A Desktop Guide for Nonprofit Directors, Officers, and Advisors (PDF)

How to keep any nonprofit out of trouble, running smoothly, and
accomplishing its mission

"Jack Siegel--lawyer, accountant, management consultant, and
computer whiz--takes the putative director or officer of a
nonprofit organization on a useful and often entertaining voyage
throughout the realm of the tax-exempt organizations universe,
pointing out its quirks, foibles, and legal liabilities along the
way. His handbook will make mandatory--and arresting--reading for
those who are already serving as trustees, directors, officers, and
key employees of exempt organizations, particularly charitable
ones. Siegel's goal, in which he succeeds, is to help directors and
officers of nonprofit organizations 'make better decisions.' The
book is full of large policy analyses and paragraphs on the
details, such as board size, board committees, board meeting
formats, the contents of minutes, and the duties of officers.

Salted with some excellent real-life examples, what also sets this
book apart from most in its genre is the tone: the writing style,
the brusqueness, the bluntness. He complains that too many
directors 'check their good judgment at the boardroom door.' He
advises individuals who 'desire agreement and demand adulation' to
stay off boards; he insists on 'commitment' and 'institutional
tension' with the executive director. He warns prospective
directors that some organizations want, in addition to time and
judgment, 'either your money or your ability to raise money.' To my
delight, he extols the virtues of 'some level of expenditures' for
qualified lawyers and accountants.

Please join me in adding this most helpful handbook to your
nonprofit library."

--Bruce R. Hopkins, Attorney at Law, author of The Law of
Tax-Exempt Organizations, Eighth Edition and Starting and Managing
a Nonprofit Organization: A Legal Guide, Fourth Edition