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It is important for the board to have diversity in gender and location. Currently the CEO and the 2 board members are men in one location. They lack diversity of opinion and perspective in their deliberations and access to donors.

Diversity is very important on any board. It gives the opportunity of better deliberations and perspective in the organisation. It is however very difficult to get in the right people for the different rolls on the board. I have a problem where people are too busy to be hands on

Diversity can be an asset. Diversity can also make consensus challenging. I believe everyone has something to offer. Historically, in the US, women and people of color have been excluded even from voting in the general election. Nice to see women and people of color holding leadership roles in government and corporate America for a change. Sustainable, Equitable Business Creation Workshop (SEBCW) would intentionally include women and people of color in leadership roles and keep the UN's Sustainable Development Goals in mind. As far as regional diversity goes, the board is starting locally and seeking members in the New York City area.

Gender diversity on the board (50%:50%), for instance, has long been a legal requirement in Scandinavia and other countries in the EU.

In general, the rich diversity of perspectives and points of view can only lead to better decission making.

Thanks for your observation.

Billions of hard working mothers and grandmothers have been successfully managing households affairs all over the world for centuries. Continuing to exclude women from decission making positions is boty unwise and unsustainable.

being all men does not imply all these. There is diversity issue but those men could have networks than can aid fundrasising.

That problem is common in a country that does not have volunteer culture.

A large board slows down things. If you try to be all diverse, you may suffer slow decision making and have many bench warmers.

How can we recruit a great board in a country like Nigeria where there is no well established volunteering culture? In short people want to be paid for everything even women going for ante natal care have to be given incentives to do so.

Diversity is a very important element to take care of when creating your board. It is necesary to have a balance not only in terms of number of participants if they are men or women, but also it should be intergenerational, come form differnt ethnics, origins, sexual preferences, among others. It would give the Board not only a bigger picture of reality, but also would answer to some donors requirements nowadays.

To have the diverse board members is important for the organization to advance. Not just the members sit on the board but also they should try to improve the organization.

it is important to consider diversity, the most important aspect is gender mainstreaming so that their will be diverse opinion before making decision, however, even though diversity is important, board should not be too large to avoid delay in decision making and ambiguity in the board.

In the religious congregations I serve as an Intern Minister (in Oregon in the US), Board members are drawn from the congregation. Because the congregation is small, the top priority is often finding ANYONE willing to serve, and thus the needs of creating a Board with diversity of skills and demographics ends up being seen as icing on the cake. I wonder if the outcome of Board recruitment would be different if we started with the skills we needed on the board, rather than this attitude of scarcity of people willing to serve?

We have an all female Board in our NGO, primarily because the NGOs mission-vision-goal is geared towards development of young women leaders. We do tap external male advisors to help us conceptualize and run some of our projects and programs, but they do not form part of the board.

I think one of the challenges to creating a diverse board, especially at the the beginning organizing stages, is the lack of diversity in some communities. It's sad to say, but at the beginning stages, when people are reaching out to family and friends to support their dream of staring their non-profit, many people may not personally know others in their own communities who are of different backgrounds or demographics from their own who they feel comfortable asking to invest their time and money. For this reason, I think it's important for people to be willing to reach out and share their goals with people outside of their own communities and learn to ask for help and from people they don't usually socially associate with. I'm hoping that later in this course I'll learn how approach and recruit board members form outside of my community.

There should be diversity in every board to ensure excellent delivery during projects. When there is gender diversity, work can be done from different views which can be useful in reaching/making more impact. Diversity in culture is also very important. There would be more enlightenment from each board member on how more people from different ethnicity can be impacted as well.
Diversity is important in everything.

I think diversity is an asset that should be carefully managed. You have to have right diversity in skills, background, ethnicity, gender, etc etc. One of my biggest concerns is how to manage situations where beneficiaries or community representatives are on the board- how can I design their board experience to be meaningful and impactful to them rather than extractive? Because we benefit a lot from their strong community ties, knowledge and experience.

I sit on the board of a performing arts organization. We are in the institutional stage of board development; however, building diversity among board membership is an ongoing challenge. We always seem to have more female board members, and we do not have much diversity in terms of economic background. We are located in a poor American city with a tremendous black/white divide, and our board lacks racial diversity that would really help in understanding and serving the whole city and not just those who are already patrons of the performing arts.

Diversity is a crucial element to note and deal with when creating your board, one should consider creating a board not only addressing the gender diversity but also dealing with the difference in ethics, origins, religious affiliations.

Diversity is important for boards effectiveness where also different perspective would provide better decision. Where need be skill set diversity can be built. In today ERA of inclusivity it is necessity it is important to have a policy on diversity in Board composition

Diversity on your board can be the most intrigue aspect to be focused on,
Globally, men occupy more board seats than women. but that doesnt have any relation to there performance gender wise. Giving your worth , supporting your concern to the core is the quality that should looked for.
Decision making by the board impacts the business and beyond. Being able to listen to and acknowledge different opinions from individuals with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives make good corporate decision-making.

