Synopses & Reviews
Dennis D. Pointer and James E. Orlikoff--two of the country's most experienced and successful governance consultants--show you the way. Drawing on their combined forty years of professional practice, the authors provide sixty-four practical principles a nonprofit board can use to dramatically improve its performance and contributions.
The High-Performance Board is a concise, quick read for board members and executives of nonprofit organizations who want great governance and are serious about achieving it.
Pointer and Orlikoff identify the factors that most affect governance quality--obligations, functions (responsibilities and roles), structure, composition, and infrastructure--and build their principles on these critical areas. They provide recommendations to help your board begin to adopt the book's principles and formulate an action plan for a continuous improvement. At the end of each section they present a board check-up to help assess how well your board is doing in light of best-practices principles. In the final chapter, these check-ups are combined to produce a governance performance profile.
The authors' principle-based governance demands that board members step up and meet the challenge of improved performance. This book gives them the information and guidance they need to do so.
Review
"What a terrific addition to the bookshelf for governing boards of nonprofit organizations! It is clearly written, well organized, and highly practical."
--Thomas P. Holland, professor and director, Institute for Nonprofit Organizations University of Georgia School of Social Work
"I learned more about nonprofit governance from this book than I have serving on boards for fifteen years."
--Art Ulene, former NBC Today Show medical commentator and director, The Vitality Challenge
"Pointer and Orlikoff show how great boards can truly transform our institutions. This is an innovative guide for benchmarking and improving governance."
--Marilyn Chapin Massey, president, Pitzer College, Claremont, California
Synopsis
While boards acknowledge they bear ultimate responsibility and accountability for their organizations' affairs, governance quality is often far from optimal. The High- Performance Board offers pragmatic and candid advice about what your board must do to maximize performance and contributions. The authors provide sixty-four principles designed to help your board achieve peak performance. They describe every principle in detail and present best practices and practical applications for each one. Each section of the book concludes with a board check-up-a set of questions that can be used to assess your board in light of the principles. A quick read for busy board members, this book is the ultimate board "drivers' manual."
About the Author
Dennis D. Pointer has worked with more than four hundred clients as a consultant, retreat facilitator, and speaker. His firm, Dennis D. Pointer & Associates, provides governance consulting, retreat facilitation, assessment, redesign, and development services to nonprofit organizations, commercial corporations, and government agencies. He is vice president and partner, American Governance and Leadership group LLC. Pointer is also Hanlon Professor of Health Policy and Research, San Diego State University. He is also the Austin Ross Professor, Department of Health Services, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington (Seattle).
James E. (Jamie) Orlikoff is president of Orlikoff and Associates, Inc., a firm specializing in governance improvement and leadership development. He is executive director of the American Governance and Leadership Group LLC and the national advisor on governance and leadership to the American Hospital Association. In these various capacities, he has worked with over six hundred organizations to strengthen their governance effectiveness and efficiency. Orlikoff serves on the board of trustees of Pitzer College in Claremont, California.
Table of Contents
Figures and Check-Ups.
Preface.
About the Authors.
1. Governance Basics.
2. Obligations.
3. Functioning: Responsibilities.
4. Functioning: Roles.
5. Structure.
6. Composition.
7. Infrastructure.
8. Transforming Your Board.
Resources.
A. The Sixty-Four Principles.
B. Illustrative Board Policies.
C. Sample Committee Charters.
D. Illustrative Board Chair Position Description.
E. Illustrative Governance Principles.
F. For Further Reading.
Index.