Is Your Board Culture Driving Your Executive Away?
In the past 24 hours, I received not one but two emails from local United Way executive directors telling me they were resigning their positions. Note I did not say retiring, both of these executives are nowhere near retirement age and have chosen to resign their positions. Their experiences are more alike than different – long days, too much stress, and facing personal challenges that made life all the more difficult. Although getting two emails from local United Way executive directors resigning in 24 hours is a first, there are more resignations now than at any time that I can remember in my 32 years of working with United Ways.
FUNDRAISING CULTURE
If I had to hazard a guess, I would suggest that many of these resignations are the result of the board culture of United Way. Back in the day, say 30 years ago, the board culture of United Ways was all about workplace campaigns and raising money. In this fundraising culture, success was achieving the campaign goal and getting as much money as possible to local nonprofit organizations and programs. As hard as this might be to believe now, in those days campaign goals increased yearly, and United Ways regularly achieved those campaign goals.
From about 1998 through the mid-2000s, as the internet proliferated our lives and corporate America began to consolidate, United Ways began to sense that the halcyon days of year-over-year increases in workplace campaigns might be coming to an end. During these years, it was decreed that United Ways would become “community impact” organizations. This was a reinvention of sorts for United Ways to maintain relevance by focusing on impacting their communities instead of just being pass-through organizations. As these things tend to go, change came very slowly.
Fast forward 15 years – workplace campaigns have been experiencing a long, continual decline, making community impact more important than ever. United Ways are still trying to effectively embrace outcomes, indicators, focus areas, and bold goals to become successful community impact organizations donors will want to support.
In many United Ways, what has not changed over all this time is their board culture. While most United Ways are striving to be community impact organizations, they are doing so with a board that operates with a fundraising culture.
SIGNS OF A FUNDRAISING CULTURE
Does your United Way’s board have a fundraising culture? Here are some of the signs:
Board members are nearly all executives from the top campaigns in the community
A constant obsession over how much money was raised
More concerned about workplace campaigns and fundraising than community impact
When fundraising goals are not met, the board cuts staff and/or the United Way’s budget instead of reducing partner agency funding
Nearly every week I am talking with local United Way executives who are incredibly frustrated that their boards are not engaged, don’t “get-it,” or only care about how much money is being raised. This fundraising culture of the board makes it nearly impossible for an executive director to succeed with community impact. Not surprisingly, the two executive directors I heard from this week, both cited their board as one of the primary reasons for resigning.
COMMUNITY IMPACT CULTURE
If your United Way wants to be a successful community impact organization, the board must possess a community impact culture. A board with a community impact culture will:
Measure success by the number of lives changed not the amount of money raised.
Obsess over how best to address the issue. The board will consistently examine the role United Way is and/or should be playing to maximize their impact on the issue or issues they are addressing.
Invest in the capacity and capability of their United Way to create impact not just raise money.
Include members who are 100% passionate or “all in” on the issue or issues their United Way is addressing. Board members who are passionate about the issue or issues their United Way is addressing will be fully engaged in your work.
Include members with expertise or experience with the issue or issues your United Way is addressing.
AND NOW A WORD FOR EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS
The simple truth is that your United Way cannot be a community impact organization when your board has a fundraising culture. If you are an executive director of a United Way that is trying to do community impact with a board that has a fundraising culture you have two choices: change your board or resign. The work of United Way has never been more difficult, and the last thing you need is to fight your own board. If you are constantly frustrated with your board, this is like the warning light on your car’s dashboard – there will be trouble ahead.
AND NOW A WORD FOR BOARD MEMBERS
Is your board effective? Are all of your board members fully engaged and actively involved in the work of your United Way? If not, take a close look at your board culture. Do you have a fundraising culture or a community impact culture and does your culture align with the purpose of your United Way? The culture of your board is critical to your United Way’s success as well as your executive director’s success. Think about how your executive director must feel when your board is not engaged, don’t “get it,” or only care about how much money is raised. Be careful, because if your culture is not supporting your executive director, you may be driving them away.
We invite you to join us as we explore the topic of board culture and how to change your board culture during our upcoming webinar Create the Engaged Board You Deserve on June 16th.