There's a general rule of thumb that bad press can be just as good as good press when it comes to an organization, product or service. So it is with some hesitation I'm going to muse about a new start-up posted describe in the following Boston Globe story.
The new organization is launching a service focused on strengthening the efficiency and effectiveness (not their words) of nonprofit boards. BoardOnTrack's fundamental theory of change appears to be that “Most nonprofit boards are dysfunctional" and that it's innovation is cloud-based software and as a result, boards will become more efficient and effective (again, not their words).
First, that BoardOnTrack's basic premise is that nonprofit boards are dysfunctional appears to me as both judgmental and negative and not in-fact, totally true. I believe that nonprofit boards and board members do indeed face a number of challenges through their various stages of development and being volunteers makes it more complicated but overall, nonprofit boards produce amazing results. Are these efforts sometimes painful? Absolutely! Could their efforts been less painful? Sure.
Next, there have been some pretty effective cloud-based services out for nonprofit boards for quite some time -- Board Effect for instance. And, equally important, as a 35-year nonprofit consultant, I can confidently state that technology has proven helpful in increasing board efficiency and effectiveness but the preparedness needed to utilize this technology does not come through technology but through process and know-how. Goal setting for instance. Decisions about board composition and structure. And then of course, the many relational aspects of governance. Technology supports but does not drive.
While I am impressed with the amount of money raised for this effort, at this moment, I am unimpressed with BoardOnTrack's plans. The market will decide but I'm thinking there really needs to be "more" to this more.
With new funding, BoardOnTrack wants to bring order to non-profit board meetings
Board meetings of non-profit organizations can be a mess: a roomful of high-caliber people spouting opinions, pushing pet projects, and sometimes disappearing mid-conclave. Everyone’s a volunteer, so they want to feel they’re having a discernible impact.
“Most nonprofit boards are dysfunctional,” asserts Marci Cornell-Feist, founder and CEO of BoardOnTrack. Her company offers Web-based software for making them more efficient, and the Concord-based startup recently wrapped up a $1.7 million funding round.
Cornell-Feist was previously an executive at several education-related non-profits, and she admits that the first time a venture capitalist mentioned the acronym SaaS to her — for software-as-a-service, where customers pay for access by the month — “I said, ‘What is SaaS?’” Since then, the company has participated in the InnoLoft program for startups at Constant Contact in Waltham, and attracted about 140 boards that use it, primarily those that oversee charter schools.
The software is designed to help boards perform better — and get the organization they oversee doing the same. Cornell-Feist says it tracks things like, “Are the members attending meetings? Are they reading the board materials? Did they set strategic goals, and are they hitting them? Which committees are performing better?”
“Our app captures everything,” she says. “It takes meetings and makes them paperless. They do their agenda and take minutes in the cloud, using our system. There’s a dashboard for the board’s goals and the CEO’s goals, and that is used at all their committee meetings and board meetings.”
The software also supplies a score on how well the board is operating. “Every quarter, they get on a coaching call with us,” Cornell-Feist says. “We hold the mirror up and challenge them to get better.” Using the BoardOnTrack software costs $9,995 a year, but the company is planning to announce a free version with limited features at the National Charter Schools Conference in New Orleans next week.
Cornell-Feist says that the fresh funding will help the nine-person company build the next version of its product, which will do more to provide what she calls “apples-to-apples comparisons” on things like what principals get paid, how long teachers and students stay at the school, and how many students go on to graduate college. She also plans to begin marketing the software to more different types of non-profits.
"there just isn’t good, comparative, actionable data in the charter movement, and other nonprofits,” she says.
Investors in BoardOnTrack’s recent round include Launch Capital, MassVentures, New York Angels, Cherrystone Angels, and HubAngels.
Scott Kirsner writes the Innovation Economy column every Sunday in the Boston Globe, in which he tracks entrepreneurship, investment, and big company activities around New England.
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