From a recent National Association of Corporate Directors study we learn that "directors average just 4.3 hours a week on board work". Does that sound like the amount of time your board members put in? Actually, my experience is that on average, 4.3 hours of service on a nonprofit board is a lot with the average looking more like 4 hours a month (data not readily available).
But wait, there's more! So for-profits and nonprofits may not get a lot of time out of their board members and what they do get in attention waxes and wanes depending on what's on the agenda. I could of course argue that this is more the responsibility of the board Chair and Exec and maybe Governance Committee but this is a discussion for future blogs.
But wait, there's more! According to a USA Today article based on compensation consultant Towers Watson, for-profit board members in the Fortune 500 corporations are receiving a median pay of nearly $234,000 and this is a 10% jump from 2010 median of $212,500! And, for 4.3 hours of service a week while barely paying attention to doing little more than risk-reduction (protecting their investments) and not necessarily engaging in activities that advance the interests of the company EXCEPT, and this is important for both for-profits and non-profits, their presence on board actually does advance the interests of the company.
Lessons for the nonprofit sector?
Comments