Governance models for nonprofits are the foundations for a nonprofit's decision making and power distribution. They connect the board to the constituents and stakeholders of the organization, and create the sense of accountability and joint ownership.

The media often focuses on ineffective or bad board governance. This negative attention could discourage volunteers from joining nonprofit boards. Combined with the fact that seats on nonprofit boards are generally not paid and come with annual budgets for giving so it's not surprising that the nonprofit sector is struggling to attract top board members and keep them on board.

Traditional governance approaches, which are largely based on outdated top-down command-and-control model and corporate structures, remain the dominant model in the non-profit sector. They often isolate the board and its stakeholders from the activities of the organization and make it difficult to implement effective governance and accountability. The key to addressing this issue is to ensure that governance models for nonprofits are built and used in ways that support good governance and enhance the impact of communities.

Many nonprofits will start with a main governance model based on Carver's Board model, and then add additional governance models to suit their requirements. Some nonprofits form an executive team to assist with fundraising or other responsibilities and others may choose the model of a management-team governance to ensure regulatory conformity. A common trend is to establish committees to handle issues like nominations and governance and finance, or executive decisions.