Building a great nonprofit board of directors

What makes a great nonprofit board of directors? 211info Board Chair Joan Lewis answers: relationships and diversity.

Joan has been on the 211info Board of Directors since 2007. She was executive director of Washington Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA) HelpLine. Joan also served on several boards, including Washington Latino Health Network, the National Council on Aging Benefits Check-Up Advisory Board and the national State Health Insurance Counseling and Assistance Programs (SHIP) board. Previously Joan spent many years as a trainer and counselor for youth and adults in social service settings.

Or, as Joan put it: “I’ve spent nearly my entire career in the social services world.”

It’s clear about two seconds into a conversation about board management that Joan is a big picture thinker. She takes her legal obligation to oversee the organization’s by-laws and finances seriously, but she didn’t become animated until we started talking about relationships.

“Beyond legal and fiduciary responsibilities, my primary responsibility to the organization is to work with the CEO who reports to me,” said Joan. “But a large part of that is providing feedback and allowing her (211info CEO Liesl Wendt) to be creative and responsive to individual community needs. I used to have a sign on my door that said: ‘It’s OK to say no to the boss providing, of course, that you have a better idea or a sound reason.”

“It’s about having that genuine, non-threatening, two-way conversation. The ability for the CEO and staff to try things out on me is important. I’m a pretty open book and believe everyone comes to the table with their own perspective and ideas, many of which can contribute to success for the greater good.”

Although internal communication is crucial, the recent work Joan, the CEO and existing board members have undertaken to build 211info’s board of directors is also about relationships.

“People have to be able to help us be known and connect us to people in their communities that are conduits to helping others,” said Joan. “We are all in the business of relationships.”

The existing board has worked diligently to expand the board of directors in recent months. “We have added board members from across the state, with varying expertise – and of course we were after the best possible people we could get,” said Joan.

New board members include:

Randy Blackburn, Project Director
(Department of Human Services, Director’s Office | link to: http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/)

Mike Fieldman, Executive Director
United Community Action Network

Lee Girard, Community Services Manager
Aging & Disability Services Division, Multnomah County

Craig Opperman, CEO
Looking Glass Youth and Family Services

Martin Taylor, Health Policy Senior Manager
CareOregon

Joan is excited about the array of talents brought by the latest crop of board members. In particular, she cited experience with the legislature, government entities, rural communities and aging communities as significant gains. But she is also clear-eyed about what the 211info Board still needs: “It’s critically important that we get broader representation, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

“Listen, I know I’m not going to be board chair forever. That’s why I’d like part of my legacy to have built a board with a foundation of diversity in the truest sense of the word.”

Joan mentioned the need for diversity in sex, ethnicity and geography in all nonprofits. It was a crusade she embarked upon as a manger and its one she is clearly intent on ingraining in every aspect of 211info’s work -- for a simple and concrete reason.

“There are just some cultures I don’t know how to reach as well as others do,” she said. She also thinks there is room for improvement on the staffing level – in particular when it comes to capacity for speaking different languages.

“When it comes to diversity, I don’t think you can lose,” she said. Every opportunity we have to understand someone else’s culture will help us to be more effective in providing helpful services.

When it comes to building a board – if you work diligently to recruit a diverse group, with a wealth of experiences and points of view, strong relationships with their communities and respect for each other, we are more capable of meeting the needs of those who seek partnership with us and those who need our services.

Looking for a great resource on nonprofit board development? Check out Board Cafe on Blue Avocado.

How has your organization strived for diversity and relationship building on the board and staff level?