Do You Know Your Role?

In every nonprofit, there’s a shared desire to make a difference. Board members volunteer their time because they care. Chief executives lead because they believe in the mission. Both sides want the same thing — impact. Yet even the most committed organizations can lose their rhythm when one simple but powerful element fades: clarity of roles.

At Impact Governance, we call this loss of alignment board drift. It happens quietly when well-intentioned boards step into management territory or when confident executives take on decisions that belong to governance. The result isn’t conflict — it’s confusion. Meetings start to feel like status updates instead of strategy sessions. The focus shifts from outcomes to activities, and energy drains from the room.

The truth is, most boards don’t drift because they don’t care — they drift because they care so much that they reach into the wrong bowl. Imagine three mixing bowls stacked together. The largest outer bowl represents your outcome — the change your organization seeks to make for its beneficiaries. The smaller bowls represent the outputs (your programs) and the inputs (your resources). When a board keeps its hands on the outer bowl, it stays focused on purpose and results. But when it starts reaching into smaller bowls — asking how to run programs or manage staff — the organization begins to wobble. Good intentions create imbalance.

That’s why role clarity is at the heart of effective governance. Boards govern; executives execute. Boards define why and what success looks like; executives determine how to make it happen. When both roles are respected, trust grows, collaboration strengthens, and impact follows.

Through our Impact Governance Model, we help organizations realign around this principle. The model defines clear lanes of accountability — governance in one lane, execution in the other — both moving in parallel toward shared outcomes. This structure restores purpose to the boardroom, empowers the chief executive, and ensures that every discussion links back to meaningful change for beneficiaries.

No one joins a board to approve minutes. People join because they want to change lives. That spark still exists in every boardroom — it just needs direction. And that direction begins with clarity