Stanford Research Offers 9 Tips to Improve Nonprofit Governance

The survey found:

• 27% of board members don’t think their colleagues have a strong understanding of the mission and strategy.
• 65% don’t think their board is very experienced, and about half don’t think their colleagues are very engaged in their work.
• 46% have little or no confidence that the performance data they review accurately measures the success of their organizations.
• 32% don’t think their board can evaluate their organization’s performance.
• 42% don’t have an audit committee, and many rely on monthly bank statements to monitor financial performance.
• 57% don’t benchmark their performance against peer groups.
• 39% don’t establish performance targets for their executive directors.

Succession planning is particularly problematic, according to the survey. Two-thirds don’t have a succession plan in place, and 78% couldn’t immediately name a successor if the current executive were to leave suddenly.