Lath of Directors for Nonprofits

Learn more about the nonprofit board of directors, the structure of the group, and their responsibilities.

Regardless of the type of mission or nonprofit status, all types of organizations crave clear management and oversight. This oversight is often provided by the lath of directors, the governing body of individuals who accept varying skills and a desire to run into the system succeed. Traditionally, nonprofits chose the near well-continued and often wealthy individuals to serve on the board, believing that those connections and wealth would translate into more connections and resource for the arrangement.

However, over time, many organizations accept discovered the importance of looking for individuals with more than than just connections in heed. Organizations should want to stack their lath with passionate individuals who really want to encounter the organization succeed.

When yous merely look for a well-connected individual who might be able to score your organization major donations, you fail to address some key questions like: Does this board member desire my organisation to succeed? Will they work hard to govern this organization? Do I trust the decisions made by this lath member?

Essentially, you want to choose lath members who will be driven to assistance your system pursue its mission.

To help you cull the best board members and maximize your resources regarding your board, nosotros'll showtime at the very offset: What is a board of directors?

What is a board of directors?

What is a nonprofit board of directors?

A board of directors, also known every bit a nonprofit board, is the governing body of a nonprofit. The members of a nonprofit lath focus on the high-level strategy, oversight, and accountability of the organization. This contrasts with employees or managers who oversee the day-to-day operations of the nonprofit.

The individuals who brand upwardly your board of directors are responsible for making cardinal decisions that address the system's mission, strategy, and goals. They aim to address the public's interest through the organization's piece of work and act every bit the legal vox for the organization.

While nonprofit boards typically range anywhere from three to fifty members, there are a handful of roles and positions that are almost ever assigned to different members of the board.

Here are three mutual officer positions that make up the board's leadership :

Your board of directors leadership generally consists of a president, secretary, and treasurer.

  • President: The president of your board of directors is the head of your nonprofit lath. They preside at lath meetings and create coming together agendas. This individual also supervises all of the business diplomacy of the board and acts as the primary contact for the group. While this individual may serve every bit the executive director of the system, the function is very unlike. Your executive director manages the daily activities of the arrangement while your board president is in charge of governance.
  • Secretary: The secretary of your board of directors is responsible for distributing your meeting agenda and recording the minutes of the coming together. They'll also make sure all documentation is filed and organized correctly for easy admission at a later engagement and ensure all deportment are in line with the organization'southward bylaws.
  • Treasurer: The treasurer on your board of directors is responsible for overseeing your organization'south fiscal status by keeping track of receipts and disbursements. This person might be a part of your finance team, or at to the lowest degree in frequent contact with them. If yous are required to conduct a financial audit, your treasurer volition present the findings.

By and large, these members of your board of directors (and the team as a whole) run across a few times throughout the year to make decisions and ensure the system is on track. The constabulary varies state by country as to how frequently the entire board of directors should meet, but most require them to meet at to the lowest degree once every year with all members in attendance.

Why are nonprofit boards of directors important?

Why are nonprofit boards important?

As we mentioned earlier, your nonprofit board of directors is in charge of the governance of your organization while your executive director and team members handle the mean solar day-to-day operations. But what is the difference?

Your nonprofit's board of directors is in charge of governance, which differs from management in several ways.

  • Governance: Governance of nonprofit organizations covers the oversight for organizations, large-scale planning, and overall direction of the nonprofit.
  • Management: Nonprofit management is what covers the twenty-four hours-to-mean solar day operations of the organization. Essentially, the executive director and squad members take care of the regular activities that put the vision determined past the lath of directors into operation.

Nonprofits need a board of directors for a multifariousness of reasons. Not only is the members' wealth of knowledge and experience invaluable to the organisation, but they are also necessary for essential tasks like applying for banking company accounts, filing annual reports, and making important purchases.

Additionally, they act equally the guiding voice for large decisions like approval almanac budgets, borrowing money, and setting plans for major growth or reorganization.

When you're recruiting members to serve on your board of directors, it will behoove your organization to cull visionaries—people who accept big picture show ideas for your organization and can identify how to get there. These should be the people leading the race to drive important decisions and the direction of your organization. Meanwhile, your staff members should be composed of the people who can accomplish the daily activities and take actions to brand the vision possible.

Of form, this explanation oversimplifies the concept of recruitment. In the adjacent section, we'll take a deeper swoop into the recruitment process for your organization's board members.

How do organizations recruit members for the nonprofit board of directors?

How do nonprofits recruit board members?

First and foremost, there are no legal guidelines in place determining who can serve on the board of a nonprofit. This means information technology's entirely up to your organization who volition exist the best private for the position. That said, there are a few things organizations should consider when recruiting board members.

The almost important quality to expect for in a good lath member is a passion and dedication to your mission. When your board members are driven by your mission, they'll be more likely to make the decisions and take the motivation to continue pushing that mission forward.

