In a dream, you are at a board meeting. Your board members are 100 percent supportive, challenge you in friendly ways, encourage you to lead and make decisions, and send cheers of thanks to the staff for their work. Finally, as the alarm rings, they pass around an envelope and fill it with personal checks to establish a board challenge fund designed to engage new donors.
You wake up sad that your board isn’t anything like the board in your dream. Instead, they struggle with attendance, leading, and follow-through. You wonder if they are bored. They teeter at times on the edge of dysfunctional behavior, moving between micro0managing and micro-engagement. Overall, their behavior significantly reduces your job satisfaction.
You wonder if there is something you can do to make your dream come true. Because it’s lovely to dream and because, you know, it’s even better to be on the road to creating one. Planning and acting to grow a supportive board is the difference between invested and hopeful and daydreaming. You need an effective plan that involves research, analysis, thinking, and long-term, consistent actions. A solid board excellent plan will clarify your outcomes, select the best alternatives to achieving your goal and move your board toward governance.
A supportive board is more than a dream; it’s an obtainable goal. In Board Rx, nonprofit leaders like you discover what’s blocking their boards from fulfilling their responsibilities and create a roadmap to board excellence.
Nonprofits with supportive, engaged boards don’t just wake up with them one day, fait accompli. A board excellence plan helps you, staff, board members, and other supporters to recognize that achieving excellence is possible with intentional efforts. Be intentional about getting the board you want. Yes, dream the dream. Then, wake up and create a plan to grow one. Start today. Write down the goal you have for your board—next, list actions to get there.
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Karen Eber Davis provides customized advising and coaching around nonprofit strategy and board development. People leaders hire her to bring clarity to sticky situations, break through barriers that seem insurmountable, and align people for better futures. She is the author of 7 Nonprofit Income Streams and Let's Raise Nonprofit Millions Together.
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