Make it Transformational: A Blog for Champion Discipleship

When I was growing up our family vacationed in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.  Upon arriving at the beach, my parents would lay out a blanket on the sand and immediately give the instructions to my sister, brother and me that we were only allowed to swim in the ocean "directly in front of the family blanket.”  Planning to heed our parents’ instruction, the three of us always ran excitedly into the water to play…and you can imagine what happened next.  Fifteen minutes later we were no longer in front of family blanket; we were thirty yards down the shoreline.  We had to get out of the water, walk back up the beach, and jump back in directly in front of the family blanket.

Without markers, people and organizations – well-meaning people and organizations – are prone to drift with nothing to bring them back on course.  In our family’s case, the blanket served as a clear reference point that showed us where we were in light of where we were supposed to be.

Your organization needs to have its “family blanket” in place.  Every organization needs clear reference points so it can constantly evaluate if it's in the "right" place or if it has drifted off course.

You may be thinking, “We’re good with this.  We have organizational values that we’ve identified and even have them framed and hanging in our office lobby!”  My experience tells me that organizations have stated values and actual values.  And there’s a big difference between the two.  Many, many organizations have a set of values and markers in place that they have agreed to live by but, at the end of the day, they are living and operating by a completely different set of rules. 

How about your organization?

This month, at Mission Increase Foundation workshops around the U.S., we’ll be talking about the incredibly important topic of board governance and leadership.  We’ll be talking about the 30,000 foot view that your board needs have in order to lead effectively, the importance of avoiding vision drift, and the importance of being a values-driven leadership team - knowing how God has called you to live as an organization and really living out that call!

Hope to see you soon at an MIF workshop! 

A warm body does not a good board member make!  How we all know this to be so true, but we often fall into the trap of desperation when it comes to filling our board rooms.  Is it any wonder that CEO’s spend countless hours struggling with and complaining about their board?  Or at least some of its members?

If you expect to have a wonderful , hard-working, Christ-centered board, then you need to take the responsibility of training them on what it means to be a productive board member and teach them how to recruit others with specific goals in mind.  You realize, I hope, that it’s not the CEO’s responsibility to recruit and build the board, but it is, in fact, the board’s own responsibility to build itself.   There are times when an organization is new or when the board is weak, that the CEO needs to step in and get things rolling.  But ultimately, the board is responsible.

You’ll want to start with a board nominating committee so this task has ownership.  You will also need a good job description so the board agrees on and the prospective board members know, what is expected of a board member in this role.  The job description needs to clarify your expectations in the area of board meeting attendance, participation in board retreats and subcommittees, length of terms of service, fundraising responsibilities , etc.

The job description is a great tool for outlining the expectations of the board member, but don’t overlook the characteristics you are looking for in that person.  The character of the person is just as important, if not more so, than the specific duties they will perform.

Scripture is full of character qualities becoming a Christian leader and we would serve our organizations well to pay attention to these qualities.  I Timothy 3 and Titus 1 tell us Christian leaders should be sober-minded, able to teach, gentle, ruling his house well, blameless, not self-willed, lover of what is good, just, holy and able to exhort, to name a few.  Believe me, this is not just another warm body.  And nowhere on this list is wealth an indicator of a Christian leader.

Good recruiting is the key to a strong  and faithful board.  But it won’t happen without being deliberate and focused on the goal.  It takes time and commitment and training, but the rewards will be heavenly.

To learn more about board recruiting and governance, register for our Sept. workshop titled, “Board Governance: The Board’s Greatest Gift."

Ahhh, nonprofit boards… Peter Drucker said of them “There is one thing all boards have in common…they do not function.”

Wow, he didn’t even put a condition on it like “sometimes they don’t function”!  Are boards really that dysfunctional?  I wish I could say “No, not at all!  This isn’t even close to being true!” but sadly I could tell you more unfortunate stories about board malfunction than otherwise. The good news is there IS hope and there are things we can do to develop strong boards that DO function well.

