Because Sharing is Caring

Being on a nonprofit board of directors is a serious commitment. Many community members, even if they’ve been a volunteer for your organization for year, aren’t aware of what will be expected of them when they join your board. I hear many nonprofit staff lamenting over the lack of engagement from some (or even all) of their board members. Lack of engagement can stem from any number of reasons, but one of the most common I have found is simply that people weren’t told what would be expected of them until after they started their first term, and then they either find they can’t uphold all of the expectations and would have turned down the opportunity to serve if they’d had more information ahead of time or they resent no having been told and now they have a bad taste in their mouths.

I’ve come to realize there’s a fear among organizations that if they reveal everything they expect of a board member, people will turn them down. If this applies to you, I say let them! If you tell prospective board members the responsibilities they’re expected to perform and they walk away, then they probably wouldn’t have made a great board member anyway and your organization is better off without them.

It’s like finding new friends; if you reveal your true self and they walk away, they aren’t ‘your people’. If you show them what you’re all about and they get excited, love you, and stick to you like glue, you’ve found another member of ‘your tribe’! You deserve your collective board members to be a tribe. They deserve to have all the information needed to make the right decision for themselves about the role they’re considering. So don’t be afraid to share, the right people will stay, commit, and engage.

Here's a list of items I recommend you share with prospective board members as they’re nominated to serve, BEFORE they accept the nomination:

·       When and where your board meetings are held and what your attendance policy is.
·      The mission of the organization and what that means to the community.
·        That a financial contribution is expected of them (be specific about the amount if you have a policy that states that).
·        That they will be expected to participate in organizational fundraisers.
·        The time commitment you expect of them each month (on average).
·        If there are committees, sub committees, programs or projects you will expect their attendance or attention to, let them know what (and when) these are.
·        The length of a board term in your organization.
·        If you have a board orientation or onboarding process, what does that look like?
·        What is your schedule of events for the year and how much of it is a board member expected to attend? How much hand-on is expected at these events?
·        Are there training opportunities they can attend? Or are required to attend?
·        Any other expectations you may have of board members should be stated prior to their acceptance of your nomination.
·        If there’s a specific reason you’re asking this person to join your board, you should share that, too. It may be that they have a good working relationship with someone at the top of your local government and you’re hoping they can help you foster the organization’s relationship there…but if they don’t know what’s why you want them, it may never occur to them to become a liaison, or they may not want to use their relationship for the sake of your organization. Giving them a head’s up, however, allows them to choose if this is a good fit for them or not. Springing this expectation on them after they are elected onto the board will create a resentful relationship right off the bat, with them AND possibly with the local government.