Making the Most of Your Board Webinar Series, Session Two: Best Practices for Onboarding and Engaging Board Members

March 18, 2015

Kelly DunphyVice President, Orr Associates, Inc. (OAI)

Craig ShelleySenior Director, Orr Associates, Inc. (OAI)

Making the Most of Your Board

Session Two: Best Practices for Onboarding and Engaging Board Members

1. Introductions

2. Recap of Session One

3. The Engaged Board

4. Steps to Engagement

5. Case Studies

6. Q&A

7. Wrap-Up/Preview Session Three

Agenda

2www.oai-usa.com#OAIBestBoards

Kelly Dunphy

• Vice President, Fundraising and Development, OAI

• 15 years of fundraising experience, 8 years with OAI

• Client projects include:

Outsourced development leadership

Board development

Development planning

Capital campaigns

Event fundraising

Strategic planning

• Serves as Chief Development Officer for Boys & Girls Harbor

• Previously worked at Share Our Strength

About Us


Craig Shelley

• Senior Director, OAI

• 17 years of fundraising experience, 2 years with OAI

• Client projects include:

Embedded executive and fundraising leadership

Board development

Development planning

Event fundraising

• Serves as Executive Director for the New York/New Jersey Region of College Summit

• Previously worked at the Boy Scouts of America

About Us


Recap of Session One

Develop a Committee

Assess your Board

Create Materials for Recruitment

Mine New Board Members

Formulate the Appropriate Strategies for Recruitment

The Board Recruitment Process


The Engaged Board

The Engaged Board

• Board members are personally contributing to your organization with one of their three largest annual philanthropic gifts

• Board members are partners in leading the organization. They lead board meetings, see financials regularly, and generally know where the organization is in meeting short and long term objectives

• Board members can articulate the “elevator speech” version of your case for support

• “Our” replaces “mine” – Our program, our organization, our donor!!


Steps to Engagement

OrientationCommunicate

Regularly and Hold them Accountable

Hold Effective Board Meetings

Work ThemInvolve Them in

FundraisingBe Transparent

Have Fun

Steps to Engagement


Have a meeting with the Committee Chair

Assign to committees (if applicable)

Review the Board Handbook

Conduct a site visit (if not done during the cultivation phase)

Hold orientation meetings with ED and Board Chair

1. Orientation


1. Orientation (cont’d)

• Board Handbook:

Org Information (history, program descriptions)

Finances (budget and financial statements)

Development Plan

Org Chart

Board and Staff Directories

Job Description

Bylaws

Recent minutes


• Guidelines:

Encourage questions, opinions, and feedback

Be honest and transparent

Put to work quickly, but don’t overwhelm

Engage multiple board members in the orientation process

1. Orientation (cont’d)

14

2. Communicate Regularly and Hold Them Accountable

Regular communication such as biweekly emails that share progress, good news, successes

Phone calls from the ED

Honest reporting on progress towards goals

•Helps the board make course corrections when needed

Recognize board members for their help and their successes


• Foster a culture of accountability

ED should have an annual meeting with each board member to review their service from the previous year and discuss plans for the next year

Board should conduct an annual self-assessment

2. Communicate Regularly and Hold Them Accountable (cont’d)


2. Communicate Regularly and Hold Them Accountable (cont’d)

Elements of Board Assessment


Mission/Vision

Budget and

Financial Controls

Familiarity with Program Metrics

Fundraising

Strategic Planning

CEO Performance Evaluation

• Structure meetings so members feel their time is well-spent:

Substantive, focused agendas

Discussion time, not just reporting

“Mission moments”

3. Hold Effective Board Meetings


3. Hold Effective Board Meetings (cont’d) – Evolution of Board Meetings

Listening

• Board members listen to staff or scripted board members read reports

• Little discussion, few questions

• Nominal engagement

Discussing

• Board members participate in presenting and discussing information

• A mix of staff and board members using some talking points lead the agenda

• Some engagement

Leading

• Board members lead the agenda, can speak largely from knowledge with some reference to staff prepared reports

