![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Silos-300x152.jpg\")
“I don’t know anyone who . . . .”<\/p>\n“I don’t know anyone who . . . .”<\/p>\n
Recently, a colleague presented a workshop on\u00a0nonprofit financial management to a group of board members of and volunteers for\u00a0very small grassroots social service organizations. In the course of one of their discussions a participant observed, “I don’t know anyone who is not working two jobs.” My colleague’s first reaction was that this was highly atypical. The\u00a0nonprofit board members many of us are used to\u00a0represent money and influence or carry the title of\u00a0“community volunteer”\u2013people who have enough money and time\u00a0to devote to service. In very small agencies like those participating in the workshop, the personal circumstances of board, staff (if there is any), and volunteers are not too far removed from those of their clients. Due to their life situations they do not have access to the people who are “typical” board members. The fact that they don’t individually is the principal reason they don’t collectively.<\/p>\n
Nonprofit boards are self-perpetuating. They nominate their successors and so, human nature being what it is, boards are predisposed to homogeneity. The participant’s comment reminded\u00a0my colleague (and me) of this inherent issue with respect to diversifying boards. We are all in silos of various kinds: arts, social service, political, racial\/ethnic, religious, sexual identity, socioeconomic, etc., etc. For most people, it’s\u00a0likely that they\u00a0know few or any from outside their own inadvertent silos. We know people\u00a0we know and don’t know the others. It takes extraordinary attention and effort to counteract this tendency, but if equity is important (yes it is), counteracting this has to stop being an “issue” and must become an obsession in all our work. (Thanks to Barry Hessenius<\/a> for this construct.)<\/p>\n But merely finding “different” people to check off boxes won’t yield the desired results.\u00a0Single individuals from any silo may or may not bring a diverse perspective. Plus, the toll of being a token can stymie anyone in working effectively. My work in advocating for relationship building with communities provides a solution. Build relationships with the communities you want to see represented on your board and staff and in your audiences. Put in the work to develop trust where none exists and in the process learn about those communities and their individuals. Pursue those who catch the spark of your mission and understand the value you can bring to their circle of friends.<\/p>\n This is not the work of the typical nominating committee that puts together a slate of names the month before the board election. (Although that model is almost uselessly ineffective even without taking issues of diversity into account.) It is the work of the whole board to be building those relationships and, out of that, identifying individuals who can add value to the function of the board.<\/p>\n Engage!<\/p>\n Doug<\/p>\n Photo:\u00a0 Most people know few or any people from outside their own inadvertent silos. It takes extraordinary attention and effort to counteract this tendency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Social Silos: Unconscious dividing lines prevent us from diversifying our boards.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,13,42,47,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-4968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-principles","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-community-engagement","10":"tag-diversity","11":"tag-equity","12":"tag-governance","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Silos-e1495116145390.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-1i8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4993,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/08\/the-boards-role-in-community-engagement-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":4968,"position":0},"title":"The Board’s Role in Community Engagement: I","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The board of directors can and should be a supportive resource for community engagement.","rel":"","context":"In "The Practice of Engagement"","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/BoardOfDirs-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4997,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/08\/the-boards-role-in-community-engagement-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":4968,"position":1},"title":"The Board’s Role in Community Engagement: II","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The board of directors can and should be a supportive resource for community engagement.","rel":"","context":"In "The Practice of Engagement"","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/BoardOfDirs-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5244,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/03\/frames\/","url_meta":{"origin":4968,"position":2},"title":"Frames","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Frames: Clarifying the focus, roots of this work for me.","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Frames-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5566,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2019\/03\/artplace-america-engagement-resources\/","url_meta":{"origin":4968,"position":3},"title":"ArtPlace America Engagement Resources","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Tools to support community engagement from ArtPlace America.","rel":"","context":"In "The Practice of Engagement"","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/ArtPlaceLogo-500x87.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3387,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2014\/01\/dark-future\/","url_meta":{"origin":4968,"position":4},"title":"Dark Future?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A re-examination of 501(c) status is on the horizon. This will pit social service providers against all others. In the face of this threat, we must learn to more fully engage with our communities.","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/TunnelOpening.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2643,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/03\/the-board-as-engagers\/","url_meta":{"origin":4968,"position":5},"title":"The Board as Engagers","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we consider nonprofit governance from a community engagement perspective, specifically the make-up and function of the nonprofit board of directors. Most arts administrators understand boards as resource engines. We have a history (understandably) of populating our boards with moneyed people or people who know moneyed people. They clearly represent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Introductions","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Introductions-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4968"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5001,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4968\/revisions\/5001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Attribution\"](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/pw\/images\/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif\" "\\"Attribution\\""){kind=icon}
<\/a><\/span> Some rights reserved<\/a> by dsearls<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"