A well-operating board is one of the most vital elements of success for a nonprofit. The board works closely with the executive director to ensure everything stays on mission and is aligned with the vision.
This is easier said than done, though.
Each board has its own minor differences. Specifics differ depending on the organization’s size, maturity, mission, and goals. This can make it difficult for executive directors to know exactly what to expect from their board specifically.
The more the executive director can understand their board’s key responsibilities, the better chance the organization has at maximizing success.
We want to help you develop that level of understanding for your organization, so we’ve outlined 5 key responsibilities of successful nonprofit boards.
1. Ensure a Documented Strategy
The board has a responsibility to ensure the organization has a documented strategic plan that gets implemented in the best way possible. We believe that this is the board’s most important responsibility since it provides a foundation for all that the nonprofit does.
The board's engagement with strategic planning varies from organization to organization. A small nonprofit with minimal staffing may have a working board that gets actively involved in executing the plan while a larger, more established board may strictly provide oversight and support as the staff executes the plan.
To be clear, the board doesn’t have to create the strategic plan. They’re only responsible for ensuring that a documented strategy exists and is used.
The strategic plan itself will often vary in detail, size, and duration depending upon the nonprofit. Some organization’s have a one-page, one-year plan that works perfectly well. Others have a more developed, long-term document that provides more detail. It really depends on where the organization is in its lifecycle. Our guidance is to keep the plan and strategy as focused and practical as possible so that it can be most effectively utilized.
2. Provide Governance
The executive director handles the organization’s day-to-day operations, but the board functions as an overall governing body. They act as overseers of the entire organization and take collective responsibility for what goes on within it. This starts with establishing, updating, and upholding the organization’s bylaws, a set of documented rules that help set the foundation for the board’s governance.
The bylaws function as a type of internal list of rules and regulations for governing the nonprofit. Having them in place helps the organization operate with ethical and legal integrity. The board ensures that the organization adheres to the bylaws, and they are responsible for reviewing and updating the bylaws as necessary.
The board can also help with organizational risk mitigation. The executive director and staff can easily get caught up in putting out the fires that naturally occur in their roles. They don’t always have the time, experience, or energy to look at the big picture and see potential pain points in processes or in the organization as a whole. The board can fill this gap by identifying and providing potential solutions for a variety of risks regarding the organization’s financials, programs, staffing, facility use, etc.
Each of these governance items falls under the umbrella of the basic legal responsibilities of a nonprofit board. Broadly speaking, these responsibilities are referred to as the “three D’s”: the duty of care, the duty of loyalty, and the duty of obedience. These are well-established elements of nonprofit law.
3. Support and Guide the Executive Director
Executive directors work tirelessly and make great sacrifices to fulfill the organization’s goals. It can be a thankless job, so the board has a real opportunity to step in and provide support.
They can do this by offering wise guidance and counsel to the executive director. This could happen through scheduled check-ins where board members ensure the executive director has everything they need to be successful. We often recommend that the board chair, in particular, schedule monthly one-on-one conversations with the executive director. In other circumstances, board members could offer more specialized advice, especially in their specific areas of specialization such as law, insurance, finance, or human relations.
Your board should also provide a regular evaluation process for the executive director. This typically happens annually but it may happen more frequently as well. The evaluation process and the related conversations should provide the executive director with constructive feedback that helps them and the organization grow.
4. Ensure Adequate Resources
The board ensures that the organization has adequate resources — especially finances and community relationships — in place to accomplish its mission and vision.
This does not mean, necessarily, that the board is responsible for acquiring these resources themselves. Fundraising, contrary to what many people think, does not have to be a primary responsibility of the board. The most financially sustainable nonprofit that we’ve worked with doesn’t have a fundraising board. Board members should contribute what they can — and fundraise if it makes sense — but it is not a blanket requirement of board service. In fact, recent research (see page 23 of Leading with Intent) that prioritizing fundraising above anything else can take away from organizational strategy, relevance, and impact. Instead, the board focuses on ensuring that the best fundraising processes are in place and that the finances are being adequately managed by the team set in place.
Lastly, the board should ensure that the organization has positive relationships within the community. Board members utilize their networks and connections they have built over the years to represent the organization within the community, advocating for the organization, and enhancing its public standing.
5. Develop and Evaluate the Board Itself
A final responsibility of every organization’s board has to do with growing and developing itself through recruiting new members and evaluating its own effectiveness.
Before recruiting new members, the board should first identify the qualities of the board that they want to create. Things to consider are the desired board’s size, needed skill sets, and the diversity of its members. The nonprofit’s bylaws will also provide requirements for the board’s composition. With the desired qualities in mind, the board can then seek new members to fill any gaps.
The process for nominating and recruiting new board members is often specified in the bylaws. For example, the bylaws may dictate the presence of a nominating committee and/or who on the board has the authority to nominate new members.
Recruiting new members is commonly done through active outreach by the board members and executive director. The board can also seek new members through board recruitment events like those held by Board Match. One of our customers has successfully recruited over half of its members through recruitment events.
In addition to being thoughtful in how it recruits new members, an effective board can further develop itself by completing and discussing an annual self-evaluation. A self-evaluation template like this one can help the board members clarify the types of questions that they want to ask of themselves.
Final Thoughts
A nonprofit’s board has a huge impact on its overall success. A good board ensures that the nonprofit stays on mission and pursues its vision. But a board that doesn’t understand its key responsibilities can lead to misunderstandings, confusion, and potentially worse problems in the long run.
Having clarity around the responsibilities we outlined here can help your board avoid these pitfalls and operate successfully.
We just launched our online strategic planning course called START! START provides organizations with a practical strategic plan that they can successfully achieve. Learn more about how START can transform your organization.