Board Service Essentials

Board of Directors orientation accelerates a new member’s learning curve, ensuring they fully understand their fiduciary duties, the organization’s strategic goals, and their specific governance responsibilities. It is critical for aligning expectations, mitigating legal risks, and fostering an engaged, collaborative boardroom culture from day one.

Onboarding new Board members extends beyond the initial orientation sessions and should include opportunities to continue their journey beyond their first year of service.

This 90-minute interactive, virtual workshop serves as a critical step in the orientation and onboarding of new Board members, as it includes in-depth information on the requirements, roles, responsibilities, relationships & rewards of Board service and positions new Board members to be effective participants, contributors, and partners right from the start of their Board service.

Effective service from prepared Board members leads to powerful impacts in support of the organization’s mission, staff, and community. This program presents an opportunity for Executive Directors to receive the support and service they need from their organization’s Board of Directors.

Topics include:

• The Contexts and Governance Framework of a Nonprofit Board of Directors

• What Board Members Do: The Role and Responsibilities of an Effective Board of Directors and Expectations of Individual Board Members

• Building and Maintaining Essential Relationships and Partnerships with Board and Staff Leadership

• Meaningful and Purpose-Driven Board Member Engagement

• Navigating Various Situations and Uncertain Times

In addition to the 90-minute workshop, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a follow-up roundtable that answers their questions on applying the lessons of the workshop within the context of their organizations and further explores their roles in major areas such as financial management, fundraising, board recruitment, and leadership development.

Who should attend?

This workshop is designed to complement other Board orientation and onboarding sessions for nonprofit Board members, including those new to Board service, those who have recently joined a Board, and those who would benefit from a refresher on how to make the most of their current Board service.

Program Details

• Course Length: This workshop will be offered in October and February—One 90-minute session plus one follow-up roundtable session. Dates will be announced at a later time.
• Cost and Registration:
  • Individual Registration: $300 per person
  • Group Registration: Organizations interested in registering a group of board members should contact Diane Wunderlich at dwunderlich@adelphi.edu for registration details and pricing information.

Lead Consultant

Jennifer Rutledge

The workshops will be conducted by Jennifer M. Rutledge, the lead consultant to the Center for Nonprofit Leadership at Adelphi University’s School of Social Work. Jennifer designed the major segments of the Center’s Excellence in Nonprofit Management Certificate Program and serves as a faculty member for that program. She also coordinates the Center’s partnership with Youth INC’s Rise Academy for Emerging Leaders of Color.

Jennifer has over 40 years practical, broad-based experience in providing consulting services, training, and technical assistance in governance, board and other leadership development, management development, long range and strategic planning, and organizational development areas in the for-profit, not-for-profit, and public sectors.

Jennifer was a Charter Senior Associate of the National Center for Nonprofit Boards (now known as BoardSource) and traveled domestically and internationally working with organization and association leadership. She is also a contributing writer for several publications and the author of Building Board Diversity, the first research-based publication of its kind published in 1994.

Jennifer has an MBA and an undergraduate degree in Industrial Psychology. She has served on several Boards of Directors and is a member of the International Association of Facilitators.