The Somali Family Care Network Boards of Directors: Functions,
Roles, and Responsibilities The functions, roles and
responsibilities of board members of non-profit corporations are
simultaneously simple and complex. The best way for us to
understand these ideas is look at them in simple terms, and then
add more information—layers of complexity—as we go along. Let’s
begin by looking at broad definitions: What is a Board of
Directors? A Board of Directors of a non-profit corporation are
usually unpaid volunteers who are trustees of the corporation
(agency) who represent and are responsible to the agency’s
clients, to the community, to funders, to the government, and to
taxpayers as a whole. The Board of Directors is responsible for
seeing that the agency keeps the promises described in the
agency’s mission and values statements, and for assuring that
the agency is accountable for acting within the laws governing
the operations of non-profit corporations. There are many of
these laws and they represent the inter