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Prevent Brain Drain From Non-Profit Boards

This post is by Baron Christopher Hanson, principal of RedBaron Consulting + Goal Line PR, a branding + strategy + turnaround management firm based in Charleston, S.C. Baron has served on a number of boards, advisory groups and civic club committees during his consulting career, and can be reached via redbaronUSA.com or followed on Twitter @redbaronUSA.

In general, there are two kinds of boards of directors: 1) FOR-profit corporate boards, whereby highly accomplished members are elected and financially compensated, and 2) NOT-for-profit charity boards, or steering committees, whereby philanthropists volunteer their time, money and relationships to earn their board membership.

In today’s economy, philanthropic boards are suffering multiple rounds of competition, stagnation and resignation. The modalities of giving have dramatically changed since national and local donation and sponsorship spigots have been tightened down to trickles. Ironically, the work of non-profit and philanthropic support is more daunting than ever. Therefore, aggressive turnarounds are needed.

Unlike FOR-profit boards, whereby “membership hubris, social atmosphere, and professional opportunities detract from governance,” writes Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, I would argue that NON-profit board members require modest degrees of social recognition, personal enjoyment, modern conveniences, and indirect professional opportunity. The challenge for executive directors and chairpersons going forward is two-fold: attracting quality board and committee members, and opening their minds to occasional doses of capitalism.

ROCKSTAR PHILANTHROPISTS

Rockstar philanthropists are usually 24/7/365 career, public service and community-benefitting machines. They are especially active, energetic, socially networked and experienced go-getters. Non-profit rockstars may be semi-retired or independently well-heeled, perhaps taking a sabbatical from work to give back or plot a new start-up.

Rockstar philanthropists are also well educated, highly resourceful and on top of the latest news, Twitter feeds and local events. They are passionate to work with, persistent in achieving goals, polished during meetings and keep a close eye on proper policy and procedure. In short, rockstars answer many executive directors’ prayers in many philanthropic sectors.

In recent years, however, the step-down rate of rockstars from board, committee and civic memberships has spiked dramatically. Their family, home, health, investments and higher education require real income. Working for free beyond high school- or college-age internships is no longer financially feasible. Although economies, markets and business models are stabilizing, the 24/7/365 public service crowd is hard-pressed to donate as much time, money and relationship resources as they were formerly able.

What’s more, social, entertainment, and arts organization boards are also facing stiff competition from more serious economic, medical, political and educational organization boards. Career-conscious board members are defecting or being recruited onto more meaningful boards and committees elsewhere.

This conundrum is perpetuated by the fact that many charitable organizations have also cut out many professional inducements; annual galas, cocktail parties and critical clustering events. This “event downsizing” is extremely unhelpful to the “brilliant engineering” required by real people in any non-profit turnaround.

One ancillary factor is that rockstar philanthropists of all ages and backgrounds are going back to work –– or being lured into startups –– for their capitalism-stimulating talents, brains and innovations. After all, someone has to earn our nation its living.

Being a rockstar board, committee, and civic club member usually requires having a support staff. Our firm has witnessed clients –– once hardcore pro bono servants –– cut out rampant public service and donation simply because they no longer have or can afford the support staff needed to complete the various organic tasks required as a board member. The considerable work, errands, creative time and expenses that spring up via committee expectation are too exhaustive and taxing.

For presidents, chairpersons and executive directors nationwide, these conundrums present both human resource and fundraising challenges –– especially today since civic and community boards need fresh stewardship, strategy, and fiscal turnaround leadership most.

Here are three ways to prevent brain drain from your philanthropic and nonprofit boards and committees:

1) MAKE DONATING TIME AND MONEY TO YOUR ORGANIZATION RIDICULOUSLY CONVENIENT. Until jobs and money are growing on trees again, board or committee meetings during regular business hours may be too inconvenient for rockstar philanthropists to attend. Instead, brilliantly engineer meetings according to the board’s collectively convenient schedule, not the comfort of the director’s office hours.

Poll your board and committee members for both best and worse meeting times; then strategically engineer the best time, place and inducements to make pro-bono participation painless. You might learn that one babysitter, two rides to the airport and three large pizzas (one vegetarian) could make a world of difference to your board’s attendance and productivity each month.

