Nonprofit University Blog

In May 2009, a group of Harvard MBA graduates of the Class of 2009 created the MBA Oath, intended to be the management equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath.  By signing the MBA Oath, that MBA graduate is promising to abide by a number of standards, from not advancing” personal interests at the expense of [her/his] enterprise or society” to upholding both the letter and spirit of laws and contracts to refraining from business practices “harmful to society,” among other things.  And a signer understands that her/his “behavior must set an example of integrity, eliciting trust and esteem from those I serve.”

Today, the MBA Oath has moved well beyond the hallowed gates of Harvard, and has been signed by over 4,200 individuals from more than 300 schools from around the world.  Nice!  (But hey, what about the other thousands?)

Despite that little barb, I am not writing about the non-signers of the MBA Oath, as I am impressed and pleased with the Oath’s creators and the 4,200 others who joined their cause.  It is a step in the right direction.  Today, I writing about the need for a Nonprofit Oath that those of us who work in the nonprofit sector would sign and uphold with the same pride, commitment to standards of excellence and integrity and furthering the credibility of our profession that doctors—and now MBA graduates.  Such an oath is long overdue.

Before everyone jumps on me, yes, I would like to think that such an oath, such a reminder, would not be necessary for any professional, least of all those working in the nonprofit sector.  But any such naïveté that I might have had disappeared a long, long time ago.  In fact, the nonprofit sector may need such an oath more than other professionals.

What set me off on this?  Perhaps it was the monthly (at least) calls I get from reporters around the country asking if situation X is a conflict of interest.  Perhaps it is the fact that too many nonprofits hire businesses owned by staff and board or their family members.  Perhaps it was the executive director whose answer to every complaining staff member is “you need counseling” and refers the staff member to the counseling business she owns.  Perhaps it was the executive director of Philadelphia’s Housing Authority who says that the $300,000/year job was too much pressure and thus why he fell behind on his mortgage payments and payment of taxes and who disappears from his job for several days but is then praised by a Philadelphia Congressman who asks the public to remember the good work he has done providing housing for thousands of people.  (Excuse me, that is the job of a housing authority.  It is nothing special or extra.)

Or perhaps it was the Delaware River Port Authority, which charges cars $4 to cross the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Camden and was planning a $1 rate hike for next summer, gives money to the Kimmel Center.  (I get why they want to support the Kimmel Center, but then charge less money for crossing the river.)  This list, in case you didn’t figure it out, is just the tip of the iceberg!

I am sick and tired and I’m not going to take this anymore.  (I actually hated that movie so much I walked out in the middle.)  But perhaps it is our own fault.  Perhaps many, like I did, assumed that people have their own strong code of ethics and bring those standards with them to work.  (But, as we all know, assuming makes an ass out of you and me.)  But clearly, we are wrong.  So, we must be explicit:  create that oath, have everyone affiliated with the organization sign it; and then hold them all accountable.  Review performance of staff, board members and other volunteers as it relates to upholding the oath.

So, what might that oath look like?  Borrowing heavily from the MBA oath, it might include such statements as:

I promise that:

• I will fulfill my responsibilities with loyalty and care, and will not advance my personal interests.

• I will understand and uphold, in letter and spirit, the laws, regulations and best practices that govern my conduct, my organization and the nonprofit sector.

• I will refrain from corruption, unfair competition or business practices harmful to my organization, the nonprofit sector and society.

• I will protect the human rights and dignity of all people affected by my organization, and I will oppose discrimination and exploitation.

• I will protect the right of future generations to advance their standard of living and enjoy a healthy planet.

• I will report the performance and risks of my enterprise accurately and honestly, and should I discover unethical practices and behavior within my organization, I will report that as well.

• I will invest in developing myself and others, helping the nonprofit sector to continue to advance and create sustainable and inclusive prosperity.

