Charting the Territory of Nonprofit Boards

The board of trustees of a nonprofit organization has one responsibility: to keep the organization on a straight course for the long-term good of the whole. In other words, trustees exist to govern the organization—to monitor quality and to see to it that the organization fulfills its mission. But many trustee boards do not govern. […]

by

Richard P. Chait

and

Barbara E. Taylor

by

Richard P. Chait

and

Barbara E. Taylor

From the Magazine (January–February 1989)

The board of trustees of a nonprofit organization has one responsibility: to keep the organization on a straight course for the long-term good of the whole. In other words, trustees exist to govern the organization—to monitor quality and to see to it that the organization fulfills its mission.

A version of this article appeared in the January–February 1989 issue of Harvard Business Review.

RC

Richard P. Chait is a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a trustee of Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland.
BT

Barbara E. Taylor is a senior associate at the Academic Search Consultation Service in Washington, D.C., and a trustee of Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.

Charting the Territory of Nonprofit Boards

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