“Non-profit” Shouldn’t Mean Inefficient — Jonathan Schick To The Rescue
Most of us are in sustained contact with nonprofit organizations — schools, arts institutions, healthcare entities, and the like. We donate to, benefit from, or perhaps even sit on the boards of these institutions that shape and enhance our day-to-day lives.
The problem is that most nonprofits do not function as well as they could, to put it mildly. Even if the management talent is superb, the relationship between management and the board is often sketchy at best.
Board members bring an abundance of goodwill and passion to their service, yet sometimes have intentions that don’t necessarily align with the best interests of the institutions they ostensibly serve. Quite frankly, it’s a heady experience to serve as the chair of a school, a local orchestra or opera, or a hospital board. In some cases, the board members simply don’t know how to relate to the management team. They may micromanage, or they may propose lofty but unrealistic goals. Or board members may unfairly evaluate hard-working, diligent managers.
In short, nonprofits are often hamstrung in fulfilling their missions because the board and the management team just don’t know how to see eye to eye.
Enter Jonathan Schick. As the founder of two nonprofits, Jonathan has extensive experience with this problem — boards and management teams not on the same page. After working successfully to resolve the issue, he realized that the two organizations he’d started were not alone in this predicament, so he started his own consulting firm, GOAL Consulting, based out of Dallas and New York, to share the secrets of his success with other organizations.
“When board members and management work together,” Schick says, “great things can happen. But when they don’t, everybody’s frustrated, money is wasted, the best people leave, the mission goes unfulfilled, and nobody’s happy.”
Schick’s process for getting board members and management team members working harmoniously typically takes six to nine months. One of the biggest challenges, he says, is persuading board members to relax their control over the organizations they serve.
“Some people just can’t let go of control,” Schick says. “It’s a major issue, but it’s hardly the only issue. In a perfect world, the lines of communication become clear. Board members evaluate management team members in rational ways instead of haphazardly. And while nonprofits are not meant to be profit-making businesses, they do have to function efficiently. Sometimes it just takes an objective third party coming in to straighten things out.”
Schick has worked with universities, social service organizations, museums, and independent schools across the country, and he says that the same basic problems frequently recur. Typically, he says, there is just poor governance. Much of his job is dedicated to creating a system of governance that allows board members to play positive roles while allowing the management team to do their jobs effectively.
“You often have a misalignment of goals,” Schick says. “Most people go on boards because they really believe in the mission of an organization. But if they don’t know how to relate to an executive team, or if they come across as arbitrary or poorly informed, or if healthy governance practices aren’t in place, it doesn’t end well.”
Schick believes that any nonprofit can be turned around, as long as both sides — management and board members — are willing to operate in good faith. The people-centric system he’s developed works effectively because it honors the human contribution that both executives and trustees make to the organization’s mission.
“Ultimately, everybody wants the same thing,” Schick says. “They want the nonprofit to be able to fulfill its mission properly. They want to get great results for the community. The management team wants to be able to work well with the board, and vice versa.
“I’ve been on both sides of the issue. It’s actually a lot of fun to get people working together instead of making one another’s lives difficult. That’s what I get to do all day.”
