Ep. 209: 7 Lessons From the Healthiest Million-Dollar Board I've Ever Seen
EPISODE 209
7 Lessons From the Healthiest Million-Dollar Board I've Ever Seen
About the Episode:
I recently spent a full day with one of the healthiest nonprofit boards I've ever seen, spread across the country, meeting mostly virtually, with 100% attendance, full fundraising participation, and zero circular conversations. And by the end of the day, I realized there was one thing this executive director never once did. It's probably the thing you're doing the most. In this episode, I share 7 lessons from that experience that every nonprofit leader needs to hear: from how great board meetings start weeks before anyone arrives, to why connection isn't a nice-to-have but actual infrastructure, to the most common mistake executive directors make that quietly turns their board into their managers. If your board is disengaged, inconsistent, or draining more than it's building, this episode will show you exactly why and what to change starting today.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Why great board meetings start weeks before the meeting, and what an impeccable board packet actually looks like
How clear expectations create 100% attendance and real accountability, even across a fully virtual board
The most expensive mistake executive directors make: training their board to manage them instead of leading with CEO energy
Why not every board member's idea should become a strategy, and how to honor input without losing focus
Why the connection between board members isn't a nice-to-have; it's the infrastructure that makes everything else work
How fundraising becomes a culture, not a committee, and what "done" looks like on a high-performing board
It’s not your stories—it’s how you’re telling them. If your amazing work isn’t getting the attention (and donations) it deserves, it’s time for a messaging shift. The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide guide gives you 10 done-for-you donor prompts to make your message impossible to ignore. Get it for free here! https://christinaedwards.krtra.com/t/xKuLs6tOiPZa
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“Great meetings actually start before the meeting.”
“Clear expectations create accountability.”
“Stop training your board to manage you.”
“Trust eliminates micromanagement.”
“Connection isn't fluff; it isn't a nice-to-have; it is infrastructure.”
“Fundraising wasn't a committee; it was culture.”
“Shared vision removes friction.”
Episode Resources:
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Christina Edwards 0:50I'm I recently spent a day with one of the healthiest nonprofit boards I've ever seen, and before you think, well, they must have a ton of money or some high-profile board members, or they probably live in, you know, the same town or city, or, you know, they've they've been together for 10 or 20 years. No, this board is spread across across the country most of the year they meet virtually, and I was there for an annual meeting, and that annual meeting is one of the only times, if not the only time, they gather together in person, and they have something that nonprofits are struggling desperately to build: trust, accountability, fundraising participation, engagement, healthy disagreement, clear decisions, and I sat there observing, and I thought about it this morning, and I was like, why does this work so well? What was the magic there? And I knew I had to record an episode about it, because I've worked with organizations across the country, across the world from brand, brand, brand new to 30 plus 50 million plus sized organizations. What I want to tell you before we get into the seven lessons that I was like everybody needs to hear this is I want to share with you that by the end of the meeting I realized there was one thing that this leader, this executive director inside this organization, never once did, and it's probably the thing that you're doing the most if your board is a little bit dysfunctional, a little bit tricky, and that's what we're going to dig into today. You ready?
Lesson number one. Great meetings actually start before the meeting. Now that's making me think of Priya Parker's work, from The Art of Gathering. She's an author, and she talks about the art of bringing people together for events, right? And that's actually what a board meeting is, whether it's in person or not, or hybrid, which this board meeting was actually hybrid. A lot of the people are in person, a lot of the people were also on Zoom. Totally fine. The meeting starts before the meeting, so the board packet was impeccable, it was organized, it was clear, it was focused, it was exciting, it was not endless pages and pages and pages of just too much stuff, right. The leadership team had done the work before the meeting had started, and had prepped everyone, so everyone in person got a physical packet. Everybody online was sent it ahead of time, ahead of time, plenty of time, spaciously, you. Are impeccably organized, easy to follow, easy to find, and formatted. You know how your board member might be little stuff, little stuff, like a board member might just default to using Arial, and then another board member who is maybe on the finance committee might use Times New Roman font, and suddenly everybody's report isn't even in the same design format isn't even in the same way, everything just looks a little disjointed, it looks a little hodgepodge. Those elements of everything is streamlined, everything is organized, everything looks the same actually makes it easier for your board member to interact with that packet, so even down to like the font used Used different programs and services reported in, but the updates were high-level, concise people came prepared, and because of that, the board wasn't meeting, spending endless time reading information. Instead, it was talking about decisions that need to be made. How many board meetings have you sat through where someone arriving reads a report out loud that everyone could have just read before arriving? You're kind of like, could this have been an email, could this have been in the board packet?
