A board does critical work for their organization, yet many spend little time planning ahead. Sarah and I believe that every board should spend time each year planning for their work together. An organization’s staff does annual work planning, the board should too. An annual plan outlines what a group wants to accomplish in the
Read more »Board of Directors
Four Tips for Leading from the Middle of Your Board
What does leadership look like when you aren’t in charge? We often do this in our professional and personal lives – managing up, down, and sometimes upside-down. This is what it means to “lead from the middle,” and the concept can be useful to board members.
Read more »Board Governance
In this workshop we review the common roles and responsibilities of a nonprofit board of directors as board members, committee members, and with relation to the CEO. We discuss two different but complimentary frameworks for board governance that include and go beyond fiduciary duty.
Read more »Supporting Evaluation: A Guide for the Nonprofit Board of Directors
As leaders in an organization, the board plays an important role in supporting the practice and use of program evaluation. In this article, we discuss the leadership actions that support program evaluation in an organization and how a nonprofit board of directors can contribute. This is the third of three articles on the role of
Read more »Using Program Evaluation: A Guide for the Nonprofit Board of Directors
When engaging with program evaluation, a nonprofit board of directors should not fall into the trap of playing only an oversight role. Board members are highly-skilled volunteers who live half in the organization and half in the community: they add valuable perspective to the results of program evaluation. But, as anyone who has served on
Read more »Understanding Evaluation: A Guide for the Nonprofit Board of Directors
Working with nonprofit organizations that are just starting—or ramping up—their evaluation process is one of the best parts of this job. A little evaluation goes a long way for these organizations. People are excited to get started and see the results. When 12 people sit around a boardroom table, they bring 12 slightly different ideas
Read more »Knowledge Management: The Anchor of Operational Boards
If you’ve ever been on a nonprofit board with no staff, you know firsthand how different they are from typical boards. In addition to handling governance responsibilities, directors do all of the day-to-day work of the organization. Let’s call these boards operational boards. Operational boards have so much to do that their directors can easily
Read more »A Quick Guide to Reviewing Your Nonprofit’s Bylaws
Photo by Sebastien Wiertz, Flickr Creative Commons Even experienced nonprofit boards have to pause occasionally and consider the state of their organization’s bylaws. A critical component to any nonprofit, bylaws define the “rules of engagement”, or the ways in which nonprofits conduct themselves as they work to achieve their various missions. What follows are key
Read more »The Executive as Vortex for Organizational Governance
I am hesitant to call it a trend, but for the past 3 years I have been observing something about the role of the executive that I had not seen as clearly before. The executive has become the vortex of governance for nonprofit organizations. Let me explain myself. I have served and continue to serve
Read more »Boards Assessments: Kicking them up a notch!
Below is the chapter “New Practices for Board Assessments” I wrote for the book “YOU and Your Nonprofit Board: Advice and Practical Tips from the Field’s Top Practitioners, Researchers, and Provocateurs.” This book is part of the “In the Trenches” series published by CharityChannel Press and lovingly edited by Terrie Temkin, PhD. Enjoy! New Practices
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