William Way LGBT Community Center last week received an award that paid tribute to the organization’s board members and their contributions.
The Philadelphia Foundation selected the center as one of two recipients of its H. Craig Lewis Good Governance Award, which is joined by a $5,000 prize.
The award is given to agencies that exemplify the best of the best in nonprofit management — extending to board leadership, financial planning and strategic thinking.
Thirty organizations applied for the award, and eight were selected as finalists, with the foundation’s grantmaking committee ultimately deciding on the center and the Maternity Care Coalition.
“We are delighted to honor these worthy nonprofits,” said foundation president R. Andrew Swinney. “Both of these organizations exhibited the most comprehensive board-development strategies, self-assessments, organizational evaluation and planning. Other organizations in the region would do well to emulate the governance examples they set.”
The center’s board is comprised of 15 members.
The Philadelphia Foundation referenced the breadth and diversity of the board membership, its board-training program and board-succession plan — which it crafted in June to assist the agency in the event of the departure of its executive director — as factors in its selection.
The board hosts an annual retreat, during which an outside consultant works with the board, and individual members, to assess performance. Each board member develops his or her own fundraising plan in tandem with center development director Michael Pomante before the start of the fiscal year.
Each member is required to serve on one of the board’s five committees, and Pomante said most serve on multiple ones. Attendance at board meetings is nearly always universal, Pomante noted, and the members are invested in every step of the center’s progress, such as with the development of new programs and events and recent renovations.
“When I came across this application, I definitely wanted to pursue it because I knew it would be a wonderful opportunity to highlight our board,” Pomante said. “This was the first application I had ever seen that is for board members and is focused on their strengths, their strategies, their leadership, diversity and good governance.”
The funding is unrestricted, and Pomante said it could have a number of uses.
The organization’s five-year strategic plan will expire at the end of this year and board and staff have spent the past eight months preparing a new plan, which will be rolled out Jan. 1. Pomante said some of the money may be used to cover costs associated with the development of the new plan, such as consultation fees.
“To respect the nature of the award, we want to use it toward strategic planning and to continue to grow our board and committees and improve upon our leadership,” he said.