04/15/2025

Board Management

What boards must do in times of crisis

These are complicated, if not chaotic times for a lot of nonprofit boards. Volunteer leaders are charged with steering their organizations through a strategic plan. But culture eats strategy for breakfast, as the adage goes, and right now the country is dealing with a White House that has a ready-fire-aim approach to leadership. Responding to the immediate challenges presented by that approach—Is this federal grant serving members still going to exist? Does that regulation still apply to our industry? What about our DEI initiatives?—can send long-range plans into disarray.

Writing in Forbes, lawyer Michael Peregrine suggests that now is the time when boards can best serve their organizations by holding the line on mission, and providing a support role to staff leadership. “[Support] means offering an extra set of eyes and ears in support of management’s executive order issue-spotting, adjust strategic direction as may be necessary, supplementing the executive team’s natural sensitivity to the concerns of the workforce, encouraging the addition of special advisors where necessary to broaden perspectives,” he writes.

Of course, there’s a needle to thread here. In times of confusion and crisis, certain people like to proclaim themselves the One True Expert on the matter. It’s up to boards to play a support role, while acknowledging that they’re still a collaborative body—and not management. As Peregrine writes: “Boards must engage more proactively, deeply, and frequently on entirely new and fast changing drivers of strategy and risk, while respecting the traditional oversight and operations division between governance and management. This is a tall but necessary order and especially relevant given today’s circumstances.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.