As I work with the boards of faith-based organizations across the nation and talk to CEOs of leading ministries, I have the opportunity to learn from what they are doing right. Here are seven of the hottest ideas I've seen lately. These are all emerging best practices that your board can immediately implement to get more done in less time, hold down costs, stay informed, make better decisions, and be more effective as a board of directors.

#5... Create a Dashboard

Boards are sometimes handed budget reports twenty or more pages in length. This is usually done with good intention so that the board "knows what's going on." But the budget is a management tool, not a governance tool. Giving line by line budget detail can invite board members to advise the CEO on line item basis and pull them into micro-managing the organization. Some boards prefer to receive their financial information in a form that fits on one side of one sheet of paper. You can do this by creating a "dashboard" of key indicators.

To achieve this, the board and staff first need to determine the key indicators of the organization. For example, for many ministries the key indicators of organizational health would include at least revenue from donations, expense compared to budget, operating cash flow, number of volunteers, and some ministry quality measures. Each organization will want to track a unique set of key indicators.

One proven process for unearthing these key indicators is the balanced scorecard method. The details of this process were developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton, explained in the books The Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Maps. This provides a rigorous approach. A simpler version is simply asking the board to determine what numbers they want to see met; then construct a dashboard for them by displaying the results graphically for them on one sheet of paper.

If you can't get it down to a few numbers, then you have not yet discovered the key indicators. I worked with one major ministry that carefully tracked 200 numbers in their large, international ministry. We eventually carved it down to about 20 key indicators, about one-third of which they had not been tracking at all. Tyndale House (Tyndale.com), publishers of the Left Behind series, is a multi-million dollar operation yet board members are able to track financial performance and stay on top of wild sales swings with a handful of ratios.

James C. Galvin, president of Galvin & Associates in Winfield, IL, is an organizational consultant specializing in releasing the potential of faith-based nonprofits. Visit his website at www.galvinandassociates.com or contact him directly at jim@galvinandassociates.com.

Reprinted with permission from the Engstrom Institute; © 2009 Christian Leadership Alliance - (949) 487-0900. Visit CLA's website to see what they offer your organization to help build leaders and enhance organizational effectiveness!