Boards as Bridges

By Brent Never

Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ) Newsletter

The recent Great Recession has helped nonprofits rethink how they engage and interact with current and future funders. What was considered to be solid, long-term funding from state and federal agencies is now more difficult to retain, and the United Way and other federated campaigns are less likely to provide long-term support. Nonprofit leaders have been struggling to develop strategies to find, and successfully secure, the funding necessary to meet the increased need for services that go hand-in-hand with tough times.

Here I dissect one of those techniques—using board members as tools to champion nonprofit organizations to external stakeholders that may be able to open purse strings. This is not a new idea. Organizations have been placing the mayor, the influential clergy member, or the luminary of philanthropy on boards for decades. Even if they know that the mayor would never attend a board meeting, they feel that by virtue of the office held, this person will stand as a symbol of an organization’s quality. Advisory groups and task forces are yet more—and, in cases like the inactive mayor, more appropriate—tools for using champions to increase the visibility and legitimacy of nonprofits that ultimately lead to funding.

I want to explore with you the phenomenon of board members as bridges to new resources. I will discuss two different reasons why nonprofits may want to use bridges. The first is to bring information into the organization. This information typically revolves around funding opportunities or the happenings of other organizations in the field. The second is to bring information out of the organization to funders, such as highlighting the wonderful job that the nonprofit is doing in its good works. But not all organizations need the same type of bridge, and many would be better served to think about board members as strategic resources with different strengths and weaknesses. Here we’ll explore two different types of boards, and how each type requires a different type of board member.

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