Questions to Ask Before Joining a Nonprofit Board
For anyone invited onto a nonprofit or charity board who wants to know what the seat will cost in time, money and risk before saying yes. These are questions to ask nonprofit board members, the chair and the executive director, in the order the decision goes: what is being asked of you, the mission and its programmes, the money, how board and staff work together, and your own liability. The last group is for a private conversation with one sitting member, which is where the candid answers tend to come out.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The seat
Are board members expected to give or raise a set amount each year, and what is the figure?
Why ask it
This is often called give or get: a sum each member either donates or brings in from others. Ask for it as a number, since it sometimes comes up only after you have accepted, 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 the packet, and get the answer for the busiest month of the year as well as a quiet one, since recruitment conversations tend to describe the quiet one.
Why is this seat open, and why did you think of me?
Why ask it
A planned rotation, a mid-term resignation and a board growing by two seats are three different invitations. The second half matters as much: being asked for your employer or your address book is worth knowing before you agree to anything.
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.
How long is a term, and how many terms can a member serve?
Why ask it
A fixed term with a limit gives you a natural way out and shows that the board renews itself. Where there is no limit, look at how long the longest-serving members have been there, because that is the commitment people will quietly assume of you.
Which committee would you want me on, and what did it produce last year?
Why ask it
Committee work is often where the hours go. A budget, a policy or an event is a real answer. One that met twice and produced nothing is either dormant or waiting for you to run it.
Apart from meetings and money, what else are members expected to do?
Why ask it
Some boards want a table filled at the gala, some want you at the town council, some want your name on the letterhead. None of these is unreasonable, but each is easier to decline before you join than after.
Is anything expected of my employer or my business, such as sponsorship, free professional work or a venue?
Why ask it
Boards sometimes recruit a person in order to reach a company. Find out now, and check your employer's rules on outside board service before you promise anything on its behalf.
What does a new member get in the first three months: an orientation, a mentor, the documents?
Why ask it
Listen for a named person and a list of what gets covered. Where the answer is a folder and a calendar invitation, you will be learning the finances at the same meeting you are asked to vote on them.
May I sit in on a board meeting as an observer, and talk to a member or two on my own afterwards?
Why ask it
One meeting shows you whether the room does real work: who has read the papers, who speaks, whether the finance report is questioned. Some boards will ask an observer to step out for confidential items, which is reasonable. The conversations afterwards are for what the meeting could not show you.
If it turns out not to be the right fit, how does a member step down before the term ends?
Why ask it
Asking about the exit before you have joined sounds odd, and boards that have handled one take it well. The bylaws normally set out how to resign. What they cannot tell you is whether leaving mid-term is treated here as ordinary or as letting the side down.
The mission
Who did the organisation serve last year, and roughly how many people was that?
Why ask it
Someone close to the work can answer in a sentence: so many families, in these neighbourhoods, through these programmes. If the reply stays in the language of the mission statement, the reach may be smaller than the fundraising material suggests.
Which result from last year is the board proudest of, and how was it measured?
Why ask it
The first half gets a story and the second half tests it. A figure such as tenants still housed a year later, set against the year before, means somebody is tracking what changed and not only how much was delivered. A story with no number behind it may be true, but the board cannot tell.
What programme have you stopped in the last few years, and why?
Why ask it
Closing a programme means somebody compared what it cost with what it achieved and acted on the answer. Where nothing has ever been stopped, ask how the board would know that a piece of work had run its course.
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.
Is there a strategic plan, and which part of it is behind schedule?
Why ask it
Every plan has a part that slipped, and a board that can name it is reading its own plan. If the plan is several years old or nobody can find it, the organisation is being steered by the annual budget and whoever is in the room.
What is the biggest challenge the organisation faces over the next two years?
Why ask it
Put it to the chair and the executive director separately and compare. Both naming the same thing, whether a lease ending, a contract up for renewal or a director close to retiring, means it has been discussed. Two different answers show you what the board has not talked about yet.
What are you being asked for that you currently have to turn away?
Why ask it
Waiting lists and refused referrals show where demand outruns capacity, and they are usually the argument behind the next fundraising push. If nobody is ever turned away, ask whether the programme is the right size or simply hard to find.
Who else does similar work nearby, and how do you work with them?
Why ask it
Not being able to name a neighbour suggests nobody has looked up in a while. A shared referral arrangement, a joint bid or a clear reason for staying separate are all good answers, and funders will want the same thing explained.
Does the organisation take public positions or campaign, and who decides what it says?
Why ask it
Your name will sit beside whatever it says in public. The rules on political activity and lobbying depend on the country and on how the organisation is registered, so ask how it keeps within its own.
Can I visit a programme and meet the people who run it before I decide?
Why ask it
An afternoon at the pantry, the clinic or the rehearsal shows whether the brochure and the building match. Pay attention to how staff speak to the people they serve when no funder is in the room.
The money
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. A smaller organisation may have a lighter independent review or no audit at all, depending on local rules, so ask what applies and who last looked at the books.
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. Find out what target the board has set and how it arrived at it. Thin reserves with no target mean you would be joining a board that manages cash, whatever the agenda says.
