Board Stories (Plus Board Development Scholarship Info)

I don’t often see blog entries on someone’s practical experience solving board related problems so I was pleased to follow a link on a Non Profit Law blog Tweets of the Week Entry to BoardSource’s Board Life Matters blog. There Melissa Sines talks about her experience on a board experiencing Battered Board Syndrome in the wake of the Executive Director’s unexpected departure.

She relates some very common problems her board faced:

“The relationship between board and staff had always been a rocky one in our organization. It was hard to ignore the finger-pointing taking place on both sides of the table. It was a classic case of management saying, “The board doesn’t fundraise enough, what good are they?” and the board saying, “The staff doesn’t listen to anything we say, anyway, what use are we?”

She credits a grant that allowed her board to engage in a year long training process covering myriad issues with saving the organization.

I haven’t had the opportunity to read the rest of the blog to see how useful it might be, but I couldn’t help but notice the most recent entry offering 20 scholarships to allow “emerging nonprofit leaders to participate in the annual BoardSource Leadership Forum to deepen their governance knowledge.”

This is the first scholarship I have heard with the aim of improving board governance so it bears attention. The criteria are:

* Are either
o nonprofit board members with less than three years of experience serving on a nonprofit board
o nonprofit executives or staff members with less than three years of experience working with a nonprofit board
* Have demonstrated leadership ability and potential for their organization and the nonprofit community
* Are affiliated with a nonprofit organization that has an annual budget less than $5 million
* Will enrich the diversity of the sector. Diversity includes but is not limited to age, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability.
* Would not otherwise be able to attend the BoardSource Leadership Forum and have not attended a previous Forum

BoardChemistry.com

Boards seem to be a real hot topic recently. Thanks to a massive blogroll listing on the Clyde Fitch Report, I became aware of a ArtPride NJ blog post pondering why Gen X/Y is not well represented on non-profit boards. Leonard Jacobs of the Clyde Fitch report also weighed in on the subject of boards yesterday. (Busy day over at CFR, one hopes they didn’t spend all their time with the blog on Valentine’s Day.)

Hat Tip to Nonprofit Law Blog for pointing out a tweet to a Fast Company article about how for profit companies looking to provide their employees with a positive experience serving on non-profit boards can start a coaching/match making service.

I like the idea of taking the time to perform a diligent examination of your options, expectations of membership, mission and other details to assure your interest in the cause. I don’t see too many companies investing the resources to create such an office, especially in these economic times. I am wondering if this might be a task better suited to chambers of commerce or local chapters of the United Way. A centralized resource like this would be a benefit to a wider range of people and organizations than one limited to a few companies who are able to support the activities. And perhaps the central office could make an effort in concert with its members to encourage the Gen X/Y set to explore joining boards.

And if that works, maybe someone will work up a questionnaire and algorithm and make it an online service. Maybe I should go off and register BoardChemistry.com right now!

Bonus Link- Hat Tip again to Non-Profit Law blog who linked to the document the IRS uses to evaluate your non-profit during an audit.