Board Games: Building an Engaged and Effective Nonprofit Board

"Great boards are created deliberately and thoughtfully. They don't just happen by accident."

Your nonprofit organization’s success hinges significantly on your board’s effectiveness. 

I’m probably not telling you anything new by saying that your Board of Directors plays a critical role in the governance, decision-making, and steering of your organization toward achieving its mission. However, a huge proportion of my work is helping nonprofit leaders to work through the challenges they have with their boards, and these challenges typically have to do with one or more of three things: engagement, fundraising, and strategic planning. 

If left unaddressed, these challenges can impede your organization’s effectiveness and impact . This article will give you practical solutions to overcome these challenges. By implementing these strategies, nonprofit leaders can build a more engaged, efficient, and strategic board, ultimately improving the impact that your nonprofit can make – which is the whole point right?! 

KEY CHALLENGES

Cathy A. Trower, author of “The Practitioner’s Guide to Governance as Leadership” says, “An effective board of directors is a must-have, not a nice-to-have, for all organizations – nonprofit and for-profit alike.”

I agree with Cathy. However, before creating an effective board of directors, we need to try to understand the challenges.

Engagement and Participation

One of a nonprofit leaders’ most common challenges is ensuring board members are actively engaged and participative. 

I hear from my clients about low meeting attendance, lack of preparedness, and passive board members who do not contribute to discussions. One client was frustrated because she wasn’t able to hold a vote at their last board meeting because they did not have enough board members for a quorum. Another jokingly (but not really) called her board meetings the “sit & get” meeting. This disengagement can significantly affect decision-making processes and your organization’s overall direction.

Poor engagement from board members can lead to missed opportunities, inadequate oversight, and a lack of strategic vision. We need our board members fully involved, prepared, and committed to their roles to guide the organization effectively. I’ve experienced firsthand how a board’s lack of oversight led the organization to being in debt tens of millions of dollars. 

Fundraising Expectations

Traditionally, board members are expected to lead fundraising efforts, but many feel uncomfortable with this responsibility. This discomfort can stem from lacking experience, training, or confidence in requesting donations. 

Consequently, there is often a disconnect between the organization’s fundraising needs and the board’s capabilities. This gap can result in inadequate funding, which hampers the nonprofit’s ability to achieve its goals and sustain its operations. 

Therefore, it is essential to align board members’ skills with fundraising tasks and provide them with the necessary support. It’s imperative to educate our volunteers on the fact that fundraising is so much more than asking for money. It’s about identifying people who do or should care about the mission. It’s building and nurturing relationships with those folks. And it’s about providing meaningful appreciation and recognition. These are things that usually fall within any passionate volunteer’s comfort zone. 

Strategic Planning and Oversight

Your board provides high-level guidance and oversight, to ensure your organization remains aligned with its mission and long-term goals. However, balancing strategic focus with operational involvement can be challenging. 

If your board becomes too involved in day-to-day operations, it can lead to micromanagement. Conversely, your organization may lack clear direction and oversight if your board is too hands-off.

Finding the right balance will ensure effective governance and strategic planning. Your board must focus on the big picture while empowering the staff to handle operational details. This requires a partnership between the Executive Director and the Board Chair/Governance Committee. 

SOLUTIONS

Improving Engagement and Participation

It is so important for nonprofit organizations to clearly define and communicate what they need from their board from the outset, of course this will likely evolve over time. By establishing clear expectations, board members will fully understand their roles and can contribute effectively. This clarity helps align board activities with the organization’s mission and strategic goals, nurturing a more productive and engaged board. 

After establishing needs and clear expectations, improving nonprofit board engagement and participation begins with selecting members who are passionate about the cause and have the necessary skills and experience.

A comprehensive onboarding process helps new members understand their roles, responsibilities, and the organization’s expectations. I would go as far as to say that it is essential to clearly define these roles and provide a handbook that outlines meeting schedules, preparation requirements, and participation expectations.

Effectively utilizing board committees can also increase involvement. Committees can focus on finance, fundraising, or governance for example, allowing members to contribute where they are most effective. 

And of course, regular training and development opportunities, such as workshops, webinars, and retreats, can help board members stay informed and engaged. 

“Great boards are created deliberately and thoughtfully. They don’t just happen by accident.”
~ BoardSource.

This is the fundamental truth about the governance of both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. It requires an intentional effort to build an effective board of directors. 

