The Best Thing You Can Do To Help Your Community Recover From Covid

While you’re waiting to queue up for your vaccine, there is something you can do to nudge up the trajectory of recovery around you...  Join a not-for-profit board!

The real work of assisting those around you in meaningful ways is largely done by caring individuals who have banded together to step in where government can’t or won’t.  Local food shelves, job re-training programs, children’s enrichment centers, and a host of other agencies are the glue holding together countless families around you.  My guess is that you can name a handful of non-profit organizations serving others within your zip code.

Most of these organizations are able to survive via tax-deductible donations from people in your neighborhood, or from corporate or foundation grants.  They are authorized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under its Code 501(c) and permits 27 different types of non-profit entities.  The most common type is the 501(c)(3) which grants broad abilities for educational, religious, local sports commissions, and health related groups to raise funds to serve others around them.

To become a 501(c)(3), the IRS requires a statement of purpose to be filed and a clear set of articles or bylaws by which the nonprofit will be accountable.  Each of these nonprofit groups must have an independent board of directors to ensure that money and goods donated actually accomplish the work of the organization. Without an independent board, the ability to perform the good work done by these groups dies.

My own experience with boardsmanship began when I was a 30-year-old high school principal in upstate New York.  I had joined the local Rotary Club and was asked to advise the board on matters of scholarships for students.  I was bowled over by the thousands of dollars raised by these good-hearted souls through fund raising events and personal donations.  My students benefitted by heading off to technical school or university with the ability to pay for the first semester or first year of tuition.

In the 40 years since, I have had the privilege of living and working on four continents.  When I was principal at Hong Kong International School in the 1980s, I was on the board of a charity that immunized refugees against polio and other childhood maladies.  Our teams went into camps and housing facilities regularly to offer this free service.

My wife, Patricia, worked with an adoption agency in Hong Kong to place babies with local families who could not have children of their own.  She volunteered her time there, and by doing so, saved the adoptive parents thousands of dollars in fees.

I have served on another board that raises scholarship funds for Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya.  This university enrolls 6,000 students hailing from 30 of Africa’s 54 nations.  In the USA, approximately 34% of the adult population has a university degree.  In Africa (with its combined population approaching one billion), fewer than 1% are university graduates.  It is a great investment to raise up smart and ethical leaders all over Africa.  These agencies raising scholarship funds need your involvement as board members to continue this important work.

Over the years, I have served locally on the board of the Voyageur Outward Bound School; the Minnesota Academic Excellence Foundation; the Regulatory Board for Marriage and Family Therapy; my local church board; my local neighborhood association board; the RiverTree School board; the Association of Metropolitan School Districts; the Minneapolis Memorial Blood Bank; and Leadership Minneapolis (sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce).

Each of these boards has expanded my knowledge, enriched me with new friendships, and has done great work in this community.  The common denominator is that each organization needs board members to continue operating.

Lest you think that I have adult-onset attention deficit disorder, most boards have term limits that require members to rotate off after a set amount of time.  The most frequent time commitment I’ve experienced is a three-year term (possibly extended for one additional term).  The reason for this is to keep a fresh set of eyes on the organization with the purpose being to maintain a truly independent board that could, if necessary, change the leadership of the nonprofit.  Relationships that go on for decades are hard to break up and often overlook the very things that might undermine effectiveness.

Today, I serve on two boards.  One is ECHO (Fort Myers, Florida), whose work provides free help for small-scale farmers around the world.  While I know nothing about agriculture, I can add value to this group as a board member whose active involvement allows the work to continue on six continents (so far, nothing in Antarctica).  

I also serve as a trustee of Dallas International University, whose distinctive is non-traditional language acquisition and cultural studies.  These distance-based programs allow servant-leaders to continue learning from anywhere on earth.  I’m a trustee whose involvement allows DIU to continue as an accredited university.

So, what organization do you know of that could benefit from your involvement as a board member?  Call the Executive Director and let her or him know that if an opening comes up, you’d like to learn more.  If you don’t, the organization my cease to exist.

My own data (collected over a lifetime of public service) indicate that around 15% of people ever lead anything.  Anything!  These are the little league coaches, meals-on-wheels drivers, big brothers and big sisters, neighborhood night out planners, and so many more.  This small group of people make our lives better because their hearts are big.  They have capacity to look beyond themselves and see needs around them.

We need more of us to suit up, step onto the playing field, volunteer to take the ball, and run with it.  You might not get everything right, but you’ll make a difference for good.  

Dennis Morrow, Ph.D.

Executive Director of Minnesota Renewal Center in Arden Hills, MN. He lives and volunteers from his home just west of Minneapolis, Minnesota.