Christina Edwards 6:11
Did I need to know this detail at all? Could this have been sent out and read beforehand? Could that have been the expectations? So, the best board meetings actually don't start when the meeting begins, they, they start weeks before.
Lesson number two: clear expectations create accountability. The board had 100% attendance, again spread all over the country. Think some board member was also on vacation, because sometimes it happens, right, where your board member is on vacation, they still zoomed in for that meeting, not a 30 minute zoom, not a quick quarterly check in. This was their big annual meeting, so normally they're their meetings are shorter, right, but this was their big one, and so this was more of a longer form working board meeting, so even though everyone wasn't in person, everyone was present, everyone was there, everyone participated. Why? Because attendance wasn't optional, the expectation was clear. Now, a lot of nonprofit leaders, executive directors, CEOs say my board doesn't show up, my board doesn't engage, they say one thing, but don't really do it. It's all on me. My board doesn't fundraise, they say they'll help. I know some of y'all are nodding along, maybe, maybe that's true, but you want to ask yourself, what expectations have actually been communicated? Do your board members know what is expected of them? Attendance, giving, committee participation, fundraising involvement. Are you hoping they'll figure it out? Now, if your board member misses every meeting never fundraises, never participates, never contributes. Why are they still on the board? So, a lot of this starts has to do with accountability, and it has to do with you as the executive director, as that CEO energy stepping in and not only setting the stage of this is what our board does, that is actually step one. Step 2-3-4, are holding them accountable and having those hard conversations sometimes. Of this is the requirements, and here are the gaps. You've attended one out of the last four board meetings, right? Picking up the phone, having those conversations, looking at whether or not they are right for the board. One of the mistakes people make, especially in the beginning, is a board is really made up of warm bodies in the beginning, so you end up asking the people closest to you to be on your board, not the people who are most qualified, who have experience being on the board, who are most aligned, who are most willing and engaged, you're just.. it's friends, it's family. I know some of you are nodding along, and that's okay. That's where we start, but it is time to change either the culture or the people on the board. If that is the case, all right.
Let it ready for lesson number three. This is a really important one. Stop training your board to manage you. This is the most important lesson. This is the lesson that, whether your organization is two years old or 25 years old, I see this everywhere. This is the biggest problem that I see so many executive directors stuck in this cycle, this is the biggest lesson I observe over and over and over again in the entire day. We were together for the whole day. I see it constantly with executive directors who unintentionally train their board to become their managers, not because the board starts that way, not because the board is supposed to be that way, but because leadership, aka you, aka your boss, if you're maybe in marketing comms development, keeps inviting them in. So, here's what that might look like. Should we attend this conference? What do you guys think? What do you think about this consultant? I don't know. What do you think I was thinking about doing this, but what do you think about doing this? Would it be okay if I spent money on this? You know, our printers kind of.. it's a little bit on the on the fritz. We're thinking about upgrading. I know, I know, it's like $500 I don't know. Do you think this is the right hire? It's very group think. Should we? I'm not sure. Shrug the energy, and before anyone listening gets defensive, I am not talking about bylaws, I am not talking about required approvals.
