Your Board – Your Singular Strategic Advantage

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D. is an educator, strategist and nonprofit leader with a lifelong fascination for people driven to make a difference. A Vassar College graduate, she earned both a master's degree and doctorate from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. Deb serves as CEO and Founder of The Macfarlan Group, advising mission-driven organizations and their Boards – from international institutions to local nonprofits – on leadership, strategy, growth management, and impact. As a consultant and keynote speaker, Deb is known for her ability to connect insight, strategy, and humanity for good. Deb believes that disrupters talking across industries and interests to collectively impact social challenges will cause deep sustainable change. Her work experiences here and abroad have found her in the company of disrupters changing the world in areas including education, addiction recovery, social justice, human rights, healthcare, housing insecurity, and animal rights.​Deb has served on local, regional, and international Boards of Directors of social impact organizations and education institutions. These experiences impact her ability to develop leaders, create strategic plans, and strengthen an organization's operational effectiveness. Her upcoming book, Board to Death: How to Transform Your Nonprofit Board into a Strategic Catalyst for Change marks her debut as an author. It grows directly from her passion to support visionaries who believe the world can be better and are willing to work toward that goal. Deb was a professional musician delighting audiences along the East Coast and the Caribbean with her unique interpretations of the music from the American Standard Songbook. Her original, "Tonight He's Mine" was the Songwriter's Association of Washington DC's Song of the Year.

More information at

Episode Summary

The Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou

Welcome to the non-profit exchange. This is Hugh Ballou. I'm your host. My guest today is Deb McFarland-Enright, Dr. Deb. She's got an education degree. This episode explores how non-profit leaders can transform their boards from passive oversight bodies into powerful strategic assets. Dr. Deborah McFarland-Enright shares how each board seat represents a high-value leadership investment that must be intentionally aligned with the organization's mission, strategy, and long-term sustainability. The conversation will focus on recruiting with purpose, establishing clear expectations, building a culture of engagement, and leveraging past board members to extend that impact. So this is where the nonprofit exchange is where we empower leaders to think differently, to think about high-performing segments in every part of our organization. Too often, boards are not a strategic asset, and we wonder it's a mystery. Well, we're going to cure that up today. Deb McFarlane Enright is a nationally recognized expert in nonprofit governance and board development. Through her work, she helps organizations unlock the full potential of their boards by aligning leadership strategy and accountability. Her approach reframes board service as a strategic asset, one that requires intentional design, clear expectations, and ongoing cultivation. Oh, my goodness, Deb, this is great. Welcome to the nonprofit exchange. And tell us, when we started out, when you say that each board seat is a priceless asset, what do you mean by that?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

Well, Hugh, first of all, thank you so much for asking me to join you today for the conversation. I'm very excited to be here and I'm very grateful for this chance to talk about boards. They're priceless. The seat is priceless. It's priceless because anyone who sits in it has the chance to be a part of an organization who is determined to disrupt the status quo in some way. either to mend or fix a social justice, feed a hungry family, make sure that there are pets who are cared for who have either been abandoned or had to be given up. It's for the restoration of historic buildings, for the restoration of cultures. So if you think about it, it's this moment where you have a chance to be a part of making the world better.

Hugh Ballou

Why do so many nonprofits fail to fully leverage the value of this asset called the Board of Directors?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

Because it's seen as a necessary evil rather than as a companion in the work that needs to be done. It's that thing that you have to fill out on a 501c3 form with names of anyone who will raise their hand as over the kitchen table, you get started in this process, in this world of work to make the world better. As these organizations mature, it's very hard to break out of that mold. So you don't think about putting expertise and industry experience as well as networks to your full advantage. Because it's never been broached that way. I mean, Hugh, that's what for-profits do, right? Not non-profits. There's a nobility to being a non-profit. You're giving of your time and your talent and probably your treasure. And there's no sense necessarily of leaning in. There's no sense necessarily of using words like leverage. That almost seems to besmirch the call to service. But in fact, that's what strengthens as a foundation, as an anchor, what board members would like to do in their service.

