Book Description
"This book should be in the library of everyone who serves--or aspires to serve--on the governing board of any organization, large or small, nonprofit or corporate. Better than any other available resource, it tells what the roles of board members are and what they must and shouldn't do. An indispensable guidebook to leadership excellence."
--George Weber, secretary general, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva
"John Carver's Boards That Make a Difference was required reading for board members of the Calgary Philharmonic Society. It provided a clear and concise road map with which we carried out significant governance restructuring of the society."
James M. Stanford, president & CEO,, Petro-Canada, and past chairman of the Calgary Philharmonic Society, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
John Carver's groundbreaking Policy Governance model has influenced the way public and nonprofit boards operate around the world. Now, as widespread experience with the model continues to grow, Carver enriches his definitive exposition with updated policy samples, a new chapter on the process of policy development, and additional resources for various types of boards. He debunks the entrenched beliefs about board roles and functions that hamper dedicated board members. With creative insight and commonsense practicality, Carver presents a bold new approach to board job design, board-staff relationships, the chief executive role, performance monitoring, and virtually every aspect of the board-management relationship. In their stead, he offers a board model designed to produce policies that make a difference, missions that are clearly articulated, standards that are ethical and prudent, meetings, officers, and committees that work; and leadership that supports the fulfillment of long-term goals.
Customer Reviews:
Very Helpful.......2003-04-01
The world is full of experts at what is wrong with the things that we do. Dr. Carver has a rock-solid, well thought out suggestion concerning how to do it right. One reviewer complained that Dr. Carver's suggestions are not realistic. Right is not often realistic, but right is always right. It's far better to start with an ideal and compromise from that point than to capitulate from the outset. Boards that Make a Difference is well worth reading.
Idealistic.......1999-06-27
The carver style of governance is a tad idealistic and perhaps overly optimistic. I have read everything Dr Carver has written concerning this field and enjoy this material at an academic level. But when it comes to operationalizing this model in boardrooms I've seen it fail time and time again. Not to say that the model is flawed because in fact the model is normative and conceptually complete. However it doesn't capture that element of reality from which, in my experience, the model requires - practicality and real-world application. Dr Carver's notion that Boards can do without Finance and Audit Committees is very naive. Most consultants from the chartered accountant genre are saying the complete opposite. In fact most government policy initiatives are moving toward more control of financial affairs of organizations for boards from charts of accounts to fiscal policy. So I don't think the elimination of Finance and Audit Committees is realistic nor is it a terribly bright suggestion. I guess my only crticism is that the carver model is far to idealistic and philosophical for a practical application in the form Dr Carver suggests. Sorry but a hybrid model of traditional Board governance and the carver model may work given the commitment required from directors to follow-though on everything suggested in that system of governance,
A must-have for not-for-profits!.......1999-03-29
This book was the core piece of a radical change in our board room. It led us down the path we knew we wanted to go but didn't know how to get there. His model for board room organization could revolutionize boards of companies in transition, like those of the rural electric program in America. It's a road map for where you already know in your heart that you want to go.
Essential for public boards seeking to lead strategically.......1999-01-27
After 5 years on a local Board of Education I finally found a book that describes everything I know is wrong with board management practices in schools and nonprofit organizations. But that is the easy part. Carver offers sound alternatives to current practices that put the responsibility and the capability for strategic leadership right where it belongs--on the board.
I winced as I read Carver's description of reactive boards trapped in the "approval syndrome" in which boards rely on staff to bring issues and recommendations to them for approval. This pervasive practice not only takes board members out of the driver's seat, but it confuses the lines of accountability between the board and the CEO for the organization.
Carver offers a framework for changing all that by forcing the board to rethink all of its policy with an eye toward board-determined policies that operate at the highest level possible. In Carver's approach only four types of policies need to be set by the board: 1) "Ends" policies (board expectations), 2) Executive Limitations (the "don'ts" for the organization), 3) Board process policies and 4) Board-CEO relationship policies. *Everything* you need to be involved in can be fit into one of these four categories.
Want to learn how to stop working at the staff level and how to help your organization find a true sense of direction? Carver's book offers practical and straightforward ways of getting there.
Accessible, Codified Common Sense.......1999-01-24
Mr. Carver presents a very readable way of looking at how governing boards should work. His theories are logical and his arguments pursuasive. He offers board members an intellectual framework to consider how their organizations are running. The book is prescriptive, but not preachy. I was very surprised to find it sensible after hearing so much hype from "converts" to his method.
Book Description
The well-being of any nonprofit organization rests first with its volunteer board of directors. This book offers board members the guidance they need to successfully govern their organizations--no matter what type or size of nonprofit they may lead.
