How to Make Your Board Dramatically More Effective, Starting Today: A Board Member's Guide to Asking the Right Questions - Softcover

Gifford, Gayle L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1889102458 ISBN 13: 9781889102450

Publisher: Emerson & Church, 2012

Synopsis

A high-performing, diligent board that takes its responsibilities seriously is the Holy Grail of nearly every nonprofit in the U.S. Such a board means more money raised, swifter policy decisions, steady governance, and less Advil for the CEO. But can you realistically get there from here? Can you put your average or good board on the road to greatness? Indeed you can, says Gayle Gifford, and you're closer than you think. Gifford's approach is as fresh as a morning-picked berry. She doesn't lecture, doesn't scold, doesn't harangue. Instead she challenges your board to transform itself by answering a series of probing questions. As your board answers (and sometimes debates) each one, they simultaneously take stock of the overall job they're doing - or not doing. All without delay or the help of an expensive board consultant!

About this title

About the Author

Gayle L Gifford is a provocative writer, respected consultant, creative strategist and long-time advocate for peace and justice. For Gayle, every nonprofit is a promise to its community, a societal commitment to create a better life full of hope, beauty, promise and equal opportunity for all.Gayle believes that each nonprofit has an obligation to deliver on its commitment. In her work, she helps organizations be wise stewards of their resources, including their programs, their funding, their environment, and the human beings they touch.Gayle brings her decades of experience at nonprofits small and large as a founder, director, volunteer and senior manager to her consulting work with nonprofit boards and staff.She is a frequent contributor to professional publications and online discussions on philanthropy.  Gayle is an active member of the Governance Affinity Group of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management. She holds the advanced fundraising credential, ACFRE, earned by just over 100 professionals.A mother of three fabulous children, now grown, Gayle can be found enjoying the many pleasures of her adopted state of Rhode Island and its creative capital Providence  where she works with her husband Jonathan W Howard.

Review

Learning how to be a nonprofit board member is similar to parenting: most people learn on the job. For those already serving, or thinking about serving, on a nonprofit board, How to Make Your Board Dramatically More Effective, Starting Today offers practical insight and guidance. --Peter Lowry, MassNonprofit.org

The contribution this book makes is not so much that it offers startling new answers on its own. Rather, the thoughtful questions it raises stimulate readers' own thinking, encouraging them to raise similar questions with their own boards. That's why I've ordered 30 copies. --Philip Love, for In Trust Magazine

Edition details

• Publisher: Emerson & Church
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1889102458
• ISBN 13: 9781889102450
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 114