I’m going to dedicate the next three posts to addressing three areas that can help you build a board that will become a real blessing instead of an unfortunate burden!  This first post will address the WHO – who should be on boards?  The second post will address the WHAT – what do boards need to understand about their roles and responsibilities?  And, the final post will address the need to INVEST in the growth of the board – growth in relation to their role, in relation to the cause and in relation to their own Christian walk.

(Note: to dive into each of these ideas in greater detail make sure you make it to one of the Mission Increase’s free workshops in September on Board Development.)

First, how do many organizations go about choosing the right board members?  They seek out lawyers, accountants, wealthy people, and “important” people who know lots of people.  That’s what traditional wisdom tells us to do so that we can have their expertise for free AND their money!  Nothing like an ulterior motive like that to motivate existing board members...

Now let’s consider how we as Christian organizations SHOULD go about choosing the right board members.  First, we’d do well remembering the James 2 warning not to show favoritism based on a person’s status or wealth, and that we’re accountable to God in how we respect and treat people.  In that case, worldly advice just won’t do.

Instead, how we choose board members should be a reflection of our role in the body of believers, which as leaders is to equip others for good works helping them to grow in full maturity in Christ as they serve.

So, who should you look at for your board members?  Your chief champions!  The individuals that are already being coached and discipled in your cause!  By ‘chief’ I mean those that are comprehensively involved in the cause because they believe in the vision, those that are on a progressive path of learning and growing, and those that are ready for a larger responsibility.  Of course, that doesn’t automatically make them ready for this type of role.  There’s another aspect to consider as well, and that is their spiritual maturity.

1 Timothy 3 & Titus 1 can guide us in seeking people who are spiritually mature and able to take on a leadership role in the organization.  Use these passages to identify characteristics of a good leader.

Let me share one more bit of advice. There’s nothing that says you MUST have a large board -- it will be to your advantage to spend more time on getting the RIGHT board instead of a BIG board.  This might mean that you have a small board for awhile, and it might mean that you need to spend more time coaching your existing champions to develop a few of them to step up to the challenge in the future.

I like what Ted Engstrom said in Boardroom Confidence, “If you have the right board members, the right things happen. If you have the wrong board members, the wrong things happen.”  Choose carefully!

The story starting to come out about Vanguard Public Foundation’s recent implosion is stunning if for no other reason than it provides a cautionary tale to all of us. I appreciate Rick Cohen's effort over at Blue Avocado (http://www.blueavocado.org) to unravel the events that have lead to the downfall of one of the leading foundations. (Check out his investigative report Decline and Fall of the Vanguard Foundation here.)

In short, a flashy, over-the-top businessman sweet-talked and defrauded the foundation while the board went to sleep. Reading though the financials, it’s incredible to me that the board didn’t see they were bleeding cash like they were.

There is an amazing amount of things to be learned from the whole sordid affair, but among Cohen's observations were two big points that stand out in light of this month's focus on board governance (BTW -if you haven't registered for our free workshop The Board's Greatest Gift, now might be a good time). The principles seem obvious in hindsight, yet somehow we manage to overlook them. Each of them on their own, are recipes for disaster, but combined add up to some serious flaw's in the foundation's structure, and reinforces some of the key points in our board workshop.  (My comments below in italics.)

• “Non-attentive trust in the CEO is not a healthy governing model: With warning signals in abundance, observers suggest that the board was even a little mesmerized with the CEO and his celebrity friends. And board meetings were reportedly very rare.” If the board get’s so enamored with celebrities or with a “superstar” CEO that they forget THEY are the legal owners of the nonprofit, they are doomed to failure.  The old adage “Trust but verify” works not only for nuclear disarmament, but also for keeping your nonprofit from going up in a mushroom cloud as well. The board ignored the financial situation of the foundation, trusting in the celebrities to carry the vision, their “superstar” CEO to pull off the miracles, and the flashy to-good-to-be-true salesman to raise money.

