Empower Missouri is seeking dedicated leaders who are deeply committed to our work to change laws and policies that perpetuate cycles of poverty. Applications are now open for our 2025-2026 Board of Directors. You can read more about the role below, and visit bit.ly/EM-BoardApplication to complete the application by May 23rd.
As the highest leadership body of the organization and to satisfy its fiduciary duties, the Empower Missouri board is responsible for:
- Ensuring operational alignment to the mission and vision of the organization
- Selecting and evaluating the performance of the Executive Director.
- Supporting strategic and organizational planning.
- Ensuring strong fiduciary oversight and financial management.
- Fundraising and resource development.
- Enhancing the organization’s public image.
- Assessing its own performance as the governing body of the organization.
Each individual board member is expected to:
- Know the organization’s mission, policies, programs, and needs.
- Faithfully read and understand the organization’s financial statements.
- Serve as active advocates and ambassadors for the organization.
- Fully engage in identifying and securing the financial resources and partnerships necessary for the organization to advance its mission.
- Leverage connections, networks, and resources to develop collective action to fully achieve the organization’s mission.
- Give a meaningful personal financial donation.
- Help identify personal connections that can benefit the organization’s fundraising and reputational standing, and can influence public policy.
- Prepare for, attend, and conscientiously participate in board meetings and important related meetings.
- Participate fully in one or more committees
Further, board members are expected to:
- Follow the organization’s bylaws, policies, and board resolutions.
- Sign an annual conflict-of-interest disclosure and update it during the year if necessary, as well as disclose potential conflicts before meetings and actual conflicts during meetings.
- Maintain confidentiality about all internal matters of the organization.
Board terms run July 1st- June 30th. Board members are elected to two-year terms.
Responsibilities of NonProfit Boards
- Determine mission and purpose. It is the board’s responsibility to create and review a statement of mission and purpose that articulates the organization’s goals, means, and primary constituents served.
- Select the Executive Director. Boards must reach consensus on the Executive Director’s responsibilities and undertake a careful search to find the most qualified individual for the position.
- Support and evaluate the Executive Director. The board should ensure that the Executive Director has the moral and professional support he or she needs to further the goals of the organization.
- Ensure effective planning. Boards must actively participate in an overall planning process and assist in implementing and monitoring the plan’s goals.
- Monitor, and strengthen programs and services. The board’s responsibility is to determine which programs are consistent with the organization’s mission and monitor their effectiveness.
- Ensure adequate financial resources. One of the board’s foremost responsibilities is to secure adequate resources for the organization to fulfill its mission.
- Protect assets and provide proper financial oversight. The board must assist in developing the annual budget and ensuring that proper financial controls are in place.
- Build a competent board. All boards have a responsibility to articulate prerequisites for candidates, orient new members, and periodically and comprehensively evaluate their own performance.
- Ensure legal and ethical integrity. The board is ultimately responsible for adherence to legal standards and ethical norms.
- Enhance the organization’s public standing. The board should clearly articulate the organization’s mission, accomplishments, and goals to the public and garner support from the community
Directors Duties
- Duty of Care: Take care of the nonprofit by ensuring prudent use of all assets, including facility, people, and good will.
- Duty of Loyalty: Ensure that the nonprofit’s activities and transactions are, first and foremost, advancing its mission;
- Recognize and disclose conflicts of interest;
- Make decisions that are in the best interest of the nonprofit corporation; not in the best interest of the individual board member (or any other individual or for-profit entity).
- Duty of Obedience:
- Ensure that the nonprofit obeys applicable laws and regulations;
- Follows its own bylaws;
- And that the nonprofit adheres to its stated corporate purposes/mission.
Empower Missouri Code of Ethics
Equity: Empower Missouri recognizes the invisible barriers and privileges built into our social structures and the way they show up in the lives of our neighbors and coworkers. With this knowledge, we work to remedy inequities through systems change. We also thoughtfully craft our internal policies through an equity lens, modeling a commitment to ensuring every person gets what they need.
Integrity: We are guided by a belief in the inherent dignity and worth of all human beings. Our work is grounded in Empower Missouri’s mission and values. We strive to follow through on commitments to each other, our partners, and our communities.
Respect: We will work to understand the perspectives and lived experiences of others, seek common ground even when difficult, show compassion, and believe in each other.
Community: Our team is stronger when we work as a unit, supporting each other and finding efficiencies that make us all better. We find strength in our differences, internally and externally. We lead by example, building bi-partisan collaboration to end poverty through coalitions and councils.
Competency: We strive for clarity and skill alignment in our job roles. We actively engage our own strengths while recognizing, sharing, and respecting our own limits. We are committed to personal and professional growth, steeping our work in evidence-based best practices.
Passion: We think boldly, critically, and holistically. We take risks, experience setbacks, and suffer losses. We are resilient. We know poverty must be eliminated in Missouri. Our work does not end until every person in our state is able to live their own version of their fullest potential.
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