Nonprofit boards must treat money like their own | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

Nonprofit boards must treat money like their own | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA: "Nonprofit boards must treat money like their own
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Last updated: May 11th, 2005 02:40 AM

Recently I was reviewing a video we use in board training, �Meeting the Challenge,� by BoardSource. The video had a clue in it to resolving what some call the crisis in nonprofit governance.
Jan Masaoka, executive director of CompassPoint and editor of �Board Caf�,� pointed out that if board members had thousands of dollars of their own money invested in their agencies, they would pay more attention.
Why is it, then, that many board members are so lackadaisical when it comes to oversight of thousands � often millions � of dollars in the nonprofits they lead? As some would say, �Go figure.� I can�t.
Not a week goes by without some report touting the latest �solution� to nonprofit governance problems. Solutions are needed. That�s true. But they don�t take much to implement. Mostly it�s knowledge and common sense."