In this candid account, the author reveals their personal trials and triumphs, spotlighting invaluable lessons that every board member can benefit from.

Being a board member of a nonprofit can be a tough and demanding job. You generally don’t get paid, and the added responsibilities definitely cut into your free time.

However, the job is all the more nerve-racking when the organization’s executive director is not the right person for the job. The pressure becomes even more overwhelming when you replace the first ED and the second one doesn’t work out either. How did this happen?

Well, there are some lessons here for all board members. And hopefully, you can learn from our mistakes.

First Alarm: Conflicting Appointments
But my alarm bells started ringing as soon as I realized that the ED had promised the board chairmanship to someone else. We both showed up, and a very confusing board meeting transpired, with, thankfully, only a minor amount of acrimony. The other candidate for the spot gracefully withdrew, and I was elected.

With this not particularly stellar start to my tenure, I worried that this indication of the ED’s organizational skills meant we were going to be in for a bumpy ride. In retrospect, I would have gladly accepted a bumpy ride. What we ended up with was a roller coaster where it often seemed like we weren’t wearing seat belts.

Second Alarm: Financial Management Chaos
As I started to dig in, I realized the financial management of the organization was in shambles.

Here was the situation in a nutshell: the ED kept the financial records and paid all the bills. There was no segregation of duties and no internal control. The independent auditors had even resigned from the account, claiming “they didn’t have time” to do the audit.

Being a CPA myself, I recognized three problems pretty quickly:

When the financial function of an organization is in shambles, there is often a reason why (the reason is usually not a good one).
The regulators were right to be concerned about the lack of internal controls, which should be designed (even for small organizations).
When your auditor resigns, there is usually not just fire under that smoke, but an inferno.

Read the full article about lessons on board management at Blue Avocado.