@marymwangi said in Module 2: Diversity on your Board:

It is important for the board to have diversity in gender and location. Currently the CEO and the 2 board members are men in one location. They lack diversity of opinion and perspective in their deliberations and access to donors.

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@marymwangi said in Module 2: Diversity on your Board:

It is important for the board to have diversity in gender and location. Currently the CEO and the 2 board members are men in one location. They lack diversity of opinion and perspective in their deliberations and access to donors.
I totally agree, there is a lack of diversity on this team. Perhaps of the 3 men varied in ethnicity, different age brackets or locations, they could achieve diversity on this board.

As I am a local board member for the organization, it does not make sense to have board members from other regions. It is important that our board members understand the needs and diversity of our organization and its needs specifically. However if someone did have extensive knowledge in the arts area and was able to contribute in a way that was beneficial to the organization, I do not think we should over look tis individual.

There is a huge gap that exist between the Global North institutions that provide support and capacity building to countries in the Global South. Ensuring that your board has a fair representation of board members from the Global North can yield positive results in terms of resources mobilisation and other programatic issues. Some of the major obstacles faced by NGOs in fulfilling their mandate; is the lack of relevant platform to connect with potential funders. Having board members who have experience in fundraising, who are well connected internationally can be a successful strategy to achieved the desired goals.

Diversity on boards encourages women to be more involved
and raises their confidence levels.

Diversity plays a very important role in the composition of the board in all its stages of development.
The strength of a chain is the strength of its weakest link and hence to form a resilient board having the members from different backgrounds; economic status; gender and region are vital.

Every coin usually has two sides, they say.
Diversity is very important in constituting a board. But the extent of the diversity at organizing stage should be limited to gender, considering the fact that few people are needed at this level.
As the organization develops and grows, location, skills and diversity factors be considered.

The board is like the engine to any automotive.
No nonprofit organization can do without it.
In constituting a board, all diversity factors (location, gender, skill, experience, etc) should be considered depending the stage or level of the board at the time of constitution.

Diversity in addition to different perspective during deliberation it will enhance division of lab our as an individual will give his best in his)her field.

Diversity in addition to different perspective during deliberation it will enhance division of lab our as an individual will give his best in his)her field.

Best practices for good corporate governance require having purpose in governance and not just being compliant. a diverse board can be amicable and still take part in robust discussions where active listening multiples, perspective, challenging ideas and asking the hard question rule by day..
**Diversity reflects the real world. Businesses and organization have a diverse set of clients, customers and stakeholders. Bringing diverse perspectives out of a group means tackling the same idea from various angles. Great ideas always emerge when board discussion disrupt common thinking patterns. New perspectives make companies open to the needs of a wider array of groups.

point B
Successfully meeting the continual challenges and complexities of businesses and organization requires having a diverse set of competencies as a primary resources.

Organisations often begin like WOMEN Lead Nepal, having a passionate activist who ropes in people they know to get things done without considering the legalities, functionalities and sustainability requirements to fulfill the vission of their passion. Things escalate to a point where non-compliance to regulatory or operational licence maintenance shows the cracks in how they organized themselves. By then it is realized that subject matter experts are needed on the team and that things must be done in a formal way that ensures accountability, transparency etc. Remedial action would be required at their next AGM when nominating and selecting new board members.

In short, board diversity aims to cultivate a broad spectrum of demographic attributes and characteristics in the boardroom. A simple and common measure to promote heterogeneity in the boardroom – commonly known as gender diversity – is to include female representation on the board.

There is need for a board to be diverse so that no minority group is left out. That was there is guarantee that organisational impact is spread across.

Diversity is very important to the board in order to consider everyones views.

Most boards will start extremely small (3 people) and be recruited from the founder's inner circle, which may or may not be a diverse group. If diversity isn't included in that first phase, it should be made an absolute priority in board recruitment going forward. Having a diverse board in the early phase is crucial and will bring strength and voice for the longevity of the organization.

VERY INTERESTING SUBJECT

Indeed diversity is key in the setting up and administration of the Board. Even though there is a number of diversity points that needs to be considered, my Organisation "Youth Projects Development Platform" has made sure that diversity in terms of gender is take unto consideration. The current board, with 9 members is made up of 5 males and 4 female which even facilitate balanced representation of gender.

It is not clear which Board you are talking about; is it your Board?

If so, then I do agree with you, such a Board has plenty of limitations. For starters, you may think of selecting a new Board.

