The fact is, that financial stewardship involves an understanding of the cash inflows against cash outflows for a period measured by activity. A useful board understands CASH, and understands that too much aggregation of financial information, e.g., revenues less expenses irrespective of activity, seriously undermines its ability to give useful feedback to management. When people speak about stabilization, you will often hear references to balance sheet objectives such as the elimination of accumulated deficits and the need for positive working capital. I believe that useful boards understand that the issue for sustainability is not whether certain financial objectives have been met or not, but why. If financial objectives have been met at a point in time, it could be for reasons of crisis fundraising, a buoyant economy, or creative accounting - none of which speaks to sustainability.
Sustainability is about periodic re-balancing, scale, and resonance in the community.
In our experience, each organization, its audiences, its community, is unique. A useful board understands this uniqueness. You must keep stripping layers until you see the core of your particular circumstances. The fact is that the performing arts is an endeavour of absolutes, not relatives. Arts managers have a lot in common with private sector entrepreneurs.