Can paid staff members serve on a nonprofits board?
Can paid staff members serve on a nonprofit’s board? Generally, it is not a good idea to have a paid staff member on the board and may even be limited by your state’s nonprofit laws.Answer: The chief reason staff do not usually serve on a nonprofit’s board is risk of a conflict of interest. The board makes decisions that are sometimes in conflict with a staff member’s interests. That said, many nonprofits have at least one staff member on their boards, especially in small nonprofits where the founder might be on the board. In other organizations, there are only volunteers, who might do the work and serve on the board. Sometimes state laws do permits staff to serve on nonprofit boards, with California being the prime example. The Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance suggests that a nonprofit board should include no more than one paid staff member. It is recommended that if a staff member does se