First things first.. What was the criteria used to select them, in term of skills. Are they of diverse skills? If so, that would be a mitigating factor, else they need to be replaced (reshuffled)

Being three member Board, any mix of gender would be fine in as long as they are differently skilled, would be my take. Coming from the same area my not necessarily be a bad thing but yea, being from different areas bring brings on board varied experiences.

Diversity on the board brings with it unspeakable joys and benefits of tapping into the wealth of knowledge and experience based on various socialization contexts that may be beneficial to the strategic focus of the organizations theory of change.

It is very important to be intentional about diversity of board members, even when it is often easier said than done, especially at the organizing stage of the board, when the number of board members is very small. Gender diversity is important, but so is age, and socio-economic background. One thing to consider is that being a volunteer is a privilege. Not everyone has the privilege to volunteer and become a board member, and this often limits board composition to people who have high socio-economic status (regardless of their gender) because they have the resources that people with low-socio economic status don't have. It is important to be conscious of this, and to think of ways to challenge this reality.

Diversity on the board is key and critical. The key factors that should drive the dynamics in board composition are basically the needs of the organization. Factors such as skill sets for board members and their abilities to make contributions in terms of money and time are things that shouldn't be ignored when recruiting people into the board.

IT IS IMPORTANT FOR A BOARD TO HAVE DIVERSITY IN SKILLS, GENDER AND LOCATION, IT OPENS THE ORGANIZATION TO GREAT OPPORTUNITIES.

Diversity is key! different prespectives and thoughts from those of different backgrounds and demographics can play an important role in making sure your organization and your board helps all areas of the communities it needs to hit

Depending on the diversity in question, it is difficult in a small trade association that recruits from a small membership base. We do actively seek volunteers from all segments of the trade association. For the first time in 60 years, we did achieve a 50/50 in gender diversity.

Yes, diversity is a vital strength in a nonprofit board hence a necessity

Using the matrix one can quickly see where the needs and priorities need to be. Diversity on the BOD and fundraising experience are lacking.

Has there been any thought given to looking outside the membership for BOD members? Possibly customers or those you serve?

Interesting. I did not know of this in Scandinavia. Obvious way ahead of other places in the world.

Sometimes when recruiting new board members, exiting board members tend to seek out those from their immediate circles of influence, almost cloning themselves, with look-alike, think-alike individuals that experience life just like they do. That creates a homogenous board that might be disconnected from the communities they serve.

I think age diversity is so often overlooked on boards because boards typically look for someone more financially established, as well as with more connections and higher titles. However, for working boards, I think it's great to have a young professional with great energy who is looking to gain leadership experience and has the time to put in the work needed. I so often see boards that all look the same and it makes me think that without having established term limits in the beginning, I wonder if it's hard to implement that later on, as many of the board members would most likely like to stay on in their position on the board. I think one way to combat this would be to "grandfather in" existing board members and create a term limit policy for new board members.

It is indeed very important to have a diverse board. It is not easy but possible.

In South Africa, we embrace Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) which priorities women and youth empowerment in institutions due to previous laws during apartheid area which deprived women and youth of economic opportunities.

After reading this Module, I do agree on the importance of having a diverse board. It will not only express different views, and bring meaningful discussions on board, but I feel it will also make the organization move forward at a good steady pace. A diverse board will also bring on futuristic ideas that will cause the organization to stand out, thereby inviting more donor support.

Question I have:
As much as i do agree that a diverse board is the best way to go, I also feel that in the begining - at the organizal board stage - I would want to ask people that are close to me and have been in close contact with me, not so much because they are closely acquainted, but more because I feel I need people to be with me who understand who I am and what I want to do. They understand where I am coming from, and where I am going. I could put together a board full of highly qualified and diverse individuals, and who operate to the book, but would not have their finger on the "pulse" of the organization. I feel they would hamper what I want to acheive.

How do others feel about this? Would appreciate any comments.

How long does it normally take to graduate in between the different phases of the boards?

Any responses helpful

What role should a Founder of an organization play if not the CEO of the organization?

The philantropic is needed

To not only look into diversity in gender and economic roles, there needs to be a clear look at social and educational backgrounds as well. If your board is comprised of people from the same region with similar social groups it becomes harder to reach new or untapped donors. Similarly, with differing educational backgrounds comes different approaches to roadblocks.

I also have a fear that if I build my board with people who do not understand my mission that they will derail the idea and goals entirely. This has been my biggest setback while looking for potential board members. What I currently look for is individuals who are within the field already and have a base background (I am starting a nonprofit animal rescue) so those with animal knowledge or someone who has volunteered with a rescue before or has fostered animals. I think having a balance in the beginning of those who understand your goals and ideas, plus new faces who can remain unbiased and push you to consider pitfalls would be best.

