Board Member Training & Coaching

You have just joined a non-profit board and you are excited to help the organization reach its potential. As a board member, you will be asked to:

• govern with the insight of how the organization is working;

• provide guidance from your experiences in your work life: and

• understand all aspects of the organization from finance, budgeting, accounting, fundraising, marketing, and operations.

It all seems okay until the first meeting package arrives and you look over the budget, the executive director’s report, and the marketing/fundraising reports.

Board member training is typically performed in three ways. 1) internal staff who understand the content, but their focus is not governance. 2) the board will set a retreat day or evening and try to orient members, but this usually lacks enough depth to support governance. Finally, 3) firms serving for-profit boards have comprehensive curriculums and long-term training that is not affordable in the not-for-profit sector. These options leave board members under-equipped or out of the training.

My focus for new board members is to assess each member based on a quick survey or conversation that identifies areas that the member feels they need to build knowledge. I offer one-on-one or group sessions to introduce key concepts on each topic and then focus on the governance imperatives that will enable the member to question and decide what paths support the organization’s mission, vision and goals.