Passion Turned Profession · Book VII · The board
How to Build a Nonprofit Board of Directors
You do not have a board. You have nine people who are fond of you and have signed something.
14 chapters · 130 pages
What it is
This is not a criticism and it is not unusual. You needed three names quickly, and the people who agreed did so out of goodwill. The difficulty arrives later, and by then the board cannot easily become something else.
The book is about constructing a board deliberately. What a board is for, and what yours currently does. The founding board and the point at which it should change. Recruiting for the expertise you lack rather than the company you enjoy. The relationship with the chair, which determines how difficult everything else becomes. Meetings that reach decisions. Committees that do work.
Then the three fiduciary duties every director accepts and few have had explained. Executive session. Evaluating the executive director, which is the board’s central obligation and the one small organizations most often omit. Board giving, conflict, and the removal of a director. And succession, begun early rather than at the point of departure.
A founding board that has never disagreed with you is not evidence that you are right. It is evidence that nothing has been tested. Book VII · How to Build a Nonprofit Board of Directors
What this book assumes
That directors exist, however they were recruited. The founding board is Book One.
Every chapter
14 chapters, and what each one does.
Every chapter, with the sentence it opens on.
- 01
What a Board Is For, and What Yours Currently Does
You do not have a board. You have nine people who are fond of you and have signed something.
- 02
The Founding Board and Its Expiry Date
You did not recruit them. You needed three names by Friday.
- 03
Recruiting for What You Lack
Stop recruiting people who like you. You have those.
- 04
The Chair Relationship
Every other thing in this book gets easier or harder depending on one person.
- 05
Meetings That Decide Things
If the meeting could be replaced by an email, it should have been.
- 06
Committees That Are Not Theatre
A committee that only meets when the board meets is not a committee. It is a subheading.
- 07
What Directors Actually Owe, in Plain Language
Three duties. Most directors have never heard them named, and they signed up for all three.
- 08
Executive Session, and Why You Should Want It
A board that cannot talk without you is not able to employ you.
- 09
Evaluating the Executive Director
The board's central job, and the one small organizations skip entirely.
- 10
Board Giving, and the Awkward Conversation
Every director should give. The amount matters much less than you think, and the participation matters much more.
- 11
Conflict
A board that has never disagreed with you is not peaceful. It is untested, and you will find out which in the worst possible month.
- 12
Removing a Director
The conversation nobody has, about the person everybody has discussed.
- 13
The Board in a Crisis
This is the week the board finds out what it is, and it will be too late to become something else.
- 14
Succession, Started Early
Everybody leaves. The only question is whether the organization finds out on your terms.
Two more lines from inside
From the manuscript.
A founder who takes the minutes controls the record of a body that oversees the founder.
Book VII · How to Build a Nonprofit Board of Directors
The question is never whether your board disagrees with you. It is whether they do it in front of you.
Book VII · How to Build a Nonprofit Board of Directors
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What this book assumes
That directors exist, however they were recruited. The founding board is Book One.
Each subject is treated once, in the book that owns it. Where an answer belongs elsewhere, you are given the chapter reference.
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