10 Points That Embody the Staff's Role in Nonprofit Board Development

In my current roles as an executive director of development, consultant and author, I make every attempt to stay current on topics important to those in the philanthropic world. In recent days, I have attended Association of Fundraising Professionals luncheons, hosted one-on-one meetings with family foundation leaders, participated in webinar development programs, played a staff leadership role at a board meeting and prepared to speak at a national conference on volunteerism using best-of-class examples.

Many tell me that the topic of board development is very hot these days. Many volunteers and those engaged with boards are in need of training and engagement. Speaking of engagement, I was invited to speak to a number of my peers two weeks ago in Philadelphia at the second annual FundRaising Success Engage Conference. My topic was, as you might guess, board development. For the purpose of today's blog, let's look at board member support from the perspective of staff roles and responsibilities.

If you are in an administrative leadership role with direct responsibility for working with a board of volunteers, you have choices to make with respect to staff involvement. Do you invite any staff members to attend board meetings? If they do attend, what roles should they play? My management style is to invite key staff members to attend board meetings if they have direct accountability to me and the board for organizational success.

I want my staff to shine and participate with these volunteers. The board needs to get to know my key staff members personally for a variety of reasons. Both board members and staff members need to take ownership in the success of the organization. My role as administrative leader is to determine how best to maximize this relationship for ultimate institutional success. You must make sure the board accepts this culture and embraces staff as important board support pieces. Both parties need each other, and if each understands its role in this partnership, the more effective the board and staff will be for ultimate organizational success.