Tips for Building a Successful Board
- Posted by Emiko Muraki on June 24th, 2011
For non-profit arts organizations, the expertise of a well-formed board can be invaluable in helping organizations achieve their mission. Board Members are ambassadors across different social groups as well as the corporate sector and as such must be properly aligned with your organization.
Forbes blogger Elmira Bayrasli discusses tips to building a successful non-profit board based on the work of Lucy P. Marcus, a well known expert on best practices for board development in both for-profit and non-profit sectors. Bayrasli stresses the importance of a board with diverse skills, stating "Whether in finance, marketing or human resources, individuals asked to join a non-profit board should bring added value to the institution - and its staff. Because the majority of non-profits bootstrap their operations, taking care to 'minimize overhead,' they often make do with a small staff that is expected to juggle several responsibilities, none of which few are experts in."
Bayrasli concludes the post with a list of suggestions on how to recruit a non-profit board.
There is quite a tradition of
There is quite a tradition of governance knowledge for non-profits in Alberta, starting with the expertise founded through the Board Development Program (under the direction of the Ministry of Culture and Community Spirit). The Muttart Foundation in combination with Grant McEwan, have produced some amazing resources on Board Governance and recruiting. These are available free, online through this link: http://www.muttart.org/board_development_workbooks, or you can order copies through the Resource Centre for Voluntary Organizations, Grant MacEwan College, Edmonton. Phone: (780) 497-5617 or Volunteer Calgary, Calgary. Phone: (403) 265-5633.