GETTING YOUR BOARD ON BOARD:
By Frank Julie
YOUR BOARD IS NOT A NECESSARY EVIL!
Developing your board, or effective governance as it is commonly known, is a great challenge for many NPO’s in the African context. Wherever I go it is more the exception than the rule to find a well governed organization. There are many reasons why we grapple with board development. But one reason I think is because we don’t have a tradition of effective governance in the African context born out of our concrete realities on the ground. While our counterparts in the North deal with an ageing population with an abundance of skills lying around to be recruited onto boards we in the South sit with the exact opposite. This phenomenon is exacerbated by an army of unemployed people using their involvement in organizations as a means of job creation. However, it is the task of leadership to overcome these constraints. We have to learn to develop effective boards despite these realities.
WHY WE NEED BOARDS?
There are many obvious reasons why non-profit organizations need boards. I do not wish to dwell on them here. You know most of them anyway. The most obvious of course is that it holds the management accountable for the resources (financial and material) entrusted to it by the private and public institutions. What you ask for in a funding proposal and what you promise to deliver must be consistent. Your board ensures this.
But there is another big reason why you need a board. It is to hold you accountable to your public image (your vision, mission, objectives, core values) and what you practice in reality i.e. your true identity. Put differently, what are you doing when no one is watching? From time to time many organizations are put to this test. And many fail miserably. It is a test that comes in many forms. Some members being dishonest, others committing fraud, donor agendas being embraced for expediency to ensure the next funding contract, etc. The real job of an effective board is to protect the organization against these malpractices.
THE 3 DIFFERENT LEVELS OF EXTERNAL INVOLVEMENT:
To recruit the right board members is not easy in our context. To overcome this constraint I have learnt over the years to approach this challenge by distinguishing three levels of board involvement. Remember, you are trying to recruit a skill and not necessarily a person. The person only represents the skill/s you are looking for to add relevant value to your vision and mission and generally to your organised relationships in the organization. Too many times we tend to give up on a potential person because s/he is not available for whatever reason such as time, other commitments, etc.
THE 1ST LEVEL – ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT:
This is the ideal level at which we would like board members to be involved. Attending meetings, signing up for sub-committees, visiting the organization regularly, reading relevant documents, etc. It is always a great challenge to get people to commit to this level of involvement.
THE 2ND LEVEL – STRATEGIC INVOLVEMENT:
This level helps you to overcome the first. Remember, you are trying to recruit a skill/s, so when someone is not available at the first level, get them to become a strategic adviser. That means that you do not expect the person to attend all your meetings and committing to all the responsibilities of being an active board member. But you can get the person to commit to add value to your organization by signing up as a strategic adviser. Get the person to commit in writing that s/he will play this role. This shows donors not only what you have in terms of skills, expertise and capacities, but also what you have access to. So, whenever you need advice or voluntary services in terms of the expertise of the strategic adviser, you will have access to it.
As an organizational development consultant I am inundated with requests from client organizations and others who would like me to join their boards. I usually decline. But I always offer to act as a strategic adviser. That means I can still help to add value in a way that suits me whether it is offering a free workshop or spending time with a director discussing a particular concern or making referrals when possible.
THE 3RD LEVEL – INVOLVEMENT BY ASSOCIATION (PATRON)
At this level you recruit someone with a high level of integrity and who is well-known in the community with credible influence. The idea is to link your organization to the ideas and ethos that this individual espouse. You add value to your organization by association. Finding such a person is not easy and can sometimes be dangerous because you cannot control this person. It is a level fraught with risk. The benefit though is that this person can open doors for the organization and advocate its vision and mission. This is how it looks:
RECRUITING THE RIGHT BOARD MEMBERS:
Many of the problems that surface when a board starts to collapse can be located at the recruitment stage. Those recruited are not always the most suitable candidates for board involvement. This is what I find when I work with boards:
People are recruited because:
There are of course more wrong reasons but the above are the most common in my experience.
SOME RULES ON BOARD RECRUITMENT:
HOW TO KEEP YOUR BOARD ON BOARD:
Your board members should be treated like external donors. They may not provide a lot of financial support but they make it possible for your organization to access the financial support that you need to run the organization. If you treat your board like a rubber stamp then you will lose them as soon as they have been recruited. In this case you are using and abusing them and they will definitely not stay on board.
