Global Best Practices for CSO, NGO, and Other Nonprofit Boards: Lessons from around the World

An ideal resource for boards everywhere

There are at least 10 million Civil Society Organizations (CSO)s in the world, each of them with a board composed of individuals doing their best to govern well and wisely. There is no single model of governance to emulate, but are there universal principles and practices that can help boards everywhere perform at the highest level.

This book takes us for a trip around the world to look at what is working for boards. Its discoveries will help not only boards, but also nonprofit staff leaders seeking to assist their boards to optimal performance, and capacity-builders looking to strengthen their civil society sector.

Even if your organizational concerns extend no further than city boundaries, this book is for you. One of the greatest governance challenges today is a lack of diversity on the board. This can seriously hamper an organization’s ability to realize mission and to understand and serve its community. Reading this book will provide a greater understanding of how the cultural context affects governance and will sensitize the reader to different ways of thinking about governance.

Global Best Practices For CSO, NGO and Other Nonprofit Boards presents case studies from different parts of the world that illustrate effective practice, identifies and discusses interesting and significant differences, and explores global governance trends with implications for us all.

• Tests for universal truths about roles, responsibilities and practices using criteria established by BoardSource, the premier voice on nonprofit governance
• Provides information that builds exceptional nonprofit boards
• Discusses cultural differences in governance that will help all boards to better function in increasingly diverse environments
• Offers inspiration to NGO boards in any part of civil society
• Reflects on the future of governance worldwide

If you’re a capacity-builder, a board member, or an executive leader looking for guidance on governance, this is the book you’ll want to have on hand.

About the Author

Penelope Cagney, MA, CFRE, President of The Cagney Company, is the editor of "Global Best Practices for CSO, NGO and Other Nonprofit Boards (BoardSource/Wiley 2018); co-editor of the 2015 AFP/ Skystone Partners Award in Research and causeplanet.org's Choice Awards for Top Books of 2015: "Global Fundraising: How the World is Changing the Rules of Philanthropy." "Global Fundraising" has been licensed by the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Press and will be translated into Chinese and published in China in June 2018. She is also author of "Nonprofit Consulting Essentials: What Every Nonprofit and Consultant Needs to Know" (Wiley 2010).

She has consulted on fundraising and nonprofit management (governance, planning) for more than 25 years in North America, Europe and North Africa. Penelope and has taught at American University in Cairo, Egypt; Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and in the Nonprofit Management Institute at Arizona State University. She has addressed audiences in China, Korea, Italy, and Mexico, delivering keynote and plenaries on a variety of topics. Penelope serves on the board of AFP International Foundation, affiliated with an association of more than 33,000 fundraisers worldwide and also on the Wish Fund Committee for Make-A-Wish International. For more information, visit www.thecagneycompany.com.