THE PYGMALION BOARD EFFECT
Why You Must Reconsider Your Opinion of Your Board
Nonprofit development leaders have created a selffulfilling prophecy: we have set our boards up to fail.
This unfortunate reality springs from seeds rooted in
frustration that have flourished as a widely-lamented
yet widely-accepted status quo of board underperformance…and the signs are everywhere.
•
The 2013 Study “UnderDeveloped: A National
Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising”
finds 75% of development executives dissatisfied
with board engagement in fundraising.
executive, Michael Kaiser, said, “So, while I know I
report to my board, I also often feel that I am reporting
to a group of people who simply do not know as much
as I do about the organization or are as responsible to
it. I have to act as if they are my superiors without truly
feeling it.”
“If you treat a girl like a flower girl, that’s
all she will ever be. If you treat her like a
princess, she may become one.”
George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion
•
The 2015 BoardSource Nonprofit Governance
Index says nonprofit executives give boards an
overall score of B- and say fund development is
the board’s greatest weakness with a grade of C.
There have also been specific attacks leveled at
board members, such as in a May 2014 piece in
The Huffington Post where former Kennedy Center
In business management theory, there’s a body of
work around the “Pygmalion Effect” that says how
we perceive people becomes how they are. So, if
we believe boards are low-value and low-impact, our
resulting action or inaction makes them become just
that. We set the stage for underperformance.
THE PYGMALION BOARD EFFECT
Accepting underperformance as the status quo
also justifies perpetuating it. In a 2011 article in
Chronicle of Philanthropy, Rick Moyers said, “Some
executive directors view their work with the board as
an unwelcome distraction from their ‘real’ work. For
that reason, they spend as little time on the board as
possible, at the same time wondering out loud why the
board can’t be more self-sufficient and why it doesn’t
give them more help. However, this ‘neglect and
grumble’ strategy doesn’t improve board performance.”
In this study, most leaders admitted spending less than
10 hours each month on the board. Even for the rare
nonprofit executive who only works a 40-hour week,
that minimal investment shows how low boards are on
the priority totem pole.
roles. It demands providing knowledge, tools, time
and support to ensure success. In short, it is about
considered, thoughtful, deliberate, purpose-driven
partnership.
It is time to change the board paradigm. It is time to
embrace and equip boards to fulfill their remarkable
potential. Creating the new board reality starts with you.
5 THINGS
TO CHANGE YOUR BOARD CULTURE NOW:
1 Design a board experience conducive to
There is too much at stake here to simply accept the
status quo. Board members’ access and influence gives
them leverage in opening doors that is not duplicated
elsewhere in the organization. Their credibility and
authenticity is unquestioned when telling others your
mission is essential, transformational and worthy of
support. Their participation inspires and motivates
peers. So, to harness the power of these community
leaders, we must reconsider our perceptions, approach
partnership from new perspectives and import
knowledge and best practices from other fields.
Ultimately, driving a new level of performance depends
upon us.
So, how do you hit the reset button and do this better?
It starts with understanding what boards could and
should do to advance the mission. It evolves into
setting clear, specific and shared expectations about
collaboration. It calls for designing a board experience
that has productive and compelling meetings, keeps
mission front and center and involves a cadre of
respected leaders. It requires aligning board member
talents, skills, preferences and purpose with valuable
TURN KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION AT:
www.AccordantPhilanthropy.com
advancing excellence—from meetings to
recruitment to accountability to celebrations.
2 Create shared expectations with clear and specific
ways to get involved.
3 Recruit members based on ability to advance key
mission objectives rather than because they simply
have prestige, power or pocketbook potential.
4 Recognize each board member as a unique
individual with different passions, skills, preferences
and ways to positively contribute.
5 Support leaders with knowledge, tools, skills
and time.
About the Author:
Betsy Chapin Taylor, FAHP, is president of Accordant
Philanthropy. Her passion is fostering the effective
engagement of board and executive leaders in advancing
philanthropy.
Leadership
SERIES
© 2016. All rights reserved to Accordant Philanthropy.