In Policy Governance, the board decides "ends" which Carver defines as a) accomplish what b) for whom c) by when d) at what cost? All other concerns are matters of "means" and delegated to the staff, which is led by the CEO.
The hardest part of nonprofit boards, IMO, is the high power / low engagement dynamic you point out. Every so often, say once every 3-5 years in a healthy organization, the board has one or... (read more)
Nonprofit Founder/CEO here. This is really good analysis. So good that I'd love to have you on my board!
Are you familiar with John Carver's Policy Governance Model? It's the approach we (imperfectly) implemented a couple years ago.
https://www.carvergovernance.com/pg-np.htm
In Policy Governance, the board decides "ends" which Carver defines as a) accomplish what b) for whom c) by when d) at what cost? All other concerns are matters of "means" and delegated to the staff, which is led by the CEO.
The hardest part of nonprofit boards, IMO, is the high power / low engagement dynamic you point out. Every so often, say once every 3-5 years in a healthy organization, the board has one or... (read more)