CEO: Motivate and inspire your board

• Published date: 01 January 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30603
• Date: 01 January 2018

January 2018 • Volume 34, Number 5 5

DOI 10.1002/ban© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

CEO: Motivate and inspire your board

CEO Ann Graff (Sedalia, Mo.; agraff@chs-mo.

org) said keeping board members connected to

the mission presents challenges. “That’s espe-

cially true when we are trying to keep our board

meetings to one hour in length and we have lots

of business to conduct,” she said.

She tries several meeting strategies to keep

board members engaged with the organization’s

mission. They are:

• Each board meeting has a “mission mo-

ment” built into it. “We try to tell the story

of a person we serve who has had a success,”

Graff said.

Other times, Graff will present a short video

or share a newspaper or magazine article, she

said. “We have also started a ‘speakers’ bureau

with some of the individuals we serve who are

able to tell their story,” she said. “They have

given presentations to the board.”

• Engage the board in fundraising. “More

recently, we have been working with a consul-

tant to help us with our fundraising,” Graff

said. “With his help, we have scheduled one-

on-one meetings with each board member to

present our fundraising plan, and ask them to

participate in whatever way they can.”

As a result, some board members have writ-

ten the organization a check, others have de-

veloped contacts with the business community

and others have helped with fundraising events,

Graff said.

“Through this process, I have seen the board

become more engaged and have more energy,”

she said. “We will repeat this process annually

with the board.”

• Boost committee engagement with

specific work. “I have also tried to have each

person on the board participate on one of our

committees,” Graff said. “The committees do

more hands-on work, or provide consultation

based on their area of expertise.”

Recently, a committee has been working on

a communications plan to identify the organi-

zation’s various audiences and craft a unified

message. “I have three board members who

have been engaged in that process every Friday

morning for two months,” Graff said. “All three

have specific marketing and business experi-

ence and have been a great inspiration to our

staff who are also involved in the process.

“I believe that those three board members

have learned a lot about the center that they

would not have known if they weren’t involved.”

Sometimes board meetings have so much

“business” that the board doesn’t have time for

motivation and inspiration. “The board does a

great job of getting through these meetings, but

I think that they enjoy and are more engaged

when I can connect them with the mission,”

Graff said. ■

CEOs grade board relationship

The better the board relationship, the higher

the executive director’s salary. That’s one find-

ing from the chart below where execs grade

their relationship with the board.

Most administrators who subscribe to Board

& Administrator grade their board relationship

an A and earn $124,730 on average.

The data come from Board & Administrator’s

Survey on Nonprofit Executive Compensation

conducted late in 2016. ■

Percentage Average Salary Median Salary Board Size Years of Experience Years in Current Position

A 76% $124,730 $132,536 13 28 17

B 22% $108,776 $103,423 15 27 18

No Response 2% $62,000 $62,000 13 50 32