Commitment to Mission

Source: "What Makes an Exceptional Board Member." Center News: A Publication of the Nonprofit Center of Wichita Falls. Vol 14, No 6. Spring 2008.
Keywords: board, session, elder, leader

The majority of chief executives say commitment to mission is one of the top criteria they use when selecting board members. In BoardSource's Nonprofit Governance Index 2007, they listed commitment to mission among their top three criteria 62% of the time--more than any other factor...The Index surveyed, 1,126 chief executives and 1,026 board members.

The results were somewhat similar when board members were asked for their top three considerations in their decision to join a board. Their top pick was "fit of the organization's mission with personal interests/beliefs" at 80 percent.

But commitment to the mission by itself is not enough to make a board member truly valuable to an organization:

Board members must be so passionate in the mission that they are comfortable taking part in fundraising, and look foward to acting as an ambassador that promotes the organization to friends, colleagues, and other contacts.