Director's Cut - Non Profit Board Development

Phil Summers - ACCOC Executive Director

Grow Your Non-Profit Via an Effective Board of Directors

Many non-profits are largely managed via the oversight of a board of directors. Recruiting and maintaining an effective board is critical to your success. It is important that you view board candidates for what they bring to the table individually as well as how they will work with other board members to promote and extend your mission and goals. The task of recruiting qualified, effective board members often falls to the Executive Director or existing board member or committee. This task should not be taken lightly without careful consideration and vetting of candidates. Here are some qualitied you should consider in board candidates:

Experience

for not being diligent about fulfilling them. It is essential for non-profit boards to have at least a few board directors who understand legal, financial and basic governance matters in order to ensure that the organization is in legal compliance. Board members with professional experience in areas like marketing, law, finance and human resources are particularly valuable in the non profit environment.

Passion for the Mission

Having passion and enthusiasm for the mission of the organization is a valuable quality in your board members. Enthusiasm is often contagious, and their excitement over the board's work tends to ignite passion for the organization's mission with others.

Vision and Leadership

Non-profits should have a wide range of experience on their board. Critically, you should have some board members with experience serving on a non-profit board. Non-profit board directors have fiduciary duties and they can be held personally liable The collective board needs to be able to work together to solve difficult issues. Your organization's board must be able to tackle problems and challenges together and work through them with mutual respect and confidence.

Phil Summers is the Executive Director of the Addison County Chamber of Commerce. Prior to ACCOC, Phil was the Executive Director of the Virginia Youth Soccer Association and earlier held senior marketing positions at the National Football League, Sirius Satellite Radio and MSG Varsity where he was a two time Emmy Award winner (2011 & 2012) and two time Silver Addy Award winner (2013). Phil has also taught undergraduate courses in advertising and marketing at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia.