Jewish Nonprofit Boards Perform Well But Need to Diversify, Build Stronger Cultures
A new report from Leading Edge shows that Jewish nonprofit boards in general add value to their organizations but could also build stronger cultures among members, diversify their makeup, and perform more effectively in some areas, such as fundraising and accountability. The report provides insights on how Jewish nonprofit CEOs perceive their boards and compares their perceptions to those of CEOs and boards in the general nonprofit sector.
Leading Edge notes five key findings that are especially relevant for the Jewish nonprofit sector:
- CEOs overwhelmingly agree that their boards add value and feel favorably about many elements of their boards’ performance. Professional leaders know how vital their boards’ partnership and governance are to their organizations’ success. Jewish nonprofit CEOs are especially favorable and appreciative regarding how their boards make a positive impact on the organization; provide support and thought partnership to the CEO; communicate well, both with the CEO and with one another; respond well to crises; and fiscally oversee the organization responsibly.
- From CEOs’ perspectives, many Jewish nonprofit boards could perform better around accountability, fundraising, CEO succession planning, and strategic governance. Fewer than half of Jewish nonprofit CEOs report that their boards operate with clear goals; evaluate themselves against those goals at least every two years; provide appropriate fundraising support; and have either a long-term CEO succession plan or an emergency CEO succession plan. Slightly over half (52%) of Jewish nonprofit CEOs agree that their boards set the vision and long-term strategy of the organization.
- Board chairs play a vital role and need more support. Jewish nonprofit CEOs overwhelmingly report favorable experiences with their board chairs — often reporting more favorable experiences with their board chairs than with their boards as a whole. CEOs also feel that the board chair role is an extremely important one. Compared with the general nonprofit sector, Jewish nonprofit board chairs are more likely to have previous experience as board chair of another organization (or even previous experience as board chair of the same organization at another time). This level of past experience has upsides — experience brings skills and wisdom — as well as downsides — the field could be elevating and supporting new people into board leadership.
- Board culture and trust drive board effectiveness. Jewish nonprofit boards could benefit from focusing more on building their cultures. As it is with professional teams, so it is with boards: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Board culture can make or break board performance. CEOs perceive that Jewish nonprofit boards are communicating well in their formal meetings, fostering an environment in which multiple perspectives are welcome. At the same time, many CEOs believe their boards could use additional opportunities to build trust and connection among board members. Many CEOs also report that their boards don’t operate from an explicitly stated and agreed set of shared values.
- Jewish nonprofit board composition should be broader and more representative. Only about half (52%) of Jewish nonprofit CEOs believe their board is representative of the diversity of the communities their organizations serve. Our data on board chair demographics also suggests that board chairs don’t reflect either the racial/ethnic nor the gender makeup of the field’s professionals, or of the Jewish community. Echoing a finding we see in CEO demographics as well, the gender imbalance of male board chairs is particularly stark among organizations with the highest budgets. This challenge will not be easy to address, since a majority of CEOs report that board member recruitment is a challenge in general.
“A high-performing board makes an enormous difference to the effectiveness of the organization,” said Gali Cooks, President and CEO of Leading Edge. “The story that this data tells is that CEOs deeply value their boards’ partnership. And it’s in that spirit that they’re also pointing toward ways boards across the field can grow. Boards that lean further into developing their culture, doing more to hold themselves accountable to specific goals, and supporting the pipeline of people coming onto boards and being elevated to board leadership have the opportunity to reap big dividends in terms of the organization’s impact.”
Leading Edge compared its data with data from BoardSource, which analyzes boards in the general nonprofit sector. Leading Edge data is based on a May 2023 survey of 304 CEOs and a qualitative research project based on 36 CEO interviews in summer 2023. This report also shares practical actions Jewish nonprofits can take now to improve their board effectiveness, such as creating robust board member onboarding experiences, formally evaluating the board’s performance at least every two years, identifying the next board chair before the current chair’s term ends, operating from an explicit set of values, and much more.
In 2022, the nonprofit Boardified was acquired by Leading Edge, the first and only organization seeking to strengthen the performance of the entire Jewish nonprofit sector by improving leadership and culture. Since then, Leading Edge has learned about Jewish nonprofit boards, not only by engaging with participants of programs like the Board Member Institute, Leading Partners, and Leading Executives, but also from its surveys of Jewish nonprofit CEOs.
The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.
