‘Worth’: Prestigious Nonprofit Boards

Brad Wolverton

Enticed by prestige and opportunities to make professional and social contacts, many of America’s wealthiest and highest-profile individuals serve on the boards of nonprofit organizations, according to Worth magazine (March), which profiles what it calls the 100 most prestigious nonprofit boards on which to serve.

Sixty arts and cultural groups made the list, suggesting that cultural institutions attract the most powerful board members. Worth lists 10 nonprofit groups in New York and eight in Los Angeles in its 11-page special report, which focuses on the 20 largest metropolitan areas. The magazine says that it based its selections on each organization’s age, budget, and endowment, and the number of “prominent names” on its board.

Human-service organizations are among the least-mentioned nonprofit groups in the listing. “Someone who is rich and powerful is not likely to frequent an employment center,” the magazine writes.

Boards create a fellowship of people who share a civic spirit, however self-interested that spirit may be, the magazine reports.

“There’s an ethic here that if you’re running a major Chicago corporation and you choose not to be involved, you will not be part of the network,” Henry Fogel, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, told the magazine. “When your business needs something, you will not have made contacts.”