Published by Elgar through its Elgar Concise Introductions series, Patricia Bradshaw’s Concise Introduction to Nonprofit Governance offers, in her words, a “curation” (p. x) of the current theory and collective understanding of nonprofit boards. Bradshaw begins with the acknowedgment that “our collective understanding of governance is being tested” (p. 1) due not only to the academic field’s longstanding view of governance theory as a highly contingent amalgam of theories and models but also to newer viewpoints that continue to challenge the dominant approaches. In a nutshell, much of what we view as “governance” is a social construct; so governance systems that work in some contexts will fail in others. Moreover, Bradshaw subtly suggests that much of what we view as “governance” is built on Westernized, gender-imbalanced observations.

Bradshaw’s path out of the complexity focuses on mapping the current landscape, offering options, and championing a few overlooked ideas.

Some readers will no doubt view this topic as too complex to be concisely described in just 167 pages. Despite its brevity, this is a solidly scholarly book. Bradshaw defines terms, offers glossaries, cites generously, and explains her choices. For example, a solid contribution is the effort she makes to introduce some nonmainstream perspectives on governance, such as boards that eschew hierarchies for heterarchies or follow indigenous views of group decision-making.

The book is structured with six chapters outlining the originating history of nonprofit governance and some term definitions, the core responsibilities of boards, and the range of disciplines and theories contributing to an understanding of board governance. Further chapters explain how power relationships shape board dynamics and address the myriad structural choices boards make using a contingency perspective. A brief chapter explains the complexity of governance at the broader level of networks and federations.

While Bradshaw notes briefly the legal context within which nonprofit governance occurs, this book will not offer any comparative regulatory material but instead focus on the meaning of nonprofit governance as it is understood in Canadian and US contexts, that is, with an opportunity for tax exemption and incorporation and with requirements such as bylaws and a minimum number of directors. These choices reduce the value of the book. For example, one will learn nothing about the history of trusteeship in non-Western contexts. Nonetheless, some topics will have universal value, such as the book’s coverage of board internal dynamics or choices facing founders. And there are some small but welcome references to non-Eurocentric governance resources, such as Bradshaw’s list of tools for managing group decision-making, ranging from the Indigenous Governance Toolkit to Roberta’s Rules of Order as alternatives to the ubiquitous Robert’s Rules.

Bradshaw describes her audience as “students of nonprofit governance and other interested readers” (p. x), but the target is less clear in its execution. The Elgar publishing house describes the target of its Concise Introductions series as “advanced students, scholars and thinking practitioners.” Bradshaw has a self-described “pracademic” positionality, but practitioner readers will undoubtedly find some material more accessible than others while scholars may find some coverage too thin (e.g., chapter seven). Chapter three’s coverage of governance theory is a useful chapter for a graduate class.

On the one hand, a good effort at translation to practice is in chapter two’s coverage of governance responsibilities. Here, Bradshaw capably transforms the Chait et al. notion of governance as having fiduciary, strategic, and generative elements into an extensive list of questions that boards might ask themselves regarding their effectiveness at balancing budgets, managing risk, measuring performance, and meeting stakeholder expectations. This offer of tools and questions does not extend to all chapters. In chapter five covering founder’s issues, questions that can diagnose dysfunction would have been useful. And for the scholar, there is a limit to how much Bradshaw interrogates the extant literature and I wish she had gone further than simply offering critical theory as one tool to do so. On the other hand, in chapter eight, she summarizes 11 key themes from the book which could each offer a starting point for further scholarly study.

Underlying Bradshaw’s contribution is a tone suggesting that the rationalist and empirical approach to defining one best way of governance has its limits. Many governance scholars share that perspective, but I found her concluding chapter eight inspiring in this respect. This chapter returns readers to some of the core qualities of good board members. These are individuals who, in Bradshaw’s view, are willing to challenge conventional thinking. They take a clear-eyed view of power dynamics. They invite questions and encourage generative thinking. They are willing to be agents of change. These are inspiring words, and I personally wish they appeared in more board member job descriptions.

To conclude, Bradshaw offers governance as a “living” concept “open to reinterpretation by anyone (or group) who cares about our collective future” (p. 134). In the end, given the number of normative volumes on governance that sit on my bookshelf, I appreciated the nonnormative tone of this book most of all. This is not necessarily a book that makes a board member’s job easier, but it does at least efficiently explain the landscape of options they face.