Through some tough experiences, Romona Jackson has come to value an effective board of directors. Jackson, who founded the Women’s Advocacy Center, which serves victims of domestic violence, saw the results of a disengaged board ripple through her organization.
Boards will be more important than ever as nonprofits navigate a tricky financial landscape and political uncertainty.
“If you have people that are not showing up to meetings and you have people that are not engaged, they’re not helping you with the fundraising. We had two years where that was the case, and it’s just really, really hard,” she says. “It makes it very difficult for the organization as a whole to be successful and to move forward.”
It’s a problem many leaders have noticed, particularly following the pandemic. Kevin Dean, CEO of the Tennessee Nonprofit Network, says there were members of his board who were so disengaged he couldn’t get in touch with them. In 2023, the board chair sent a letter to board members telling them they would need to step up their involvement in light of the group’s expansion. Seven of the 15 board members left on good terms, Dean says.
With so many board meetings happening over video calls, it’s harder to create a cohesive board culture, says Anne Gingerich, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations. Board members may not spend much time together, and that can lead to a lack of engagement. Sometimes trustees are distracted during online meetings, attending to other work or messaging each other about things that should be part of the board discussion, she says.
Jackson brought in a consultant to do a workshop with the board to clarify its role. She and the board chair met with the board members who were not living up to their responsibilities and outlined what they should be doing, detailed how they were falling short, and urged them to either change or step down. Four of the seven board members stepped down. Since then, the group has been able to recruit new board members who are more engaged and better understand their role, she says.
The organization recently went through a 14-month strategic-planning process with the board, examining where the group wants to be in five years, what its challenges are, and the resources it will need to overcome them. Board members were an important part of that process.
Nonprofit leaders will face a lot of uncertainty in the coming year. Far too many groups are entering 2025 on poor financial footing. Many organizations are laying off staff or even facing the possibility of closure. The Trump administration has signaled it will pursue policies that may cause needs in many communities to grow and change. And the federal funding that many nonprofits rely on could be curtailed.
“We’re worried about fundraising for sure. Volunteer management has tanked year after year, and it just keeps going lower and lower. Our plates are full,” Dean says. “Now is the most important time for nonprofit boards to be stepping up.”
‘Infrastructure for the Future’
All of this change is coming at a time when a generation of nonprofit leaders has been retiring and a new crop of leaders has emerged. Boards are especially critical when a new leader takes over, says Preeta Nayak, a partner at the consultancy Bridgespan.
“That moment of transition is a moment when you really want your board to be strong and effective — and engaging and preparing and helping that new leader. Because we are not always seeing that, you’re seeing some of those transitions not go too well, and some of those people not last,” she says. “If I could wave a magic wand and make one part of boards more effective, it would be in that moment.”
In the current environment, relationships between nonprofit leaders and board members, particularly the board chair, are more important than ever, says Monika Kalra Varma, CEO of BoardSource. There should be clear conversations between the two about how they plan to navigate the coming year. Change produces anxiety, she says, and a strong relationship with good communication can help to relieve that.
Board members should cycle off the board regularly, Kalra Varma says. Many nonprofit boards have term limits — usually two terms of two or three years — which means that boards should regularly be recruiting new members. When board members don’t leave, it can lead to problems.
When Hal Cato took over as CEO of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee two years ago, the board had 62 members. Term limits were treated as a suggestion, and people kept joining, but they did little to contribute, he says. With so many people on the board, he couldn’t effectively manage those relationships. It was hard to get people to contribute or speak up.
He cut the board to 21 members in a short time. He started with those who had been on the board the longest. He offered departing board members seats on an advisory council — something many of them were happy to do, since it allowed them to stay involved with the foundation but with less responsibility.
“They’re connected to the old guard that really got this foundation started,” Cato says. “They felt plugged in and not isolated, but also they didn’t have to be at the table when key decisions were made.”
Cato recruited new board members with an emphasis on making the board better reflect the racial makeup of the community. He also wanted board members with particular skills — people who understood local needs, strategic planning, and financial management, and those who had relationships with local institutions and potential funders. Political skills were important, too. He points out that Nashville is a blue dot in a red state. The foundation needs people with political wherewithal to help guide it, particularly since it plans to take on more of a civic leadership role, convening leaders from across the state in coming years.
Finding board members who understand the political context and who have legal expertise will help organizations navigate potential threats from new legislation, including anticipated attacks on DEI initiatives, says Janis Rosheuvel, executive director of the Building Movement Project. She also says boards need people who can think ambitiously.
I like to set the bar high. You do yourself no favors by trying to recruit the big elephant and then set the bar low for them.
“We are going into a time of real defensiveness, but also a time where there’s really great opportunity to build what we want for the future,” she says. “This time is not going to last forever. We’re going to try and build infrastructure for the future.”
All boards need to be well informed about the organization and sometimes reminded of their roles — whether the board has new members or not, says nonprofit consultant David La Piana. When La Piana was a nonprofit CEO, he gave board members a cheat sheet on the basics of the organization, including its budget, funding sources, and the size of the staff. Dean gives his new board members at the Tennessee Nonprofit Network a governance training session that outlines the board’s role, and he builds board education into the annual board retreat.
Cato, at the community foundation, is clear with new board members about their roles and responsibilities. They receive a job description and information about term limits, so the foundation doesn’t end up with 60 board members again. “I like to set the bar high,” he says. “You do yourself no favors by trying to recruit the big elephant and then set the bar low for them.”
Skilled, Engaged Partners
Many nonprofit organizations have been working to diversify their boards. But diversifying a board has to be more than just ticking a box; it should be part of an organizationwide effort, says Rosheuvel, of the Building Movement Project. The group’s most recent Race to Lead report shows that the more DEI initiatives a group has, the more effective they are for all staff.
Music for Everyone in Lancaster, Pa., examined the composition of its board of directors after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. It was about 80 percent white. While the county where the organization works is also more than 80 percent white, the organization primarily serves young people of color.
“We had to really take a hard look in the mirror,” says John Gerdy, the nonprofit’s founder and a current board member. He says it became clear the organization was not working as effectively as it could because its board, committees, volunteers, and vendors were not representative of the people the group serves. “We got lazy. I take full responsibility for that.”
The organization reached out to artists it works with and small-business owners in the communities it serves to recruit new board members. The group’s new executive director, Deb Rohrer, coached new board members on their roles and helped them feel comfortable, as many had not served on boards before. She also stressed to them how valuable their expertise was to the organization.
Music for Everyone benefited immensely, Rohrer says. The young board members have been advocates for the group, and its programs are expanding. They helped the group relate better to the young people it works with and have pursued more relevant forms of music, like hip-hop.
The organization is diversifying its fundraising by having all board members, including the new ones, ask their employers, friends, and social-media followers to donate, even if it’s just $5. The group hopes to build a broad base of donors that can grow over time rather than tapping the same large donors over and over.
Having an engaged, skilled, diverse board is going to be even more important this year and moving forward, La Piana says. “If you don’t have a board that’s there as your partner in a really positive way, you’re going to be at a real disadvantage,” he says. “You’re going to need the board to stand up.”