Be Careful About Confusing Vital Roles
Don’t Confuse the Hat: Why Board Members Shouldn’t Always Be Your Lawyer, CPA, or HR Department
In the nonprofit world, where every dollar matters and every role often stretches beyond its job description, it’s common to lean on board members to help fill operational gaps. Especially when those board members happen to be lawyers, CPAs, fundraisers, or HR professionals.
It feels efficient. It feels cost-effective. It feels…reasonable.
But here’s the caution: just because a board member can help in these roles, doesn’t mean they should—at least, not without drawing a clear line.
The Double Hat Dilemma
Board members have a vital role: to steer the mission, provide oversight, and uphold the organization’s fiduciary responsibilities. This includes duties of loyalty, care, and obedience. When they’re simultaneously asked to serve as the organization’s legal counsel, accountant, or operations volunteer, those roles start to blend—and not in a good way.
Why? Because it blurs accountability, confuses oversight, and can even create ethical conflicts.
Take a lawyer on your board. If that board member starts advising on legal matters as your lawyer, what happens when the board needs independent legal advice about something that implicates the board itself? Or if there’s a disagreement about how the organization handled a legal issue? Their dual role becomes problematic—not just practically, but legally.
The same goes for CPAs, HR professionals, fundraisers, or anyone else asked to operate in two lanes at once.
Serving Is Still Possible—With Boundaries
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t invite these professionals to serve on your board—or that they can’t ever offer support. Many lawyers, accountants, and other skilled professionals are eager to serve nonprofits they believe in. And their insights can absolutely enrich board discussions.
But if you need someone to actually do the work—reviewing contracts, running payroll, auditing your books, managing benefits, planning a gala—it’s better to invite them to serve in that capacity as a volunteer, under the direction of the Executive Director or CEO, not as a board member.
Or even better? Find a separate volunteer for the operational role first. Let your board member be a board member.
Protect the Board’s Function. Empower the ED.
Ultimately, this is about preserving clarity and accountability in your organization.
The board governs. The Executive Director leads. Volunteers support. And when these roles are clear, everyone’s work becomes more effective.
Board members are at their best when they can focus on strategic thinking, financial oversight, risk management, and mission alignment. Operational volunteering—when needed—should be intentionally separate, with clear expectations and reporting lines. Otherwise, you risk overburdening your board, diluting governance, and weakening the very structure that keeps your nonprofit sustainable.
Conclusion: A Better Way to Fill the Gap
Board members can absolutely be a great source of volunteers. If you’re looking for legal or financial help, they might know someone. They may even want to do it themselves. But if so, consider whether they should serve in that operational role instead of joining the board—or at least, make the two roles distinct.
Don’t confuse the hat. Let your board lead with clarity. Let your volunteers serve with purpose. And let your ED be empowered to manage the mission with the support they need—not a muddled job description.