1. A Presentation on Boards and Governance Cindy Stubblefield Allen Mosteller ================== February 3, 2007
2. What is Governance? "Governance is the strategic leadership of nonprofit organizations" (Ott, p. 9) The governance function of a nonprofit is responsible for providing overall strategic direction, guidance and control. Often the term "governance" refers to board matters. However, many people are coming to consider governance as a function carried out by the board and top management. Effective governance depends to a great extent on the working relationship between board and top management.
3. Programs - Nonprofits work from their overall mission, or purpose, to identify a few basic service goals that must be reached to accomplish their mission. Resources are organized into programs to reach each goal. Think of programs in terms of inputs, process, outputs and outcomes. Inputs are the various resources needed to run the program. Outputs are the units of service. Outcomes are the impacts on the clients receiving services. Central administration - Central administration is the staff and facilities that are common to running all programs. This usually includes at least the executive director and office personnel. Nonprofits usually strive to keep costs of central administration low in proportion to costs to run programs.
4. Major Areas of Board Responsibility by setting up a corporation or legal existence, and to represent the organization's point of view through interpretation of its products and services, and advocacy for them.
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12. Executive Director as Board Member 1. Is a member of the Board. 2. Serves as the Chief Volunteer of the organization (nonprofit only). 3. Is a partner with the Chief Executive in achieving the organization's mission. 4. Provides leadership to the Board of Directors, who sets policy and to whom the Chief Executive is accountable. 5. Chairs meetings of the Board after developing the agenda with the Chief Executive. 6. Encourages Board's role in strategic planning. 7. Appoints the chairpersons of committees, in consultation with other Board members. 8. Serves ex officio as a member of committees and attends their meetings when invited. 9. Discusses issues confronting the organization with the Chief Executive. 10. Helps guide and mediate Board actions with respect to organizational priorities and governance concerns. 11. Reviews with the Chief Executive any issues of concern to the Board. 12. Monitors financial planning and financial reports. 13. Plays a leading role in fundraising activities (nonprofit only). 14. Formally evaluates the performance of the Chief Executive and informally evaluates the effectiveness of the Board members. 15. Evaluates annually the performance of the organization in achieving its mission. 16. Performs other responsibilities assigned by the Board.
15. Planning for the Future? Three Aspects of Organizational Planning
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19. The contents of a business plan typically aim to : 1. Describe the venture including its primary features, advantages and benefits. 2. What the organization wants to do with it. 3. Justification that the plans are credible. 4. Marketing plans, including research results about how the venture will be marketed. 5. Staffing plans, including what expertise will be needed to build and provide the venture on an ongoing basis. 6. Management plans, including how the expertise will be organized, coordinated and led. 7. Financial plans, including costs to build the venture, costs to operate the venture, expected revenue, budgets for each of the first several years into the future, and when the venture might break-even. 8. Appendices that include a wide variety of materials such as a description of the overall organization, its other products and/or services, or its current staff.
20. A nonprofit business plan is very similar to a well designed grant proposal. --------------------------------------------------------In addition to the items included in a standard business plan, a grant proposal might include itemization of any deficits (when expected expenses exceed expected revenues), which indicates the need for funding from the entity to which the grant proposal is being submitted. --------------------------------------------------------A break-even analysis usually is not included in a grant proposal.
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22. Free Management Library Website: Free Complete Toolkit for Boards http://www.managementhelp.org/boards/boards.htm Excellent information can be obtained by doing a "Grok It" search on Nonprofit Management on the IPL site that can be accessed at : http://ipl.grokker.com/grokker.html?IPL=true&numResults=250&query=nonprofit%20management
