From Startup to Mature: How to Guide Your Nonprofit Board’s Growth

Board service can be one of the most rewarding — or the most frustrating — activities one can engage in, depending on the organization. Being part of the team that brings a nonprofit’s mission to life should feel inspiring. But personalities, lack of strategy, ill-defined roles and disorganization can all make board service more exasperating than fulfilling. 

There are many ways to improve the board experience and overall efficacy, but let’s focus on one specific aspect: governance refinement planning (GRP), which is the process of planning how to evolve your board right from the beginning.

Life Stages

Nonprofit boards tend to grow along a continuum. When the organization is brand new, the board generally rolls up their collective sleeves to handle the day-to-day management and even some program delivery. There may be one founder who recruited others, or the board founded the organization together. 

At this point, there are likely no paid staff, and the board is responsible for everything — strategic planning, operations and securing funding. Because of that, they may feel they don’t have the time to proactively plan for the board’s next life stage.

As the organization matures and hires paid staff, these employees begin taking over management and program delivery. This evolution should allow board members to shift their focus to strategy, financial health and keeping the needs of the community at the center of all they do.

Transition Hiccups

Organizations may know that boards should evolve from hands-on management to focus on strategy and governance — but that doesn’t mean they know how to make that transition happen. 

Challenges often arise when the first staff member, usually an executive director, is hired. Boards may be eager to delegate responsibilities but often have difficulty letting go of some aspects of the work that they’ve done for a long time. Consequently, some board members may remain involved in day-to-day management even after several staff members are in place to take on that responsibility.

How to Get From Here to There

Like anything else, having a plan for this growth is the key to success. It starts with defining and documenting everything from the beginning. Write job descriptions that include roles and responsibilities. Create policies and procedures that outline who does what — for example, who signs checks and when a second signer is required. 

It is hard to evolve positively without first operating in a healthy way, so make everything as clear and documented as possible.

Then, decide whether your organization intends to grow past its initial size and level of operations. If the goal is to become a more professional organization that can deliver services on a broader scale, don’t just work with your head down and let it happen as it will — plan how to do it the right way.

This is where governance refinement planning comes in. It’s your blueprint for the expected evolutionary steps of your board of directors. Just as you have a strategic plan for the whole organization, you should have a governance refinement planning process specifically for the board. 

Here are some example stages of growth to outline for your board:

• Startup (likely years one and two).
• Resourcing (years three and four).
• Iterative mature governance (year five and beyond).

Startup

The number of years each stage takes may vary widely, but the premise remains the same. As a startup, the board does the daily work while building the foundation for long-term governance. 

That means documenting policies and procedures, defining roles and responsibilities, and determining the organization’s desired strategic direction based on environmental scans and feedback from the communities served. If your board is planning based only on its own perspective — without input from those it serves — take a step back, regroup and start again.

Resourcing

It often takes about three years of building before an organization is ready to hire its first paid staff. But planning for that transition should start much earlier. Beyond logistics like job descriptions, salaries, funding, facilities, technology and transportation. You will also plan for how the board itself will change as staff are hired and resources are added through your governance refinement planning process.

Think of this as being a bit like succession planning in that you’re preparing for the next stage of the organization and ensuring the transition happens smoothly. For the board, that means recognizing that as the organization hires paid staff, board members will have less responsibility in management and operations. Over time, they’ll likely have little or no responsibilities in management or operations. 

This evolution may also change the ideal board member profile. As the group moves from managing to governing, founding members may no longer feel like the best fit for providing governing leadership. And that is OK. Some board members are good fits for one stage of an organization’s life cycle and then retire from board service (and possibly become another kind of volunteer). 

Iterative Mature Governance

Once your board has evolved to the point where staff responsibilities are clearly separate from board duties, it has reached a mature stage — but mature doesn’t mean static. An effective board continually works with staff to conduct internal and external environmental scans. These help ensure the organization stays responsive to the needs and desires of the community, staff and volunteers. 

In terms of governance refinement planning, maturity also involves continual self-evaluation to ensure the right, representative leadership is in place for the organization’s specific era. This includes documented succession planning for both the board and staff leadership. The iterative approach means evaluating your actions, updating policies and procedures, and always planning for change.

It isn’t enough to be open to change — a successful board must anticipate and prepare for it. Not just once, but throughout the organization’s life cycle. The mission your organization delivers is important. How your nonprofit delivers on the mission makes a difference. A board that’s ready and prepared every step along the way? Well, that is just priceless. 

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.