Written by Candace Widmer and Susan Houchin, The Art of Trusteeship shows you how to fulfill ten key trustee responsibilities and includes much-needed detail on defining mission, strategic planning, executive selection and evaluation, fundraising, financial oversight, and board self-assessment. This hands-on guide is filled with illustrative case studies and real-life examples that clearly show how a variety of creative boards have tackled challenges and strengthened their organizations.
"At last, a book that doesn't take a one-size-fits-all approach! The authors recognize that the huge diversity among nonprofits calls for multiple ways of fulfilling basic board responsibilities. The book allows a board member to dive in at any point and find a concise, clear set of options for handling the challenges of trusteeship. It will help even first-time board members find firm footing on the path to effective governance."
--Sara L. Engelhardt, president, The Foundation Center
Customer Reviews:
Art of Trusteeship by Roger.......2005-10-04
This is an excellent study on board leadership and should be read by any person serving on a non-profit board.
A Model for What the Ideal Nonprofit Board Should Do.......2000-11-26
If you are like me, you arrived with no idea of what to do the first time you sat on a nonprofit board. If that board was not well organized, you sat down on your second nonprofit board with about the same level of understanding.
Nonprofit organizations, especially smaller and newer ones, tend to be "amateur hour" operations. They usually have neither good governance nor good management. Unfortunately, they need both much more than most for profit and nonprofit organizations that do have them.
The nonprofit organizations that focus relentlessly on improving governance and management do far more good than those who do not. So these are important subjects. I doubt if you can have very good management without good governance first. Governance creates the organizational direction and the discipline that encourages good management. Unless someone is reviewing how you are doing, even the most talented manager will soon become lazy about learning from experience.
I recommend that anyone who is on a nonprofit board or is considering joining one should read this book. You will have a much more rewarding board experience if you do. You can also share this book with others on the board, and challenge them to work with you to make the needed changes. I certainly plan to do this with the board I sit on now.
By the way, chances are that your board will never quite get to this "gold standard" described here. But at least you will know what you are and are not doing, and can focus on the more important steps.
The book breaks the board's responsibility down into mission, responsibility for money, and for management.
Top priority is "establishing the mission and monitoring the organization's progress in achieving that mission." This may involve modifying the mission from time to time. This is very critical, because you either have a mission that gets volunteers and donors excited or you are dead in the water. Habitat for Humanity and the Girl Scouts have done this well.
The board next needs to create a "vision for the future of the organization and [develop] a plan for achieving that vision."
After that, the board needs to ensure "progress in serving the mission of the organization . . . [in meeting] the needs of clients" and in the effectiveness of programs.
The board also needs to be sure that the mission and programs are communicated "effectively with its various publics."
The money side all fits under being a "steward for organizational resources." The tasks include having a formal development plan, making an annual contribution to the organization, and participating in fund-raising activities. In addition, risks should be identified and ensured and insured against as best as one can.
In the area of management, the board has to select, support, evaluate, (and terminate, when necessary) the CEO. The board has to evaluate its own effectiveness at each meeting, as well.
If your board isn't willing to start working on this items, I suggest you consider looking for another board that is. Certainly, you may be in for a lot of heartache if you a join a board that is going to ignore these areas.
Create more good by having a more effective board!
Book Description
Offers detailed case studies that demonstrate the crucial strategic issues facing nonprofit governing boards and offers board members new methods for dealing with them.
Book Description
"The Policy Governance Fieldbook is not a theoretical treatise, but a practical study. Its authors are concerned with real people in real organizations with real challenges.... It is the first book to start down what is surely to be a very long road. For that boldness, I am in its authors' debt. But more importantly, boards everywhere and those who rely on the integrity of governance--that means all of us--are in their debt as well."
--from the Foreword by John Carver
"Local elected officials and professional staff will find Carver's model provocative and intriguing. This practical guide is one of the best I have encountered. The useful tips at the And of each chapter are worth the price of the book."
--John Nalbandian, professor of public administration, University of Kansas
Boards all around the world have adopted the revolutionary Policy Governance principles to improve their leadership and performance. This fieldbook is the latest addition to growing literature on the landmark model. Endorsed with a foreword by John Carver, this practical, unflinching resource closely examines eleven diverse organizations that have implemented Policy Governance in the United States and Canada. The authors analyze what works--and what doesn't--in real world practice. The Policy Governance Fieldbook is for organizations considering, beginning to use, or already using Carver's principles. Readers will discover practical advice based on the real-life experiences of organizations that have tried and tested Policy Governance for themselves.
Each chapter is built around a user-friAndly, hands-on framework--first introducing a specific Policy Governance activity or challenge, exploring the experiences of boards that met this challenge, and then drawing key lessons from those experiences. Filled with tips and tools for implementation of key principles, the book is far from a theoretical treatise. It is a practical exploration of real organizations facing real challenges. The Policy Governance Fieldbook is an ideal guide for boards that are ready to lead their organizations to success.
