Governance includes a wide range of activities, such as financial oversight, strategy formulation, and securing resources required for long-term organizational health. The tricky part of evaluating governance is that great governance is particular to each individual organization.  The key to assessing your organization’s governance is determining what your organization needs from the board of directors and evaluating how well the board is meeting those specific needs.

The work required to evaluate an organization’s governance practices can be challenging: it requires leadership, a shared understanding of what success looks like and strong relationships between the chief executive, the board chair and the board as a whole. The good news is there are resources out there to help you assess and develop your governance systems and structures so they fit your organization’s unique needs.

Some resources and learning opportunities:

• Our Strategic Governance seminar for board and staff leaders presented with full-tuition fellowships December 2-3 in Chicago
• The Principles Workbook: Steering Your Board Toward Good Governance and Ethical Practice, produced by Independent Sector and BoardSource
• The New Work of the Nonprofit Board from the Harvard Business Review

What are your preferred governance tools and resources?  Share them with your colleagues by leaving a comment below…

This seminar will provide your leadership team with a rich learning experience and retreat-like working session.  Leading management professors will engage your team through case studies, class discussions and extensive team exercises.  You will gain tools to analyze your organization’s environment, articulate the relationships between key stakeholders and integrate programmatic and economic choices so you’re able to better focus your resources on pursuing your mission.  By the end of the three days, your team will have a shared understanding of what makes your organization unique and a plan for how to maximize your mission achievement in a financially responsible way.

Leadership teams of three-to-five participants will attend with an Organization Fellowship covering the $1250 tuition.  A simple application process will be used to identify a diverse mix of medium and large organizations with clear goals for their participation. Additional travel support will be available to all teams from outside the Nashville area to help with the cost of travel and lodging.

For more information, visit www.artstrategies.org/strategy

During this two day working-session, you will learn how to create conditions and build relationships that can react to change, contribute to good decisions and, in turn, to good governance. By the end of this seminar you will have:

• An advanced conception of how boards and executives work together for organizational success
• A more sophisticated understanding of the functions and elements of governance
• A framework for analyzing governance performance in an organization
• An advanced self-evaluation instrument that can be employed for annual evaluation and continued governance improvement

Strategic Governance will be presented in Chicago, December 2-3.  All teams will attend with Organization Fellowships covering the full $1250 team tuition.  Teams from outside the Chicago area will also receive up to $600 per person to help with the cost of travel and lodging. The deadline to apply is October 8.

Apply now »

• Evaluate the critical features of your organization’s external environment
• Identify the unique value your organization can bring to your community
• Balance artistic and economic choices
• Ensure your organization’s resources are being used to support your most valuable initiatives

Leading professors of management will engage your team through the analysis of real-life cases, class discussions and team exercises to give you both a theoretical and a practical understanding of strategy development. By the end of the seminar, your team will have completed a structured analysis of your organization and will have an articulated path of action. See a detailed description of the seminar sessions »

All participating teams will receive Organization Fellowships covering the full $1250 tuition for a team of up to 5.  Participants from outside Nashville will also receive up to $600 per person in travel support to help with the cost of travel and lodging.  The deadline to apply is August 27.

Apply now »

Join NAS and Professor Neale July 29, 1-2 PM EDT to explore your team’s questions about how to effectively build, manage and participate in groups.  In advance of the live event, participants will have unlimited access to a recording of Professor Neale identifying critical challenges facing all teams and sharing strategies for making teams more effective.

Team participation is encouraged. Participation is limited to 12 organizations to allow for the highest level of interaction.  Tuition is $95 per organization.  Register now »

Strategy is an organization’s integrated set of choices about what to do – and what not to do – using available resources.  Strategy addresses how an organization pursues its mission using available resources and how it continues to attract the resources it needs to achieve its mission over time.  A strategic plan documents how an organization intends to use its resources to implement its strategy over a set period of time.  While mission and vision comprise a social logic for the organization’s existence, strategy can be described as the economic logic that complements the social logic.

A key element of strategy is that it reconciles timing and opportunity – analyzing the environment to identify opportunities, threats and overall competitiveness.  Because of the ever-changing nature of the environment in which organizations exist, strategy is a dynamic, continuous process requiring both creativity and critical thinking to gather and deploy resources effectively.

Most importantly, an organization’s strategy focuses on these key questions:

• What unique, indispensable benefit do we provide to our community and our stakeholders?
• What investments do we need to make to maintain or improve the benefits we provide?
• How can we optimize our mission achievement while maintaining a sustainable economic structure?

This small group discussion will be limited to twelve organizations to ensure the highest level of interaction.  In advance of the live event, you and your team will be provided with a short recording of Professor Neale discussing the inherent challenges in working in teams and strategies for being more effective.  We encourage you to gather a group of your colleagues and prepare questions in advance of the discussion based on the recording.  The tuition for attending is $95 per team.

