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To prevent this problem, organizations need to do more to manage trustees, said Leslie Lenkowsky, professor of philanthropy at Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs. вЂњYou need to look at the bigger picture and not think that your child had a rough day or got too much homework or got the wrong teacher.вЂќ вЂњPeople become trustees because their kids are students in the school, but they have trouble separating their role as a parent and a trustee,вЂќ he said. BernardвЂ™s School, an elementary school in Manhattan that he and his sons attended. Pennoyer said he saw this in the private school world, having served on the board of St. Some simply donвЂ™t understand what is required. ItвЂ™s not always the time that cause trustees to fail at their job. He has been a member of the board of the New-York Historical Society for the last decade and is president of the board of the Achelis and Bodman Foundations, which makes grants across a wide range of causes, including the arts and education, to health and public policy. But it is just one of the nonprofit boards he sits on. Grant Foundation, which supports educational research. Pennoyer, who raises money for private equity deals, says he has 25 meetings a year for the investment committee of the William T. вЂњShowing up is three-quarters of the battle,вЂќ Mr. 2 is you have to make sure that as board members you are good stewards of that institution.вЂќ 1 task at hand is having access to funding,вЂќ he said. Banks said the institutions he was involved with had different missions - from the arts to helping poor children through sports - but the challenges were the same. вЂњI can feel more personally than I do when I give to the hospital. вЂњI think my money is more impactful going to the survivors who have a finite period to live,вЂќ he said. In the last decade, he has given just under $3 million, which has helped 2,000 Holocaust survivors, according to Jewish Family Services of Los Angeles, which administers it. Then he decided to set up his own fund within the federation to help other Holocaust survivors in Los Angeles. The black card was an investment in the future.вЂќ

вЂњIt made people feel special and that they were getting something very worthwhile for their investment,вЂќ he said. At the time, the donation needed to get the card was $250,000. He created a вЂњblack card,вЂќ modeled on the American Express Centurion Card, that gives big donors a higher level of attention and convenience should they need medical care. He wanted to come up with a different way to get people to make large donations, short of the very largest gifts that got something named after them. Morgan, senior managing director at Bel Air Investment Advisors, was chairman of the capital campaign at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 2004.

CoutrГ© said, trustees need to enter into board service as an opportunity to learn.

But that greater commitment can mean that individual trustees feel like theyвЂ™re having a direct impact. They can feel less control and less activity.вЂќДЄ smaller organization is going to require a more hands-on approach because it does not have a large staff to act on the trusteesвЂ™ suggestions.

#SIZEUP JOBS PROFESSIONAL#

вЂњThe flip side of working with the highly professional staff is it can feel very hands-offish. вЂњA lot of our clients respond well to working with other highly influential people,вЂќ said Jim CoutrГ©, a partner at the Philanthropic Initiative. Yet this professionalism can have its limits. Banks, for example, also sits on the finance committee. A bigger organization, like Lincoln Center, is going to have a large, professional staff and rely on its board for fund-raising and their expertise.

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