Nonprofit boards and perceptions of funding

The study presented in this article examines the extent to which board characteristics and activities are associated with the executive director's level of certainty about future funding, using a sample of 127 human service agencies. The executive directors of agencies with low levels of funding adequacy expressed more certainty about future funding when their boards were more expert, influential, and involved in planning and fundraising activities. For agencies with more adequate funding, board expertise and activities were associated with lower levels of perceived funding certainty. This articles argues that, rather than improving agency performance, boards serve a homeostatic function, acting in crisis situations to return their organizations to stable equilibria.