The Nonprofit Board Answer Book: A Practical Guide for Board Members and Chief Executives [Hardcover]

BoardSource (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 27, 2007

“Think for a moment of the best conversations you’ve had with friends and colleagues. You were honest with one another—not shy about speaking up but relaxed, even if the topic being discussed was serious in nature. That’s the type of conversation The Nonprofit Board Answer Book aims to have with you in the pages that follow. It follows a question-and-answer format, enabling you to quickly find an answer to a burning question you have right now. At the same time, it’s easy to pick up and read straight through, either cover to cover or one section at a time.

At the end of each question-and-answer pairing you’ll find suggested action steps. These offer ways to put the information to a practical use on your own board and within your own nonprofit organization. Implementing some of these steps may lead to more questions as you become even more committed to fulfilling your responsibilities as a board member.

Remember: behind every good answer lies a good question. So keep asking those questions.”--from the Introduction

 

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the Previous Edition

 

“The authors strike just the right balance between theory and practice. The Answer Book is thorough, thoughtful, and comprehensive—while at the same time organized with busy readers in mind. The addition of 25 new chapters turns what was already an invaluable resource into a one-stop toolkit for addressing common board problems. If I could recommend only one book about governance, it would be this one.”--Richard L. Moyers, director, Nonprofit Sector Fund, Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation

 

“This new edition is a must for those boards who take seriously the issue of appropriate and excellent board governance. It addresses particularly well the what, when, how, and who issues of boardsmanship and helps set the course for governing rather than administering or micromanaging.”--Ken Smitherman, president, Association of Christian Schools International

 

“Without exception, this should be required reading for both new and experienced board members and senior management. With 25 new chapters, I can’t imagine there is a question (or an answer) that isn’t addressed in this thorough, but practical, resource. Board meetings will be 25 percent shorter, thanks to this book.”--John Pearson, president, John Pearson Associates, Inc.

 

From the Inside Flap

What is the board's role in financial management?

How should we select our board officers?

Who should attend our board meetings and what are their roles?

Should the chief executive have a vote on the board?

The Nonprofit Board Answer Book is designed as a guide to good governance for board leaders at all levels of experience and expertise. BoardSource's second edition of its best-selling book shows board members how to be more effective, meet difficult situations head-on, and deal with commonplace challenges with confidence. It shows chief executives how to focus and support the board in carrying out its governance responsibilities. The book is written in an easy-to-use question-and-answer format and includes action steps and examples.

The second edition of The Nonprofit Board Answer Book has been thoroughly updated and includes new material on topics such as

• Sarbanes-Oxley and its implications for nonprofit boards

• Executive compensation

• Mission and accountability

• Risk management

• The chief executive–board chair partnership

• Board diversity

• Recent legislation, public policy, and ethical considerations

This indispensable resource contains 80 questions and answers—a wealth of information about board structure and process, meetings, board composition, orientation, board-staff relations, financial management, and much more. The book offers insight gained from the BoardSource Governance Index Survey, hundreds of board self-assessments, and questions and challenges heard by BoardSource from thousands of nonprofit leaders.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 2 edition (July 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787994618
• ISBN-13: 978-0787994617
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,282 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great handbook for nonprofit boards and their executives that has the feel of an online blog. Two thumbs up!, November 17, 2007

By 

Jeff Lippincott "JLIPPIN" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Nonprofit Board Answer Book: A Practical Guide for Board Members and Chief Executives (Hardcover)

I really liked this book a lot. It includes sound theory and is practical. And it was an easy read. It has 80 chapters broken into 7 sections as follows:

1. Basic board functions (1-12)
2. Board structure (13-22)
3. Selection and development of board members (23-36)
4. Board and committee meetings (37-46
5. The board's role as a fiduciary (47-58)
6. Board-staff relations (59-70)
7. Organizational change (71-80)

Each "chapter" ended with suggested action steps. And I found them to be very informative. It was very well written, but I thought there were too many chapters. I felt kind of like I was reading an online blog.

This is a VERY practical guide or handbook for board members and executives of nonprofit organizations. It is totally consistent with how things at well-run nonprofits work and/or should work. If you are responsible for running a nonprofit organization and and want to know how to do things the right way, then get a copy of this book and take advantage of what it has to offer. It will definitely prove to be helpful unless you are already an expert on the subject matter. 5 stars!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful, but not as directly as I'd like, June 20, 2010

By 

Andrew C. Ek "Andrew C E" (Nebraska) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Nonprofit Board Answer Book: A Practical Guide for Board Members and Chief Executives (Hardcover)

I picked up "The Nonprofit Board Answer Book" a month or two after being named to (and then elected president of) the board of directors of a small non-profit organization; the organization had been previously mismanaged pretty terribly, so I wanted to make sure I could pick up some good practices.

In that regard, "NPBAB" does its job both very well and not very well; I loved the guiding questions, as well as the outlining of a couple of different accepted practices per major area. However, many of the sections were simply not pertinent to my NPO.

This is not the fault of the book. But I do wish that it had more practical procedural advice on how to, say, transition an executive director (or another first paid employee) from being a volunteer to being salaried (even if that advice was: "consult an accountant and a lawyer, but first figure out these things").

The short chapters were nice, but there were a few instances in which I wanted more substance. That said, this is a good survey of issues and of getting started with practical solutions, and I'd recommend it, as well as perhaps one or two other texts that were more directly pertinent to the struggles of your particular organization.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Resource, August 31, 2008

By 

A.O. (WI) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Nonprofit Board Answer Book: A Practical Guide for Board Members and Chief Executives (Hardcover)

This book was fantastic. Our organization really needed to make upgrades to our board but did not know where to begin. This book gave us excellent ideas to the many questions we had plus many excellent ideas that we did not even think of. I highly recommend this book to every organization with a board to utilize as a tool.