I have already (see above) discussed some ideas of building relationships with your board members, but here are some more:
SOME IDEAS OF WHERE AND HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BOARD MEMBERS
THE PROCESS OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION:
This is normally a stage that most organizations skip. They simply do not spend enough time during the recruitment process. This can lead to serious frustrations for potential board members at a later stage of their involvement. Remember, the recruitment process of a board member is almost exactly the same as when you recruit a staff member. This is how it works:
I have found in my experience that the latter point is never clarified with the result that many board members become dead wood on many boards. This causes many problems since they will be the ones holding the organization back in a time when drastic change is called for. They usually pine to the good old days with nostalgia.
THE INDUCTION PROCESS
This process is not taken very seriously in most organizations. And it comes back to you with a vengeance! Learn to take time to induct new board members. Here are some guidelines to help you with an induction process normally led by the director and board chairperson. This is important so that any question that comes up during the process can be addressed immediately.
The board member:
The member must be allowed time to meet with staff members and volunteers to find out who is doing what in the organization. I sometimes find board members who do not even know all the staff members working within a particular organization. Still, they are required to make decisions about those staff members that can affect their future!
Please note:
A director that feels insecure and incompetent in his job will always try to play board members off against each other or even play staff off against the board. This is a tactic aimed at protecting himself (and his salary of course) and not advancing the interests of the organization. Board members must be careful not to fall into this trap. This can also happen where a director or staff members are seeking special favours from board members and will go out of their way to undermine the director. This is dangerous. Board members must refuse to become useful tools in pursuance of petty agendas. This is not good for the health of an organization. Secret meetings and conniving only create suspicion and mistrust that will cause everybody to suffer in the end, including the beneficiaries and of course the connivers themselves.
In my experience, many board members feel honoured to serve on boards. They will usually be approached by a director to serve on a board. What many do not understand is that as soon as they start serving on a board, they are entrusted with a power that can make or break an organization. The director is distributing power to the board, even the power to fire him if he is incompetent, lazy and not performing according to expectation. However, in my experience, when problems related to director performance surface, then you will find that board members will rather resign instead of getting rid of the director. This is especially true where board members are fairly new and afraid that they may be held accountable by public institutions or auditors for corruption committed in their name. When this happens, you can be sure that the organization will be dealt a death blow. No potential board member worth her salt will in any case join such an organization which means the organization is effectively buried.
Developing your board, or effective governance as it is commonly known, is a great challenge for many NPO’s in the African context. Wherever I go it is more the exception than the rule to find a well governed organization. There are many reasons why we grapple with board development. But one reason I think is because we don’t have a tradition of effective governance in the African context born out of our concrete realities on the ground. While our counterparts in the North deal with an ageing population with an abundance of skills lying around to be recruited onto boards we in the South sit with the exact opposite. This phenomenon is exacerbated by an army of unemployed people using their involvement in organizations as a means of job creation. However, it is the task of leadership to overcome these constraints. We have to learn to develop effective boards despite these realities.
WHY WE NEED BOARDS?
There are many obvious reasons why non-profit organizations need boards. I do not wish to dwell on them here. You know most of them anyway. The most obvious of course is that it holds the management accountable for the resources (financial and material) entrusted to it by the private and public institutions. What you ask for in a funding proposal and what you promise to deliver must be consistent. Your board ensures this.
But there is another big reason why you need a board. It is to hold you accountable to your public image (your vision, mission, objectives, core values) and what you practice in reality i.e. your true identity. Put differently, what are you doing when no one is watching? From time to time many organizations are put to this test. And many fail miserably. It is a test that comes in many forms. Some members being dishonest, others committing fraud, donor agendas being embraced for expediency to ensure the next funding contract, etc. The real job of an effective board is to protect the organization against these malpractices.
THE 3 DIFFERENT LEVELS OF EXTERNAL INVOLVEMENT:
To recruit the right board members is not easy in our context. To overcome this constraint I have learnt over the years to approach this challenge by distinguishing three levels of board involvement. Remember, you are trying to recruit a skill and not necessarily a person. The person only represents the skill/s you are looking for to add relevant value to your vision and mission and generally to your organised relationships in the organization. Too many times we tend to give up on a potential person because s/he is not available for whatever reason such as time, other commitments, etc.
