Nonprofit boards are the backbone of successful and sustainable organizations. As passionate and committed volunteers, board members donate their time, expertise, and resources to help their organization achieve meaningful community impact.
Yet too many organizations struggle to create and maintain effective boards.
According to the Stanford Survey on Leadership and Management in the Nonprofit Sector, an incredible 56% of nonprofits report challenges with board governance.
The difficulties are many, including lack of clarity when it comes to roles and responsibilities, competing demands on board members’ time and energy, and limited training and orientation for board members and the staff tasked with supporting them.
Luckily, the solutions are straightforward: clarity, consistency, and communication about what strong board governance looks like.
Why High Impact Boards Are Hard to Find
To understand how to cultivate successful, dynamic boards, it’s worth taking a step back to understand what isn’t working with nonprofit boards.
Board members’ roles and responsibilities are unclear. Particularly as an organization grows and transitions from a working board to a governing board, the distinction between board and staff member roles can get muddied. Even in larger, more established organizations, board members may not be sure what their full responsibilities are and what success looks like. But clarity is key. According to BoardSource’s 2021 Leading with Intent report, when board members understand their roles and responsibilities it positively affects an organization’s performance. Conversely, a board that doesn’t understand its role negatively affects organizational impact.
Board diversity and community representation still lag. Many nonprofits continue to struggle to build diverse boards. Too often, when filling empty board seats, passion and availability trump qualifications—including lived experiences and community connection. Leading with Intent found that 49% of CEOs and executive directors report lacking the right board members to “establish trust with the communities they serve.” Further, when it comes to board recruitment, a mere 32% of boards prioritize “knowledge of the community served” and an even smaller 28% prioritize “membership within the community served.”
Board fundraising remains disappointing. More than half of nonprofits report not meeting board fundraising goals—whether through board members’ direct giving or involvement in other fundraising activities (Stanford Survey). Yet there is a downside to focusing too heavily on board fundraising. BoardSource has found that “boards that prioritize fundraising above all else when it comes to the board’s role do so at the expense of organizational strategy, relevance, and impact.”
Board members aren’t serving as organizational ambassadors. Board members aren’t only “on the job” when they attend board meetings. A key part of every board member’s role is to serve as an ambassador for their organization—whether that’s advocating on policy, recruiting donors, or engaging with community members. Yet BoardSource has found that 67% of nonprofit leaders report their board doesn’t spend enough time “building relationships within the community that help support and inform the organization’s work.”
Board and staff aren’t on the same page about the organization’s vision, mission, and goals. When you start to consider all the challenges above, it’s easy to see why so many organizations struggle with board and staff who aren’t on the same page. According to 2015 research from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and other partners, more than 25% of board members do not truly understand their organization’s mission and strategy and nearly 30% “are dissatisfied with the board’s ability to evaluate organizational performance.”
If board members don’t understand their organization’s mission, much less their own roles in supporting it, how can they possibly serve as fiduciaries, fundraise, or act as community ambassadors? And how can they be expected to partner with staff to achieve an organization’s long-term vision?
Strengthening Your Board Governance
At the heart of each of the challenges described above are gaps in clarity, consistency, and communication about what good board governance means. Board members and staff need to be clear about the board’s role—and the incredible value a high-functioning board brings to an organization.
Whether you’re a nonprofit board chair, a board member, or an executive director, building a high-functioning board takes real work. But it doesn’t have to be hard or painful.
The first step is awareness. Start by getting both your board and key staff trained up on the cornerstones of good board governance. This includes the board’s role in fiduciary duties, planning and policy, resource development, and outreach and awareness.
You’ll want to solidify this new understanding with concrete tools like board member job descriptions, board agreements, and a process for board member evaluation.
Finally, to get your board and staff aligned on and energized about your organization’s vision, mission, and goals going forward, a well-structured strategic planning process can kickstart lasting clarity and collaboration.
- Schedule a time for your nonprofit’s executive director or CEO to sit down with your board chair to review how your board stacks up. Consider starting with simple questions like: Are board members clear about their roles and responsibilities? Do all board members understand our vision and mission—and can they share it without reading from a piece of paper?
- Check out free board templates and resources available from Funding for Good. You’ll find valuable resources like a Board Engagement Checklist, a Board Member Onboarding Checklist, and a Pre-Strategic Planning Checklist.