nonprofit leadership succcession

Does A New Nonprofit Board Director Really Understand Your Organization? The Board Nurturing Challenge!

Does A New Nonprofit Board Director Really Understand Your Organization?  The Board Nurturing Challenge!

By: Eugene Fram       Free Digital Image

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The careful nurturing of a board member, whether for-profit or nonprofit, is critical. The pay-off of a robust orientation process is an informed and fully participating board director. The following are very similar occurrences in both for-profit and nonprofit boards:

The CEO of a transportation firm agrees to become a board director of a firm developing computer programs. He has risen through the transportation ranks with a financial background, but he knows little about the dynamics of the computer industry.

A finance professor is asked to serve on the board of a nonprofit school serving handicapped children. She has no children of her own and has never had any contact with handicapped children, social workers or teachers serving handicapped children. (more…)

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Nonprofit & Business Boards Have Similar Challenges – Some Reflections on Them

Nonprofit & Business Boards Have Similar Challenges – Some Reflections on Them

My blogs often highlight how nonprofit and business boards have similar challenges. Following I will highlight some business board challenges reported by William George, a Harvard professor, former board chair-CEO of Medtronic. Then I will show how his experiences can be related to those of nonprofit board directors.* As usual, I will quote or briefly paraphrase William George’s insights through italics.

Independent Directors

Most nonprofit directors are independent ones. They typically have limited engagement with the (nonprofit) and its board, meeting six to eight times a year. Consequently, management’s knowledge of the organization’s information and data is superior (more…)