Christina Edwards 11:29
I think many of you are acting from a place where you are treating a set of questions, a set of problems, a set of challenges each day that you're asking your board for approval and buy-in, as if they were in your, their bylaws, in your bylaws, but they're not, they're not in your bylaws, I am talking about the constant search for permission. You actually don't need, you don't need permission. The do you think this is okay energy seeking validation for leadership and strategy decisions that the board hired you to make. It starts and ends with you. I always think about the makeup of a board, regardless of your cause area. You've got, you know, a surgeon, a lawyer, a professional, a retiree, maybe a bookkeeper, maybe a community leader, and you're asking them for their approval on strategies decisions you, as the leader, should be making and then disseminating to them, so let me talk about the contrast. What I observed sounded completely different with this high functioning board. Here's where we're going, here's the challenge, here's our recommendation, here's where I need your support. This is what the executive director would say, right, here's where I need your support, that's it. Think about a sports team, same players, same talent, different coach, right? Think about a basketball team, same players on that team, same amazing players, same talent, same ability, but when you have a different coach, a different culture, different expectations, what do you get? You get different outcomes, because you can have the most talented point guard, the most talented three point shooter, but it doesn't matter if the team isn't working together, if they're not playing the same harmony, and the coach sets that standard, then the players come together and respond to that standard. The coach sets the accountability. Hey, I told you to run this play, you did whatever you wanted over here. That's not how this goes. It is exactly the same way with boards. The board governs leadership leads. They are not the same job. So, I want you to ask yourself, where are you asking your board to lead because you're uncomfortable leading. That's it. That is the work. Where are you seeking permission? You technically already have, and I want to honor it. Feels scary sometimes to make those leaps, investments, strategy changes, new directions, sun setting something, so you can double down on something more profitable, right? But that has to start and stop with you.
Lesson number four: trust eliminate. It's micro management, so listen. I know it. Your board, they got lots of ideas, and there were lots of ideas in this room. Board members sharing suggestions, ideas, thoughts, perspectives. You know, somebody who says, "I attended this event, we should do that, or "my neighbor, her nonprofit does this. Why aren't we doing that? Not every idea should become a strategy. This is where so many organizations get stuck. A board member says, "We should have a gala, we should do a bingo night, we should do this, we should use, do this fundraiser over here, we should launch a new program. Why aren't we launching that program yet? That's the program I care about, right? They're really excited about this one thing over here, and then suddenly everyone is chasing something that is not part of the plan that you know as the leader is not the place you should be devoting your time, energy, or resources, so what I saw instead in this high performing room was leadership that could hear the idea, honor the intent behind it, listen, and still stay focused on the strategy. People felt heard. It doesn't mean they got their way, it doesn't mean there was some weird gray compromise, right.
Christina Edwards 16:26
It's this idea of, like, you know, I think about a child, and the child is like, I really want spaghetti for dinner, and you're like, well, we have tacos for dinner, and so before you know it, you're making some weird mishmash of like tacos with ground beef, and then you've got some ground beef going into the spaghetti, and then none of it kind of tastes good, because you don't have enough, you know, rest in the recipe to make both, and it's like this weird gray compromise, and it takes you double the time, but you know, you didn't want to disappoint anyone, you want to make sure everyone feel heard, that is not leadership, that is not leadership, so How can you make your board members feel heard, feel excited, feel connected without becoming decision makers on every last idea, strategy, initiative, that is the skill
lesson number five is a really important one, and often a very forgotten one. Connection isn't fluff, it isn't a nice to have, it is infrastructure. People in this room, they knew each other, not just professionally, personally, they knew about kids, retirement, career changes, hard seasons, and I thought this makes sense. That's why this board works. The people know and care about each other. They've had dinner together, they've exchanged laughs together, they've had committees together, they've pulled together for this common cause, but also understand and know each other outside of this cause, even if they're not good friends, right? Even if it's not a social thing, where they're, they're seeing each other lots of times throughout their year, again, even if they don't even live in the same state. The reality is that people can't ask about your retirement or your kids or that vacation you're excited about, if all they do is see your face on Zoom once a quarter, and you're narrowly talking about your mission, and you're narrowly talking about these new initiatives. Right? I think a lot of nonprofits underestimate this. We don't have time. Our board members are so busy, but think about it. You may spend 1000s of hours and time and resources recruiting those board members, but then don't spend time creating connection among the ones they