Setting volunteer board expectations & increasing effectiveness

The board president of a midsized nonprofit that provided meals for children was concerned. Her board members were all intelligent and talented community members who brought their strengths to the board table. However, they didn’t seem to be gelling as a team. She asked the board administrator what he thought.

The administrator had been with the nonprofit for about 10 years. He had worked with many different board members during his tenure. The current board members, he said, have different ideas about their roles. One member believed she was only on the board to raise money, and she often skipped meetings. Others were so passionate about the mission of the nonprofit that they constantly brought new ideas forward to expand their reach, creating confusion about board goals.

The president and the administrator agreed that the first step toward a more effective board was training all board members and setting expectations about board roles that everyone heard and understood.

Setting volunteer board expectations and increasing effectiveness

As you can see from the story above, the most successful nonprofit boards recognize that strong board performance is a critical ingredient in their ability to achieve a positive impact within their communities.

The members of your nonprofit’s board will certainly want to achieve the greatest impact possible during their board terms. The path to increasing effectiveness isn’t always so clear especially if your board has no collective definition of effectiveness and how you will achieve it.

Each board member’s unique characteristics, skills and experience play a strong role in your board’s effectiveness, as well as board dynamics and the mechanics of running effective board meetings

Developing expectations for board service for both new and veteran board members is a good place to start.

What are the characteristics of an effective volunteer board member?

Your board members serve as brand ambassadors and advocates for your nonprofit’s mission. For that reason, it’s vital to take a concentrated look at the character qualities of board member candidates .

These are some of the characteristics to look for as you draw from your community in recruiting new board members:

• Passion for your mission
• Charity-minded
• Knowledgeable about the role of nonprofits within the community
• Community focused
• Possesses a strong network of potential donors and supporters
• Team players
• Professionalism
• Strong leadership skills “born leaders"

The recruitment and nominating process is a good time to highlight how each individual’s characteristics and skills will benefit your board and how they’ll contribute to board dynamics.

Nonprofit board terms generally have term limits. As your board works together toward the goal of improving its effectiveness, it’s important to maximize the time that each board member has as a part of your board. That’s why it’s so vital to establish an informative board orientation process and to set the expectation for them to participate actively in board discussions from their very first board meeting.

Within your orientation process, make sure to include the topic of working together as a team. Boards that rely heavily on one or two members to do the bulk of the work are not as effective as nonprofit boards that share the work by dividing responsibilities.

The most effective nonprofit boards cultivate a team mentality as part of their board culture . You can’t expect that to happen on its own. You’ll need to consistently emphasize the importance of each board member fulfilling their individual and their collective responsibilities. The goal here is full board engagement, which includes preparing for board meetings and attending regularly.

Setting expectations for your board members

Your nonprofit’s mission is unique and different from every other nonprofit organization. With that in mind, it’s unrealistic to set your board expectations based on the expectations of any other nonprofit board.

Here are some examples of board expectations :

• Understanding and complying with nonprofit legal standards.
• Regularly attending meetings.
• Having a strong commitment to fundraising.
• Being willing to serve on a committee or leading one.
• Using their personal and professional contacts to benefit the organization.
• Arriving at board meetings being fully prepared to participate actively.
• Being willing to offer dissenting opinions in a collegial manner.

Regardless of whether your board members have much experience in governance or not, your board expectations should require each board member to work on improving their leadership abilities in nonprofit board governance. Everyone comes to the board with their own unique perspectives and capabilities. Each one has something to learn from everyone else in the group.

Three steps to increase your board’s effectiveness

The path to nonprofit board effectiveness includes the right tools and the right focus areas for education and training.

1. Incorporate the goal of increasing board effectiveness into your annual strategic planning process. Your annual strategic planning meeting is a good time to discuss the issue with your board.
2. Use the right digital tools to support nonprofit board effectiveness. BoardEffect’s mission is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of nonprofit boards. BoardEffect gives your volunteer board the tools to ensure board effectiveness. It fully supports your annual cycle, board development cycle and your board meeting cycle. BoardEffect features also include an online survey tool that’s perfect for performing annual board self-evaluations. 
3. Focus board training on your effectiveness goals. When you onboard new members, include the elements of effective board governance and set expectations for all board members. That way, all board members are on the same page when working to develop annual goals. As a good rule of thumb, Chartered Accountants of Canada recommends categorizing education and training into the following four categories: leadership, procedures & resources, board dynamics and relationships. 

“The best leaders are always learning, always growing. They are never satisfied with the status quo. They seek out new ideas and perspectives, challenge their assumptions, and embrace the discomfort that comes with change. They are not afraid to fail because they know that failure is an essential part of the learning process. And they are committed to building a culture of learning and continuous improvement within their organizations.” – Dan Cardinali, president and CEO of Independent Sector.

Communicate and reinforce board expectations

Here are topics you can include in onboarding and training, and to reinforce at meetings:

• Parliamentary procedure
• Meeting protocols for in-person and remote meetings
• Developing mission and vision statements
• Being effective ambassadors and advocates
• Policies and bylaws
• Strategic planning
• Understanding financial statements and the auditing process
• Understanding board member legal responsibilities and fiduciary duties
• The role of committee work

It’s important to discuss with board members what topics they’d like to cover in their training. The more you include board members in these decisions, they will begin to take ownership of their governance role.

Tips for board administrators

Board administrators can assist board members in fulfilling their responsibilities and becoming effective board members. Creating a mutual understanding among board members of how best to perform their roles is the basis of this effort. Other ways to boost effectiveness include:

• Plan meetings so the board gets the most out of their time together. Make sure board members understand the importance of following the agenda and staying on topic.
• Communicate regularly with board members. Send them updates between meetings. Using a solution like BoardEffect to send messages and create polls and surveys makes sure that information does not get lost in email spam filters. This communication makes them feel more engaged in the board and the organization.
• Make key information easily accessible. Store information about the organization and the board, including past agendas and minutes, budget numbers and other financial information in your document library. This allows board members to easily access the information when they need it. 
• Make training and onboarding easy. Use your board platform to support your onboarding and ongoing training. Board members can access key training materials on their own time and can refer to the information whenever they need it.
• Setting goals for effectiveness. Help the board set goals for the board's own effectiveness and decide how to measure progress. 

How BoardEffect helps

BoardEffect can help your board members operate at peak effectiveness, as individuals and as a group.

Designed specifically for the unique needs of nonprofit boards, BoardEffect streamlines processes and fosters an environment of collaboration and engagement.

BoardEffect enhances communication and organizes board materials in one secure place, making it easy for board members to access important documents. During onboarding, new trustees can be set up for success quickly with key documents and policies to reinforce expectations as they get up to speed.

The software is designed to support the complete annual cycle of the board, ensuring that board members are engaged and prepared throughout the year.

It also assists in planning and documenting meetings effectively, which maximizes the productivity of board sessions. You can also use polls and survey features along with customizable reporting for maintaining accountability and compliance.

Request a demo to find out how we can help your board be even more effective.