Three Actions Board Members Can Take to Support Nonprofits Right Now

At Propel, we love to train people to be better board members because we know how important they are to ensuring that well-run nonprofits continue to operate for the benefit of us all.

Over the last year, my team has hosted 2,052 people in Propel’s governance webinars and workshops. In that time, external forces have impacted our sector: pandemic-related relief funding dried up, a recession began to seed itself in the economy, a new federal administration began to methodically and purposefully cut funding and resources for nonprofits, and Minnesota made national headlines both for the presence of federal agents on Minneapolis streets, and for the devastating political violence carried out against our state legislators. It has been no surprise to our team that board members aren’t quite sure how to show up in what we consider to be their five roles and responsibilities during this time.

First, if you are thinking about showing up at all, you are already doing a good job. I’ve got three suggestions that might help you take a small action today:

One: Keep Mission and Values at the center

This is the first piece of advice on our resource Governing in a Time of Crisis: 10 Actions for Boards. When we say to keep something at the center, what we mean is to always make sure your decisions are stemming from your mission and values.

My recommendations for boards:

• Familiarize yourself with the organization’s website, services, and activities
• Put the mission of the organization at the top of all board meeting agendas so everyone can see it at every meeting
• Add a discussion of the mission to a board meeting so everyone can understand how it shows up in the work of the organization.  At Propel, we use mission moments in board meetings where program staff get the opportunity to speak to board members about a specific program activity.

Two: Learn and Adapt as You Go

In the past few years, I have often found myself looking around the room at work or in a board meeting to realize that We are the adults in the room. I am not convinced that feeling will pass for a while, but it has taught me an important lesson: don’t freeze when things are hard. Dig in.

Problems will always arise, and the best thing a board member can do is be in the practice of participating in generative thinking. Generative thinking is exploring new ideas, investigating the feasibility of them, asking questions, and being a sounding board. It is not inserting yourself into the work. This practice is hard to start doing when an organization is in crisis, but it can be done with patience and practice.

My recommendations for boards:

• Support the organization by being ambassadors of their work and not critical of it
• Participate in generative work by regularly having discussions about the impact of programs and any adaptations that need to be made in response to the community 
• When things are going well, don’t be hands off; continue to practice asking what could happen either good, bad, or neutral
• Review the strategic plan together, and plan board meetings around benchmarks identified in it: What’s going well? What’s missing? What needs to be lifted up?
• Ask thoughtful questions about the organization’s business model
• Spend time getting to know your fellow board members without doing any board business to learn to trust each other

I’ve seen boards who hadn’t practiced generative thinking, and began to feel it in January, when an Executive Order was released threatening funding for much of the nonprofit sector. They are feeling it and trying to catch up so they can best support the organization. I am proud of them for growing this muscle, they are a stronger board because they have remained committed to the work and dug in when they needed to.

Three: Support the CEO/Executive Director

This is one of our roles as board members, but it is especially important right now. Many Executive Directors are asking themselves if they are the leaders for this moment, and we are sure that they are, but they need our support.

My recommendations for individual board members and boards:

• Reply to their emails, especially if they are marked high priority
• Trust them to make decisions and express that trust
• Be a sounding board and help them get to the root of the problems they are facing*
• Be a partner in sorting through the fog and wall of information constantly coming at nonprofit leaders
  • At Propel, we think a great way to do that is to set up a cash flow statement. This will be the foundation for any scenario planning.

*In my role at Propel, I facilitate a Leaders Circle which is a space for nonprofit leaders to connect with and coach each other instead of immediately giving advice. We do that by asking:

• What is the best-case scenario?
• What is the worst-case scenario?
• What will you need if either of those happen? 
• What is the problem you’re trying to solve?

The answers to these questions usually help move someone from inaction to action.

You’ve Got This

Being a leader at any level takes time, courage, and commitment. Nonprofit board leadership allows us a unique opportunity to share our expertise and time with organizations who do so much to keep our communities fed, housed, educated, entertained, and more.

Thanks for all you do to support nonprofits. I know you’ve got this, and when you need us at Propel, we’ll be here.