When Can Volunteers Lead?

This is the second in a series of six NPQ articles that first challenge—and then change—the way we think about volunteers. In this series, The Unexpected Value of Volunteers, author Jan Masaoka takes on the underappreciated topic of volunteerism, provides some unexpected ideas, and points the way toward a public policy agenda on volunteerism.

Leadership has been a prominent topic in the nonprofit community, so it’s surprising there has not been more discussion about leadership applied to volunteerism.

Let’s consider two unexpected aspects of volunteers as leaders. First, many nonprofit staff members serve as volunteer board members at other nonprofits. Second, most nonprofit boards are made up of volunteers. How can these volunteer board members lead effectively?

Nonprofit Staff Who Serve on Other Nonprofits’ Boards

Many nonprofit staff volunteering as board members of other nonprofits means they are serving as leaders at other organizations, often in a related field. For example, a YMCA manager might serve on the board of a girls’ science program, or a museum staffer might serve on the board of a community theater.

There are multiple aspects of value here.Serving on a board…gives people a wider external view, outside the bounds of a single organization.

Managers and executives who serve on boards of other organizations learn more about how boards can work, through both positive and negative examples. They witness firsthand the limits of board influence on executives. They can learn how executives can support board leadership or, conversely, how executives choose to recruit boards that simply rubber stamp decision-making. As executives, they also learn how to better collaborate with their own boards or advisory committees.

Serving on a board, in short, gives people a wider external view, outside the bounds of a single organization. This is something that is seldom discussed in management teams. For example, a manager who works for a childcare organization in Chinatown, while serving as a board member of a housing organization that serves the same neighborhood, will likely gain a broader perspective about local families that could help inform program delivery at their childcare nonprofit.

Additionally, management team members who serve on boards get to see different models for how executive directors think and act. This can help them get better at working with their own executives, and give them a sense of a greater range of choices in how to support them.

Turning Potential Gain to Actual Gain

So, the theoretical case for encouraging nonprofit staff to volunteer on the board of other nonprofits is strong. How is this potential benefit converted into a real benefit?

For nonprofit leaders who serve in a supervisory capacity, one strategy is to encourage staff to volunteer on a board as part of their professional development. A manager or executive director can even suggest boards to join and perhaps make introductions.

But don’t stop there! From time to time, it is important to discuss with staff who are serving on boards what they’re learning from that experience. What are some pros and cons about that board’s leadership? If appropriate, a manager might even coach a staff member on how to become a leader on that board.

You wouldn’t want to have board members of a theater never attend a theater production.…Having people on the board who are engaged in the work of the nonprofit is critical.There is also the question of compensation. Often, I have found that to encourage alignment with fellow board members who are volunteers, it’s best not to include board hours as paid time. But, in some cases, a modest time allowance, like three hours per month of staff time to serve on another board, might be appropriate compensation to recognize how time-consuming board service can be.

One last suggestion in this area: Don’t keep it a secret if staff are serving on other nonprofits’ boards. It is good practice for nonprofits to celebrate and publicize staff members who serve on other boards, during staff meetings and elsewhere: “A shout-out to Janine for being elected VP of the XYZ Alliance board!”

What About a Nonprofit’s Own Board?

When it comes to one’s own nonprofit, can board members actually lead? Often, nonprofit staff and managers think of board members primarily as supporters of the nonprofit’s work. An old quip from Harvard Professor of Education, Emeritus, Richard Chait, is relevant: “Board members are part-time amateurs overseeing the work of full-time professionals.”

Nonprofit executives often seek board members who will be supportive and helpful to the organization and to the executive. But the board’s role isn’t fundamentally to help—in both for-profit and nonprofit corporations the board’s fundamental purpose is to hold the organization accountable.

But we seldom recruit board members who would be good at accountability or who understand this type of leadership as one of their roles.

Leadership, Constituency, and Accountability

Here is where the unexpected intersection of leadership, constituency, and accountability occurs.

First, nonprofit executives—or consultants guiding board recruitment processes—need to recruit board members from key groups in the community they serve, that is, the organization’s clients, patrons, and participants. Such board members can offer a clear perspective, tied to the organization’s mission, but also hold the organization accountable to its constituency.

You wouldn’t want to have board members of a theater never attend a theater production. A theater’s board doesn’t pick the plays to be performed or decide how much to spend on costumes, but in addition to helping raise financial support, it does help hire and oversee artistic directors who understand the organization’s community and a common vision for success. Having people on the board who are engaged in the work of the nonprofit is critical.

In response to community activism, many government contracts require constituents to serve on the board. For example, a nonprofit that serves seniors may be required to have at least 50 percent of its board members be 60 years old or over. To be a federally designated Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO), at least one-third of its board members must be “representatives of the low-income community.”

In some cases, nonprofit executives patronize their constituent board members and don’t take them seriously. But in others, they help constituent board members become community leaders through their board experience.

I can anticipate the comment: “But our board members are there to raise money, and people from our community aren’t wealthy!” (Let’s leave aside for now whether board members should be required to fundraise.)

Disability rights organizations know that the most powerful advocates in fundraising are people with disabilities and their families. Parents of children killed by guns or police are the most compelling voices for gun control and police reform. Farmers are strong voices for environmental rehabilitation.

The ability to secure government funds—especially now when federal funding is so gravely at risk—is a crucial business strategy for many health and human service nonprofits. Constituent board members are often the most successful at helping a nonprofit raise precisely this kind of revenue.

If You Want Volunteer Board Members to Lead, Recruit Leaders

In many nonprofits, program and organizational leadership comes from the staff, and board members are limited to making suggestions and advising the executive. In such nonprofits, CEOs or executive directors are often frustrated with the theory that the board should lead.

But there is a creative loss that results when a nonprofit doesn’t tap into the leadership potential of its volunteer board members.

People with lived and professional experience—leaders in the immigration field, in nursing home reform, policy advocacy, fundraising for artists, to name a few—are often willing and able to partner with the executive of a nonprofit to develop direction and strategy, and in bringing other community board members to help influence and flesh out that strategy.

My advice is to recruit volunteer board members who are constituents and leaders in their related field or community. If you do this, you may be surprised at how your nonprofit’s capacity can grow.

Of course, it’s still up to the executive to “lead the board to lead.” If you’re a CEO or an executive director, instead of asking yourself, “How can I get the board to do more to help?”, try asking, “What can I do to provide leadership opportunities for board members?”