BOARD SELF-ASSESSMENTS

A self-assessment allows your board members to step back from routine governance matters and to candidly reflect on how well the board is meeting its governance responsibilities. It helps the board discover areas for improvement as well as establish a common understanding of its roles and responsibilities. Once the assessment is complete, you will have the basis for setting priorities and motivating your board members – individually and collectively – to strengthen their performance and governance practices.

All Nonprofit Boards

Solid practices lay the foundation for a high-performing nonprofit board. Measure your board's performance against recognized roles and responsibilities for all nonprofit boards; some are required by law while others have become widely accepted as best practice.

The Board Self-Assessment for ALL nonprofit boards covers these nine areas of responsibility:

1. Mission
2. Strategy
3. Funding and Public Image
4. Board Composition
5. Program Oversight
6. Financial Oversight
7. CEO Oversight
8. Board Structure
9. Meetings

• Demo of the Board Self-Assessment survey for nonprofit boards
• Demo of the Board Self-Assessment report for nonprofit boards

Purchase the Board Self-Assessment for nonprofit boards

In addition to the board self-assessment for governing boards, BoardSource has developed board self-assessments specifically for associations, schools, foundations, and credit unions.

Associations

ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership collaborated with BoardSource to create a Board Self-Assessment for Associations geared to the unique needs of the association sector. Taking the survey allows your board to candidly reflect on how well it is meeting its governance responsibilities. The results will help your board to establish a common understanding of its roles and responsibilities as well as discover critical areas for improvement.

• Demo of the Board Self-Assessment for Associations
• Further information

Purchase the Board Self-Assessment for Associations

Community Foundations

The Self-Assessment of the Board helps community foundation boards determine how well they are carrying out their responsibilities and identifies areas that need improvement. Board members complete the confidential online questionnaires to evaluate the board's performance as well as their own contributions. Your board members' responses will help identify the strengths and weaknesses of your current board with questions focused on ten key areas of board responsibility.

• Demo of the Self-Assessment for Community Foundation Boards
• Sample report from a Self-Assessment for Community Foundation Boards

Purchase Self-Assessment for Community Foundation Boards

Private Foundations

Although the principles of good governance for private foundations are similar in many ways to those for public charities, there are significant differences. This is why BoardSource has customized our board self-assessment tool for private foundation boards. We’ve tailored the questions to reflect the private foundation’s focus on serving the public good and advancing issues related to its mission primarily through the making of grants to other nonprofits or affiliated organizations and the importance of convening decision-makers to create positive social impact.  Among the tool’s nine sections are four that were more extensively customized to suit the needs of a private foundation board wishing to assess its performance. These four sections address foundation strategy, communications and accountability, board composition, and grantmaking oversight.

Purchase Self-Assessment for Private Foundation Boards

Schools

The Board Online Assessment Tool (BOAT) was developed to assist independent schools in assessing the performance of the board of trustees and to identify areas where the board might improve its performance. Through BoardSource, you can continue to use this familiar tool which is based on the NAIS Principles of Good Practice for Trustees.

Includes a benchmark report allowing you to compare your scores to other schools that have also completed the BOAT.

• BOAT Survey Demo
• BOAT Report Demo (PDF)

Purchase BOAT

Credit Unions

BoardSource has partnered with CUES to deliver a board self-assessment customized specifically for credit unions. Take an honest look at your board with Self-Assessment for Credit Union Boards, an anonymous, online assessment tool. It covers key areas of governance, including:

• The credit union's mission, vision and purpose
• Strategic planning
• Fiscal management
• The credit union's financial services offerings
• Relationship between board and staff
• Orientation process for new board members
• Risk management policies

The questionnaire includes multiple-choice questions and generous space for comments-encouraging candid feedback.

Purchase the board self-assessment customized for credit unions

Board Diversity In Action

As the demographics of our society change, nonprofit boards are recognizing the need to become more culturally competent to meet the needs of the diverse communities their organizations serve. Developing cultural competency is an on-going process that starts with embracing the need and value of incorporating diversity, progresses to implementing appropriate policies and practices, and continues with the shifting of board culture to achieve inclusion, to creating a sense of belonging and respecting and valuing individuals for who they are and what they are contributing. As a growing body of literature argues, inclusion in decision making leads to enhanced creativity, the identification of a broader range of options, and increased effectiveness.

Many types of diversity bring value to the boardroom. The Board Diversity in Action assessment tool focuses on age (multi-generational), gender, and racial/ethnic diversity. It covers five areas to determine what phase of development your board is in relative to diversity and inclusion:

1. Overview of diversity and inclusion
2. Perception and value of diversity
3. Policies and Practices
4. Recruitment Practices
5. Board Culture and Dynamics

It is important to consider what diversity means to your board and organization and how adopting more inclusive practices will benefit your organization and lead to the advancement of its mission in a changing society. BoardSource is here to help! 

Purchase the Diversity In Action Assessment

Interpretive Memo
After your organization completes your Diversity in Action assessment, you can have a BoardSource governance consultant write an executive summary of your board’s current diversity and inclusion practices.
The consultant will use his/her years of governance experience and knowledge of best practices in the sector to summarize your data, make baseline comparisons to the sector, and suggest resources. This report will serve as the starting point for your board to develop a thorough action plan to strengthen your board’s practices related to diversity and inclusion.

For more information and pricing, please contact an Assessment Representative at assessments@boardsource.org or 202.349.2583.

Diversity In Action Toolkit
The 19 tools in BoardSource’s Diversity in Action toolkit include ideas and examples of what your board can do to achieve greater diversity and inclusion.

Purchase the Diversity in Action toolkit (Downloadable PDF only) 

Peer-To-Peer Assessment

For boards that are interested in assessing and strengthening the performance of their individual board members, BoardSource now offers a peer-to-peer assessment tool. This tool provides board memberswith the opportunity to evaluate their own individual performance as well as the performances of each of their fellow board members. Divided into two sections addressing roles and responsibilities and culture dynamics, the tool enables all of your board members to reflect on their individual contributions by learning from their colleagues what aspects of their service add value to the team and what aspects might be strengthened. It gets at the “soft skills” that are necessary for a collective board to function successfully by opening the doors to discussions on these skills and the importance of working as a team.

To strengthen your board from a collective as well as individual standpoint, BoardSource recommends that your board conduct board self-assessments and peer-to-peer assessments in alternating years. Governance committees may find the information surfaced in a peer-to-peer assessment helpful when renewing board member terms. Recommended guidelines as well as additional consulting services, including guidance on how to present peer-to-peer assessment results and coaching for individual board members, are available.

Purchase peer-to-peer assessment.