THE 1ST LEVEL – ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT:
This is the ideal level at which we would like board members to be involved. Attending meetings, signing up for sub-committees, visiting the organization regularly, reading relevant documents, etc. It is always a great challenge to get people to commit to this level of involvement.
THE 2ND LEVEL – STRATEGIC INVOLVEMENT:
This level helps you to overcome the first. Remember, you are trying to recruit a skill/s, so when someone is not available at the first level, get them to become a strategic adviser. That means that you do not expect the person to attend all your meetings and committing to all the responsibilities of being an active board member. But you can get the person to commit to add value to your organization by signing up as a strategic adviser. Get the person to commit in writing that s/he will play this role. This shows donors not only what you have in terms of skills, expertise and capacities, but also what you have access to. So, whenever you need advice or voluntary services in terms of the expertise of the strategic adviser, you will have access to it.
As an organizational development consultant I am inundated with requests from client organizations and others who would like me to join their boards. I usually decline. But I always offer to act as a strategic adviser. That means I can still help to add value in a way that suits me whether it is offering a free workshop or spending time with a director discussing a particular concern or making referrals when possible.
THE 3RD LEVEL – INVOLVEMENT BY ASSOCIATION (PATRON)
At this level you recruit someone with a high level of integrity and who is well-known in the community with credible influence. The idea is to link your organization to the ideas and ethos that this individual espouse. You add value to your organization by association. Finding such a person is not easy and can sometimes be dangerous because you cannot control this person. It is a level fraught with risk. The benefit though is that this person can open doors for the organization and advocate its vision and mission. This is how it looks:
RECRUITING THE RIGHT BOARD MEMBERS:
Many of the problems that surface when a board starts to collapse can be located at the recruitment stage. Those recruited are not always the most suitable candidates for board involvement. This is what I find when I work with boards:
People are recruited because:
- They had nothing to do in any case
- Being friends with someone on the board
- Helping the organization to fill up the numbers to ensure credibility with external donors
- False promises were made that the member is not going to be so involved
- Comradely considerations (previous association in struggle era)
- It becomes a stepping stone for full-time employment or future job contracts
There are of course more wrong reasons but the above are the most common in my experience.
SOME RULES ON BOARD RECRUITMENT:
- You are recruiting a skill and not just a face
- A clear recruitment strategy should be in place
- Cultivating new board members is a continuous process (just like external donors) and not when existing members plan to resign or when their terms of office expire
- Set up a sub-committee to coordinate the recruitment process
- Put in place objective criteria and processes to appoint new board members
- Make sure new board members are properly inducted into the organization and that they understand their role in relation to management to avoid role confusion
- Everybody should be encouraged to cultivate and recommend new board members but only the board approve appointments. Staff members cannot make appointments otherwise it is like a team choosing its own referee!
HOW TO KEEP YOUR BOARD ON BOARD:
Your board members should be treated like external donors. They may not provide a lot of financial support but they make it possible for your organization to access the financial support that you need to run the organization. If you treat your board like a rubber stamp then you will lose them as soon as they have been recruited. In this case you are using and abusing them and they will definitely not stay on board.
I have already (see above) discussed some ideas of building relationships with your board members, but here are some more:
- Treat them with respect
- Be open and honest
- Show them that you care about them as people first and secondly as board members
- Provide them with practical tasks e.g. speak at graduations, receiving donors, etc.
- Keep them informed at all times
- Submit regular short reports. An informed board member is an involved member!
- Don’t waste their time with unnecessary and useless meetings
- Don’t let board members do your work for you. You are paid to do it yourself!
- Take an interest in the family of board members. They must also make sacrifices to allow their fathers and mothers to serve in your organization.
- If you can afford it, pay board members a sit-in fee or transport allowances when attending meetings or special events.
- Make sure board members have something to eat after or before meetings.
- Allow members to facilitate workshops in relation to the skills they represent.
- Stay in regular contact with your board via e-mail, telephone, fax, sms, etc.
