Nonprofit Boards Know Something May Not Be Right When..

Really bad governance is when board members read about how questionably bad their nonprofit is in an investigative article in the nonprofit press.

Should they care or be governing at all, this should be the experience quite a few 9/11 charities are having following an AP article on the topic and a follow-up article in the Wall Street Journal identifying two state Attorney Generals who are themselves following-up on the AP article.  Public official scrutiny is one of my 7 signs a nonprofit board might know something may not be right.  You can review my article here.

But really boards, you didn't have a clue?  Tsk, tsk, tsk.  You didn't have a clue because you weren't being fiduciarily responsible and in the couple of cases cited in these articles, you basically turned the nonprofit over to the execs/founders.  Shame on you and on any board member of any nonprofit who behaves similarly.  Remember, someone might take note.

Comments

[Diana Kern]

Mike,
I remember your 2007 article about "signs something is wrong" with your executive director. Over the years I have seen some of these signs and I remember one board that acknowledged that could point to 5 of the 7 signs but still refused to act with regard to a poor performing executive.

When I pushed the officers on this I discovered that none of them wanted to deal with the hassle and time it would take to replace the executive. Wow! Then I asked them this question, "How would you like the donors of this organization to find out that the governing board is complacent and lazy with regard to mission accomplishment and ensuring the best use of their dollars?" They got busy after that.

[Mike Burns]

Diana, thanks for reading and commenting. My position: whatever it takes!

[ugg outlet]

discovered that none of them wanted to deal with the hassle and time it would take to replace the executive. Wow! Then I asked them this question, "How would you like the donors of this organization to find out that the governing board is complacent and lazy with regard to mission accomplishment and ensuring the best use of their dollars?" They got busy after that.

[cheap jerseys]

Over the years I have seen some of these signs and I remember one board that acknowledged that could point to 5 of the 7 signs but still refused to act with regard to a poor performing executive.

When I pushed the officers on this I discovered that none of them wanted to deal with the hassle and time it would take to replace the executive. Wow! Then I asked them this question, "How would you like the donors of this organization to find out that the governing board is complacent and lazy with regard to mission accomplishment and ensuring the best use of their dollars?" They got busy after that.