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CASE STUDY




                    System-Wide Governance
                 for Community Empowerment

                                        by Judy Freiwirth and Maria Elena Letona




                             W
                                              H E N I M M I GR A N T S T O O K T O O U R   attempts to have the organization respond to
                                              nation’s streets this year to advo-          urgent changes in immigration policy that would
Centro undertook a                            cate for immigrant’s rights, the             dramatically affect many of Centro’s con-
                                              country was somewhat taken by                stituents, the ED and several board members
                                              sur pr ise. But nonprofit s and              knew that something had to radically change.
process to become
                              unions who have been working in these commu-                 T he orga n ization a nd it s boa rd were not
                              nities for decades knew the power and potential              responding to acutely time-sensitive problems,
an organization “of
                              of the moment. One of the groups involved in                 and a significant gulf had opened between the
                              this national showing was Centro Presente, a                 organization and its constituency. Centro’s pres-
the community.”
                              25-year-old Latino rights organization that                  tige in the community suffered, and constituents
                              inhabits a buzzing old cavern of an office in                no longer felt connected beyond the practical
                              Cambridge, Massachusetts.                                    aspects of having paperwork filed on their
                                  Founded in 1981 as an activist organization,             behalf or attending their ESL class.
                              Centro Presente became increasingly entrenched                  If Centro were to truly carry out its mission—
                              in service delivery. Although its staff reflected the        that is, to empower the Latino immigrant com-
                              constituency it served, it largely internalized a            munity—the organization needed to transform.
                              hierarchal relationship to clients: staff often              This included shifting its focus from service pro-
                              viewed themselves as the experts to whom com-                vision to active community organizing and
                              munity members came to resolve their problems.               engendering a whole new level of community
                              More troubling was the board of directors, which             engagement, including a new governance model.
                              had also been operating on a traditional hierar-             The organization and its executive director
                              chal governance model and whose members were                 began experimenting with the notion of system-
                              not of the community being served.                           wide governance as one of the options.
                                  This situation had the predictable outcome of
                              robbing the organization of its nerve endings. In            A Transformational Model
                              2001, when the board’s leadership blocked all                In 2002, Centro undertook a process to become
                                                                                           an organization “of the community.” Its long-
                          J U DY F REIW IRTH , P SY .D., is an organizational consult-     range goal was to build power within its commu-
                          ant and founder/coordinator of the Alliance for Nonprofit        nity, and Centro’s leaders realized that if they
                          Management’s national network, focused on developing             were to be true to their mission of community
                          new models of governance. M A R I A E L E N A L E T ON A ,       empowerment, they needed to overhaul and
                          P H .D., is the executive director of Centro Presente.           completely transform their governance system.

24 REPRINTED FROM THE NONPROFIT QUARTERLY                                                                WWW.NONPROFITQUARTERLY.ORG • WINTER 2006
Our premise is that the nonprofit sector, above     These two conceptions of power are contradic-
all, should be the place that fosters and advances      tory and cannot be peacefully reconciled.
democracy and self-determination, and that this             There are alternative ways of thinking about
must go deeper than just advocating for its value       governance for nonprofits—ways that build upon          Do we want
outside our organizations. If nonprofit organiza-       participatory principles and that expand beyond
tions are to be truly accountable to their commu-       the board of directors as the sole locus of gover-      to perpetuate
nities and constituencies, democracy has to be at       nance. System-Wide Governance is a model in
its core. Yet, by and large, the nonprofit sector has   which governance responsibility is shared across        organizations that
tended to replicate structures and processes that       the organizational system among the key sectors
do not foster democracy within organizations. We        of an organization—that is, its constituents or         are embedded in
have obser ved that traditional governance              members, staff, and board. It is based upon prin-
models, based on outdated top-down “command             ciples of participatory democracy, self-determina-      practices of “power
and control” paradigms, still dominate. Such hier-      t ion , a nd genu i ne pa r t ner sh ip a nd on
archical structures not only run counter to dem-        community-level decision-making as the founda-          over others” or do
ocratic values and ideals, they often impede an         tion of true democracy. The principles underlying
organization’s achievement of its goals and, ulti-      shared or partnership governance are not new,           we want to establish
mately, its mission. If the voices of those who are     and have been used for many years within pro-
directly impacted by our actions are not included       gressive, movement-based organizations.                 structures and
in key decision-making processes, we too often              In this approach, critical organizational and
arrive at wrong conclusions or decisions that are       strategic decisions are made together by active         processes that
incongruent with constituencies’ needs, let alone       constituents/members, staff, and board. The
with our missions. Governance is about power,           types of decisions that are made in this way are        promote “power
control, authority, and influence. The key ques-        those that determine key strategic directions or
tion is, do we want to perpetuate organizations         changes, long-term programmatic or organiza-            with others”?
