GREAT NONPROFIT BOARDS SHOULD BE THE NORM
Nonprofit Boards of Directors are filled with caring folks ready to give their most precious resource - their time and attention - to the mission. Unfortunately, many small and mid-size nonprofits struggle to meaningfully and fully engage their Boards in the joy of strategic and generative governance. It doesn't have to be that way. Three simple practices can get you 90% of the way to awesome.
Why?
No nonprofit can be great with an ineffective or even a marginally effective board. We believe there are three simple and important practices that can help nonprofit Boards of Directors to radically improve their work. This site is intended as a service to the field - to help spread those three practices. The practices are simple, and about ensuring everyone is clear on how to show up, what's going on, and who is doing what. Unfortunately, few boards take the time to do this kind of foundational work. That results in (A) board members (especially new members) feeling uncertain in terms of how to engage, and allows practices to persist for no reason other than "that's the way things were done when I joined." (B) board members not knowing the topic and/or focus from meeting to meeting and how each meeting contributes to next and the work of the board and the organization, and (C) uncertainty around what various committees are up to and how that relates to the work of the board.
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Better Boards is a product of Groundwork Consulting.
The Three Practices
There are three practices that help boards work together better. Each is valuable in its own right, but used together you'll have the foundation for meaningful and successful work. The good news is each of these tools is very simple to understand and use. These often feel like intuitive nuts and bolts activities.
01
Norms Sign Off
How do we behave together?
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Each year, deliberately, through a formal motion, the Board affirms the norms of board conduct and culture. This can and should invite work to clarify and refine the current norms into actionable behaviors that contribute to the culture board members want.
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The Result:
all members publicly and explicitly agree (or disagree) with an explicit, shared sense of conduct and culture. This allows for reflection, adaptation, and a way to meaningfully hold one another accountable.
02
Leadership as Governance Annual Calendar
What is happening, and when?
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Using the Leadership as Governance model developed by Chait, Ryan, and Taylor, each year the Board creates an annual calendar of meetings that specify the nature of each meeting and clarifies the sequence of all meetings of board bodies.
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The Result:
all members can see where each conversation fits in the flow of the year, and can arrive to each meeting with a sense for the nature of conversation or work required. This allows for effective participation and the ability to coherently link meeting content.
03
Rolled Up Work Plans
Who is doing what?
Using a very simple, standard work plan tool each committee documents what they plan to do, by when, and what data (and staff time) are required to do it; this is then assembled into a single document reviewed at each meeting.
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The Result: all members know what each group is focused on for the year and at any given time, and it clarifies what is required of staff and when it is required allowing for better planning and use of time. This allows for total transparency and a culture of accountability, as well as better sense of how staff will be asked to support the board.
Tools
1 / Norms
Tool 1) Norms descriptor
Tool 2) Board motion to formal adopt norms
2 / Governance as Leadership Calendar
Tool 3) Calendar
3 / Work plan
Tool 4) Committee work plan
Tool 5) Board rolled up work plan