A nonprofit board's duty of obedience is two-pronged. One part of this duty focues on a member's behavior. Essentially, what goes-on at a board meeting binds the board member to requiring that members cannot go outside the board and rally against what has been agreed-to. A disgruntled member can: choose to accept a decision and live with it; try to get the board to change its mind over the next period of time; or, resign (and then work against the board if so moved).
There's another dimension of the duty of obedience. This second dimension is focused on a board's commitment to mission having evolved from nonprofit's following the founder's intentions. But, because the world may and does change in time, this duty must include understanding mission within the context of market. Market forces that is and includes, as a principle variable, the changing needs and demographics of consumers.
Settlement houses represent best this point. Settlement houses often start with the intent of "settling" specific ethnic-immigrants into a community. But as most communities recognize, it is common for "who" is coming "in" to change. So, while for instance, Irish might have been a dominant immigrant in a community in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Bosnian or Serbian or Puerto Rican immigrants might be the next new comer. Settlement houses, in order to be responsive, needed first to recognize the change and next, adjust programming, and at very minimum, add staff who spoke the language, if they were to continue.
Two articles in the Wall Street Journal should serve as notice to nonprofit boards that faithfulness to mission includes sensitivity to market. One article is about Purdye University's commitment to make its services more affordable in a time when tuition has risen every year. The University is trying a variety of tactics to make change and, according to the article, succeeding, while adhering to its mission of ensuring its students make progress and achieve their goals. A second article, focuses on the successes of the Newport Jazz Festival in reaching its 60th anniversary while turning to the future of the music and the public.
Mission matters as much as market if a nonprofit plans to continue as a thriving organization. What mission must include, changes in market, and, organizational adaptation: this is good strategic conversation for a board.