that are embedded in practices of “power over           tional visions, new initiatives, political positions,
others” or do we want to establish structures and       and major policy and/or organizational deci-
processes that promote “power with others”?             sions. Some more limited dialogues, explo-

IMAGE © IMAGES.COM / CORBIS                                                                       REPRINTED FROM THE NONPROFIT QUARTERLY 25
rations, and decisions are situated in individual      organization, and all sectors need to be informed
                              components of the organization, depending              and knowledgeable about them.
                              upon the nature of the issue and its importance,          This model also employs a team structure,
                              while others are dealt with simultaneously by          using members or constituents, board, and staff
                              the different sectors or in different configura-       to carry out some of the governance functions.
Similar principles
                              tions. All of these decisions eventually feed back     Rather than having one person lead the team, a
                              into strategy-making for the whole organization.       board member and constituent or staff member
have been used in
                              Policy changes, for example, might be discussed        form a partnership. To be effective, they need to
large-scale change            first in different components and then by the          operate within an “open-system”— that is, there
                              whole group, or by a group made up of members          is a continual communication, transparency,
and planning models           from each sector.                                      and coordination among the teams, the board,
                                  For some decisions, the broader community          and the larger constituency and community.
in which “the whole           and other stakeholders are brought together to
                              participate. This larger group may be convened         Transformation in Context
system” joins                 to make decisions regarding long-term direc-           When Centro chose the System-Wide Gover-
                              tions that may affect the future of a specific         nance approach, it knew that reconstituting the
together to make              community or a constituency.                           board would not be enough—the staff needed to
                                  Similar principles have been used in large-        change the way it perceived the community.
significant strategic         scale change and planning models in which “the         Whenever an organization delivers services,
                              whole system” joins together to make significant       power relationships are built in between the
planning or                   strategic planning or organizational change            service delivery staff and “clients” and between
                              decisions. Two of the most widely used large           the board and the community. Centro learned
organizational                scale models, Future Search conferences1 and           that it needed to have ongoing conversations
                              Whole Scale Change methodology,2 are based on          about what power-sharing meant, what having
change decisions.             a few core principles: that you need a wide range      more knowledge does in terms of power, and that
                              of perspectives in order to analyze current            experience is just as valuable as expert knowl-
                              reality and make creative, informed strategic          edge. The challenge was also to have everyone in
                              decisions, and that you need to create peer rela-      the organization, without exception, think and
                              tionships among many different kinds of stake-         act as an organizer. Job descriptions were rewrit-
                              holders to find visionar y ways forward. A             ten to include concrete organizing responsibili-
                              System-Wide Governance model incorporates              ties and staff learned to adopt new ways of
                              whole-scale planning sessions into the regular         engaging with constituents. Not all staff agreed
                              governance work of the organization.                   with the changes, and some who were not com-
                                  In a System-Wide Governance model, the             fortable with the transformational process chose
                              board is comprised of members of the commu-            to leave. Newly hired staff incorporated them-
                              nity/constituency. It assumes that the people the      selves into a new culture and were able to more
                              organization serves possess the “lived” experi-        quickly think and act as organizers.
