Boards and Beyond: Nonprofit Governance Conference

BOARDS AND BEYOND: UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGING REALITIES OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION GOVERNANCE.

March 31- April 1, 2005
Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.

A Conference for Practitioners and Researchers

Effective governance is integral to the nonprofit sector and the communities it serves. Yet scholars and practitioners alike continue to be intrigued and challenged by the complex and changing nature of nonprofit governance and the boards that engage in it. Even as we learn more about the breadth and depth of variety in context, design, and practices, it is clear that we do not fully understand this element of nonprofit leadership and how it is or should be practiced. Are most nonprofit boards effective in providing adequate governance? Are there new and more effective ways to address nonprofit governance needs? This is a time of significant change for nonprofit governance. But what is changing and what is not?

Among the issues likely to be examined at this conference are:

* It long has been recognized that nonprofit governance is complicated by the fact that nonprofit organizations have no shareholders. What stakeholder interests do nonprofit boards usually see themselves as representing? How do boards effectively address the interests of multiple groups of increasingly diverse stakeholders? What have been the results and consequences?

* How has the enhanced emphasis on accountability affected the roles and behavior of nonprofit boards? Are boards taking a greater role in assessing accountability and, if so, which boards and how?

* What might be the implications of national (or state) legislation specifying governance requirements and mechanisms that are tailored to nonprofit organizations? What has been the impact on the performance of those nonprofit organizations that have adopted some of the provisions of the recent Sarbanes-Oxley legislation?

* How has the recent press for some nonprofits to become more entrepreneurial or “business-like” affected the nature of their governance and the behavior and effectiveness of their boards?

* If boards (as the available research suggests) typically do little about assessing program performance and especially about assessing overall organizational performance, why has that been true? What might (can) be done to induce boards to take a greater role? What should that role be?

* Are efforts to improve governance of nonprofit organizations focused too much on a “managerialist” approach, attempting to improve efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery and ignoring the civic or other roles of nonprofit organizations? What standards or expectations might be established, and by whom, to encourage boards and executives to assess their organizations’ contributions to civic life?

Conference information and registration forms: contact the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership at www.mcnl.org