- Issue certificates to board members to express gratitude for their sacrifices and involvement.
- Build relationship for the long term and not just while board members are in the organization.
- Send thank you cards (or sms, faxes or e-mails) to thank board members for attending meetings or events.
- Negotiate and clarify terms of office constantly to avoid members feeling “bad” when they have to leave.
SOME IDEAS OF WHERE AND HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BOARD MEMBERS
- Remember, board cultivation (like external donor cultivation) is a continuous process and not just when you experience a crisis of board membership.
- Ask fellow directors for names of potential board members
- Check annual reports of other organizations in the same sector like yours for names of board members. Sometimes board members resign from one organization and don’t mind to get involve in another one to share their experiences.
- When you attend network forums, check out potential board members.
- Advertise in local, regional or national newspapers. This is risky but it is how you manage the process of selection that is important. By advertising (not a widely used practice) you throw the net wide to catch the best board members. Be specific in the advertisement about your needs and requirements to limit chance takers or people trying to use your organization to pursue personal agendas.
- If you operate on a local community basis, use posters to advertise for board members at strategic places in your community.
- Use your brochures, personal letters, e-mail, pamphlets and your website (if you have one) to raise your need for appropriate board members with the relevant skills.
THE PROCESS OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION:
This is normally a stage that most organizations skip. They simply do not spend enough time during the recruitment process. This can lead to serious frustrations for potential board members at a later stage of their involvement. Remember, the recruitment process of a board member is almost exactly the same as when you recruit a staff member. This is how it works:
- The candidate must submit a CV
- Develop a short list of promising candidates
- Set interview dates with those on the short list
- Interview short listed candidates and decide on the final candidates
- Send letters of appointments and relevant documentation
- Prepare for the 1st board meeting and prepare the induction process
- Indicate what the board member’s responsibilities will be (i.e. how many meetings he/she must attend, any subcommittee involvement, which documents to study, etc.)
- Indicate a clear term of office (i.e. how long the board member will be involve in your organization)
I have found in my experience that the latter point is never clarified with the result that many board members become dead wood on many boards. This causes many problems since they will be the ones holding the organization back in a time when drastic change is called for. They usually pine to the good old days with nostalgia.
THE INDUCTION PROCESS
This process is not taken very seriously in most organizations. And it comes back to you with a vengeance! Learn to take time to induct new board members. Here are some guidelines to help you with an induction process normally led by the director and board chairperson. This is important so that any question that comes up during the process can be addressed immediately.
The board member:
- Must receive clear tasks and what is expected from him during his term of office on the board
- Must receive all relevant strategic planning reports, financial reports and the latest audit report
- Must receive a list of names of fellow board members, staff and volunteers
- Staff contracts must be submitted to the member
- Funding agreements must be provided
- Rental agreements entered into by the organization
The member must be allowed time to meet with staff members and volunteers to find out who is doing what in the organization. I sometimes find board members who do not even know all the staff members working within a particular organization. Still, they are required to make decisions about those staff members that can affect their future!
Please note:
A director that feels insecure and incompetent in his job will always try to play board members off against each other or even play staff off against the board. This is a tactic aimed at protecting himself (and his salary of course) and not advancing the interests of the organization. Board members must be careful not to fall into this trap. This can also happen where a director or staff members are seeking special favours from board members and will go out of their way to undermine the director. This is dangerous. Board members must refuse to become useful tools in pursuance of petty agendas. This is not good for the health of an organization. Secret meetings and conniving only create suspicion and mistrust that will cause everybody to suffer in the end, including the beneficiaries and of course the connivers themselves.
In my experience, many board members feel honoured to serve on boards. They will usually be approached by a director to serve on a board. What many do not understand is that as soon as they start serving on a board, they are entrusted with a power that can make or break an organization. The director is distributing power to the board, even the power to fire him if he is incompetent, lazy and not performing according to expectation. However, in my experience, when problems related to director performance surface, then you will find that board members will rather resign instead of getting rid of the director. This is especially true where board members are fairly new and afraid that they may be held accountable by public institutions or auditors for corruption committed in their name. When this happens, you can be sure that the organization will be dealt a death blow. No potential board member worth her salt will in any case join such an organization which means the organization is effectively buried.
