What is an advisory board?

Question

I am looking to set up an Advisory Board and looking for some information. What is it exactly and is there any Good Practice Guides out there i can use?

Cheers

Answer 1

The advisory board for a nonprofit, serves to help the nonprofit work to the best of its ability.  The people on that board generally know a lot about the issues that nonprofit deals with and have experience working in that industry, so that they are able to give practical advice when problems arise and to give good ideas for better operational standards.  Some may just have good connections to funders, people in government, etc.  For some great guidelines, go to www.fdncenter.org, they have info on starting nonprofits, advisory boards, funding, getting your 501 c3, whatever you might need.  They even have classes you can take if there's a FoundationCenter Library near you.  Also, most of their services are free of charge, and the ones they do charge for aren't that expensive.  Good luck!

Answer 2

The Board of Directors is made up of volunteers who are fiscally-responsible for a nonprofit. They vote on key decisions, approve major expenditures, hire the executive director, etc. They meet regularly, should have set terms, etc.

An advisory board is also made up of volunteers, usually with a key area of expertise, but they don't vote, they don't approve major decisions, etc. They don't meet as often as the board. They offer discussion and advice for a nonprofit -- an advisory board could be made up of a group of selected staff members, clients and community people, for instance, to help develop a five year plan that would then be discussed and approved or rejected by the board. An advisory board could be made up of community leaders who discuss and advise on new programs or expansion of programs before such are made public.  An advisory board could be created just for a particular period of time -- just for the first five years of operations, for instance, or even just a few months.

More info:

http://www.compasspoint.org/boardcafe/de...

and

http://www.boardsource.org/Knowledge.asp...