A "big" controversy has been tentatively settled in Newport, RI. The center of the controversy, the Breakers, one of the Vanderbilt summer "cottages". If you want to understand how the 1% lived in the roaring 20's, there's no better example.
Back to the controversy. The Board of the Preservation Society wants to invest in a welcome center to be located at the mansion. The Board insists there is a need and is committed to investing more than $4 million to implement this goal. But there are those who claim that building the welcome center will affect the historical integrity of the mansion. Even the feds got into the discussion sharing their own reservations. The debate has at least temporarily been resolved with the zoning board saying the Society can proceed with its plans.
Nonprofits are institutions provided with tax exempt status and responsibility to pursue missions that are consistent with some aspect of the public's well being or interest. Nonprofit boards are the caretakers of these nonprofits, assigned the responsibility to ensure that the nonprofits do indeed pursue mission within all the promises set out in artcles of incorporation and bylaws. Sometimes though, it's possible that what the nonprofit board concludes is best and right may conflicts with the "public" as illustrated through the mansion conflict. At this point the question becomes: who is the board most accountable to?
Who do you believe a nonprofit board is accountable to, first: the organization's interests or the public's when the two bodies may indeed have differing interests?