smorgasBoard^®

Turnover among board and senior staff members is a big issue for nonprofits, and it’s about to become even bigger. Fifty-seven percent—better than one in two—of nonprofits surveyed in five separate studies we’ve reviewed expect a change in leadership within five years of the survey date. The projected turnover of…

For the past few months in this space, we have enjoyed sparking discussion of key questions to be addressed in the context of a search for a new CEO. Our first article highlighted “Five questions every search committee should ask—of itself.”1 Our second article covered “Five questions every search committee…

Instructions: Use the scale below to indicate the extent to which eachstatement applies to your board. Be sure to evaluate the statements honestly and without over-thinking your answers. Download PDF…

Having worked with literally hundreds of CEOs and board chairs of nonprofits and foundations, my BoardWalk colleagues and I have experienced firsthand the power behind a board chair and CEO working in truly effective partnership on behalf of a specific mission. We’ve also seen organizations flounder when those relationships were…

The really tough issues in nonprofit board governance are not the ones involvingMessrs. Sarbanes or Oxley, nor even solons in the White House, the Congress or the IRS. Rather, the really tough issues in board governance are the ones involving the people you know best—your own board members. The governance…

Five questions every board member should ask Anyone interested in better board governance has lots of sources available. Bookstores are full of weighty tomes on the topic, some of the best of which we cite in the Resources1 section of our own website. A quick check viaGoogle for best practices…

As nonprofits, foundations and other tax-exempt organizations develop, the role of the board and its individual members changes. At one extreme, the start-up, the board may do everything from licking envelopes to setting strategy. In truly mature organizations, the board may be so removed from the day-to-day work as to…

This pledge is intended to acknowledge the shared responsibilities, commitment and conduct expected of all members of the Board of Directors of Sample Nonprofit, Inc. This document is not meant to be a formal contract but rather a set of expectations set forth for all existing and future board members.…

Is the board helping, or inhibiting, your nonprofit’s ability to deliver strong program results? Conventional wisdom says mission delivery is the province of staff. But exceptional boards engage in ways that are literally game-changing for mission outcomes. Far from taking program impact for granted, exceptional Boards focus on it. They…