Title: The Strategic Board: The Step-by-Step Guide to High-Impact Governance / Edition 1
Author: Mark Light, Light
ISBN-10: 047140358X
ISBN-13: 9780471403586
There’s a strange paradox in the nonprofit world. Take topbusiness executives, highly dedicated volunteers, and othercommunity leadersall with impressive records of achievementin their own fieldsand put them together on a nonprofitboard, and you wind up, more often than not, with a remarkablyinefficient, indecisive group that seems incapable of turningambitions into accomplishments. How can boards overcome their verynature and become well-functioning, goal-oriented successes? TheStrategic Board finally answers that question with a quick andsimple blueprint that will work for every board at every type ofnonprofit organization. Nonprofit governing boards want to be effective and deliverhigh-impact results. It’s just that the realities that affectboards mediate against easy functioning. Board members often haveconsiderable goodwill but few governance skills to effectivelytranslate that goodwill into great work. Board members have much ofvalue to contributefundraising ability, political influence,other expertisebut they are rarely chosen for their skill atgoverning. That a board made up of part-time novices with limitedtime should have the final responsibility for the organizationconstitutes one of the great ironies of nonprofit governance. In this levelheaded, clearly written guide based on his ownextensive experience in nonprofit organizations, Mark Lightexplains the seven realities of nonprofit governance thatcontribute to boards’ difficulties, and then outlines theStrategic Board™ model of governancea simple,practical, easy-to-implement solution to help every board createstability and sustainability, accomplish its purpose, and producesatisfying results. Light spells out the four questions that build a strategicboard: Where to go tomorrow? Who does what? What gets done today? Did it happen? He then shows how these questions can be used to build acomprehensive four-part Governance Plan™ covering eachcritical component, from strategic and operational planning throughguidelines of conduct and schedule monitoring. As you build yourGovernance Plan™, you will notice that the success measuresyou develop will become the glue that holds your entireorganization togetherfrom board members to executive directorto front-line staffas you progress steadily toward yourgoal. Brimming with real-life stories and anecdotes, forms andchecklists, agendas and group facilitation techniques, thiseasy-to-use book will help boards of nonprofit organizations, largeand small, transcend their traditional limitations and achieve thegreatness they always hoped for.
