What’s wrong with this picture?
People rarely join a nonprofit board in search of mediocrity. And yet, that’s where they find themselves. If you think your board is not engaged or engaged in the ‘wrong’ things, you are NOT alone.
From confusion about roles and failure to fulfill essential legal responsibilities to all-out conflict with other board members or the CEO, weak or dysfunctional board work endangers nonprofit performance and alienates donors. In the extreme, board failures lead to loss of tax-exempt status, legal headaches, and dismal fundraising.
Most nonprofit leaders try to maintain the appearance of a well-functioning board but are reluctant to tackle the problems. And who could blame them? Boards and board members are already expensive to maintain- they eat into valuable CEO leadership time, they demand precious administrative time. Why pour more resources into them?
However, board members are frustrated and disappointed, too. They recognize wasted time and resources they put forward in good faith efforts to do their job. A recent survey illustrates the fundamental issues.
2019 Board Engagement Survey of 640 nonprofit board members (Boardable, 2019)
- Attendance
- 5% had less than 50% attendance
- 39% had 50-70% attendance
- Only 56 % had greater than 70% attendance
- Participation in meetings and between meetings
- 60% had NO interaction or communication between meetings
- Only 18% track metrics for engagement, participation, and fundraising
- Almost half reported that the ED or a few board members dominate most discussions
- Fundraising
- 15% said that board members assist with introductions
- 28 % reported that a few board members do the majority of the work
Another training on governance and roles is not the answer. No doubt, a solid recruiting process, followed by timely orientation and on-boarding, is crucial. But it won’t solve the real problem- our not understanding that a board is a team and needs the same type of support and coaching as any other group of people brought together to obtain results.
Lack of engagement and dysfunctional behaviors that boards and board members engage in are symptoms of underlying issues: the absence of trust, fear, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and lack of focus on results.
Patrick Lencioni identified these as the “five dysfunctions of teams.” In his classic book by the same name, he illustrates how damaging these behaviors can be in business settings. These dysfunctions can look like a lot of what happens during a board meeting. In your organization, do you see:
- Fear of criticism
- Avoidance of risk
- Negative assumptions made about people and their motivations
- Failure to tap into the experiences and skills of board members or staff
- Board meetings dominated by one or two voices
- Lack of attendance or even dread of meetings
- Avoidance of engagement of board members with each other, or staff, outside of board meetings
By starting at the first step and building interpersonal trust, you will see improvement in attendance, participation during meetings, and willingness to engage in fundraising.
In my next post, learn how to reframe board recruitment and develop a process that will help your board become a high-functioning team.