November 23, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
A Desktop Guide for Nonprofit Directors, Officers, and Advisors: Avoiding Trouble While Doing Good
by Jack B. Siegel
Board members and other directors of a nonprofit group have a responsibility — both to their organization and to the people it serves — to understand the financial, legal, and regulatory issues surrounding the governance of charities, in order to “ensure that scarce resources are used in the most effective and efficient way possible to accomplish the nonprofit’s mission,” writes Jack B. Siegel, a lawyer and certified public accountant.
Too often, writes Mr. Siegel, board members focus solely on the organization’s mission or fund-raising goals, but they should also be “willing to read financial statements, think about personnel issues, allocate resources, review budgets, and take on the other difficult decisions that come with governing an organization.”
Each of the 14 chapters reviews the laws, obligations, requirements, and risks relevant to the operation of nonprofit organizations, as well as the benefits, such as property-tax breaks and the ability to offer donors an opportunity to make tax-deductible gifts.
Other materials include a self-assessment survey to evaluate an organization using the information discussed in the book, and a CD-ROM with 450 documents, such as Congressional reports, government investigations and audits, IRS forms and publications, regulatory and statutory material, and other documents.
Directors need to stay informed and take their work seriously, though it may be unpaid, Mr. Siegel writes: “Put plainly, if you are a member of a board, it is your duty to either actively involve yourself in the governance of the organization or submit your resignation.”
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Hoboken, N.J. 07030; (201) 748-6000; fax (201) 748-6088; http://www.wiley.com; 705 pages; $125; ISBN 0-471-76812-X.
