Board expertise, diversity and renewal are critical components for successful non profit organisations. Attracting, recruiting and keeping great non profit directors can be one of the most challenging aspects of a Chair and boards role.
The quality of governance and expertise of directors is a very current subject in the media and in board rooms. Although much of the conversation has stemmed from royal commissions in the finance and banking sector there are lessons to be learned no matter the type of orgainsation you are in.
I am sure the next round or royal commission findings in the in the aged care and disability sectors will have more lessons that speak to the non profit sector.
There has been a fundamental shift in the expectations of non profit boards.
There is an expectation that non profit boards become more sophisticated in the way they manage Risk, finance compliance and more recently culture
The ability to attract experienced and committed directors in some organisations has become increasingly hard
In the changing landscape the ability to balance community payback with economic sustainability for non profits is pressing.
All of these factors put more and more pressure on non profit boards to ensure the quality and ability of directors (often unremunerated) is developed and maintained. One of the first areas of focus for success is board recruitment. Our guest speaker, Nina Mapson-Bone and Liska Turner from Beaumont People challenged us on how boards should approach director recruitment to give them the best chance of creating an effective governance team.