                              ence and passion to best move the organization             Centro Presente was now ready to launch its
                              forward. This is in contrast to the prevailing         membership program. The membership model
                              trend of professionalizing nonprofit boards            is premised on the belief that there should be a
                              despite the lack of research demonstrating that        relationship of equals between Centro Presente
                              professional or wealthy board members improve          and the community to whom it owes its exis-
                              board performance. System-Wide Governance              tence, that both could be par tners in the
                              creates boards that reflect and “live” the organi-     strengthening of the organization and in the
                              zation’s mission.                                      process of improving life conditions in the com-
                                  The board may continue to take on some of          munity. The membership program provided
                              the legal and fiduciary responsibilities, while the    former “clients,” “students,” and “constituents”
                              other organizational components, in partnership        the space to take active, direct, and ample par-
                              with the board, will be accountable for the orga-      t ic ipa t ion i n t he orga n i z a t ion ’ s work a s
                              nization’s major strategic, policy, or other issues.   “members”—Latino immigrants who were
                              Fiduciary and legal and other framing informa-         willing to be active shapers of Centro’s future.
                              tion, however, should be transparent within the

26 REPRINTED FROM THE NONPROFIT QUARTERLY                                                            WWW.NONPROFITQUARTERLY.ORG • WINTER 2006
Experimenting with Alternatives                        roots fundraising strategies and events. Member
In 2004, after working steadily on these issues        leadership has dramatically increased as a
for about a year and a half, members elected a         result of the teamwork.
new board comprised of active Centro Presente              Fundraising has also been transformed and
members. Once this happened, Centro began to           become truly integrated into the other work of
                                                                                                                        Centro’s board
experiment with alternative governance models.         the organization. By placing the task of active
Although the membership has final authority            fundraising within a member/board/staff team
                                                                                                                        committee structure
through member assemblies and member com-              structure, the membership not only takes the
munity meetings, key decisions regarding               lead in organizing fundraising events, but uses
                                                                                                                        also underwent
mission, strategic direction, policy, political        them to help mobilize the membership for its
decisions, and new programmatic initiatives            organizing campaigns and other work of the
                                                                                                                        major restructuring.
have been made by a partnership model—large            organization.
ret reat s t w ice a yea r that i nclude active            Four years into the transformational process,
                                                                                                                        Rather than
members, the full board, and staff.                    Centro Presente is an entirely different organi-
   If the whole organization is responsible for the    zation than it was when it embarked on this
                                                                                                                        adapting the
major strategic, planning, and policy decisions,       journey. As of December 2006, Centro has over
what type of decisions does the board make             1,200 active members.3 Using this new model of
                                                                                                                        traditional
within this model? The Centro board now func-          governance, Centro has become a vibrant leader
tions as an “executive committee” akin to one          in the immigrant rights movement, both nation-                   committee model
you might find in a traditional board structure.       ally and locally, while providing legal assistance
The board is accountable to the membership and         and adult education to over 3,500 people. As one                 for the board,
the larger community. It continues to meet             member described the difference this model has
monthly and has decision-making authority over         made for the board:                                              they designed a
some issues, such as financial oversight, person-
nel issues related to the executive director, legal       This is the most engaged and consistent board
                                                                                                                        unique, flexible
issues, and other issues that can’t wait until the        we’ve ever had! Since they’ve come through the
membership is convened. Similar to some exec-             membership at Centro, they know about the
                                                                                                                        team structure
utive committees, it also provides support to the         organization . . . they know the staff and the
executive director as issues arise and it must            work . . . they know the issues, and since
                                                                                                                        comprised of
bring major decisions back to the membership.             they’ve personally benefited from the organiza-
The board model is still evolving and will need           tion, they have a passionate interest in Centro
                                                                                                                        members, board,
to maintain its flexibility as the organization con-      and its future.
tinues to learn from experience.                                                                                        and staff.
                                                           The experience of Centro Presente demon-
Inclusive, Flexible, Working Teams                     strates that organizations can not only challenge
Centro’s board committee structure also under-         their current assumptions about their con-
went major restructuring. Rather than adapting         stituencies and power dynamics, but can suc-
the traditional committee model for the board,         c e s s f u l l y t r a n s fo r m t h e i r b o a r d s a n d
they designed a unique, flexible team structure        organizations to truly be more democratic, pas-
comprised of members, board, and staff. In             sionate, inclusive and, ultimately, more respon-
order to be responsive to a fast-changing envi-        sive to the community they serve.
