Key governance issues for funded nonprofit organisations in Queensland

Abstract

The past two decades has seen a rise in the expectations of governors of organisations that operate within Australia. Nonprofit organisations are not immune from these pressures and often face unique and challenging contexts when implementing good governance. As a major funder of nonprofit organisations throughout Queensland, three government departments, namely Queensland Health, the Department of Communities, and Disabilities Services Queensland, sought to better understand the challenges facing the nonprofit organisations with whom they work. In 2007, The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (CPNS) conducted a governance development survey on behalf of these three Departments to identify the most common training and development needs for Boards/Management Committees (Boards/MCs) of relevant nonprofit organisations. Consultations with the Departments and a client reference group identified a series of 18 relevant governance topic areas which formed the basis of the survey items. Participants were asked to outline 1. the current competence of their Board/MC in each topic area; 2. the level of importance of each topic area; and 3. their level of interest in learning and development or materials for each topic area The survey was sent to the Boards/MCs of 835 organisations and we received 565 useable responses from individuals within these organisations. Participants represented a diverse range of organisations and a diverse range of governance arrangements. The exception to this generalisation was the organisation’s legal form - approximately 84% were Incorporated Associations. Participants were mostly female, unpaid, on no other Board/MC and consider themselves independent from management. Participants reported having relatively lower levels of expertise in the domains or disciplines of Law and Finance/Accounting than other salient domains.