I think this piece is highly applicable to a particular kind of organization, with particular kinds of goals. However, it would be stronger if described that scope up front (and alluded that variants are needed in many other environments).
It might apply most to non-profits with full-time staff that aim to grow, (or are already large) and have a large pool of potential funders available if they can demonstrate effectiveness at achieving their missions, or some other reliable revenue generation. (Essentially the non-profit equivalent of venture funded startups, except maximizing mission instead of profit.)
For example, a volunteer-run community garden non-profit is going to have different core challenges! Especially if the board is the people doing most of the work, or people are there for community and the legal structure exists mostly for accounting. While this is less relevant for EA orgs, that isn’t clear from the framing.
There are also many practical difficulties in implementing some of these recommendation given the existing funding and volunteer environments and norms (and the human and community aspects around organization formation and growth). As alluded by Dagon, there are many different things that a board is trying to do. Ideally there would be e.g. other kinds of structures that provide status and insight for major funders and fundraisers, without direct governance power. I think it would be hard to implement many of these recommendations without such alternatives.
I think this piece is highly applicable to a particular kind of organization, with particular kinds of goals. However, it would be stronger if described that scope up front (and alluded that variants are needed in many other environments).
It might apply most to non-profits with full-time staff that aim to grow, (or are already large) and have a large pool of potential funders available if they can demonstrate effectiveness at achieving their missions, or some other reliable revenue generation. (Essentially the non-profit equivalent of venture funded startups, except maximizing mission instead of profit.)
For example, a volunteer-run community garden non-profit is going to have different core challenges! Especially if the board is the people doing most of the work, or people are there for community and the legal structure exists mostly for accounting. While this is less relevant for EA orgs, that isn’t clear from the framing.
There are also many practical difficulties in implementing some of these recommendation given the existing funding and volunteer environments and norms (and the human and community aspects around organization formation and growth). As alluded by Dagon, there are many different things that a board is trying to do. Ideally there would be e.g. other kinds of structures that provide status and insight for major funders and fundraisers, without direct governance power. I think it would be hard to implement many of these recommendations without such alternatives.