A new booklet by the National Center for Nonprofit Boards discusses questions a group should ask before deciding to incorporate a new nonprofit. The 38-page booklet looks at the types of nonprofits to consider forming, the steps to acquiring nonprofit status, choosing and registering a name for the organization, and filing for incorporation. Because the executive director is so central to the success or failure of the agency, evaluation of the executive director by the board is an important component of the board's responsibilities. An annual, written evaluation both documents the executive director's achievements and shortcomings, and helps the executive director understand areas for improvement or where the board is insufficiently informed. Because the executive director acts both directly and indirectly through others to manage the organization, evaluating the executive director's performance is inevitably linked to evaluating the agency's performance as a whole.
Most boards of directors involve only other board members directly in the evaluation process.
Others choose to utilize feedback from the staff on the executive director's work as well. Still others go outside the agency to gather information regarding the performance of both the agency and the executive director, for example, to funders, collaborating agencies, volunteers, and clients. Although survey-type assessments are easy to use, they have some important shortcomings. First, they are based on the perceptions of board members, who frequently have very limited views of the executive director's performance. A failing executive can hide problems from the board more readily than from staff, clients, or funders.