Doing Good Better by Edgar Stoesz

Doing Good Better by Edgar Stoesz

This trusted handbook for nonprofit board service is newly revised and includes new case studies and even more tips and ideas from the trenches of nonprofit board work.

Doing Good Better is approachable wisdom. Edgar Stoesz has made Doing Good Better a guidebook for both board members of nonprofits, whether new to the task, or highly experienced. First, Stoesz identifies two failings common to many boards of nonprofit organizations that are often overlooked:

1. A board's governance role is very different from the role of management. Making this distinction requires a reorientation for most board member, because in their day jobs, they are managers or employees.

2. Boards often fail at two matters: a.) preparation of their members, and b.) regular evaluations of their own effectiveness and focus.

In practical, pointedly-written chapters, Stoesz covers:

• Helping Directors Understand Their Governance Role
• A Plan to Fulfill the Purpose
• Reporting Back to the Members
• Planning Effective Meetings
• Great Boards Have a Good Fight (occasionally)
• Working Your Way Through a Crisis
• Great Boards Celebrate
• Leaving Right

Stoesz deftly interweaves background philosophy, vision, and razor-sharp specific ideas. Discussion/Action Questions conclude many of the chapters. In addition, Stoesz offers a Board Evaluation Form, a Director's Self-Evaluation Form, and an outline for the Executive Director Annual Review.

Stoesz, Edgar: -

Edgar Stoesz served for nearly four decades as director of various programs with Mennonite Central Committee, including the Latin American program that served Paraguay. He has made more than twenty trips to the region. He is the author of numerous books, including Garden in the Wilderness: Mennonite Communities in the Paraguayan Chaco, 1927-1997; Doing Good Better; and Doing Good Even Better. Edgar was CEO of Mennonite Indemnity Inc. and president of Goodville Mutual Casualty. He served as moderator of the Atlantic Coast Conference from 2001 to 2005 and is a member of Akron (Pennsylvania) Mennonite Church.