Citizen Participation in Non-profit Governance

by Koff,Sondra Z.

• ISBN13: 9781412810425
• ISBN10: 1412810426
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-08-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Nonprofit organizations, their governing structures, boards of directors, and their newest constituency, members who represent the public at large, are the subject of this book. In recent years, new mechanisms have been developed to link citizens with government and with diverse policy-making entities. Earlier, it was assumed that citizens had little interest in policy deliberations, and responsibility for public needs was best left to the experts. Many citizens now believe that they have a legitimate right to influence how power is exercised in public organizations. Koff constructs a demographic profile of public members, their activities, and their opinions about board membership. She also catalogues the perspectives of executive directors about public members, identifies specific problems related to public participation, and suggests strategies to help resolve them. How effectively these bodies perform, and how well they respond to the public, are in part determined by the talents and activities of their members. All of these members, especially public members, need appropriate tools to be able to perform in a superior fashion. Despite the importance of governing bodies to an organization's performance, there has been little examination of board members in general and specifically of public members. This is the first book-length study on the subject.

Table of Contents

Preface
The Game and Its Background
Introduction	p. 1
The Third Sector: Its Nature and Characteristics	p. 5
The Third Sector: Its Development	p. 9
Consumer Representation and the Public Member	p. 19
The New Institutionalism	p. 28
The Playing Field and the Public Member Team
Boards of Directors: Role and Responsibilities	p. 35
Institutional Demography	p. 46
Representation	p. 81
Playing Ball: Batting Averages
The Participatory Experience	p. 101
Problems: The Perspective of Public Members	p. 126
Problems: The Perspective of Executive Directors	p. 135
The Public Member: Representation and Accountability	p. 138
Public Members: Maximizing Their Potential
The Challenge	p. 145
Beneficial Tools	p. 146
Conclusion: The Score and the Standings	p. 171
References	p. 187
Index	p. 201
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.