New Directions in Nonprofit Governance and their

Implications for Practice

Prof. Yvonne Harrison, PhDUniversity at Albany, SUNY

July 29th, 2012

List of Challenges • Shrinking Resources• Shared Services• Fundraising• Grant Writing• Social Enterprise Management• Organization Behavior and Theory• Personnel Management• Managing Diversity• Volunteer Management• Strategic Alliances, Partnerships,

and Mergers• Contract Management• Social Media• Managed Care

• Regulations and Regulatory Environment

• Nonprofit Governance• Nonprofit Finance• Board Performance and Development• Performance Measurement• Accountability and Reporting• Program Evaluation• Strategic Thinking and Planning• Information Management• Nonprofit Leadership• Succession Planning• The Next Big Ideas in the Nonprofit

World

Governance Opportunity

• How can we accomplish what was done before with less $?• How do we increase self-sufficiency? • How do we change the mix of services to maintain our

mission? • How do we generate a profit from our services? • What is our mission going forward and how should we

implement it? • How do we conduct a strategic review of where we are

given the economic situation?• How do we develop a plan to use social media?

Strategic Mode:Board has direction

Fiduciary Mode:Board has purpose

Generative Mode: Board adds value

“Governance as

Leadership”Chait, Ryan and Taylor, 2005

Influence of Chair

• Helping the CEO meet specific demands as well as reach higher levels of job performance.

• Helping the board fulfill its fiduciary governance responsibilities, contribute meaningfully to establishing the strategic direction of the organization, build board morale and clarify roles for individual board members.

• Having a positive impact on the morale of the organization and organizational priorities and planning.

• Having a positive impact on the support of external stakeholders.

Recommendations

1. Discuss the role and impact of the board chair and communicate it.

2. Recruit high impact chairs.

3. Clarify chair leadership relationships.

4. Select and develop prospective chairs

5. Provide orientation and mentoring

6. Assess leadership effectiveness and impact

7. Recognize leadership contributions

Summary• Hard times present challenges and opportunities for changes in

nonprofit governance.• Few good governance best practices linked to effective change.• For regulatory reform to be effective, nonprofits will need to

“govern” change (e.g. through self-regulation). • Empirical research shows a link between Chair leadership and

nonprofit board, CEO, organizational, and stakeholder(financial support) effectiveness.

• Findings suggest Chairs can help nonprofits meet effectiveness challenges and expectations.

• Further research is needed (i.e. longitudinal, large sample).