Effective Board Leadership

Develop Your Board of Directors
to Grow Your Organization

What are the primary responsibilities of a nonprofit board? Why do people join nonprofit boards in the first place? Understanding this dynamic can help you to manage your board and recruit new board members who are aligned with your organization’s mission and values.

As a Board member, is your role one of governance or management? As the ED, how do you motivate Board members to help you achieve the organization’s most important goals, including fundraising? Which of the organization’s responsibilities lie with the Board and which with the ED? Does your Board view the ED as a ‘social entrepreneur’ whose vision the board supports, or a ‘hired gun’ in charge of carrying out the board’s mandate?

CSL will share its recommended breakdown of responsibilities between the Board and the ED in order to help you balance this delicate power relationship in your organization. You will learn the differences between the way a family board operates vs. a professional board, and how to determine which is the right board structure for your organization. You will also learn how to create effective board committees that actually get real work done. Finally, you will learn CSL’s time-tested 7 Principles for Successful Board Meetings.

Session Learning Objectives

  • Participants will be able to:
  • 1 Identify the primary responsibilities of nonprofit boards.
  • 2 Discuss the difference between governance and management.
  • 3 Describe strategies for creating the right structure for a nonprofit board.
  • 4 Differentiate between a Board of Directors and an Advisory Board and discuss the benefits and disadvantages of each.
  • 5 Discuss the differences between nonprofit and for-profit boards and how nonprofit boards often derail.

Contact CSL if you would like us to help you customize
a leadership conference for your organization.