In growing a non-profit, a leader will encounter ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly’. As long as they learn from challenges along the way, they’ll be well-positioned for better outcomes in the future. In an effort to make the journey of others better, Sofia S Crisp took time, in the last 2 posts, to openly share some of her own non-profit journey challenges. Her other purpose, in telling her story here, was making it clear that her organization “prevailed over every challenge it faced”. It emerged as ‘a stronger organization’ she strongly feels. She firmly believes that others can also overcome their challenges. Ironically, the seeds of a non-profit leader’s future successes often lie in the challenges they’ve overcome.
In this Series, My Non-profit Journey: What I Wish I Knew When I Started, eight leadership wishes shared by Sofia Crisp with Your Outcomes Well will be explored. In the last two posts we explored her second wish (Challenges I’ve Faced)
- Crisp is the Executive Director/Founder of Housing Consultants Group (Greensboro NC).
- Her 3rd wish: Successes I’ve Achieved. Building a Better Board, to allow her organization to achieve better outcomes, is the topic of this blog post.
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Sofia Crisp
Having faced and overcome the major challenges I’ve faced over the years, the organization I lead now stands as a stronger organization. What I mean is this: No test, no testimony. Real growth and power comes at the end of the various Storms we all face on our journeys, personally and professionally. I know I am not the only one that feels this way.
Having dealt with, and learned from, the many challenges I have faced, I have enjoyed many successes over the years too. One of my greatest successes has been the evolution of the organization’s Board of Directors.
Board Building – Early on I did what most people do. I looked at my circle of friends and colleagues and asked the one’s I thought would say Yes to be on my Board. For a while this worked fine, but as we grew something became quite evident: Liking me and liking the Mission of the organization was not enough. The path of least resistance fails again! To put it simply, a good Board Member is active. We had little activity, other than the monthly meetings, in the early years. It surely wasn’t intentional on their part; they just didn’t know what their role was supposed to be. I, as Executive Director, later realized what that role really was – and who was best equipped to fulfill that role going forward.
I have learned since then that Board service requires education; from Roberts Rules of Order to the activity that should occur between meetings. I have also learned that there are three (3) critical characteristics that every Board member should have, namely: Affluence, Influence and Expertise. Let me define what I mean:
- Affluence, not exclusively in a monetary sense. While financial Board contributions are necessary at times, all of a member’s RESOURCES will potentially be tapped. The development of organizational friends and a solid donor base is hindered if Board Members have insufficient resources.
- Influence, in terms of their “reach”. Who do they know that I don’t know? How can they help me connect with the Movers and Shakers in the area?
- Expertise which furthers my organization’s Mission, in the areas we all know we have to have, including marketing, public relations, fundraising and sustainability.
Guess what? The growth after making these changes was phenomenal! We now have a very engaged and active Board of Directors. Let me explain to you what I mean .
- When my nonprofit was, for the lack of a better word, “out of sync”, the Board Meetings could best be described this way: Sofia doing 80% (or more) of the talking and the attending Members simply commenting on what I said.
- In recent years, however, our Board Meetings have truly become a collaborative effort. Each Board Member operates from their area of excellence and manages a specific project – as part of a committee of Board Members, to see a project through to completion. We have moved from me informing them to us collaborating together – to build the organization around it’s core Mission.
LEARN
- Last week Crisp discussed “painting the picture”. This week the right task might be called “Closing the Loop”. Board Members’ core purpose is to facilitate the Mission of the non-profit. In recruiting members to the board, after you sell them on the Mission, you need to continuously close the loop – by providing the action steps to be taken, within their domain, to advance the organization’s cause. Their domain means, in part, working in their gift (prior post). Crisp learned, in short, that her initial instincts -in Board Building- were not her best instincts.
- Affluence (Resources), Influence (Reach), and Expertise – Whether a friend, colleague, or an influential member of the Community, measure the capability of the Board by what they, individually and collectively, can provide to your organization. Crisp did not know this when she launched her housing organization. She learned an essential lesson; she changed the way she staffed and managed her non-profit Board. Lesson: The Board becomes an extension of your organization’s capabilities; they can be reliably called upon, as needed, to plan effectively and operate successfully.
- Board Members that understand the inner-workings of a non-profit already are a big Plus. Beyond the 3 critical characteristics Crisp feels a Board Member should ideally have, having a sense of non-profits is a fourth, nice-to-have quality of a Board Member.
GROW
1. Friendship OR Respect: Will you make the right choice? A perennial problem which is faced by small businesses, including small non-profit organizations, is this: The line of friendship is continually tested. Your employees may become your friends. Your Board, at inception, may be partially composed of friends. Yet here is the key: Business is Business, and the objective should always be to engender Respect for Leadership and Respect for the Mission above everything else. Friendship is at most optional.
2. Mastermind Group – How does building such a group compare to building a Board? The beauty of Mastermind Groups is that the participants raise the bar. How? By challenging each other to create and implement goals, brainstorm ideas, and support each other with total honesty, respect and compassion. Mastermind participants act as catalysts for growth, devil’s advocates and supportive colleagues. Here’s the key point: Non-profit Boards and Mastermind Groups share some common objectives.
- Karyn Greenstreet, a noted business and blog writer, cites that Mastermind groups should be built with members that exhibit the following attributes:
a. Commitment
b. Balanced Two-Way Sharing
c. Follow established guidelines
d. No competitors
e. Similar success and experience levels
In building a Board for a non-profit, one will find that these same principles can be applied.
- You would never build a Mastermind Group with just your best professional friends, right? So you probably shouldn’t do it for your Board either. Remember, the unintentional decisions that Crisp made, initially, in forming and running her Board. What she later learned made her Board a great success – not an organizational challenge, which caused her headaches at night.
Better Boards for Better Outcomes
- Do you consider your organization’s current Board a success?
Sofia Crisp has shared the evolution of the Board of the non-profit housing organization she launched and runs. What started as an organizational challenge, frankly, was eventually transformed into a great success. Often, if a leader is honest and learns the right lesson, when faced with a Trial, they can turn it into a Triumph. Crisp did. Other non-profit leaders surely can too.
Next post in Series: Growing Pains that she has faced as her NC organization has grown. The journey of one non-profit leader, Sofia Crisp, continues next week.
Your Outcomes Well
(to be continued)
Photo Credit: Chris Porter/flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Your Outcomes Well
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