Non Profit Board of Directors
Who should be on the Board?
Before I got involved in a major national charity, I had no idea how common board
of directors non profit problems are. As hard as a business board is to run, a non profit board of directors is that much harder. There are
all kinds of problems that are unique to non profits. First of all, it can be much more difficult to make a non profit financially solvent
than with a business. With your business board, you have to maximize profits and increase consumer interest. With a board of directors non
profits, however, you have to be responsive to all sorts of changing situations that you don't get in the business world. Funding can increase
and decrease, the interests of important donors can wax and wane, and the whole organization has to be able to quickly expand and contract in
response to variations in the amount of money available.
A board of directors nonprofit also has to be accountable to the community in a
way that a business doesn't. A non profit is there, after all, to serve the community. A business by contrast is there to serve the
stockholders. This means that the board of directors non profit has to be representative of the community it is serving. As important as
diversity is in the workplace, it is most important of all in a non profit organizations. Getting people from different perspectives and
different walks of life to work together in a constructive professional atmosphere, however, is easier said than done. Nonetheless, doing this
right can make or break non profit boards of directors.
A lot of people spend a lot of time working on organizational models, but it all
basically comes down to this: each individual in the board of directors non profit has to be passionate about the cause, highly competent, and
able to work with others. It doesn't help to bring in managerial types who couldn't care less about what the nonprofit is doing, but it also
doesn't help you to bring in firebrands who are unable to work with other people. It is fine to have true believers working in the field, but
the members of your board of directors non profit should have a little bit more critical understanding of the issues involved. They should
believe, but not be ignorant of the pitfalls and problems that nonprofits face. Only then will they be able to work together so that the
organization can function at its full potential.
By a Board Member of a Non-Profit Organization
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