December 9, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of Nonprofit Boards
by Richard P. Chait, William P. Ryan, and Barbara E. Taylor
“Frustration with boards is so chronic and widespread that board and troubled board have become almost interchangeable,” write the authors. But why are boards so ineffective, and how can they be fixed?
Richard Chait, William Ryan, and Barbara Taylor, all consultants and researchers who focus on nonprofit organizations, diagnose the problem as one of purpose. Board members often fall asleep at the switch, not because they lack knowledge about what the organization does or are confused about their responsibilities, but because they find their roles meaningless, the authors say. Their work is too often episodic, undemanding, and unrewarding, according to the authors.
To fix the problem, nonprofit organizations need to think of their trustees as leaders, rather than reserving leadership for the chief executive alone, the authors say. Board members should have some fiduciary responsibilities, but must also be engaged in planning the organization’s work and crafting its responses to challenges and opportunities.
And if nonprofit organizations are to rethink the role of the board, they must also reconsider what skills they deem important in a trustee, say the authors. They write that the best boards combine intelligence, technical expertise, a sound reputation, and political leverage. Capitalizing on those skills and attributes, the authors say, can be as important as garnering the financial resources of board members.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Hoboken, N.J. 07030; (877) 762-2974; http://www.wiley.com; 198 pages; $39; ISBN 0-471-68420-1.
