Board Member Performance

Your board members can help fundraise. Yes, they can – if you effectively enable them to do so. (What’s enabling? See my Pet Peeves blog.)

1. Every board member should give a personal financial contribution to the best of his / her ability every single year. The welfare dad can give $2. Another board member might give $50. Another might give $5,000.

2. Every board member can help cultivate relationships. Assign some board members specific individuals or families or corporations. With the board member, outline a cultivation plan – specific steps – and enable the board member to do the cultivation. Invite other board members to join you when you meet with donors. Make sure every board member attends your fundraising event and cultivation gatherings and mingles with guests, schmoozing and cultivating.

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Too many board members forget (or never knew) that corporate governance is a collective activity.

That means you have to attend board meetings regularly participate in candid and strategic conversation, and play well with others.

Attend board meetings regularly…Hmm…What does that mean? Well it sure means more than 50% of the meetings! I’d say it means attending at least 75% of the meetings. I don’t care if you’re a big donor, Mr. Board Member. I don’t care if you’re the head of an important corporation, Ms. Board Member. If you’re absent a lot, you’re a lousy board member!

Participate in candid and strategic conversation…Hmm…What does that mean? Corporate governance is a collective activity and requires the verbal participation of board members during board meetings. In fact, board meetings are the only time that governance happens. So if you’re not in the room – and talking about the issues at hand – then you’re a lousy board member!

Of course, talking about the issues at hand requires that you read the advance material. And that you make notes on the advance material. And that you link the material to previous material and previous conversations. And that you bring the material to the meeting so you can reference it. Only with this preparation, can you participate in meaningful conversation. (By the way, preparation by board members requires delivery of critical information – translated into trends and implications. And this is the responsibility of staff.)

Play well with others…Hmm…What does that mean? Well it means you, Mr. Board Member, cannot be boss. Actually, Ms. Board Chair, you aren’t the boss either. There is no boss. Corporate governance is a collective activity. Everyone is equal. No single board member has any more authority than anyone else.

Playing well with others means you listen respectfully and you don’t try to convince everyone of your position. You listen and learn from others and others do the same with you. You don’t dominate and neither does anyone else. You don’t care if you’re chair of anything, you just want to add value.

I’m so tired of board members who don’t get it. Like Massachusetts Keith, a board chair who kept saying, “But what if I know I’m right?” You aren’t right, Keith. No one is right unless it’s a legal issue. You just happen to like your opinion better. But that doesn’t matter. You don’t have any more authority than any other board member. You better play well with others or the board should get rid of you!

I think fundraisers and fundraising consultants scare board members. I think the way fundraisers – staff or consultants – talk about fund development causes most of the avoidance problems. And I worry that it isn’t just the way fundraisers talk about fund development. I worry it’s the way fundraisers think about fund development!

For example: Do you ask your board members to contact their friends and colleagues to buy event tickets or give charitable gifts? Bad! Instead, ask your board members to identify those who might be interested. Then explore that possible interest, that possible link. And qualify them as prospects or leave them alone.

For example: Do you talk mostly about asking for money when you talk about fund development with your board members? Bad! Instead, talk about cultivating relationships. Talk about the wonderful conversations board members can share with those who might be interested and with those who are interested. Help board members explore their own interests and help them understand how to explore the interests of others. I suspect that a good 70% of the work of fund development is not asking for the gift.

For example: Are you frustrated with board members who refuse to ask for gifts. Bad! Instead, involve these board members in relationship building. And when it’s time to solicit, bring along a board member to tell stories, not solicit. You can ask for the gift. Or another board member who is comfortable asking can ask.

What’s a rogue?

I’m not talking about Johnny Depp’s roguish pirate. I’m not talking about the lovable rogue in movies.

I’m talking about a rogue elephant. Uncontrollable. Raging through the fields (or the board room), mowing down everything in its path.

You know what I mean. You’ve seen a rogue and the decimation he or she leaves behind.

In any board – regardless of size or type – there may be a rogue individual. Perhaps you’ve got a rogue board chair like Massachusetts Keith or Rhode Island Ralph. (Check out my previous blog about rogue board chairs.)

Maybe lots of people on your board caught the rogue virus. You feel like you’re caught in a stampede of rogue elephants.

So what does rogue look like? Well…Intruding in management and micromanaging. Ignoring boundaries and limitations of board authority. Disregarding meeting guidelines. Dominating conversation and drowning out the voices of others. Demanding your own way. Not holding yourself and others (and the board itself!) accountable. Cronyism.

This is not good. In fact, this is bad. Really bad. And the worse it gets – well, that’s a rogue; that’s rogue behavior.

How do you get rid of the rogues or disempower them? Find compatriots. Build a group to fight the rogues. Talk over them. Talk around them. Talk louder than them. Set rules and enforce them.

Rogues are not self-aware (or don’t care). Rogues need to be stopped by others. Rogues need to be censured, released, SHOT!

Someday, I’ll write a book about it.

P.S. Who is responsible for building an effective board? The staff, especially the executive director / CEO. Yes, indeed. Board members aren’t really accountable for this work because they don’t know the body of knowledge. Staff is supposed to – required to – know the body of knowledge. The executive director / CEO enables the board to do good governance – or not! See the concept of enabling in my book Strategic Fund Development.