There’s a lot of variance in what a given org’s stakeholders (donors and employees, mostly) WANT from its board. Most of my experience is from more established private and public companies, a few startups, and some non-EA nonprofits (local, but pretty large and established, food and underserved-worker charities), and there are a few different archetypes I’ve seen.
Some boards are pretty much there to give private advice to the CEO/founder/owner, and rubberstamp their formal decisions. In effect, they serve the majority shareholder, and much of their activity is invisible to the rest of the organization. Some boards (especially for public companies) are really there as a judicial branch—a check on the power of the CEO and officers, and advocates of shareholder financial interests. Some (especially small and mid-size nonprofits) are big donors, looking to make sure they get to feel good about the money they’re donating—via advice and the threat (I’ve seen it happen, though) of removal of the exec director. This can be micro-managing high-profile activities, or just helping set goals and high-level priorities.
In the end, donors for a nonprofit are the equivalent of shareholders for a for-profit company. A whole lot of weirdness ensues when there are one or a few whales that must be pleased. And less weirdness when most of the ownership/funding comes from a mass of people supporting the idea that this org is the best way for them to meet their goals. To some extent, this is unfortunate, as more distributed donations usually requires more energy to the development group, compared to operations.
There’s a lot of variance in what a given org’s stakeholders (donors and employees, mostly) WANT from its board. Most of my experience is from more established private and public companies, a few startups, and some non-EA nonprofits (local, but pretty large and established, food and underserved-worker charities), and there are a few different archetypes I’ve seen.
Some boards are pretty much there to give private advice to the CEO/founder/owner, and rubberstamp their formal decisions. In effect, they serve the majority shareholder, and much of their activity is invisible to the rest of the organization. Some boards (especially for public companies) are really there as a judicial branch—a check on the power of the CEO and officers, and advocates of shareholder financial interests. Some (especially small and mid-size nonprofits) are big donors, looking to make sure they get to feel good about the money they’re donating—via advice and the threat (I’ve seen it happen, though) of removal of the exec director. This can be micro-managing high-profile activities, or just helping set goals and high-level priorities.
In the end, donors for a nonprofit are the equivalent of shareholders for a for-profit company. A whole lot of weirdness ensues when there are one or a few whales that must be pleased. And less weirdness when most of the ownership/funding comes from a mass of people supporting the idea that this org is the best way for them to meet their goals. To some extent, this is unfortunate, as more distributed donations usually requires more energy to the development group, compared to operations.