Title: To whom is the nonprofit board accountable? About owners.
Date: Wednesday May 18
Time: 9am PDT, Noon EDT, 5pm BST
Short URL: j.mp/nonprofitowners <<==click to watch replay
We explored how to identify the board’s owners when the makeup of that cohort seems vague or ambiguous.
The nonprofit Policy Governance board must identify its owners, be able to link to them, and have confidence that the board is acting as a fiduciary for the owners. How does the board do this? What questions should be asked, and what research is required? What are the consequences of doing this poorly, and what are the benefits of doing it well? Does the staff have a role to play in linking the board and the owners?
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When we talk about owners and the community in which a nonprofit operates, we might use an example offered by Lost Hills, California http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/opinion/one-neighborhood-at-a-time.html?_r=0
The concept of one neighborhood at a time is useful, but the op ed piece also discusses “flooding the zone…[because] problems are so intertwined.” What Policy Governance does is help empower the board to begin to understand how community problems are intertwined and their organization’s responsibility to connect and cross-pollinate among other organizations.
Organizations become less functional silos and more part of the larger picture. I think of a patchwork quilt. The pieces alone can’t cover much, but stitched together they are at once beautiful and effective at warding off the cold night.