The nine cornerstones of nonprofit board policy
Although boards of directors may be composed of part-time volunteers, said the Nonprofit Times in a recent newsletter, they should still keep charge of setting an organization's overall goals for the chief executive officer to implement.
Consultants Frederic L. Laughlin and Robert C. Andringa in their book, "Good Governance for Nonprofits," recommend that boards should write and adopt a manual that covers the following general principles:
- Vision. This encompasses the broad view of what the organization wants to achieve. Increasingly, it includes a statement of a desired outcome of the organization's work.
- Mission. This is similar to a vision, but delineated in more concrete terms. A mission statement can also include benchmarks for determining success.
- Values. This sets out for the staff the standards that will be followed for achieving the mission.
- Moral owners. For membership organizations, this usually means the dues-paying members. Other types of organizations may have different moral owners.
- Primary beneficiaries. The key word here is primary, used as a way to focus the efforts of the organization and avoid overreach.
- Major functions. This can involve setting broad priorities and amounts of effort to be devoted to each.
- Strategies. This lays out basic ways to achieve goals.
- Goals. Similar to mission, this defines objectives in greater detail and may be revised annually. Goals can also serve as the primary tool for evaluating how effective the CEO has been.
- Strategic plans. The authors suggest that the CEO take the lead in drawing up this section, since it involves defining how internal resources will be deployed to reach the objectives.
HANO provides technical assistance for organizations preparing strategic plans. Click here for more information or contact Lily Bloom Domingo, (808) 529-0465 or lbdomingo@hano-hawaii.org.
