Questions to Ask Before Joining a Nonprofit Board
Questions for anyone invited onto a nonprofit or charity board, covering give-or-get expectations, reserves and funding concentration, the board's relationship with the executive director, staff turnover, liability, and what the role really asks of your evenings.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Is there a give-or-get expectation, and what is the figure?
Why ask it
Many boards expect a personal donation, a fundraising target, or both, and the number is often communicated only after you accept. Ask for it as a number, and ask what happens in a year you cannot meet it.
How many hours a month does this actually take, including committee work and events?
Why ask it
The stated commitment is usually the meeting schedule. Add committees, event attendance, and reading, and the honest total is frequently two or three times what the recruitment conversation implied.
May I see the last two annual filings, the audit, and the current year to date?
Why ask it
Filings show the trend that a case-for-support brochure hides. Look at reserves, whether the audit contains a going concern note, and how much of income is restricted.
How many months of operating reserves do you hold?
Why ask it
Reserves determine whether your board will spend its time on strategy or on payroll. Anything under about three months means you are joining a board that will be managing cash, whatever the agenda says.
What share of income comes from your largest funder?
Why ask it
Concentration is the standard nonprofit risk. If one grant or one government contract is most of the budget, ask when it renews and what the plan is if it does not.
How long has the executive director been in post, and how is their performance reviewed?
Why ask it
Hiring, supporting, and if necessary replacing the executive director is the board's core job. If no review has happened for years, the board is not doing that job and you would be inheriting the consequence.
What has staff turnover been over the past two years?
Why ask it
High turnover in a small organisation usually points at leadership or pay rather than at the mission. This is one of the few numbers that reliably contradicts a positive story.
Where is the line between the board's role and the staff's?
Why ask it
Nonprofit boards drift into operational work, especially in organisations that were once volunteer-run. Ask for a recent example where the board deliberately stayed out of something.
Who does the work when the board decides something?
Why ask it
Ideas approved at a board meeting frequently land on one overstretched staff member. A board that asks this question of itself is a board that staff can work with.
What does the organisation do, described in terms of who it served last year?
Why ask it
Ask for numbers of people and what changed for them. Answers that stay at the level of mission language often mean nobody is measuring, or the numbers are smaller than the fundraising suggests.
What programme have you stopped in the last few years, and why?
Why ask it
Willingness to close something is the clearest sign of an organisation that evaluates rather than accumulates. Never having stopped anything is common and is worth asking about.
How do the people you serve have a say in decisions?
Why ask it
Look for something structural: seats on the board, an advisory group, regular consultation. Consulting the community occasionally is a different answer from being accountable to it.
What insurance covers board members, and what does it exclude?
Why ask it
Directors and officers cover is common but not universal in smaller nonprofits, and employment claims are a frequent exclusion. Ask to see the policy limit rather than a reassurance that cover exists.
Are all your filings, registrations, and payroll taxes current?
Why ask it
Late filings and unpaid payroll tax are the two failures that create personal exposure for board members in many jurisdictions. Ask directly, and ask when the last late filing was.
What is the hardest disagreement the board has had in the past year?
Why ask it
Every functioning board has one. Boards that report only harmony are usually either dominated by a founder or in the habit of avoiding hard conversations.
How does the board handle conflicts of interest?
Why ask it
Ask whether anyone has recused themselves recently, and whether the organisation buys anything from a board member or their business. A written policy nobody has used is not a practice.
How are new board members brought in, and what is the term?
Why ask it
Ask about term limits and whether the board recruits beyond the existing members' networks. Both tell you how the board renews itself and whether you would be one of several similar recruits.
What would you like me to contribute that you do not have now?
Why ask it
A specific gap, such as finance, legal, lived experience of the issue, or access to a community, means the board has thought about composition. If the answer is enthusiasm, it may be a fundraising seat.
If a founder is still involved, what is their role now?
Why ask it
Founders who stay on staff, on the board, or informally in charge shape what a board can decide. Ask how succession is expected to work, and what has already been tried.
May I attend a board meeting as an observer and speak with two board members privately?
Why ask it
One meeting shows you whether the room does real work: who prepares, who speaks, whether the finance report is questioned. Private conversations then tell you what the meeting could not.
Assessing the organisation and the seat
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
What to read before deciding
- 1The last two annual returns or filings, which are usually public. Read the reserves and the largest funders first.
- 2The most recent audit or independent examination, including any management letter.
- 3The current year budget against actuals, so you can see whether the plan is holding.
- 4The bylaws or articles, for term lengths, quorum, and how members are removed.
- 5The last three sets of board minutes, which show what the board actually spends its time on.
- 6The conflict of interest policy and the board's insurance certificate.
Signals worth weighing
- A board that only receives reports rather than questioning them will not protect you if something goes wrong on your watch.
- Boards recruited entirely from existing members' friends tend to share the same blind spots.
- A finance report nobody asks questions about is a warning, regardless of how healthy it looks.
- If the executive director speaks for the whole meeting, the board is an audience rather than a governing body.
- Genuine enthusiasm from long-serving staff is one of the better signs, and it is easy to check if you can visit.
Before you say yes
Get the expectations in writing
Term, meetings, committee, donation or fundraising expectation, and event attendance, on one page. Verbal versions of these expand once you are in the room.
Try a committee first
Serving on a finance or programme committee for six months shows you how the organisation works, and it is a graceful way to find out that the fit is wrong.
Be honest about your capacity
An absent board member is worse than a vacancy, since quorum and workload both fall on the others. If the honest answer is that you have two hours a month, say so before you accept.