Equip Your Board Members: Indexes to Inspiration

Imagine receiving these texts from grateful board members:

   • “Thanks, Jennifer, for chairing another stimulating board meeting. The ‘Ten Minutes for Governance’ segment was perfect for new board members. Well done!” 😀

   • “Pedro—thank you, thank you…for asking Skip to present the Ten Minutes segment on the board member’s role in fundraising. I’ve been on the board for five years. Best. Meeting. Ever!” 👍

Many boards are following the practice of investing “10 Minutes for Governance” in every board meeting. (Click here to read this chapter online.) 

According to Lesson 39 in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, “The typical boardroom includes a mix of new and long-term board members who bring their previous board experiences (or lack of experiences) into your boardroom. Every board member carries unhealthy baggage into your meeting that passed as normalcy in a previous boardroom.”

What will 2021 look like in your boardroom or on Zoom meetings? To avoid “bringing our delightful dysfunctions into every new board experience,” here are helpful “Indexes to Inspiration”—links to more than 200 blogs, lessons, and book chapters. Appoint a “Leaders Are Readers Champion” and plan now for a “10 Minutes for Governance” in every 2021 board meeting.

INDEXES TO INSPIRATION: 204 IDEA-STARTERS!

40 GUEST BLOGS: Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings 

40 GUEST BLOGS: More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! 

40 GUEST BLOGS: Lessons From the Church Boardroom: 40 Insights for Exceptional Governance 

22 BLOGS: ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board — Note: See Tool #19: “Ten Minutes for Governance (Lifelong Governance Learning—in 10-Minute Chunks!)”

18 BLOGS: Best Board Books (brief summaries of 18 board governance books)

30 BLOGS: Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board (the 91-page book by Max De Pree)

14 BLOGS: Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask (summary of the 14 chapters/questions by Ram Charan)

Great Boards Delegate Their Reading! That’s a chapter title in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom (click here to read online). Guest blogger Kent Stroman notes this from the U.S. Navy Seals: “Under pressure you don't rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training. That's why we train so hard.” Stroman adds, “By being intentional about ongoing board member education, organizations are investing in their own preparation to ‘rise to the occasion’ that will inevitably emerge—at the least expected moment.”

View-and-Engage! In addition to the blog options above, check out the four short videos in the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series. Topics include: board member recruitment, board roles (the three hats), conflicts of interest, and succession planning. Each toolbox includes a short video, a read-and-engage viewing guide, a facilitator guide, and bonus resources. Click here.

Blessings in the New Year! And speaking of encouraging texts, I’m so appreciative of Scott Rodin’s daily text ministry from The Steward’s Journey. As I finished this blog, this coronavirus-relevant insight arrived in his morning text:

“Being in Christ, it is safe to forget the past;
it is possible to be sure of the future;
it is possible to be diligent in the present.” 😇
Alexander MacLaren

TOOL 8 – The Board's Annual Fundraising Audit

Pop Quiz on Fundraising Practices!

Suppose…at your next board meeting, your CEO and chief development officer announced:

“Good News! Our total annual giving for our recent fiscal year was the largest in our ministry’s history.”

“Bad News! The total number of donors has decreased (even though giving is up) over the last three fiscal years.”


Does the good news exceed the bad news? Should the board be concerned? Experienced board members would likely ask to see the data. That’s why Tool #8 is a helpful annual checklist for your board.

TOOL #8: THE BOARD'S ANNUAL FUNDRAISING AUDIT
Use this TRUE OR FALSE annual audit as a first step in assessing if the ministry is communicating giving opportunities with integrity and accuracy—and whether or not the board understands and affirms the ministry’s current fundraising practices.

Tool #8 in the new resource, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance, is one of six assessments in Part 2 of this jam-packed 271-page resource. John Frank and Scott Rodin recommend that boards develop reporting, measurement, and accountability tools regarding expectations between the CEO, the board chair, and the Chief Development Officer—and set policy and budgets according to those expectations. They add:

“By having solid reporting tools tied to your key performance metrics, you will be able to spot trouble early and respond.” (Read Chapter 3, “The Role of the Board in Development,” in their helpful book, Development 101.)

The big idea in Tool #8: in addition to regular reports you already review in your good governance practices, this annual checklist of 10 statements will keep the board informed. The two-page checklist asks for a TRUE or FALSE response to each statement—and includes space for answering the question, “How does the board know?” Examples:

TRUE OR FALSE?
#2. “The board understands the ministry’s fundraising program relating to raising restricted donations.”
#6. “The board knows if staff or external fundraisers are being compensated on the basis of a percentage of funds raised.”
#9. “The board is compiling, analyzing, and leveraging giving data to serve and support its giving base.”

A sample completed checklist is included with Tool #8 and features color-coded “Ministry Dashboard Signals” in the “How does the board know?” section:
   • Red: Act
   • Yellow: Watch
   • Green: Celebrate

After you review the 10 statements, ask your development team to brief the board on your ministry’s “theology of development.” When you have a written document on your theology of development, you’ll appreciate the guidance it gives to the CEO, the CDO, and the board to ensure that all fundraising practices are in alignment with the ministry’s mission, vision, values, and theology. (See the book, Development 101, for a sample document.) 

Order the tools book from Amazon by clicking on this title: ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. The book gives you full access to all 22 tools and templates—formatted as Word documents so you can customize the tools for your board’s unique uses.

BOARD DISCUSSION: Around the table, answer TRUE or FALSE to this statement: “#4. The board is aware of communication being shared with givers concerning the potential of over-funding or under-funding of projects for which funds are being raised.”

MORE RESOURCES: Could your board members pass a pop quiz of fundraising practices? Read Scott Rodin’s color commentary blog on Lesson 24, “Ministry Fundraising 101 for Board Members” (click here) in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. Rodin notes: “As board members, we must understand the ideology/theology behind our development strategy. That will drive our desire for funds to be raised according to Biblical ethics, and used as the giving partner requests.”