BoardSource, formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1988. Its mission is "to inspire and support excellence in nonprofit governance and board and staff leadership". [1]
BoardSource offers consulting services, publications and a membership program to increase the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations by strengthening their boards of directors.
In the early 1980s, the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges and Independent Sector conducted a survey and found that 30 percent of respondents believed they were doing a good job of board education and training, with the rest of the respondents reporting little, if any, activity in strengthening governance. As a result, the two organizations proposed the creation of a new organization whose mission was to increase the effectiveness of nonprofit boards. [2]
With a lead grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation [3] as well as funding from five other donors, the National Center for Nonprofit Boards opened its doors in 1988 with a staff of three and an operating budget of US$385,000. [4]
The National Center for Nonprofit Boards changed its name to BoardSource in 2002.[ citation needed ]
BoardSource is based in Washington, D.C., and has an annual budget in fiscal year 2013 of approximately $6 million. It maintains a staff of more than 40 employees. In addition, the organization has an affiliated pool of associates [5] who conduct consulting and training engagements around the country on behalf of the organization.
BoardSource collaborates with organizations such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the American Association of Museums, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Habitat for Humanity International, the National Council of La Raza and the United Way of America to provide guidance on what constitutes good governance and to offer educational opportunities in new approaches to governance. [6]
According to its website, "BoardSource supports a community of more than 90,000 individuals with customized diagnostics, live and virtual trainings, membership programs, and a comprehensive library of governance resources and publications that include original content." [7]
In addition to its own web portal, BoardSource managed the online platform Exceptional Boards (now defunct) and the online portal Leading with Intent. [8] Leading with Intent is a rolling annual report on nonprofit board governance across the United States that captures and compares social sector governance data since 1994. [9]
BoardSource's own board of directors includes:
A board of directors is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organization, or a government agency.
The Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) is an independent, national, bilingual, not-for-profit organization based in Montreal, Quebec. Its mission is to "improve public policy in Canada by generating research, providing insight and informing debate on current and emerging policy issues facing Canadians and their governments." It publishes peer-reviewed research and acts as a convenor of policy debates by organizing conferences, round tables and panel discussions among stakeholders, academics, policy-makers and the general public. It is also the publisher of Policy Options magazine and the home of the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation.
The National Press Foundation is a nonprofit journalism training organization. It educates journalists on complex issues and trains them in reporting tools and techniques. It recognizes and encourages excellence in journalism through its awards.
An executive director is a member of a board of directors for a corporation, such as company, cooperative or nongovernmental organization, who usually holds a managerial position with the corporation.
Policy Governance, informally known as the Carver model, is a system for organizational governance. Policy Governance defines and guides appropriate relationships between an organization's owners, board of directors, and chief executive.
Alberto Ibargüen is President and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami, Florida. He is the former publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald in Miami, Florida. Under his leadership, The Miami Herald won three Pulitzer Prizes; El Nuevo Herald won Spain's Ortega y Gasset Prize for excellence in journalism. Ibargüen was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2022.
Shekar Narasimhan is an Indian American entrepreneur, community leader and political activist. He is the Chairman and Founder of the AAPI Victory Fund, one of the first of its kind SuperPac’s focused exclusively on building the political power of the Asian American Pacific Islander community (AAPI). In his business life, Shekar is the Managing Partner at Beekman Advisors which provides strategic advisory services to companies and investors involved in real estate, mortgage finance, affordable housing and related sectors. Shekar is a Co-Founder for the Remergent Communities Fund, an Opportunity Zone Fund, focusing on small towns and cities in the Southeast U.S. He also serves as Chairman of Papillon Capital, focused on sustainable infrastructure investing. Prior to Beekman Advisors, Shekar Narasimhan was a Managing Director of Prudential Mortgage Capital Company, one of the nation’s leading providers of commercial mortgage financing. Immediately prior to Shekar’s time at Prudential, he was Chairman & CEO of the WMF Group, a publicly traded, commercial mortgage financial services company. WMF was one of the largest such firms in the country before being acquired by Prudential in 2000.
Athletes for Hope is a nonprofit organization that works to educate professional athletes about philanthropy, connect them with charitable causes, recognize these efforts and inspire others to get involved in the community. AFH emphasizes that its focus is on the athlete's time and not their money.
The Partnership for Public Service is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C. whose mission is to inspire a new generation of civil servants and to transform the way government works.
Candid is an information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies. In 2016, its database provided information on 2.5 million organizations. It is the product of the February 2019 merger of GuideStar with Foundation Center.
The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) is a nonprofit organization focused on the development of comparative data to enable higher-performing philanthropic funders.
Gerri Elliott is an American business executive.
The Arts & Business Council of New York (ABC/NY), also known as Arts & Business Council, Inc., is a nonprofit organization. ABC/NY, now a division of the national service organization Americans for the Arts, was formed in 1965 to join the resources of New York City's arts and business communities in order to strengthen both sectors.
Media development involves capacity building for institutions or individuals related to freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity of media, as well as transparency of media ownership. Media development plays a role in democracy and effective democratic discourse through supporting free and independent media.
Cooperative Development Services (CDS) is a nonprofit organization engaged in cooperative development in the United States. CDS works primarily with food cooperatives and senior housing cooperatives, providing consultation services and co-sponsoring conferences and programs for board members, managers and other professionals in the cooperative sector.
The American Hospital Association's Center for Healthcare Governance is a membership based organization that is affiliated with the AHA. Founded in 2004 and based in Chicago, Illinois, Center members include more than 500 hospital and health system boards and other organizations that serve the health care sector. The center also provides governance resources and services to the more than 5,000 member organizations of the American Hospital Association. The Mission of the center is to bring about excellence and accountability in governance by being the valued source, for health care leaders and trustees, of innovative governance thinking, information, tools and content. The center is governed by a board of managers and also receives guidance on program and service development from a national board of advisors.
Independent Sector is a coalition of nonprofits, foundations and corporate giving programs. Founded in 1980, it is the first organization to combine the grant seekers and grantees.
The Eno Center for Transportation is a non-profit, independent organization based in Washington, D.C. with a mission to shape public debate on critical multimodal transportation issues and builds an innovative network of transportation professionals. The Center was created and endowed in Westport, Connecticut, by William Phelps Eno, a pioneer in the field of traffic control.
Mrs. Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli is an expert on African agriculture and nutrition, philanthropy, and social innovation. She has over 25 years of international development experience and is a recognized serial entrepreneur, author, public speaker, and consultant. Through her work in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, she has led the design and execution of high-impact initiatives focused on policy, strategy, organizational design, ecosystem solutions, and growth.
Steven G. Rogelberg is Chancellor’s Professor at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is a Professor of Organizational Science, Management, and Psychology and the founding Director of Organizational Science at UNC, Charlotte. He has over 100 publications addressing issues such as team effectiveness, leadership, engagement, health and employee well-being, meetings at work, and organizational research methods. He is editor of the Journal of Business and Psychology. Dr. Rogelberg has received over $2,500,000 of external grant funding including from the National Science Foundation.