By Linda Crompton, CEO

Recently, someone asked me, “What is the Number 1 question you get asked at BoardSource?” That was easy to answer: “What is the ideal number of board members we should have for an effective board?”

I am always a little bit depressed by this question, suggesting as it does a...

By Deborah Davidson, vice president of governance research and education

Like you, all of us BoardSource were fascinated as we watched the Susan G. Komen for the Cure controversy play out last week. On Friday, just minutes after my colleague, Rita Santelli, shared her thoughts on the board’s role...

By Rita Santelli, vice president of marketing and communications

If your organization is anything like BoardSource, the news stories about Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood have been a major topic of conversation the past few days. Throughout our hallways, women – as well as men –...

By Deborah Davidson, BoardSource vice president of governance, education, and research

Back in the ‘70s, a wonderful Wicked Witch named Evillene rocked Broadway in a soul version of The Wizard of Oz called The Wiz. Her signature song was "Don't Nobody Give Me No Bad News." It's an understandable...

In 2009, in response to the challenging landscape in which nonprofits found themselves following the financial crisis, BoardSource introduced the concept of "Transformative Governance." I wrote a long article for Board Member, BoardSource’s member periodical, in which I explained that if boards are...

I attended the White House Forum on Nonprofit Leadership last week. It was gratifying to join 200 nonprofit leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities of better preparing, training, and sustaining the next wave of nonprofit leaders.

After a welcome and framing remarks by Jonathan...

The Future is now History.

The 2011 BoardSource Leadership Forum, “Governing Toward the Future,” is now in the past. I, along with more than 600 of the most interesting and knowledgeable nonprofit leaders from across the country, enjoyed two full days of discussion, debate, deliberation, and...

As I write this, the East Coast is recovering from the effects of Hurricane Irene, a storm that didn’t quite live up to her advance billing, but that wreaked billions of dollars in damages and claimed at least 49 lives. The biggest earthquake in 50 years just shuddered through the region, causing...

Every year since 1998, The Nonprofit Timeshas put out a list of the “Power and Influence Top 50”—movers and shakers in the nonprofit world who are changing the way the world views our sector.

I read an interesting article the other day on Bridgespan’s Web site. It was an interview about nonprofit board service with Phyllis Yale, a Harvard-trained consultant at Bain and Co., the “incubator” of Bridgespan. Phyllis serves on the board of Bridgespan Group, a national nonprofit, as well as...