On Course
The Compass Governance Framework for Nonprofit Boards
A practical new way to understand why good organizations struggle—and how boards can help them remain on course.
Designed for Real Boardroom Conversations
The Compass Governance Framework was developed to help board members and executives step back from individual problems and see the organization as a whole. It provides a shared language for discussing mission, strategy, leadership, organizational capacity, governance, performance, and change.
The framework is practical rather than prescriptive. It does not grade the board, promote a universal model, or assume that every organization should become larger or more complex. Instead, it helps boards ask what their organization needs, understand the conditions shaping its journey, and make thoughtful stewardship decisions together.
Good Organizations Can Still Struggle
A nonprofit can have a meaningful mission, a committed board, a capable executive, thoughtful policies, and accepted governance practices—and still experience recurring financial stress, leadership strain, strategic drift, or governance frustration.
When that happens, boards often work harder on the same familiar solutions. They improve meetings. Add committees. Update policies. Recruit new members. Replace leaders.
On Course asks whether those visible problems may be symptoms of something deeper.
A Better Way to Understand the Journey
The book introduces the Compass Governance Framework through a familiar idea: every organization is on a journey.
Successful journeys require more than good intentions. They require a clear purpose, a meaningful destination, an agreed-upon route, an appropriate Vehicle, capable leadership, effective navigation, committed people, and reliable information.
Once boards begin to see governance through that lens, difficult organizational questions become easier to understand and discuss.
What You Will Learn
Why the Environment should be the starting point for governance and organizational design.
Why organizations with similar missions may need very different ways of operating.
How leadership, organizational systems, governance, and performance fit together.
Why bigger is not better—and why the objective is congruence rather than growth.
How boards can recognize changing conditions and respond through faithful stewardship.
What it means to become a Compass Board.
Written for the People Who Steward the Mission
On Course is written for nonprofit board members and officers, foundation trustees, higher education trustees, chief executives, executive directors, governance consultants, and others responsible for helping mission-driven organizations navigate change.
The writing is practical rather than academic. The framework is rigorous, but the language is designed for thoughtful boardroom conversation.
About the Author
Cam Cruickshank has spent more than thirty years in organizational leadership and two decades working with and serving on boards. His experience includes nonprofit leadership, higher education, community foundations, strategic planning, organizational development, and governance.
On Course grows from a practitioner’s question: Why do capable leaders and committed boards continue to encounter the same organizational struggles—and is there a better way to understand them?
Be Ready for the Journey Ahead
The future will bring changing conditions, new opportunities, unexpected challenges, and decisions that cannot be anticipated today. Boards that learn to ask better questions will be better prepared for whatever lies ahead.