BoardSource

BoardSource's vision is a world where every social sector organization has the leadership it needs to fulfill its mission and advance the public good. Strong board leadership is not only possible, it's vital to the success and sustainability of each and every nonprofit organization. And given the fact that the nonprofit sector represents $1.51 trillion in annual revenues and 10% of the total US workforce, the stakes are too high to leave effective board leadership to chance.

Unfortunately, there is evidence of widespread dysfunction and weak performance amongst nonprofit boards, which threatens the sustainability and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations, ultimately impeding their ability to fulfill their mission.

In 2016, BoardSource launched a new strategic framework that focuses us on what we believe is most important for a national organization working to strengthen nonprofit board leadership, and challenges us to organize all of our programs around our two goals and six strategic imperatives.

Goal #1: Deepen Understanding & Inspire Action On Critical Sector Issues
• Strategic Imperative #1: Generate evidence-based recommendations for board practice.
• Strategic Imperative #2: Identify & interpret trends impacting nonprofit leadership performance & effectiveness.
• Strategic Imperative #3: Create positive change by directing attention to key opportunities and challenges facing nonprofit leaders.
• Strategic Imperative #4: Inspire new and diverse leaders to serve.
Goal #2: Educate Leaders & Support Effective Board Service & Governance
• Strategic Imperative #5: Engage and support a broad network of nonprofit board and staff leaders.
• Strategic Imperative #6: Provide relevant and accessible resources and guidance to strengthen board leadership globally.

Generate evidence-based recommendations for board practice. We will:
• align our research agenda with learning objectives that can be tested in the boardroom
• expand our focus on research-driven consulting engagements that enable us to work across systems or cohorts of organizations and leaders to document learning and change that occurs over time
• meet the need for consultative support for individual organizations through a streamlined set of consulting methodologies and direct access to BoardSource's vetted pool of consultants

Identify and interpret trends impacting nonprofit leadership performance and effectiveness. We will:
• invest in research expertise and capacity, both on-staff and in partnership with academics and colleague organizations
• refine our assessment and benchmarking tools to ensure that they serve the organizational needs of boards and chief executives, as well as cultivate deeper insight into board performance across the nonprofit sector

Create positive change by directing attention to key opportunities and challenges facing nonprofit leaders. We will:
• expand our efforts to partner with organizations and leaders on critical issues affecting the sector
• leverage our leadership and network as a part of collective efforts to advocate for the sector

Inspire New and Diverse Leaders to Serve. We will:
• create greater urgency around the importance of diversity on nonprofit boards by establishing board diversity as a key criterion for evaluating overall board performance
• expand efforts to identify and inspire new board leaders by celebrating board leadership as a powerful way to advance the public good through individual service
• deepen partnerships with corporations that are building opportunities for their talent to serve on nonprofit boards

Engage and Support a Broad Network of Nonprofit Board and Staff Leaders. We will:
• partner with other organizations and networks to reach beyond our network to reach a greater portion of the more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations
• leverage platform to support peer-to-peer learning and networking, with a special focus on connecting chief executives and board members to their peers and colleagues

Provide Relevant and Accessible Resources and Guidance to Strengthen Board Leadership Globally. We will:
• strengthen our board support program for organizational members and include virtual coaching elements that foster ongoing board development that is informed by an organization's self-assessment of its board's performance.
• offer more — and more comprehensive — educational supports that are available on-demand
• expand the number of open-access educational offerings through regular sharing of relevant and free board resources

With 30 years of experience working with boards to strengthen their leadership capacity, BoardSource is the recognized leader in nonprofit board leadership best practices and support. We partner with some of the largest nonprofit networks in the country, along with foundations and corporations to reach nonprofit organizations of all sizes and mission areas. This depth and breadth of experience gives us a unique and powerful vantage point that combines a deep understanding of nationwide trends in nonprofit board leadership with real-world challenges that boards are facing within their boardrooms.

Goal #1: Deepen Understanding & Inspire Action On Critical Sector Issues
Investing in Important Research to Increase Impact of the Social Sector
Leading with Intent 2017 goes much further than previous studies in terms of exploring the relationships between certain board characteristics and includes an examination of the relationships between board chair and executive perceptions of the board's impact on organizational performance and other board characteristics. The 2019 Leading with Intent will continue to look even deeper into the relationship between board practices and the board's impact on the organization.

Creating Urgency for Boards to Lead on Diversity, Inclusion, & Equity
BoardSource has made a long-term commitment to position boards for stronger leadership on diversity, inclusion, and equity, as was highlighted at our biennial conference in Seattle in 2017. We opened with a powerful and well-received call to action from Anne Wallestad our president and CEO, followed by a moving plenary session by Dr. David Williams. We are taking a multi-pronged approach to our external efforts, which focus on building positive peer pressure, documenting how boards are successfully leading change in a way that inspires others and providing practical resources and guidance to support implementation at the board level.

Leadership on Critical Issues
Advocacy: With a new balance of power at the federal level and a dramatic shift in the presidential policy agenda, the Stand for Your Mission campaign urges nonprofit leaders to be prepared for significant policy and funding changes at the federal, state, and local levels by assessing their new reality, articulating their values and beliefs, and outlining advocacy priorities.

Effective Fundraising: This initiative provides a new framework for measuring fundraising effectiveness using a balanced approach that emphasizes how important it is to invest in strong and sustainable fundraising.

Strategic Alliances & Restructuring: The Power of Possibility campaign invites nonprofit boards and executives to consider whether a strategic alliance or restructuring effort could help them unlock new opportunities for impact.

Goal #2: Educate Leaders & Support Effective Board Service & Governance
Beyond our research and sector leadership, we are seeing strong growth of our Board Support Program, with over 450 organizations enrolled by early 2018. Our online platform for member engagement, the BoardSource Exchange, has 6,000 users. Additionally, we successfully launched a web-based, on-demand version of our core training, the Certificate for Nonprofit Board Education that is being well received by our network.