Today’s Spill

• How to create an effective committee structure for your nonprofit

• Committee structure from hell

• “Stay Crispy”

Committees…

If not properly organized can kill any momentum. Let’s get on with it.

3 Reasons Committees Suck

1. Bottleneck

In theory, committees are designed to delegate responsibility to a sub-group of experts on the board/staff. In reality, committees are established as an avenue to continue to delay a decision due to fear/anxiety for a failed outcome.

What amazes me most after sitting in over a thousand committees, is that almost nothing gets called to a vote to make a decision. The bulls push to move something forward, while the bears try and stop it in its tracks. But even after meeting and meeting of discussion, I rarely see the “yay” or “nay” vote to actually move forward or kill the idea.

Because of this indecision, whatever it was this committee was appointed to contemplating dies on the cutting floor. Months pass after appointment, and now everyone has forgotten about the issue at hand.

If you want your idea to be stuck on the proverbial tarmac, delayed for launch, setup a committee to further investigate.

2. Fatigue

Committees create additional meetings. More calendar blocks, commutes to meet in person, lunches/dinners to pay for on the organization’s dime. Not to mention the building resentment of volunteers/staff for being pulled away from actual work/mission enhancement.

Creating more committees generates more fatigue for everyone involved. Yes - some people do enjoy all of these meetings. But I imagine if you are a busy board or staff member, the uptick in meeting activity due to committee creation wears on you. It makes you want to be involved less. Until finally you are over it to the point you want off the board entirely.

3. Imbalance of Power

Not all committees are created equal in relation to influence on decision making. Once could argue that the most important committee for a nonprofit would be those committees most anchored in delivering on the mission. The reality is that most committee power gets consolidated to the Executive Committee and Finance Committee.

On top of this, there is generally no crossover between the committee members. The chair of the “Mission Advancement” committee who is trying to increase subsidized childcare for low income parents does not sit on the Finance Committee. Because such a request is not for the betterment of the bottom line, the Finance Committee shoots it down without any input from Mission Advancement other than a line on the agenda.

This imbalance of power across committees creates friction amongst the members. It frustrates those on the bottom end, and can be another source of resentment for the organization they are serving.

Dream Committee Structure

So how do you organize an effective committee structure. Let me start with I believe all committees should be meeting maximum once a quarter. This includes board, finance, campaign, mission, whatever you have. Align them on the same cadence so that all committees meet prior to a board meeting. Then committee chairs can give a high level update of those quarterly meetings.

It is really important that these summaries of the committees come from the chair, and not from staff. Presentation from staff carries less weight than that of a volunteer chair.

But what committees should you bring to your nonprofit? I suggest three:

1. Mission

OK not the best name, but there needs to be a committee dedicated to generating new ideas for the advancement of the organization’s mission. This group focuses on what is working for the organization, the impact being made on the community, and all things surrounding the organization’s purpose.

2. Operations

This is more commonly referred to as Finance in most circles. Because Finance Committee members love nothing more than to get in the business of those running the organization’s operations, I want to rename this committee.

This is where the sausage is made. Sustainability of the organization and its mission should be the sole focus of this group. This includes decisions on finance, fundraising, programs, etc.

But the key is remembering this is a SUPPORTING committee, not a committee with authoritarian motivations.

The chair of this committee would also be considered the Treasurer.

3. Executive

Everything gets bubble wrapped around the Executive committee. This is the group that is appointed to make quick decisions on behalf of the board of directors on an interim basis.

Set this group to meet on an ad hoc basis if there is some kind of urgent issue that falls between the quarterly meetings. This group would consist of the following members:

• Mission chair

• Treasurer (head of Operations committee)

• Board chair

• Incoming board chair

• Vice chair

This small group gets representation from each committee. It is also an odd number, which allows a vote to take place.

With exception of Executive, one member of the Mission committee should attend the quarterly Operation committee, and vice versa. Assuming there are four-five members on each committee, one person can rotate each quarter to attend the other committee. This means that you would attend 5 committee meetings a year. This keeps you fresh, and more likely to make a bigger impact for the organization.

Tea Time - Committee Structure From Hell

Back as a pup in the nonprofit consulting game, I hooked in with a nonprofit to do some finance consulting.

The board was massive - 30 invited members each time, not to mention that the bylaws included a clause for former board chairs to keep a permanent seat on the board (highly unrecommended).

Because of the sheer size, this group LOVED committees and subcommittees. Let me lay out their structure:

• Board

  • Executive

  • Three mission advancement committees

  • Campaign

  • Capital campaign

  • Building & grounds

  • Governance

  • Finance

  • Branch boards (three locations)

My role in this particular situation was with the finance committee. The group was looking at expanding its footprint in acquiring a new location. Our team was charged with determining financial viability of the endeavor. But here is where it gets crazy.

I thought we would be reporting to the finance committee given the situation. But, the finance chair decided this needed more eyes, so they created a sub committee for financial analysis.

Shit you not - the meetings consisted of our team sharing a screen in person to play around in Excel and make mods to the underlying assumptions being considered in our models. “Can you go to cell C76? Let’s take a look at that.” Two hours of this.

After months of weekly meetings on this, thinking I’m finally done with this gig, they tell us they want to present it at the capital campaign, executive committee, and board meetings. This lasted for another three months.

It’s fine for our team, we are consulting and being paid to show up. But there were people volunteering their time who had now taken 6-8 meetings an hour plus minimum, each month, for three months. Who could possibly want to do this?

Please - I beg you - do no do this to your organization. Limit committees, meeting frequency/allotted time, and the amount of people serving. It will do wonders for you, your volunteers, and your organization.

What Else is Steepin’

While the majority of my consulting work is now more general for organizations, my background at the beginning focused on finance.

My absolute favorite person on the subject is the Secret CFO - (@SecretCFO). No one does a better job of simplifying the area of finance and accounting, and doing it in the funniest way possible. His sequence of leveraging Larry David’s revenge coffee shop is one of the most creative pieces of finance content I have seen.

His newsletter is also the main reason I started this. Bringing simplicity to the nonprofit space (and working on meeting his humor levels as I go).

We are going to move out of the world of governance, and into some one-off topics that I feel are important.

Until next time…keep dishin.

theNPdubC