Realizing What is Needed in Nonprofit Board Leadership
Being from Omaha NE, I'm most often asked about, in relation to my home, Nebraska football and Warren Buffett. As of late, I've tried to avoid the subject of our football team, but there's so much to learn from the basic premise of what Warren Buffett talks about as it applies to our nonprofit world.
Recently I saw a list of quotes from years’ worth of his annual letters, primarily to stockholders…but as Berkshire Hathaway has grown and grown, they resonate with the rest of the world. In 2019, he wrote the following:
"I'd like you to know that almost all of the directors I have met over the years have been decent, likable and intelligent. They dressed well, made good neighbors and were fine citizens. I've enjoyed their company. … Nevertheless, many of these good souls are people whom I would never have chosen to handle money or business matters. It simply was not their game. They, in turn, would never have asked me for help in removing a tooth, decorating their home or improving their golf swing. Moreover, if I were ever scheduled to appear on Dancing with the Stars, I would immediately seek refuge in the Witness Protection Program. We are all duds at one thing or another. For most of us, the list is long. The important point to recognize is that if you are Bobby Fischer, you must play only chess for money." [2019]
We, in the nonprofit world, should take note. It seems so simple yet we as an industry don't execute very well on finding the correct board members. Part of that is because we're not as good as we should be at articulating their duties. The days of just reviewing financial statements and having lunch are long gone. We seek when we think about best practices, the ability for us to make further inroads and deeper relationships with key community leaders and philanthropists through introductions. It is the board members becoming part of that conduit system we rely upon for success. In addition, I see too many nonprofits fail to write down these aspired goals, which causes chaos when trying to create accountability for a volunteer’s responsibilities.
And yet, with too many nonprofits, the decisions as to who should be on the board happen at the last minute, in the last month or two of the fiscal year. They incorporate the thought process around someone's idea of a good person and not the responsibilities that are part of the process. Many times, we fail to sit down with potential board members and explain these responsibilities to ensure they agree to them before we ever get to a vote that brings them on the board.
If we want philanthropy to work at its highest levels, much like the quote above with Bobby Fischer, we have to be concrete as to what we need and articulate to those who have interest to ensure we're playing “chess” with new relationships rather than just “two-dimensional checkers.”
