Course summary

Well done on completing this course. Here is a summary of the key ideas from the course. We encourage you to discuss what you have learnt with your team.

“Unless the ministry has an accurate and clear understanding of the role of a board and the underlying principles, practices, and skills needed to fulfill that role, board effectiveness will be more fiction than fact.”

Purpose-driven governance:

Simply put, governance is the exercise of power to lead and guide an organisation in the effective and efficient execution of its mission and to ensure appropriate levels of accountability and transparency to its stakeholders.”
“The gold standard of organisation governance is where board members can fully embrace their roles and responsibilities.”

Case study: Martha’s lunch

Martha has built a very successful nonprofit youth ministry. She found herself and the potential donor with two different perspectives regarding the pros and cons of a board.
Effective boards are not a natural occurrence. They don’t just happen. They are the product of intentionality and a lot of hard work.
Martha’s paradigm about boards is mainly negative. Therefore, she sees the possible downsides but totally misses the benefits and opportunities an effective board would bring.

Good governance matters:

Ultimately to assess board effectiveness one must be able to connect board efforts to overall organisational success.
Clearly, we see a positive correlation between governance skill/willingness and ministry strength (impact and funding capacity).
Although there has long been a debate as to the degree one can apply governance principles from the for-profit sector to nonprofits, the overarching belief is yes, but with some important cautions.
“Nonprofit organisations, and charities more specially, can benefit from having better governance practices… with increased oversight and transparency, charities can contribute more to the missions they intend to serve, and in turn, improve the potential effectiveness of each dollar contributed by donors.”

What is a board of directors?

In this course, when we refer to the “board,” it will include terms like Board of Trustees and Board of Directors. The term “Board member” includes interchangeable terms such as Trustee or Director.
The board is the chief steward of the organisational mission.

The difference between a governance board and an advisory board:

Governance board	Advisory board
A governing board is the highest authority in the organisation and has ultimate decision authority.	An Advisory Board, is a group created to advise and support a nonprofit organisation and its board. Such groups are also called an advisory group, advisory committee, or advisory board.

Leaders guide questions:

Who are you intentionally raising up in leadership, to ensure the work of your organisation lives long after you?
Which other leaders might you develop?
What does your intentional process look like?
What is going well?
What gaps do you have and how might you close those gaps?

Download Course Summary

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