Every five years the Meyer Foundation and CompassPoint sponsor a study of nonprofit executive leadership called “Daring to Lead.” Focused on job satisfaction, executive transitions, financial sustainability, and board relations, the 2011 results can be found here. As a nonprofit chief executive...

Today’s nonprofit board tale is from the state of Maryland, home of the Preakness, Chesapeake Bay, and, apparently, at least one very assertive potential philanthropist.

Let me explain. According to its Web site, Equality Maryland works to secure and protect the rights of LGBT Marylanders by...

In my last two posts, I have asked that (sadly) perennial question, "Where was the board?" In each of those organizations I wrote about -- the Central Asia Institute and the Fiesta Bowl -- the board appeared to be on the lam from any serious oversight or even, it appears, much interest, relative to...

So much has been said and written already about the 60 Minutes segment on Greg Mortensen, author of Three Cups of Tea and builder of schools in Afghanistan under the auspices of the Central Asia Institute,(CAI) a Bozeman, Montana, nonprofit that Mortensen leads. Reporter Steve Kroft has been...

Where do I begin?

That ‘60s Erich Segal book, “Love Story,” opened with those words, remember? It was about a college romance that ended in tragedy.

The Fiesta Bowl debacle is about college, all right, but there’s no romance in it, and the tragedy is that there has been so little oversight by the...

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller resigned today after NPR executive Ron Schiller (no relation to Ms. Schiller) was "stung" by a hidden camera, revealing his biases against the Tea Party. The incident came on the heels of a controversial firing of Juan Williams in 2010.

Have you ever noticed how board members sometimes conflate confidentiality and transparency, two important, but essentially opposite, values? Nonprofit organizations are expected to function in a transparent manner, but if you are supposed to function in an open manner, how can you keep information...

As you probably know, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, was granted medical leave recently so that he could focus on his health. This has created much anxiety about the company's future as the stock dropped precipitously after the announcement. While the stock has since largely rebounded, the uncertainty...