Serving on a nonprofit board is one of the most meaningful ways a professional can give back to their community, but it’s a role that requires real preparation. Coro’s Board Leadership Training Accelerator equips Los Angeles professionals with the governance skills, strategic thinking tools, and practical frameworks needed to lead with purpose and impact from day one. Through this intensive multi-day training, participants engage in experiential learning, expert facilitation, and peer collaboration to build the leadership capacity that strengthens mission-driven organizations.
For those getting started or wanting to learn more, here’s a guide to a more fulfilling way to approach your nonprofit board roles and responsibilities.
Beyond Robert’s Rules, balancing procedures and people
The standard Robert’s Rules of Order book is 816 pages long. An abbreviated version still runs 200+ pages. A dedicated board member could read the whole thing, memorize the proper way to run a parliamentary meeting, and still find themselves clueless in an actual meeting.
That’s because, while processes are neat and orderly, people are harder to make sense of. It can take years to figure out how to effectively lead your board.
A seasoned Board Chair who governs meetings efficiently can be minimally effective in the room. Efficiency asks if we are doing things right. Effectiveness asks if we are doing the right things.
There is a limiting factor built into board operational design: You need years of exposure to board settings to gain the confidence to run them in a procedurally sound way. And yet, the novice board member has just as much to offer to the board as a senior member (if they are not too busy trying to interpret what’s happening in the room to actually contribute).
How can we empower board members at all levels to have an impact?
Most board service trainings are structured around getting you to understand your fiduciary responsibilities as a first-time board member — ensuring that you are equipped with enough basic terminology and insight into how boards are structured and run so that when you step into your first meeting, you have the primer.
In Coro California’s Board Leadership Training Accelerator, we acknowledge that governance is paramount, but we also want to make sure a laser focus on process does not get in the way of serving the board’s purpose.
Activating your board’s full potential
In addition to basic duties of care and compliance, a Board of Directors amplifies the mission, reach, and impact of the organization they serve. To do that effectively, they need to bring curiosity as well as competency. Some meetings are administrative pass-throughs — routine work of governance and maintenance of committee workstreams. Other meetings can hold friction; potential divergent perspectives and ideas of how to solve, address, or proceed. In those cases, we need to know what our roles and responsibilities are as board members, what is at stake, and how to evaluate options. Often this is where 20% of the board steps in to “lead” (the most vocal, the most experienced, the ones who have expertise in the topic). The other 80% of the board practicing deference or withholding comment is contributing little beyond a ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ vote.
Breaking down this dynamic requires first understanding and embracing that leadership can be practiced by anyone in any role. The hierarchical nature of board structures relegates first-time nonprofit board members largely into spectators until they learn the ropes and climb up the ladder of responsibility on committees, becoming an executive team member, and maybe eventually sitting in a chair role until they term out.
Why would we not want first-time board members to contribute meaningfully from day one? The diversity of thought, talent, and experience around the table should be maximized. Presumably, every board member was chosen (and voted on) for what they can bring to the table.
To do this, board dynamics need to be shaped and managed at all levels. That is how we think about nonprofit board training with the Board Leadership Training Accelerator. We meet the level of board experience of every participant with the same challenge: to activate their potential, not just execute their duties, in board service.
Navigating board dynamics — from transactional to relational
We do this first by acknowledging that board dynamics are inherently challenging. (Most) nonprofit board members are volunteers. They usually have full-time, demanding jobs, are coming to the meetings between personal and professional commitments, and may struggle to be fully engaged. Board members also do not tend to have close relationships with each other outside of the meetings or committees. All of these factors together give you an ad hoc group of individuals fulfilling their obligation dutifully, but potentially transactionally.
The next thing to acknowledge is that authoritative leadership practices are the natural default for boards. While there are calls for motions, opportunities to share updates and opinions, and votes — they are scheduled into the agenda in rigid increments to get everyone out on time and back to their regularly scheduled lives. This is a hard system to change.
We focus on asking Board Leadership Training Accelerator participants to think about maximizing their limited time and interactions to build trust and accountability within the group. What does it look like to invite debate and dissent versus a cursory ask for any objections? How can inclusive practices be balanced with tight agendas and a need for progress? Where are there opportunities to convert data points and balance sheets into meaningful conversations about people and program impact? How can we build community within our board two hours at a time, monthly or quarterly?
Our intention is to help you reshape board dynamics from the inside by tweaking the way you show up and contribute within board settings.
- To lean into inquiry, asking questions that deepen the group’s discovery and discussion around a topic instead of speaking in statements that invite either conflict or reluctant consensus.
- To create forums for participatory and adaptive leadership at all levels.
- To authentically look for ways to connect the work of the organization to your own networks and communities
Thanks to Coro, I feel better prepared to contribute effectively to nonprofit boards and help guide organizations toward sustainable success.
By the numbers, program participants report:
- 100% would recommend this program to a friend or colleague
- 100% say they’ve improved their ability to build relationships, foster trust, and solve challenges with others
- 100% agree they can generate meaningful impact
(Re)starting your nonprofit board service journey
Coro California approaches every program through the lens that the most pressing challenges require leaders who can understand themselves, engage across differences, navigate complexity, and mobilize others toward meaningful action. We also believe that a group of people in a room contribute their diverse experiences and perspectives, furthering the learning of every participant in the cohort.
If you are curious about how to enter nonprofit board service for the first time in a way that builds skills and confidence — or, if you are curious on how you can grow your own effectiveness as a seasoned nonprofit board member — you may find that our Board Leadership Training Accelerator program turns basic board training into an opportunity to engage more meaningfully and deeply in board service.
The deadline to apply to Coro California’s Board Leadership Training Accelerator is September 15th.
Kaya Haig
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