  • Deliberate Creation: Building a great board is not a passive process. It involves strategic planning and active decision-making to assemble a group of individuals whose skills, experiences, and values align with the organization’s mission and needs.
  • Thoughtful Consideration: The composition of a board should be carefully considered. This includes diversity in expertise, background, and perspective to enrich decision-making and strategic planning.
  • Continuous Improvement: Great boards don’t merely form and maintain their excellence automatically. They require ongoing education, self-assessment, and revitalization to remain relevant and effective in changing environments.
  • Commitment to Governance: All board members should maintain high governance standards through conscious efforts to uphold their duties and responsibilities, ensuring the organization’s long-term success and integrity.

Recognizing board members’ public and private contributions and providing opportunities for personal and professional growth can create a more engaged and effective board.

Addressing Fundraising Challenges

To address fundraising challenges (which is most certainly a topic for another article), board members really do need to be provided with fundraising training. 

This training can include workshops on how to make donation requests, understand donor motivations, and build relationships with potential donors. 

Developing a variety of fundraising strategies that leverage board members’ unique skills is also important. Some may excel in direct fundraising, while others might be better suited for organizing events or engaging in advocacy.

Strategic Planning and Oversight

Improving strategic planning and oversight involves conducting regular strategic planning sessions with board involvement. These sessions can help ensure your organization stays aligned with its mission and adapts to changing circumstances. 

I love it when an organization commits to annually taking time away to strategically think about the direction of the organization. Businesses used to do 3 to 5 year planning, but things change so quickly that a cadence like that becomes irrelevant in no time. One agency I work with takes an annual retreat to reflect on what has happened or changed in the past year and what they need to focus their energy on for the coming year. From this they determine the initiatives the board will focus on and I help keep them on track throughout the year. 

Delineating the responsibilities between your board and staff is also important. Your board should focus on governance and strategic oversight while your staff manages day-to-day operations.

Using dashboards and other tools to monitor critical organizational metrics allows your board to stay informed about your organization’s performance without getting bogged down in operational details. 

Nonprofit organizations face significant challenges that can impact the organization’s effectiveness and success. However, nonprofit leaders can build stronger, more effective boards by proactively addressing these issues leading to engaged, strategic, and supportive boards that drive organizations toward more significant impact and sustainability. This is where you will build the board your organization deserves.

Kim is a mom, lover of being active and the outdoors, and helper of nonprofit leaders.
kim@athena-coco.com 

 

Plan for a Great Year-end Now

There are many different ways to raise money for the great causes in our communities. Getting your hardware store to have customers round-up, special events, mailings, selling cookies, and many, many more! In my career as an Executive Director and in the work I do now as a Consultant, I’ve always been much more passionate about the relationship side of fundraising than the transactional side. 

When we get nameless, faceless individuals to give us money on impulse or out of feelings of obligation or guilt, we are essentially making a transaction. It’s usually a one-time deal, and we never see the person again. There is nothing at all wrong with this. Many organizations are able to raise significant funds in this way. It’s just that I don’t get excited about it. 

The aspect of fundraising that motivates me is connecting people to causes that they care deeply about. To me, helping people to consider ways that they can make our communities stronger and healthier is what the nonprofit sector is all about. It involves drawing out empathy and compassion, then facilitating opportunities to direct those emotions into action and impact. This starts with developing relationships and your Board of Directors is a great place to begin laying the foundation of relationship-based development. 

At the end of the year, many organizations focus a great deal of energy on tasks that drive transactional giving. This is totally understandable – there are budgets to meet and year-end generosity and tax advantages to capitalize on. However, I want to spend this article giving you five strategies that you can put in place now (or over the next few months) that will help you sail into Q4 with confidence. 

Strategy #1 – Evaluate your Board of Directors

Is your board engaged? Do they care about the critical social issue you are addressing? Do they joyfully give their time, talent and treasure to advance the work you are doing to make your community a better place? Your board should be made up of your most enthusiastic and dedicated donors and volunteers. If they are not, it’s likely time for a shakedown. Imagine the year-end potential if you have a dozen raving fans out in the community sharing the importance of the work you do! 

Strategy #2 – Educate your Board of Directors 

Many people join boards because they care about the issue and advancing the solution, but they don’t know how to help. If they are not given direction, they often become disengaged, or they focus their energy in ways that are not helpful to the organization. Staff are already more than busy, and do not have time to download the massive amount of knowledge they have accumulated while working in the industry. 

So how do you bring volunteers up to speed so they can be actively involved in advancing the work? Give homework. Here are a few ideas that can help your volunteers understand your cause better. 

