Editor’s note: This is the final installment in a three-part series presented in partnership with the Nonprofit Leadership Collaborative/SJC and United Way’s Nonprofit Capacity Building Program.
Have you ever attended a board meeting, and from beginning to end, everything was firing on all cylinders? The chair and the CEO were prepared, chatter among board members was invigorating, relationships were well-established. The room was filled with hopefulness, not hesitation, and there was a common sense of purpose, a complete commitment to the mission and the will to courageously execute on the goals.
These are the things that make a great board.
When infrastructures, leadership and resources are uniquely aligned in any system — be it a team, a city or a business — extraordinary positive change is possible. For nonprofits, a board flourishes when there is a culture of greatness built in its organizational performance.
In the first installment of our Mind What Matters series about nonprofit boards, we explained how detrimental a bad board can be, eroding trust with donors and the community.
Our second column focused on the power of a good board, comparing those types of groups to the team in the movie “Ocean’s Eleven” and their qualities: responsiveness, aligned around a common goal and seeking greatness.
Many boards look for quick wins and immediate impact. Great boards, however, recognize that sustainable success comes from steady, disciplined effort over time.
The right people matter
Any great coach will tell you the recipe for success is having the right players. Sadly, almost 49% of nonprofit CEOs report “they do not have the right board members to establish the trust (and) credibility to support the communities they serve,” according to findings published in 2021 from Boardsource.
To develop a great board, you must get the right people in those roles. A key component for success is having willing members with diverse backgrounds, experiences, interests, gender, ethnicity — and I will add a mix of humility and moxie — before you can unequivocally state that your board is, in fact, great.
To be sure, getting to great is a process, one that takes years not months. Case in point: One local county nonprofit had a board five years ago that had a predominantly homogeneous membership. It lacked diverse representation and thought, plus it had no term limits.
To be great, a board needs to be fully committed to understanding the goals of the nonprofit. Yet according to BoardSource’s 2021 report, 54% of nonprofit board members say they do not fully understand their organization’s mission and strategy.
Five years later, that same beleaguered nonprofit made some changes. It installed a new CEO and board chair, made changes to its bylaws, engaged in a deep-dive self-assessment of the board’s long-term needs — fewer than 1 in 3 boards use this practice — and defined specific goals. Those steps led to a doubling in the agency’s revenues, heightened grant funding and created a monumental uptick in credibility. Donors recognized the changes, trust was built with the newfound business acumen and donations spiked.
Communicating the vision
A great board is never left in the fog. Members collectively and individually see the common vision, the mission and the goals of their nonprofit. They have access to financial reports so they can manage the money and the mission, and they don’t overstep.
They rely on the talents of their CEO to manage personnel, operations and to engage the board when necessary. In all cases, the truth prevails. Sugar-coating and strong-arming have no place in a board where high-level performance exists. Everyone has a voice.
A good board fulfills its basic responsibilities: attending meetings, ensuring compliance and providing oversight. A great board, however, is proactive, strategic and deeply engaged — both internally and externally.
A great board drives the organization forward with a blend of governance, innovation and unwavering commitment to the mission, with all egos left outside the boardroom. Its culture is aligned, clear expectations are set by the totality of that board and members lead with intentionality and aspirational savvy.
And a bonus of a great board? Highly engaged boards raise 24% more in contributions than those with disengaged boards, according to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project.
Finding your sweet spot
Some of our local boards have fallen into the trap of chasing too many initiatives, trying to be everything to everyone.
Great boards play the long game for a sustainable future and don’t rely on buzzer-beaters or Hail Mary passes for quick wins. They find the sweet spot between short-term management and long-term transformation, generating their own place and space in the nonprofit world.
One local nonprofit learned this lesson the hard way. It veered off-course, stretching itself thin by pursuing funding for too many things without the expertise to manage them effectively.
The result? A cascade of poor outcomes: Program grants were handed off to other nonprofits, the CEO stepped down and the organization was forced to hit the reset button, ultimately returning to its core mission.
This happened because the board was not paying attention. The chair led with her/his own special interests, the CEO was not aligned with the staff in determining whether members had the expertise to pull off the grants and the collective wisdom of the crowd was too crowded with multiple goals.
When communication is lacking, collateral damage in many cases is with the CEO; nearly 50% of chief executives leave because of board dysfunction. And 60% of boards are hamstrung by “mission creep” — a gradual shift in objectives — which can lead to a high turnover of CEOs and staff, which then fragments momentum and financial stability and stalls initiatives. Not a good look for any board.
A great board plans what it can do best, what it is deeply passionate about and what drives the resource engine.
In the case of the local board mentioned above, the strategic plan included too many goals, too many initiatives and not enough specialization in what would make the agency win. It takes discipline to avoid mission creep (or scope creep), but that’s how a great board maximizes its impact and efficiency, and hits the sweet spot every time.
The end goal
With over 2,000 nonprofits in San Joaquin County employing over 20,000 people in both full- and part-time roles, can you imagine the wins we’d have if every board hit its sweet spot?
The quality of life in our communities would be richer, students would stay in school longer, the homeless population would be significantly reduced and our arts would be thriving. This may be a pipe dream, but even if a percentage of our boards moved from good to great, the potential for change would be transformational.
If you mind what matters, the journey from good to great is possible. All it requires is commitment, vision and discipline, but the rewards — greater effectiveness, stronger communities and lasting change — are well worth the effort.
Kristen Birtwhistle is a multigenerational Stocktonian, president and CEO of United Way of San Joaquin County and founder of the Nonprofit Leadership Collaborative and the Nonprofit Capacity Building initiative. She spent three decades with Kaiser Permanente as a healthcare administrator and advocate for our community nonprofits.