Building the Best Board to Navigate Change

Change is the only constant in life.

-Heraclitus

If there’s anything the last two years have taught us, it’s the importance of being able to respond to change swiftly and effectively. Aurora Grants has helped organizations across the country navigate the changes and challenges that Covid-19 hurled their way: communicating with donors, meeting changing community needs, creating a fund development plan in the face of financial uncertainty, and addressing sustainability questions from funders. 

The pandemic is just one example of change—an extreme example. Here are a few other change situations that organizations face year-to-year: 

  • Staff leaving

  • New staff joining

  • Increase or decrease in community needs

  • New opportunities for collaboration or expansion

Every organization should strive to be well positioned to address changes of all types, and one crucial component involved is its Board of Directors. Boards have the potential to steady the ship and provide invaluable guidance during times of challenge and opportunity. But a board is only as strong as its members, and achieving the right mix of board members is critical. Based on our experience, Board members typically fall into one of two categories: innovators and implementers.

INNOVATOR

A person who introduces new methods, ideas, or products. 

  • May have launched a new business

  • May be known as a serial venture starter

  • Thinks outside the box

  • Approaches problems with curiosity

  • Asks questions like “how could we do things differently?”

IMPLEMENTER

Someone who puts a decision, plan, or agreement into effect. 

  • May hold a position where they’re second to an innovator

  • Likes to know the plan and their role in that plan

  • Wants to be given a benchmark and meet it

In order for a nonprofit to successfully navigate change and move forward, it’s important to have a balanced mix of innovators and implementers on its board. Too many innovators, and there may be big ideas, but not necessarily the knowledge or will to put them into action. A board overcrowded with implementers, on the other hand, may lack the creativity to envision new ways of doing things and the boldness to pursue opportunities for growth. Achieving the right combination of innovators and implementers ensures diversity in approach and perspective, and equips the organization not only to meet challenges head-on, but to see the possibilities that surmounting them offers. 

About Aurora Grants’ Board Services

Jennifer Pelton, CFRE and Linda Beeman, GPC lead Aurora Grants’ board retreats and workshops. Together they have presented at three AFP International Conferences, including an all-day pre-Conference workshop, and have co-facilitated board retreats in multiple states. This post was adapted from the duo’s presentation at the Best Boards Conference at Rice University’s Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership titled Recruiting and Deploying the Right Board Members. 

For more information about Aurora Grants’ board retreats and workshops, click here.

 

Sarah Seifert