already have, because that connection is why somebody will raise their hand and go, I wasn't planning on joining this committee, but I'll join this committee, because you know this person's on it, and that person's on it, and you know what, I see they needed a third person, I got it, I got it, there's some camaraderie there, there's some buy-in there, there's some support there. The objection I can hear is, we don't have time for this, we don't have time for retreats, we don't have money for dinners, we don't have extra time or money to spend to create this, to do this, maybe, but what is the cost of a disengaged board? What is the cost of replacing board members that have the knowledge, that have the ability, that have the mission alignment, but aren't connected right, and aren't showing up, and you end up replacing somebody that could have been a great board member, because you're not putting together an event like this, you're not making your annual board meeting, and you know, having some time. Time to laugh, to connect, to break bread. It's a little bit of this idea of like, I think about it. I've never worked in corporate. My husband hasn't totally either. He works for a lot of startups, and so to me, I think about this idea of the holiday event, you know, like the annual Christmas party that the big companies have, that they come together and you get to meet people's spouses, and you get to meet people's, you know, like the big.. I think of that as like an old school thing. I'm like, do people even do that anymore? I think they probably.. some companies do. It's something that's kind of gotten less and less common, right? The big holiday party, the big even I feel like some organizations might even do like the big summer event, and I bet there's a culture of that costs too much money, right? It's too big to plan. What's the equivalent of you all going out for a nice Italian dinner together, you and your board, your spouses, your staffers?
Christina Edwards 20:58
Can we break the fourth wall between the board and the staff, the amount of times I have talked to a director of development or a director of comms, and I asked them, what's your board like, and they say, I don't know, I don't really know, I've never really talked to them. Can we please break that fourth wall? This wasn't even in my, in my list of lessons, but the staff knows the board in this organization, this organization, million dollar organization. This year we've had an amazing past five years of growth. There is a connection between the people who do this work day to day, who do this work on a contract basis, who do this work on a full time basis, and their board members. You can't have that connection if only you're emailing them once, once in a while, when you need something, right? You have to have this connection, and you can do it over Zoom, you can do it in person, you've got to break bread, you've got to have lunch together, you've got to have these moments together, really, really important. And I don't know if I started off the episode like this or not, but I'm not a board member on this organization. Again, I was brought in as a consultant and coach, and that's what brought me to this meeting, and that is where I was like, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. So good. Not a unicorn organization. This is available to you. So, connection is not a nice to have, it is infrastructure. Where are you creating those opportunities? Are you creating opportunities for just governance or opportunities for belonging, you want your board members to be like, "Y'all, I'm on the best board ever. So, when you talk to them about board recruitment, which inevitably you will, they are going to be like, "Oh my gosh, you want to be on this board. When they find somebody who's the right fit, they're going to sell them on joining the board, on applying for the board. So, you want to make sure that it's not just governance, but it's belonging, because those two things are different.
Let's dig into lesson number six. Fundraising wasn't a committee, it was culture. Every board member gives on this board, every board member understands that fundraising is the backbone of this organization, now not every board member is involved in fundraising in the same way. Some have hosted gatherings, some have made introductions, some have led their, have participated in peer fundraisers, led their own events, not the staff, them, where the board member says, you know, I really want to do a golf event, and the executive director could very easily get roped in and say, okay, yep, we'll do a golf event. When do you want to have it? I'll talk to the, you know, and starts going to logistics and planning and promotion instead. When a board member says, I want to have a golf event, I want to have this. Is what I'm thinking. Here's what it is. The board, the executive director says, "Amazing, that sounds awesome. Go for it. And has, I mean, teeny tiny little sprinkling of involvement in that golf event support to ensure the messaging is right. Sure, the fundraiser piece is set up, but when that golf event needs sponsorships, the executive director, the director of development. No one is getting involved in that. That is up to the board member, who said, "I want to have this event. So, if a board member says, "You know, I want to do a bingo night, great, the executive director would say, "That sounds awesome, it's going to be so great. And then the board member will take the rein in that, that is very different from a board member saying we should have a bingo night. Do you see the difference? Because we means suddenly the board, the executive director is roped in on all intents and planning and execution and follow up, versus a board member saying I want to do this, and the executive director saying here. How I can support you in that. Here's how it's looked in the past.
