oversee the details of event organizing, campaign planning, and resource allocation, try to view everything through the lens of your strategic plan. Ask yourself: Is this course of action taking us closer or further away from our organization’s goals?

With practice, this perspective will become second nature, and you’ll be able to confidently lead your board in the right direction.

Especially in a time of uncertainty for many organizations, nonprofit boards need skilled leaders to drive success. These actionable strategies will help you provide board members with the environment and tools they need to support your mission. Good luck!

How to Keep Your Board Members Engaged All Year

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Nonprofit Board HelpThere are volumes written on staying engaged with your professional work, how to motivate employees, and communication in the workplace. That’s great for businesses, but how do nonprofits keep volunteer board members engaged in their work? Busy professionals who are donating their time to a cause want to do well in their board service, but they may need a little help. Here are some ways to keep them excited, involved, and effective with nonprofit board work all year round, even if they are remote or only meet quarterly.

Engage Board Members, Make It Personal

Humans are hard-wired to pay more attention to human faces than any amount of text or audio presented in a meeting. If many of your board members are remote or rarely meet in person, it is crucial to maintain that human element in your communication and meetings.There are a number of ways you can do this. Provide a people directory with everyone’s photo to help new members feel familiar with the other board members. If you have remote meetings, ask everyone to use their video cameras during the meeting. You might be surprised at how much this simple measure does to personalize the experience.

Create even more rapport by developing a buddy or board mentor system. Sometimes just the accountability of knowing even one person will be working with you on specific goals or looking for your attendance at the meeting is enough to get that extra effort from a board member. Additionally, it is a great opportunity for members to learn from each other and discuss how they can advance initiatives. This works especially well at knitting a geographically far-flung board closer together.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate to Your Board

Have you ever heard the advertising adage that a person needs seven impressions of your brand before it “sticks” in their mind? Obviously, you don’t want to bother your board members seven times about every initiative, but it is hard to underestimate the value of multiple nudges. Some board members will favor email while others may prefer to keep tabs on goals with your board portal. Regardless of the medium, don’t be shy about sending a variety of updates, reminders, and nudges for key deadlines. The first reminder might catch a board member at a busy time, but the second could allow them to take action on the goal.

It isn’t enough to just communicate regularly, however. It is also helpful to make the communication as specific as possible. Many people will ignore an email to the whole board, but it is much harder to sleep on an email that starts out with their name and has information specific to something that board member is working on at that time. Be sure to keep it balanced between reminders or asks and recognition or celebration. If every time you contact your board members it is to nag them about some initiative, they will quickly learn to dread (and eventually ignore) your communication. Everyone appreciates someone noticing their hard work and small successes. Get to know your board members well enough to know if they’d appreciate a public shout-out or prefer a personal note.

Progress Should Be Visible to Your Board

Similar to our propensity to react to human faces, people love visually scannable information when possible. There are two big advantages to this. First of all, with publicly visible graphs or charts, it is simple for your busy board members to glance at the dashboard and see how things are trending. You could send a three page report that no one has time to read, or you could provide three visuals that get eyes on them every time.

Second of all, visuals have a wonderful way of “gamefying” board service.Is it halfway to your big event and only a fraction of the tables are sponsored? Time to kick it into high gear. Are you just dollars away from reaching the campaign goal? Every board member wants to be the one that closes the gap. Celebrate progress and ask for help as transparently as possible with a real-time, visual representation of your goals.

Keep It About the Mission

We all know about creating “mission moments” in a meeting to keep board members in touch with the effects of their work. You can take this a step further to increase the connection. Have board members take turns every month reporting on a specific chapter or organization and some interesting results they’ve had in the recent past. Board members also feel more connected to something that they can articulate themselves. Research activities you can do with your board, such as practicing elevator pitches of why they’re invested in the organization, brainstorming sessions on the vision of the nonprofit, or interviewing each other about how they came to the organization and summarizing it in a sentence or two for the board. Not only do activities like these get board members thinking about why they volunteer their time for board service, it also offers great discussion material during meetings about the direction of the organization.

Connection Is Crucial

It can be a huge challenge to keep a group of perhaps spread out, busy, volunteer board members thinking about their board service between meetings. It’s not impossible, though. With some effort around building rapport, making information easily digestible, and motivating for progress, your board can stay a productivity machine all year long.

About Boardable:

Boardable is an online board management portal that centralizes communication, document storage, meeting planning, and everything else that goes into running a board of directors.

Conflict on the Board of Directors? Four Tips to Defuse Tension

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Nonprofit Board Conflict ResolutionMembers of a nonprofit board of directors are wonderful people. They are often accomplished professionals, visionary leaders, and passionate supporters of the cause. Interestingly, these characteristics of excellent directors can also set the stage for tension in the boardroom. Let’s look at four tips for defusing any conflicts.

Clearly define roles and rules of conduct.

The most effective boards and meetings have one thing in common: clear expectations. Board conflict prevention starts with everyone knowing who is in charge and what is expected. I encourage boards to actually make a board member commitment “contract” that spells out the roles and responsibilities of being a director. There should be a similar description for each of the board officers, too. That way, no one is confused about who should be reporting on which areas and who is responsible for certain decisions. Make sure there are also procedures spelled out for meeting discussions and votes. If everyone is aware of the rules ahead of time, it is much easier to address conflict later.

Be hard on ideas, not people.

This is a great mantra I learned from our board governance coach, Kim Donahue. It’s all about cultivating a culture that can pick apart ideas as needed without making it personal. This is a fairly intuitive way to behave, but reminding board members about it in a fun informational session can go a long way towards boardroom decorum. Additionally, make sure that your board is building in enough social time to grow real trust and respect between members. It is much easier to express an opposing view if you believe that your fellow board directors all have the organization’s best interest in mind.

Enlist the troublemakers.

I use the word “troublemakers” loosely here to mean the people who might be more inclined to dominate a discussion or always be the first to offer their opinion. Sometimes this happens organically as other directors look to a few strong leaders to see how they feel about an issue before weighing in. If you find your meetings always revolving around the opinions of one person, elist this person to lower tension in the boardroom. Try pulling them aside and saying something like, “Brenda, everyone values your point of view so much. I wonder if we could try an experiment in this meeting. I really want some feedback from the others on this agenda item, so it would be interesting to see what would happen if you withheld your ideas for a minute to see what they come up with.” Win the more opinionated board members over to your side and you might find that the people who were previously a challenge become the peacekeepers.

While some dissent is healthy, everyone needs to come together after a vote.

 Disagreement is a part of discussion, but everyone should understand that the vote on the motion should be the end of that discussion. The board will vote yes or no, and all board members should know that is the time to accept the decision of the board. This can sometimes be difficult for board members who disagree. Consensus means that even though I may disagree, I can support this decision because the majority of board members believe it is the right thing to do. It is not a bad idea to remind board members that the decision of the board should be supported by everyone in the room. Being considerate of dissenting opinions will go a long way toward resolving any differences.

Conflict in the boardroom can take time to resolve.

Don’t be discouraged if it seems like certain disagreements keep flaring up over and over. There will be times that people simply don’t like each other that much, and that’s okay. As long as you have started implementing the four steps above, you will be on the way to reining in any disputes. Don’t be afraid to periodically take a step back and ask board members what is working and what isn’t. With some careful thought, board feedback, and proactive practices, your board will be on the right track.

 

About Boardable:

Boardable is an online board management portal that centralizes communication, document storage, meeting planning, and everything else that goes into running a board of directors. Founded in 2016 by nonprofit leaders and founders, Boardable has a mission to improve board engagement for nonprofits. Boardable is based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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