Sometimes even the board members of not-for-profit organisations find themselves in a tough situation – one that requires them to answer hard questions. The honest answers to these questions can show you the right decision for your career. In some cases it is to resign gracefully instead of trying to hold on to your position despite this decision being a burden for the company and posing a risk for yourself. The question you need to ask yourself is easy and straightforward enough – ‘Am I in the right place, holding a seat on this NFP’s board?’ In order to answer it, however, you will need to evaluate yourself by using the five points below.

1.     Do I Help?

In the beginning, you may have been helpful to the NFP organisation by holding a seat on its board. However, you may have lost your desire/motivation to work for the well-being of the NFP. Or you may have successfully achieved all your goals and now there is nothing else you can do to aid the organisation. In both cases, and in any other case when you can’t answer positively on the question ‘Do I help the organisation in any way?’, it may be better for you to resign and vacate your seat on the board so that someone else may take it and contribute to the NFP’s success.

2.     Can I Help?

In some cases, although you do not help just now, you may be able to if you aim to do so. Ask yourself if there is anything at all you can do for the organisation. If you find out that you actually are very valuable for the organisation just where you are but you don’t contribute because you don’t make efforts, then you have two choices – either to start making efforts and help, or resign gracefully so that others can do it instead of you. If you can help but you don’t want to (or don’t have the time/the will to do so), or if you find out that you can’t help at all – there you have another sign that it is time to resign.

3.     Am I Allowed to Help?

Sometimes it’s just not your fault. You want to help and you can help but the current management of the NFP organisation does not allow you. There may be different reasons why – a personal rift, the other board members being corrupt, you not being respected and paid attention to etc. In this case, if you feel that you can’t change anything, it’s better for you to resign before the organisation fails. If you are a part of the board of an organisation accused in unlawful or unethical practices, you may be liable to both financial and moral reprobation.

4.     Why am I a board member?

If you are a board member just because you are looking for some kind of personal benefit, you have made a wrong choice for your career. Those suitable for the post of a NFP board member are people who are happy to sacrifice efforts, time and money for the sake of the organisations prosperity. If you are trying to invest as little as possible of these resources with the aim to win as much as possible, then you’d better resign gracefully before you have been publicly exposed and choose another career for yourself.

5.     Is it the right time for you to be a board member?

Sometimes you want to help, you can help, everyone else likes you and collaborates with you and you are not seeking any personal benefit, but the time is not right. You may have personal problems, struggling with a second job, having to spend a lot of time around your family etc. and you simply have no time for the NFP. In this case, you’d better let go and leave someone else take your position. You may try again when your personal condition has improved.

To cut a long story short, there are many cases in which you should cease being a board member of a NFP voluntarily.. These include being unable to help, not wanting to help, not being allowed to help, not having the opportunity to help or helping just because you find personal benefit in that. If you answer to one or more of the above criteria, this is a sign it’s time to leave.