Nonprofit Board Service: Essentials & Insights

Do you want to learn more about how nonprofit boards work and how the best ones function? Whether you already serve on a nonprofit board(s), are figuring out what sort of board is a good fit for you, or just doing some early exploration of this rewarding work, this session will help you understand the landscape:
the broad variations across nonprofit boards and members’ responsibilities
similarities and differences compared to private sector boards
key practices (and pitfalls) that determine impact and engagement

Nonprofit board service can be fulfilling, impactful work at the local, national, or international level. Board members apply their business experience, continually learn, and a community of new relationships.

You need not wait for retirement to put your hat in the ring. And there are various on-ramps. I joined my first nonprofit board at 39 and haven’t stopped.

Hilary Joel, HBS MBA ’89
Hilary is an executive coach, facilitator, and strategy consultant with over 30 years of experience across sectors. Through her business WJ Consulting, LLC, she partners with the leaders and boards of nonprofit organizations and mission-driven businesses. Hilary helps individual coaching clients and teams advance toward their own definitions of professional, personal, and organizational success more deeply, quickly, authentically, and sustainably than they can on their own.

Hilary’s 1-on-1 coaching and team facilitation are both informed by her business experience, nonprofit expertise, and skills as a strategy consultant as well as two decades of honing her craft as a coach.

Before starting her own firm, she spent ten years in management consulting at American Management Systems (CGI/AMS) and at Booz Allen.

Hilary holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School and a BA degree in Economics from Princeton University. After receiving her MBA, as a Baker Scholar and the first Charles M. Williams Research Fellow, she co-authored 11 business school case studies focused on organizations such as IBM, Marriott, and American Red Cross. Trained through the Georgetown Leadership Coaching Program, she is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coach Federation (ICF).

Hilary’s passion for a strong nonprofit sector spans her professional and personal life. She is a co-founder with fellow HBS MBAs, and a current board member of Compass Pro Bono, a national nonprofit that engages business professionals in pro bono strategic consulting and board service for nonprofits. Hilary also created and has led for over a dozen years an Emerging Leaders program for rising nonprofit managers. She serves on the board of CollegeTracks, which focuses on equitable college access and success, and of Washington Improv Theater, where she performs improv in across the DC area.