Mixing It Up On Nonprofit Boards: Diversify or Fail | 3BL Media

I love Scott E. Page’s book, “The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies.” First of all, he is a kindred spirit, talking about joy, diversity, and Ben and Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk (my favorite). He also opens his chapters with delightful and illuminating quotations from an eclectic array of historians, rock stars, writers, comedians, philosophers, and others. 

“What each of us has to offer, what we can contribute to the vibrancy of our world, depends on our being different in some way, in having combinations of perspectives, interpretations, heuristics, and predictive models that differ from those of others. These differences aggregate into a collective ability that exceeds what we possess individually,” shows Page, a professor of complex systems, political science, and economics.

I have seen this phenomenon with many dozens of nonprofit boards..

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New Online Catalog for Philanthropy in Washington, DC

Now more than ever, individuals, corporations, and foundations want to make informed choices when they make financial contributions to nonprofit organizations. And people want to volunteer where their time and talents will be put to good use. So how do you know which organizations to support?

A valuable print resource since 2003, the Catalog for Philanthropy: Greater Washington went online tonight. “We offer a wide variety of giving options, including a gift registry and gift cards,” according to Kathy Harman, President and Editor, CFP-DC, and Executive Director, Harman Family Foundation.

Beyond making financial contributions, individuals can have the highest impact in helping to move nonprofits to higher levels of performance by joining the board of directors. And having trained and “matched” hundreds of business executives in finding the right boards of directors to serve on, I strongly advise

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Nike at CGI: Helping Girls and Women Achieve their Potential and Change the World

I have admired Maria Eitel since I met and interviewed her at last year‘s CGI. Talking with her again this year reminded me why. Imagine that just a few years ago, she was asked to create a purpose and a plan for the Nike Foundation. What she presented to the Nike Board of Directors was The Girl Effect– the idea that when you invest in girls, you change the world. Eitel explains: “A girl is the mother of every child who is born into poverty, and a girl will determine the future of the next generation. The Girl Effect: you don’t just transform her life, but the family’s, the community’s, the nation’s.”

As you saw in my Genzyme and Goldman Sachs posts from CGI, and previous posts on firms like Clifford Chance, these are the innovators that identify needs and opportunities. They also consider the resources they can offer to make a meaningful contribution, and build a corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy that’s aligned with the corporate mission. They envision the greater potential for the community and the world, and how their company can help make it possible in a way that makes sense for the business.

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Goldman Sachs at CGI: Investing in Women for the “Highest ROI”

That’s what Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs told us today. That providing business and management education to women in developing and emerging economies meets a “great need” for “enormous [investment] returns” and provides a “wide open area for us [GS] to go.” He says that the firm’s goal of helping 10,000 women is just the beginning.

GS’s CSR investment in 10,000 women has the key ingredients for a successful CSR program: alignment with company goals and objectives; research and metrics to demonstrate need and progress; partnerships and alliances; employee engagement; and leadership from the CEO.

I have spent 16 hours at CGI, more than half of them interviewing C-suite corporate executives, always asking them, “How is your corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative in the interest of shareholders, and how does your board of directors feel about it?” In my posts from CGI, I will share their perspectives on this matter.

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The Importance of Ritual in Board Retreats

This afternoon, my husband and I executed our wills. Since I had made my intentions clear in discussions in advance of today’s meeting, and my husband (a law professor) and our attorney prepared the documents carefully, I glanced at my will and asked where to sign. The both looked at each other and then at me, and said simultaneously, “But there is a signing ritual.” They then explained to me that the law requires a specific ritual to ensure that people regard and recognize the importance of the decisions they are making.

I walked home thinking about the ways in which I use the same concept of ritual in conducting nonprofit board retreats.

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How Serving on a Nonprofit Board Makes You a Better Business Professional

Alice Korngold has unique vision and expertise in developing global, national, and regional leadership for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). For over 15 years, Korngold has lead the way in creating and applying innovative and high-impact methods to strengthen nonprofit governance, enhance corporate competitiveness, and advance global sustainability.

Whether you’re an management consultant, banker, attorney, manager, accountant, or other executive or professional, serving on a nonprofit board will help you do your job better.

Wendy Wysong, Partner at Clifford Chance, explained to me the following: “My experience serving on the boards of two nonprofit organizations, EngenderHealth and the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital, has given me a valuable perspective for my professional work, representing and providing legal advice to corporations.  The governance, audit, and ethics issues with which the nonprofit boards deal are directly analogous to those of corporate boards.  Accordingly, when I make presentations to my clients’ boards of directors to explain pending legal matters, I can focus on the issues that would and should concern them most.”

In fact, the nonprofit board experience has been transformative for hundreds of professionals and executives whom I have placed on boards and also coached as they ascended into board leadership positions.

Here is what you have to gain: See continuation here bit.ly/rlmkO

More Bad News About Nonprofit $$: More About Building Better Boards to Fix This

Alice Korngold, contributing writer for Fast Company Magazine and President and CEO of Korngold Consulting, asserts in her most recent commentary that the current economic instability isn’t only affecting communities, both urban and suburban, but now is making destitute of  Non-Profit Corporations as they scramble for needed resources to help keep the unemployed, families, and the retired afloat.

A new report by the National Council of Nonprofits provides more data about the nonprofit financial crisis, showing sharp declines from all sources, including government, corporations, foundations, and individuals, and fees for services faltering as well. Worst of all, these funding challenges occur just when communities are in greater need of nonprofit services, as people are losing jobs, homes, healthcare benefits, and credit, and various public services, including education, are being cut.Nonprofit boards have the authority, power, and legal and fiduciary responsibility to create solutions, in partnership with the nonprofit CEOs that they hire. How can nonprofit boards improve themselves to face their difficult but essential challenges of serving our communities? Of course, in order to build and achieve a successful future, a board needs to build itself with the right people–a topic I have addressed previously.

Some of the best board members I have placed or worked with have been key revenue problem-solvers. For example, the global pricing strategist for a major consulting firm pulled a nonprofit (the local chapter of a national blood services organization) out of the red by helping them revise their pricing strategy, thereby shifting the organization into financial health.

Here are additional ways that board members play vital roles….

This commentary piece was written by Alice Korngold

Western Union: Remittances Financing Global Economic Development

Here’s a company whose business enables migrants to send money back home just about anywhere in the world–385,000 locations in 200 countries and territories (up from 120,000 locations in 100 countries just 5 years ago), while the company’s philanthropic foundation helps migrants and their families to get an education, get jobs, and build small businesses.

In a conversation with Luella Chavez D’Angelo, President, Western Union Foundation, she told me that “we view migrants as heroes.”  According to D’Angelo, “global migration is as old as history. Who is more heroic than the man or woman who leaves home to endure loneliness and alienation in order to find work in a foreign land to put food on the family’s table back home and help their children have a better future.” (Most of us have the good fortune to be where we are today because a relative did that for us back when.)

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This blog was posted with consent from Fast Company and Alice Korngold.

This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert’s views alone.