What Most Nonprofit
Board Members Get Wrong

It’s a fact.

As a board member, you bring a lot to the table.

Your experience, your reputation in the community, and your ability to connect with others all create a unique opportunity for you to be an important part of group that takes an organization from good to great.

And while routine board duties like developing the annual budget, monitoring the financials, and overseeing the external audit are important activities (insert yawn here), what your CEO really wants from you is for you to help them dream BIG.

That’s right.

Your charity’s CEO wants you—as their trusted board partner—to be a co-creator in envisioning a better, brighter, bigger, and more impactful tomorrow for your nonprofit.

They want you to come to meetings energized.

They want you to come to meetings with an eye on the future. They want you to be looking around corners. They want you to press the limits on what’s really possible.

In a nutshell, they want you to dream BIG.

This is what your charity’s CEO really wants from you.

Not convinced?

In a fascinating study entitled “What Nonprofit Executives Really Want and What They Actually Get from their Board Members,” researchers found that the vast majority of board members believe the CEO wants assistance in overseeing the mandatory red tape that goes along with operating a nonprofit.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong.

While these are all important activities, researchers found that what nonprofit CEOs really want from their board members is help with creating a better tomorrow.  

They want help with envisioning a breathtaking future—one that changes lives and transforms organizations. 

They want help with envisioning a future where the charity grows by leaps and bounds. 

They want help with envisioning a future where the nonprofit achieves “best-in-class” status.

Why Envisioning a Better Tomorrow Matters.

Put simply, big dreams matter.

And this is especially true for nonprofit boards and their CEOs.

Here’s why.

When a charity’s board helps the CEO articulate a big, bold dream, the group is unabashedly announcing to the world that some exciting things are about to happen.

And it’s this shared anticipation of a better tomorrow that creates energy. 

It’s the kind of energy that gets people excited. It’s the kind of energy that gets people to step up and be counted. It’s the kind of energy where people will go to great lengths to help the charity realize its mission.

In fact, one of the world’s most respected voices on the power of shared vision, Peter Senge, said this:

“A shared vision is not just an idea…It is, rather, a force in people’s hearts, a force of impressive power…It is palpable. People actually begin to see it as if it already exists…Few, if any, forces in human affairs are as powerful as shared vision.”

To be sure, when a nonprofit articulates a big, bold vision, a lot of things start to fall into place.

Everyone—the CEO, the board, staff, supporters, and donors—becomes more engaged. 

What’s more, good people who aren’t even associated with your organization take notice—and they want to be a part of what’s happening.  

United by the dream, people start rowing in the same direction. The work becomes fun. And results begin to materialize.

How You Can Help Your Nonprofit’s CEO Dream Big.

As a board member, here are four ways you can help your nonprofit’s CEO dream big.

Priority #1: Build trust and foster a safe environment.

When you cultivate a strong and transparent relationship with your charity’s CEO, you are creating a space where your CEO will feel comfortable in taking risks, sharing challenges, offering up vulnerabilities, and presenting unconventional ideas without fear of judgment.

This kind of trust and security is worth its weight in gold.

Priority #2: Support your CEO’s continuous learning and development.

Encourage your CEO’s professional development through conferences, workshops, executive coaching programs, peer advisory groups, relevant training opportunities, and, of course, reading. 

All of these things will help to open the eyes of your charity’s CEO to the limitless possibilities that exist.

Priority #3: Ask great questions.

Here are five great ones that will get you off to a fast start.

• What do the most successful charities in our space do differently than we do?

• What three things would you say best describe our nonprofit’s success over the last few years?

• How would you describe our nonprofit’s vision for the next three to five years?

• What are the biggest challenges facing our nonprofit right now?

• If money weren’t a problem, what would you be doing right now to maximize our nonprofit’s impact?

Priority #4: Focus your energy on the things that matter.

Burn this into your brain.

Good nonprofits spend about 80% of their time taking care of minutiae.

Great nonprofits spend about 80% of their time talking about the future.

As a board member, it’s imperative that you fall into the second camp.  

Never forget, the future depends on what we do in the present.  

That said, it should come as no surprise that your meeting agenda is probably the greatest single revealer of how your board spends its time. 

With this in mind, be vigilant in making sure that your group is putting first things first.

High Impact Boards

One of the greatest joys in life is serving on a nonprofit’s board of directors.

To maximize your impact, it’s essential that you know what your CEO really wants from you.  

Study after study reveals that what the very best nonprofit CEOs want from their boards is help in dreaming big, bold dreams.

Be that board member!

Be that board member who spends time on the right stuff. Be that board member who dreams BIG. Be that board member who wants to bring out the very best in the CEO. 

And, most of all, be that board member who changes lives and transforms organizations.

Until next time.