beyond-1157000_960_720Hi everyone. A colleague asked me to write about what lath members can practise to exist helpful to staff. Nonprofit board members are critical to the success of organizations. Nosotros rely on y'all for so many important things and are deeply grateful for all the fourth dimension, skills, connections, and resource you give, especially considering that the majority of board members are volunteers.

Yet, boards are as well the directly cause of 39% of brain aneurysms in the sector, according to statistics that I made up. So I asked the NWB Facebook community to help develop a listing of what awesome board members do. This is not a listing of board roles and responsibilities, which y'all can google, or detect at BoardSource, only actual, downward-to-earth, sometimes seemingly small stuff. One colleague writes this of one of her board members:

" When your fundraiser is on the aforementioned nighttime equally an ice storm, he personally salts the sidewalks and parking lot. Then when all the salt runs out he goes to the gas station downwards the road and buys more salt to finish the task. He also demands machine keys from me and coworker at the end of the dark to defrost and scrape our car windows. And somehow in the midst of all that he also pays several hundreds of dollars on an sale item and poses for tons of pictures with the kids. #oneofthebest"

OK, that board member is astonishing and deserves, like, the biggest plaque always, but I don't think any of usa are request whatever of you board members to go that far. If y'all tin do even a few of the things below on this listing, we'll all be eternally grateful and will preserve your names forever in the indices of nonprofit history.

