Perspectives
March 2004

Alice Korngold, president and CEO of Business Volunteers Unlimited, on identifying effective nonprofit board members.

To a great extent, the demands on nonprofits are a move in the right direction; nobody can argue with the importance of accountability and impact evaluation. Furthermore, most would also agree that it is time that nonprofits establish more viable revenue models. However, for nonprofits that are fully focused on the day-to-day demands of serving the community, with little to nothing in the way of a cushion in time or in resources, the idea of revamping their organizational and revenue structures, as well as exploring and forging strategic alliances, is absolutely daunting.

On the business side of the universe, employers are recognizing that more strategic involvement can strengthen nonprofits and the community while also boosting employee morale, teambuilding, and general good will. Corporate community involvement has traditionally translated into philanthropy and volunteerism. Now, there is a third leg to this stool in the form of nonprofit board involvement.

If each community has a sophisticated program that serves as the vehicle to conduct needs assessments and interview candidates, there will be a large enough pool of opportunities and board members to allow for quality matches. In addition, each board candidate needs to be trained regarding best practices. Sophisticated board training and consulting services need to be provided as complementary services to strengthen governance as well. These services must be of superior quality, with serious and measurable results, in order to establish the necessary credibility among nonprofits, businesses, and board candidates.

Nonprofits often reach out to the corporate CEOs for their boards. The problem is that CEOs are inundated with requests. At the same time, there is a cadre of highly experienced people just under the CEO level, yet nonprofits do not know who they are, what their interests are, or whether their qualifications would be a fit. Nonprofits do the best they can to reach out to candidates to fill board positions; unfortunately, there are often inadequate means to identify the people they most need in terms of skills, diversity, and relationships.

For-profit boards invest vast resources in identifying the right candidates; with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed into law in July 2002, for-profit boards are ratcheting up their recruitment and selection processes to an even higher level. In the meantime, nonprofits continue to flounder for a more reliable, thoughtful, and meaningful approach to find the people they need.

The “right match” for each nonprofit varies depending on the organization’s key strategic issues, stage of life cycle, and culture. That is why it is so necessary to have a board-candidate “broker” that understands the needs and interests of each nonprofit, as well as the interests, qualities, and experience of each candidate. Most candidates do not even realize the scope of opportunities in terms of board involvement, so the process itself is educational—similar to counseling for the person’s board career. One must note that while the board-candidate broker can facilitate good introductions, the decision to elect lies completely with the nonprofit.

The nonprofit organization that serves as the board-candidate broker needs to have its own financially self-sustaining revenue model. Based on interviews with corporate CEOs nationwide, it is clear that businesses are so interested in a proven and effective board-matching process that they will fund this service to make it free for nonprofits. Businesses see this as a way to leverage their financial investments in nonprofits while also supporting the leadership development of their senior executives and professionals.

Foundations can also play a vital role in supporting the establishment of effective board-matching services along with excellent board consulting and training services. By strengthening nonprofit boards, foundations will leverage their investments and the involvement of talented volunteers.

Facilitating good matches in communities throughout the nation will be a powerful force to engage businesses and their executives more productively, bring valuable business skills to bear in addressing key strategic and financial challenges, and strengthen the nonprofit sector. Through effective board matching, nonprofits will have high-caliber board members who are equipped to focus organizations for the greatest impact, update organizational revenue models, and evaluate and report results. Through purposeful involvement, business executives and professionals can make a truly meaningful contribution in enhancing health and human services, cultural centers, education, and civic and economic development.

Alice Korngold is president and CEO of Business Volunteers Unlimited, which strengthens nonprofits by engaging business executives on nonprofit boards of directors. Based in Cleveland, BVU is providing a model for other communities, such as BVU Maryland, in partnership with the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations.

Please see also A Conversation with a Corporate Grantmaker, featuring Mary Beth Salerno of American Express.

The views expressed in Perspectives columns are the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of INDEPENDENT SECTOR or its members.
 

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