Episode Overview
Board trouble usually comes with two fingers of blame, staff pointing at the board and board members pointing right back at the executive director. Hardy Smith, author of Stop the Nonprofit Board Blame Game, surveyed board members nationwide to find out why they disengage, and on the Nonprofit 2.0 podcast, he walks Cherry Yang through what they said. Nonprofit board engagement turns out to be a leadership problem more often than leaders expect. If your board feels checked out, this episode names the two causes and gives you the habits that reverse them.
Key Takeaways
Hardy Smith’s research points to two fixable causes of board disengagement: poor communication and a poor board experience, and both start with leadership.
- Stop treating “no time” as a reason to skip planning. The work with no deadline, like strategic planning and board relationships, is the work that decides whether everything else holds.
- Treat unopened board emails as a warning sign. Members who skip your messages are telling you the content isn’t worth their limited time.
- Shrink updates before sending. A 500-word email should become 100 to 200 words with bullet points, and AI tools make the trim take minutes.
- Get information out early. A packet that arrives the day of the meeting chips away at trust every time.
- Never accept “I want to give back” as the whole answer. One or two follow-up questions usually surface a personal reason, and knowing it lets you keep that purpose met.
- Show appreciation with specifics. Birthdays, milestones, and a handwritten note that names a real contribution beat a reflexive “appreciate you.”
Episode Highlights
1. The real price of "I don't have time"
Hardy asks rooms of nonprofit leaders whether they have a current strategic plan. How they answer tells him more than what they say. Not sure. Somewhere. If it hasn’t been updated in twelve months, he tells them, you don’t have one.
Then he points at fundraising. A Compass Point and Haas Foundation report found a startling share of organizations do no planning for their major fundraiser, the signature gala that funds the year. They wing it, because they winged it last year.
Ask why the planning never happens, and the answer is always the same. No time. Cherry Yang names the pattern in the episode: the urgent and important work always gets done, while the work that matters even more has no deadline attached and quietly falls off. Strategic planning. Knowing your board members. Making sure staff can say the mission out loud.
The cost shows up as what we have all come to know as quiet quitting. A board member keeps attending and stops contributing. And Hardy is blunt about what they’ve stopped believing in. It isn’t the cause. It’s the person running the organization and the experience of sitting at that table. Without that trust, a culture of accountability is close to impossible.
2. A NASCAR lesson in board communication
Hardy’s sharpest communication lesson came from Bill France Sr., the leader of NASCAR’s founding family. “I don’t need a weather forecast,” France told him. “Just tell me, is it raining?” If he wanted more, he would ask.
Hardy is a storyteller by nature, so he had to learn to communicate in his boss’s style rather than his own. Board communication runs on the same principle. Match the format to the person receiving it, not the person sending it. Hardy says 100 percent of the groups he asks name communication as the key to a solid board relationship, yet leaders keep sending long updates that busy members never open.
Treat those unopened emails as the red flag. Members who skip your messages have decided the content isn’t worth their time. So the fixes stay concrete. Cut the 500-word update to 100 or 200 words with bullet points. Send the packet ahead of the meeting instead of placing it at the table. Never let your board learn organization news from social media or a reporter first.
He also wants leaders to learn each member’s preference. A board chair who wants two crisp lines will tune out a storyteller. Some members want a text. Others want a full report.
3. Finding the why behind giving back
Hardy never takes “I want to give back” as a complete answer from a prospective board member. He appreciates the sentiment. But something more personal usually sits underneath, and one or two follow-up questions almost always find it: a family member who benefited from the organization, a neighbor, an experience they lived themselves.
The personal reason underneath is what anchors the relationship. Once a leader knows it, the job is keeping it met, so Hardy keeps asking members how the board experience feels and whether the reason they joined is still being served. He compares recruitment to a dating phase, since nobody should wait until the altar to figure out who they’re committing to.
Company-sponsored seats get the same treatment. When a sponsor designates a board member, Hardy tells leaders to lay out expectations with the company up front and confirm the person can meet them.
FAQ
Why do nonprofit board members stop engaging with their organizations?
Board members disengage for two main reasons, poor communication and a negative board experience, according to Hardy Smith’s national survey of board members. Updates that waste their time, packets that arrive late, and meetings without purpose all signal that their contribution doesn’t matter, so capable members quietly pull back or leave.
What is the best way to communicate with a nonprofit board?
The best board communication is short, timely, and matched to each member’s preferences. Hardy Smith recommends cutting a 500 word update to 100 or 200 words with bullet points, sending the board packet a day or two ahead of the meeting, and learning whether each member wants a text, an email, or a full report.
When should a nonprofit start building relationships with new board members?
Board relationships should start during recruitment, before a member ever joins. Hardy Smith compares this stage to dating and tells leaders to keep asking why a candidate wants to serve, since a personal reason usually sits beneath “I want to give back.” Once that why is known, the leader’s job is checking in to keep it met.
What does it mean when a board member quietly disengages?
Quiet quitting on a board looks like continued attendance with no contribution. Hardy Smith’s research found these members haven’t lost belief in the cause. They’ve lost confidence in the executive director and in the board experience itself, which is why the fix sits with leadership rather than with the member.
Tools and Resources
- ChatGPT: Hardy Smith’s suggested shortcut for shrinking a 500 word board update down to 100 words without losing the point.
- Free Data Health Check: Claribase’s quick assessment for nonprofits, useful if board reports take too long to pull because the data behind them is messy.
- HardySmith.com: Hardy Smith’s home base for his book Stop the Nonprofit Board Blame Game, his board relationship course, and his regular articles.
How to Apply This
- Open your last board packet and check the date you sent it. If it went out the day of the meeting, move the next one up by two days and see what changes in the room.
- Rewrite one board email down to 100 words with bullet points, then watch whether it gets opened. That open rate is the red flag Hardy describes.
- Book one relationship conversation this week. Coffee with a board member, ask how the experience feels and why they joined in the first place, then follow up with a handwritten note naming something specific they contributed.
- Put a date on your strategic plan. If you can’t find one from the last twelve months, that’s the twelve month gap Hardy is talking about.
About Hardy Smith, IOM
Hardy Smith is a consultant, speaker, and the author of Stop the Nonprofit Board Blame Game, built on his original nationwide survey of nonprofit board members. Before consulting, he spent decades in the high-performance world of NASCAR racing, including years working for the sport’s founding France family. Today he works with nonprofits, associations, and chambers of commerce on board engagement, planning, and leadership, and he serves on the faculty of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Institute for Organization Management. His articles, course, and book are all at HardySmith.com.
Next Steps
The full conversation with Hardy Smith sits in the video at the top of this post, including the NASCAR stories and the exact questions he asks new board members. If part of the problem is that board reports take too long to pull together, Claribase’s free data health check is an easy first step toward cleaner numbers.
