BOARD BLUES

I had lunch today with a friend and colleague who runs a nonprofit.  We spent most of our lunch brainstorming about her board, and how to get them out of the weeds and up on the lawn.

The other day, I had lunch with another friend and former client.  SHE spent most of our lunch complaining about her board; how they get mired in the details of things they shouldn’t be concerned about and totally miss the big picture of how they can help.

I could tell you about many other lunches and conversations, all focused around  the problem of governance.

Too many nonprofits—especially smaller ones—deal with boards who are either too involved, generally in the minutiae and not on the strategic issues they should be focused on, or too uninvolved in, well it all.

There are also larger nonprofits where the board is made up of highly skilled executives who also insert themselves where perhaps they shouldn’t and yet miss the things they should pay attention to.  I’m thinking right now about a university where I used to work.  The board somehow missed completely that the president was spending money like the proverbial drunken sailor but not raising a cent.  And then, when they finally realized how large the structural deficit had grown, asked the president to step down and return to faculty (a benefit of working at a University) and kept their salary at the presidential level.

Hmmmm, what is wrong here?

There are great boards.  But in truth, they are few and far between.  Unlike for profit boards—not all of whom are any more effective—our nonprofit board members volunteer their time and generally pay handsomely for the opportunity.

Maybe it is time to rethink the way we are governed.

A few years ago, an organization popped up that believed that nonprofit board members should be paid.  But that (again!) left smaller nonprofits in the cold.  Barely able to support themselves and pay for the work their communities needed, they could hardly support paying board members.  And as a donor, I would feel that really, should my charitable gift go to pay a board member a stipend?  Rather pay staff so they have a living wage!  And perhaps (finally) benefits.

But asking every nonprofit to have a board…I don’t know.  Does that really make sense?  Yes, the board is supposed to act as the community at large who, ostensibly “owns” the nonprofit.  But let’s be honest.  Many nonprofit leaders feel they “own” the nonprofit, and some of the most effective nonprofits I’ve worked with treat the organization as a family business.

Clearly, I have no answers.  Just a lot of questions about how can we best serve our clients without spending as much time as many leaders do trying to get their board members to be more effective and build a culture of excellence at their organizations.

  Feel free to send me your thoughts and ideas.  This is an issue that affects so many of us.