{"id":1010,"date":"2013-03-20T09:55:55","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T13:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/?p=1010"},"modified":"2022-07-04T17:08:55","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T21:08:55","slug":"board-assessment-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/board-assessment-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofit Board of Directors Assessment Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ask any executive director to define a healthy board and you\u2019ll usually get the same answer. It\u2019s about fundraising. The board does it; it functions and if it doesn\u2019t, it\u2019s useless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ask a board chair and you\u2019ll get something a bit more nuanced (assuming she\u2019s of the healthy variety herself<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter how you define it, a healthy, functional, and robust board is the foundation for a nonprofit organization described exactly that same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it DOES matter how you define board health and there are some good tools available to diagnose the functioning of your board as a group<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tools like this one ask you to assess whether the board has a full and common understanding of their roles and responsibilities; whether the structural pattern (board, officers, committees, executive, staff) is clear; whether needed skills, stakeholders, and diversity is represented on the board; and whether the board attends to policy related decisions that effectively guide the operational activities of the staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But assessments like these have a couple of big problems. Read on<\/a> and I\u2019ll give you a tool that you can download and use for free that does better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

THE PROBLEM WITH STANDARD ASSESSMENT TOOLS<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So what are the problems with the regular toolset? Here are two very big ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) We need to look at a board as a collection of individuals:  <\/b>Rating these on a scale of 1 to 5 tells me something but not enough.  Rating your board in the aggregate only tells you so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) We need to ask different and deeper questions.  <\/b>If every single board member has a full and common understanding of the roles and responsibilities of a board (rate them a 5) and \u00bd of them show up late for meetings and another 1\/3 never show up to any organization activities, what kind of board do you really have on your hands?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TIME FOR A BRAND NEW BOARD ASSESSMENT TOOL<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nothing out there addressed these more nuanced issues and so I have developed my own.  I call it \u201cJoan\u2019s Big BAT.\u201d  Think of the name this way \u2013 (1) it was hard to find an acronym that created a word and (2) your board has to step up to the plate and swing with a big bat every time in order for your organization to do right by its mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Passover nearing, it seems fitting to ask:  Why is this tool different from all other tools?<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n