In Policy Governance, the board decides "ends" which Carver defines as a) accomplish what b) for whom c) by when d) at what cost? All other concerns are matters of "means" and delegated to the staff, which is led by the CEO.
The hardest part of nonprofit boards, IMO, is the high power / low engagement dynamic you point out. Every so often, say once every 3-5 years in a healthy organization, the board has one or more extremely important decisions to make. And odds are good that when it becomes clear that such a choice is needed, the board doesn't have the information they would need to make a good decision. So best case, the decision is delayed while they catch up. Worst case, they guess. Or . . . well maybe worst case is that they never decide, and the organization is whipsawn.
But regardless, a significant portion of my time is spent maintaining a high enough level of engagement that, should such a choice emerge, the board can act without too severe a delay.
Nonprofit Founder/CEO here. This is really good analysis. So good that I'd love to have you on my board!
Are you familiar with John Carver's Policy Governance Model? It's the approach we (imperfectly) implemented a couple years ago.
https://www.carvergovernance.com/pg-np.htm
In Policy Governance, the board decides "ends" which Carver defines as a) accomplish what b) for whom c) by when d) at what cost? All other concerns are matters of "means" and delegated to the staff, which is led by the CEO.
The hardest part of nonprofit boards, IMO, is the high power / low engagement dynamic you point out. Every so often, say once every 3-5 years in a healthy organization, the board has one or more extremely important decisions to make. And odds are good that when it becomes clear that such a choice is needed, the board doesn't have the information they would need to make a good decision. So best case, the decision is delayed while they catch up. Worst case, they guess. Or . . . well maybe worst case is that they never decide, and the organization is whipsawn.
But regardless, a significant portion of my time is spent maintaining a high enough level of engagement that, should such a choice emerge, the board can act without too severe a delay.