On Monday (6/30) at his blog 137 words, nonprofit arts consultant Alan Harrison writes a post entitled “Successful Trusteeship, or ‘Isn’t Writing a Big Honking Check Enough?’ … Good board members aren’t ambassadors. Ambassadors wait for people to come to them. They’re zealots. They zealously get donations and zealously get new board members. Good board members don’t try to get. They work together and with staff and they get. Good board members personally donate among their three largest monetary donations that year. Not from their company … from them. Good board members are forensic analysts (not governors). Remember, the bottom line is ‘Are we living our mission? Is the mission working?’ They see to it that it does, regardless of the financials. Good board members insist that board meetings are too important to be reporting vehicles. Productive monthly board meetings can be like having twelve mini-retreats. Think of it this way: if each board member’s consulting rate is $100/hour and your charity has 20 board members, do you want to spend $2,000/hour talking about the past or the future?”
Posted July 3, 2014
