Board
Self-Evaluation:
A Tool for Good
Governance
By Gregory W. Heidrich
At a recent nonprofit governance program I attended at Northwest- ern University’s Kellogg School of Management,
a diverse group of nonprofit organiza-
tions discussed governance best prac-
tices, including whether they conduct
evaluations of board performance. Sur-
prisingly, most of the participants said
their organizations have never or rarely
With that discovery in mind, the
Society of Actuaries may be an early
adopter: It has used board self-eval-
uations since 2006 to help its board
assess its work, identify strengths and
make improvements. SOA proposes
some of the same questions each year,
enabling the association to benchmark
current board views against the past. In
2010, SOA added an “exit interview”
of departing board members to capture
more in-depth impressions from those
leaving the board.
A Process That Works
SOA’s process is straightforward. It surveys all board members each year fol-
