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Should Nonprofit Boards Be Pay to Play?

Social Velocity
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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Giving Compass’ Take:

• Nell Edgington argues that nonprofit board members should contribute to the mission financially in addition to their time commitments. 

• Are your contributions – both money and time – aligned? What do boards miss out on when they exclude potential board members who can’t afford to support the mission financially? 

• Read about the need for greater nonprofit board diversity. 


I don’t believe board members should ever be “billed” for a contribution. Rather, the board chair and the executive director should sit down with each board member individually on an annual basis and have an open conversation about that board member’s role on the board. This should be a much larger conversation than just what she wants her annual financial commitment to be, but that still must be part of the conversation. So while you absolutely should discuss why the board member has chosen to serve on your board and what she would like her role to be, you also can (and should) discuss how she wants to contribute to the financial model of the organization.

And if you define a board member’s “contribution” much more broadly than just a check she writes, the sum total of all of the contributions each board member makes can be much more significant than “a tiny fraction of the budget.” Every single board member, if truly right for the post, has many ways to contribute to the financial model of a nonprofit (here is just a beginning list of ways). If you ask board members to think strategically about how they can contribute, and if they are well versed in the financial model of the organization they serve, it should be fairly easy to get them involved in a significant way.

And getting each board member engaged and involved in the organization should be the aim. While I agree that the idea of a “membership test” is certainly unappealing, there should be a bar to being a member of the board of a nonprofit organization. If some members are allowed to be members in name only, but not required to have any skin in the game, then what compels any member to invest their time and resources in a significant way? If there is no bar that a board member must clear to be a board member, then what separates a board member from just an interested member of the public?

A board of directors must be a nonprofit’s staunchest supporters, most vocal advocates, and most committed allies. If a nonprofit cannot depend on its board to work tirelessly, not only to ensure achievement of the mission, but also to ensure financial sustainability, how can a nonprofit possibly expect those outside the organization to care? So, yes, being a member of a board must come with some level of commitment, both of time and of resources.

Read the full article about nonprofit boards by Nell Edgington at Social Velocity.

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Since you are interested in Boards and Governance, have you read these selections from Giving Compass related to impact giving and Boards and Governance?

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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    Lessons from Civic Action Teams on Building Accountability through Feedback

    Giving Compass' Take: · Soni Khanal at FeedbackLabs explains how real-time feedback and collective action can be a game changer on the front for evidence-based decisions and practices in the government. · Why is it importance for organizations to listen to the community and encourage collective action?  How does feedback help the government make better decisions?   · Here's how feedback is being used to improve efforts protecting human rights. The Accountability Lab is making governance work efficiently for the public by supporting active citizens, responsible leaders, and accountable institutions. There have been various approaches around the world to build accountability especially by “naming and shaming” or “finger-pointing” the power-holders. This process has mostly led to an environment of negativity and distrust between different stakeholders. Realizing this, the Accountability Lab is using positive mechanisms and processes for accountability shifting norms to “naming and faming” and building a culture of feedback among stakeholders which ultimately builds trust and an environment conducive to collaboration between citizens, government and other stakeholders. In Nepal, one of our programs named the Civic Action Team, or CivAcTs previously known as Citizen Helpdesks, has promoted a culture of feedback on issues related to accountability in disaster relief processes, foreign labor migration, and open government through fiscal transparency across 17 districts. The CivAcTs are pioneering citizen feedback, dialogue, and community voice platform which bridges the gap between local community members and power holders creating an enabling environment for collaboration by building trust between them. The CivAcTs is facilitated with minimal outside intervention by trained dedicated group of volunteers, who are active youth from the diverse sectors in the community. Data is gathered by trusted community members called Community Frontline Associates (CFAs), analyzed by the Accountability Lab, and disseminated back to the community in creative in useful ways such as infographics and via local radio stations. Additionally, this feedback is fed up to power holders to amplify communities’ voices in decision-making from the ward to national level. A final step in closing the feedback loop through convening – bringing together communities and local government in facilitated town hall meetings to discuss findings, validate data and co-create solutions to challenges. More than 1500 migrant workers go to the Gulf and Malaysia daily from Nepal. Migrant laborers are vulnerable to exploitation, and support services for them and their families are centralized and often inaccessible. Additionally, returnees often need support to re-establish themselves in the local labor force, or to start their own small ventures. After Nepal’s decentralization process and local elections, CivAcTs has supported communities to create feedback and grievance redressal mechanisms for migrant workers at the local level. This blog highlights three key learnings and impact from experiences of bridging the citizen-government gap through CivAcTs particularly, particularly around foreign labor migration. Read the full article about accountability through feedback by Soni Khanal at FeedbackLabs.


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