At our YouthBuild Boston board meeting next Tuesday, we plan to talk about whether to set up an advisory board for non-board members we want to engage more deeply. Do any of you have experience with advisory boards or thoughts on this? Some of the questions on my mind are: - Who should be invited and who should do the inviting? Should there be criteria for ongoing membership? - What expectations are realistic to set? How frequently should they convene? - Should a board member be the liaison or should the ED take that role since many invitees might have specific skills and knowledge the ED might want to tap into - Is the proverbial juice worth the squeeze? Any and all advice or experience would be greatly appreciated, ideally sooner rather than later. Thank you.

As mentioned in last week's zoom meeting, I uploaded an HBS note on the various stages of nonprofit board governance into the Classroom section (see the menu at the top). I look forward to hearing your thoughts as to where your board is and the challenges of moving from one stage to the next.

I just added the US Nonprofit Culture Pulse Report 2025 to the classroom section and I encourage everyone to read it. I believe the issues surfaced in the report will resonate with you on many levels and provides a 7 step path forward that, as board members, we can partner with our EDs to follow. I'd enjoy the opportunity to discuss this with anyone interested.

Does anyone have sample investment policies or resources for creating an investment policy? Our organization has modest reserves (not an endowment) & would like to put in place a policy that will guide how this and future boards manage those funds, balancing returns with safeguards. Things like risk tolerance, asset allocation, monitoring/reporting...

I just added an article to the Classroom section of this discussion group entitled "Are There Too Many Nonprofits?" It really got me thinking.about how best to strengthen our sector and I'm curious to hear thoughts from others in this group. If you get a chance please read the article and share your thoughts.