Jenny Bergman
Senior Consultant
My first job was at the Tasty Treat in Minster, Ohio. Like many teenagers, I learned how to take orders, make ice cream cones, clean equipment, and work as part of a team (and have loads of fun). I became oddly proud of making the perfect swirl cone, getting just the right balance of vanilla and chocolate with the signature curl on top. There was a certain satisfaction in handing someone a cone that looked just right.
But what I remember most isn’t the cones. (Who am I kidding—everyone remembers the ice cream!)
One of my favorite customers was a woman named Angie. She always ordered the same thing, a turtle sundae with nuts instead of pecans. Before she even reached the window, we knew exactly what she wanted.
On busy July evenings, the line stretched to the street and the drive-thru wrapped around the building. Cars often snaked all the way past the Dannon plant, a landmark in our little Ohio town that seemed impossibly far away when you were trying to keep the line moving. Even in the middle of the rush, someone would spot Angie’s car pulling into the parking lot and quietly begin making her sundae before she reached the window.
That wasn’t part of our training. It happened because we knew our customers. We built relationships. We paid attention. Those small moments created loyalty that kept people coming back summer after summer. And we were just a group of 16-year-olds!
Looking back, I realize I wasn’t just learning how to serve ice cream. I was learning lessons about relationships, consistency, teamwork, and stewardship. Years later, those same lessons continue to shape how I think about nonprofit governance.
Saving a Scoop for Next Year: Sustainable Board Governance
Too often, governance is viewed as a checklist of responsibilities: approving budgets, reviewing financial statements, adopting policies, and attending board meetings. Those responsibilities are certainly important, but they aren’t the whole story. Strong governance is the thread that runs through every aspect of a healthy organization. It creates the conditions for mission success, organizational resilience, successful capital campaigns, and lasting community trust.
Just as customers only saw the finished sundae, our communities often see only the visible outcomes of a nonprofit’s work: a successful fundraising campaign, a new program, an inspiring event, or a family whose life has been changed. Behind every one of those moments are countless conversations, thoughtful decisions, and strategic partnerships that made them possible.
The board isn’t responsible for scooping the ice cream. Its role is to ensure there will still be ice cream to scoop next summer.
Board Governance Is the Throughline
According to BoardSource’s Purpose-Driven Board Leadership framework, boards have responsibilities that extend well beyond fiduciary oversight. They are stewards of mission, partners in strategy, champions of organizational resilience, and ambassadors for the communities they serve.
That means governance isn’t confined to one committee or one section of the board agenda. It influences every major decision an organization makes.
When boards govern well, they create clarity around mission and strategy. They hire, support, and evaluate the chief executive. They ensure financial sustainability, oversee risk, strengthen organizational culture, and ask questions that prepare the organization for the future.
In many ways, governance is like the foundation beneath an ice cream shop. Customers rarely notice it, but without it, nothing else can stand.
What High-Performing Boards Have in Common
Like every successful ice cream shop, high-performing boards have a recipe for success—in The Tasty Treat’s case it was the creamiest soft serve and the best homemade drumsticks. While every organization is unique, the strongest boards consistently demonstrate several characteristics.
They Understand Their Role
At the Tasty Treat, everyone had a job. Some prepared orders, others worked the register, while someone else restocked supplies or cleaned equipment. We trusted one another to do our part.
The same principle applies in nonprofit leadership.
High-performing boards understand that governance and management are different but complementary responsibilities. Boards establish direction, provide oversight, and ensure accountability. The chief executive leads operations, manages staff, and implements strategy.
When boards begin managing daily operations, or when executives are left to make strategic decisions without board engagement, confusion follows. Clear roles create stronger partnerships.
They Build Relationships Before They Need Them
I often think about Angie when I work with nonprofit boards.
Her sundae wasn’t memorable because it was complicated. It was memorable because someone cared enough to remember.
The same is true in governance.
One of the greatest investments a board chair and chief executive can make is taking time to know one another as people, not just titles. Understanding what motivates each board member, the experiences they bring, and the perspectives they offer creates trust that cannot be built during a two-hour board meeting.
When difficult decisions arise, and they inevitably will, relationships built over coffee, committee work, and informal conversations make it easier to have honest discussions, navigate disagreement respectfully, and remain focused on the mission.
