What Your Organization Needs from Your Board

The first of this six article series talked about getting super clear about what nonprofit leaders need from and on their Board of Directors. The more specific you can get about what you are looking for, the more likely you are to find it. Needs change over time, so this is a conversation that you will want to revisit on a regular basis.

Before you start recruiting new board members, another very important piece of pre-work is to understand what you need your volunteers to do once they are on your board. As you are going out talking to prospective board members, you need to be able to articulate what you will be asking them to do. It is not fair to a prospect to recruit them into an unclear role. None of us would likely take a paid job without understanding what is expected from us, yet we do it to governance volunteers all the time!

In this article we will dive into creating Board Expectations that are right for YOUR unique organization.

ByLaws, Duties, Roles, and Responsibilities

Creating Board Expectations is about determining what your agency needs its governance volunteers to do, in order to advance the important work of your agency.

Board Expectations are different from ByLaws, Board Duties, and Board Responsibilities. All of which are important, but they serve different purposes.

Your ByLaws outline legally how your board needs to function. After you clarify your Board Expectations, you will want to go back and make sure that your ByLaws are consistent with your expectations.
Board Duties are the commitment of the Board to the organization. These are consistent standards for all nonprofit organizations.
And your Board Responsibilities are a high-level description of what the Board does for the organization. These are also pretty consistent among nonprofits, and not specifically tailored to your agency.

Your Board Expectations are about how you want your board members to act as individuals and as a group on behalf of your unique organization.

Value of Creating Board Expectations

Many agencies use the duties, roles, and responsibilities as their board expectations. That’s a good start, but let’s look quick at the value of establishing expectations that are specific to your organization:

People know what is expected of them. Prospects and board members will not know what your organization needs if you don’t know!
Once established, this can be a tool used for recruiting new board members.
No one is born knowing how to serve on a board. If you have a smaller nonprofit, you are likely recruiting board members who have never served on any board. They need help understanding their role. Even if they have served before, the needs of your organization might be much different than the needs of another. Being clear up front about the expectations can lead to better success with bringing on people who will be committed to the work and stay.
Just like with staff, it’s easier to evaluate and hold people accountable when they know what is expected of them. This tool can be used for an annual evaluation to track the effectiveness and quality of your board.
When the board is involved in developing the expectations (and I think that they should be) they will have a strong commitment to them; as well as a greater understanding of their role and the needs of the organizations.

Next let’s get specific with creating expectations that are right for your unique board.

Board Expectations

Now we are going to explore seven general categories of expectations to consider. This is not a magic number, and these categories are not set in stone. It’s fine if your agency ends up with more or fewer or different ones. The categories are mostly to get you thinking intentionally about your agency needs. It’s up to you and your board to determine what is right for your organization; as well as how detailed and specific you want them.

These categories are in no particular order:

Attendance / Time Commitment
Partner with Executive Director
Conduit to the Community
Fiduciary Governance
Intellectual Contributions
Mission & Outcomes Focused
Fundraising & Storytelling

We’ll dive into each of these individually, to give you an idea of things to think about.

Attendance / Time Commitment

Prospects need to know – up front – if the needs of your organization align with what they can commit to. Time commitments are often the first thing people ask about when they are considering serving on a board.

Some of the things to consider in this category:

Board Meetings – days, times, frequency, and expected attendance.
Terms – How long? How many can they serve? Do full terms start in a certain month?
- Terms are probably outlined in your ByLaws. It’s good to include here too, since volunteers will likely look at this document more than they ever look at your ByLaws. Just make sure the two listings are consistent!
Additional time expectations outside of Board meetings: committees requirements, annual meetings/planning events, programming, community events, etc.
Some boards will include the number of hours the volunteer is expected to commit to the organization each month.

Partnership with Executive Director

The board and the Executive Director work together to drive the impact of the organization. Board members who do not show up with a partnering mindset actually hurt the organization. Some things you may want to consider spelling out in this section are:

Passionately execute tasks that are assigned and complete them by the deadline.
Give your best effort to improve the organization.
Lead or work on strategies that will advance the work of the organization.
Be available to consult with the Executive Director as needed.

Conduit to the Community

One of the most valuable components of being led by a team of board members is that this structure allows the organization to multiply the number of people in the community. I often hear nonprofit leaders say that they are the “best kept secret in town.” And that makes sense. With the hundreds of things on a nonprofit leader’s plate, getting out and connecting with the community on a consistent basis can be difficult, if not impossible.

That’s where the board can help!

They can serve as the eyes, ears, and voice of the organization in the community.
They can represent the organization as ambassadors and active advocates within the community/service area.
Some organizations require that a board member find their successor to replace them in the event that they need to step down before their term expires.
Your board could be responsible for sourcing opportunities to promote and advocate for the organization.
Maybe you want to require that they attend a certain number of community events specifically to promote the agency. You can get really specific about the events, or you can have a committee work on determining the ones where the organization needs representation.

If your organization is still young, getting the word out might be one of the most important things you can do. People cannot care about your cause if they don’t know about it. The more people you have storytelling, advocating, and listening, the greater the spread of information will be.

Fiduciary Governance

This is addressed in Board Duties; as well as Board Member Roles & Responsibilities. So it may seem excessive to put fiduciary governance in the expectations as well. But this is a pretty important component of leading an organization, and it is often not well understood.

Some expectations to establish in this category may include:

Be aware of all financial statements. Not everyone needs to fully understand the ins and outs of the agency finances, but everyone should be able to read them well enough to understand if there are issues to be concerned about.
The Board, the Finance Committee, or at minimum a Finance Chair should take true ownership of understanding the organization’s financials and assets.
Review, or have a representative review, the financials a minimum of quarterly (monthly is better!)
Advise on annual budget development, approval, and responsible management.
Assist with planning and projecting for the organization’s future financial success.

