How Does a Board Work on Itself?

If a foundation's governance has a leadership impact on community, does it not stand to reason that a foundation board might undertake a concerted and ongoing program of development for and about itself?

What about grantees? What about boards of education? If we assess the resilience and leadership capacity of nonprofit boards, what do we find?

Some would suggest that it is in local governance, particularly as practiced in the nonprofit and civil sectors, that democracy in its truest, grassroots sense will either flourish and sustain the American experience or keep fading into the unrest of cynicism and despair that so many Americans feel about government and society today.

Are we willing to gamble that someone will respond effectively in time to climate change? Are we willing to live in hope that someone else will respond to this global change impacting us all, regardless borders, beliefs or bank accounts? Or shallwe perhaps stand fast that this too shall pass?

Above: The Community Group, an African American leadership group, regularly convenes community to educate itself about needs and emerging issues, not to teach or tell, but to listen so that the Group can better serve. The Community Group's board is all the members. The Community Group is the board. The board is the Community Group.

Expectations

If a community foundation has expectations about its grantees, about the organizations to which it gives money/makes grants, would it not be reasonable that the foundation itself meet those same expectations? And what expectations then do we have for ourselves as foundation trustees? How high do we set the bar? Recently, I learned of grantmakers who were requiring that their grantees (a) meet regularly; and, (b) fulfill quorum requuirements at least three out of four times a year.

I had two reactions to hearing about this: (1) that the governance bar was certainly set pretty low; and (2) wondered what the grantmakers' governance standards were for themselves.

Above: At one of its monthly meetings, the board of the Community Foundation of the New River Valley, does small group work to practice and deepen its understanding of enrollment and the trustees' part in development.

Learning from Colleagues

By the time our TCFN working group convened in Virginia, in April 2007, we all had gained insight about the non-grantmaking roles that community foundations can serve. For my part, I had been looking at governance in a new way afforded by the human systems course in which I was enrolled at the time. What I presented to my TCFN colleagues was a quadrant view of an organization's governance experience. The quadrants define the areas of (a) attitude and intention; (b) culture and shared values; (c) skills and actions; and, (d) systems and structure. I populated the quadrants with aspects from my experience of the Community Foundation of the New River Valley. Each index card that I posted on the storyboard display, described some feature or aspect of my foundation's governance experience. In the photo, I am pointing to the quadrant that concerns culture and shared values.

I had not yet realized how the community foundation board, as a human system, might find insight, in reflecting on its own development experience, into the nature of lived democracy in communities of the 21st century. And, as peer NGOs respond to our foundation's governance practices, which has been growing in requests for advice and consultation, how a community foundation's governance might impact a network of peer organizations by example, that governance as leadership could have a meaning that has as much to do with what a foundation does (make grants, serve donors, convene community) as it does with how a foundation is. Could a foundation's being have as much impact on its community as its doing? Are they necessarily the same?

If we are to reclaim democracy for civil society, and I am suggesting here we must because it has been lost in large measure, the question still remains, "Governance for what?" Is our hope that we will make our foundations, our nonprofits, stronger and abler, wiser and more sustainable, for their own sake? Or are we working for some higher, broader purpose? And, if so, is there some global purpose calling?

Local Mission - Global Vision: Community Foundations in the 21st Century

In Belfast, November 2003, the Non-Grantmaking Roles of Community Foundations working group met to learn about the peacemaking role of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland. Left to right: Svetlana Pouchhkareva, Russia; Richard Mulcaster, Canada; Lew Feldstein, USA; Klaus Rollin, Germany.

I am writing a chapter for a book and am stuck. The book is being published by the Foundation Center. Peter Walkenhorst is coordinating the project. Peter works for the Bertelsmann Foundation which has funded a project that I have been working on for a number of years with a group of community foundation trustees and staff called the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network (TCFN). The thirty or so participants are organized in working groups. The group I was on focused on the non-grant making role of community foundations. The group has met twice a year for three years and produced a body of work (a book, a video, and presentations) on the subject.

The book I am writing the chapter for is entitled "Local Mission - Global Vision: Community Foundations in the 21st Century." My chapter is to appear in a section of the book, "Beyond Money and Grantmaking: Civic Leadership by Community Foundation." In my chapter, "Governance and Community Leadership," I am suggesting that a community foundation board of trustees provides leadership by the way it organizes and conducts itself; that the trustees' governance profile can provide a glimpse into how communities might reclaim themselves as beacons of democracy in order to mobilize for a global call to action.

A Climate Change

We are changing how we think about health care. In our midst, a clinic for Chinese medicine serving farmers and lawyers, philanthropists and volunteer leaders. The climate change has to do with attitudes, with an opening to cultures and practices once distant and mysterious. This opening, this closing of gaps, presages a shift toward healing away from consumption, from quick fix to long term commitment rooted in knowledge of life's rhythms.

Above: At the Laurel Creek Clinic of Chinese Medicine in Floyd County, Woody Crenshaw, left; and Louise Ridenour, right, visit the clinic's apothecary.

