Governance training needs in community organisations

Boards and Management Committees of nonprofit organisations are often portrayed as lacking the necessary skills and knowledge for the role. To investigate this issue, we undertook a survey of 835 community, nonprofit organisations in the community services sector. We received 565 usable responses from board/committee members and senior managers. Participants indicated that risk management (1), legal compliance (2), strategy and business planning (3), financial management (4), and director duties (5) were the top five governance training topics desired by participants. However, an analysis of the gap between perceived importance and perceived competence revealed different training needs. While strategy and business planning (1), financial management(4), and risk management (5) exhibited large gaps between importance and competence, there were two other topics - board recruitment and retention (2) and fundraising (3) that were not represented in a direct survey of participant interest. This indicates that direct surveys of nonprofit boards/committee members about their governance needs may overemphasize legal and compliance elements of the role and underemphasize the strategic and performance elements of the role. We conclude by outlining a research agenda to address these governance challenges facing the sector.