December 10, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Nonprofit Governance: the Why, What and How of Nonprofit Boardship
by John Tropman and Thomas J. Harvey
Nonprofit organizations place too high a premium on their missions and not enough on management, argue John Tropman, a professor of social work at the University of Michigan, and Thomas J. Harvey, a business professor at the University of Notre Dame.
A key reason, they say, is that board members don’t have to worry that anyone will fire them or that they will be held accountable in any other way for their actions.
Rather than focusing on measuring activities, board members should emphasize results in evaluating themselves and their charities. The authors also recommend that boards improve their knowledge of fiscal matters and pay close attention to their larger role within the community, rather than their function within the organizations they govern.
Publisher: University of Scranton Press, Chicago Distribution Center, 11030 South Langley, Chicago, Ill. 60628; 317 pages; $35.00; ISBN 978-1-58966-199-0.
