06/02/2025

Can Your Board Use an Outsider?

Outside expertise can help bring focus, improve the leadership pipeline

Organizations thrive on outside perspectives: Sometimes, it takes the participation of somebody who isn’t in your association’s bubble to see where your challenges are. The entire consultant industry is built on this notion, and though just about everybody can share a story where that outside perspective was ill-informed or even tin-eared, the process generally helps organizations avoid insularity and identify blind spots.

But this thinking often does not apply to governance. Boards are generally made up of people within an association's industry, and typically long-tenured members. There are good reasons for that kind of leadership pipeline and industry expertise, but broader perspective-taking is not usually baked into board structures.

An article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review suggests one way of addressing that problem: A nonprofit board fellows program (NBFP), in which business-school students partner with nonprofits, serving as nonvoting board members. The board gets some pro bono assistance on governance tasks, and students get some real-time schooling in governance.

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