Book: Five-Star Board

The new book from the Lab

The Nonprofit Leadership Lab’s Guide to a Five-Star Board

Who, What, How and Why of Great Nonprofit Board Governance

A handbook for board members, board chairs, and executive directors, by Joan Garry and Glennda Testone.

Can you just imagine how quickly you could transform your board if every member read this book? That’s what we are imagining!

We’re offering an exclusive 20% discount plus free shipping on orders of 10 or more copies. Leave your email and we’ll let you know as soon as bulk orders open.

Paperback$14.99Orders shipJanuary 12, 2027
Cover of The Nonprofit Leadership Lab’s Guide to a Five-Star Board by Joan Garry and Glennda Testone
Early praise

What Leaders Are Saying

“This concise, highly practical book draws on the authors’ deep real-world experience working with and serving on nonprofit boards. Anyone who serves on a board will benefit from reading it.”
Scott M. CurranFounder & CEO, Beyond Advisers; Board Member, BoardSource; national bestselling author of Better Good; former General Counsel, Clinton Foundation
“Testone and Garry offer all of us an inspirational and practical roadmap that all nonprofits can follow–and must. Because the world is counting on all of us.”
Noorain KhanPast Board Chair of Girl Scouts of the USA and Chief Innovation Officer, Ford Foundation
What’s inside

Everything You Need for a Five-Star Board

What is a board? Who should be on it? How should it function effectively? Why even be on a board?

The majority of people who sign up for board service are never given the necessary knowledge and tools. Two of the most prominent advocates and champions of the nonprofit sector will tell you what the job is and how you can be a successful and valued member of the nonprofit you love.

Partnership between the board and the staff is the foundation.

Board members with diverse skills and POVs provide the core of an effective board.

With these in place, it’s possible to fundraise with ease and excitement; shift the mindset of your organization from one of scarcity to one of possibility; and drain the dread from board meetings and retreats.

Filled with easy-to-implement ideas that have been road-tested by tens of thousands of board members, this book will increase your nonprofit’s impact as it provides a sense of joy and purpose to those who serve.

Practical tools

A Board Member’s Complete Toolkit

  • Hire the staff leader your organization deserves
  • Create board committees that add real value
  • Cast strong board leaders
  • Establish your first board
  • Recruit to cover all board responsibilities
  • Set board strategy
  • Be an ace financial steward
  • Measure impact
  • Gather with purpose, inspiration, and fun
  • Leave your mark
Joan Garry and Glennda Testone
Meet the authors

Joan Garry and Glennda Testone

Through their online learning community, the Nonprofit Leadership Lab, Joan Garry and Glennda Testone have supported over 25,000 board members and executive directors.

Joan has been a strategic advisor to CEOs at, among others, UNICEF, amfAR, NAMI and is recognized as the #1 voice on nonprofit leadership. Before being named CEO of the Nonprofit Leadership Lab, Glennda led NYC’s LGBT Center, worked alongside Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda at the Women’s Media Center, and fought for LGBT media visibility at GLAAD.

Through their lab, keynotes, and the Nonprofits Are Messy podcast, Joan and Glennda are in conversation with millions of good deed doers in over 150 countries.

Bulk orders

Buying for Your Whole Board?

Think about the possibilities if you worked as a team to take practical steps to become a five-star board. We’d like to make this happen for you.

Maybe buy some extras for those new terrific board members you’ll be recruiting after you read the book!

Save 20% and get free shipping on 10 or more copies. Leave your email and we’ll let you know when bulk orders open.

Cover of The Nonprofit Leadership Lab’s Guide to a Five-Star Board