    • Assign research on the history or root cause of the issue your agency addresses. What are the underlying issues that many people don’t understand? 
    • Assign interviews with other agencies tackling different aspects of the issue. How do the different agencies work together? What other opportunities exist for tackling the problem? Why should we or should we not expand to address the issue in different ways? 
    • Assign interviews with constituents to help understand the impact of the issue. What do we think we know, but we really don’t? 
    • If possible, send them through an experience that helps them understand the work better. Poverty simulations, accessing services as a potential constituent, participating in programs, serving as a front-line volunteer, and more can give volunteers a deeper understanding of the cause. 

Have volunteers do their homework, then present it to the full board during a regular meeting. Them doing the research is going to make the learning more impactful, and they will likely come away with significantly different learnings than if staff had just told them what they know. 

Board members with a strong understanding of the problem and the unique way their organization is addressing the problem, are excited about sharing your amazing work and engaging other people in the solution. 

Strategy #3 – Engage your Board of Directors

Boards that come together every month or so just to hear about operations, are totally missing the point. Board and committee meetings should be centered on the work that the volunteers are doing to advance the cause. A planning or strategic retreat early in the fiscal year can help clarify the work that they need to be doing. If your agency is new to engaging your governance volunteers in appropriate work, here are a few ideas that can come out of intentionally planning their focus:

    • Expand upon the education homework to deepen understanding
    • Debate the merits of expanding or staying narrowly focused
    • Identify marketing opportunities for participants or donors
    • Discuss ways to deepen relationships with potential participants or donors 
    • Consider the strategies of other industries and how they may inform your work
    • Compare funding streams with those of other agencies and discuss
    • Identify XX prospects who should be friends of your organization and strategize how to establish and strengthen those relationships
    • Create policies to ensure long-term success
    • Plan for change, challenges and growth

These are just a few ideas, and of course – they will totally depend on the work and stage of your organization. The idea is to strengthen your board, their understanding and commitment to your work. As a result, you multiply the number of voices you have in your community sharing your stories. 

Strategy #4 – Tell different kinds of stories

Different brains work differently. There are a myriad of personality tests out there to prove it. So if you are only telling one kind of story, you are likely only connecting with one type of brain. Very generally speaking, these four different types of stories will appeal to four different types of potential friends of your organization:

    • Empathetic – these folks want to hear the stories about the people impacted by the problem and how you are helping them
    • Analytic – tell them about the numbers of people affected, financial burdens created by the problem, money saved by your solution, etc
    • Big Picture – give them the vision of how the world will be a better place because of your work
    • Process – this group wants to understand the problem and the way that you are fixing it

Oftentimes we just tell stories that pull at the heartstrings. Those are important stories, but for some people that’s just white noise. By telling different types of stories, you will pique the interest of more people and more potential year-end givers. When you educated your board on the different kinds of stories that can be told, you help them grow, and they become better story tellers for you. 

Strategy #5 – Capture and Communicate

I’ve talked before about the idea of friend-raising. This involves connecting people to your organization so that they care and hopefully want to volunteer, donate, spread the word, or engage in some other way. To friend-raise, you need to get out and talk to people about the work you are doing. Go to Rotary Clubs and networking groups and farmers markets. Seize every opportunity to tell your stories. This is how you spread awareness and find more potential “friends” of your organization.

If you are not already doing this, establish a system for capturing anyone who has potential to be a friend. In addition to name and contact information, collect how they connected to the organization, who would be a good person to follow-up, and rank whether they are a casual friend, a connected friend, or a committed friend. This can be a sophisticated CRM or an excel spreadsheet. 

When you (staff or volunteers) are out in the community speaking about your agency, note the people who ask the extra questions. Or the ones who have a personal story to tell you. Or the ones who stick around afterwards to talk more about the issue. These are perfect people to add to your list. 

Once you have a list, follow-up with them multiple times throughout the year. Send pictures from events, updates on impact, information about upcoming engagement opportunities, success stories, and more. Set a goal of connecting with organizational friends X times throughout the year. The purpose of the communications should be to deepen the relationship (they can include a “soft ask” if it feels appropriate). The bigger goal is to give them reasons why they want to donate during your year-end efforts. 

There you go! Five things that you (staff and volunteer leadership) can do now or throughout the year, to help make Q4 successful, fun and prosperous for your organization. 

I help organizations to create the volunteer leadership they need to advance their work and help make our world a better place. Email me at Kim@Athena-CoCo.com, or schedule a Discovery Call if you would like to discuss ways to strengthen your Board of Directors and the work of your agency.

Kim is a mom, lover of being active and the outdoors, and helper of nonprofit leaders.
kim@athena-coco.com