Top: left to right, Woody Crenshaw, Minnis Ridenour, and Louise Ridenour visit Jason Redenbo, far right, the teacher and founder of the Laurel Creek Clinic.

Climate Change: So What?

Reading the summary report on climate change just out (Download the Summary for Policymakers of the AR4 Synthesis Report), I turn to what's important, to me, to my family, to my community. It all comes back to the same thing: it's up to me as a trustee of the earth to change myself.

Above, Eli Selznick, my grandson.

Global Change Begins Where We Are

What are we getting ready for? What impels us to become better at governance? Why would we feel so strongly that we needed to become more able trustees of our nonprofits? Perhaps we have been sensing, in ways that are just emerging, that we are being called to global measure. Where will we learn to work together, to cross divides, if we cannot start at home? What are we being called to do and how will we respond? Who will answer the call? Will students lead us with their energy and intention? What part will our universities serve? In the next seven years, what will it mean to be a great university?


Scenes above from the Drillfield at Virginia Tech. The October 16, 2007 event to kickoff VT-ENGAGE, Virgnia Tech's massive community service initiative. This year's goal is for Tech students, faculty, staff, and alumni to provide more than 300,000 hours of community service. Top: a capella singers contributed to the day's inspiration; Middle: regional nonprofits set up displays on the Drillfield; Second from Bottom: Executive Directors, Katy St. Marie (left) of Valley Interfaith Child Care Centers; and, Donna Webster (right) of Literacy Volunteers of the NRV; Bottom: Tech students, faculty, staff and community nonprofits engage.

Climate Change Without Borders

"Climate Change 2007,” has now been completed. Its final part, "The Synthesis Report" was released in Valencia, Spain, on 17 November 2007. Earlier this year, the three IPCC Working Groups contributions to the AR4 were released. Download the Summary for Policymakers of the AR4 Synthesis Report. For more information go to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Web site

Day Three: What's Next for the Los Ninos Board?

Julie Bowen and Cheryl Sesnon facilitated the planning, providing support for the Los Ninos board to set benchmarks for the next quarter. The board is undertaking its own development as a vital step in leading Los Ninos' continued growth. Julie and Cheryl's skillful facilitation brought the meeting to a successful close, achieving the results the board had hoped for. The board developed, prioritized, and assigned its own next steps. The Los Ninos trustees did so after immersing themselves in a careful, appreciative examination of how the organization had arrived at its present situation. The trustees served as the bridge between the past and the future, crossing borders of history, culture, values and perspective to achieve a remarkable stepping forward into an emerging future.

Day Three: Building on Leadership and Vision

To frame the governance conversation, to separate the many component elements that contribute to an organization's governance, we used the quadrants structure learned from the Generating Transformational Change (GTC) course in which Cheryl, Julie, Elisa and Andy are enrolled. Andy provided the content for the presentation using the Community Foundation of the New River Valley as an example to give some real time content to an otherwise abstract concept.

The quadrants (Attitudes; Behaviors; Culture; and Structure) provide an integrated way of holding and organizing the multitude elements that contribute to the character of an organization's governance. Andy presented the information using a sticky sheet storyboard (described elsewhere in this blog)

The content was not intended to be prescriptive, but rather descriptive of one organization's governance life. The quadrants are interactive. Each element is simple and doable. Change may be initiated at any point, in any quadrant, through a single, doable step, one step at a time.
































































































































































Rigo Reyes and Ina Cesena provided vital insights and perspective, affording the board an opportunity that several members later noted could beneficially be a regular part of future board meetings. Another border was crossed and lessons learned, insights gained, and mutual respect and appreciation enhanced.

Day Three: Working Together for Change

Raquel Palma, above, the Los Ninos Office Administrator; and, top, Maria Ignacia Cesena, Secretary of Los Ninos de Baja with Rigo Reyes, Director of Community Leadership Education.

Day Three: Los Ninos' History

Click the image to see an enlargement of the timeline.

Day Three: Decades of Development - Recording Our History

Rigo Reyes writes an important milestone event, about founder Paul Weiss, to build the timeline of Los Ninos' history.



Elisa Sabatini, Los Ninos Executive Director, adds artifacts and helps construct the rich, timeline history.

Day Three: A Quiet Setting for Los Ninos' Meeting

Day Two: Settling In

Los Ninos trustees, staff, friends and consultants from across Mexico and the U.S. gathered at the Hotel Lucerna in Tijuana for the Fall Board meeting.

Day Two: Visiting a Maquiladora

We were welcomed graciously by Gerardo de la Concha (below) the Vice President of Medtronic Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V. and given an extensive tour of the facility. The visit was a part of the trustees crossing borders, to be in Tijuana, to be surrounded by the presence of this dynamic, vibrant border metroplex. The visit to Medtronic was one view, one perspective, an important one, to understand the context in which Los Ninos does its vital development work.