Any case studies on Advisory Boards?

Thank you very much Kathy

Consuelo

Hello Consuelo and others,

Antonio Luiz has emailed to me his cases on advisory boards so that I can post them on the Global Forum site.  I need to put them in PDF form, which I can do tomorrow.  I will let everyone know when the cases are posted, and I will give you a direct link to the page on the Global Forum site where they are located. 

The documents are in Portuguese, yes.  Thanks for your interest!

Kathy Hedge, BoardSource

Hello Rosana and others,

I don’t have a case study, but I have worked with a number of advisory groups, so here are some thoughts based on my own experience in the U.S.:

Advisory boards, or advisory groups, are formed to advise and support the organization and its board. This "advice" might be around specific areas of expertise that its members have (e.g. an advisory group to help an organization study a particular issue would include people with expertise on the issue), or, an advisory group could be formed to bring different viewpoints into the organization, say, from different stakeholders, clients, or community members.

Many times advisory groups are formed to help raise money for an organization.  In my experience it is usually best when the governing board is also directly involved with fund-raising, and the advisory group helps with a particular task related to fund raising (maybe a special event, or a particular fund raising campaign).

Advisory groups are usually ad-hoc and temporary – they exist only for a short time, to help with the particular situation, event, or project. You can sometimes get someone to join an advisory board who would not otherwise join a governing board because of this shorter time commitment required. Sometimes, serving on an advisory group can be a "stepping stone’ for someone to get to know your organization better and later consider being on the governing board.

In my experience I have never seen an advisory board to have any governing responsibilities. So, in order not to cause confusion, it might be better to call an advisory board an "advisory group", or "task force", or "advisory council", so that no one thinks that the advisory group is in some way part of the governing board.

I recently put an advisory group together for a special project I’m coordinating, and most of the people I asked to serve on the group said yes. I think this was because we were very specific about what we asked them to do, and we told them how many hours/days of their time would be required. Also, I think people are motivated to serve on an advisory group when they see others in the group whom they would like to interact with, and when they are offered some recognition for being on the advisory group.

Hope this is helpful.

Kathy Hedge, BoardSource