Board problems don't fix themselves. They compound.

Most EDs I work with don't have a "bad" board. They have a board that doesn't know what it's supposed to be doing — or one that knows but has drifted into habits that make things harder instead of easier. Micromanaging operations. Rubber-stamping decisions without real engagement. Showing up unprepared and expecting the ED to carry the meeting.

Here's what I've seen over 35 years of working with nonprofit boards: the gap between a functional board and a dysfunctional one isn't talent or good intentions. It's structure. The organizations that get board governance right have clear expectations, honest conversations about competence gaps, and a willingness to address problems before they become crises.

The pieces below cover the most common board problems I hear about from nonprofit leaders — and what to do about them.

Where to start

Pick the one that sounds most like your situation right now.

• Board Competence: A Quiet Crisis Undermining Nonprofit Resilience — The problem nobody wants to name.
• How Nonprofit Board Competence Gaps Hurt — Specific ways competence gaps show up.
• Strategies for Improving Your Nonprofit Board — The action piece.
• Engaging Your Board to Support Nonprofit Risk Management — Risk as governance responsibility.
• Engaging Your Board in Ethical Oversight — Building real ethical oversight.
• Burnout, Board Pressure, and the Gift of Seeing Trouble Coming — When board dysfunction burns out leadership.

Board Corner in NGN Premium: Nonprofit Good News Premium issues regularly a Board Corner exercise — a specific, practical activity you can bring to your next board meeting.