Governance & board development
Board self-evaluation facilitation for nonprofits
Your board has never formally evaluated itself — there is no shared understanding of what good looks like and no accountability for improving.
What you'll achieve
A constructive, honest self-evaluation process that surfaces insights and leads to concrete commitments for how the board will work better.
How a Nonprofit Builder consultant helps
- Design and administer the evaluation, synthesise the findings, and facilitate a board session to discuss results and agree on actions.
Key deliverables
- Self-evaluation questionnaire, anonymised findings report, facilitated board discussion, agreed action commitments, suggested review timeline.
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Often paired with
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From the resource library
Free tools and guides to get started
- 3.4C039
Good Governance: A Health Check
A board self-assessment tied to the Code of Good Governance (3rd edition) in Northern Ireland. It has 92 questions across 5 principles: understanding the board's role, working as a team, control and risk, integrity, and openness and accountability. Boards rate each item not met, part met or fully met, record evidence against suggested prompts and fill in an action table for each principle with actions, owners and dates.
Start hereCurrentTool or templateFree - 3.1C029
Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards
A short book that sets out the 10 core responsibilities of a nonprofit board and places them in the context of current governance challenges. It separates the board's role from that of the chief executive and senior staff, and it has 2 appendices: one on the individual duties of board members and a sample self-assessment for board members. It is part of BoardSource's 6-book Governance Series and is used in board induction and role descriptions.
ClassicKey manual or guideBook
All 13 resources on governance and boards All 7 resources on starting a nonprofit