Why Board Culture Matters
Welcome back to the Nonprofit CEO Spark Podcast. I’m your host, Marcia Beckner, and I help mentor nonprofit organizations to build healthy cultures where their staff can thrive.
I also am so excited about this series I’m about to share with you. I’m creating an eight-episode series purely on board culture and CEO executive relationships.
I think this is a topic that doesn’t get discussed much. You know, there’s not a lot written about this, and so I’ve been really, like, thinking about how to create this board series for you.
One other reason is that one of my most popular podcasts, most listened to podcasts, actually the number one, is about shared board accountability, and, um, I’m gonna put that episode in the show notes ’cause it really sparked this idea that board-CEO relationships, how important they are, but there’s not a lot around how to make these relationships successful so that the mission can be so impactful into the future.
Whether you’re a new board member, a board chair, an executive director or a CEO, I’m glad you’re here because over these next episodes, we’re gonna explore this simple but powerful idea: healthy organizations need healthy board culture as much as they need healthy staff culture.
Because most board training focuses on governance, fiduciary responsibilities, fundraising, and strategy, and those things matter. They’re super important, but after spending nearly two decades leading nonprofits, serving on boards, working with boards, coaching nonprofit CEOs and executive directors, I’ve learned something really important.
A board can have talented people, a board can have resources, they can have a great strategic plan, but they can still struggle if the relationships around the board table aren’t healthy, and that’s exactly why I’m creating this series.
Learning the Hard Way
So let me kind of tell you how I learned this the hard way. Before I, you know, created the CARES framework, I wanna share why this topic matters so much to me.
Back in 2007, I founded an organization called My LifeLine Cancer Foundation after going through treatment for stage three ovarian cancer myself.
And at the time, I wasn’t trying to, like, start a nonprofit. I wasn’t thinking about governance structures, board development, or fundraising plans. I simply had a vision.
As a cancer patient, I experienced firsthand how isolating the journey could feel. I wanted to create community and connection for people impacted by cancer, and so I launched a digital platform designed to help patients, caregivers, and loved ones stay connected during treatment.
The mission was clear. The nonprofit experience was not. The truth is, I knew almost nothing about running a nonprofit, and I especially knew nothing about boards.
And like many founders, I recruited some of the most talented, generous, and caring people I knew and asked them to help me get this idea off the ground.
What I didn’t realize, though, was how much I had to learn. In fact, for the entire first year, I served as both the executive director and the board president.
Yes, really. I had no idea one person shouldn’t hold both positions. None. I wasn’t trying to break any governance rules; I just didn’t know.
And when I finally learned that, I immediately went to work finding someone who could step into board leadership.
Eventually, I recruited an oncologist physician who became the best board president, and together our partnership worked.
Looking back, we weren’t intentionally building a board culture. We didn’t have a framework yet. We weren’t talking about trust, engagement, appreciation, psychological safety, or board dynamics explicitly.
The CARES model didn’t exist yet. What we did have was a commitment to creating a strong partnership.
We learned together, we made mistakes together, and then we adjusted, and over time, we built a relationship that helped move our organization from startup to growth mode really quickly.
And years later, now, after I’ve been coaching nonprofit CEOs and executive directors across the country, I realized something.
Organizations spend enormous amounts of time discussing staff culture, engagement, communication, values, but very few organizations ever discuss board culture with the same intentionality, and yet board culture affects everything. It affects how decisions are made, how executive directors and CEOs feel supported, how conflict is handled, how strategy is executed, how accountability happens, how leaders stay energized or burn out.
And that’s why I created this series, because healthy board culture shouldn’t be something we stumble into when there’s a problem. It should be something that we build proactively and on purpose.
Relationship Problems vs Strategic Problems
So let me tell you why this matters. Think about the organizations you’ve admired the most. They probably had strong leadership, but I would argue that they also have strong board staff partnerships.
The board and CEO trust each other. They communicate openly. They respect each other’s expertise. They work through disagreements productively, and they stay focused on the mission and the community that they serve.
The opposite can also be true. When board culture is unhealthy, meetings become frustrating and assumptions replace conversations, micromanagement creeps in, the CEO feels isolated and burnt out, board members disengage, important issues get avoided, and then ultimately, as you know, the mission suffers.
And many nonprofit challenges that look like strategic problems are actually relationship problems, and this is why culture matters.
In this series, I’m gonna be introducing the CARES framework to you with a specific context towards board health and wellbeing.
And over the years, as I’ve developed this framework called CARES, it helps organizations intentionally build a healthy, inclusive, empowering culture where all staff can thrive.
I’ve used it with nonprofit teams, leadership teams, and organizations across the country, and let me tell you, it works.
And it’s not a magic pill. It works because it’s based on research and data of what people want when they come to work for an organization.
And the same holds true, I realize, for boards and why they decide to volunteer their time, why they decide to generously donate their money, and why they decide to become ambassadors for a specific organization, is because they feel relationally close to the mission and the people running it.
The CARES Framework
So a quick overview of CARES right now, and then I’ll go through it in more detail in the series.
C in CARES stands for commitment. We’re aligned around mission, purpose, accountability, and shared success.
The A in CARES stands for appreciation. We recognize and value the contributions, expertise, and perspectives of others.
R is respect. We honor roles, boundaries, responsibilities, and differing viewpoints.
E is engagement. We actively participate, contribute, and take ownership over our own responsibilities.
And finally, S in CARES is safety. We create an environment where people can ask questions, challenge ideas, and have honest conversations.
Most organizations can use these principles when thinking about staff culture.
My belief is that they apply equally well to board culture. In fact, a healthy organization and board culture may be one of the most overlooked opportunities in our nonprofit sector. I deeply believe this.
There’s a quote often attributed to management expert Peter Drucker. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but it still stands true today: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Most leaders apply that quote to employees, and I know it applies to boards too.
You can have the best strategic plan in the world, but if there isn’t trust, respect, engagement, accountability around the board table, execution becomes so much harder than it needs to be.
Putting It Into Action
So I envision this series and this episode and the next seven episodes to be short, succinct, giving you quick wins, um, making sure that you can apply these principles right away.
I want it to be, like, part of your board training. I can envision you, like, when you’re sitting at, around a boardroom table, that you hit play on one of these podcast episodes and you learn together as a board how to create a culture that cares and moves your organization further and faster so that you can get all of the relationships aligned and in sync, and that you’re a team rowing in the same direction.
So I’m really excited that you’re here for this series. I would love for you to reach out to me if you have any questions.
There is a workbook that, it, or a guide actually, that accompanies this series that you can download and use together as a board, and it could be like an annual training, training opportunity that you can use. It’s like a curriculum for board onboarding and training and effectiveness.
So strap in, get ready. I’m really excited to share this CARES model and how it can apply to your organization. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast.
Always remember, you are meant for great things, and you don’t have to burn out to prove it.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode of Nonprofit CEO Spark. If you’re ready to turn burnout into boundaries and build a healthy, happy culture where everyone, including you, can thrive, visit culturecares.com to learn how I support nonprofit organizations like yours. If this episode brought you value, share it with a fellow leader navigating stress and overwhelm.
And remember, you are meant for great things, and you don’t have to burn out to prove it. Until next time, keep leading with courage and confidence.