By Michael Bacon, CFRE
Recent events have underscored, for me, the importance of having a knowledgeable and engaged Board…a Board that understands its fiduciary role, its managerial role and even its fundraising role. As we are engaged with clients in training their boards, we always talk about how boards, as a whole, should have three things:
- Expertise – A successful Board has knowledge and experience so that when a nonprofit needs to make tough decisions, you have the right brains in the room. You want a CPA, an attorney, someone who knows marketing, someone who understands physical plants or construction, and other Board members who have knowledge of the service you provide as a nonprofit. If your mission is social services, you might have medical experts. If you are a conservation group, you might have Board members with experience in wildlife or land stewardship.
- Influence – As a nonprofit raises money, it is critical to have Board members with different spheres of influence. Too often, nonprofit boards end up recruiting friends, relatives, and co-workers to fill empty spots. While that may be expedient, the result is that the Board members all know the same people. You want trustees who know different circles of people and have different groups of friends. This widens your reach and connects you to a broader group of potential supporters. This is yet another reason to emphasize diversity on your Board, ethnically, age-wise and geographically within your community.
- Affluence – At some point, your nonprofit may hit a financial crunch. Or it could be launching a new program, renovating space or even building a new facility. The point is, there should be a core of people on the Board who can put money on the table at critical moments. Many funders believe that a Board should only commit to capital project goals where at least one-third of the money comes from the Board itself. That can slow you down if you don’t have financial ability in at least some members of your Board.
I would not expect every single Board member to embody each of these traits. However, as a thriving, decision-making, fundraising body, your Board should encompass all of these traits. And if it has them, then chances are, your Board will make good, well-informed decisions. It will embrace its role in raising money because it can make projects happen. Good Boards don’t just happen. With leadership, ample training, and a deep commitment to your mission, they form and strengthen over time.