I generally offer that nonprofit boards execute their fiduciary duties doing the following activities: policy, planning, and evaluation. Additionally, an earlier BoardSource study suggested that nonprofit boards are most effective when they have three types of conversations at board meetings: fiduciary, strategic and generative.
Most consultants believe that one of THE most important planning tasks is strategic planning which is informed by fiduciary issues and strategic "issues". Dr. Fram, in his weekly blog has pulled from the McKinsey shelves to offer the following questions about if and how a board engages in strategic discussions if not full planning processes.
So, from Dr. Fram, material I think might be helpful to use with the board.
• How well do board members understand the mission dynamics? In terms of nonprofit experience, management has a better understanding of the mission’s environment. As a result, management needs to be proactive in educating board members about the dynamics involved. This can take place at meetings, retreats or engaging outside experts to interact with board members. Where it is possible and appropriate, management should invite board members to join them at local or regional conferences.
• Has there been enough board-management debate before a specific strategy is discussed? “Board members should approach these discussions with an owner’s mind-set and with the goal of helping management to broaden its thinking by considering new, even unexpected, perspectives.” During these debates management should provide information on key external trends affecting the mission. It also needs to review: strengths and weaknesses of staff talent to achieve the mission, the abilities of the nonprofit to differentiate itself and to increase services to its clientele. All of this can keep the organization from perpetuating the status quo—providing small budget increments and keeping current clients satisfied, not seeking growth.
• Have the board and management discussed all strategic options and wrestled them to the ground? Nonprofit board members and their managers may not be used to having high-quality discussion like these. To provide bases for these types of conversations the board must view management as a set of peers with different responsibilities. “Creating a participative, collaborative dynamic while maintaining a healthy tension is critical.”
“Developing strategy has always been complex—and becomes more so with a board’s increased involvement, which introduces new voices and expertise to the debate and puts pressure on management teams and board members alike to find the best answers.”