Tuesday, April 29, 1997
WRITER: Denise H. Horton, 706/542-8014, [email protected]
CONTACT: Tom Holland, 706/542-5463, [email protected]
NON-PROFIT BOARDS ARE KEY TO ENSURING CONTINUED SUCCESS OF VOLUNTEERISM
ATHENS, Ga. -- The three-day Summit for America's Future is a great way to jump-start volunteerism. However, the key to keeping volunteers enthusiastic and involved rests with the boards of non-profit agencies, according to a University of Georgia School of Social Work professor.
"A non-profit agency has to match the talents of the volunteers with the tasks available. Serving on the board of a non-profit agency is a great form of volunteering, but board members can quickly burn out if their talents aren't being used effectively," said Tom Holland, who has spent the past decade determining why some non-profit agencies stay in business while others fall by the wayside. With more than $1 million in grants from the Kellogg Foundation and the Lilly Endowment, Holland has developed a program that provides boards the tools necessary for success.
"The leaders of non-profits could go to their boards today and ask them if they think their talents are being used," Holland said. "Ninety percent of the people would say ëno.'"
The most important factor in the continued success of an agency is a strategic plan that's used consistently in determining an agency's actions, according to Holland, whose research was featured in a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review.
"You have to have a strategic plan that makes a difference in the way that agency does business," he said. "It has to make a difference in day-to-day behavior."
Since most of the board members of non-profit agencies have experienced situations where their corporate lives depend on strategic plans, Holland questions why they would "check their brains at the door" of the non-profit agencies.
"You find some boards spending the bulk of their meetings on trivial matters like vending machine contracts," he said. "Boards need to ask themselves, ëAre we focusing on the important things; are we brainstorming about the future?'"
Holland has worked with more than 200 non-profit groups around the country, including seminaries, hospitals, private liberal arts colleges, social service agencies and community foundations.
In April, he worked with the presidents and board chairs of several theological seminaries and conducted a workshop for the chief executive officers and board chairs of national service organizations associated with the Society of Friends (Quakers).
As an example of how a change in board behavior can rescue non-profit groups on the brink of bankruptcy, Holland points to the Notre Dame Women's College in Manchester, N.H.
"Five years ago, the college was about to go out of business. The sisters didn't understand governance, there was a new president and a few laypeople on the board," Holland recalls. "We met with them and helped them develop a game plan for staying open and vital."
"Now instead of meeting only once a year, the board is involved in active planning. The board members have term limits based on their performance," he says. "They analyze where they're not as strong as they should be and recruit new members to fill those gaps."
In addition to the Harvard Business Review, Holland's work has been published in several other formats. In late March, the American Hospital Association published "Improving Board Effectiveness: Practical Lessons for Health Care Organizations," Holland's adaptation of his work for hospitals. In January, the National Center for Nonprofit Board published his booklet, "How to Build a Better Board." His book, "Improving the Performance of Nonprofit Boards" was published by Oryx Press in fall 1996.
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