This matches my experience on a small arts non-profit. People were added to the board rather explicitly for their fundraising contacts. I was there partially fo

This matches my experience on a small arts non-profit. People were added to the board rather explicitly for their fundraising contacts. I was there partially for my arts contacts, but mostly because I was shameless about hitting up local politicians for grants and such. The executive director was in charge strategy-wise, the rest of us were along for the ride. Because of my particular role, I had considerable say over which artists were involved, but almost no input on overall direction. Because of the fundraising focus, it could be stressful at times (there's never, ever enough money), but working the government systems was very educational and I'm very happy about the time I spent doing it.