I thought it might be interesting to provide hightpoints of a program on non-profit governance held this morning by the National Association of Corporate Directors of New England.  The panel: Mary Beckman, chief of the Public Charities Division of the Mass AG; Sandy Edgerly and Ted Ladd, both very active directors of many nonprofits.

1. Landscape of public charities:  There are 23,000 in Mass; far too many. Appropriate mergers are in order, provided they support the mission. Issues in mergers: due diligence on finances; matching cultures; merging two staffs and two boards.

2. Size and quality of boards:  In New York they are discussing mandatory training, or suggested training, for non-profit board members.  No movement yet for requiring certification as a precondition.  Most failures seen by the AG’s office involve small boards supporting a dominant founder-CEO.  Interesting fact: social scientists advised one panel member that the ideal board size for reaching concensus is 14; many boards are larger and can be fully functional, of course.

3. Old and new board members:  To get the right new members, first define skill-sets needed, then establish long-term pipelines to possible sources.  Try out a prospective board member on a non-fiduciary board or in some supportive role for the organization first.  Use self-evaluations of under-performing board members to ease them out, demonstrating they are not doing the job.

4. Paying internal fundraisers:  Do not compensate development officers with a percentage of funds raised or upon meeting any given overall target.  Evaluate overall effectiveness.  It is difficult to tell whether any given gift, or the meeting of any given fund-raising drive, is attributable to a develoment officer or to the affinity that donors feel to the organization’s mission.