Practical writing on board governance for people running small nonprofits, usually alongside another job. No signup, no gated downloads, and nothing here is a pitch.
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Most guidance says every two to three years. Here is why annual is usually the better answer for a small board, and what to do if you have never done one.
September 2, 2026 · 5 min read · board-assessment, governance, getting-started
Your staff say they would take AI training and none has been offered. Start with the tools already in the building, and teach the checking, not the typing.
September 7, 2026 · 6 min read · ai, staff, training
Before a board decides anything about AI, it needs an hour of grounding. What that hour should contain, who should run it, and what to keep out of it.
September 7, 2026 · 6 min read · ai, board-practice, board-education
Most of your board and most of your staff want to hold off on AI tools. How to record that as a position, make it true in practice, and tell people plainly.
September 7, 2026 · 7 min read · ai, governance, policy
When people inside one organization want four different things from AI, nobody has decided anything yet. How a board reaches a position and writes it down.
September 7, 2026 · 6 min read · ai, governance, board-practice
The first AI decision a nonprofit has to make is which information may never be entered into a tool. How to draw that line, and what counts as entering it.
September 7, 2026 · 7 min read · ai, privacy, donors
Your organization wrote a position on AI and most people cannot tell you what it says. Concrete ways to close the gap, and how to check that it closed.
September 7, 2026 · 6 min read · ai, policy, communication
A board and a staff team giving different answers about where AI belongs is useful information. How to put one use case on an agenda and work it through.
September 7, 2026 · 6 min read · ai, board-practice, meetings
People are already using these tools at work and nothing is written down. A usable outline for a nonprofit AI policy, and who should write and approve it.
September 7, 2026 · 6 min read · ai, policy, governance
Recruiting by asking who someone knows reproduces the board you already have. Name the gap first, look wider, and replace the vague coffee with a real conversation.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · recruitment, governance, board-composition
Satisfaction is the wrong question. Ask the people around your nonprofit about confidence, communication, and whether they expect to be here next year.
September 2, 2026 · 6 min read · community-feedback, donors, volunteers
Two exercises that get conflated constantly. Different subjects, different confidentiality rules, different failure modes, and why merging them ruins both.
September 2, 2026 · 6 min read · board-assessment, executive-evaluation, governance
Founder's syndrome is a board that stopped deciding, not just a founder who won't let go. The observable signs, the measurable signature, and what to do.
September 2, 2026 · 6 min read · governance, executive-director, board-practice
Most states set the legal minimum at three directors. Here is why five to nine usually works better for a small nonprofit, and the quorum math behind it.
September 2, 2026 · 8 min read · governance, board-composition, getting-started
The exact thresholds a board, staff, or community report has to clear, why both a count and a share are required, and why a thin section is withheld entirely.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · board-assessment, thresholds, reporting
Most board agendas are a list of reports, which produces a meeting where nothing gets decided. How to build one around decisions, with a worked 90-minute example.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · governance, board-practice, meetings
Board members give safe answers when they think responses can be traced back to them. What anonymity has to mean in practice, and the four things that kill it.
September 2, 2026 · 6 min read · board-assessment, anonymity, facilitation
How to remove a board member from a nonprofit board: what the bylaws control, the quieter paths that usually work better, and how to document a removal.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · governance, bylaws, board-practice
Who should run it, how to evaluate against agreed goals rather than impressions, what the Form 990 asks about compensation, and why to document the outcome.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · executive-director, governance, board-practice
Most small boards have more committees than they can staff. A three-part test for which ones should exist, and why task forces usually work better.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · governance, board-practice, committees
The three fiduciary duties in plain language, what the chair, treasurer, and secretary actually do, and where the board's job ends and staff's begins.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · governance, board-practice, roles
Why nonprofit board term limits exist, the two-times-three-year default, how to stagger terms, and what to offer someone whose term is ending.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · governance, board-practice, composition
Nonprofit staff retention rarely turns on pay alone. The real drivers, what a board can influence, and how to hear from staff without undermining the director.
September 2, 2026 · 8 min read · staff, governance, board-practice
What a new board member needs in the first 90 days, why the binder does not work, and the one question to ask at day 90 before the fresh perspective wears off.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · governance, board-composition, getting-started
A board of six has its own problems: thin anonymity, a threshold it may not clear, and questions written for a room twice the size. What to do about each.
September 2, 2026 · 6 min read · board-assessment, small-boards, confidentiality
Why a meaningful-to-you gift usually beats a fixed give-or-get on a small board, what 100% board giving signals to funders, and when to say all of it.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · fundraising, board-practice, recruitment
Boards fail slowly, not suddenly. Six observable symptoms of a board that has stopped governing, and the checks that tell you which one you have.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · board-practice, governance, diagnostics
Most boards adopted one because a form asked. Here is what the policy actually protects, why the annual signature misses the point, and how to handle a real conflict.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · governance, policies, board-practice
Part VI asks your board a page of yes-or-no governance questions, and someone already answered them for you. Here is what each one is really after.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · form-990, governance, compliance
A plain explanation of what a nonprofit board self-assessment measures, what it deliberately does not measure, and what a board gets back from one.
September 2, 2026 · 6 min read · board-assessment, governance, getting-started
Disengaged board members are usually a symptom of a board with nothing real to decide. How to tell which you have, what to say, and how to end a term well.
September 2, 2026 · 7 min read · governance, board-practice, engagement
A board assessment that gets presented once and filed changes nothing. How to read the report as a board, choose what to act on, and actually follow up.
September 2, 2026 · 6 min read · board-assessment, governance, meetings
Averaging the executive director into the board's score buries the one number worth having. Why the gap between the two views is the finding, not the average.
September 2, 2026 · 6 min read · board-assessment, executive-director, scoring
Reading about governance is one thing. Hearing from your own board, staff, and the people you serve is another. The assessment is free, anonymous, and takes about eight minutes per person.