Your organization and its mission rely on the solid and steady leadership of board leaders like you.

As a board member, you play a very important leadership role within your organization. And your board leadership is a way for you to have a lasting, personal impact on an organization and mission that is important to you.

BoardSource is here to support you in your board service.

We believe in the power of boards and board leaders and work hard to provide resources and tools that will make your job easier. And that’s important, because board leadership is very different from the staff leadership roles with which most board members are accustomed. More specifically:

• Board members have a legal responsibility to the organization.

As a board member, you have a legal commitment and responsibility to the organization. Referred to as a “fiduciary responsibility,” board members — both individually and as a group — can be held responsible when things go wrong at an organization. This means that the stakes are high in terms of making sure that the board is taking financial and legal oversight seriously; something in which each individual board member is expected to be engaged.

• Board members lead in partnership with the nonprofit executive.

Unless a nonprofit organization doesn’t have staff, the day-to-day leadership is provided by an executive director or CEO. The board works in partnership with the executive to set the overall strategic direction of the organization, but leaves the staff and operational leadership to the executive. This can be a challenging balance to get right, but is critical to the success of the partnership (and the source of a lot of board challenges when it goes wrong).

• Board members must lead as a group.

Unlike staff leadership roles where a particular position may have individual decision-making power, boards have decision-making power only as a group. That means that the most effective board members know how to discuss and debate issues thoughtfully and respectfully, contributing their expertise and perspective as a part of a group decision-making process, and supporting the group decision regardless of the outcome.

Whether you are brand new to board service or have been serving on nonprofit boards for decades, BoardSource has resources and tools to support you in your role. This website is a great place to find what you need, including the following resources that may be of particular interest to you. Please visit the Topics and Resources and Solutions areas of this site, as well as our Store, for more.

Resources for Board Members

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Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards

Our all-time bestseller explores the board’s ten core responsibilities and puts them into the context of the governance challenges facing nonprofits today.

 

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The Source: Twelve Principles of Governance That Power Exceptional Boards

The Source defines governance not as dry, obligatory compliance, but as a creative and collaborative process that supports chief executives, engages board members, and furthers the causes they all serve. This “little black book” has been inspiring board leaders since it was first published.