Having Information Technology (IT) people on boards of directors can help nonprofits get the IT infrastructure they need.

...The problem is this: Contributors don't want charities to spend money on IT because they see it as overhead rather than opportunity. Unfortunately, many in executive management in the nonprofit sector feel the same way. Mazzocco [Angelo Mazzocco, the CIO of Progressive Medical,... Mazzocco's a member of the board of the GroundWork Group in Columbus, Ohio. GroundWork provides technology services to more than 130 charities and nonprofits in the Ohio area.] and his group set out to deal with that by establishing tech expertise on the boards of many nonprofit groups in central Ohio. "Tech execs are always looking to get on boards," Mazzocco says. "It helps their resumés." Today, they have 70 CIOs sitting on the boards of local-area charities. They also set out to lower the cost of IT for non-profits. GroundWork offers what it calls "IT In A Box"-- managed services such as network infrastructure, e-mail, and business continuity. It also offers technology training and support, and help with procuring IT products and hiring IT staff.

JULY 12, 2008, CIOs Uncensored: Charities Need Your Skills, And Your Vision, by John Soat, Information Week, http://www.informationweek.com [posted 11/6/2008]

Two recent reports discuss the unhappiness of CEO's with their boards another report points to insular nature of many boards.

Most heads of midsize nonprofits give their trustees low marks for fundraising and monitoring board performance, an Urban Institute study of nonprofits with annual expenses between $500,000 and $5 million has found. Sixty-two percent of the chief executive officers say their boards do a fair or poor job raising revenue and 60 percent assign similar marks for boards' self-examination. More than a quarter of CEOs rate their boards as fair or poor when it comes to evaluating the CEO, planning, monitoring programs and services, dealing with the community, and educating the public about the organization. Although most CEOs rate their boards as good or excellent in most roles, the only area in which a majority (53 percent) rate their boards as excellent was respecting board-staff boundaries. Just under half (48 percent) say their boards are doing an excellent job of financial oversight. "Substantial percentages feel their boards are doing a poor or fair job in many areas," says researcher Francie Ostrower. "Our findings clearly do reveal disturbing levels of CEO dissatisfaction with board performance."

MAY 8, 2008, "Disturbing Levels Of Ceo Dissatisfaction With Board Performance" At Midsize Nonprofits, Study Finds, News Release, The Urban Institute,
Full Report: May 2008, Boards of Midsize Nonprofits: Their Needs and Challenges, by Francie Ostrower, The Urban Institute, Abstract: http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=411659, Report: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411659_midsize_nonprofits.pdf.

A new report by Boardsource, a national voice for nonprofit governance, sadly reveals that mediocrity is common among nonprofit boards. The fifth edition of the Boardsource report, Nonprofit Governance Index 20007, provides a snapshot of the range in practices from nonprofit organizations across U.S. regions, IRS classifications, budge sizes and mission area. The report discloses that areas of lowest board performance include fundraising, diversity and oversight of the organization's chief executive. While boards give themselves a report card full of Bs, chief executives give board members only average marks when it comes to performance. Areas identified as needing the greatest improvement:

• Fundraising and financial sustainability
• Board Demographics and Diversity
• Board oversight of CEO
• Understanding Mission
• Financial Oversight
• Size of Board

JANUARY 2008, Report Shows Improvement Needed in Nonprofit Board Governance, Nonprofit Business Advisor, 4:7, p. 11.
Full Report: 2007, Nonprofit Governance Index 2007, BoardSource, Washington, D.C., http://www.boardsource.org/dl.asp?document_id=553. [posted 6/5/2008]

A researcher at the Urban Institute has identified the lack of diversity and insular nature of many nonprofit boards.

[A] study, by the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, also found that many groups are failing to attract ethnically diverse leaders to guide their decision making. Half the boards examined in the study had only white members, none of whom were Hispanic. Among the study's key findings:

• 21 percent of charities have bought goods, services, or property from companies affiliated with their board members.
• 71 percent do not require their board members to disclose their financial interests in entities doing business with their organizations.
• 26 percent of boards that oversee organizations with less than $100,000 in expenses have members who are related to one another, as do 19 percent of boards of organizations with $100,000 to $500,000 in expenses.

"There is a disturbing level of insularity among nonprofit boards that is at odds with their public-service mandate," says Francie Ostrower, a researcher at the Urban Institute who conducted the study...

JUNE 28, 2007, Insider Deals and Other Controversial Board Practices Persist, Study Finds, by Peter Panepento, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, http://philanthropy.com.
Full Report: JUNE 2007, Nonprofit Governance in the United States Findings on Performance and Accountability from the First National Representative Study, by Francie Ostrower, The Urban Institute, abstract: http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=411479 report: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411479_Nonprofit_Governance.pdf. [posted 6/5/2008]

Nonprofits have made great gains in creating policies to address Sarbanes-Oxley and IRS Form 990 issues.

Since we began conducting the survey in 2003, the governance landscape of the not-for-profit community has changed dramatically. In 2003, 80 percent of survey respondents said their organization had not made any changes to their governance policies as a result of Sarbanes-Oxley. Today, 87 percent indicate their organizations have created new governance policies. Regarding specific policies, 75 percent of today's respondents say their organization has a code-of-ethics policy, compared to 17 percent in 2003. And 89 percent have a conflict-of interest policy, a substantial increase from 24 percent in our first survey. In 2003, whistle-blower policies were a newer concept to not-for-profit organizations, which was reflected in the finding that only 16 percent had such a policy in place. Today, 68 percent of respondents say their organization has implemented a whistle-blower policy. Most notably, 92 percent of respondents have implemented new accounting policies and procedures, compared to only 59 percent in last year's survey. This sizeable movement is likely the result of board members encouraging an expansion of internal control documentation and recent changes to the Form 990, the required and publicly disclosed IRS "tax return" that most not-for-profit organizations must complete.

DECEMBER 2007, The 2007 National Board Governance Survey for Not-for-Profit Organizations, Grant Thornton LLP, http://www.grantthornton.com/staticfiles/GTCom/files/Industries/NotForProfit/07_BG_Survey.pdf.[posted 4/24/2008]