Do not-for-profit organisations need to be run like for-profit businesses?

In The new work of the non-profit board, Barbara Taylor, Richard Chait and Thomas Holland criticise that effective governance by the board of a not-for-profit organisation is a rare and unnatural act. This suggests that many are not well governed, or that for-profit organisations are better governed. Either way, this issue has spawned a wide range of literature and opinions in response to the common refrain that not-for-profit organisations need to be run more like for-profit businesses.

Not-for-profit organisations grew out of the need to have a different kind of entity: a type that could place altruistic needs above monetary profit. Sitting alongside its for-profit counterparts, both have a purpose in society and meet different needs; together they play vital roles in the economic, cultural and social wellbeing of our communities, nations and world ... READ MORE

Yee Yang Lee, ACIS - NZLawyer - 8 February 2013