ronment and shifting organizational priorities,
the teams were designed to be flexible both in         Endnotes
terms of focus and composition and to serve as         1. Weisbord, M. & Janoff, S. Future Search: An
an important platform for leadership develop-          Action Guide to Finding Common Ground in Orga-
ment in all sectors of the organization, particu-      nizations & Communities. Berrett-Koehler Publish-
la rly for t he member ship a nd boa rd. For           ers, 1995.
example, most recently Centro has had three            2. Dannemiller Tyson Associates
such teams—one designs and implements immi-            3. Centro has a staff of 12 and a budget of $820,000.
grant rights organizing strategy, the second
designs and organizes popular education initia-        Reprints of this article may be ordered from store.non-
tives, and a third proposes and organizes grass-       profitquarterly.org, using code 130404.


WINTER 2006 • WWW.NONPROFITQUARTERLY.ORG                                                                 REPRINTED FROM THE NONPROFIT QUARTERLY 27

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Community Engagement Governance 2

  • 1. CASE STUDY System-Wide Governance for Community Empowerment by Judy Freiwirth and Maria Elena Letona W H E N I M M I GR A N T S T O O K T O O U R attempts to have the organization respond to nation’s streets this year to advo- urgent changes in immigration policy that would Centro undertook a cate for immigrant’s rights, the dramatically affect many of Centro’s con- country was somewhat taken by stituents, the ED and several board members sur pr ise. But nonprofit s and knew that something had to radically change. process to become unions who have been working in these commu- T he orga n ization a nd it s boa rd were not nities for decades knew the power and potential responding to acutely time-sensitive problems, an organization “of of the moment. One of the groups involved in and a significant gulf had opened between the this national showing was Centro Presente, a organization and its constituency. Centro’s pres- the community.” 25-year-old Latino rights organization that tige in the community suffered, and constituents inhabits a buzzing old cavern of an office in no longer felt connected beyond the practical Cambridge, Massachusetts. aspects of having paperwork filed on their Founded in 1981 as an activist organization, behalf or attending their ESL class. Centro Presente became increasingly entrenched If Centro were to truly carry out its mission— in service delivery. Although its staff reflected the that is, to empower the Latino immigrant com- constituency it served, it largely internalized a munity—the organization needed to transform. hierarchal relationship to clients: staff often This included shifting its focus from service pro- viewed themselves as the experts to whom com- vision to active community organizing and munity members came to resolve their problems. engendering a whole new level of community More troubling was the board of directors, which engagement, including a new governance model. had also been operating on a traditional hierar- The organization and its executive director chal governance model and whose members were began experimenting with the notion of system- not of the community being served. wide governance as one of the options. This situation had the predictable outcome of robbing the organization of its nerve endings. In A Transformational Model 2001, when the board’s leadership blocked all In 2002, Centro undertook a process to become an organization “of the community.” Its long- J U DY F REIW IRTH , P SY .D., is an organizational consult- range goal was to build power within its commu- ant and founder/coordinator of the Alliance for Nonprofit nity, and Centro’s leaders realized that if they Management’s national network, focused on developing were to be true to their mission of community new models of governance. M A R I A E L E N A L E T ON A , empowerment, they needed to overhaul and P H .D., is the executive director of Centro Presente. completely transform their governance system. 24 REPRINTED FROM THE NONPROFIT QUARTERLY WWW.NONPROFITQUARTERLY.ORG • WINTER 2006
  • 2. Our premise is that the nonprofit sector, above These two conceptions of power are contradic- all, should be the place that fosters and advances tory and cannot be peacefully reconciled. democracy and self-determination, and that this There are alternative ways of thinking about must go deeper than just advocating for its value governance for nonprofits—ways that build upon Do we want outside our organizations. If nonprofit organiza- participatory principles and that expand beyond tions are to be truly accountable to their commu- the board of directors as the sole locus of gover- to perpetuate nities and constituencies, democracy has to be at nance. System-Wide Governance is a model in its core. Yet, by and large, the nonprofit sector has which governance responsibility is shared across organizations that tended to replicate structures and processes that the organizational system among the key sectors do not foster democracy within organizations. We of an organization—that is, its constituents or are embedded in have obser ved that traditional governance members, staff, and board. It is based upon prin- models, based on outdated top-down “command ciples of participatory democracy, self-determina- practices of “power and control” paradigms, still dominate. Such hier- t ion , a nd genu i ne