Field Guide to Developing, Operating and Restoring Your Nonprofit Board of Directors

Regular price $32.00 Sale

(Previous edition was "Field Guide to Developing and Operating Your Nonprofit Board of Directors")

See the high praise for our publications.

Testimonials!

"As a facilitator, instructor and consultant to many non-profit organizations, I can attest that this is the most detailed and complete book on the subject matter that I have come across. I particularly liked the references to other sections of the book, references to other contents in external resources and references to content available on the web. The book is a must-read for anyone involved in a nonprofit organization at any level!"
-- Desmond Alufohai, CMP, Miami, Florida

"The guide includes enough background theory to show you how to make change take place. Especially valuable are the practical, active tips that will really bring about change, instead of just talking about it. "
-- Leonard Zych, Executive Director, Executive Service Corps of San Antonio

New Edition of this Book!

This book is a new edition from the previous "Field Guide to Developing, Operating and Restoring Your Nonprofit Board,” which already provided comprehensive, step-by-step information about how to form, operate and evaluate high-quality nonprofit Boards. This new edition adds many more guidelines to ensure strong governance in each of all of the most important aspects of the nonprofit, including strategic planning, programs, marketing, staffing, finances, fundraising, evaluations, transparency, sustainability and lobbying.

This new edition also adds step-by-step guidelines to:
1. detect and fix broken Boards
2. select the best Board model for the nonprofit to implement
3. define how much the Board members should be involved in management, depending on the Board model
4. decide whether to use committees or not, and if so, which ones
5. establish specific, appropriate goals for Board committees
6. conduct comprehensive succession planning of the CEO position
7. ensure legal compliance to the Sarbanes-Oxley act
8. ensure highly ethical behavior of Board members

General Description

There are already plenty of publications about nonprofit Boards. There are few other, if any, guides that provide step-by-step guidelines for building, operating -- and even fixing broken -- Boards. Some publications provide basic, introductory overviews of Boards. There are many small publications that provide practical suggestions about one certain Board practice, for example, how to staff a Board or how to evaluate a Board. Some publications contain highly reflective and even inspirational discussions about the type of governance needed for the 21st Century. If you "boiled down" the information in these publications to the most practical suggestions and then added a lot of other practical suggestions and materials -- including about fixing Boards -- you'd end up with our Field Guide.

This guide is very useful to start a Board or to fix a currently struggling Board. In our experience over the years, Boards rarely struggle because they don't understand advanced concepts. Rather, Boards struggle because they have not mastered, or they have gotten away from, the fundamentals. This guide will help your Board to establish and always maintain mastery of all of the fundamentals. Guidelines are written in an easy-to-implement style, resulting in a highly practical resource that can be referenced at any time during the life of a nonprofit Board and organization.

Numerous, Downloadable Sample Board Policies in This Field Guide!

Board Job Descriptions
Executive Director Job Description
Annual Calendar of Board Activities
Comparison of Board and Staff Roles
Board Committee Charter
Board Staffing Checklist (Board Renewal Cycle)
Board Member Recruitment Grid
Board Member Application Form
Board Conflict-of-Interest Policy
Board Member Contract
Board Ethics Policy
Board Decision-Making Policy
Executive Director Evaluation Form
Board Member Self-Evaluation Form
Board Self-Evaluation Form
Board Attendance Policy
Board Media Relations Policy
Whistleblower Policy
Document Retention/Destruction Policy

Numerous Guidelines Included for How to Govern the Nonprofit!

How to Make Sure Stakeholders Are Always Heard
How to Ensure Relevant and Realistic Strategic Planning
How to Make Sure Board Operations Are High-Quality
How to Verify Programs Meet Needs of the Community
How to Ensure Fair Management and Productive People
How to Take the Lead in Fundraising – All Kinds
How to Effectively Get the Word Out About the Nonprofit
How to Ensure Sound Management of Finances and Taxes
How to Advocate for Public Needs – and Lobby Legally
How to Track Performance of Nonprofit, Board and People
How to Identify and Avoid Risks to the Nonprofit
How to Ensure Sustainability of Nonprofit, Programs, People and Money
How to Regularly Measure Overall Health of the Nonprofit
How to Ensure Transparency and Accountability

Our Other Useful Nonprofit Publications

Field Guide to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation
Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff
Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation
The above three guidebooks, and this Board book, are offered together at a discount in our
Nonprofit Capacity Building Toolkit (sm).)
Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development With Nonprofits
(book is for consultants and internal leaders)

Our Nonprofit Board Development Services and Training

We provide nonprofit Board development services, including customizing the process to suit the nature and needs of your nonprofit.
Learn more about our consultation.
We also provide a training session, Nuts and Bolts of Developing and Operating Boards of Directors, which helps attendees to start and operate their Board -- or to fix a struggling Board. That training can be customized to suit your nonprofit, as well.

Carefully Consider Getting Companion Guide for Executive Directors, As Well

The Executive Director often is the person who first organizes the Board, and in many cases, helps the Board to do its job.
Therefore, carefully consider getting the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff. Having both guides will ensure that the Board and Executive Director are working "from the same page".

Author: McNamara, Carter

Publisher: Authenticity Consulting, LLC</p