How to Get the Best out of Your Board

These practical strategies will help you refocus and reinspire your board.

BY SUSAN HOWLETT

The past three years have been challenging ones for nonprofit boards. During the pandemic, some board members leaned in too closely while others pulled way back, and the ones who stuck it out with us are tired.

We need our board members to be strategic governors, compelling ambassadors, and powerful fundraisers, but how do we get them refocused and reinspired? Here are some practical, no-cost tips to get you going and help you along the way.

How to Elicit More Strategic Governance

Problem You’re Likely Facing: You need your board members to focus on strategic direction and big picture topics like your role in the community and your financial sustainability over time, but they seldom get the opportunity to engage in authentic governance because

• There are too few people doing all the work, doing most of the talking at meetings, and ending up exhausted.

• Board meetings are filled with reports and committee work, not opportunities for generative discussions and strategic leadership.

Solution #1: Engage more people in leadership roles so your board members aren’t overworked. That way they’ll have the bandwidth to focus on overarching issues that affect your long-term health.

We’ve all struggled to get people to volunteer during the last few years. That could be because the tasks we’re asking them to take on are too big. What if we broke down assignments into much smaller pieces and asked more people who aren’t already on the board to do them? Rather than committees, create “disappearing” task forces so participants can feel a sense of accomplishment after just a few meetings. Just make sure your task forces are chaired by board members who can keep the work tied to your strategic priorities and the work of other teams.

You can use these short-lived projects to engage people who are longing for connection and purpose, not the usual suspects. The more you ask them to do for your organization, the more ownership they’ll feel, which leads to loyalty and generosity and ambassadorship. Here are some ideas for where to find people you could invite to take on more bite-sized assignments:

• People associated with the venues where you rehearse or perform

• People taking classes in nonprofit management or arts management at a nearby community college

• Current participants or alumni of leadership development programs through your Chamber of Commerce or state association of nonprofits

• People who live in nearby retirement homes

• Current or retired music educators or staff at high school or college music programs

• Partners or family members of your singers and musicians

• Parents of your children and youth chorus or education program participants

• Members of church choirs who want to broaden their circles or hone their skills

• People with disabilities who want to feel more integrated into the community (such as members of the Stroke Association, Brain Injury Association, or inclusion advocacy groups)

• Select donors or sponsors

As you examine the kinds of jobs that wear out your board members, you may discover that many of them don’t actually need to be done by someone who is part of your governing board. Peel those tasks off and give them to others who may benefit from taking them on. Perhaps they want to meet new people, learn or practice new skills, gain experience they can add to a resume, feel a sense of accomplishment outside of their job or home, or feel like a chorus insider. Inviting them to contribute will be a win-win for everyone, lightening the load for busy board members so they can focus on more strategic issues.

Solution #2: Design your board meetings to focus on matters of consequence.

Many board meetings consist largely of reports—from top staff, from the treasurer, from the board chair and committee chairs—covering activities that have already taken place. Instead, insist that all reports be sent out and read prior to the meeting, leaving room during the meeting for rich conversations about strategic priorities and the long-term health of your chorus.

If you find board members aren’t reading the materials ahead of time, you can help foster a culture of accountability that encourages preparation. One group gave a little quiz at the beginning of each meeting, asking people to answer questions based on what they’d read. Another group that usually served wine at meetings withheld each person’s drink until they could prove they’d read the reports. Some report authors have buried funny or alarming things in their reports to see who reacted. And one board member who was u frustrated by others not taking responsibility simply said, “I feel betrayed by my fellow leaders when I spend time preparing for these meetings and others don’t. I thought we were all in this together. Can we make a renewed effort to come prepared to lead, not just listen?”

It could be that the reason people aren’t absorbing the pre-meeting materials is that they are boring and less than relevant to the full board. What if each report followed a format that triaged the most important (need to know) information in the first few lines, and used the rest of the report to offer the backstory and details (nice to know)? What if each report tied its work to strategic goals, rather than offering a litany of everything done since the last meeting? And what if the writer of each report clarified up front what action they need from the board?

Build board meeting agendas around your strategic goals so they stay top of mind all year long and allow adequate time to discuss meaty topics that will help you achieve those goals. Have the appropriate committee or task force frame a question that will contain the conversation so it doesn’t go off the rails. And send helpful information, such as the pros and cons concerning a proposed next step, in advance so people arrive prepared for a robust discussion. Encourage the board chair to invite everyone to participate, especially the quiet people who don’t usually speak up, and ask those who usually chime in first to pause before speaking to make space for others.

If you shape your board meetings so that they’re forward-looking and big pictureoriented, you’ll find your leaders energized by the meetings and eager to focus on strategic governance.

How to Equip Board Members to be More Powerful Ambassadors Problem

You’re Likely Facing: Board members know they’re supposed to be spreading the word about your organization’s mission and work, but

• They’ve already exhausted their own circles and don’t know who else to approach.

• They don’t know how to promote your work in a compelling way.

Solution #1: Focus board outreach efforts on particular constituencies.

Rather than assuming that the entire community could be prospective audience members, volunteers, or donors, prioritize two or three types of groups and assign board members to reach out to them. Here are some ideas to stir your imagination about groups to prioritize:

• People who used to be on your board or in your chorus

• Former sponsors or donors

• Choir directors, choir members, and congregants of specific churches and places of worship

• Community orchestras that might have shared interests with your chorus

• Nearby retirement communities— especially those with their own buses

• Organizations that serve people of color (think of sororities and fraternities, like those in the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations, or affinity groups at particular employers, like Blacks at Microsoft)

• Professional associations (think of associations for music educators, special education teachers, musicians or composers, or mental health counselors)

• Service clubs (like Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, Soroptimists, or Junior League)

• Fraternal organizations (like Eagles, Elks, Odd Fellows, Eastern Star, or Masons)

• People who sang in a chorus when they were younger but don’t now

Tell board members they can offer discounted or comp tickets to entice people from these groups to attend a performance for the first time, and station someone at the entrance to your concerts to greet newcomers. Consider hosting a brief gathering for groups of newcomers after a concert so that they feel welcomed.

Solution #2: Prepare your board members so they feel equipped to initiate conversations with people about your organization.

Have board members list the places they find themselves during the week so they can see how they might run into folks while watching their kids play soccer, or at coffee hour at their synagogue, or at a regular meeting of their service club, book club, or affinity group. Then, rather than thinking in terms of convincing people to attend a program, show them how to ask open-ended questions that engage the other person in conversation. Open-ended questions don’t have yes or no answers, so brainstorm questions together that will help them discern someone’s interest in learning more. “What was your first concert (of any kind)?” or “Who turned you on to music?” are good starting points.

Make sure to practice asking these and then following up with another question