pa r t ner sh ip a nd on archical structures not only run counter to dem- community-level decision-making as the founda- over others” or do ocratic values and ideals, they often impede an tion of true democracy. The principles underlying organization’s achievement of its goals and, ulti- shared or partnership governance are not new, we want to establish mately, its mission. If the voices of those who are and have been used for many years within pro- directly impacted by our actions are not included gressive, movement-based organizations. structures and in key decision-making processes, we too often In this approach, critical organizational and arrive at wrong conclusions or decisions that are strategic decisions are made together by active processes that incongruent with constituencies’ needs, let alone constituents/members, staff, and board. The with our missions. Governance is about power, types of decisions that are made in this way are promote “power control, authority, and influence. The key ques- those that determine key strategic directions or tion is, do we want to perpetuate organizations changes, long-term programmatic or organiza- with others”? that are embedded in practices of “power over tional visions, new initiatives, political positions, others” or do we want to establish structures and and major policy and/or organizational deci- processes that promote “power with others”? sions. Some more limited dialogues, explo- IMAGE © IMAGES.COM / CORBIS REPRINTED FROM THE NONPROFIT QUARTERLY 25
  • 3. rations, and decisions are situated in individual organization, and all sectors need to be informed components of the organization, depending and knowledgeable about them. upon the nature of the issue and its importance, This model also employs a team structure, while others are dealt with simultaneously by using members or constituents, board, and staff the different sectors or in different configura- to carry out some of the governance functions. Similar principles tions. All of these decisions eventually feed back Rather than having one person lead the team, a into strategy-making for the whole organization. board member and constituent or staff member have been used in Policy changes, for example, might be discussed form a partnership. To be effective, they need to large-scale change first in different components and then by the operate within an “open-system”— that is, there whole group, or by a group made up of members is a continual communication, transparency, and planning models from each sector. and coordination among the teams, the board, For some decisions, the broader community and the larger constituency and community. in which “the whole and other stakeholders are brought together to participate. This larger group may be convened Transformation in Context system” joins to make decisions regarding long-term direc- When Centro chose the System-Wide Gover- tions that may affect the future of a specific nance approach, it knew that reconstituting the together to make community or a constituency. board would not be enough—the staff needed to Similar principles have been used in large- change the way it perceived the community. significant strategic scale change and planning models in which “the Whenever an organization delivers services, whole system” joins together to make significant power relationships are built in between the planning or strategic planning or organizational change service delivery staff and “clients” and between decisions. Two of the most widely used large the board and the community. Centro learned organizational scale models, Future Search conferences1 and that it needed to have ongoing conversations Whole Scale Change methodology,2 are based on about what power-sharing meant, what having change decisions. a few core principles: that you need a wide range more knowledge does in terms of power, and that of perspectives in order to analyze current experience is just as valuable as expert knowl- reality and make creative, informed strategic edge. The challenge was also to have everyone in decisions, and that you need to create peer rela- the organization, without exception, think and tionships among many different kinds of stake- act as an organizer. Job descriptions were rewrit- holders to find visionar y ways forward. A ten to include concrete organizing responsibili- System-Wide Governance model incorporates ties and staff learned to adopt new ways of whole-scale planning sessions into the regular engaging with constituents. Not all staff agreed governance work of the organization. with the changes, and some who were not com- In a System-Wide Governance model, the fortable with the transformational process chose board is comprised of members of the commu- to leave. Newly hired staff incorporated them- nity/constituency. It assumes that the people the selves into a new culture and were able to more organization serves possess the “lived” experi- quickly think and act as organizers. ence and passion to best move the organization Centro Presente was now ready to launch its forward. This is in contrast to the prevailing membership program. The membership model trend of professionalizing nonprofit boards is premised on the belief that there should be a despite the lack of research demonstrating that relationship of equals between Centro Presente professional or wealthy board members improve and the community to whom it owes its exis- board performance. System-Wide Governance tence, that both could be par tners in the