In exercising my professional duties according to these principles, I recognize that my behavior must set an example of integrity, eliciting trust and esteem from all those I serve, from clients to colleagues to donors to the public at large. I will remain accountable to my peers and to society for my actions and for upholding these standards.

A former board president of a nonprofit recently confessed to me that she and the rest of the board had no idea what the full mission of their nonprofit was.

This comment is scary, for sure, but unfortunately, not surprising.   For, truth be told, my best conservative estimate is that the majority of board members of nonprofits do not know the full mission of their nonprofits, do not know the full breadth and depth of the very thing they are charged with stewarding and protecting—the organization’s mission.

And, if we are telling truth, then let’s tell it all:  this lack of full understanding of what an organization is all about—not just what it does, but what it aims to accomplish by doing what it does—extends deep into an organization.  It is highly likely that the majority of an organization’s volunteers—if fortunate enough to have volunteers—do not understand the whys and wherefores of the organization.  And if you haven’t yet gone there, let me take you there:  the odds are very good that that less than 100% of the staff of a nonprofit really understands the organization’s mission:  what all that it does for what ends and impact.

My statements come from decades of work with nonprofit boards, staff and volunteers.  Of doing strategic planning with nonprofits and listening to the discussions of long-serving and new members of the organization’s community disagree on what the mission of the organization is or what does it matter if they are running programs that just serve boys, because they are good at doing them, even though the mission says “children”.  Of watching light bulbs go on as folks learn that the mission really does say they should be doing education, not just preservation; that they are to be serving all communities, not just one; that they are trying to improve school performance not just provide children a fun afterschool safe haven.  Of watching people go through the motions because they don’t understand how their work feeds into a bigger picture, a bigger goal.

This is a problem.  A BIG problem!

One of the joys of working for a nonprofit is that, at the end of the day, we feel good about what we did that day because we know we are working to make a difference—for people, for communities, for ourselves.  We know that answering a client’s questions is a tool that allows us to accomplish the organization’s mission of empowerment.  We know that curating a show or teaching people to read means that people’s lives will be enriched, new doors will be opened, imaginations will be whetted.  We know that sweeping the hallways and cleaning the kitchen means that people are being respected, nourished and valued.  But when we don’t understand why all questions need to be answered with grace and compassion, all people deserve to sleep and eat in safe and clear surroundings and that art, culture and literacy are not a privilege but a right, our job as employee, volunteer or board member is diminished, as is our ability to fulfill our mission promises.

While it is great that each of us does our work having identified what we see as the purpose, it is paramount that our individual purposes are in synch with the organization’s mission. And while it is great that we feel good about what we do each day, it is essential that we understand how our work fits into the mosaic that is the organization’s mission and that we can speak about the whole mosaic and not just our little piece.

The same is needed of volunteers—be they the volunteers who help run the office, train the dogs or cook in the kitchen, or the volunteers who are the board.  All must understand that they are a very significant part of a whole seeking to deliver a comprehensive impact.  It is essential, therefore, that all of the pieces—not 80% or even 95%–understand and embrace that comprehensive impact and value all of the ways that impact is achieved.

So, where is your organization?  If 100% is the necessity, where are you?  If you were to give a quiz to all of the staff, volunteers and volunteer board members affiliated with your organization about the mission of the organization, what it is, how it is achieved, and what is the ultimate desired impact, would you hit the 100% mark?  And if not, as I am betting you won’t, what will you do about it?

Perhaps because I have spent the vast majority of my life in academic institutions or perhaps because as an adult, I started making my new year’s resolutions at Rosh Hashanah, I view September as the time of year to make new starts, new commitments, face new challenges.  Thus, today, in preparation for the start of the new year, I write with a double challenge:  to those reading this who are involved with nonprofits but not a board president and to board presidents everywhere.

To those who are not the board president, my challenge to you is to pass this to every board president you know.  To board presidents, my challenge is to take to heart my letter to you and accept the challenge.  I’ve dropped the glove; it is up to you to go from there.