Space is strictly limited. Register now for Talk with an Expert: Managing Successful Teams »

Professor Rindova, Ph.D., M.B.A., J.D. is a professor in strategy at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas-Austin. Her research focusing on how firms develop intangible assets and manage perceptions of value has been published in leading journals in management and strategy and has been covered by various business media including Business Week and The Economist. She has extensive teaching experience in courses relating to entrepreneurship and strategic management at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels.

Dr. Wiltbank is Associate Professor of Strategic Management for the Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University. His research focuses on strategy making under uncertain conditions, including marketing in the absence of markets, behavioral theory of entrepreneurial firms and organizational strategy. He teaches courses on Industry Analysis, Strategic Management, and New Venture Creation.

Strategy is being presented in Nashville October 28-30. Participants will attend in organizational teams of three to five senior-level staff. Organization Fellowships will cover the full team tuition. Organizations from outside the Nashville area will also receive travel support to help offset the expense of travel and lodging. Organizations interested in participating must apply before August 27 to be eligible.

Talk with an Expert discussions are hour-long video-conferences in which twelve organizations get to directly explore their questions about a critical challenge with an expert.  Managing Successful Teams features Professor Margaret Neale, an expert on group dynamics, organizational behavior, and influence and negotiations.

The live conversation will be held Wednesday, July 29, 1-2 pm EDT and will be anchored by a short recording in which Professor Neale identifies key challenges facing all teams and shares proven strategies for making teams more effective which.  Participants will have unlimited access to this recording prior to the live event.  Team participation is strongly encouraged and tuition costs $95 per organization.

Space is limited to 12 organizations.  Register now »

Arab American National Museum
Suha Ahmed, Public Programming Coordinator
Aaron Barndollar, Humanities Programming Coordinator
Janice Freij, Curator of Education

August Wilson Center for African American Culture
Shaunda Miles, Program Manager
Treshea Wade, Manager of Communications & E-Marketing
Shay Wafer, Vice President of Programs

Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center
Addie Langford, President & CEO
Cynthia Mills, VP of Programs
Gwenn Rosseau, VP of Finance
Tim Ruggles, VP of Operations
Diane Taylor, Marketing & Communications Director
Annie VanGelderen, Director of Enterprises

Child Care Coordinating Council of Detroit/Wayne County, Inc. (4C)
Denise Glover, Project Director
Peggy Graham, Associate Director of Family & Community Services
Carole Quarterman, Advisory Board member
Donna Snowden, Executive Director

Desert Botanical Garden
Shannon Fehlberg, Conservation Biologist
Sheila Grinell, Board Member
Kimberlie McCue, Program Director, Conservation of Threatened Species and Habitats
Marcos Voss, Institutional Giving Manager
Tina Wilson, Director of Education

Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Charles Burke, Director of Education
Rozanne Kokko, Chief of Finance and Business Affairs
Keith Koppmeier, Popular and Community Programs Administrator
Patricia Walker, Chief Operating Officer

DuPage Children’s Museum
Susan Broad, Executive Director
Lenore Johnson, Board Member
Margaret Hanly, Associate Director of Programs
Rosie Sajak, Director of Institutional Advancement
Alison Segebarth, Director of Marketing

Frye Art Museum
Rebecca Garrity-Putnam, Deputy Director, Communications
Tamara Keefe, Adult Day Program Director, Elderwise
Mary Jane Knecht, Manager of Adult Programs
Keri Pollock, Communications Director, Alzheimer’s Association, Western and Central Washington State Chapter
Deborah Sepulveda, Manager of Student and Teacher Programs

Hartford Stage Company
Sue Davison, Director of Development
Bryan Holcombe, Production Manager
Julie Stapf, Director of Marketing
Michael Stotts, Managing Director
Emily Van Scoy, General Manager

Joe’s Movement Emporium
Gail Addison
Brooke Kidd, Executive Director
Carlyncia Peck, Board Member, Port Towns Youth Council
Charles Phaneuf, Managing Director
LaTanya Robinson, Director of Arts Education

Mixed Blood Theatre Company
Scott Artley, Community Relations Manager
Pj Doyle, Managing Director
Ron McKinley, Board President

Please Touch Museum
Alexia Daniels, Membership Manager
Ramona Gaines, Parent & Training Service Coordinator
Maggie Leyman, Grant Writer
Claudia Setubal, Family Learning Coordinator
Leslie Walker, Director, Community Programs

The Detroit Zoological Society
Linda Aviv, Vice Chair
Ron Kagan, Executive Director/CEO
Anne Morrison, Development Manager
Peg Tallet, Chief External Relations Officer

The Youth Connection
Grenae Dudley, Ph.D., President and CEO
Jeff Griffith, Communications Director
Jeff Hill, CFO
Nicole Hill, Program Director

University Musical Society
Wadad Abed, Chair – Audience Development Committee
Sara Billmann, Director, Marketing and Communications
Susan McClanahan, Director of Development
Claire Rice, Interim Director of Education and Audience Development
Omari Rush, Education Manager

University of Michigan Museum of Art
Lisa Borgsdorf, Manager of Public Programs and Campus Engagement
Mary DeYoe, Education Program Coordinator, Public Programs and Student Engagement
Stephanie Miller, External Relations Manager and Senior Writer