New Guest Podcast: Questions You’ve Always Wanted to Know About Your Board of Directors with Mary Hiland
You have questions about your nonprofit’s board, Mary Hiland has answers!
I recently had an amazingly enlightening conversation on my podcast with Mary, who has been a leading expert in the nonprofit industry for over 40 years. She is the Founder and President of Hiland Consulting, where she supports executive directors through mentoring and coaching.
We covered a lot of ground, which I will share more about in coming posts, but I wanted to give you a snapshot of some of Mary’s words of wisdom that she sprinkled throughout our discussion—particularly surrounding the role of the board and its relationship with executive directors and other staff.
[4:02] “I began to realize how little support there was out there for people to have effective boards, particularly for the executive directors, and there was a lot of ‘board bashing’ going on. Much of my experience was that the board members really want to do the right thing. They’re passionate about a mission. They just don’t know what to do.”
[10:20] “I think board members have the responsibility to not just fundraise, but to build relationships, to build social capital for the organization. Social capital is the asset you have by virtue of your relationship.”
[22:06] “Boards need to understand that they’re leading an organization. And advancing the mission requires building a sustainable organization; not just doing programs.”
[27:05] “Be sensitive about what the job is [in respect to forming and leading committees]. Anytime you’re leading a group, you need to be a good facilitator, you need to be inclusive, and you need to realize it’s not about your agenda, it’s about the group’s success.”
[31:35] “I have never, in my entire career, heard of or worked with a nonprofit where board members were compensated just for being board members; just for showing up.”
[35:46] “You can’t represent anybody’s interests but the interests of your nonprofit. If you’re on the board, that’s the law. You can’t be loyal to another group. [...] One of the things I teach is to get the word ‘representative’ out of your mind, out of your mouth.”
[42:15] “One of your roles, as an executive, is in building your relationship with your board so you understand communication preferences. When you know individual board member preferences, yes, try to honor those, but also let the whole board know you don’t have the capacity to give reports nonstop.”
📽 Listen to the entire podcast episode to get a more in-depth picture of everything Mary and I talked about!
Whenever you’re ready, here are THREE things you can do next:
👣 Follow me on LinkedIn here where I share the same lessons I teach my clients about attracting larger gen-ops dollars and adding 7-figures + to their bottom line.
🍎 Read my GUIDE! THE TRUTH ABOUT GIVE/GETS :: Top 5 Reasons Your Board’s Give/Get Is Leaving Thousands (Sometimes Millions) on the Table. See how limiting board members to the Give/Get model restricts gifts and keeps your staff from reaching their full fundraising potential. Here to get it.
📈 Work with me to scale your org's revenue by 2-5X and fund your organization’s Strategic Plan // If you’re a business-minded CEO already raising MILLIONS but need to diversify revenue and secure more general-operating dollars to invest in growth, you can apply to work with me here.
