Resource library · free toolkits, templates and guides

The practical library for people who build nonprofits

227 really practical toolkits, templates and guides for nonprofit and NGO leaders, and the consultants and funders who support them. A mix of the classics and newer methods.

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227 resources · 15 topics · 145 publishers · 210 free to use

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  • Search: board lifecycle
  • 3.1C228

    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.

    ClassicShort readFree
  • 1.5C214

    Nonprofit Lifecycles

    A short book that sets out seven stages a nonprofit can pass through: idea, start-up, growth, maturity, decline, turnaround and terminal. For each stage it describes what programmes, management, governance, resources and systems typically look like. Leaders, boards, funders and consultants use it to place an organisation on the curve, spot the area that lags behind the others and plan capacity work that fits the stage. Copies are sold through the Nonprofit Lifecycles Institute and partners such as SaskCulture.

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