Core Essentials

For more than three decades, we have studied, informed, and encouraged boards and other leaders in theological education. Based on this experience, we have identified six essentials for exemplary board governance. This page provides an aggregate of resources and articles for each of the six core essentials to help your institution’s board in its ongoing development. The resources under each essential take a deeper dive into the themes and key learning areas complete with supplemental resources and important questions for boards to ask around key topics. To read full descriptions of the six essentials and discussion questions for each, visit the Wise Stewards Guide, also linked below.

Essential 1: Respect the past and the future

The board balances respect for tradition with a robust anticipation for future possibilities.

 


Essential 2: Commitment to board development and growth

The board takes responsibility for its preparedness to govern effectively.

Diversity in the Boardroom
Our board was at its best when . . . 

Essential 3: Responsibility for effective institutional leadership

The board takes responsibility for hiring, supporting, and evaluating the president.

 


Essential 4: Vigilance for mission and economic vitality

The board actively strives to achieve mission fulfillment with economic vitality.

The Board's Role in Fundraising, in two parts

Essential 5: Commitment to shared governance

The board establishes leadership and governance structures that encourage campus community members to contribute to the institution’s vitality.


Essential 6: Implementation of planning and assessment

The board models an institutional culture of collaborative goal setting, continous planning, and hard-nosed evaluation.

A Short Apologetic for Board Self-assessment