A book that promises it can be read in just 60 minutes will help your board members better understand their role in your nonprofit.
That’s great news because dealing with board members who don’t understand or perform their role well is the No. 1 complaint I hear from nonprofit CEOs. It’s also been tracked as the No. 1 reason nonprofits fail.
That will surprise some board members who immediately look to their CEO when a nonprofit is struggling.
The Ultimate Board Members Book by Kay Sprinkel Grace (2013) has been widely recognized for its value as a board training tool. An ongoing arsenal of tools that can repeatedly bring home the message of expectations and results to your board is helpful for the less experienced, results-oriented board.
Boards of mature nonprofits can command board-experienced, well known community or perhaps national figures. Yet even these lofty folks may not have a complete grasp of all critical aspects of their nonprofit contribution.
With smaller nonprofits, the truth of orientation and recruitment is often a sense of quiet desperation to find someone willing to make the time commitment.
Sure, it’s up to staff leadership to help orient potential board members to expectations prior to offering a board role. However, the reality is these sessions are usually short meetings with a few takeaways in the best cases.
As to the board recruitment side, being in too big a hurry to bring new board members on puts your nonprofit at risk financially, at the very least. And the mistaken recruitment is hard to correct. We in the
nonprofit sector know well the difficulty of gracefully exiting non-performing board members and the pain that often lingers afterward.
Grace’s book is the best quick overview I’ve read on this subject and manages to probe the major points of board service in an easy to read style without being overly simplistic. Chapters include what the job entails, the trust a board member holds, legal responsibilities, conflicts of interest, qualities of an effective board, the board and planning, working with other volunteers and more.
Grace has other publications that are also great resources for board members facing the typical problems that can arise in their volunteer leadership roles.
Of particular note are the fundraising-focused books – typical fundraising mistakes boards make and the basics all boards must be aware of in fundraising. A great approach here is the reading assignment followed by discussion at the next board meeting.
There are only so many times you can exhort your board members on some of these critical needs. Let others speak for you occasionally. Kay Sprinkel Grace is a great choice, especially if you can follow it with personal testimony from someone on a local board who does well what you are directing your own board to achieve.
Luckily, we have some great examples of that here in Savannah.
Sarah Todd is founding principal of Calhoun Enterprises, assisting organizations in effecting positive social change. She can be reached at calhounent@gmail.com or 912-224-2120.
By Sarah Todd