June 1, 2005 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Nonprofit Stewardship: A Better Way to Lead Your Mission-Based Organization
by Peter C. Brinckerhoff
Nonprofit organizations belong not to the leaders who run them but to the communities they serve, writes Peter C. Brinckerhoff, a consultant. His book offers suggestions for incorporating that idea into the way charity leaders manage their organizations, an approach he says will allow them to do more good for a greater number of people.
Mr. Brinckerhoff writes that nonprofit leaders should think of themselves as stewards of the resources a community entrusts to their organization. Being a good steward, he says, requires humility, integrity, and accountability. His book explores how nonprofit leaders become better able to make decisions and allocate their organization’s resources when they focus on their group’s mission and communicate it well to others.
The book looks at how to spread such an approach throughout the organization. Mr. Brinckerhoff writes that boards must strike a balance between mission and money. Boards should be composed of both advocates who care deeply about the organization’s mission and business people who recognize that they are helping to raise and manage a nonprofit group’s money for the benefit of others. He also urges focusing on the mission to motivate staff members and volunteers, who Mr. Brinckerhoff says play perhaps the most vital role in an organization, because they are often the ones on the front lines.
In addition, Mr. Brinckerhoff provides advice on how nonprofit leaders can plan for their organization’s future and manage its finances by focusing on the mission. Chapters explore how a group’s mission can help a leader to decide when risks are worth taking and how to run an organization in lean times.
Publisher: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, 919 Lafond Avenue, St. Paul, Minn. 55104-2108; (651) 659-6024 or (800) 274-6024; fax (651) 642-2061; books@wilder.org; http://www.wilder.org; 248 pages; $34.95; ISBN 0-940069-42-3.
