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Aligning the Board and Management Team: The Critical Factor in Running a Successful Nonprofit
By John L. Lehr, President
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As we pass the halfway point in the year, it is likely that your board is turning up the performance pressure. They may ask for increased revenue generation from fundraising without accounting for the budget or staffing needed to make that possible. They may ask you to reallocate resources to a new or existing program that may not be needed or beneficial. They may request that you change the structure of your fundraising operations, by opening regional offices in new or underperforming areas.
When challenging or unrealistic expectations are presented to you by your board, what should you do?
You must quickly address this misalignment. Otherwise, you may see failing programs, loss of fundraising revenue, disgruntled or disaffected donors, poor staff morale, and most unfortunately, unmet needs for the people the nonprofit is seeking to serve. All too often misalignment results in the rapid turnover of staff, including the CEO and CDO, setting the mission of the organization back another year or two.
If you are a CEO experiencing misaligned priorities or expectations with your board, we recommend you take charge of the situation using one or more of these solutions:
- Start with a board retreat. While this may create more work for you, and more time from your board, it is necessary if you want to further your organization's mission effectively. The retreat agenda must be thoughtfully considered, with the input of your board chair, development chair, or another confidant on your board. Address each request posed by your board and be prepared to explain (without being defensive) why it is not in the organization's immediate or long-term interest. Also, be prepared to meet the board's requests halfway and compromise. Set realistic objectives and deadlines for the outcomes decided, and use the time together to develop plans for implementation. You may also want to use the retreat to train your board on how certain functions of the nonprofit work in order to prevent future impractical requests.
- Perform a roadmapping exercise. Specific requests from the board may be unrealistic this year, but they could be good long-term goals. Use this moment to conduct a strategic assessment of what is needed to get your organization on a path to meet those objectives. Rank the priorities according to mission needs and those with the greatest return on investment for your constituents. Then outline the resources and step-by-step plans needed to achieve those objectives.
- Find an external partner. An outside professional can shine new light on challenges and help facilitate difficult conversations. They can talk to the board in a frank and candid manner about the realities of the market place and best practices. They can help you see things from the board's perspective and how new directions might fit with your overall organizational strategy. They can ask hard questions, analyze the costs and benefits, and determine whether a particular focus moves your organization closer to mission goals.
While many leaders are good at managing many of these processes, it is often a wise (and fair) move to bring in a professional who can be unbiased and keep you task-focused. OAI can be your partner in successfully aligning your board around challenging demands. We have mediated hundreds of board meetings and retreats for many of the nation's leading nonprofits. Our strengths are in planning, relationship building, and providing our partner clients with goal-focused outcomes. We also can assist you in developing a roadmap with your board. This process can take 30-60 days or longer depending on the complexity of the issues, and allows for input across the organization, playing to your strengths, resources, and culture. Lastly, OAI can provide you a nonprofit professional - one that has sat in a CEO and board member role - to serve as your partner and coach.
The best leaders see problems developing before they come to full fruition, developing and implementing strategies and tactics to address those problems head on. No challenge threatens a nonprofit's mission more than misalignment between the executive leadership team and the board. Taking one or more of the proactive steps described above will help ensure your organization stays focused on what is most important-your mission goals.
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New Client Announcements
United Cerebral Palsy of New York City
United Cerebral Palsy of New York City (UCP of NYC) is the leading nonprofit agency in New York City providing direct services, technology, and advocacy to children and adults with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. Coming up on its 70th Anniversary, UCP of NYC is currently exploring a rebranding effort to help its community understand that its mission reaches beyond just those with cerebral palsy. This is a moment for the organization to determine how to best increase the financial resources needed in support of its work.
UCP of NYC has engaged OAI to provide a quick assessment of its resources and fundraising strengths and design a practical business plan that will serve as a roadmap to strengthen and build the development program over the next year. Based on these recommendations, OAI will work with the UCP team to expand the organization's individual giving and corporate and foundation efforts.
 Pratt Institute
Founded in 1887 and located on a 25-acre beautifully landscaped enclosed campus in Brooklyn, New York, Pratt Institute provides students with an outstanding professional education and a traditional residential college experience within the exciting creative environment of one of the top art schools in the United States. Pratt relies on its two main fundraising events each year, the Legends Awards Dinner and the Fashion Show + Cocktail Benefit to generate critical scholarship revenue for Pratt students based on need and merit. With nearly 80 percent of Pratt's students requiring financial assistance to pursue their educations, the financial success of both of these events is essential. Generating philanthropic revenue from events has become more challenging in recent years. However, as part of a diversified funding operation, events continue to play an important role by both raising substantial revenue from new supporters and creating opportunities to present the Institute's case for support to a contingency of potential new major gift supporters.
OAI was retained to evaluate Pratt's current event fundraising efforts and provide guidance and recommendations on how best to utilize resources to maximize philanthropic revenue from its two major events. OAI will evaluate, understand, and report out on the value of the events as an entry point for high-net-worth individuals and understand their context within the broader fundraising program at Pratt Institute. OAI will then make recommendations on how Pratt can best position its events to raise substantial direct revenue and focus on capturing the high-net-worth contacts the organization needs.
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| About Orr Associates, Inc. (OAI) Responding to the increasingly complex burdens on nonprofit leaders, OAI has developed a transformational approach to fundraising and strategy consulting. Our teams of experienced professionals seamlessly embed themselves with nonprofits to fundraise, to recruit and improve board leadership, to build consensus and direction through new strategies, and to provide executive, fundraising, and financial leadership. With offices in Washington, DC and New York City, OAI has partnered in our clients' success for 25 years, helping more than 600 nonprofits raise hundreds of millions of dollars for their causes.
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