creates boards that reflect and “live” the organi- strengthening of the organization and in the zation’s mission. process of improving life conditions in the com- The board may continue to take on some of munity. The membership program provided the legal and fiduciary responsibilities, while the former “clients,” “students,” and “constituents” other organizational components, in partnership the space to take active, direct, and ample par- with the board, will be accountable for the orga- t ic ipa t ion i n t he orga n i z a t ion ’ s work a s nization’s major strategic, policy, or other issues. “members”—Latino immigrants who were Fiduciary and legal and other framing informa- willing to be active shapers of Centro’s future. tion, however, should be transparent within the 26 REPRINTED FROM THE NONPROFIT QUARTERLY WWW.NONPROFITQUARTERLY.ORG • WINTER 2006
  • 4. Experimenting with Alternatives roots fundraising strategies and events. Member In 2004, after working steadily on these issues leadership has dramatically increased as a for about a year and a half, members elected a result of the teamwork. new board comprised of active Centro Presente Fundraising has also been transformed and members. Once this happened, Centro began to become truly integrated into the other work of Centro’s board experiment with alternative governance models. the organization. By placing the task of active Although the membership has final authority fundraising within a member/board/staff team committee structure through member assemblies and member com- structure, the membership not only takes the munity meetings, key decisions regarding lead in organizing fundraising events, but uses also underwent mission, strategic direction, policy, political them to help mobilize the membership for its decisions, and new programmatic initiatives organizing campaigns and other work of the major restructuring. have been made by a partnership model—large organization. ret reat s t w ice a yea r that i nclude active Four years into the transformational process, Rather than members, the full board, and staff. Centro Presente is an entirely different organi- If the whole organization is responsible for the zation than it was when it embarked on this adapting the major strategic, planning, and policy decisions, journey. As of December 2006, Centro has over what type of decisions does the board make 1,200 active members.3 Using this new model of traditional within this model? The Centro board now func- governance, Centro has become a vibrant leader tions as an “executive committee” akin to one in the immigrant rights movement, both nation- committee model you might find in a traditional board structure. ally and locally, while providing legal assistance The board is accountable to the membership and and adult education to over 3,500 people. As one for the board, the larger community. It continues to meet member described the difference this model has monthly and has decision-making authority over made for the board: they designed a some issues, such as financial oversight, person- nel issues related to the executive director, legal This is the most engaged and consistent board unique, flexible issues, and other issues that can’t wait until the we’ve ever had! Since they’ve come through the membership is convened. Similar to some exec- membership at Centro, they know about the team structure utive committees, it also provides support to the organization . . . they know the staff and the executive director as issues arise and it must work . . . they know the issues, and since comprised of bring major decisions back to the membership. they’ve personally benefited from the organiza- The board model is still evolving and will need tion, they have a passionate interest in Centro members, board, to maintain its flexibility as the organization con- and its future. tinues to learn from experience. and staff. The experience of Centro Presente demon- Inclusive, Flexible, Working Teams strates that organizations can not only challenge Centro’s board committee structure also under- their current assumptions about their con- went major restructuring. Rather than adapting stituencies and power dynamics, but can suc- the traditional committee model for the board, c e s s f u l l y t r a n s fo r m t h e i r b o a r d s a n d they designed a unique, flexible team structure organizations to truly be more democratic, pas- comprised of members, board, and staff. In sionate, inclusive and, ultimately, more respon- order to be responsive to a fast-changing envi- sive to the community they serve. ronment and shifting organizational priorities, the teams were designed to be flexible both in Endnotes terms of focus and composition and to serve as 1. Weisbord, M. & Janoff, S. Future Search: An an important platform for leadership develop- Action Guide to Finding Common Ground in Orga- ment in all sectors of the organization, particu- nizations & Communities. Berrett-Koehler Publish- la rly for t he member ship a nd boa rd. For ers, 1995. example, most recently Centro has had three 2. Dannemiller Tyson Associates such teams—one designs and implements immi- 3. Centro has a staff of 12 and a budget of $820,000. grant rights organizing strategy, the second designs and organizes popular education initia- Reprints of this article may be ordered from store.non- tives, and a third proposes and organizes grass- profitquarterly.org, using code 130404. WINTER 2006 • WWW.NONPROFITQUARTERLY.ORG REPRINTED FROM THE NONPROFIT QUARTERLY 27