Size Matters: Right Sizing Your Board of Directors

I recently attended a seminar by the president and CEO of BoardSource, Linda Crompton. As you might imagine, Linda lives and breathes boards of directors and talks all over the country about nonprofit board effectiveness. She said when she talks to people about boards, the most common question she gets is “How big should my […]

Read More

Becoming a Nonprofit Board Member (Part 3)

I started this series with a hypothetical invitation for the reader to join the board of a local nonprofit organization. In my last two articles, we looked at the responsibilities of a board of directors and the duties a board member owes to his or her organization. So far, so good; nothing has scared you […]

Read More

Becoming a Nonprofit Board Member (Part 2)

In my last column, we had established a hypothetical situation in which the reader had been invited to join the board of a local nonprofit organization.  In that column, I discussed what a board is responsible for and what its duties are.  This month, I will build on that foundation by describing the duties of […]

Read More

Becoming a Nonprofit Board Member (Part 1)

You are a community-minded citizen who has just been asked to join the board of a local nonprofit organization that contributes in a significant way to the betterment of your city.  You are pleased and honored – as you should be – by the invitation, but as you think about the situation, you begin to […]

Read More

The Organizational Governance Environment

In the last newsletter, I highlighted the fact that good organizational governance is crucial to meeting the challenges of the future.  While that is true, it is more than that.  Good governance is also one of the key determinants of current organizational success or failure. We can look back to the Enron failure and the […]

Read More