Why Take A Board Assessment
Board assessments give board members an opportunity to reflect on their service and express their feelings about the organization. The gathered data provides insight on how to ensure strategic alignment across all board member activities by improving board effectiveness and engagement, building and maintaining consensus, identifying organization priorities, and leveraging the board's professional skills and abilities. 
“Many people assume that ineffective nonprofit boards are an inescapable fact of life... but exceptional nonprofit boards do exist. And any organization can improve its board's performance if its board members are willing to confront the people, process, and behavioral challenges that drag competent, well-intentioned people into an abyss of ineffectiveness.”
—William F. Meehan and Kim Starkey Jonker
Engine of Impact
The unique structure of nonprofits is a challenge.
Many nonprofit board members get caught in seemingly unending cycle of trying to understand their role.
The tension between their volunteer identity and board responsibilities is a constant challenge that can be difficult to navigate.
And to make it even more challenging, it’s not static!
Board member roles change as their nonprofit evolves. And yet, even is in the midst of organizational change, board member duties and expectations often only get addressed in hindsight.
Board are made up from people from all different kinds of professional backgrounds, which leads to:
Different opinions about board meeting content and structure.
Different perspectives on board service.
Different methods for maintaining accountability.
Different comfort levels with certain aspects of board service.
Different preconceptions and assumptions that may go unspoken.
As volunteers with other professional commitments, board members don’t often get enough sustained time with each other to help these differences become less pronounced.
The reluctance to fully address the challenges nonprofits face can create a difficult working dynamic that can hold an organization back from sustained success.
Assessments can help!
Boards need help reaching consensus, resolving conflict, and maintaining accountability.
They need help getting its members to be their authentic selves at board meetings.
They need help building trust and forming governing relationships.
They need help making their board service feel meaningful and fulfilling.
Can’t we just do it ourselves?
No! Anonymity is essential for ensuring board members give honest feedback. And you can’t have true anonymity without having an outside party conduct the assessment (unless you’re willing to severely limit the scope of your data collection).
Still not convinced? Here’s an extra bonus:
Clients who make multi-year commitments receive access to bench-marking data and nonprofit comparative analysis.