Articles by CharityChannel Members
CharityChannel members who have years of experience in their field may apply to join a Contributor's Panel. Once accepted to a panel by the panel's editor, the member will work with the editor to determine article topics and to prepare an article that is ready for publication. With tens of thousands of colleagues in the CharityChannel professional community, this is a key opportunity to give back to your profession by sharing your hard-won expertise and wisdom.
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Going Deeper with Boards: What’s REALLY Going On? Contributed by:
Mary HilandWednesday, February 27, 2013 (75 days ago)
On the wall of my office is a list of complaints and concerns that nonprofit staff and board leaders have raised to me in the past ten years (e.g., the board is micromanaging, recruitment is a haphazard or personalized process, board members can’t get the information they need, board members aren’t engaged, they don’t – or won’t – raise money, no one wants to be the board chair). It’s a long list!
After thinking and reflecting on this list, I found that each of those complaints or concerns “fits” into one of three board dimensions: capacity, connection, or culture. Unleashing the full value of boards requires understanding and addressing one or all of them.
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Agreements on Board Accountability: Does Your Board Have Any? Contributed by:
Mary HilandWednesday, September 05, 2012 (250 days ago)
Ever been faced with how to deal with a board member who is not meeting commitments? Boards can avoid some of the personal discomfort that arises in confronting this situation by adopting a board accountability process.
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Do We Need or Want an Advisory “Board”? Contributed by:
Mary HilandWednesday, August 15, 2012 (271 days ago)
Creating an advisory group is something boards and executive often consider. This article explores some things to keep in mind and some pitfalls to avoid.
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Exploring Board Development: Part Two – Critical Success Factors Contributed by:
Mary HilandWednesday, August 04, 2010 (2 years 283 days ago)
In Part One of this article (
Nonprofit Boards and Governance Review, July 21, 2010), I discussed the five dimensions of board development and proposed a definition. This article continues the exploration of board development, focusing on how it benefits nonprofits and the critical success factors. The ideas presented in both articles are based on the findings from my recent study involving conversations with numerous executive directors and board members.
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Exploring Board Development: Part One - What is it? Contributed by:
Mary HilandWednesday, July 21, 2010 (2 years 297 days ago)
In contemplating what really works as “board development” it occurred to me to first ask: what is it? A review of literature and the internet surprisingly failed to yield a definition of board development. Carter McNamara commented in a recent blog “ . . . the [first] steps aren’t all of those needed for complete Board development — those steps would produce a blog post about twenty-five pages long.” (
http://managementhelp.org). Sounds daunting! People refer to it, consultants claim to facilitate it, but what is “it” actually?
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New Insights into the Board Chair-ED Relationship Contributed by:
Mary HilandThursday, June 22, 2006 (6 years 327 days ago)
Nonprofit leaders are reported to influence the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations, but little is known about the nature and extent of that influence. This is particularly true of the board chair-executive director (BC/ED) leadership partnership. If you pick up a book on nonprofit governance, it is more likely than not that you will find a statement to the effect that the BC/ED relationship is “critical” to the organization. While this seems intuitively correct, do we really know? And, if it is true, in what ways is the relationship influencing the organization?
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Nonprofit Governance: Getting Back to Basics Contributed by:
Mary HilandThursday, January 13, 2005 (8 years 122 days ago)
Much is being written these days about nonprofit governance. Our attention is drawn almost daily to the topics of accountability and transparency so prevalent in professional journals, newspapers, and on the internet. Moving from these sources to a broader review of nonprofit governance literature reveals mostly "how-to" books with a thorough focus on defining and elaborating the roles and responsibilities of nonprofit board directors. While attention to clarity of functions and accountabilities is very important, I suggest that a more fundamental conversation about governance is needed.
CharityChannel's WE REVIEW
CharityChannel members who have been admitted to the WE REVIEW Contributors Panel are eligible to receive recently-published books from a variety of publishers (and some self-publishers) to review. Reviews are not limited to books published by CharityChannel Press, the publishing project of the CharityChannel professional community. If you are interested in reviewing books, you are welcome to apply. Note that, even though WE REVIEW has been publishing reviews for over a decade, it has recently been reorganized and re-launched. We took the opportunity to remove prior reviews, since our focus is on newly published books.
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CarityChannel Press is the publishing arm of CharityChannel. Many of the sector’s most experienced, knowledgeable practitioners are part of the CharityChannel professional community. Because of its unique role in the nonprofit sector, CharityChannel Press enjoys a rich pool of prospective authors from which to draw. In addition, the CharityChannel professional community, consisting of tens of thousands of practitioners, forms a natural initial market for the books as does the greater third sector itself. Interested in writing a book or manual?
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