With the foundation of your mission in mind, your arrangement can then start because the 4 C's of recruitment to find the best people to serve your nonprofit:

  • Culture : The civilisation of your organization all comes back to a few essential core values that your organization represents. These values are what is considered right and good for your organization. By ensuring you recruit members to your lath who also hold and respect the core values of your organization, they'll conduct your system's culture into the board room.
  • Character : Every day, we make judgments most people based on their deportment. The character of the people y'all choose to serve will come dorsum as a reflection of your organization equally a whole. Choosing caring, respectful, and kind people to be on your lath of directors will show the community that your organization also holds those characteristics.
  • Competence : When you cull members for your board of directors, you'll need to exist sure that they're competent in the areas in which they demand to have competence. Of class, they need to be able to learn and retain information from meetings and nearly your organization. Notwithstanding, they'll also demand high emotional aptitude to perceive, control, and express emotions, allowing them to be adjustable to dissimilar situations at the organization. In improver, your members should exist subtle thinkers that come upwards with simple solutions to complicated issues.
  • Connections : In the past, nonprofits recruited board members only because they had highly affluent friends. However, at present that'south non the just type of connectedness y'all should exist interested in. While flush connections are always helpful, y'all should likewise consider board members with connections who have a passion for the mission, have a connection to those you serve, and who tin can help y'all better serve the customs.

When looking for these individuals, nosotros recommend fugitive recruiting paid employees within your organization. While they may fulfill all of our in a higher place recommendations, paid employees may experience a conflict of interest in serving both roles. Plus, they could seize with teeth off more they could chew. If you're still unsure of who to choose, await for someone with some businesses in concern affairs.

You can wait for engaged members of your community past participating in a board-match program in your area. These programs host networking events that allow nonprofits the opportunity to meet qualified board members from a broad range of backgrounds . Or, you can apply tools like LinkedIn's Lath Member Connect to get-go looking for potential lath members. Because LinkedIn allows users to bespeak whether they are interested in serving on a nonprofit board, it makes it easy for organizations to discover candidates who fit their criteria. Then, you tin can carry additional enquiry, analyses, and interviews to see who volition be the best fit.

How are nonprofit boards of directors structured?

How are nonprofit boards structured?

While new nonprofits are left to structure their board from scratch, existing organizations may demand to restructure their boards every bit they grow and expand their team. While yous already learned nigh the different officers who serve on your nonprofit board of directors, they don't make up the entire group.

Near of the time, nonprofit boards of directors are structured with a number of committees . These committees allow boards to tackle nominations and governance, finances and take chances, and executive decisions. A current trend in the sector is to have 3 committees on the board. This commission structure is easy and manageable, making it simple to streamline tasks.

The following committees mostly make upward this iii-function structure:

  • Governance Committee: The Governance Committee recruits new board members and determines the performance of the board as a unit. Essentially, this is the commission that governs and oversees various board activities.
  • Internal Affairs Committee: The Internal Affairs Commission is responsible for the finances of the organization, including budget review, capital acquisitions, personnel, and other such activities.
  • External Diplomacy Committee: The External Diplomacy Committee is in charge of communications, marketing, and PR with the community. This committee is besides in accuse of fundraising, an essential role of board engagement.

When other activities ingather upwardly and your lath of directors needs to accomplish other various tasks, you might set boosted task forces. These task forces might encompass projects related to communications, programs, fundraising, marketing, compensation, or other topics.

What are the responsibilities of a nonprofit board of directors?

What are the responsibilities of a nonprofit lath of directors?

As a whole, when people become board members for nonprofits, they are expected to have on a number of responsibilities for the organisation. Essentially, in that location are four dissimilar responsibilities of nonprofit boards of directors: legal and fiduciary responsibilities, board meeting omnipresence, executive compensation decisions, and committee service.

Legal and fiduciary responsibilities

Your nonprofit lath of directors is the legal governing trunk of the nonprofit. This means they may need to make some legal decisions concerning the organization. Your board needs to be aware of all of the legal requirements that apply to the organization and oversee that those requirements are met.

For example, your board of directors should be aware of the repercussions associated with overpaying individuals at the organization or participating in political lobbying. While board members probably won't be the ones to actually submit your revenue enhancement forms, they're in charge of ensuring that they're completed annually as well.

Board meeting omnipresence

When the board of directors meets as a group, they should be able to depend on one some other to attend and exist prepared to contribute. Everyone should review the agenda alee of fourth dimension and participate in the decisions made.

If an individual agrees to be on the board of your arrangement, you should exist able to count on them as a reliable correspondent. How could you lot do that if they don't attend meetings?

Executive compensation decisions

Nonprofit organizations are considered nonprofits because their funding is reinvested back into the organisation and its mission. This means that your nonprofit'due south executive manager has a set compensation that must be set up by someone. Would it exist fair for them to set their salary themselves? Probably not.

That'south where the nonprofit lath of directors comes in. As the governing entity of your organization, your organization'due south lath of directors sets the compensation of the executive director to ensure everything is fair and there'south oversight on the affair.

Committee service

Your board members should exist engaged with your organization and the diverse projects and programs you're implementing. This means that they should participate in the diverse activities and decisions by serving on committees.

Try to pair each board member with the committee that all-time interests them. This will ensure that they're engaged with the commission's activities and will help maintain motivation to serve that purpose well.

Here's the bottom line that you should take away regarding the nonprofit board of directors.

Lesser Line

Few things are more than important to the wellness and sustainability of a nonprofit than its board of directors. A lath of directors leads organizations through important tasks and decisions.

Therefore, information technology'southward important that you lot, as a nonprofit professional, empathize the purpose of your nonprofit board, recruit the best possible lath members, and help ensure everyone prizes the mission and vision of the mission.

Related Resources

  • Nonprofit Quarterly: Nonprofit Board Responsibilities: The Nuts
  • 501c3.org: Nonprofit Board Members – How To Choose Wisely
  • National Council of Nonprofits: Finding The Right Board Members For Your Nonprofit