How To Get The Heavy-Lifting Nonprofit Board You Deserve

CEOs get the board they deserve! Harsh, but true.

Steve, a Harvard-trained attorney, and founding CEO of a 30-year-old national nonprofit, learned this the hard way. Steve was used to getting his way. “My board is made up of light-lifters, not heavy-lifters,” Steven said.

But you need heavy lifters on your board.

Anatomy of a light-lifter

What’s a light-lifter? This is a person who comes to one meeting a year, and doesn’t return the CEO’s phone calls, or leaves a 6 am voicemail in response saying, “Tag, you’re it.” Light-lifters promise to do this and that, but then you never hear back from them. Many board members believe their chief contribution is to permit your nonprofit to associate with their name. “I’m vice president of XYZ Bank. I’m on your board. Isn’t that enough?” They don’t solicit their personal contacts. They don’t roll up their sleeves. Many don’t even include your agency in their own giving. In their DNA, they don’t see a problem. Worse, many stick around for a long time creating a tremendous disadvantage for your nonprofit. Boards full of light-lifters remain stuck at the founding stage of board development.

The 3 stages of board development

In broad stroke, boards experience three stages of organizational growth:

1. The organizing stage, driven by the founder(s)
2. The governing stage, driven by the trustees/board members
3. The institutional stage, where staff and board achieve integration

The esteemed Karl Mathiason, III first crafted these stages. Karl was clear: You need heavy-lifters to progress through each stage.

Boards are about heavy lifting, yet many board members can be characterized as the opposite.

At its core, the heavy lift of governance is about crafting the future—meeting the fiduciary duty, the strategic oversight, legal compliance, and stakeholder alignment are fundamental, but they’re only heavy lifts when there’s dysfunction, or unethical or illegal conduct.

We often talk about the nonprofit’s mission, vision, and values, but the vision, working on where the organization is headed and how it will get there, is the responsibility of the board—especially within the powers conferred in its executive committee, in sync with the CEO.

The heavy-lifting board

Heavy-lifters are engaged—fully engaged—with the life and growth of the organization regardless of its stage. They readily apply their skills, talents and connections, and wealth to contribute to the nonprofit’s advancement. Ideally, a board of directors is thinking about what the nonprofit will look like and accomplish in five to ten years.

A heavy-lifting board grapples with questions like, “How do we define success? What do we want to be remembered for? What will our work ultimately accomplish, how will we measure that impact, and how do we prepare for getting there?”

The most compelling studies of board satisfaction show that the happiest trustees are engaged with planning for the nonprofit’s future growth and success. That’s what they truly want!

There’s one essential characteristic that defined heavy-lifting board members. In different ways and for various reasons, they were each indispensable.

Further, each of those boards had a singular character. For example, Harlem United Community AIDS Center located in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx sought to define a new dimension on performance based on Peter Drucker’s definition of innovation. And they in fact accomplished real innovation.

What happened to Steve? He retired and the organization folded.

Steve got the board he deserved.

What will you get?

We’ve only skimmed the surface of this important subject.