What share of income comes from your largest funder?
Why ask it
Heavy reliance on one source is a risk you can read off a single number. 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.
Has the organisation ended a year in deficit recently, and how was the gap covered?
Why ask it
One planned deficit to launch something is a decision. Several in a row, covered from reserves or by paying bills late, is a direction, so ask where the money came from each time.
How much of the income is restricted to particular projects, and what pays the rent and the bookkeeper?
Why ask it
A grant for a youth programme usually cannot pay the electricity bill. An organisation can look well funded on paper and still struggle to cover its core costs, and the split between restricted and unrestricted money is where that shows.
Who prepares the financial reports, and how often does the board see them?
Why ask it
Figures that arrive before each meeting, in the same layout every time, let a board catch a problem while it is small. Where they come from one staff member and no treasurer or finance committee goes through them first, the board is trusting where it should be overseeing.
Who approves payments, and is that a different person from the one who reconciles the bank account?
Why ask it
In a small office these can be the same person, which is how honest mistakes and dishonest ones both go unnoticed. The question accuses nobody; it checks that two sets of eyes see the money going out.
Does the organisation carry debt, a line of credit or a long lease?
Why ask it
Fixed commitments shrink the board's choices in a bad year. Get the amount, what it was borrowed for and when it falls due, and find out whether any board member has ever been asked to guarantee anything personally.
How is the executive director's pay set, and when did the board last look at it?
Why ask it
The board normally sets the top salary, since nobody on staff can decide their own manager's pay. A process is what you are hoping to hear: a committee, comparison with similar organisations, a recorded vote. 'It has always been that' is the answer to follow up.
What did board members themselves raise or bring in last year, beyond their own gifts?
Why ask it
This turns the give-or-get figure from a policy into a track record. If the total is small and the executive director raises nearly everything, the fundraising line in the role description is a hope, and you can decide whether you want to be the one who changes that.
What would be cut first if income fell sharply next year?
Why ask it
Nobody enjoys answering, and that is why the answer is useful. A board that has talked it through will name a programme, a post or a site. One that has not will tell you it could not happen.
Board and staff
How long has the executive director been in post, and how is their performance reviewed?
Why ask it
The executive director usually answers to the board and to nobody else, so the board is the only body that can review them. If no review has happened for years, that job is not being done and you would be inheriting the consequence.
Does the board ever meet without the executive director in the room?
Why ask it
A short closed session at the end of a meeting is ordinary practice on many boards, and it lets a member raise a concern without it becoming an event. If the idea seems to shock people, the board may have no way to talk about its one employee.
Where is the line between the board's role and the staff's?
Why ask it
Boards can drift into operational work, especially where the organisation was once run by volunteers. Ask for a recent example where the board deliberately stayed out of something.
When the board approves a new idea, who ends up doing the work?
Why ask it
Ideas approved at a board meeting frequently land on one overstretched staff member. Ask what happened to the last one: who picked it up, what they put down to make room, and whether the board ever heard how it went.
Are there paid staff for the day-to-day work, or would board members be doing some of it?
Why ask it
On an all-volunteer board a seat can mean keeping the books, running the website or staffing the stall. That can be the most satisfying kind of board to sit on, as long as you know which jobs come with the chair you are being offered.
What has staff turnover been over the past two years?
Why ask it
Ask for it as a count and not an impression: how many left, from which posts, and after how long. High turnover in a small organisation more often points at leadership or pay than at the mission, and it is a number that can contradict a positive story.
How would a staff member raise a serious concern with the board if the problem were their manager?
Why ask it
A named board contact or a written whistleblowing route is the answer. In a small organisation the honest reply is sometimes that they could not, and that tells you how late the board would hear about trouble.
If the executive director left suddenly, who holds the passwords, the funder relationships and the keys?
Why ask it
Succession in a small nonprofit is less about a named deputy than about whether anything is written down. An organisation where one person carries the bank login and every donor conversation in their head is one resignation away from an emergency that lands on the board.
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.
Who chairs the board, how long have they held the chair, and who is likely to follow them?
Why ask it
The chair sets the agenda and the tone, so you are joining their board for as long as they stay. No successor in sight after many years can mean the role is thankless or that nobody else has been allowed near it, and it is worth knowing whether the next name people have in mind is yours.
How often does the full board meet, and how many members usually attend?
Why ask it
Compare the attendance with the number of names on the letterhead. A board of fifteen where eight turn up is really a board of eight, and may be one bout of flu away from having no quorum.
Liability
What legal duties would I take on as a board member here, and who explains them to newcomers?
Why ask it
The duties of a director or trustee are set by the law where the organisation is registered, and they differ from place to place. A board that can explain them plainly takes them seriously. If nobody can, a short conversation with a lawyer who knows that jurisdiction is worth having before you accept.
What insurance covers board members, and what does it exclude?
Why ask it
Directors and officers cover is not universal in smaller nonprofits, and policies differ in what they leave out, employment claims among them. Ask to see the policy and its limit, not a reassurance that cover exists.
