Your board and trustees should be working

You have a board, you have trustees – who among them are working, or are they only there as figureheads, people to steer the organization and ensure the smooth operation (and legal compliance) of the organization?

Where possible board members and trustees should be doing their part to raise the profile of the organization, they should also be helping to raise funds.

Too often we hear of this group saying things like ‘we work hard, we give our time’ – sorry but time doesn’t always equate to money – but it could.

Your board and trustees could be connecting with people in their external networks to talk about the work of the organization, what it does, why it does what it does and how people can help it achieve its goals.

We all know it takes relationships to build and strengthen an organization and it’s likely board/trustees have some strong relationships in the community. If they were to tap into this – using their clout to help raise profile and funds, it would make it easier for your organization to do what it does – and it would also show to others in the organization (staff) that they (board/trustees) are more than figureheads.

Your board/trustees could be doing all manner of thing in the community:

• Visiting business groups and talking about the role of your organization (Rotary, Lions, Chamber of Commerce)
• Talking to business colleagues about the organization and how business can be involved 
• Attending (and paying) all organization events, bringing along colleagues and friends
• Running events – using their business connections to host events that will benefit the organization

Are your board/trustees actively working to help the organization – what are they doing, please share how they help and what happened to get them more involved.