Hugh Ballou

You know, there's two things here related to mindset. In my experience over the years, three plus decades, there's this attitude of we've got to fill a position, we've got to fill a board seat. And then there's this expectation, oh, we're bothering people that are busy. Well, rather than filling a seat, we're filling a strategic advantage. And instead of bothering people, we're giving them an opportunity to serve with their passion. So would you address those two mindsets?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

Sure, so I think initially we're looking for a pulse and then a purse. So when a board seat is vacated, either because someone can't fulfill the role or their terms up, it's almost as though it's just part of the to-do list versus a central objective to the success of the organization. So I got a friend who knows a friend who knows a friend or I've got a friend who works either at a financial institution, knows a philanthropist, or a big giver, et cetera, right? So there may not be a tie, but it's going to get a butt in the seat. If you think about it, that's when it starts to go awry. These board seats have to be filled with people who can provide oversight, right, not to get in the weeds, but provide oversight to the operations to build those operations so that they are sustainable and are ready for growth, and also serve in oversight in an evaluative sense to see if the programming the products, whatever's being supplied through the organization is tested, can be funded, is sustainable, or may need to be retracted to try something different or better. That's much different than saying, well, we just, you know, for instance, we need to relieve the stress on food supply. And so go get a bunch of boxes of food and distribute it. That's not the same as thinking about what a board can do to bring a more business approach to a for-profit entity.

Hugh Ballou

So let's pick up on that idea that you, the principle that you just identified. The problem with board performance starts at the beginning of recruiting the people. So we recruit people to fill a seat instead of it's a strategic advantage. We recruit people without giving them a clear role and expectations for what that role is. And we don't ask them to do much because they're busy when in fact they really have a passion for what we're doing or we wouldn't have talked to them to begin with. Is that right?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

Yeah, we really underestimate and devalue the opportunity that a board seat provides for a potential board member. The way recruiting needs to begin is by unpacking what expertise and experience the strategic plan needs to be implemented and successfully evaluated to keep building on for future strategic plans. So for instance, if you are thinking about expanding a facility and you don't have an architect or somebody in real estate or somebody in commercial real estate or somebody legally who might know family law, but they really don't know about architectural or physical space or commercial real estate law, you are not providing the kind of expertise and experience that will be truly beneficial. So your board will naturally change as it fits what the strategic plan demands and calls for. If you're looking into expansion, you need some folks who have grown a business, expanded, understand franchises, understand opening different locations. That doesn't mean you don't also need people who know about brand advancement, brand awareness, but there are certain core things within different strategic plans that need to be addressed on your board. We don't think about that. We think about getting board members who have either a professional network or have board experience or are nice people or are new and want to get connected, or may have a friend of a friend of a friend who knows they're looking for a board seat and this gives them a board seat. We shortchange the organization if we're not strategic about aligning the composition of the board with the strategic plan. We shortchange the board member if we put someone on a board and they have nothing to do. So knowing that your board composition will fully support your strategic plan and moving it forward, again, not just with implementation, Hugh, but also understanding evaluation of it and accountability, and then constructing an engagement expectation, standards, benchmarks, a rubric, whatever you want to say, that is used to, in the invitation to the board, in the invitation to apply to the board, which is not, which is antithetical to what some of us think is, hey, it's not a lot of time. It's not gonna ask a lot. Maybe one or two things you're gonna have to come to. No. If you wanna serve on this board, here are the expectations. And make it really formal. The fun thing that we did when I served as a chair on a board, was actually make this engagement form a real thing, right? We thought through it, we created it together, thought through it, and then as people joined the board, we had a signing day. It's not as though the expectations were handed to them at that time, those expectations were fully vetted for them and for us when we invited them to apply to see if, you know, for the decision-making process of appointment, But there was something exhilarating. It also allowed both of us to, as the chair and the executive director and the board member, to have this very neutral tool in case expectations weren't being met on either side. The board member didn't feel supported or wasn't getting the fullness of the opportunity they thought they could. Or we thought, in fact, that those expectations weren't being met and could either intercede to see if it was still a good season or perhaps move committee ships around so that the person might feel like they were being more fed. Composition, engagement also allows for accountability. And I think that's one thing, you know this as well as I do, that nonprofit leaders are hesitant to hold board members to account. Sometimes it's because it's just uncomfortable. Sometimes it's because you're afraid you're going to lose some money. I contend that the people who should be invited into those priceless seats should be held to account. And for those kinds of achievers, they appreciate that kind of accountability. because then it makes their sweat equity more valuable. It makes their relationships on the board more valuable. It makes the potential to develop yourself professionally more valuable because you and I both know anything with value causes a line out the door for people who want to serve on a board versus a kind of less structured, Hope you can come. We're going to do the best we can do. It's very hard to recruit for a board like that.