Diversity is a very important element to consider when creating your own board. It is necessary that there be a balance not only in terms of the number of participants, whether they are men or women, but also that there must be a balance between generations, and belonging to different races, origins, and sexual preferences, so that there are members of the council with a financial background and some with knowledge of project management another person is familiar with local laws, and there is also monitoring and evaluation specialist, and we do not forget to fundraising specialist. It will not only give the Council a bigger picture of reality, but it will also meet the requirements of some donors at present.

Indeed, as is the case in the organization to which I belong, there is a diversity in the members of the Board of Directors (ethnicity, gender, specialization)
Where it includes from more than ten different governorates, and it contains four women, and it also contains specialists in financial affairs, project management, monitoring, and evaluation, and the executive director is a woman.

For a nonprofit in the initial stages of organising, it is important that we have diversity in skills so as to be able to fulfill the different high level functions of the young organisation. Diversity in location especially the North South diversity is critical in regard to fundraising as the North is better resourced and to some extent perceived to more sympathetic towards charities in the South. Diversity in gender and age are important as well to expand the different perspectives in the board.

@salem_tashi said in Module 2: Diversity on your Board:

Indeed, as is the case in the organization to which I belong, there is a diversity in the members of the Board of Directors (ethnicity, gender, specialization)
Where it includes from more than ten different governorates, and it contains four women, and it also contains specialists in financial affairs, project management, monitoring, and evaluation, and the executive director is a woman.

Hi Salem,
Your organisations seems very diverse. I would imagine it is a mature organisation judging from the size of the board and teh different specilisations represented in the board. this is something to aspire to.

Hi,
Perhaps it is quite natural as a founder to hold back and be protective of your organisation and mission. However, i suggest that the diversity is still necessary as you may not readily find people with all the skills you require operating in the area of animal rescue. Furthermore there are many who are sympathetic to such a cause without having any expertise or experience in the field and could be very useful in fundraising and providing other critical skills for your organisation.
Regards

Hi,
I believe a founder can choose whether or not to be a CEO or a member of the board. There are many wealthy philanthropists who set up foundations and are not directly involved in the day to day running of these organisations except perhaps as chairpersons of the board with an oversight leadership.

Diversity on the board not only reflects the values of the organization but also strengthens its ability to address complex challenges and serve a diverse community effectively. It promotes innovation, creativity, and a broader perspective in decision-making, ultimately leading to more robust and impactful programs and initiatives.

Diversity on the board of a non-governmental organization (NGO) is vital for a variety of reasons. A diverse board brings different perspectives, experiences, and skills to the organization, which can lead to more effective governance and better decision-making.

Diversity on the board not only reflects the values of the organization but also strengthens its ability to address complex challenges and serve a diverse community effectively. It promotes innovation, creativity, and a broader perspective in decision-making, ultimately leading to more robust and impactful programs and initiatives.

Well put Mary. Such diversity allows for diverse opinions and perspectives. Having a diversified board is like having many eyes that can see things from several different perspectives, enrich your decisions, and strategizes.

Inasmuch as diversity is a blessing in disguise, sometimes having people with differing opinions can stagnate the decision-making process and deliberations on key issues. However, this can be solved by considering the temperaments of individuals before onboarding them.

This is superb. An organization that hires people from different ethnicities, genders and economic backgrounds displays a positive social outlook on the people it is serving and the community in which it is serving. This might go as far as attracting people of goodwilling in to advocate for the organization and support it financially.

Diversity is very important.

That is great, well said

Having a female on the board is necessary for diversity, but at this moment it is not priority for what this Organisation need.

Having a female on the board is necessary for diversity, but at this moment it is not priority for what this Organisation need.

Jibrinisa, I agree with you.
Nigeria is a typical example. I have delayed our registeration and now the imminent is before me but you just shared a common challenge that begins even before take off of the board. Everyone has a job and you're trying to get them to commit to a vision they assume it is purely your thing and should be your personal headache.

How do you say a female is not a priority when the course jave clearly explained that? Perspectives towards response can be influenced by diversity. It is in the best interest of that organization to have a female. They are strengthening their board and it is critical to their mission. I only hope they find a right.

Diversity is an important aspect to have in the organization's board members. Therefore when recruiting board members we have to ensure that all the people put on board should be rich in various quality skills such as the leadership skills and motivating skills, the board should also cater for all genders like women and men because they may be able donors and beneficiaries of the organization programs and services.

Diversity on the board is essential because it allows the board to have a variety of perspectives. The experiences and worldviews of gives insight that can only benefit the board and the organization. We have a diverse board with women and men, young and older, and different racial ethnicities. It is something that we are working hard to achieve as we are now moving into a new phase of our board after starting our organization and getting it established.

Diversity on the board is essential because it allows the board to have a variety of perspectives. The experiences and worldviews of gives insight that can only benefit the board and the organization. We have a diverse board with women and men, young and older, and different racial ethnicities. It is something that we are working hard to achieve as we are now moving into a new phase of our board after starting our organization and getting it established.