Nonprofit Boards - What's their job anyway?
This is the opening bolded sentence at the very top of Board Roles and Responsibilities on the National Council of Nonprofits website.
The next paragraph states, “One of the most important responsibilities for many boards is to hire and set the compensation of a talented CEO/executive director to run the day-to-day management activities of the organization, and then to provide supervision and evaluation of the CEO. When there are paid staff in place, rather than steer the boat by managing day-to-day operations, board members provide foresight, oversight, and insight: think of them as up in the crow's nest scanning the horizon for signs of storms or rainbows to explore…”[1]
I have begun to worry lately, that the roles and responsibilities of boards are not fully understood. It could be roles and responsibilities aren’t being made clear in the bylaws or board contracts, perhaps the culture or history of an organization has created a blurry line between what is in the purview of the board versus the staff, maybe the board members aren’t being fully trained on how to do their job – what questions to ask or what to look for, or it could be that both board and staff members are too busy with other things and the proper communication simply isn’t occurring. (BTW – the answer is not spending a year revising your bylaws.)
Boards can look different depending on the size and nature of the organization – smaller organizations with smaller budgets regularly require a working board that is more hands on in executing tasks to support the staff in accomplishing the mission of the organization, while larger organizations with large budgets might have boards made up of significant donors and corporate representatives that meet less frequently to discuss big strategic decisions. Regardless of whether it’s a small or large organization or what kind of board you have, the essential roles and responsibilities of a board, the legal responsibilities, remain the same.
If your organization is struggling with an inactive board, an overactive board, or there is tension between your board and staff around strategic direction – we’d be happy to listen and help you figure out a way forward.