2) MAKE DONATING TIME AND MONEY TO YOUR ORGANIZATION SOCIALLY REWARDING. Many civic and club organizations are canceling seasonal events, galas and group outings due to the economy. Bad idea. For economies to turn around, rockstar philanthropists must gather, mingle, dress up, palm-press, have fun and Tweet –– not retreat.

Gathering creates clusters, conversations, photo opportunities, new relationships and social media content. These events don’t need to be lavish or big budget, just a great time for everyone involved helping a worthy cause. For board and committee membership to be attractive again, your organization must brilliantly engineer an atmosphere of social enjoyment and reward in exchange for membership.

3) MAKE DONATING TIME AND MONEY TO YOUR ORGANIZATION PROFESSIONALLY BENEFICIAL. Each board and committee has its own culture, dynamic and agenda. So does each of its members. Beyond giving to a cause, rockstar philanthropists are also professionally motivated in their career paths, which is healthy, natural and fundamentally American. Their motivation could be to gain experience, make career connections, pursue educational opportunities, network with like-minded contacts, consider running for elected office, or enhance their resume. If this message comes across as more realist-capitalist than idealist-socialist, great.

These three suggestions do not infer that the hard work of board and committee stewardship should wane, nor should your organization become a leads-sharing group. Whereas membership hubris, social atmosphere, and professional growth opportunities amongst FOR-profit board memberships are unhelpful to fiscal governance, NON-profit mobilization, labor and financial support is completely different. Participation must be highly inviting and motivating in order to be sustainable.

The strategic take-away here is to brilliantly engineer a team of highly engaged donors and/or executive committee members that “brain-gain” rather than brain-drain your organization. Rockstar philanthropists are a critical source of bench strength. Their recruitment is not a luxury, but rather a requirement.

THREE NEXTS STEPS FOR “ROBMT”

Carefully interview all board and committee members personally –– ideally with their spouse or significant other present, unless single –– to learn about their specific career paths, childhood and university passions, current friendships and personal interests. Consider what their natural patterns, career trajectories and public service resume might look like years from now. This critical, individual insight allows presidents, directors, and chairpersons to brilliantly network and align key board and committee personnel accordingly.

Akin to making board meetings convenient, and ensuring committee memberships are rewarding, executive directors and presidents are wise to build new arsenals of inducements that your taxman and non-profit attorney should approve first. Front row tickets, an autographed memento for a member’s child, impossible-to-get dinner reservations, a guest house in London for the weekend, an invitation to play golf at Augusta –– you get the idea. Via polling your members one-by-one, new opportunities and possibilities for return gestures automatically begin to crystallize.

Take every opportunity to publicly recognize board and committee members via names and photographs in newsletters, online and in regional editorial media. Verbally recognize them not only during your events, but amongst other leaders in their chosen fields of endeavor. Take the time to consider their careers, their families and their future –– to network them “out there,” not just within and for your organization exclusively.

Finally, presidents and executive directors should run their board meeting and committee activities like rockstar philanthropists run their own business affairs and social lives: tip-top and on-fire from day-one. Speaking on the condition of anonymity one board member and civic club president recently explained:

“My wife and I were asked to join a start-up, non-profit board together, based our years and reputation of solid public service on other boards and committees. This organization and board were a mess! We dropped out because it wasn’t run efficiently. Not only was their dis-organization a waste of our precious time and donor funds, it would have tarnished our own brand as solid community leaders. We both remain active on other non-profit boards because they are run like finely-oiled machines: A) dictated by rules, B) bound by time, and C) actively manged to keep the agenda focused. We call it ‘Return On Board Member Time’ or ROBMT.”

In other words, rockstar philanthropists’ time and effort must go towards supporting rockstar meetings, rockstar organizations and rockstar executive directors. Boards of directors and steering committees are where you will meet some of the most amazing people in America. Today, non-profit and community service organizations must accomplish more and better work then ever in our nation’s history. The thesis is for philanthropic board and committee membership to become more convenient, more rewarding and ultimately more professionally sustainable for your rockstar philanthropists to engage in the future.