With Help from SOM Faculty, Alumni Learn to Become Better Board Members

When Jon Iwata, lecturer in the practice of management, became board chair of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, he set out on a listening tour to get honest feedback from trustees and staff. What he heard was disheartening: staff felt unable to say no to trustees, while trustees expected staff to execute their ideas.

When nonprofit board members feel their donation entitles them to give orders, the line between governance and management can blur. That challenge was among those addressed in a new training series in nonprofit board leadership developed by Yale SOM’s Golub Capital Nonprofit Board Fellows program in partnership with the Yale Alumni Nonprofit Alliance (YANA). Targeted at Yale alumni interested in board service, the program featured several SOM faculty and included virtual sessions on nonprofit strategy, board leadership, and governance.

“The role of a trustee or board member is not to be management,” Iwata told attendees at one session. “You can advise, recommend, and give resources, but there should be no expectation that your ideas are going to be implemented. That is management’s responsibility.”

For decades, Yale SOM’s student-led Nonprofit Board Fellows has prepared students to contribute to their communities through nonprofit board service by placing students on the boards of local nonprofits. Last year, with a transformative gift from Golub Capital, the program relaunched as the Golub Capital Nonprofit Board Fellows program. Now housed within SOM’s Program on Social Enterprise, Innovation, and Impact (PSEII), the program provides training and connects students with peers doing similar work at other business schools. It has also begun to offer resources for Yale community members, such as the alumni training series. Organized by PSEII faculty director Judy Chevalier and associate director Sooah Rho ’23, the series drew 120 alumni from across the university.

"Our commitment to supporting our community to be effective leaders in impact doesn’t end at graduation,” Rho said. “Our alumni are intentional about finding opportunities to lead and create change, and we are excited to be able to offer them the tools to do that.”

Crunching the Numbers

Throughout the three training sessions, speakers emphasized that effective board service requires clarity about roles, accountability, and judgment—skills often learned on the job but rarely taught directly.

Rick Antle, the William S. Beinecke Professor of Accounting, led a session on the fundamentals of nonprofit accounting. He demonstrated how board members can interpret their organization’s financial statements and discussed some common red flags they might notice, such as declining liquidity, persistent deficits, or a heavy reliance on a single donor.

Other speakers discussed board dynamics and the qualities of an effective board member. Jill Bauman ’87, chair of SOM’s Alumni Advisory Board, said that board members should combine expertise with a willingness to listen and serve the organization’s mission.

“It’s people who aren’t pontificators, but who ask thoughtful questions and listen to the challenges and experience of staff and those with lived experience,” Bauman said. “And when those board members suggest solutions, ideally they’re willing to help execute them, not just pass them off to staff. It’s ‘we could,’ versus ‘you should.’”

Lessons from the Met

The series also featured insights from leaders who have worked with boards to overcome serious organizational challenges. In the third session, Daniel Weiss ’85 recounted the financial crisis he discovered when he became president and chief executive of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2015. Unbeknownst to its board, the museum was projecting a $40 million operating loss on a $361 million budget for 2016.

The experience has since become a case study that Chevalier and Weiss have taught together at SOM. During the training session, they focused on warning signs in the budget that went unnoticed by board members. Chevalier discussed the perils of a “passive culture” in which board members hesitate to ask difficult questions.

Weiss said addressing the Met’s financial gap required candor. He asked department heads to propose cuts to their budgets and enlisted staff in confronting the shortfall.

“They weren’t happy,” he said, “but they were committed to doing the right thing.” Transparency, he added, built trust and led to better decisions.

“So, believe in the community,” he said. “If you respect the people you work with, empower them to help solve the problem.”

Nancy Raybin ’79, a nonprofit consultant who attended the series, praised Chevalier as “an exceptional teacher and facilitator.” Learning about the Met case study, she said it should empower board members to question figures on financial statements that don’t seem to add up.

Creating Opportunities for Alums

YANA has supported alumni pursuing social impact work since 2011, when it was founded by Ken Inadomi, a 1976 graduate of Yale College. The group offers board-matching services, networking events, and professional development workshops to over 8,000 members.

At the end of the board training series, organizers and participants were already considering ways it might evolve in the future. Raybin suggested adding sessions on fundraising, while Chevalier hopes to develop a similar program for nonprofit partners. She also plans to raise the attendance cap to accommodate high alumni interest.

“If you are an aspiring board member, a new board member, or you’re on a board and not sure you’re doing a good enough job, this session is for you,” Chevalier said.