What does your board look like?

Across different organisations there are similarities and differences in how things are run and what works well, depending on the size and purpose of the organisation itself. One area that is interesting to compare is the boardroom, where a lot of planning and brainstorming for success happens. Recently, “Our Community”, the Australian Centre for Excellence for non-profits and schools, surveyed a number of NFPs through their newsletter, Our Community Matters, to find out more about board size and gender composition. The results are in!

Out of all respondents, almost 50% reported that their board was made up of between seven and nine members. A further 11% reported that their boards had six members, and the same percentage had twelve members. 12% of boards surveyed had less than five members, and 9% of boards were larger than 12 people.

Over 60% thought the number of board members was ‘about right’, with the six to eight member boards getting the most positive responses. Reasons for this answer included the size made it possible to reach consensus. There was a wide range of expertise on hand, but meetings didn’t get “bogged down’ in discussion of too many viewpoints. Approximately even numbers felt their boards were too small or too large. In the ‘too large’ camp, a common comment was that not all members participated equally, or even attended meetings, while ‘too small’ boards were thought to be so for reasons including not having enough members to get all the work done.

Women are well represented in boards in the non-profit sector. Almost 60% of respondents reported over half of their boards were female, and over 10% of boards are reportedly all female. This is a noteworthy contrast to the boards of ASX200 companies, which, according to recent data, are less than 16% female.

Where does your board sit in comparison to those surveyed?