The Foraker Group

It’s a pretty good bet that most nonprofit organizations have a board of directors. These volunteers serve as guardians of organizational and community assets. Unfortunately, after analyzing data from 4,000 nonprofit boards across the country in 1996, Barbara Taylor, Richard Chait, and Thomas Holland found that “effective governance by a board of trustees is a relatively rare and unnatural act. Only the most uncommon of nonprofit boards function as it should by harnessing the collective efforts of accomplished individuals to advance the institution’s mission and long-term welfare.”

Still Taylor, Chait, and Holland assert that boards are necessary to guide nonprofit performance. “A board’s contribution is meant to be strategic, the joint product of talented people brought together to apply their knowledge and experience to the major challenges facing the institution.”

Several years later, the BoardSource Nonprofit Governance Index 2010 found that neither the CEOs nor directors felt that their organization’s boards were performing at their highest level – CEOs issued a C+ grade for their boards, while board members gave themselves a B grade. The areas where they diverged most in their assessments were fundraising and community outreach.

Mary Stewart Hall, founder of the Master in Nonprofit Leadership Program at Seattle University, said that one of the “most important practices that can enhance board performance is working as a partner with the CEO.” Hall’s research is clear – the role of a nonprofit CEO has evolved. One outward sign of this shift is that even the title has changed in many organizations from executive director to president, clearly stating the new role of the CEO as a partner.

Modern nonprofit organizations absolutely need a competent and confident staff leader. That said, if the board were not equally competent, complementary, and confident, the leadership of the organization would not function in a true partnership.

–Dennis

Dennis McMillian is President of The Foraker Group, a nonprofit capacity building organization based in Alaska, and the author of Focus on Sustainability: A Nonprofit’s Journey.