Board Café Archives

Board Café is a column for and about nonprofit boards. Short enough to read over a cup of coffee, the column appears regularly in Blue Avocado, the online magazine for people who work and volunteer in the nonprofit sector. New Board Café articles can be read on the Blue Avocado website or you can have the magazine delivered to you via email sign up for a free subscription at blueavocado.org.

From 1997 to mid-2008, Board Café was a standalone publication of CompassPoint's. You can access past issues from this period in the Board Café Archives below.
 

Big Decisions: Mergers, Closing Down

• Mergers: What Does a Typical Process Look Like? (06-28-2004)
• The Right Way to Go Out of Business (07-17-2000)
• Thinking About Going Out of Business (06-08-2000)
• Should Your Nonprofit Be Considering a Merger? (08-09-1998)

Board Committees and Officers

• Governance Committees: Positive Trend on Nonprofit Boards (03-14-2003)
• Board Committee Job Descriptions (02-08-1999)
• Should Boards Have Committees, and if so, Which Ones? (01-24-1999)
• Sample Job Descriptions for Board Officers (11-09-1998)

Board Direction and Role

• The Board's Role in Raising Money (03-24-2008)
• Working Board vs. Governing Board (01-17-2008)
• The Right Way to Resign from the Board (10-15-2007)
• Critical Path for the Board (03-21-2006)
• Why Boards Don't Govern Part 2 (11-19-2004)
• Why Boards Don't Govern Part 1 (10-28-2004)
• Ten Quick Ways to Improve Board Meetings (08-30-2004)
• The CompassPoint Board Model for Governance and Support: Part 2 (08-13-2003)
• The CompassPoint Board Model for Governance and Support (07-23-2003)
• The Strategic Board Agenda (12-23-2002)
• The Board's Role in Personnel (06-27-2001)
• Board Responsibilities for Volunteers (06-07-1999)

Board Meetings, Board Packets, Tools

• What Information Should Board Members Have? (02-14-2006)
• Self Assessment for the Board (02-01-2005)
• What To Do With Board Members Who Don't Do Anything (09-14-2004)
• Five Ways to Get in Trouble (01-23-2004)
• What to Do When You Really, Really Disagree with a Board Decision (02-14-2003)
• By-Laws in Brief (11-25-2002)
• Dominating Personalities on the Board (05-20-2002)
• Board Meeting Packets (01-26-2001)
• Are We Doing a Good Job? (05-18-2000)
• Removing a Difficult Board Member (10-12-1999)
• Where to Have a Board Retreat (08-01-1999)
• A "360 Degree Evaluation" of the Agency (04-13-1999)
• Should the Board Hold Executive Sessions? (10-12-1998)
• Making the Most of Time Together (05-11-1998)

Board Members: Recruiting, Diversity

• What is the Role of an Attorney on the Board (02-28-2008)
• Five Fast Ways to Recruit New Board Members (10-31-2006)
• Proposed Diversity Principles (04-15-2002)
• Young Voices in the Boardroom (10-19-2000)
• Sample Conflict of Interest Policy (01-14-2000)
• The Right Way to Do the Right Thing: Thinking About Ethics (12-14-1999)
• Questions to Ask Yourself Before Joining Your Next Board (07-13-1999)
• Diversity for Organizations Based in Minority Communities (03-10-1999)
• Removing a Board Member (12-07-1998)
• The Diversity Issue: Part 2 (01-12-1998)
• The Diversity Issue (12-09-1997)

Especially for Board Chairs

• Board Chair: Making Your Mark (10-01-2005)
• Checklist for Success as a Board Chair (07-30-2001)
• Governance Committees: New Trend on Nonprofit Boards (08-15-2000)

Executive Directors

• Getting a New Executive Director Off to the Right Start (03-29-2007)
• Firing the Executive Director (03-06-2007)
• Accepting Responsibility for the Board (05-06-2006)
• Succession Planning for Nonprofits of All Sizes (08-01-2005)
• How Much to Pay the Executive Director? (06-01-2005)
• What is Micromanagement and What Isn't? (02-25-2004)
• Support Your Local Executive Director (06-26-2002)
• Job Description for Executive Director (09-21-2000)
• Should the CEO Have a Vote on the Board? (04-13-2000)
• Hiring a New Executive Director? (03-20-2000)
• Annual Evaluation of the Executive Director (09-14-1999)
• When the Executive Director Leaves: The Job of the Board's Executive Transition Committee (09-08-1998)

Finance and Budget

• Organizing the Board to Support the Revenue Strategy (08-13-2007)
• Budget Crunch (04-15-2003)
• Loans From Board Members (01-23-2003)
• The Board and the Budget: Beauty and the Beast? (09-27-2002)
• What You Need to do About Insurance (11-01-2001)
• Readiness for Earned-Income Ventures (05-30-2001)
• A Board-Staff "Contract" for Financial Accountability (11-21-2000)
• Six Things the Board President Should Check Before the 990 is Filed (04-13-1998)

Fundraising

• Raising Money in 30 Days (06-19-2003)
• The Board Should Raise Money: True or False? (03-18-2002)
• What is a Fundraising Feasibility Study and Is It Worth It? (08-30-2001)
• New Findings on Nonprofit CEO Pay and Board Member Giving (02-22-2001)
• Five Things One Board Member Can Do to Raise $100 to $5,000 (05-10-1999)
• Two Simple Ways to Communicate Expectations About Money (02-09-1998)

Miscellaneous

• The Twelve Board Cafe Days of Christmas (12-15-2007)
• Nonprofit Copyrights (11-27-2007)
• What 5,000 Board Café Readers Think About Boards (01-19-2007)
• List of the Best: Books, Websites and More (09-01-2005)
• Alligators in the Sewer: Myths and Urban Legends About Nonprofits (07-01-2005)
• A Board Leads an Organization Out of the Ashes (01-24-2005)
• Spotlight on Corporate Boards (08-22-2002)
• What Now? (10-01-2001)
• Nonprofit and Corporate Boards: Same or Different? (12-21-2000)

Public Policy

• Sarbanes Oxley and Nonprofits (04-30-2004)
• Yes or No: Lobbying by Nonprofits (09-15-2003)

Templates and Samples

• Dashboard for Nonprofits (05-01-2005)
• Policy Adoption Process (04-01-2005)
• Sample Conflict of Interest Policy (05-27-2004)
• A Board Member Contract (10-30-2003)
• What is an Advisory Board and Should We Have One? (10-24-2002)
• An Annual Board Committee Report (11-10-1997)