At BoardSource, we have sometimes talked about the fact that boards are a team that never gets to practice — that each time the “team” comes together, it’s a “game day” situation. While this is absolutely true, it’s also true that some “games” are higher stakes than others.

As organizations continue to adjust to the new environment that the COVID-19 crisis has created, many board leaders are asking what they should be doing. But as is the case during good times, the board’s role is to take the lead on overseeing the organization — and that means listening to and...

As any experienced organizational manager or leader will quickly affirm, getting any group of people to work together smoothly, even on a relatively simple task, can be hard. This is even more true in a boardroom, where tasks are rarely simple, and, ideally, members are coming from diverse...

This post was written by a respected nonprofit governance expert who wishes to remain anonymous.

I worked on my family’s dairy farm through high school and college, but the twice-a-day milking routine never came easy for me. Summers were stifling hot; winter mornings at 3 a.m. were often below freezing.

An exciting, grand historical evolution of American society is taking place: For-profit and nonprofit domains are converging. Many of the entrepreneurial and organizational practices and frameworks found most frequently in the business world are finding increased adoption in the social sector, just...

Anne Wallestad shared her thoughts on the board’s role in protecting an organization’s people from sexual misconduct in today’s issue of the Nonprofit Quarterly. We summarize her thoughts here but encourage you to read It’s Time for Nonprofit Boards to Have a Conversation About Sexual Misconduct in...

With his personal finances spinning out of control, Steve Carell’s character in the television series The Office gathered everyone around and announced, “I declare bankruptcy!” His co-workers then explained that using bankruptcy as a path to deal with financial difficulties involved more than a...

Power struggles, miscommunication, and differences of opinion are bound to show up on any nonprofit board and can intensify when an organization is undergoing an executive transition. When conflict arises, one's first instinct might be to avoid it, but conflict can actually present an opportunity...

As both a mom and a consultant in the nonprofit sector, I often wonder what my world looks like to my two young children, who currently understand very little about what “mommy does.” What, for example, might they conclude about board culture if they were to venture with me into a nonprofit...