Striking a balance: Strategic boards versus meddlesome ones

It is frequently accepted that boards are accountable for the direction on the organization and charged with seeing that the organization fulfills its mission. Having said that, it is not the function on the board (whose members do not operate complete time) to come to be involved inside the day-to-day operations on the organization. For instance, boards shouldn’t be concerned about tasks which include ordering workplace supplies, evaluating administrative staff, or deciding no matter if the copy machine
breaks down also normally.
 

As an alternative, boards should really strive to define the organization’s objectives and each the short- and long-term approaches for achieving them. Boards should really address difficulties which might be related for the following:

• No matter if the public is conscious on the organization’s mission

• No matter if the nonprofit’s applications are reaching the intended beneficiaries

• How properly the purposes for which the organization was set up are getting served

The board should really also set up powerful procedures for evaluating management and verifying the information and facts that it receives from management. These tasks assure that the day-to-day operations on the organization plus the controls and procedures which might be in spot are operating. But what in the event the board (or one particular of its members) smells a rat? Or senses inefficiency? It should really under no circumstances hide behind its mandate to perform strategic arranging to ignore a looming crisis. As a board member, it is your duty to bring the difficulties for the forefront, address them as a board, get the vital information and facts from management, and resolve the situation in order that the targets of the organization may perhaps be met.