Limit board requests of staff

• Date: 01 September 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30519
• Published date: 01 September 2017

2 Board & Administrator

DOI 10.1002/ban © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

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From the Board Doctor

Limit board requests of staff

Your staff have better things to do

than spend a full workweek gener-

ating a report for a board member.

Those types of requests eat up far

too much of a staff member’s time.

No board member should treat

the nonprofit’s employees as his

personal assistants. To resolve the

matter, treat it as a full board is-

sue and not something the board

should expect its executive director

to “fix” or handle for the board.

For boards where this is a seri-

ous, ongoing problem, I recommend

the board adopt a one-hour rule to

manage requests from board mem-

bers for staff work. Here’s how it

works: For a board member to make

a request for staff work, the work

must take no more than one hour

of staff time, and must be related to

one of the nonprofit’s strategic goals.

If the request meets these criteria,

then the board member must pres-

ent the request to the full board and

get a majority of board members to

approve the request.

This approach takes the onus off

staff, who may be uncomfortable

being asked by a board member to

perform work, and removes the ex-

ecutive director from the equation.

It makes board requests for staff

work a board issue, which is where

the responsibility lies for these

types of decisions.

The Board Doctor’s recommenda-

tion: Write a board policy on board

requests for information. In your

policy, consider these areas: re-

quests for information during board

meetings, requests for information

outside of board meetings, requests

for information related to the board

meeting agenda, program-specific

requests and how responses from

staff will be disseminated to the

board.

Sincerely,

Jeff Stratton, Editor

515.963.7972;

jeff_stratton@msn.com ■

Can you t in a year-end

‘thankathon?’

Fundraising expert Gail Perry’s

number one year-end fundraising tip

is to hold a thankathon before you

solicit your donors.

Here’s how board members can

play a role in that activity:

Ask board member to get on the

telephone and thank everyone they

possibly can to let them know how

much you appreciate them, Perry

advises. Make sure they are “well-

thanked.”

Board members, volunteers, em-

ployees and clients can all be in-

volved, Perry recommends. Be sure to

stress the “impact” donors have made

on behalf of your organizations’ ef-

forts, she advises.

For more information, go to goo.gl/

JXfhwr. ■