Dear Nonprofit Board President:

My guess is that when you accepted (or your arm was twisted to accept) the job as board president of the nonprofit in whose mission you believe completely, you had no idea of the importance of the job or its magnitude.  My guess is that you had no idea of the responsibility that was now placed on your shoulders.  Though I hate to think this true, naïveté is not one of my traits, so my guess is you might be one of the majority who has yet to realize just how pivotal your role is to this nonprofit.  Yes, you can make or break the nonprofit.  But the good news is that you are not alone:  you have every other member of your board of directors and the executive director to help you in your job.

Let’s go back to my earlier statement:  you can make or break the nonprofit.  An active, involved board doing its job—and not that of the executive director—can make all the difference to a nonprofit.  It can help to strengthen its operations through solid financial oversight, strategic planning, fundraising, and executive director oversight.  It can help to build its solid reputation by fulfilling its ambassadorial role, building a compensation structure that attracts the best and the brightest, strategically building the board so that it, too, attracts the best and the brightest.  It can ensure that the organization stays focused on its missions, fulfilling its promises to its client base, donors, the general public through strategic planning and outcomes evaluation of all of its programs establishing a clear course for the future and measureable benchmarks for successful programs.  And this list could go on and on, but I trust you get the point.

An inactive board, one that revisits matters again and again but never moves off the spot, or one that is active doing the wrong things—such as using board meetings simply to gather data (i.e., hear reports) rather than to look strategically at that data or to do the executive director’s job and discuss where the new sign should be put or who to hire to mow the lawn—can lead an organization to stagnation and, ultimately, to defeat.  These boards give the executive director, staff and other volunteers no direction, no oversight, no support, no guidance—none of the extra that a board is designed to bring to an organization.  These are the organizations that are caught in an eddy, swirling round and round, working to stay afloat but getting nowhere; these are the ones that are on the way down.  A strong executive director might manage to swim out of the eddy, but with no guidance as to the best way out may end up in a rip tide—still struggling, still looking like a functioning organization, but still going no where.

As the leader of the board, you, board president, have the ability to allow a board to languish doing nothing, to work at the wrong thing or to move in the direction of becoming a stellar board.  Your leadership—not your dictatorship—can help move the board, and, thus, the organization, to a higher level of performance.  So, my challenge to you, board president, as another school cycle begins and students (and shouldn’t we all be lifelong students?) everywhere begin another year of learning, personal growth and improvement, is to do at least one thing that will help you and your fellow board members become a stronger, better board.  What might that one thing be?  Oh, my list is long, but I’ll only throw out several, all very easy suggestions.

1. Hold a board training so that the board as a whole can learn from an expert what all it is a nonprofit board is supposed to do.  And do NOT be stopped from doing this because folks say, “Oh, I have been on nonprofit boards for decades; I know what we are supposed to do.”  No, the vast majority of them do not know.  And if they are from the minority who really do know, they can still learn by sharing in the conversation their peers have in response to the information gleaned.
2. Identify one thing that you have not done that a board is supposed to do, or one thing that you haven’t been doing well, and pledge to improve performance in this area.  Identify measurable benchmarks for knowing whether improvement has been accomplished.  Never done strategic planning?  Do it.  Never been good at cultivating donors, have no idea of what a major donor looks like for your organization?  Create and implement a major donor campaign.  Never evaluated your executive director?  Working with your executive director, design a process and measurable goals and by the end of the year pat yourselves on the back because you evaluated your executive director.    Board members go through the motions of reviewing financials, but really rely on the treasurer to say “yay or nay?”  Do board training and educate all board members on the hows, whys and what it says of your financial reports, audits, investments, etc.
3. Develop a year-long calendar of professional development activities just for the board.  This could start with a board training or reading any one of the thousands of books and articles on what a board is supposed to do, followed up by monthly discussions as a portion of your board meetings.  It could include each meeting a different board member responsible for designing a 15-minute presentation/discussion on something of importance to executing the job of board member.  It could include presentations by senior staff on the work for which they are responsible.  It could include anything that helps the board understand the mission of the organization and/or the job of board member.  Be creative.
4. Change your board meetings so that the board is doing real board work at its meetings rather than getting the tools (meaning the data and information contained in committee and executive director reports) it needs in order to do the real work.  Board meetings were never intended to be for sponges who sit around the table absorbing information; board meetings were meant for bright, articulate, creative people to identify what the data say and strategize on how to use that data to make the organization even better at fulfilling its mission.

