December 16, 2005
Board Dynamics on the Front Page
Posted by Kevin | Print This Article
On Wednesday, the NYT front page article on the departure of the Red Cross CEO burrowed beneath the surface story that we’d heard on the news the day before (that the CEO was leaving because of problems with the Hurricane Katrina response).
Of course, the hurricane response wasn’t the disease — it was barely even the symptom. The Red Cross Board, comprised of 50 people the bulk of whom are selected by local chapters, never met a chief executive it didn’t want to replace. The organization’s spokesman actually told the media that the hurricane had nothing to do with the firing, but that “it had to do more with coordination and communication with the board.”
You’d think they’d be a little embarrassed to admit that the head of the nation’s most important non-profit organization was forced out — not because of anything to do with billion-dollar emergency response programs, but because she didn’t send enough memos to the board.
And how there could have been any communications issues is beyond me, considering that the board chairman, according to the NYT, spent most of her time in her office at the headquarters, hired a staff for herself (!), and took on “more of the daily operations of the organization.” After all that, they still had communications and coordinations issues? Gasp! How could that be?
Sarcasm aside, and as always bearing in mind that I only know what I read in the paper, this appears to be a classic example of everything that’s wrong with many nonprofit organizations today.
For one thing, it isn’t the size of the Board that matters (though it’s obviously too big), but how it’s selected. Any organization that allows other organizations to select its leadership — organizations with their own parochial interests — deserves what it gets. Chapters, components, whatever you call them — a national organization’s board needs to be comprised of individuals who understand that their fiduciary responsibility is to the national organization.
Unfortunately, the Red Cross is more important than most other nonprofits, and while it may deserve what it gets for allowing itself to be grossly mismanaged, the rest of us deserve a Red Cross that actually works. The organization will not be able to heal itself; the president and Congress are going to have to get involved to force change, and the best we can hope for is that we don’t wind up wiith the sorts of results that Congressional action usually gets.
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