Nonprofit Board Leadership In Question

Some of you may have caught Francie Ostrower's commentary in the May 29, 2008 Chronicle of Philanthropy where Francie, a very bright and thoughtful Urban Institute Senior Research Associate, summarized her findings from her National Survey of Nonprofit Governance.

In brief, Francie says that nonprofit boards really don't do what it takes to support their execs & leaders.  Francie then goes on to give some sugggestions - most of which are ok, like thinking twice about making the exec a voting member (I should hope they think twice) and institutionalizing a process for the board to regularly monitor its own performance.

Basically, this is not rocket science but it's good to have the evidence in plain writing. 

I did not find the actual survey but here's a link to the Urban Institute.

Comments

[Terrie Temkin]

Mike and others,
These and more of Ostrower's findings can be downloaded at http://www.urban.org/publications/411479.html. The study, in which over 5,100 nonprofits participated, is helpful in giving a picture of governance in the US today. There are some surprising statistics among those we might expect. She covers a wide range of topics, including board composition, board performance, advocacy and financial transactions. The interactions - e.g., gender and board performance - are often fascinating.

Terrie Temkin, Ph.D.
CoreStrategies for Nonprofits, Inc.
www.CoreStrategies4Nonprofits.com