So, board president, the glove has been dropped and the ball is in your court, the wind is waiting for your sails, check has been called —whatever metaphor you want.  Go for it.  Don’t let your organization down.

As summer begins to wind down, students and parents everywhere begin to face the reality of the return to school.  There is, however, a group of folks for whom returning to school is not on their minds – 2010 college graduates.  Their sights, naturally, are set on finding jobs.  In this simple statement there is an enormous opportunity for nonprofits everywhere; I only hope we are all smart enough to grab this brass ring.

The Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs both AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America, has seen applications to AmeriCorps triple in the last year.  In 2009, Teach for America saw a 40% increase in its applications over the previous year.   Parade’s March poll, which seems to have introduced “compassion boom” into our vocabulary, found that 91% of respondents had done at least one activity in the past 18 months that they thought made a difference and 78% think the actions of one person can make a difference.  Thank you, Margaret Mead!

In addition, the Parade poll researchers identified three emerging groups who are part of this compassion boom, one of which has particular relevance here.  YEPPIES—young, engaged problem-solvers, are younger people, predominantly female, who want to be civically engaged.

Social analysts attribute the source of the development of this compassionate group of young people—those who do an act of civic engagement on a periodic basis, as well as those who chose civic engagement as their job—to the times in which they have grown up.  They have lived through September 11^th, on-going wars and international strife, natural disasters, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, an escalation of street warfare in their own backyards, and so much more.   They are primed to try and change this landscape—and apparently believe they can.

Herein lies the opportunity:  whether by conscious choice or a feeling of desperation, in light of the fact that there are fewer jobs to be had in the for-profit sector, this pool of recent college graduates is looking to the nonprofit sector for their first jobs after school.  We need to be ready to welcome them, to fulfill their need to make the world a better place for all, to nurture them, to sustain their interest in the sector so they can become our future leaders, and absolutely to pay them a truly living wage.  And herein lies the challenge to a nonprofit mindset that has needed to be jettisoned for quite some time!  I am so tired of reading stories that tell the tale of people who, with heavy hearts, leave employment in the nonprofit sector because they need to earn a “living wage” or who have to take on a second job to supplement their nonprofit salary.

It is time that every nonprofit—beginning with the boards of directors of these organizations who all too frequently carry with them the ridiculous notion that just because a person wants to work for a mission they have fewer needs and costs in their lives than those who work for the bottom line—figure out how they can pay a competitive salary to all of their employees.  I said competitive, not obscene.  A salary that allows nonprofit employees to share in achieving the same American Dream as for-profit employees:  a quality of life that allows for the necessities and the bonuses to be bought on the earnings from one job, not a primary job and another.  Those who help the poor should not be working poor themselves. Even in this tough economy, if nonprofits truly care about fulfilling their missions, they can—and must–find ways to pay those who execute the fulfillment of that mission a decent salary that will keep those employees, and keep them focused on delivering that mission.  Paying a living wage is no longer an option for nonprofits; it is absolutely mandatory!

We – the nonprofit sector – cannot afford to blow this opportunity.  We are an aging workforce, and a tired workforce.  We need new blood and enthusiasm.  The majority of our leadership is on its way out.  We need to develop that bench strength.  We are a sector in increasing demand.  We need to be able to meet it.  There is a true gift horse waiting at our door; it is no ruse.

Seize the opportunity—but do it the right way!