Christina Edwards 25:03
You would take the lead on basically everything, and here's why it would be so impactful for the organization, for you to host this, and that's that's the accountability piece, right? And so the board member and the involvement between the board member and the executive director ends up not being one where they're throwing it over the wall to the executive director, in fact the board member is taking the lead, and if the board member says, "Oh, that's that's too much, I can't do that, okay, that's fine, it was their idea in the first place, and instead we will involve them in fundraising in a different way, so some hosted gatherings, but not required, some making introductions, some simply supporting their fundraiser, sharing it with their community. You know, we talk about social street teamers and audience amplifiers, getting in front of those board members' audiences for your digital fundraisers. That's how a board member can get involved. They don't have to host an event. Nobody was saying, I don't know anyone, that's not part of my job. I can't do an event, because first of all, no one was asked to do an event, and the reason why people weren't saying I can't is, because the executive director modeled it first. Fundraising wasn't something that the board was asked to do as a side task once a year in December. It was built into board service, meant from day one. The leader made the expectation clear, lived it out loud, hold it accountability, didn't just say it, you know how you can say it, like I can say to, you know, my kids, hey, clean your room later. Are they gonna remember eight hours from now that I said that, number one, or that I meant that number two? They're gonna hope I didn't mean it right. And so that's on me. The onus is on me to say, hey, by the end of the day today, here's what clean looks like. Here's what clean looks like. I learned that from Brene Brown. Here's what done looks like. So, when you say to them, "Hey, day one, we are a fundraising board, here's what done looks like as a fundraising board, and then we hold them accountable when they're nodding along but not actually taking action, right? So, the leader made that expectation clear, lived it out loud, created the kind of culture where went on two other board members was demanding jobs and families, caretaking travel, we're doing it and making it look doable. The rest follow. This is really important because that culture is contagious, because if nobody fundraises, that's contagious, and if you, as the executive director, are responsible for 99.9% of all donations, and you have allowed it to be that way and continue to allow it to be that way, that is contagious, that starts and stops with you. Okay, so if everyone fundraises, that's contagious too, which is exactly what's happened on this board. You want to ask yourself, what behaviors are being normalized and accepted on your board right now. And it is never too late to change. Never too late. You can change right now. You can change. Don't wait for your next board meeting. You can change in an email, a phone call, a text message, right now. There is no such thing as we've done it this way for a year, 10 years, 100 years. I don't care. Great. Today we change, right? Today we change. People make changes all the time.
Our final lesson, lesson number seven. Shared vision removes friction. One thing I didn't hear all day, all day complaining, blaming territorial behavior, endless circular conversations, which is my least favorite things about boards. Y'all know I'm impatient. I'm impatient because I want you to help more people and more communities, and we have time to wait. So, when you have those endless circular conversations kicking the can. Let's just table this to next meeting. Let me do a little more research. Let me think about that. Oh my gosh, that drives me bananas. Right, there was none of that in this board meeting, and I don't think that's because everybody just agreed on everything, right? Because there was some pushback, there were some contrast, and there should be healthy boards. Disagree, healthy boards should disagree.