Do the bylaws say the organisation will cover a board member's legal costs, and has that ever been tested?
Why ask it
A promise to indemnify is only as strong as the money behind it, which in a small nonprofit may be very little. Read the clause alongside the insurance policy, and take any question about what it means for you personally to a lawyer where the organisation is based.
Are all your filings, registrations, and payroll taxes current?
Why ask it
Whether a late filing or unpaid payroll tax can reach board members personally depends on where the organisation is registered, so ask how it works there. Then ask when the last late filing was and who noticed.
Is there any lawsuit, complaint, investigation or dispute with a funder that I should hear about now?
Why ask it
You would inherit whatever is in progress on the day you join. A calm, specific account of an employment claim or a grant being queried is a good sign. Finding out at your second meeting is not.
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.
If the organisation works with children or adults at risk, how does the board oversee their safety?
Why ask it
Find out who at board level receives reports of concerns and when the policy was last reviewed. If nobody can say, the most serious risk the organisation carries has no owner on the board, and you would be sharing responsibility for it.
What would I be asked to sign in the first month: a conflict disclosure, a confidentiality agreement, a bank mandate?
Why ask it
Each signature is a responsibility with your name on it. Being added as a signatory on the bank account in particular is worth understanding beforehand, including who else signs and what you would be expected to check.
Ask a member
What made you say yes, and has it been what you expected?
Why ask it
People join for a cause, a friend or a line on a CV, and most will tell you which. The gap between what they expected and what they got is the best preview of your own first year you are likely to find.
What did you learn in your first year here that nobody mentioned beforehand?
Why ask it
This is where the extra committee, the surprise capital campaign or the long-running feud comes out. Put it to someone who joined in the last two or three years, while they still remember being new.
How would you describe the relationship between the board and the executive director?
Why ask it
Anyone inside that relationship will give you the diplomatic version. A member with no stake in it can say whether papers arrive on time, whether bad news is brought early, and whether a hard question is welcomed or resented.
Was the giving and fundraising expectation the same once you joined as when you were recruited?
Why ask it
The chair gives you the policy and a member gives you the practice. Listen for whether the number moved, whether anyone is ever chased, and how the board treats a member who cannot give much in a hard year.
What is the hardest disagreement the board has had in the past year?
Why ask it
Most boards that do real work can name one, and how it ended matters more than what it was about. Unbroken harmony can mean that one voice decides, or that hard conversations are being avoided.
When the finance report comes up, who asks the questions?
Why ask it
If it is always the same person, the others are relying on them, and so would you be. If it is nobody, find out how long the report gets on the agenda and decide whether you are prepared to be the one who starts.
Whose voice carries most in the room, and what happens when someone disagrees with them?
Why ask it
It may be the chair, the founder, the biggest donor or the executive director. A dominant voice is normal. What you want to hear about is the last time that person lost a vote or changed their mind.
Who has left the board in the last couple of years, and would one of them talk to me?
Why ask it
Former members have nothing to sell you. Most left because a term ended or life got busy, and they will say so. A board that hesitates to pass on a single name is telling you something as well.
Are you planning to serve another term?
Why ask it
A member who is staying will tell you what keeps them. One who is leaving will often be franker than anyone else you speak to, and their reasons may be the ones nobody put in the invitation.
If you were in my position, what would you want cleared up before saying yes?
Why ask it
It gives the member permission to raise the thing they were not sure they should mention. Whatever they name, take it back to the chair as a direct question before you give your answer.
Assessing the organisation and the seat
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Who to ask, and in what order
The chair, or whoever invited you
Start with The seat. The giving figure, the hours, the term and the reason they thought of you are fair to raise in the first conversation, and a chair who answers them plainly has probably recruited before. The mission questions fit here too, or on a visit to a programme.
The treasurer and the executive director
The money and Board and staff go to the people who can answer with documents. Ask for the filings and the year-to-date figures first and read them before you meet, so the conversation is about what you found and not a tour of the budget. The executive director will also show you, without meaning to, how they feel about the board.
Liability, once they have said they want you
Insurance, indemnity, open disputes and overdue filings are due diligence, and they land better after the board has made its interest clear. Put them to the chair or the treasurer and ask for the policy and the bylaws in writing. What the answers mean for you personally depends on where the organisation is registered, so take that part to a lawyer there.
One sitting member, on your own
Ask a member is written for a coffee with someone who is not recruiting you: ideally a member who joined in the last few years and was not the person who put your name forward. Half an hour is enough. If their account of the board and the chair's differ, the difference is what to look into before you answer.
What to read before deciding
- 1The last two annual returns or filings. In many countries these are public, so ask where to find them. 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 receives reports and never questions them is not overseeing anything, and as a member you would share whatever it misses.
- Boards recruited entirely from existing members' friends tend to share the same blind spots.
- Documents that arrive slowly, or only after you have asked twice, show how information will reach you once you are a member.
- 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
Some boards let people who are not members sit on a committee. Six months on finance or programmes 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 can be harder on a board than a vacancy, since the work, and often the quorum, falls on the others. If the honest answer is that you have two hours a month, say so before you accept.