Board Governance

Board Meetings and Retreats - A list of resources to help you plan your next board meeting or retreat. (The Free Management Library)

Board Composition and Recruitment - Given the tremendous responsibility and decision-making power of boards, and the length of most board members' tenures, making sure you have the right composition of leaders on your board is absolutely fundamental. (BoardSource)

To pick the right board chair in the first place, you have to have a good job description and a clear articulation of needed skills and behaviors. This Nonprofit Quarterly article breaks down the role of board chair and how the position differs from the rest of the board.

A "maverick" committee--one that acts independently of the rest of the board--can be dangerous, especially when it also happens to be your executive committee. The Common Ground article "Beware of a Runaway Executive Committee" offers some tips to help you minimize the dangers.

This article provides basic information on what nonprofit boards should generally include include and exclude from their meeting minutes and how those minutes should be maintained. (Robinson Bradshaw)

Best Practices for Board Meeting Minutes

The selection of particular board training topics and training methods depend on the nature and needs of the individual organization. The guidelines and sample agenda provided in this resource may prove useful to organizations as they develop their own approach to board training. (Free Management Library)

Basic Guidelines and Sample Agenda for Board Training Session

Ambassadors charts highlight each board member's leadership actions. Acts such as committing to sponsor an event, emailing a donor, or talking with potential participants are all noted. This encourages board participation and highlights individual board members' efforts.

Is your organization thinking about forming an advisory board? Make sure your organization specifies the advisory board's role and how it differs from the board of directors or trustees before taking the leap.  All advisory boards share common goal: to help the nonprofit organization. However, there are different types of nonprofit advisory boards.

Terry Allebaugh had his "aha" moment when he was away from the office. He was at a workshop on executive transitions presented by the N.C. Center for Nonprofits with support from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC Foundation. He realized he'd fulfilled his work at Housing for New Hope (HNH), which he founded "to prevent and end homelessness one valuable person at a time." After 20 years as executive director, he realized it was time to move aside and let new leadership take the helm. He wasn’t ready to retire, but he was tired of the CEO's administrative responsibilities.

One way to be sure that each person on the board is clear on his or her responsibilities is to adopt a Board Member "Contract" (Blue Avocado). Not intended to be legally enforced, the contract outlines explicitly what is expected of individual board members, and how the organization will in turn be responsible to them.