There comes a point in every nonprofit where the founders realize that they need advice, direction and more pairs of hands. Many nonprofits set up a board of director at this stage. There are many different boards that are not the same. There are many governance models that can be used to ensure that your charity is run properly and achieves its stated goal.
One of the most popular nonprofit governance models is an advisory model. This allows the executive director to meet regularly with an advisory board for advice on how to run the organization. The governing body can be the same as or differ from the advisory board, according to the terms that are agreed upon. Another common model is the model of cooperative governance. This is a highly-democratic structure which distributes power evenly between all board members. It is ideal for organizations who are not legally required to have the chief executive officer.
The Policy Board Model has also become extremely popular. The model for governance was devised by John Carver and is a ideal tool for establishing guidelines that management and the board must follow.
All of these models are great but they may not be appropriate for your nonprofit. It is typical for nonprofits to employ one model of governance centrally and add other models to meet the unique requirements of their organizations. This combination of systems helps your organization flourish and achieve its goals.