17 Reasons To Fire A Board Member
Without question the greatest barrier to great fundraising is a lousy board.
Of course issues like staff quality, the necessary funds for investment, proper organizational structure, etc. etc. are important. But none is more important than a board. Because at the end of the day it is the board that ultimately determines the quality and culture of the organization. Whether it will be mediocre or magnificent.
For 15 years Simone Joyaux , a frequent Agitator commenter, skilled fundraiser and just plain marvelous human being, has been teaching in St. Mary’s University’s Master of Philanthropy and Development program.
Periodically, in the course of her summer sessions there, Simone will post “Notes from my dorm room” on her Simone Uncensored blog.
I thought you’d enjoy—and benefit from – her summary of some of this summer’s musing on what she calls: “The glory. The mess. The dysfuntionality. The mediocrity….about performance expectations for individual board members.”
Here’s a helpful diagnostic check list that will enable you to quickly spot horrific holes or rotten spots in your organization’s governance.
- Have a great deal of money. But intend to invest next to none of it in this organization. And certainly don’t be willing to work on fund development or generating new leads.
- Rarely attend meetings. But, if forced to show up, text other board members at the table about the CEO during staff reports. Make sure that the CEO sees you texting.
- Make sure to attend every board meeting bitch session over a bottle of wine.Never read email. Especially the agenda. (No thought went into the agenda anyway.)
- Vote on bylaw amendments without having read the changes.
- Badmouth the organization, both in and out of board meetings.
- Badmouth staff too. Plus other board members. And especially the CEO.
- Fill one table at the annual gala and assume that you’re off the hook for at least a quarter of the year.
- Refuse to volunteer for any extra positions.
- Assume that the executive committee has made the important decisions, and thus your attention is not really necessary.
- Have a lot of opinions about what is wrong, but no solutions.
- If you’re presenting, leave the moment you’ve finished.
- Decide what font should be in the gala invitation. Bonus points if you make the volunteer who designed the invitation cry.
- Talk to our donors about funding your other interests – especially if you can steal a major donor for our competitors.
- Recruit new board members based on your political goals.
- Hire your alcoholic college roommate to do fundraising for the organization. Let him keep 15% of what he makes for you.
- Do not offer any assistance to new board members. They’re after you. Fight them. Violently. Especially any innovative or new ideas. Assume they are undermining your power.
So…if one or more fits one or more of your board members. Get busy. Fire ‘em.
For more guidance and a review of Simone’s terrific book on the subject of getting rid of this sort of dangerous dead weight, see The Agitator’s Firing Lousy Board Members.
What are your suggestions for additions to Simone’s checklist?
Roger
5 responses to “17 Reasons To Fire A Board Member”
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Love her musings, always spot on!
Jay
Thank you, Roger and Jay. It sure is cool having fun with both of you.
I love this version of board member performance expectations. The students in Cohort 24 developed this list. Who wouldn’t love it – this list.
The thing is, we’ve all experienced board members who do this. So maybe showing board members the ironic and sarcastic version might wake people up. Maybe some people will see themselves in this view.
And as I say over and over and over – chicken CEOs and chicken governance committee members who refuse to “enhance the attrition” or “thank and release” the lousy board members ….. Well. That’s called collusion. Too often, CEOs and board members collude with each other to keep lousy board members who are bi donors or powerful people or or or …. And the message sent is that the rest of us who are busting our fannies to be good board members…. Hey. How is it worth it? How can the good performers fight bad performers? Because bad performers will win if the CEO and governance committee are bit chickens!
Thanks, Roger and Tom and Jay for agitating!
While I agree completely with Simone, I do have to take issue with your opening statement Roger. Really? The greatest barrier to great fundraising is a lousy board?
Maybe that works for non-staffed organizations. But, beyond that, your statement screams out for some actual research data.
But while we’re all just speculating from personal experience, here’s what I’d put at the top:
1. Obstructionist CEO who doesn’t really support fundraising excellence
2. Lousy development staff.
In my experiences, boards default revenue development to the CEO, as they should. If the CEO’s don’t want to invest in high quality fund development, then the organization won’t.
Again, in my experience, the main reason our organizations aren’t raising as much money as they could be is because staff keep blaming their own failure to execute high quality fund development on the amateur fundraisers who are their board members.
The blame for poor fundraising that I’d put in the board’s lap is failure to ensure a high quality program, failure to ensure a forward looking plan that forms the basis for future investment.So maybe we have common ground there. But I’d also put that blame on the CEO as well.
You’ll get no disagreement from me Gayle. There’s plenty of blame to go around.
No question that lousy CEOs are dangerous to the health of any organization and lousy or silent staff who acquiese in decisions they know are short-sighted or wrong.
The old adage that the fish rots from the head down pertains to organizations. At the end of the day it is the board who’s responsible for the CEO and the CEO in turn for the staff.
Few organizations reach the peak of fundraising greatness without a skilled, informed and involved board.
This definitely gave me a few good giggles. But I don’t think one can jump right to firing board who behave in these ways. Too often, they’ve had no role models and no training. It’s really the job of the CEO to assure that board get the support they need to be effective in their jobs. People aren’t born knowing how to be good board members. It’s something you have to learn.
That’s why having a Board Development/Governance Committee is also a helpful addition. They can schedule ongoing board education sessions. Meanwhile, the more senior board members can model effective board behavior.
Then, if after good training, coaching and cheerleading, they persist in acting out, it’s time to counsel these so-called board members out of their jobs.