Intellectual Contributions

Intellectual contributions are harder to set expectations for, because they are difficult to quantify. That doesn’t make them any less important. Sometimes people do not feel like they have enough knowledge or expertise to contribute. Letting prospects know up-front that they are expected to contribute their ideas can help foster engagement from the start.

Some things to consider including here are:

Pre-read board packets and materials so you can actively participate in discussions.
Arrive at meetings prepared to participate, eager to engage in conversations, and fully present.
Provide your fresh ideas and perspectives.
Participate in all meetings and board activities with a positive, solution-oriented mindset.
Have an enjoyable, life changing experience serving on the leadership team (making our world a better place should be fun!)

If someone is just coming and doing a “sit & get,” it’s likely not benefitting the organization. The volunteer is probably not getting much out of it either. And, it may be setting a bad example for other volunteers. This category is intended to help them get the most out of their experience, while supporting the work of the organization.

Mission & Outcomes Focused

This one is also covered in the Board Roles & Responsibilities. Since the whole reason nonprofits exist is to fulfill their mission, it’s important enough to include here as well.

Reasonable expectations in this category include:

Know and understand the mission, vision, values, structure, policies, programs, and needs of the organization.
Take ownership in ensuring the organization is fulfilling its promise of impact.
Represent the organization in a manner consistent with our values.

You may want to spell out that apathetic service or procrastination actually hinders the organization’s ability to effectively operate and serve. This category may be more relevant if you are working on fixing problems on your existing board.

Fundraising & Storytelling

The last category to consider is around telling your story and raising money. Those newer to board work may be reluctant or apprehensive about raising money. Yet it’s unacceptable to have fundraising as an expectation or a need, and NOT tell them upfront. At the same time, you have an amazing opportunity to help volunteers who are new to this work, ease into it with support.

If your agency fundraises, every governance volunteer should be involved in some way. However, not everyone has to be asking for money. In fact, if someone is terrified to ask for a donation, they probably are not a very good person to have make an ask. There are 4 aspects of fundraising, and I believe everyone can find a way to be involved:

Identify prospects
Nurture relationships
Ask (or help orchestrate an ask)
Thank donors!

Some expectations to consider spelling out include:

Give a personally meaningful financial donation to help advance the mission of the organization. If you want or need to, you can specifically spell out the expected amount to be donated. Ex: Dues are $XXXX per year.
Use your network, connections, and circle of influence to move the organization forward, including raising funds. Ex: Secure X# of gifts per year or $XXXX raised per year.
Have them speak at their networking or civic groups, or host the Executive Director to these groups.
Host a House Party to educate friends, neighbors, and colleagues on the important work of the agency.
Invite new people to engage with the organization. Ex: Bring one new person into the organization each month.

As I’ve mentioned, it’s perfectly fine to include some of the items from the Board Duties, Roles and Responsibilities in your expectations, if you want to lift those things up. Remember that once you think through and create really solid board expectations, you will need to go back and review your ByLaws to ensure that they are consistent with your expectations.

This document can help guide your discussions.

Implementing Expectations

Establishing board expectations is a great idea, but it can be difficult to go from having none to implementing them. Depending on your situation there are different ways to go about rolling this project out.

If your organization is fairly young and has not yet gotten to the point of having an engaged board, you might just decide for yourself what your expectations are. As you grow the board, the expectations will be established as “the way we do things.” Even with this plan, it’s a good idea to review and update them regularly as needs evolve.

With a more established board it makes sense to engage them in a generative discussion around what expectations they should be held accountable to. This is a really great project to focus a board on. If done well, it can create incredible buy-in and move the board forward in how they think about their role and what the organization really needs from them.

While a great board activity, this can also be tricky. For example, if the agency really needs to get to the point where everyone on the board is contributing at a certain level, say $100/month, and you have people on the board who do not have this capacity, it can lead to a difficult conversation. Using an outside, neutral party can sometimes help to keep this conversation elevated and focused on the organizational needs. After expectations are established, you can always put together a transition plan for individuals who may have circumstances that fall outside the new requirements.

Whether you are the Executive Director or the Board Chair, I suggest that you have an idea of what expectations you would like to see adopted, prior to going into the conversation with the full board. Consider creating a document outlining the expectations, and send out the categories prior to the meeting. At the meeting share the document and hold a discussion. Here’s a sample to get you started.

Depending on the size of the board, details may need to be hammered out in a smaller group or committee based on the input from the full board. This is one of those situations where the process is as valuable as the outcome! Thoughtful conversations about expectations and accountability is great for fostering ownership within the Board of Directors.

Final Thoughts: Be Intentional in Board Recruitment

Finally, I wanted to circle back to all the really great reasons for developing Board Expectations.

It helps to ensure that everyone is clear about what is expected of them.
Once established, they can be used for recruiting new board members, holding people accountable, evaluating the board, and addressing performance issues.
Board Expectations are not as rigid as your ByLaws. As you establish them, you have flexibility.
When the Board is involved in developing the Expectations, they will be more invested in meeting the needs of the organizations.

While this might all seem overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be! You don’t need to tackle every factor at once. Start small—focus on one or two key expectations that matter most to your board. The main idea is to be intentional about who you invite to lead your organization, and clear about what you are asking them to do.

By being intentional about board recruitment, you set your organization up for stronger leadership, better collaboration, and greater impact. Strong Board Expectations don’t just make things run more smoothly—they help build a culture of leadership, shared ownership, and mission-driven impact

Every nonprofit is different and has unique needs and challenges. Email me at Kim@Athena-CoCo.com, or schedule a Discovery Call if you would like to discuss ways to advance your Board of Directors and the work of your agency.