Governance is ultimately about people serving a shared purpose.
They Spend More Time Looking Ahead Than Looking Back
Many board meetings become consumed with reviewing reports and approving routine business. While those responsibilities matter, they shouldn’t dominate every conversation.
High-performing boards devote meaningful time to strategic questions.
- What emerging needs are shaping our community?
- How is our environment changing?
- What risks should we prepare for?
- What opportunities should we pursue over the next five years?
These conversations position organizations to adapt and thrive rather than simply react.
They Recruit and Develop Their Team Intentionally
No successful business hires the first person who walks through the door. The same should be true for nonprofit boards.
Exceptional boards recruit with purpose, seeking individuals whose experiences, skills, lived perspectives, and community connections strengthen governance and reflect the communities they serve.
Just as importantly, they invest in ongoing learning. Orientation, board education, self-assessments, committee evaluations, and governance discussions ensure board members continue to grow throughout their service.
High-performing boards recognize that governance excellence is not a destination. It is a commitment to continuous improvement.
The Best Governance Often Goes Unnoticed
One of the lessons I carried with me from the Tasty Treat is that customers rarely notice everything that goes into creating a great experience. They simply enjoy the final product.
The same is true for nonprofit governance.
Community members rarely see the board’s strategic planning sessions, succession discussions, financial oversight, committee work, or thoughtful governance practices. They experience the results: an organization that is financially healthy, mission-driven, well-led, and trusted by the community.
That is exactly how it should be—when it’s working.
But Invisible Can Cut Both Ways
I’ve spent most of this piece talking about what good governance looks like when nobody’s watching. But there’s a flip side to that I’d be dishonest to leave out.
The same invisibility that lets a strong board do its quiet work also lets a weak one do quiet damage. Nobody notices a board that’s never been trained, that recruits friends instead of capable people, that lets personality and politics drive decisions instead of the mission, until something breaks. And by then, it’s usually not a small thing. Chief executives get pushed out over rumors instead of performance. Staff who saw it coming start updating their resumes. Donors quietly stop renewing. None of it shows up on a sign out front.
This isn’t a hypothetical. One nonprofit chief executive recently described being fired by their own board not for mismanagement or scandal, but because the board had never taken governance training, refused it when it was offered, and let gossip and fear drive a decision that unraveled years of progress. That story isn’t rare. It’s a pattern the sector keeps repeating, just quietly, one organization at a time, because nobody’s watching the watchers.
I think about this differently than I used to. Early in my career, I assumed a board’s job was mostly about good intentions, the kind of people who show up, who care, who mean well. Good intentions without structure are how Angie’s sundae becomes a turtle sundae with pecans instead of nuts. Small, but it means somebody stopped paying attention.
This is why board self-assessment and a real, written evaluation of the chief executive aren’t paperwork. They’re the only mechanism that catches a problem while it’s still small enough to fix quietly, the same way we caught Angie’s car the second it turned into the lot. A board that never evaluates itself, and never formally evaluates its chief executive, isn’t being low-key or hands-off. It’s flying blind, and it usually doesn’t find out until the relationship with its own leadership, or its own community, has already started to come apart.
The hardest version of governance isn’t writing the policy. It’s having the conversation nobody wants to have—are we actually doing our job, and is our chief executive getting the clear, honest feedback they need to do theirs? Boards that skip that conversation aren’t being kind. They’re just deferring the cost to later, when it’s bigger.
Final Thoughts: The Perfect Swirl in Governance
I still smile when I think about those summer evenings in Minster. The perfect swirl cone mattered. Angie’s turtle sundae mattered. But neither happened by accident. They reflected preparation, teamwork, clear roles, and people who cared enough to get the details right, and people who cared enough to check that those details were still right, summer after summer.
High-performing nonprofit boards operate the same way. Their work is often invisible, but its impact is everywhere, for better or worse. By investing in relationships, embracing their governance responsibilities, holding themselves accountable rather than just hoping things turn out fine, and keeping the mission at the center of every decision, boards create the conditions for organizations to flourish, not just this summer, but for many seasons to come.
Does this sound familiar? If it does, let’s talk. A governance assessment might be the right direction for you.