Best Practices in Board Governance

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Best Practices in Board Governance
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Board Governance

• Board Roles and Responsibilities
• Top Five Attributes of a Quality Board
• Top Five Best Practices in Board Governance

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Why?

• Have a Board?
• Do people join Boards?

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Board Roles and Responsibilities

• The non-profit Board sets the direction of the
  organization, ensures resources, and provides
  oversight

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Board Roles and Responsibilities
Basic Responsibilities of a Nonprofit Board

• 1. Determine the organizations mission and
  purposes
• 2. Select the Executive Director
• 3. Support the E.D. and review his/her
  performance
• 4. Ensure effective organizational planning
• 5. Ensure adequate resources
• 6. Manage resources effectively
• 7. Be an ambassador for the organization
• 8. Assess its own performance
• Source National Center for Non-Profit Boards

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Individual Board Member Responsibilities

• Be informed
• Participate
• Contribute financially
• Raise funds
• Be an ambassador

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Top Five Attributes of a Quality Board

• Attribute 1 Board members have a basic
  understanding of the organizations vision,
  mission, operations and history
• Attribute 2 The Board has a clear understanding
  of the organizations primary beneficiaries and
  the Boards responsibility to them as moral
  owners of the organization

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Top Five Attributes of a Quality Board
Attribute 3 Board members ensure adequate
resources for the long term Attribute 4 The
work of the Board is well organized and
managed

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Top Five Attributes of a Quality Board

• Attribute 5 The role of the Board is clear and
  distinct from the role of the staff
• Board Governance
• Staff Management

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Top Five Best Practices in Board Governance

• What should you actually do?

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Top Five Best Practices in Board Governance

• Focus
• Build knowledge
• Promote honest, open dialogue
• Formally evaluate performance
• Insist on good practices

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Top Five Best Practices in Board Governance

• Focus on what matters most
• Preserving the mission
• Organizational Quality
• Financial strength
• Strategy and vision

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Top Five Best Practices in Board Governance

• 2. Build a deep knowledge of the organization
• Visit the program site(s)
• Meet people from throughout the organization
• Ask for regular reports on program results
• Stay current

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Top Five Best Practices in Board Governance

• 3. Promote honest, open dialogue
• Involve everyone
• Ask tough questions
• Ask dumb questions
• Have the courage to disagree
• Listen to your colleagues

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Top Five Best Practices in Board Governance

• 4. Formally evaluate performance
• Organization as a whole
• Executive Director
• Board as a whole
• Operations following strategic plan

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Top Five Best Practices in Board Governance

• 5. Insist on good practices
• Early setting of Board calendar
• Regular rhythm to agendas
• Adequate advance materials
• Good meeting management
• Plain language/clear communication

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Top Five Best Practices in Board Governance

• Good boards, well aware that they lack the time
  and resources to tackle all of their
  responsibilities at once, manage to adapt
  perhaps by devoting extra energy to a single
  task, such as a capital campaign, before moving
  on to the next challenge.
• Paul J. Jansen and Andrea R. Kilpatrick
• The McKinsey Quarterly

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Sources

• www.nonprofits.about.com
• Strategic Board Recruitment by Robert W. Kile and
  J. Michael Loscavio, Aspen, 1996
• The Board Building Cycle by Sandra Hughes, Berit
  M. Lakey and Marla J. Bobowick, National Center
  for Non Profit Boards, 2000
• The Chief Executives Role in Developing the
  Nonprofit Board by Nancy R. Axelrod, National
  Center for Nonprofit Boards, 1988
• Non Profit Board Answer Book by Robert C.
  Andringa and Ted W. Engstrom, Board Source, 2002
• Jack Huston, Colgate-Palmolive