• Information is discussed and decisions made by the board

• High engagement18www.oai-usa.com#OAIBestBoards

• Yes, these are busy people, but if they don't see their roles as critical to your success, they will drift away to where they can have an impact

• The best board members want to use their talents to make a difference

• Communicate your goals and metrics for the year and how you need their help in achieving them

4. Work Them


5. Involve Them in Fundraising

A board member’s philanthropic responsibility:

1. Give generously

2. Be an advocate

3. Participate in fundraising

• Identify prospects

• Cultivate / open doors

• Solicitation

• Stewardship


• Like you would with a major donor, provide board members with regular updates on the impact of their giving andfundraising

• More on this in Session Three (March 25, 2015)

5. Involve Them in Fundraising (cont’d)


• It's important that board members hear the challenges as well as the great accomplishments

• If board members only hear about the great things being done (i.e., only “the good”) then they may assume that their talents are not needed

• Share “the bad” and “the ugly” as well

6. Be Transparent


• Let board members know what issues and challenges you're working on. They may have experience in a particular area and can help—or know someone who's gone through the same issue and has some thoughts to help

• Maintaining perspective—by sharing both sides of an issue—will help show board members that their talents are needed

• And when they help solve an issue, make a big deal about how they helped—that will provide incentive (and examples) to fellow board members

6. Be Transparent (cont’d)


• Remember to make time for social activities, too

• Boards that gel and have a collegial culture are more effective

• Provide opportunities to help board members get to know each other and find out about common interests and concerns outside of the organization

• Remember that one of the benefits of board service is the networking

7. Have Fun!


The Engaged Board

The Engaged Board

• Board members are personally contributing to your organization with one of their three largest annual philanthropic gifts

• Board members are partners in leading the organization. They lead board meetings, see financials regularly, and generally know where the organization is in meeting short and long term objectives

• Board members can articulate the “elevator speech” version of your case for support

• “Our” replaces “mine” – Our program, our organization, our donor!!


Case Studies

The Anonymous Board

• Case Study: NYC-based charity serving youth

75+ board members

Decades long history of success followed by unexpected and significant financial challenges

Limited personal giving by board who typically directed corporate gifts to the organization or gave under their philanthropic capacity

How they made it work:

• Asked board leaders for larger ($100,000+) annual gifts and then recognized and promoted those gifts in front of other board members. Rising tide rose all boats and the average board gift size grew in 2 years from $1,000 to $12,000

• Created an active Development Committee with key prominent leaders who held peers accountable

• Banned staff from scripting their volunteer counterparts at meetings


• Case Study: NYC affiliate of national education organization

5 board members. Been a board for 7 years; 3 of 5 board members including the chair have been there all 7 years

Initial work funded by one large funder. While board was personally generous, they were not engaged in raising dollars

Rare meetings, no committees, limited contact with Executive Director (4 Executive Directors in those 7 years)

The “We want to help but no one asks” Board


• Case Study: NYC affiliate of national education organization

How they made it work:

• Communication:

• Initially weekly and then bi-weekly update emails. In 8-months, personal meetings for ED with each board member at least 3 times

• Board Recruitment Campaign:

• 3 new members in 8-months with a vibrant pipeline for additional members. Transitioned to a new chair

• Regular (quarterly) meetings with accountability towards the “Listening-Discussing-Leading” model

• Currently in the “Discussing” phase with “Leading” on the horizon

• Established new member responsibilities agreed on by the members including a give and get policy

• Held a friend raising event where each board member was expected to bring attendees

The “We want to help but no one asks” Board


Send additional questions to:

Kelly Dunphy: [email protected]

Craig Shelley: [email protected]

Q&A

Wrap-Up/Preview Session Three

Making the Most of Your Board Webinar Series, Session Two: Best Practices for Onboarding and Engaging Board Members

Government & Nonprofit

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board meetings

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executive director

orr associates

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orientation process1