Is Your Nonprofit Board Focused on the Right Things?

This article will analyze the role of the board of directors in the functionality of nonprofit organizations and describe the use of a board management portal to increase collegial bodies’ productivity.

The peculiarities of the board’s functionality in a nonprofit organization

Improving corporate governance is the most important measurement required to enhance the stability and efficiency of nonprofit companies. Therefore, organizing an efficient board of directors plays a significant role here.

The board of directors is responsible for the overall management of the company’s activities, including the discussion, evaluation, and adoption of the company’s strategy and business model, and also provides control over the financial and economic activities of both individual segments and the company as a whole. The board’s main goal is to introduce a management system that would increase the market value of the company’s shares in the medium and long term. The board of directors also pays close attention to short-term financial and operational issues such as debt levels and costs.

The board of directors proceeds from the need to act in the interests of all interested circles. It often requires taking decisive action in difficult situations. The body is also responsible for the system’s proper functioning for disclosing and disseminating information about the NPO company’s activities and implementing the company’s information policy.

The effective use of the nonprofit board of directors

As a rule, the affairs of nonprofit organizations were managed by the board of directors – or tried to do so. The reason was that such organizations had become too large and complex to be managed in their spare time by outsiders, meeting once a month for three hours. So many organizations turned to professional management.

Few directors in joint-stock companies are shareholders, while directors of nonprofit organizations can often contribute large sums and must also attract sponsors. In addition, directors in nonprofit organizations have a personal interest in the success of their business. Hardly anyone will sit on a parish taxpayer meeting or a school board unless they are sincerely interested in religion or education. Moreover, board members in nonprofit organizations have usually been volunteers for a long time and know their job very well, unlike directors from outside who work in business. The key to an effective board is not discussing its functions but organizing this work. More and more nonprofits are doing that, including half a dozen fairly large liberal arts colleges, a leading theological seminary, and several major research hospitals and museums.

Board software for efficient board activity

The board software supports current administration best practices within and across all board action models. It is a cloud-based solution for data storage, sharing between board members, and secure collaboration. So, this solution helps to automate and optimize the basic activities of the boards. In turn, the board has the opportunity to concentrate on solving important issues instead of performing routine work. Board management software is ideal for planning and organizing remote meetings and carefully tracking the board’s decision-making. This resource management system simplifies this painstaking task and, in addition to planning labor resources within the framework of project activities, ensures that each employee is involved in tasks and end-to-end business processes of the enterprise.

The fundamental board portal functions include:

  • online meeting management;
  • organization of comfortable working space for all board members;
  • formation and implementation of the company’s internal information policy;
  • increasing the level of access control to archival documents;
  • secure data exchange;
  • voting system;
  • quick reports.
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