25 things that awesome board members do, in no particular order

  1. Promptly answer to emails. Oh please, oh please respond quickly to emails and phone calls. Crawly board members realize that sometimes we legally cannot move frontward on stuff until at that place's a board decision or an officeholder'southward signature. They aid the states do our jobs past being accessible. Chasing downwardly board members is ane of the biggest frustrations we staff face, next to coworkers who leave dishes in the sink for days.
  2. Larn staff's names and roles. Says one colleague, "Had a board fellow member that would tell me how to exercise my job AND call me Heather! At least employ the correct name if you are going to condescend to me." If the organization is not huge, learning staff'south names and a little about their piece of work and, when appropriate, personal lives will help amend morale and board-staff relationship.
  3. Are willing to work with "lower-level" staff. The ED/CEO is great, but some projects need collaboration between board members and non-ED/CEO staff. Awesome board members are OK with talking to the lowly front-line staff and fifty-fifty the unwashed interns.
  4. Love and believe in the organization. Awesome lath members truly believe in the organization's mission, vision, and values. They beloved the arrangement, they want to marry information technology, and it shows.
  5. Know the organization's piece of work. Awesome board members learn the organisation's mission and programs and are able to speak with confidence about it all. If they are non sure near the org's mission and how to clearly talk virtually it, they become help and preparation from staff.
  6. Passionately talk about the arrangement. They talk about it to anybody they know: Family members, neighbors, strangers on the bus, DJs at a club, travel agents, mixed martial artists, cobblers, etc. Awesome board members infect people with excitement about the organization'due south work.
  7. Separate their personal and professional person lives from the org's work when needed. A colleague told me that a board member refused to vote to give staff raises because "I don't get paid that well, and so why should other people?" Awesome board members volition realize how effed up and young that is.
  8. Show appreciation for the work of the staff. It'due south easy to bespeak out all the stuff that tin can exist improved. Awesome lath members also accept fourth dimension to point out the things that are going well and show appreciation for the squad members who make stuff happen.
  9. Await out for staff'southward well-being. An ED friend of mine had a crappy chair that poked into her back. Trying to save money for her org, she refused to buy a new chair. Her board president had to basically mandate her to get a new one. Crawly board members look out for their CEO/ED'south well-being and sometimes utilize their influence to facilitate nice things for staff that the staff wouldn't practise for themselves. This will help create an org culture where team members look out for ane some other.
  10. Fill their table at the gala. Galas are stressful enough. Awesome lath members know that and work to fill their tables early. The Cracking Unicorn of Disinterestedness and Social Justice blesses all board members who fill up their tables with minimum cajoling, haranguing, threats, and bribes.
  11. Do the crap they say they are going to practice. Show up at an consequence? Contact a potential sponsor? Review the bylaws? Whittle small animals out of blocks of lather every bit prizes for the raffle? Awesome board members, and crawly people in full general, do exactly what they say they will practice.
  12. Approaches staff as teammates, not subordinates. Awesome board members see themselves as equal partners with staff, not bosses or supervisors. They understand their part is to guide and back up, non find faults, arraign, and punish.
  13. Stay in their lane and focus on the big important stuff. Crawly board members understand the differences between their roles and the roles of the staff, and they stick to their roles. Unless the board is a working board, they do their board stuff and avert micromanaging staff on operations and programs. They employ their brain and energy on strategies and policies, non on ridiculous small things. They do not care why the toilet newspaper line item increased from $15 this month to $22, or argue with staff about what font to apply on promotional materials.
  14. Understand that they only run into a small-scale part of the organization. Crawly board members know that the work is complicated and that they merely run across a very small fraction of information technology. They are curious, asks for information without being pushy, and treat staff every bit professionals who have more knowledge and experience than they do regarding the organization's work.
  15. Respect that the board speaks as one vox. Awesome board members know that as private lath members, they cannot make staff to do annihilation, and that the lath must human action as one entity to brand decisions, kind of similar The Borg on Star Trek, but smaller and hopefully with ameliorate snacks.
  16. Recognize when they are lath members, and when they are simply regular volunteers. Sometimes lath members volunteer for stuff outside their board function. Awesome lath members recognize those times when they are just a normal volunteer, which ways they follow the directions of staff merely like whatsoever other volunteers, and don't use the board member card to demand special privileges.
  17. Brand a personally meaning financial contribution without constantly being asked or reminded. Awesome lath members know that many funders and donors even so look for 100% board financial contribution, and so they provide an annual gift happily and speedily.
  18. Attend board meetings on time and read lath packets ahead of time. Awesome lath members capeesh how of import quorum is to each lath coming together, and how anxious staff are if quorum is not met. They show up on time and communicate when they cannot attend meetings or if they will exist tardily. They also know that it takes a lot of time to prepare those packets, so they at least skim through them and are prepared to ask relevant, thoughtful questions at meetings.
  19. Are cognizant of staff dynamics and the board'due south part in resolving conflicts. In that location are numerous horror stories of disgruntled team members who skip steps in the grievance process and become directly to the board. Sometimes complaints are legitimate, sometimes they are not. Crawly lath members are not quick to jump to conclusions, only are thoughtful and deliberate in gathering information and making decisions.
  20. Ask tough questions, but with the lens of helping, non blaming and criticizing. Awesome board members are not agape to point out concerns and lead difficult but important conversations. But they are constructive and always have the organization'southward success in listen.
  21. Step up during emergencies or critical transition periods. Says one colleague of a board member, "She tells the direction team she has faith in them to lead during a CEO transition, and then releases them to exercise then, while but an email or phone call away and always has time when the phone phone call comes, and usually replies to emails with a prompt telephone calls, all while serving on the CEO search commission and logging an actress 50+ board service hours because of that! She's amazing, equally is our board!"
  22. Pitch in on their ideas. Few things frustrate us staff more than than board members suggesting new projects for staff to tackle. Let's have a golf tournament! Allow's launch a crowd-funding campaign! Let's put on a one-human action play! Awesome board members know that staff have plenty of crap to do, and that if they are going to mandate more crap for us to do, they volition help out to make that crap happen.
  23. Learn new skills. From financial management to bylaws to strategic planning to effective meeting facilitation, also as plan-specific knowledge, awesome board members have fourth dimension to acquire knowledge and larn new skills. If they are not experienced in the nonprofit sector, they do not presume that they know how to run nonprofits. They do non bizsplain and look downwardly on staff.
  24. Appoint their networks. Awesome lath members will tap their networks to provide the organization with resource, whether information technology is financial or in the grade of professional advice or connections that may aid the organization.
  25. Ensure all the organization's policies and practices align with its values. Crawly board members volition, for example, fight for staff's fair wages, equitable health insurance, and a reasonable family leave policy to align with the value of Equity.

There are others, simply I recollect 25 is a nice number, and then I'll finish here. (Wait, 26, Crawly board members believe in #OxfordCommaForever). Delight add together your thoughts in the comment department. I want to reiterate that we staff are appreciative of board members for all y'all requite to nonprofits. Many of united states staff are besides board members of other organizations, and so we are familiar with both ends of the wombat (it's a new expression I'm hoping will catch on). If nosotros can all review this listing once a while, bank check to see how we are doing on these items, and resolve to exist better lath members, our organizations volition be stronger, our staff happier, our programs improve, and the Not bad Unicorn of Equity and Social Justice will bless us all.

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