Board Passages: Three Stages in a Nonprofit Board's Lifecycle
Karl Mathiasen's classic short paper on how boards change as an organisation grows. It describes three stages: the founding board, small and close to its leader or doing the work itself; the governing board, which shifts to policy, finances and sharing authority with staff; and the institutional board, larger and focused on major issues and fundraising. It closes with practical steps for moving between stages, such as term limits, regular self-assessment and a board development plan.
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How to cite
Karl Mathiasen III (1990). Board Passages: Three Stages in a Nonprofit Board's Lifecycle. BoardSource. https://boardsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Board-Passages-Stages-Lifecycle.pdf
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