Christina Edwards 29:46
The difference is they agreed on where they were headed. So, I want you to think about, we're all in a van together. It's you, you're driving, you're the executive director, CEO, you are driving, you have gassed up the tank. Your board members are in the, in the seats in the van, right. We all agree the GPS of where we are going, that is your vision, that is where your organization is going, that is your next 1-3-5, and 10 years. Okay, you're plugging that in. I like three years and six months, my brain works really well in those, in those buckets, right. So everybody agrees, the next six months looks like this, the next three years looks like this, right. We know that, right. Imagine you're going on a road trip, so I'm in Atlanta, so if I'm going on a road trip to Florida, Florida is my big destination, but like my six month destination in this analogy would be like, where are we stopping for lunch or a stretch for me? Where am I getting my coffee break? Right, we're agreed on that. So, when everyone shares that destination, we're going to end up at the beach. Disagreements about the route become productive instead of personal. Healthy boards disagree, but it does not take them, and it does not derail them from the meeting. We don't go down hours and hours in these long discussions and back and forths, because you, as the executive director, you always bring us back. It is leadership energy, it is CEO energy inside the sprint method. My program for newer founders and emerging organizations, we have a whole module on CEO energy, because this is a skill, this is a skill you have to train and develop, and you know, increase your capacity for it's not innate in everybody, and that's totally fine. Many of you have never run a board before, totally fine. This is a skill you can build and learn, right? Dysfunctional boards complain, healthy boards disagree, those are not the same thing. You with me? So, at the beginning of the meeting, I thought I was watching a great board, and then in the, in the, in the end, I realized I was watching great leadership, because if you took that exact same group of board members, so again, we're all in this van together, and you put them under a different executive director five years from now. I'm not convinced you'd get the same quality of results and outcomes, because same people, different culture, different results. So, said very simply, if we have that same group of board members, and we have a different person in the driver's seat who lets board member A and B spar go at it, who lets board member C, who has a crazy or time-heavy or labor-intensive idea be a yes, if we let board member D say they're going to do a lot but do nothing, then we have a dysfunctional board, right? We have a dysfunctional, we have a dysfunctional board full of quality board members that are not rising to the occasion, not getting the accountability and support, right? So it starts and stops with you in the driver seat, that is how powerful leadership is. So, the takeaway for today isn't, isn't, and this may be like a hard reckoning. The takeaway isn't, how do I find better board members? The takeaway is, what culture am I creating, and why? Right, I want to change, because boards behave the way leaders train them to behave. I know, I know, it starts and stops with you, and that's great news, because you have control there. Culture can be changed, culture can be changed. We can take a basketball team, a losing basketball team, and then you know, pick your favorite sport here, and you can bring in a new coach, and what happens suddenly? They all kind of coalesce. Suddenly, they're working together. Suddenly, two team members that I don't know if you've seen Running Point, I think that's what it's called on Netflix. Kate Hudson is in that show, so it's about basketball. It's coming to mind right now, and they can have two big ego basketball players who are arguing, and they're on the same team, so you can, you need them to get along, right?
Christina Edwards 34:07
But if they can find shared connection and trust, and really that starts and stops with the coach having those conversations, the entire culture of the team changes. So if this episode hit home, maybe you want to send it to your board chair, or your board, or executive committee, or your leadership team, and if that's you, you're the executive director, and you're sitting with what came up today, the board dynamics, the messaging, the fundraising culture, the mindset it takes to lead, that's the work we go deep inside the Purpose and Profit Club, because it really sits at the intersection of fundraising, communications, and leadership. That is this work, that is this work to scale. Most fundraising problems aren't solely fundraising problems, right? They also are leadership and communication problems. That's the work we go deep on. So, if you're ready. To go deeper, you can go to Splendid atl.com forwards slash start for details about my programs, the Sprint method, and the club. And I will go see you in the next one. Go email your board, go follow up with your board, go hold them accountable, step into that energy. I know you can, because you already lead this organization, because you already support this organization and care deeply about this organization, and if you are a staffer listening to this, go sit in on the next board meeting, make sure the board knows you really important things can come out of that, that connection, that relationship. Okay, I'll see in the next one.