Hugh Ballou

Well, and we compound the problem beginning in our ask. And I've had so many people ask me, oh, it's not much work. They start making excuses and setting low expectations to begin with. Let me tag on the strategy. Realistically, you've got to define a strategic plan. It's basically where you want to be and how you're going to get there. So you've got your accountabilities, you've got your processes, all that built in. And to be able to accomplish that, you can then identify the competencies that you're going to need on your board. So a lot of people that I've met in non-private work discount the fact that they need a strategy, but it's really the anchor that is an engagement tool. It's more than just a piece of paper, isn't it?

100%.

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

It's a playbook, right? It's done well. It's the thing that allows the chair to guide the people that they're serving with. It allows the chair to maximize the experience for each board member. It's the way that the CEO or the executive director can be in constant conversation with the board as well as establish and maintain that gatekeeper role they have to play. It sets boundaries, but it also lifts boundaries. It has everyone focused on the central core components of priorities, of strategic timelines, of the implementation, so that no one walks into, and it should guide every agenda of every meeting, full board as well as committees, so that everybody kind of knows where you're going versus wondering what's next.

Hugh Ballou

It requires that we prepare. It requires we think through so that it requires leadership, doesn't it?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

Yes, and in every seat, it requires that leadership. So everyone has to show up, no matter what your role is. Everyone has to show up because everyone is integral to the success of the strategic plan. Versus seeing it as a dust cover document that you're going to bring out every two or three years because let's go hire somebody who can walk through some post-it notes and we'll make a new one. It becomes a living document that everyone has to pay attention to.

Hugh Ballou

It's a living document. I hope you're taking notes, folks. It's not a piece of paper. It's an organic movement. It's an ongoing process and it migrates over time. So Deb, let's go back to setting the accountability standards. In my almost four decades of working with committees, boards, different groups, when I let the group set their guidelines for performance, set their expectations, set the expectations for the task and the deadlines for those, they end up setting the accountabilities higher than I would set myself. In that way, it transferred. I don't have to be their daddy anymore. Any experience you want to relate to people about how to have the board develop their own accountability so that we don't have to be the bad person?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

Sure, I mean, I think some of it is what what does service mean in terms of showing up? So it's attendance, right? What does it mean in terms of leading in and you're leaning in with your expertise? So where will you serve? That's usually in a board through committee work. What does it mean in terms of providing either your treasure or access to others who can give to the organization? What does it mean in terms of being an ambassador for the organization? How are you involved in recruitment? So there are some certain rubrics and measures. So there are metrics there, you know, as much as Attendance, what's reasonable in terms of attendance for meetings, what's reasonable in terms of a prescribed amount, and that can be extremely individual in terms of how much should a board member give. This is why we go through an entire process of to give, to give or get, or give and get. So if there is a number, a certain amount of money that's asked of every board member for access and for inclusivity and representation, the understanding would be that it is to secure that amount either personally or through a network. And also ask other board members to help you if you haven't done that before or you don't have those resources. So I guess, The filters through which I think engagement are important and to help a CEO or a chair put that engagement process together, it's to think about showing up for meetings, committee meetings and events to volunteer so that you actually know what it means to hand out food or to walk a rescue dog or to sit with somebody who's in recovery. or to strip the wallpaper off of some iconic building you're trying to save. The network is important. Who in your friendship circle or in your professional network needs to know about this organization and what time are you gonna take to make sure they come acquainted with it? Either to bring them on as a volunteer, invite them to an event, or just let them know what you're doing. Finally, it's to think about how you can cause them to develop themselves professionally. You know, in some states and in some cities, an organization will appoint someone to go serve on certain boards. That could be the most cost-effective professional development programming that that corporation could ever Institute. It's free. It may include a sponsorship of some sort, but that young leader or old leader or person who's never been asked to do it before gets to be amongst other leaders, gets to show their leadership ability, gets to develop their leadership ability and expand their network.

