Balanced scorecards, dashboards, strategic plan reports, even routine financial and activity reports: They range from basic to varying degrees of sophistication relative to accountability, management, and governance. “Metrics” is the prevailing mantra, but do the metrics that are routinely tracked...

As a board member, you have a difficult job. You need to ensure that your organization has the money, talent, experience, and resources to fund your mission. And you need to do this in an ever-changing market and regulatory environment. Moreover, if your organization relies heavily on your...

This post is one in a series written by leaders who are presenting sessions at or sponsoring the 2017 BoardSource Leadership Forum taking place in Seattle, October 18-20. We thank our sponsors for their support.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lays the foundation for the responsibilities...

This post is one in a series written by individuals who are presenting sessions at the BoardSource Leadership Forum taking place in Seattle, October 18-20. BoardSource thanks Russell Investments for its support of the conference and for sharing its expertise with our participants.

For at least...

A few years ago, my family and I moved to a small town, across the country from where we were currently living, and we were having a hard time finding a home that fit our needs and budget. So, we started talking about building. That presented a whole new set of challenges — finding the right...

There’s a famous scene in the Mel Brooks movie Young Frankenstein where Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (played brilliantly by Gene Wilder) realizes that his assistant Igor gave him “Abby Normal’s” brain to put into his monster. As you can imagine, hilarity ensues. Today, we’re once again talking about...

If you serve on a nonprofit board, you’ve probably seen those fellow members who look like a deer in the headlights when presented with financial statements. Maybe that’s even you. While everyone is recruited to serve because of a unique skill set, it’s important for all board members to understand...

Why don’t more nonprofits use online investing tools? Sharon Liebowitz has some ideas. Share yours in the comments.

Over the last few weeks, I was honored to speak at two financial technology conferences in New York. It was great to hear insights and trends from fellow industry leaders and...

Chris Thompson, BoardSource’s numbers guy (and experienced ATM user) explores what can be learned from our recent financial literacy quiz.

Of the 10 basic board responsibilities, “finance” appears prominently in two of them: “ensuring adequate financial resources” and “protecting assets and...

Financial oversight is probably one of the most important board responsibilities. It’s important because an organization’s nonprofit status can come with some really nice benefits that may include:

• no income taxes
• no sales taxes
• no property taxes
• donations to the organization are tax-deductible

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