Case Scenario: Art Museum
You are the director of a small art museum, located in a medium-size city in the Midwest, a job you have held for about 1 year. (Make any assumption you want about the nature of the collection.)
The members of your board are mostly executives of companies headquartered in or near the city. They all support the museum, both through their companies and personally, but with modest gifts. Most of them also serve on boards of other organizations and institutions, including their own alma maters, churches, and community-based nonprofits. The president of the board is Mr. I. M. Tuff, a busy and direct-spoken man who often doesn't have time for casual conversation with you.
After your first year, you suggest to Mr. Tuff that it would be good to develop a strategic plan for the museum. Being familiar with strategic planning from his corporate experience, Mr. Tuff readily agrees and tells you to schedule a board retreat to begin the process. You prepare extensive briefing books for the retreat, filled with data about the museum.
Mr. Tuff presides at the retreat, and all of the board members engage in the discussion. But things seem to get quickly out of hand with a lot of ambitious ideas being proposed. You try to point out concerns and obstacles but are afraid to sound negative, so you acquiesce. By the end of the two-day session, the board has voted to dramatically expand the collection, conduct a capital campaign for a new wing of the museum, and double annual giving. At the conclusion of the retreat, Mr. Tuff puts his arm around your shoulder and says, "Good job. I think this is a great plan and the board is behind you all the way. We know you can do it."
The next day you see an article in the local paper announcing a major new capital campaign by a local university--and the campaign chair is the spouse of one of your board members! You call your friend, who is director of development at the university and she says, "Oh sure, we've been planning the campaign for a year--you should have called me, I would have told you." She asks you who your top prospects are for your campaign and you say, "I just don't know. I have been so busy running the museum--it's only been a year--that I really haven't had much time out in the community." You call Mr. Tuff. He just says, "Don't worry; the board is behind you all the way. We know you will find some donors who want to fund our great little museum."
You go home that night to wonder how you allowed yourself to get in this situation.
Case Questions:
Q1. What does this case suggest about the culture of the board and its understanding of its role?
Q2. What does the case suggest about your relationship with the board?
Q3. Think about the best practices for nonprofit CEOs discussed in Chapter 5 of the text. Are there some that you did not follow and, if so, could those errors explain the current situation?
Q4. What actions might you take now to improve the situation?