Earmark funds for board development, impact measurement, experts say

• Date: 01 January 2018
• Published date: 01 January 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30400

JANUARY 2018

5

NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

Foundations

Earmark funds for board development, impact

measurement, experts say

Foundations looking to help their nonprot part-

ners build capacity should earmark some of their

grant funding to support impact evaluations and

board development, researchers say—two areas where

the majority of charities are lacking.

According to William F. Meehan III and Kim

Starkey Jonker, authors of the new book Engine of

Impact: Essentials of Strategic Leadership in the Non-

prot Sector, nonprots these days are facing three

core challenges: lackluster fundraising, weak board

governance and failure to measure and understand

their impact. Funders can obviously help with the

rst on that list, simply by awarding more grants. But

dedicating support for the other two might pay bigger

dividends, Meehan and Jonker said, because of how

critical they are to a nonprot’s success.

According to Meehan, a weak board of directors

exhibits some telltale signs, such as:

• They don’t show up, are late or don’t pay atten-

tion during meetings.

• They’re not prepared or don’t understand the

topics under discussion, including their role on the

board and the board’s role in the organization.

• They don’t have the experience, knowledge or

condence to provide leadership on issues of concern

to the organization or board.

All of this translates into some key failures, Mee-

han said. For one, they are ignoring one of the biggest

issues facing nonprots today—strategic planning,

and guiding the future of the organization through

proper succession planning. And they aren’t ensuring

the organization’s executive is held to account for his

or her performance.

Funders can help address this by earmarking

portions of their grants specically for board devel-

opment, Meehan and Jonker said. There’s a wide

array of training and resources available that help

nonprots develop strong, supportive boards, but

such expenses are often frowned upon by funders,

who want to see their money go toward direct services.

Bucking this trend and providing money to support

board development and other capacity-building ac-

tivities may not translate immediately into an easily

tracked metric, but it will magnify impact down the

road and ensure it is sustaining.

Impact evaluation itself is another area where

funders can get a big “bang for the buck,” Meehan

and Jonker said. According to their research, just

about half of nonprots are using third-party evalu-

ators, and only 40 percent do so on a regular basis.

Hiring outside help for this is crucial, Jonker said,

as it provides an objective look at an organization’s

programs and impact that a nonprot’s staff might

not be able or willing to offer.

It also takes an increasing level of knowledge and

expertise to conduct objective program evaluations,

especially the kinds of random control trials Meehan

recommends.

Finally, Meehan said, some nonprots purposely

avoid the hard “look in the mirror” that such evalu-

ations offer, out of fear of what they might say.

“There’s a signicant portion of them that will

nd out they aren’t having much of an impact at

all,” he said.

For grantmakers, supporting board development

and impact evaluations achieves dual goals: Their

nonprot partners benet from stronger, more en-

gaged board members and critical insight into their

programming, and it ensures foundation resources

aren’t wasted on ineffective nonprots that have no

interest in improving. In essence, they are helping to

bolster their own social impact, along with that of

their nonprot partners.

For more information

William F. Meehan III is the Lafayette Partners Lec-

turer in Strategic Management in the Stanford University

Graduate School of Business and a director emeritus of

McKinsey & Company, where he has served for more

than 30 years. Kim Starkey Jonker is president and CEO

of King Philanthropies, lecturer in management in the

Stanford University Graduate School of Business and

former executive director of the Henry R. Kravis Prize in

Nonprot Leadership. The two are co-authors of the new

book Engine of Impact: Essentials of Strategic Leadership

in the Nonprot Sector. For more information, visit http://

www.engineompact.org/. ■