What is a Working Board and Four Things to Avoid When Building One
Put simply, a working board gets things done to help your nonprofit grow. The working board is a commonplace feature of many young nonprofits because it allows nonprofits to check two boxes at once and maximize resources. The working board does just that. Members work as both governors of the organization and hands-on employees that carry out that governance. Having this cohesiveness of decision-making and the actual work can be very effective and efficient if done right.
Where a board of directors or “governing board” is responsible for top-level financial planning rather than the budget sheets, a working board is responsible for both. They must implement their own guiding strategies. Whereas a board of directors is tasked with the duty of ensuring prudent use of all assets and they do this through overseeing the CEO and their staff. A working board can ensure prudent use of assets by making sure that they personally use assets prudently. Because it is a feature that so many nonprofits have when starting out, we want to help you understand what sets a working board apart from a governing board and some tips to consider when building one.
A board is often a working board out of necessity. If a nonprofit does not have a staff, then the board has to implement its own directives. We know that a solid majority, anywhere from 66% to 70%, of nonprofits in the United States operate with a budget of $1,000,000 or less, and many of those work with less than $500,000. Hiring a full-time staff may be a priority for these working boards, but it is not financially feasible. From this, we can assume that a majority of working boards are working because of low revenues. This situation creates a challenging cycle in which board members must spend additional time implementing their strategies where a traditional board of directors can spend this time focusing on their fundraising capacity as we examined above. The best way to break this cycle and grow is to build a quality board comprised of the right skills, culture, and connections.
1. Pick the right skills
When building your working board, you are crafting a team of decision-makers as well as the team that will carry out those decisions. Considering what skills, talents, and connections you want to prioritize is critical to making sure you build a board with the potential to take your organization to the next level. Common skills and talent areas to consider include marketing, public relations, accounting/finance, legal, social services, business management, and of course, fundraising. You are building a team here so consider what you want to accomplish with that team, what players will be needed to reach those goals, and make a plan for getting those skills, talents, and connections into your working board. In addition to choosing the right skillsets, it is important to choose your boardmembers correctly. Don’t just recruit friends, people on other boards, people that are very busy, and the like. While these individual team members can be great, filling a board with one type can complicate your efforts to build a great team.
2. Expectations
Like we have said in this blog already and others, a working board is starkly different from the board of directors we picture in our head when we hear “the board.” There are a lot of expectations for a working board. Make sure members are apprised of their roles and responsibilities. Detail their roles and responsibilities with precise job descriptions. The last thing your organization wants is board members that are expecting to do less work than is needed. These expectations need to be much more than ideas in your head. Make sure to craft job descriptions that you can deliver to prospective board members in order to be on the same page in terms of expected responsibilities, time commitments, and the scope of their work. Early on in a nonprofit’s development, it can be easy to assume that foregoing these formalities is acceptable because of inexperience and youth, but it is important to go the extra mile. Set up your board and your organization for success by planning and producing expectations for your overall board as well as individual members.
3. Go big or go home?
You may think the more hands involved the better. The more areas of expertise you fill the better. Not quite. It is better to start with what you know you can handle and build your desired board culture from there. Starting too big can allow the culture and direction of your organization to escape your control. More is not always better. You want to build a board that has a specific culture and purpose geared toward your mission and vision. The best way to do this is with a small group to start. This will allow you to take on what you can handle. It will allow you to take the proper time recruiting each member, crafting job descriptions, and working through the early stages of developing as a team and an organization. It takes time to build a cohesive team, and it will be easier with a smaller group. As you grow, new members will be integrated into a board that is already established. The culture and expectations will already be in place with your existing members, and they can integrate new members actively.
At the end of the day, you want a working board that can make strategic decisions and carries them out with expertise and skill. Your team needs to have affluence and the ability to bring resources to the table. In order to construct a great nonprofit, you need to have the right team. A great mission and vision statement are useless without the people who carry out that mission and work to bring your vision alive. There is arguably no component of a nonprofit that is more critical than the board of directors. Craft a board made up of individuals with diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and skills who bring a passion for the organization and a commitment to precise oversight. Finding the balance between board members and bringing together complementary skills can provide a nonprofit with all the tools it needs at its highest level to succeed. Setting a board up correctly will lay a solid foundation for the rest of a nonprofit’s strategy.
Need help recruiting for and structuring your board? We can help. We’ve served on and for boards and turn that experience into expert insights for our clients. Reach out to us by clicking the button below and learn more about how we can help your organization. Also, check out our most recent insights on traditional and working boards below.
