How to Engage Your Board in Creating Your “Equity Why”
In this week’s blog, I want to share five proven strategies for nonprofit organizations for how (and when) to engage your Board of Directors in creating your organizational “Equity Why.”
This week, I want to share how (and when) to engage your Board of Directors in creating your organizational “Equity Why.” Over the past few weeks, I have discussed the importance of a shared why to ground your racial equity approach. Organized as frequently as questions, today I want to center strategies for engaging your Board.
These are questions I am often asked about Board engagement. I answered a couple of these this week. While today’s blog post is for organizations that have a Board as part of their governance structure, you may also find the strategies useful in any organization that has a hierarchical leadership or governance structure.
Here are the five Board engagement questions I am asked most often:
Question #1: What role does the Board have as my organization in figuring out its “Equity Why”?
Question #2: What is my Board’s “Equity Why”?
Question #3: When do I engage the Board?
Question #4: Should our work with the Board be facilitated?
Question #5: Should the Board and staff create the “Equity Why” together
All right, let’s dive in.
Question #1: What role does the Board have as my organization in figuring out its “Equity Why”?
This is a great question. The Board has two roles. First, the Board should do its own work to contribute to the why. Board members likely have perspectives, thoughts, and opinions about the “why.” Second, your organization will need their buy-in to sustain the work. If your organization is like many I have worked with, you’ll have to have some buy-in to release anything publicly. So if you choose to take your “Equity Why” and build a public statement around it, you’ll need their approval to move forward. In my experience, I have seen grassroots efforts push conversations about racial equity and racial justice more broadly. But in order for it to be sustainable, it needs support from leadership at the executive and Board levels.
Question #2: What is my Board’s “Equity Why”?
That is another excellent question. I think this is an adaptive question for each Board member to grapple with. In short, from a governance perspective, what is their equity commitment, and how will they live into it as members of the Board? There’s a piece of this answer that is, of course, governance, but then there is another piece of that is operations — the way they do their work. There is a tremendous opportunity for disconnect when you have staff living into organizational commitments without the same energy at the Board level. When the Board is disconnected from racial equity as a practice, they haven’t had space to grow and learn in their own space within the organizational structure. Suppose your Board represents the organization in speeches or fundraising events. In that case, you will want them to show up in ways that reflect and live into the organization’s equity commitment.
About a year ago, I was on a consultant team to deliver a Board racial equity series. It was an engagement spanning several months where we went deep with a cohort of Board members. One of the things I learned from that experience is Boards need time to soak all of this in, just like the staff does. You will also want to ensure members have time to commit to this work. Board members benefit from shared and independent learning opportunities and time to sit with and process what racial equity means for them and the organization. Often, Board members don’t have time to do this deeper, necessary work because they are busy individuals with multiple organizational commitments.
“Board members benefit from shared and independent learning opportunities and time to sit with and process what racial equity means for them and the organization. Often, Board members don’t have time to do this deeper, necessary work because they are busy individuals with multiple organizational commitments.”
Question #3: When do I engage the Board?
The sooner, the better. Indeed, there is a critically important staff component to creating the “Equity Why” that includes figuring it out, wrestling it to the ground, and determining the day-to-day. However, you do not want to go too long in that process. The danger in waiting too long is that the staff can move too far out in front of the Board. If they have not had a space to participate in that process, then it can lead to a disconnect with staff. In this scenario, the Board will likely pull the organization back from its newly stated commitments. That kind of retrenchment can be very damaging to staff morale and also to the Board/staff relationships. So you don’t want to wait too long. The right spot is somewhere between not at the very beginning and not too far down the road.
Question #4: Should our work with the Board be facilitated?
I would say, “Yes”!
It doesn’t have to be a long engagement. It could be a short engagement with some discreet pieces of work but still facilitated. Good facilitation ensures a safer space. It further enables the executive to participate in a structured way with a deep sense of purpose. There is power in having those conversations be facilitated. Additionally, it balances the risk for others in the organization to be able to say hard things.
Question 5: Should the Board and staff create the “Equity Why” together?
It depends. Typically, I do not recommend that the Board and staff do that work together in the same space. If you ask me, Joanna, what do you think? My initial thought is going to be, no! Some organizations have excellent Board/staff relationships. Perhaps creating cross-organizational workgroups is part of their culture, where the Board and staff do learning, brainstorming, and visioning together. I have seen this dynamic happen – not often – but it happens. Again, my initial reaction to that is usually no!
Let me say more about that.
From a staff perspective, I don’t want to expose staff members to the vulnerability of not knowing. If that kind of exposure is among your peers, you still have to address it, but it’s more manageable. I feel the same for Board members. I don’t want them to feel vulnerable from their lack of knowledge because their job is to know. It’s critical to consider the vulnerabilities we’re asking people to expose themselves to as we think about these spaces.
I share these responses because you may struggle with similar questions in your DEI work. Your organization needs a shared “Equity Why,” and the Board has a role in creating it.
For Helpful Tools
From the podcast:
From the blog:
Your Organization Needs a Shared Equity Why
Other Resources:
Beyond the Board Statement: How Can Boards Join the Movement for Racial Justice?
Are you on my email list? If not, subscribe right now (click below) to get this kind of guidance delivered directly into your inbox. If you have subscribed already, share this post with a friend who leads DEI in their organization.
