By Mio Yamamoto | Executive Director
Dear our kind supporters,
Hope you are staying well and safe as the winter approaches.
Today, we would like to share the exciting news. Our work with social entrepreneurs in disaster-hit Tohoku and beyond has led to many new projects that can impact larger Japan. One of them is the book Nonprofit Governance, published by WIT this year as the translation of Governance as Leadership by Richard P. Chait, et al.
When WIT has connected US-Japan professionals from different fields with Japanese social entrepreneurs, we have hoped that these professionals would support and collaborate with the social leaders, as skill-based volunteers, advisors, mentors, and eventually become decision-making partners for social entrepreneurs. Though resource-constrained entrepreneurs with limited capacity face many challenges, WIT identified the lack of effective nonprofit boards is one of the issues in Japan -- most of the board members are If more people with diverse experience and networks could serve on the board, that would empower social entrepreneurs by providing new and valuable perspectives and resources.
That's how WIT launched Board & Governance training in 2016. Governance as Leadership has been one of the main textbooks in the training, and we decided to translate it into Japanese to empower nonprofit boards for greater impact.
We have received much positive feedback so far. A social entrepreneur addressing refugee issues in Japan said "Learning that I can co-generate ideas with our board members, instead of just asking them to approve our proposals, was powerful." An educational nonprofit leader said "Japanese nonprofits should recruit more board members from outside of their close circles. That could help us hold more accountability and create a bigger impact" at our recent book event.
If you know mission-driven organizations supported by good governance and/or effective board members to interview or invite as guest speakers, please share it with us. We would like to have a cross-border conversation on how better governance can contribute to social impact.
Thank you for your continuing support.
Best wishes and Happy Halloween,
WIT Team
Links:
By Kanako Kimura | Summer Associate
By Mio Yamamoto | Executive Director
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