Questions about board responsibilities, recruitment, conflicts of interest, member participation and good governance practice.
How can our small CSO improve board governance without formal training?
lead a small, locally‑based CSO with a volunteer board that is passionate but has no formal experience in governance, by‑laws, or compliance. We struggle with clear roles, meeting procedures, and conflict‑avoidance, which sometimes slows decision‑making and weakens our accountability. What simple, practical steps can we take to improve our board governance—such as clearer terms of […]
What are the specific accountability challenges for umbrella CSO organisations?
Our organisation is an umbrella body for about 30 smaller community groups. Our accountability situation feels different from a typical service-delivery NGO because we're essentially accountable to our member organisations, not just donors. But we're not sure we're handling this well — some members feel disconnected and don't really know what we do with their […]
How do we involve our members in governance decisions?
We're a membership organisation with about 50 member organisations. Our AGM attendance is really low — maybe 20-30% — and the members who do show up seem disengaged, like they're just there out of obligation. Decisions tend to get rubber-stamped without much real discussion. We want members to feel like they genuinely have a say […]
What are the key responsibilities of a CSO Board of Directors?
I've just joined the board of a small NGO here in T&T and I want to make sure I understand what I've actually signed up for. The organisation has been around for years but I get the feeling the board hasn't been very active — meetings are irregular, most decisions seem to get made by […]
How do we manage conflicts of interest on our board?
We've got a situation where one of our board members runs a printing business and we regularly use that business for our publications and event materials. It's been going on for years and nobody ever raised it as an issue. Now we're trying to tighten up our governance and I'm wondering if we need to […]
Should board members of a CSO be paid?
We're having a bit of an internal debate about whether to start paying our board members a small honorarium for attending meetings. Some people think it's fine, others are saying it's not appropriate for a non-profit. We're not talking about much — maybe a few hundred dollars per meeting — just to show appreciation and […]
How do we recruit new board members effectively?
We have two board members stepping down at our next AGM and we really need to bring in some fresh faces. Our usual approach is to ask people we know but that's resulted in a pretty homogeneous board and we're missing key skills — especially around finance and legal matters. Has anyone done a more […]
What is the difference between the board’s role and the Executive Director’s role?
We're a small organisation and I think we have a pretty blurry line between what the board does and what our Executive Director does. Our ED is very hands-on and sometimes makes decisions I feel should have come to the board, but then the board sometimes gets too involved in day-to-day operations too. I want […]