What Do Board Members Want?

By Adam Roth, President and CEO, Streamlink Software

I have seen in discussion groups hosted by BoardSource as well as the Philanthropy Network the question of how to engage board members. This is clearly a need and challenge in that often the potential board candidates you want on your board by definition are very successful and thus very busy and committed to many activities. There are three areas that we found in our product research that board members feel are critical to wanting to engage more with the organization.

1.   What Board Members Want:
   

They want to understand what is expected of them and what in return is expected of the organization they serve with.

Reality:

Typically organizations may take the time to set expectations for the members and then maybe even orient them to the board and the role that the organization plays. Rarely however do organizations track and measure consistently to expectations and almost never do organizations track and measure the member's goals for their experience, mission alignment/engagement or the organizations commitment to the member. In providing a tool to help organizations manage these areas we have found significant additional engagement.

2.   What Board Members Want:
   

They want to feel that their commitment is valued and that they are accomplishing goals and objectives from meeting to meeting.

Reality:

Members typically primarily engage through meetings consequently it is critical that meetings are productive and are moving in a direction to a common strategic goal. The most common concern that we have heard from Board Members is that "it often feels that we just meet to meet and we cover the same ground from meeting to meeting". In order to address this issue it is critical organizations have goals for their boards and committees and measure action items from meetings and relate these items back to the goals. Then as the organization tracks the completion of action items the members can see the completion of the goal.

3.   What Board Members Want:
   

Board members want consistent, accurate, timely and accessible communication.

Reality:

Board Members often feel that accessing and tracking information is difficult and often feel they are not getting the information they need timely. The reality is this may not be the organizations fault but it is their problem. Consequently, organizations need to provide better and more varied ways to access mission critical material for their members and provide tools from them to respond and communicate more efficiently. One challenge is not all members will respond in the same way so managing these varied styles requires a system and process that is not only of high quality but flexible as well.

Engaged board members are an organizations most critical asset. After all the three most important words in fundraising are "Come join me!" and the only one who can say that is an actively engaged leadership volunteer.