• “Some have suggested that Vanguard's moves to turn over some decision making to community leaders left donors disengaged, and resulted in board members who were less attentive to grantmaking decisions and governance responsibilities.”  Second big DUH! When the board relinquishes control over their responsibility to safeguard the vision of the organization and turns it over others (especially those with personal self-interest in changing the vision) the organization is doomed. Donors saw the vision creep and withdrew. There’s nothing wrong with including the community in the process, but boards need to guard against letting the community become the (sole) owners of the organization just as they need to guard against ceding control to the CEO.

I’m sure there will be a lot more information coming out about what transpired along with additional dissection of how they failed, but there is one cautionary part of the tale so far that all of us need to remember – watch out for pride. 

Look at how many times Cohen highlights “even progressive foundations” or asks “are progressive groups vulnerable” as if they are somehow immune from the siren song of riches. Others are stunned that this could have happened to this foundation, once championed as a pioneer and new model for philanthropy.   But this isn’t about left/right, progressive/conservative – both groups could equally share in the same type of pitfall.  Rather, it’s about the overwhelming sense of pride and superiority, the “We know what’s best” and “We’re on the moral high ground therefore we’re above X (x = seduced by riches or making mistakes, or needing to have safeguards, or regular board meetings) that stands out the most. 

In their pride, they had it all figured out. And it was that exact same pride that allowed them to buy in to a charlatan’s scheme and ultimately topple one of the largest foundations. 

Pride DOES go before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.

May the Lord keep it far from us.

One of the greatest gifts that God has ever given non-profit leaders is a board of directors. I know, you’re probably thinking, “if you knew how dysfunctional my board was, you wouldn’t say that,” and perhaps you’re right. But, even while agreeing with the sentiments that accompany that thinking, I would still contend, that boards can be and in fact are a gift of God’s kind providence to us.

Working with a board has been one of the more complicated and thorny aspects of my role at the foundation. Yet, even in the midst of such a challenge it has proved equally if not more valuable for my personal growth than first expected. It is this experience in working with a board that has more deeply solidified three very valuable lessons: namely, the importance of accountability, the truth that wisdom comes in bundles, and the importance of intentionality in building relationships.

Accountability – I don’t know if this is true for you, but I’m often prone to think that my ideas are the best ideas. In fact, I’m often predisposed to a type of self-bias that precludes the opinion of others in favor of my own logic to a fault. After all, I’ve thought about it longer, care about it more, worked more intimately with the issues, and have much more at stake.

Wow! This wrong thinking and deep arrogance has surely not led to the growth of the organization, but has more often than not probably stifled it. What I’ve realized very acutely is I need my board! I need their input and ideas. I need their unique gifts, strengths, and abilities. And perhaps even more, I need their accountability for mine.

Wisdom comes in bundles – Proverbs 15:22 says, “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” Without precondition this promise from the Scriptures gives a great deal of hope for those looking to achieve a measure of success…as well as a path to walk on. In keeping with the ideas above, I find it amazing that God has built certain deficiencies into the body of Christ so that we would necessarily be forced to work with one another if we hope to realize the success of our plans.

Relationships are key – One piece of wise counsel I received early on in my work, was to set the number of board members equal to the number of personal relationships that I could maintain. That counsel was quickly followed by the admonition to work feverishly and intentionally to do so! Though it is often difficult, I make it my goal to get at least one personal meeting with each board member in-between our regularly scheduled meetings. Doing so has changed my outlook on the work that we’ve collectively been entrusted with as well as my perspective and appreciation for those that the Lord has called me to serve with at our organization. These times together have deeply and fundamentally changed the effectiveness of our business meetings and thus the effectiveness of the foundation.

So, what is God teaching you as you work with your board? I’m sure many great things that we would all benefit from if you would be interested in sharing. You can do so by using the comment function below…go ahead, give it a try.