Nonprofit Boards in Australia: A Distinctive Governance Approach

Title:	Nonprofit Boards in Australia: A Distinctive Governance Approach
Author:	Peter D. Steane and Michael Christie
Type:	Research Report
Focus:	Governance of nonprofit boards
Date:
Publisher:	Macquarie Graduate School of Management
Download:	Download in PDF format

This academic paper reports the results of a survey of 118 nonprofit boards. Amongst the findings:

While nonprofit boards can mimic some aspects of a shareholder approach to governance, in the main they indicate priorities and activities of a stakeholder approach to governance
Generally, nonprofit directors are influenced by agenda and motivations that can be differentiated from the influences upon director activity in the corporate sector
Nonprofit boards prize knowledge and loyalty to the sector when considering board composition
Nonprofit boards possess greater diversity than boards in the corporate sector, including more women and members of minority groups as directors
Although strategic issues feature significantly as a task for nonprofit boards, they distinguish themselves from their corporate counterparts by also engaging in operational management
In general, nonprofit directors operate in watys distinctive from their corporate counterparts