Help your board move beyond programs and reports. Set clear priorities, find the right partners, and focus on making a real difference in your community.
What It Is
Why Are You Here? What Business Are You In? is a practical, 16-page digital playbook that helps boards rethink their purpose, strengthen their leadership, and increase their community impact.
The first in the series Ten Questions Every Board Needs to Ask Itself, it combines real-world examples, practical tools, and focused discussion questions.
The central message is simple: Your board exists to make a difference in your community, not simply to oversee an organization.
Format: Downloadable 16-page PDF with practical exercises and board discussion guides.
Who It's For
Designed for Board Chairs, Board Members, Trustees, CEOs, and Executive Directors who want their organizations to make a greater difference.
Especially relevant to public libraries, educational institutions, arts organizations, nonprofits, associations, and other community-serving organizations.
If you want your board to spend less time looking inward and more time leading with purpose, this playbook is for you.
The Problem It Solves
Too many boards spend most of their time reviewing budgets, receiving reports, and discussing programs.
All of that matters. But an important question often gets lost:
What difference are we actually making in the lives of the people we serve?
Boards can become so focused on running a successful organization that they lose sight of why it exists.
This playbook helps your board:
- Look beyond organizational activities to community results.
- Understand community strengths, needs, and opportunities.
- Identify partners who can help achieve greater impact.
- Set priorities and make better strategic decisions.
- Lead effectively without becoming involved in day-to-day management.
The goal isn't more programs, more committees, or more work. It's clearer direction, better decisions, and stronger community impact.
What's Inside
Seven practical resources to help your board move from discussion to action.
Why Your Board Exists: Three essential questions that help board members clarify their purpose and shared responsibility.
Community Development Made Practical: Five elements that help boards look beyond services and focus on community well-being.
A Real-World Example: How the Search Institute's 40 Developmental Assets framework can help organizations work together to support teenagers.
Four Steps to Community Action: A clear approach to listening, identifying strengths and barriers, connecting with partners, and reviewing results.
A Guide to Setting Priorities: Five questions to help your board decide where it can make the greatest contribution within its mandate.
Clear Board, Chair, and CEO Roles: A practical responsibilities chart showing how to lead strategically without taking over management.
Four Action Exercises and a Board Discussion Guide: Tools to define your community, map assets and barriers, identify potential partners, choose your next step, and turn discussion into decisions.
Why It's Worth It
Less time preparing. More time leading.
You don't have to start with a blank page or develop your own framework.
This playbook gives you practical questions, examples, and exercises you can use at your next board meeting.
It helps your board clarify its purpose, discover opportunities, focus its efforts, and agree on meaningful next steps.
Because the real question isn't just how well your organization is doing. It's how much better your community is because your organization exists.