Book Description
Boards play a crucial role in ensuring that public and nonprofit publicly accountable and perform well. Following various failures and scandals they face increasing scrutiny, pressure and expectations. Serious questions have been raised about the ability of boards to govern effectively. br br Such concerns have stimulated a renewed interest in organizational governance, and a growing literature on the subject. Much of the current literature, however, has been criticized for underestimating the constraints and conflictions demands that boards face and recommending unrealistic solutions. There have been relatively few detailed empirical studies of what boards do in practice. This book fills that gap by bringing together analyses based upon some of the best recent empirical studies of public and non-profit governance in the UK. br br Using a new theoretical framework that highlights the paradoxical nature of governance the book throws light on the questions at the heart of recent debates about nonprofit boards: br * Are boards publicly accountable or is there a democratic deficit? br * Are boards able to exercise real power, or does management run the show? br * What do boards do? Are they effective stewards of an organization's resources? Can they play a meaningful role in setting organisational strategy? br * What effect are regulatory and other changes designed to improve board effectiveness having? br br The book will be essential reading for academics and students with an interest in the governance and management of public and nonprofit organizations. It will also be of value to policy-makers and practitioners who wish to gain a deeper understanding of how boards work and what can be done to improve their performance.
Book Description
In a striking new view of privitazation and the modern state, this book recounts the involvement of nonprofit organizations in the implementation of socialist policy in France during the 1980s.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Fund Raising Management, published by Hoke Communications, Inc. on May 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1548 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
From the supplier: Too many individuals who work for non-profit organizations have assumed the task of motivating their boards to raise funds, advocate charitable giving or to take any action at all. As organizational boards are supposed to act as trustees on behalf of corporate owners, their members ought to realize that they are ultimately responsible for what the organization is and what it will become. Boards have ownership responsibility for their organizations.
Citation Details
Title: The board.(On Responsibility, part 2)(people who serve on the boards of non-profit entities)
Author: Michael R. Maude
Publication:
Fund Raising Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 1999
Publisher: Hoke Communications, Inc.
Volume: 30
Issue: 3
Page: 16(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from World Development, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Description:
Using original survey data, we document the activities, resources, and governance structure of NGOs operating in Uganda. The NGO sector is funded primarily by international non-governmental organizations and bilateral donors. We find large differences in size and funding across NGOs, with only a few NGOs attracting most of the funding. Most NGOs are small and underfunded and focus on raising awareness and advocacy. Few NGOs are faith based. Most screening and monitoring is done by grant agencies. Some monitoring is also done internally by members and trustees. Little monitoring is done by government. NGOs do not file income tax returns, and few respondents are able to provide coherent financial accounts.
Average customer rating:
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Tourism vs Environment: The Case for Coastal Areas: A Research Project of the Commission on the Coastal Environment, International Geographical Union (GeoJournal Library)
Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0792324048 |
Book Description
While coastal tourism has been treated from many perspectives, this book offers the first substantial examination of the environmental basis of coastal tourism.
The first part of the book examines some of the basic aspects and various methodologies of the coastal environment for tourism. Drawing from a wide range of case studies, the second part of the book discusses various tourism--environment relationships of different coastal environments. The examples include atolls and enclave tourism, island tourism and tourism development at various stages, barrier coasts and tourism development at different stages, and complex coastal environments and more mature tourism development. The writers have adopted one or a combination of approaches -- empirical, methodological or conceptual -- in their contributions. The volume should stimulate awareness and further research on the coastal environment for tourism.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Journal, published by Royal Geographical Society on March 1, 1996. The length of the article is 4237 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Tourism vs Environment: The Case for Coastal Areas.(Brief Article)
Author: Erlet Cater
Publication:
The Geographical Journal (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 1996
Publisher: Royal Geographical Society
Volume: v162
Issue: n1
Page: p103(1)
Article Type: Book Review, Brief Article
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Books:
- Book of Mr. Natural
- Breakthrough Thinking for Nonprofit Organizations: Creative Strategies for Extraordinary Results (Jossey Bass Nonprofit & Public Management Series)
- British Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Since 1960 (Dictionary of Literary Biography)
- Colors of the Vanishing Tribes
- Computable Economics (Arne Ryde Memorial Lectures)
- Cowboy Bebop # 1
- Creating and Implementing Your Strategic Plan: A Workbook for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, 2nd Edition
- Darkness and light: The analysis of doctrinal statements
- Dealing With Difficult Parents: And With Parents in Difficult Situations
- Developing Your Case for Support
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