Hugh Ballou

That is priceless. None of us ever think of that. You know, I've been doing this so many years, I never had put that together in that sequence, in that tangible form. I want to show your website and come back with a set of rapid fire questions. But before we do that, there's the invisible part, the soft skills with hard results, that is relationship building with people. I served small to mega churches for 40 years. Rarely did I ever have a lunch alone. So between board meetings, how do we meet with persons or groups of persons that are involved in our board and our culture to make sure we've nurtured that relationship?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

Starts with a board orientation. I mean, it's a heartbreaking story that I tell is serving with somebody for a term of four years. When their term was done, we had an occasion just to chat, you know, about how that term had gone. And the person paused and said, I just wish I'd known what I was supposed to do. I know I could have done more. And my heart broke. So getting someone on the board and having them sign an engagement form is great, but if you don't onboard them, if you don't orient them to what it means to serve on this particular board and onboard them with either a mentor or a board friend who has already served on the board, you can't create a culture of relationships to you because you haven't even started. It can be intimidating for people to come onto a board if they've never served on one before and they don't know what to do. And the only way the board becomes cohesive and can have hard conversations, controversial conversations, or perhaps release an executive director is if they will trust each other. You don't have to like them, you don't have to go out and have a vacation with them, but you've got to understand from whence they come so that that trust is built relationally so that they can get through some junk they're going to have to get through for the betterment and to keep the organization on track to grow and to build and serve more.

Hugh Ballou

So, that's a key moment, folks. You can go find these notes at thenonprofitexchange.org. So, Deb, your website is themcfarlandgroup.com. So, when people go there, there's people on the audio podcast. So, describe what people will see when they go there and you do have a contact button.

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

Yeah, sure. Thank you. So, this is just kind of a general overview of what we do and we really focus mostly now on board management and trying to give you guys the best board you can possibly have. And sometimes that'll take a little bit of time. We'll help you get there. It talks about just who we are. I had great parents who were very involved in the community, taught us really, really well. And so this is a bit of an homage to them. It breaks down who we've worked with. So from startup to international organization, every mix in between. gives you a sense about who we have served, allows those leaders to speak about their time working with us. And then for a time, Hugh, I did a podcast, which I really enjoyed, that talked about, talked with founders and even like a venture capitalist about what they're looking for, because I really do believe at the core, anyone that's a nonprofit, it's a business. And so our framework has always been about seeing it as a business and not seeing that as a dirty word to use within the nonprofit sector. And then we have a blog as well and a YouTube channel where we have a four part series where we talked with founders and board members about just best practices.

Hugh Ballou

I love it. There's awful lot of stuff people can learn and you have a contact button and I'm sure you respond to people that reach out to you. So let's have a little fun. I want to give you some rapid-fire questions to close. If you give me a short answer, then we just got a couple more minutes. Let's go out. So if you're advising a non-profit board, not profit leader, excuse me, listening today, what's the first three steps they should take to strengthen their board?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

Know your strategic plan inside and out. Make sure your chair is strong enough to begin the process of recruiting, orienting, engaging, and sustaining your board.

Hugh Ballou

What's one word that describes a high-performing board?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

Can I hyphenate it? Strategic engagement. Strategic engagement.

Hugh Ballou

Just we make up the rules as we go along. What's the most important trait of a board chair?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

To remember to serve those they lead.

Hugh Ballou

And one practice every board should adopt immediately?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

Use a strategic plan.

Hugh Ballou

Deb, this has been powerful. Thank you so much. You've helped me see some new things. I've been doing this a long time. It's a whole different way of seeing the board and it's a whole different way of seeing us as leaders. So, it's a strategic engine for impact when designed and led with intention. So, people can learn about you on your website. It's themcfarlandgroup.com. Is that right?

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

It is, and Hugh, can I also say that I'm very excited. I never thought I would do this in my entire life, but I do have a book coming out, and it's called Appropriately Bored to Death, B-O-A-R-D. It's how to transform your nonprofit board into a strategic catalyst for change. It's going to be filled with stories of folks that I've had the honor to work with, and a lot of processes and procedures. And then at the end of every chapter, Q, it calls upon the reader to… think about what they have learned and put it right into practice with some calls to action. So it's written for the CEO, it's written for the chair, for the board of director themselves, but also for aspiring board members to get a sense about the responsibility it is when you say, yes, I'd love to be considered to be appointed to your board.

Hugh Ballou

That is a game changer. So you heard it right here. It's going to be on this website as soon as it's published. We're recording this in the middle of 2026, but it'll be there afterwards. So by the time you're hearing this or watching this, it's probably going to be there. So you can go, it'll be on her website. And so the link is on this episode of the nonprofit exchange. And Deb, thank you so much for being such an enlightening, inspiring guest today on the nonprofit exchange.

Deb Macfarlan Enright, Ed.D.

It's been an honor Hugh, thank you so much.